01 - Murder at Ashgrove House Read Online Free Page A

has just brought me the most dreadful news …’

Chapter Three
     
    ‘Mr Stafford, you could have knocked me down with a feather when I met
with her ladyship this morning to go through the menus!’ Mrs Palmer was sitting
at the highly scrubbed kitchen table, a steaming cup of tea before her and
Edna, the little scullery maid, standing beside her, fanning Mrs Palmer’s face
with pages from a day old copy of The Times newspaper.
    Stafford secretly thought that the effect created was a little
melodramatic, even by Mrs Palmer’s standards. She was a short, dumpy woman who
always looked hot and flustered as a result of standing over a hot stove all
day and barking orders at the scullery and kitchen maids. Today, however, he
had some sympathy for her predicament.
    ‘Not only does her ladyship say that she thinks it likely that Master
Cedric will bring his friend down with him from Oxford, you know, Lord whatsit,
but she tells me that the Earl and Countess of  Belvedere are coming to
visit as well!’
    ‘Indeed, Mrs Palmer. I did try and forewarn you as soon as I had taken
the telephone call from Sedgwick Court,’ Stafford said, biting his tongue as always
to stop himself from reprimanding Mrs Palmer in front of the lower servants for
calling Lord Sedgwick, Master Cedric, as if he was still a small boy come
creeping in to her kitchen to snatch a freshly baked sausage roll, not a grown
man who in the fullness of time would inherit an earldom.   ‘But it
was your afternoon off yesterday and I didn’t want to trouble you when you
returned, given the lateness of the hour.’ Stafford broke off from what he was
saying to give her a pointed stare. Really, he thought, Mrs Palmer should set
an example to the maid servants. ‘And then this morning, I thought I’d leave it
until after breakfast before telling you, but her ladyship was herself a little
unsettled by the news and took it upon herself to rush to see you to make sure
that you had the necessary stores in, and if you didn’t to give you the chance
to order more in.’
    ‘It’s just as well we’ve got a large kitchen garden, Mr Stafford,’ Mrs
Palmer said recovering a little and flapping Edna away with instructions to pour
her another cup of tea. ‘We shan’t have a problem with the vegetables, it’s the
meat and fish I’m worried about, because of course I’ve had to change my menus,
it’ll have to be fancy cooking now, what with the countess coming.’ She looked
up sharply at the scullery maid. ‘Stop that gawping girl and go and fetch Mr
Stafford a nice cup of tea.’
    ‘Yes, Mrs Palmer,’ the girl looked as if she could not get away quickly
enough.
    Mrs Palmer started thumbing through her copy of Mrs Beeton’s Book of
Household Management . Like most cooks of her generation she considered it
her cooking bible and, when alarmed by news of an impromptu dinner party, she
was in the habit of clutching it to her breast to provide her with the
necessary moral support. 
    ‘Her ladyship said she would come down again in half an hour or so once
I’d had time to put together some dinner party menus. Perhaps I could pass some
ideas by you, Mr Stafford, if you don’t mind? As you know, I do like a nice
dinner party, gives me a chance to be creative and stretch myself a bit, can
make a nice change from the usual plain cooking that her ladyship likes, but of
course, it would have been nice to have had a little more notice to get
prepared like. I’m not just thinking of the food, neither. I could really do
with some more hands in the kitchen. I’m going to need more help than I’ll get
from those two dolly daydreams.’ She pointed vaguely at the scullery and
kitchen maids. ‘Heads in the clouds most of the time they have, Mr Stafford,
boys, dresses and dancing is all that fills their heads most of the time. But
like as not I’ll have to make do with them. Too short notice I expect to get
help in from the village.’
     ‘I expect you’re right, Mrs