Perhaps it was helped by the awareness of other people in the house, though the kitchens had always been an oasis of sanity. She and Amelia were sitting at the big table along with the other servants. With all the betters engaged in business, there would be no need of them in the other side of the house. An aromatic soup simmered on the back of the modern stove Mrs. Lane had insisted be installed five years back, and fresh spice cakes sat cooling on a rackthose that werent already on the table to be consumed. Shed come to feel a sisterhood with the servants here. They were all, like her, at Crag Wyvern because in some way they didnt fit in elsewhere. Ada and Diddy had come to try their luck with the earl and then stayed on. Diddy, at least, had tried her luck a number of times at twenty guineas a go. She was the one whod told Susan that the earl was impotent. A lot of groping and complaining, shed said, but I can put up with that for a years pay in a month.
