Read A Death in the Highlands for Free Online

at,’ said Susan in a surly tone.
    I smiled brightly. ‘In that case, you can start by cleaning the hall floor. Merry will join you to dust and brush the stairs. Then we will work up the house.’
    ‘I’ll be needing the menus,’ broke in Jock.
    ‘I-I … of course.’
    ‘Miss St John and I need to consult,’ said Rory. ‘If you’ve the time, Miss St John, we could go to my pantry now?’
    I nodded my assent and tried very hard not to blush.
    Rory’s pantry was not a large room, but it was commodious enough. Compared to the butler’s quarters at Stapleford Hall it was positively luxurious. Having grown up in a vicarage amid the cast-offs from the wealthy, my eye was quick to spot the heavy oak pieces that furnished it were less than new. There was a certain sense of style even if the atmosphere was overly masculine and perforce slightly old-fashioned.
    ‘It’s not bad, is it?’ said Rory, who seemed to have an uncanny ability to read my thoughts. ‘There’s a housekeeper’s room for you, but I believe it’s somewhat floral and cluttered. I doubt it’s to your taste but, as Mrs Wilson remains nominally the in absentia housekeeper, I’m afraid I can’t advise you to change much of it.’
    ‘I wouldn’t dream of it!’
    ‘Aye, that’s the problem.’ Rory indicated I should sit. I sank down in to a green armchair, whose springs gave alarmingly beneath me. I must have looked startled, as Rory grinned at my predicament. ‘The thing is, Euphemia, you’re gey young to be a housekeeper and the locals here are going to run rings around you. There’s no love for the new master.’
    ‘Why is that?’
    ‘Let’s just say that our master was rigorous and unscrupulous in putting the estate into what he saw as order.’
    I swallowed, remembering Bishop Pagget, who had cast Mother and me out of our home without a second thought once Pa was dead. ‘Did you help him do that?’
    ‘Me?’ Rory blinked in astonishment. ‘What do you think I am? His agent will have done that.’
    ‘And you’re happy to work with him knowing what he’s done?’ The words were no sooner out of my mouth than I realised what I was saying. I blushed fiery-red.
    ‘I’d hazard that you know our master is less than lily-white. I work for him for the same reason you do. Necessity. My father was a grocer. It’s a skilled job but, with the march of branded and prepacked food, it’s a dying art. I got myself trained as a footman at a big house near here, but there was no opportunity for advancement, so when Lord Richard appeared on the horizon …’
    ‘You jumped at the chance. How did you persuade him?’
    ‘I’m good at what I do. I know the land. And I’m cheaper than a London man. And your reason for working for this unscrupulous, arrogant and mean toff?’
    ‘You were saying I need to be stricter with the servants?’
    Rory paused slightly before answering. The long, level look he gave me seemed to say that my abrupt change of subject was crass and beneath his attention. I do not claim to be a thought-reader, and he may have been only thinking of his breakfast, but it was only due to my mother’s rigorous training that I did not squirm under his direct gaze.
    ‘Aye. You do. People appreciate knowing where they stand. If you want someone to talk to, come to me, not to Merry. It didn’t escape my notice she was still abed.’
    ‘The travelling made her very ill.’
    ‘Can’t say I enjoyed it much myself, but I’ve been up for hours. We need to get some house rules sorted.’
    We spent a detailed half hour determining rising times, expected number of guests, when tasks would need completing, orders to be given, our individual responsibilities and finally the menus. It was in this last area that I was able to be of most help. Rory had brought a number of provisions from London, but had little imagination as to how to best use them. I had long done the menus at the vicarage – a combination of Mother wanting me to