Chapter Four: The Mistress’s Bargain
Catherine gestured toward a chair without inviting Ruth to sit.
“I am told that you were in this passage after Daniel left.”
“I was carrying linen, ma’am.”
“Then perhaps you noticed him lingering where he had no reason to be.”
Ruth kept her eyes on a knot in the carpet.
“He walked toward the servants’ stairs.”
Catherine moved a silver candlestick from the mantel to a small table.
“You have a daughter, do you not?”
Ruth’s stomach contracted.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Ellen is a pleasant girl.”
“She works hard.”
“Girls her age are very much in demand.”
Ruth understood the price Catherine was setting on the truth before the mistress spoke another word.
Catherine opened the trunk and showed Ruth an empty velvet jewelry box.
“My husband’s visitors cannot see us divided by accusations,
” she said.
“It would be better if we agreed that Daniel behaved improperly.”
“I did not see him behave improperly.”
Catherine’s voice became brittle.
“You have worked here long enough to know the difference between what you saw and what a household needs.”
Ruth looked directly at her for the first time.
“I know the difference, ma’am.”
Catherine snapped the jewelry box shut.
“Then remember your daughter.”
Ruth left the room with shaking hands and walked until she reached the cool pantry.
Hester found her leaning against the shelves.
“She threatened Ellen,” Ruth said.
Hester closed the door.
“Tell me the exact words.”
Ruth repeated them, trying not to soften anything.
Hester listened with the care of a person arranging glass on a narrow shelf.
“She’s frightened of something beyond Daniel,
” Hester said.
“She was frightened before she invented the theft.”
“The trunk,” Ruth whispered.
“She doesn’t want that woman to open it.”
Hester took a folded dishcloth from the rack.
“Then whatever is under the lining belongs to the story.”
Ruth shook her head.
“I won’t break into her bedroom.”
“You shouldn’t.”
“Then how can we make anyone look?”
“By giving them a reason they want for themselves.”
Hester spoke without comfort or sentiment.
She had survived long enough to know that powerful people rarely changed course because a vulnerable person made a truthful statement.
They changed course when the truth interfered with something they wanted.
That afternoon she found Mrs. Vale sitting beneath the veranda awning, drinking lemonade and sorting clothing measurements.
“The upstairs trunks have brass hinges from France,” Hester said.
Mrs. Vale looked up.
“Do they?”
“One has an unusual lining sewn by a dressmaker from Norfolk.”
“That might increase its price, if the condition is sound.”
Hester folded her hands.
“Mrs. Whitcomb has asked that it remain closed.”
Mrs. Vale raised a brow.
“That would make an accurate appraisal difficult.”
“I thought you would want to know.”
Hester turned away before the woman could ask why she had chosen that moment to speak.
In the stable, Daniel heard two carriage wheels bump over the stones and then heard Dent calling for the overseer.
He counted every footstep because he had nothing else to do.
Late in the afternoon Rusk opened the door and brought him outside.
Dent inspected him with the air of a man checking a horse’s teeth.
“He knows harness work?” Dent asked.
“Better than anyone here,” Rusk answered.
“Can he read?”
“No,” Daniel said before Rusk could answer.
He could read simple sentences, but literacy would not help him in front of those men.
Dent tapped his notebook.
“The accusation is inconvenient.”
Gideon came from the house and joined them.
“My wife is certain of what happened.”
“Your certainty and hers may cost money,” Dent replied.
“No prudent buyer will pay full price for a servant suspected of entering a lady’s chamber.”
Daniel stared at the damp earth.
He was not merely being accused.
He was being reduced to a number on a page, and the accusation would decide who bought him.
“I would prefer not to sell a troublesome man among a stable lot,” Dent continued.
“I can move him separately tomorrow evening and spare you the embarrassment.”
Gideon hesitated.
“Tomorrow is before the advertised sale.”
“Private arrangements are common.”
Daniel understood that tomorrow evening could be the last time he saw Amos, Ruth, or Hester.
He asked for permission to speak.
Gideon waved a distracted hand.
“What is it?”
“If a buyer wants a horseman, he should see my work before calling me troublesome.”
Dent studied him with sudden interest.
“You would demonstrate?”
“The carriage team has an uneven pull,” Daniel said.
“I can correct it before any guest rides behind those animals.”
Rusk scoffed.
“That is not what we are discussing.”
Dent looked toward the carriage house.
“A public demonstration may be useful on Saturday.”
Gideon nodded slowly.
“Very well.”
For a moment Daniel felt relief, but then Dent added that his private appointment would remain on the following evening unless the matter of the jewelry was settled.
Daniel had gained a day, not safety.
He returned to the tack room and found a scrap of apple peel near the door.
Someone had left him food where the guards would not notice.
He picked it up carefully and ate it while the yard darkened.
