Free Justine Elyot by Secretsand Lords

emerging unexpectedly and making Edie jump, ‘I’ll be along at various times to keep my eye on you. You’re much slower than you should be and I’m concerned that the cleanliness of the house will suffer. Jenny says you tend to daydream. Check that, please.’
    ‘Yes, ma’am,’ said Edie, only half-listening.
    ‘Still on for the pictures tomorrow?’ asked Ted, passing her on the way to the morning room.
    ‘Oh, yes, of course,’ she said.
    She’d have said yes to anything. Only one thing occupied her mind – would Sir Charles be in the morning room again?
    He wasn’t, and she could hear the clatter of knives and forks on china from the breakfast room a little further along. Presumably he was in there. If she did this room very, very quickly …
    She tried her hardest to sweep the grate and clean the surrounds with all haste, but she got ashes on her face and black lead under her fingernails, while all the metal was smeared and needed an extra rub down.
    Muttering curses under her breath, she tried to improve her haphazard job, wondering if she could get away with just a lightning-quick brush of the feather duster across everything else.
    But it was too late.
    Sir Charles entered the room while she still kneeling on the hearth rug, clouds of soot around her.
    ‘Oh dear,’ he said, and, to her horror, he came to stand directly behind her, looming over her. ‘You seem to be making things worse rather than better.’
    She sat back on her heels.
    ‘Perhaps you could do a better job,’ she said.
    ‘Perhaps I could,’ he said.
    He crouched beside her and her heart seemed to stop beating.
    ‘Look at those hands,’ he said. ‘They weren’t made for this.’
    He reached to take one, but sharp footsteps from the next room sent him into retreat before he could do it.
    ‘I beg your pardon, sir,’ said Mrs Munn. ‘Good Lord, Edie, what are you about?’
    Sir Charles hid behind his newspaper while the housekeeper endeavoured to put Edie back on the correct path to cleaning the fireplace.
    ‘I can’t do this for you every day,’ she tutted. ‘Really, were you this inept at your last place? I begin to wonder if they wrote that reference to get rid of you.’
    The harsh words brought tears to Edie’s eyes.
    ‘Steady on,’ said Charles.
    ‘Sir?’ Mrs Munn stood and turned to him while Edie did not dare look.
    ‘Bit uncalled for,’ he said. ‘It’s only a fireplace.’
    ‘I daresay it is,’ she said coldly. ‘But it’s my ultimate responsibility, so you’ll excuse me if I take it seriously.’
    ‘Of course,’ drawled Charles, lighting a cigarette. ‘Carry on.’
    Mrs Munn removed Edie from the scene for an extensive tutorial in grate-polishing. Edie supposed she ought to be thankful; Mrs Munn had repelled the danger from Sir Charles quite effectively for the time being.
    ‘You shouldn’t have been alone with him,’ she said in a low voice, applying polish to a rag which she passed to Edie.
    ‘I’ve heard about Susie Leonard, ma’am. It won’t happen to me.’
    ‘Really? Well, Susie was a silly girl but a very fine housemaid. Perhaps you are her polar opposite. A poor housemaid with a sensible head on her shoulders. We can’t have everything, can we?’
    She cracked a rare smile, which Edie could not help returning, feeling rather privileged to be on the receiving end of it.
    ‘I am trying my best,’ said Edie.
    ‘I daresay you are, and you can’t do more than that. But this is Deverell Hall, Edie, and we have standards that must be maintained.’
    ‘I’ll get better, I swear.’
    Mrs Munn nodded.
    ‘Now, I’m leaving this to you. I’ll come and see how you’ve managed it in twenty minutes’ time. I expect it to be gleaming fit to blind me by then, do you understand me?’
    ‘Yes, ma’am.’
    ***
    Edie was almost done with the Blue Drawing Room when Lady Mary entered in her riding habit.
    ‘I say, it’s the new girl, isn’t it?’
    ‘Yes, ma’am.’
    ‘I don’t usually