Page 18 of Winterset

“Turn you out?” Anna repeated, dumbfounded. “What on earth are you talking about?”

“She said I should be turned out. She called me an ungrateful wretch, and said I had be-betrayed the family’s trust. And I never meant to, miss, I swear I didn’t. You know I love you. I would never do anything to hurt you or bring dishonor to the Holcombs.”

“Of course not,” Anna assured her, bewildered, and took the maid by the hand, leading her over to her easy chair. She sat down in the chair, pulling Penny down onto the hassock in front of it. Taking the girl’s hands in her own, she looked into her face. “Now. Calm down and tell me, step by step, what it is you are talking about.”

“I didn’t mean to do anything wrong,” Penny said, drawing a long, quavering breath. “I was only trying to not get Stell into trouble. That’s all. That’s why I didn’t say anything earlier.”

“Stell?”

“Estelle, miss. The upstairs maid. She sleeps in the same room with me, you see. She asked me not to tell, ’cause Mrs. Michaels’d turn her out without a reference, and that she would have, too, miss. And Estelle’s me friend. We have our little fusses now and then—who doesn’t, I ask you? But we help each other out, you see.”

“Of course. But why is Mrs. Michaels angry at you? What happened?”

“It’s Estelle, miss. She’s gone.”

“Gone? I don’t understand—she’s gone where?”

“I don’t know, miss.” Penny looked at her with rounded eyes. “That’s the thing—Estelle has disappeared.”

CHAPTER FIVE

For a long moment, Anna could only stare at Penny. “What? What do you mean, she’s disappeared?”

“Nobody knows where she is,” Penny said, and tears started in her eyes again. “She left the house last night, and she never came back.”

A shiver ran down Anna’s back, and she thought—she wasn’t sure why—of her feeling in the woods today, the cold, eerie stab of panic and pain. She shook the feeling off and forced herself to concentrate on Penny’s words.

“She told me she was goin’ out last night to see her fella, and I didn’t think anything about it. Sometimes she doesn’t come in until awful late when she does that.”

Anna remembered the morning only a week or so ago when she had seen Estelle sneaking in the back door and suspected that the girl had been out all night. “She has been doing that a lot recently?”

Penny nodded, looking remorseful. “She begged me not to tell anybody. She said Mrs. Michaels’d be that mad at her, and she was right. She was so happy, and it didn’t seem right that she should have to stop seein’ him just ’cause Mrs. Michaels wouldn’t like it. She was just—she was so happy! I felt glad for her, and so I promised not to tell anybody when she sneaked out and came in in the middle of the night. Then, this morning, she didn’t come back by the time we had to get up and go to work. It has happened before, so I figured she’d be in soon. She shouldn’t ’ave stayed out all night like that, but I couldn’t just turn her over to Mrs. Michaels.”

Anna nodded. She could understand the girl’s feelings. Mrs. Michaels was a formidable woman, especially when someone had broken one of her rules. “What did you do, then?”

“I didn’t do nothin’. Well, not till Mrs. Michaels asked me where Estelle was, and then I said she wasn’t feelin’ well and had stayed in bed. ’Cause I figured it was like the other morning, and she’d come sneaking in late, you see. But she didn’t. And later, Mrs. Michaels sent Rose up to see about her, and, ’course, when she wasn’t there, Rose told Mrs. Michaels she couldn’t find her. So Mrs. Michaels came back to me, breathin’ fire, she was, and I had to tell her.”

“Of course you did.”

Penny shot her a grateful look. “Thank you. I knew Estelle’d be furious with me, but what else could I do? She shouldn’t have stayed out all night like that, leavin’ me to explain it! So I told Mrs. Michaels that I lied about it, and that Estelle had gone out last night and never come back, and then she wanted to know how long she’d been doing it, and I had to tell her for a couple of weeks or more. And she was that mad. She said I was a traitor and an ingrate, and I don’t even know what that is! But I know I’m not a traitor. I’d never do anything to hurt you or Master Kit, and that’s the truth.”

“I’m sure you wouldn’t.”

“I didn’t think I was doing anything to hurt you by doing it, but Mrs. Michaels says it re-reflects badly on the Holcombs, having a maid that’s a slut. But she’s not a slut, miss! Or, I mean, she never was before. She’s always been a good girl.” She looked at Anna pleadingly. “You won’t let Mrs. Michaels turn me off, will you? My mum would slap me silly if I lost a position like this. And I never meant to do anything wrong. I wouldn’t damage your name for anything.”

“No, I am sure you would not,” Anna told the girl soothingly. “And doubtless the Holcomb name can stand up to more than a maid sneaking out to meet a man at night.” She hesitated, frowning, then said, “But why did Estelle not come back? Where did she go?”

“I don’t know, miss, and that’s the truth. Mrs. Michaels and Mr. Childers kept askin’ and askin’ me, but I truly don’t know any more. Mrs. Michaels says she’s run off, and I guess maybe she has.” Penny’s mouth drooped a little. “I never thought she’d just go off like that and not even tell me.”

Anna rose to her feet. “I’ll just go down and talk to Mrs. Michaels. She won’t turn you out. I am sure that after she has had a chance to think about it, she will see that that is too harsh a punishment for what you did.”

“Oh, thank you, miss.” Penny grabbed Anna’s hand and squeezed it fervently, dropping a quick curtsey, as well.

Anna left her room and hurried down the narrow back stairway, the quickest way to the kitchen area. After walking past the already-dark kitchen, she knocked quietly on the door to Mrs. Michaels’ bedroom. The housekeeper opened it a moment later. She was obviously ready for bed, with her hair up in a ruffled sleeping cap and a cotton wrapper over her high-necked sleeping gown.

“Miss Holcomb!” The housekeeper looked startled, then frowned. “Did that silly girl bother you with her story?”

“Penny was rather upset. She is quite afraid that you will turn her out without a reference.”