She’d been sitting at the servant’s table for about twenty minutes when the screams trickled down the stairs. Smiling, she picked at her fingernails. Any minute now…
“You stupid, evil, horrid woman!” Henrietta flew down the stairs, dressed only in her shift with her face completely blackened with coal dust. The very ends of her braids were coated with tar, and left sticky black spots on the white cotton. “What have you done to me?”
Leah pursed her lips and examined her cuticles. “I told you last night. You’ve brought every bit of this on yourself.”
With a shriek of pure rage, the girl ran toward Leah with fingers curled into claws.
Leah didn’t move. She wasn’t concerned at all.
“Henrietta!” Sara descended the stairs, pale face wan.
“Your clothes!”
“My clothes?” Henrietta whirled. “What is wrong?”
“They’re…they’re on the ceiling.” Sara’s voice trailed into a whisper.
“What? They cannot,” she turned to Leah. “You did not…”
“I didn’t what? I don’t remember asking to be scared shitless last night.” Shoving her chair back, Leah propped her hands on her hips and glowered down at the dumb-struck maid. “I didn’t do what I did to get even with you. I did what I did to teach you a lesson. Actions have consequences, and I don’t tolerate bullies. This is a little something called Karma. You get back what you put out.
And so far, all you’ve put out is meanness. So here’s what you’re going to do.”
Henrietta sank into the chair Leah pointed to.
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just a young girl. Teaching her this lesson would be the
best thing Leah could do for her if she did it right.
“You’re going to go wash your face. You’re going to clip off the ends of your braids, because that tar isn’t coming out. You’re going to get your clothes down from the ceiling beams, get dressed, and apologize to Teresa and anyone else in the house you’ve tried to scare into giving you your way. And then you’re going to not pull any of this shit again, or the next time something bad happens to you, it’s liable to be a lot worse. Karma’s a bigger bitch than you or I ever will be. Do you understand?”
Sullen tears tracked down Henrietta’s cheeks, leaving pale white strips in the coal. “Yes,” she whispered. She looked up at Leah with a pitiful frown. “I am sorry.”
Leah nodded. “Thank you for the apology. Go ahead upstairs.”
Sara followed a surprisingly meek Henrietta back upstairs, and Leah sank back into the chair with a relieved sigh. Hopefully the girl would think twice about her attitude from now on. Leah’s retribution was pretty tame compared to what Henrietta deserved.
Leah sank back into the kitchen chair, toeing the leather bag with her boot.
Yeah, she’d taught Henrietta a lesson, but she didn’t really feel good about it. The girl was young, and she’d had it hard, but that didn’t excuse the way she’d been acting. Leah sighed and tucked a loose lock of hair behind her ear. She had done the right thing, she thought. Hopefully.
Footsteps on the stairwell drew her attention. She stood, grabbing her bag and holding it in front of her like a shield.
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Gina Lamm
“Ramsey, whatever are you doing dressed in that manner?” Mrs. Harper looked down at Leah, wrinkling her nose as if she smelled something bad. Leah sniffed her armpit, she hoped subversively. Yeah, the basin baths hadn’t been the most thorough, but she’d done the best she could.
“I’ve been asked to take a position in another household,” Leah said, delivering the line Lady Chesterfield had given her with aplomb.
Mrs. Harper laughed aloud. “Whatever can you mean? Your service has been barely suitable in this home.
Who could have…”
Leah smiled, biting back the snarky comments she wanted to fire back at Mrs. Harper. “Thank you for the kindness you’ve shown to me while I’ve been here. I won’t ever forget you.”
Turning on her heel, Leah marched toward the door.
This isn’t exactly how and when she’d planned to do this, but damn it, she didn’t want to spend another half hour here with Queen Q-tip. Ignoring the housekeeper’s protestations, Leah closed the kitchen door firmly behind her.
And stopped dead.
Damn it, it was only five in the morning and still pitch-black out. What a way to botch her grand exit.
With a sigh, Leah leaned up against the wall. If that wasn’t bad enough, she still hadn’t managed to say good-bye to Avery. Well, this was great. Peachy. Glancing above her, she counted the windows. The one at the top was glowing softly with candlelight. With a grin, she bent down and scooped up a pebble. There was more than one way to get a valet’s attention.
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