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when I realized just how much I was trembling. It was colder inside than outside! But it was a different version of cold, one that felt heavy in the air, like an endless shriek.
    I had expected my footsteps to echo along the stone floors, but they hardly dented the silence. The kitchen. Where was the kitchen? I moved across the floor until I saw two other doors, both closed and peering at me while I stood hesitating between them. I chose the one on my left and opened it.
    “Well, you must be Anne,” a voice said.
    I stepped into the room and saw two women sitting around a stained and bruised table. One was young, about my age, with a head of flaming hair that was not tucked or pinned in any noticeable manner. Her features were too regular to be called pretty, but she had a bright look about her that set me at ease.
    The other woman was a different matter. She was middle-aged and showed it, her face grooved as if someone had dragged fork tines over it while she slept. She was the one who’d spoken.
    “Yes, ma’am, I am Anne.” I curtsied. She was probably the housekeeper, so I’d better be on my best behavior.
    To my surprise, she laughed. “There’s no need to go bending your knees around here, except maybe in front of the master.”
    I found my voice. “Yes, ma’am.”
    The red-haired woman spoke up. “I’m Theodora. Isn’t that just horrid? I think so. Anyway, everyone calls me Dora, and this handsome place is my domain.” She winked at me, gesturing with her arms to the dilapidated kitchen around us. It was warmer, both in temperature and atmosphere, than the front parlor, but the dankness still seeped in through the gap under the door. The kitchen was passably clean, though I could see specks of dust floating in the air. I stared at some of the copper pots hanging like gilded snails off the walls and saw the white film of dust that had accumulated on them. Did they not use the pots?
    “And I am Ms. Simple, the housekeeper.” She grimaced at the title and gave me a small smile. “You have been hired, as I’m sure you know, to be the parlor maid. Since you come from Lady Caldwell’s household, I doubt I need to go pointing out your duties?”
    I swallowed. “I know my duties, ma’am. Should I ask one of the other girls to show me the different rooms? I fear I’ll get lost if I attempt it on my own.”
    The two women eyed each other. Ms. Simple sighed. “Anne, there are no other girls. It’s just the two of us and the coachman. The master doesn’t even keep a manservant.”
    My hands fluttered and clenched on my skirt. “But surely I’m not expected to maintain the entire manor on my own! It’s impossible!”
    “Don’t upset yourself. We’d never expect that kind of sacrifice from you. No, we only use a small section of the place. Many of the rooms, as you will see, are locked. Just do what you can, and the rest, leave. We all manage. Dora here did not know how to boil an egg a month ago, but necessity is the best teacher.”
    “And the cook, what happened to her?”
    Dora’s blue eyes turned to me. “She left.”
    “Why?”
    Ms. Simple shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Let me tell you where the servant’s chambers are. Take the third door off the kitchen and follow the hallway until you see another door. You may pick whichever room you like past that point. No one sleeps in them, so they might be a tad dank, but they are clean. Dora has a room a few doors down, and mine is the last one on the right.” She nodded to me, stood and stretched—a good clue the conversation was over.
    I turned and walked to the door. A thought formed.
    “Ma’am, what about the roses?
    “What about them?”
    “Who tends to them?”
    She glanced at me. “They tend to themselves.”

    Even the servant’s quarters, folded deep into the corridors of the manor, were steeped in a mist of wild perfume. It was milder, thank God, or I would have feared suffocating in my sleep. The room I chose, the first one I