Betrayal at Lisson Grove - Anne Perry [32]
‘You can’t leave,’ she said aloud, her tone angry now. ‘If you do, then I cannot give you a letter of character.’ That was a severe threat. Without a recommendation, no servant could easily find another position. Their reason for leaving would be unexplained, and most people would put the unkindest interpretation on it.
Mrs Waterman was unmoving. ‘I’m not sure, ma’am, if your recommendation would be of any service to me, as to character, that is – if you understand me.’
Charlotte felt as if she had been slapped. ‘No, I do not understand you. I have no idea what you are talking about,’ she said tartly.
‘I don’t like having to say this,’ Mrs Waterman replied, her face wrinkling with distaste. ‘But I’ve never before worked in a household where the gentleman goes away unexpectedly, without any luggage at all, and the lady receives other gentlemen, alone and after dark. It isn’t decent, ma’am, and that’s all there is to it. I can’t stay in a house with such goings-on.’
Charlotte was astounded. ‘“Goings-on”!’ She could feel the heat rise up her face and was furious with herself. It must look like the flush of guilt, not anger. ‘Mrs Waterman, Mr Pitt was called away on urgent business, without time to come home or pack any luggage. He went to France in an emergency, the nature of which is not your concern. Mr Narraway is his superior in the government, and he came to tell me, so I would not be concerned. If you see it as something else, then the “goings-on”, as you put it, are entirely in your own imagination.’
‘If you say so, ma’am,’ Mrs Waterman answered, her eyes unwavering. ‘And what did he come for the second time? Did Mr Pitt give a message to him, and not to you, his lawful wedded wife – I assume?’
Charlotte wanted to slap her. It was an awful feeling, ridiculous and undignified. She knew exactly why men hit each other sometimes. However, she had never heard of a decent woman slapping her maid. She would probably be arrested and charged with assault. This was a nightmare. With a great effort she forced herself to become calm.
‘Mrs Waterman, Mr Narraway came to tell me further news concerning my husband’s work, none of which is your concern, and I can’t imagine why you believe that I owe you some kind of explanation for it. Some work for Her Majesty is extremely discreet, and he does not discuss it with me, which is as it should be. I do not intend to tell you any more about it than that. If you choose to think ill of it, or of me, then you will do so whatever the truth is, because that is who you are . . .’
Now it was Mrs Waterman’s face that flamed. ‘Don’t you try to cover it with nice words and high-and-mighty airs,’ she said bitterly. ‘I know a man with a fancy for a woman when I see one.’
It was on the edge of Charlotte’s tongue to ask sarcastically when Mrs Waterman had ever seen one, but it was perhaps an unnecessarily cruel thought. Mrs Waterman was exactly what Charlotte’s grandmama used to call a ‘vinegar virgin’, in spite of the courtesy ‘Mrs’ in front of her name.
‘You have an overheated and somewhat vulgar imagination, Mrs Waterman,’ she said coldly. ‘But I cannot afford to have such a person in my household, so it might be best for both of us if you were to pack your belongings and leave first thing in the morning. I shall make breakfast myself, and then see if my sister can lend me one of her staff until I find someone satisfactory of my own. Her husband is a Member of Parliament, and she keeps a large establishment. I shall see you to say goodbye in the morning.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’ Mrs Waterman turned for the door.
‘Mrs Waterman!’
‘Yes, ma’am?’
‘I shall say nothing of you to others, good or ill. I suggest