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Lady Vye had entered the room, she had turned and was hurrying back to meet her, holding out the evidence of my crime. I followed, frightened half to death to think what might happen next.
    ‘I am so sorry, belle-mère ,’ Harriet said (and she looked it, too). ‘As I went past the desk, my sleeve caught one of your little figures and it fell on the floor. Please forgive me! I know how much you love them.’
    She was taking the blame for my wrongdoing. It was such a kind, brave thing to do that, for a moment, I was speechless. But I couldn’t stand by and let someone else pay for my mistake. ‘M’lady, I’m sorry but - ’ I began, determined to tell the truth.
    ‘When was your opinion called for?’ Lady Vye interrupted, staring at me in astonishment. ‘I am not in the habit of being addressed by a housemaid. Kindly go about your duties elsewhere.’
    What else could I do? Harriet would not even look in my direction. After one last glance at her determined face, I curtseyed and went out of the room. I could hear Lady Vye telling her stepdaughter what a clumsy, unladylike creature she was before I had even reached the door, and my heart bled for her. I didn’t have the courage to turn back, though, and hurried along to give Mary back the wretched duster and think what to do next.
    Four o’clock tea had quickly become my favourite time of the day. The maids’ sitting room was such a pleasant place, with a view out over the kitchen garden and sturdy, comfortable furniture. Iris would lay a starched white cloth over the work table and we would have plum cake with our tea, and bread and butter with jam from the still room. It was half an hour of peace before the evening rush, and Jemima was never so sharp with me when other people were around.
    This afternoon, however, I could take no pleasure in anything. What on earth would be happening to poor Harriet? She must have realized that I would lose my job immediately for breaking the ornament, and had risked her stepmother’s anger to protect me. I felt more ashamed of myself for letting her take the blame than I did for being so naughty in the first place - too ashamed to confess to anyone what had happened. All I could do was stare into my teacup and wonder how I could ever have been so stupid and thoughtless.
    At supper time, William brought the news that Harriet had been made to stand in a corner of the library for three hours, and had just this minute been sent to bed without anything to eat. That might not sound such a harsh punishment, but three hours is a long time to stay still in one place with an aching back and tired legs, and nothing to look at but row upon row of musty books. It must have been humiliating, besides; Harriet was too old to be treated like a child in this way. I could not bear to think of her standing there, quite alone, and probably hungry and thirsty into the bargain. And all because of me! I blushed so fiercely with shame that it was a wonder nobody noticed.
    ‘What is she meant to have done this time?’ said Mr Wilkins, the under-butler. ‘Poor lass! Do you know, Her Ladyship ordered me to fetch two saucers last Sunday luncheon for Miss Harriet’s elbows. She had to sit there like that for the whole meal, to teach her to keep them off the table.’
    ‘She is trying to break the girl’s spirit, that’s what it’s all about,’ Mary said. ‘They are two strong characters, and neither will give way to the other. Mind you, Lady Vye has made a good job of Miss Eugenie: lovely manners, that young lady has, and all the accomplishments. No one could accuse Her Ladyship of neglecting her duties as a stepmother. And if she cannot love the girls quite so much as she does Master John, that is only to be expected. He is her own flesh and blood, after all.’
    And then Iris appeared from the housekeeper’s room with the full story, which she had overheard from the upper servants. Lady Vye had given Mrs Henderson the broken figurine to see if