Framed mirrors and paintings of gardens and picturesque country lanes adorned the walls. The walls were covered in yellow moiré the curtains at the windows were white lace. The study in which I found myself was small and overtly feminine.

When I first beheld Lady Rankin, I was surprised she'd asked for me, because she seemed too frail to hold up her head, let alone conduct an interview with a new cook. Rather, Lord Rankin was a deft dabbler in the City and had earned money by wise investment long before the cousin who'd held the title had died, conveniently childless. Davis, had already confided in me-the estate had been nearly bankrupt when Lord Rankin had inherited it. The baron's wealth came not from the fact that he was an aristocrat, the butler, Mr. She was Lady Rankin, wife of the prodigiously wealthy baron who owned this abode. I expected to speak to the housekeeper, but upon arrival, the butler, a tall, handsome specimen who rather preened himself, took me up the stairs to meet the lady of the house in her small study. Taking their letter with me, I went along to the house of one Lord Rankin in Mount Street, descending from the omnibus at South Audley Street and walking the rest of the way. I worked some time in the winter at a house in Richmond, and it was a good position, but the family desired to sell up and move to the Lake District, and I was loath to leave the environs of London for my own rather private reasons.īack went my name on the books, and the agency at last wrote to my new lodgings in Tottenham Court Road to say they had found a place that might suit. I am a cook, one of the finest in London if I do say it, and also one of the youngest to be made head cook in a lavish household.

Lady Cynthia's difficulties, however, turned out to be only the beginning of a vast tangle and a long, dangerous business.īut I am ahead of myself. I must say I was not shocked that such a thing happened, because when a woman takes on the dress and bad habits of a man, she cannot be surprised at the disapprobation of others when she is found out.

I had not been long at my post in Mount Street, Mayfair, when my employer's sister came to some calamity.

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