She realised how difficult it was to keep anything secret from the staff and her mother had often said that the servants knew what was happening before she did herself.
As she sat down for luncheon, she could not help wondering whose advice she could now seek.
Then suddenly she remembered her Godmother.
Lady Manvill had been very kind to her when she was a child. Venetia had often told her of troubles at home she had not wanted to bother her mother with – they were the sort of small things that were completely trivial to grown-ups but important to her.
As Bates brought in the next course, she asked him,
“Is Lady Manvill in London? I had a letter from her a month ago when she was staying away and it did not say if she was living in the country or in London.”
“Her Ladyship was dining h
