“I see. If the legends are true, then Diana is a faerie who guarantees the manor’s prosperity,” Miranda said, once the story was done. She spoke without expression. “If the master hears of this, he may well become upset.”
“Yes, it’s quite awful,” Mr. Lawrence said, dabbing the sweat from his brow. “If Diana’s leave leads to a dip in the family’s fortune—” He hastily broke off.
“We’re done for. I… If only it was just me. But if Wald Abbey passed into the hands of another…or if this brings harm to anyone… We have to let the lady know at once!” Mrs. Banks cried.
She staggered to her feet, ready to head to town and send a telegram.
“For now, please handle your duties as always. Do not breathe a word of this to anyone,” Mr. Lawrence said.
Then he lent Mrs. Banks an arm and led her from the hall.
I followed Miranda upstairs to perform my usual duties. Miranda was as unperturbed by this commotion as the housekeeper was undone.
“What does it all mean?” I asked.
But Miranda just shrugged, despite the heavy burden in her hands.
“Who knows? Perhaps Diana really left, or perhaps Mrs. Banks is just seeing things.”
For a while, I thought about all this as I worked.
Was it possible that Mrs. Banks mistook another servant for Diana? She’d chased Diana to the back door, but the door had been locked from the inside and locked by Mrs. Banks herself. A normal servant wouldn’t have been able to unlock the door; they would use a window to slip out at night. This would be difficult on the second floor but easy enough for anyone on the ground floor. For a servant in the basement quarters, the side entrance to the kitchen might be the best bet, but Mrs. Oliver controlled the kitchen and rigorously locked up at night. Even if they went up the servants’ stairs to the main house, Mrs. Banks had locked the doors on all unused rooms, and Mr. Lawrence had locked the main entrance. The first floor hallway had no windows through which a person could fit. You could fit through the windows on the second floor, but not without considerable risk. Because of that, no one in Wald Abbey, not even the master of the house, could get out at night.
After she’d made sure the back door was locked, she’d gone quickly back to the servants’ quarters and checked us all, one by one. It was the middle of the night and she’d been flustered, but Mrs. Banks said we were all sleeping in our rooms. If she’d mistaken a female servant for Diana, then it didn’t make sense for us all to be in our rooms. One of us would have been missing.
And if the back door was locked, the person she mistook would have been unable to get out, and Mrs. Banks would have caught up with them. Unless they could somehow walk through doors…
“Maybe it really was a faerie…” I whispered over tea.
Arthur and the other footmen shrugged it off, but Mary and Anna leaned across the table, saying, “It was!”
We finally had an easier workload, so the servants’ hall was packed. Even Sophie was here, a lady’s maid in training who was normally always in the company of the Lowfield girls. At my previous job, we had all addressed the ladies’ maids by their last names, but, perhaps because she was still in training, everyone just called her Sophie. She seemed to prefer this, so I called her Sophie, too.
“Sophie, what’s going on with the ladies? Have they heard the story?” I asked.
“No,” Sophie said. “I was surprised when Mrs. Banks showed up in the middle of the night, but I only just heard the details when I came downstairs a few minutes ago. Both the ladies are acting like they always do. Lady Lavinia doesn’t seem to be feeling well today.”
“Yes, I brought some tea up to her earlier, but she was quite pale.” Miranda nodded. “Sophie, better keep this to yourself.”
“Certainly. But if the master finds out—”
“He’s visiting the marquess, so I can’t see him cutting the visit short.”
The faerie’s disappearance was being treated like a real crisis. The master was a particularly strong believer, so no one was sure how he would react to the telegram.
A faerie, vanished into thin air…
If Mrs. Banks’s account were true, a faerie seemed the only possible explanation.
Then I remembered the strange dreams I’d been having lately.