Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry

has happened. Is it that butcher’s boy again? I’ve told you to report him to Maddock if he continues to be impertinent. He’ll soon sort out a tongue that runs away with a young man. Otherwise he’ll lose his employment. Maddock will tell him that. Now stop sniffling and go back to your work. And Dora, don’t come into the withdrawing room again without knocking. You know better than that.” She picked up the daisy from the sideboard and considered the vase again. There was too much blue on the left side.
    “Oh no, ma’am,” Dora was still there. “It’s nothing to do with the boy. I dealt with that all right—threatened to set the dog on him, I did, after all the meat, you see!”
    “We don’t have a dog, Dora!”
    “I know that, ma’am, but he don’t.”
    “You shouldn’t tell lies, Dora,” but there was no criticism in her voice. She considered it a fair retaliation. Her words were habit, those she thought she ought to say, certainly what Edward would expect of her. “Well, what is it then, Dora?”
    Dora’s face bunched into a howl again as she remembered.
    “Oh, ma’am! The murderer’s at it again! We’ll all be strangled if we set foot outside the door!”
    Caroline’s immediate reaction was to deny it, to keep Dora from hysterics.
    “Nonsense! You’re perfectly safe as long as you don’t go hanging around by yourself after dark, and no decent girl does that anyway! There’s nothing for you to be afraid of.”
    “But ma’am, he tried it again!” Dora wailed. “He attacked Mrs. Waterman’s Daisy! Right out in the daylight, he did!”
    Caroline felt a shiver of fear.
    “What are you talking about, Dora? Are you just repeating a lot of silly gossip? Where did you hear that, from some errand boy?”
    “No, ma’am. Mrs. Waterman’s Jenks told Maddock.”
    “Really? Perhaps you had better send Maddock to me.”
    “Now, ma’am?” Dora stood transfixed.
    “Yes, Dora, right now.”
    Dora scuttled out and Caroline tried to compose herself to arrange the rest of the flowers. The result was unsatisfying. Maddock knocked at the door.
    “Yes, Maddock,” she said coldly. “Maddock, Dora tells me she was present when you and—Jenks, is it?—were talking about the two girls who were killed recently, and a new attack?”
    Maddock stood stiffly, surprise showing on his usual poker face.
    “No, ma’am! Mr. Jenks came round to bring a bottle of port from Mr. Waterman for Mr. Ellison. While he was in my pantry he told me I should keep our girls in, even in daylight, not send them on errands alone because their Daisy, or whatever her name is, had been attacked in the street the other day. Apparently she is a well-built girl, and not the fainting kind. She had a jar of pickles of some kind in her hand, and hit him over the head with it. She wasn’t hurt, and seemed quite in control of herself until she got home. Then, of course, she realized what could have happened to her, and burst into tears.”
    “I see.” She was glad she had not criticized him too obviously, allowing herself room to retreat. “And where was Dora?”
    “I can only presume, ma’am, that she was in the passage outside the pantry door.”
    “Thank you, Maddock,” she said thoughtfully. “Perhaps you had better not send the girls on any errands, as Jenks suggests—at least for the time being. I wish you had told me this earlier.”
    “I told the master, ma’am. He said not to worry you with it.”
    “Oh.” Her mind raced over reasons why Edward should have done such a thing. What if she, or one of the girls, had gone out alone? Did he think only servants were attacked? What about Chloe Abernathy?
    “Thank you, Maddock. You had better see if you can calm Dora a little; and suggest she stop listening at doors, while you are about it!”
    “Yes, ma’am, certainly.” And he turned on his heel and went out, closing the door silently behind him.
    She had intended this afternoon to go and see Martha Prebble.