* * *
The first thing I will do when I’m home is run to Nan’s bedside. The second? Sleep. So much sleep. As a cop, I’ve pulled double shifts, and none left me as exhausted as a single day being a housemaid. When Alice wakes me the next morning, I swear I only just drifted off.
Getting out of bed, I also know how Mom and Dad feel. Lately, they’ve started joking about their age and how it takes a few minutes to get going in the morning, like starting a car with a cold engine. My knees threaten to give way. My shoulders scream. I reach for the bottle of Tylenol I keep in my nightstand drawer. Yep, no nightstand, and no Tylenol.
I stump, stiff-legged, to the washbasin, only to discover it’s the dirty water from yesterday. Because I don’t have a maid to empty it for me.
I use the water anyway. Sure, since I hope to be gone today, I could say screw it, get clean water, and be late for my shift. Yet I’m well aware of Catriona, the girl who doesn’t have an escape hatch to another time. It’s like the old concept of a whipping boy. If I do anything wrong, she’ll suffer the punishment. Scummy, cold water it is, then.
I dress as quickly as I can, buttoning with numb fingers, shivering the whole time. Then I stagger downstairs, only to still get a lecture on tardiness. It’s been ten minutes since Alice came up. How fast am I supposed to dress with five layers of clothing and no zippers?
I suck it up, like I used to when I spent weekends with my paternal grandparents. They lived on a farm and were determined to teach me the value of hard work. What I learned instead was how to push through. Do what I’m told and remind myself that my dad had to do this every day of his life, and at least my term of servitude ended Sunday evening when he came to pick me up.
This term of servitude ends at two. Precisely two, as Mrs. Wallace tells me twice that morning.
“Not one minute before. I know your tricks, and I’ll be having none of them today.”
So Catriona had tricks? Maybe she wasn’t quite the meek and guileless creature I imagine. I can’t blame her. I consider myself a hard worker, and I’d still be trying to sneak out of this job a few minutes early.
Catriona may leave early herself, but I will not do it on her behalf. Anyone doomed to this wretched life doesn’t deserve additional punishment. Yes, yes, I’m well aware that there are people in Victorian-era Scotland who’d have given their eyeteeth for her job, with plentiful food and a private bedroom. But there’s always someone worse off, and my very middle-class life back home makes me a grand duchess compared to poor Catriona.
I wait for the clock to strike two before I pack away my broom. By the time I arrive in the kitchen, it’s ten past, and when Mrs. Wallace glowers at me, I half expect her to give me crap for leaving late.
“Did you scrub Dr. Gray’s hearth?” she asks.
I launch into a recital of everything I got done, and with each word, her eyes narrow. There’s no sarcasm in my tone, yet she acts as if I’m being a smart-ass.
“I will check it, you know,” she says.
“Feel free—” I swallow hard. “I mean, I understand, ma’am, and you are more than welcome to do so.”
“You’re up to something,” she says, setting down her wooden spoon. “Don’t think I cannot see that. Talking so prettily. Doing all your work.” She looks at the clock and sniffs. “I’ve never known you to linger when it’s your half day.”
“I know I have not been myself, ma’am,” I say. “It is the knock upon my head. I shall be right as rain soon enough.”
“You’d better be. I will not stand for these tricks once the mistress returns tomorrow.”
“I have no idea what you mean, ma’am.” I really don’t. “But I do hope to be back to myself tomorrow.”
She grumbles, turns, and hands me a tray with a pot of tea and a plate of coconut cake. “For the master in the funerary parlor.”
I make no move to take it. “My half day started at two.”
“Yes, and this was ready before two. The tea will be getting cold now. You’ll drop off the tray on your way out. The master had a busy morning—one funeral done and a second to arrange. He barely picked at his lunch. He’s overly fond of pastries and this might tempt him. Now off with you.”
EIGHT
As I head for the door, I realize I’m wearing indoor boots and no jacket, and a glance out the window shows it’s hardly the warm May day I’d expect in Vancouver. I’ll stop at the front closet … Oh wait, it’s the Victorian era, when apparently closets haven’t been invented. Where do they keep outerwear? In their bedrooms? Were there warmer clothes in Catriona’s trunk?
I glance down at the rapidly cooling tea. I’ll take the tray to Gray and then go upstairs and figure out the rest.
The funeral parlor is quiet, the only light coming through open front curtains and precious little of that on this overcast day. I’m about to call for Gray when I realize that’s probably not maid-appropriate.
As I walk in, I catch a muffled curse from the laboratory. The door is closed. I rap once and push it open. Gray is standing beside the body of Archie Evans. He seems to be trying to do something with the young man’s hand, and rigor hasn’t relaxed yet, so the limb is not cooperating.
“Your tea, sir? Mrs. Wallace asked me to deliver it before I left.”
He stares at me. Looks at the body, and then back at me.
I just walked in on him wrestling with an autopsied corpse, the poor guy’s chest cracked open and roughly sewn. I should have dropped the tray and run screaming.
Little late for that.
“Is that the poor bloke they brought in yesterday?”
His brow furrows at the word “bloke.” That’s English, isn’t it? I am not getting any better at this.
“I shall leave your tea on the table over here. Unless you would prefer it at your desk.”
“I think my desk might be cleaner.”
“Right.” I turn to leave.
“Catriona?” he says. “If you have a moment, there is something I’d like far more than tea.”
I bite my lips against a snort, thinking again of my friend’s historical-romance novels. I’ve gotten none of those vibes from Gray, thankfully, and so I just say, “I do need to be off, sir. It is my half day. But I can spare a moment. You seem to be having trouble with that poor chap, er, lad’s arm. Shall I hold it for you?”
He looks at the corpse’s hand and back at me with a blink of surprise.
“I spent time on a farm,” I say, which is true enough. “I’m not squeamish.”
“I appreciate that. I could use your assistance. I lost my apprentice last month. He decided undertaking was not the profession for him. I have no idea why.”
Gray doesn’t smile, but his eyes do sparkle with enough self-awareness to tell me this is a joke.
Huh, didn’t think you had it in you, Gray.
That’s not entirely fair. Duncan Gray doesn’t match the stereotype of the dour, washed-out undertaker, a ghoul haunting his own funeral parlor and preying on the grieving. I have yet to meet a funeral director who does match the stereotype. But while I wouldn’t call Gray dour, he’s certainly not trying out for stand-up comedy any time soon. If I had to cast him in a period drama, it’d be somewhere between “mad scientist” and “brooding lord with his wife locked in the attic.”
“Not everyone is cut out for such a job, sir.”
“I cannot imagine anyone is,” he murmurs.
He speaks low enough that I’m not supposed to hear, but I can’t let that door shut without trying to pry it open. Curiosity is an occupational hazard.
“You inherited the business, yes?” I say. “I presume it was not your dream job either?”
“Dream job.” He mulls the words over, and I know I’ve been too modern again, but he nods, as if presuming this is only a unique phrasing.
In answer to the question, he shrugs. “Fate deals unexpected hands, and we learn to play the cards we are given.”