The Lady's Maid Read Online Free PDF

fever of unspecified origin as an infant, after which her doting mother had decided that she was too fragile to be treated like a normal child. Kate knew that her friend was made of much tougher material but Josie, always quick to take advantage of a situation, played on her mother’s anxieties in order to get her own way in everything.
    Kate set the silver chocolate pot on a side table close to Josie’s four-poster bed with its silk hangings and Italian-quilted satin coverlet. She pulled back the heavy damask curtains, allowing the morning light to filter in from the square, and was about to leave the room when Josie called her back. ‘Kate, come here.’ She snapped into a sitting position, beckoning to her.
    ‘Yes, Miss Josephine?’
    ‘Don’t call me that when we’re alone.’ Josie ran her hand through her tangled mass of raven dark curls with an exasperated sigh. ‘Stop behaving like a servant, Kate. This is me you’re talking to.’
    ‘But that’s what I am.’ Kate eyed her warily. ‘What can I do for you, miss?’
    ‘You can start by acting normally, for goodness’ sake.’ Josie swung her legs over the side of the bed, stood up and stretched. ‘I’m bored to death, Kate. I want to go shopping and you must accompany me.’
    ‘But that’s impossible. You know I can’t do that.’
    ‘Why not? If I say I want you to come with me, who is going to stop you?’
    ‘Mrs Evans for one. I’m just a housemaid, Josie.’
    ‘It’s never stopped you when we’re down in Dorset. You and I do all sorts of things together, and Sam used to join in too.’
    Kate shook her head. ‘That was a long time ago.’
    ‘It was last summer, if I remember rightly.’ Josie lifted the pot and poured hot chocolate into a bone china cup. She sipped, gazing at Kate over the gold rim. ‘I’ll speak to Mrs Evans and make her give you the time off.’
    ‘It won’t do any good.’
    ‘Huh. We’ll see about that.’ Josie put the cup down, her frown melting into a persuasive smile. ‘Come on, Kate. Where’s your spirit of adventure?’
    ‘It’s all very well for you to demand this and that of the servants, but I have to live amongst them, and if I lose my position here I’ll be lucky to get a job as scullery maid in a respectable household.’
    Josie opened her mouth as if to argue and then closed it again, nodding her head. ‘All right, you win. I’ll tell Mrs Evans that you’re in desperate need of a new pair of boots. And don’t argue with me, I’ve seen you limping about as if each step was agony. I’d give you some of my cast-offs but my feet are bigger than yours. Compared to you I’m a big, clodhopping cow, and you’re a dainty little gazelle.’
    The comparison was totally unjustified and the ridiculousness of it made Kate chuckle. ‘That’s utter nonsense.’
    Josie did a twirl. ‘That’s better. Now fetch some hot water and tell Mrs Evans that I want to see her now.’
    ‘You can’t summon her to your room, Josie. She’d be furious.’
    ‘See if I care. Tell the old witch I’m waiting, and if she doesn’t like it I’ll tell Mama that she disobeyed an order and made me ill.’
    ‘You’re wicked, Josie.’
    ‘Yes, dear, I know. It’s fun, isn’t it?’
    Tight-lipped and with spots of colour emphasising her high cheekbones, Mrs Evans sailed into the kitchen with her hands clasped in front of her like an affronted Mother Superior. ‘Coggins, you’re to accompany Miss Josie on a shopping trip this morning. Have you finished your tasks?’
    Kate had just come from the scullery clutching a bucket of hot water in one hand and a scrubbing brush in the other. She paused in the doorway. ‘I was just going to scrub the hall floor, Mrs Evans.’
    ‘Minnie, you’ll have to do it.’ Mrs Evans turned to the tweeny, who was mopping the quarry tiles. ‘You will take over the rest of her duties until midday.’
    Minnie’s mouth drooped at the corners and she shot an angry sideways glance at Kate.