Chapter Eight
After the Fall
Breakfast the next day marked the start of the new era at Cheatem. Edward, restored to his rightful position in the family was once more at his place at the main table, sitting across from me, looking a bit pale and wan, but otherwise recovered from his recent ordeals. If he wondered why his Aunt was not at the breakfast table that morning he did not ask. The two girls, on the other hand, were quite in evidence, for they found themselves pressed into ignominious service as common housemaids, made to wait on us at table, and for the first time in their young lives, forced to show proper respect and deference.
I had risen early to see to the arrangements before Edward had come down for breakfast, being ably assisted by the servants who most enthusiastically he
