No One Notices the Hired Help

"Weren't you locked in your room?"

"I had a key Mother never knew about," Celestine explained. "I left it in the lock, too, so Mother wouldn't know Agnes had anything to do with it."

"Weren't you afraid she or Troy would look in on you before they went to bed?"

"If they did, they'd have assumed I'd already run off, which wouldn't be bad for us, really, because they'd look everywhere except where I really was. Those two actually think I'm as big a snob as they are and would never stoop to visiting the servants' quarters, never mind sleeping there!" She was aware of Dylan's erection softening inside her, and at last she let him out but kept her arms clenched tightly around him. "Anyway, as soon as Agnes got a free moment to visit the kitchen, she told the scullery maids what was up, and asked could they ask around at Fliss' place and see about getting Troy and Mother out of the house in the morning --"

"Fliss' place?" Dylan interrupted. "Your mother's kitchen ladies work there?!"

"Think about the lousy wages she pays," Celestine pointed out. "I think Mother probably knows, too, but as long as they come and go through the servants' entrance, what does she care? That is how I got out this morning, by the way, but I'm told Mother and Troy weren't there anyway. Apparently the kitchen ladies were able to get word to the right ear downtown, and Trey was arrested. I guess no one ever notices the hired help, or at least people like Mother and Troy don't. I don't know how they did it, though."

"I do," Dylan said. "Remember Relly? From school?"

"Darling Relly!" Celestine squeezed his hand, which in turn squeezed her breast, but not unpleasantly. "Of course I remember her? Whatever's become of her?"

"You don't want to know, but now she'll be replacing me as my mother's assistant and maybe even joining us when Ma does," Dylan said. "I saw her last night and, forgive me Celestine, but I thought I might very well never see you again, and I told her everything."

"I gather I ought to be delighted you did," Celestine said.

"Precisely. She'd heard from Fliss about what happened at the Green Lake, only no one knew it was Troy. I guess Aldrich and his guys are afraid to get on his bad side. So when I told Relly all that had happened, she put two and two together and knew Troy was the mystery man she'd heard about at Fliss'. Then she went to Fliss with the news, and of course Fliss isn't afraid of Troy. She's not afraid of anyone."

"But did she know how you fit into all this?" Celestine asked. "Surely she wouldn't want to help then, the way your mother's taken so much business from her?"

"That's what I thought, but we had it all wrong all this time!" Dylan was still surprised at all he'd learned about that in the dead hours of last night. "Turns out Fliss is a big fan of Ma's! She really admires the way she's made her way on her own and kept a good home for me, and she never saw it as taking business away from her. I mean, she knows not everyone is going to want to do business with her, and providing a nice safe alternative means the police are mostly willing to look the other way on her and her girls."

"Wow," Celestine murmured. "Does your mother know?"

"She will now. I'm sure Relly'll tell her. Now your turn -- how did you ever get Jameson to carry your trunk down here for you?"

"He's been to Fliss' place as well, and it wouldn't do at all if Mother ever learned about that." Celestine laughed. "I guess Mother ordered him to send a runner to her lawyer's office to help with Troy, and he did do that. Then Agnes got my shoulder bag from Mother's bedroom -- she didn't even bother locking it away anywhere, it was just tossed on the floor there! -- and Jameson got my trunk loaded in the carriage, and we were off."

"I wonder what he told her if she and Troy got home before he got back with the carriage?"

"Don't know, don't care," Celestine said. "But I doubt they did. The runner may have dawdled a bit on the walk over to the lawyer's office, or so Agnes suggested."

Dylan let out a cathartic chuckle. "If only we knew what the right voice in the right ear would do, huh? Just imagine what women could do if they actually ran things, huh?"

Celestine grinned back at him. "We do."