Sinners and Shadows by Catrin Collier Page B

so you can take up the haddock but be warned, the mistress is in a worse mood than usual.’
    â€˜We don’t need telling.’ Meriel picked up the fish slice and began lifting the smoked haddock fillets from the milky stock she’d used to simmer them. ‘I heard her shouting at the master when I went out to the ty bach half an hour ago. And the way she was yelling, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were stuffing cotton wool into their ears at the top end of the valley.’
    â€˜I can understand the master marrying a woman half his age three months after the mistress passed on. After all, he’s a man,’ Bronwen declared, as if his sex was excuse enough. ‘But what I can’t understand is why the new mistress married him if she had no intention of sleeping in his bed.’
    â€˜You have no business discussing the master and mistress, Bronwen,’ Mrs Williams reproved. ‘Mr and Mrs Larch pay our wages, the least we can do is respect their privacy.’
    â€˜We’re only talking among ourselves, and we all know what’s going on.’ Meriel eased a second haddock into the tureen. ‘There’s no way we wouldn’t, given the way Mrs Larch screams blue murder whenever the master knocks at her bedroom door. And when she starts on Miss Julia, Master Gerald or us, I think she’s training to take a job as a caller on Ponty market.’
    â€˜Tea, toast and clear the porridge bowls before Rhian gets up there with the fish.’ Mrs Williams filled Bronwen’s tray and sent her out.
    Rhian watched Meriel arrange the sixth and last fillet of smoked haddock in the tureen. She covered it with a lid, placed it on her tray and walked up the stairs. Bronwen was leaving the dining room with the empty bowls. She rolled her eyes heavenwards as she passed. Rhian knocked on the dining-room door and opened it.
    Silence, cold and glacial, had settled over the Larches’ breakfast table, chilling the atmosphere and freezing out conversation. Rhian couldn’t help but contrast the strained atmosphere with the friendly one the late mistress had fostered at family meals.
    â€˜At last!’ Mabel Larch exclaimed. ‘I thought we’d be here waiting at lunch-time.’
    â€˜Sorry, ma’am.’ Rhian eased the tray on to one arm, lifted the lid of the tureen with the other and handed the mistress the fish slice and fork. Mabel helped herself to the largest fillet.
    Julia gave Rhian a smile of commiseration when she carried the tureen to her chair. Julia took a small fillet. Edward Larch set aside the copy of The Times he had been reading and picked up the fish slice. The fillet broke as he tried to lift it, Rhian leaned forward in the hope of catching the broken piece on her tray but the tureen slipped and fell upside down on the carpet.
    â€˜You stupid girl!’ Mabel Larch flew out of her chair and slapped Rhian soundly across the face with her right hand, which was holding a knife.
    Shocked, momentarily stunned, Rhian stared at her mistress for a moment. As blood began to flow down her cheek, pain set in and she gulped back a sob. Dropping her tray on top of the tureen, she fled from the room across the hall and down the stairs barely aware of the master’s shouts behind her.
    â€˜You’re lucky you didn’t lose your eye.’ Mrs Williams pressed a tea towel soaked in cold water over the side of Rhian’s face.
    â€˜Old witch! Hitting us! For two pins I’d pack my bags and clear off right now,’ said Meriel.
    â€˜I hope not after the time you’ve been here, Cook.’ Edward Larch knocked at the open door. ‘May I come in?’
    â€˜This is your house, sir,’ Mrs Williams said coldly.
    â€˜And the kitchen is your and Cook’s preserve, Mrs Williams.’ He studied Rhian with real concern. ‘How are you?’
    â€˜As you see, sir.’ Mrs Williams lifted the towel to reveal Rhian’s