Free Murder at Locke Abbey by Catherine Winchester

anything been removed from this room?”
    “There was a book, we returned it to the library.”
    “Do you know the name?”
    Ella blushed and looked away.
    “Can you read?”
    Ella shook her head. “Not well. They tried to teach me, all servants here must be able to read a little but… Please don’t say anything, I don’t want to get fired.”
    “I won’t, Ella, I have no interest in getting you fired. In fact, if you’d like, I might be able to teach you.”
    Ella raised a hand to her lips and bit her fingernail.
    “I promise, it will be our secret. Wouldn’t you like to work your way up to a lady’s maid or housekeeper some day?”
    “People have tried, Ma’am, I just can’t… get it.”
    “If all maids have to read, how do you disguise it?”
    Ella shrugged. “I cheat.”
    “How?”
    “Depends. Some things I recognise because the markings on the labels are distinctive, others I mark with coloured chalk, like the things we use to clean with, so I know them by the chalk colour, or three chalk lines is bleach, while two is bicarbonate of soda. Some things I get Missy, she’s another housemaid, to read to me and I memorise it, like new prayers or hymns in church.”
    “You are obviously bright to invent such schemes. Let me try and teach you, please.”
    “My Mam, Pa and Sunday school all tried. It just doesn’t take, no matter how hard I worked. Words just seem to jumble.”
    “My methods are slightly different. My mother taught me what she calls speed reading, which is quite different from what most children are taught. Perhaps a different method would work.”
    Ella shook her head.
    “Well, if you change your mind, just say so.” Thea wanted to help the girl, after all, she couldn’t progress her career without being able to read. She didn’t want to force the girl into it however, especially not if she was fearful of losing her position.
    “Come.”
    Ella followed her into the dressing room and Thea looked through the trunks. Most of their contents had been unpacked but there was a sewing kit still in there, probably used by the lady’s maid for repairs and alterations, and a few personal hygiene items, such as scented soap, creams and the ingredients to make more if necessary.
    The dressing table held the most personal items, such as hair brushes and ribbons, all neatly laid out.
    “What’s this?” Thea picked up a bottle of Le Mort's elixir.
    “ Mrs McCall said it were an elixir. Mrs Garwood had a summer cold and took that every night before bed, to ease the cough.”
    Thea looked at the label, which gave the dose as one to two tea spoons. She opened the bottle to sniff the contents but could smell little other than liquorice and aniseed, which she knew were used to flavour the mixture. She had been given small doses of Le Mort's elixir as a child and had always hated it since she disliked liquorice but this wasn’t as bad as she remembered, and she wondered if the recipe had changed slightly.
    She replaced it and opened a jewellery box, but it held nothing of value.
    “Is this all her jewellery?” she asked, Ella.
    The girl stepped forward. “I don’t think so. I don’t remember everything she had , but I know she had some pearls ‘cos I admired them one evening.”
    “If her pearls are gone, we must wonder what else is missing.”
    “The staff haven’t been allowed in here since that night, Ma’am.”
    “Did you see her body?”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Was she dressed for bed?”
    “She was.”
    “So where are her pearls?” Thea wondered.
    “I don’t know, Ma’am.”
    Thea turned to her and smiled. “Sorry, that was a rhetorical question.”
    “ Wot?”
    “A question that isn’t meant to be answered; I was thinking out loud.”
    “Oh.”
    “Tell me, Ella, has anyone been inappropriate with you at this gathering?”
    “Inappropriate?”
    “Yes, I know that some men view maids as sport. Have they been suggestive towards you or anyone else, or perhaps made you