in hand.” Mrs. MacKenna blew her nose defiantly. “But maybe, yes, a little.”
“Did you ask her what was wrong?”
Mrs. MacKenna shook her drooping head.
“Neither did I,” Griz confessed. “Whatever bothered her didn’t necessarily lead to her death, though. Did she ever mention to you anything about marrying a gentleman?”
The housekeeper snorted. “No. I make sure the girls know their place, which is not thinking they can marry gentlemen! Only trouble comes from such delusions.”
“But did she have a young man? Did she go out and meet him on her day off?”
“She was always rushing off somewhere. Late back, too, often enough. But who she saw and what she did, she never confided to me.”
“Did you know she had gone out last night?”
“No. She went to her room when the work was done but promised she would wait up for you.”
Griz sighed. “Who were her closest friends among the staff? Janet?”
Mrs. MacKenna nodded. “And Emmie.”
“None of the footmen?”
“I don’t allow fraternizing with the male staff.”
“Of course not,” Griz said hurriedly. “But she did work beside them.”
“I think they flirted a little,” Mrs. MacKenna said reluctantly. “But there was never anything in it. In fact, in recent weeks, if anything, she was more aloof. Almost looking down on them.”
“Because of her more gentlemanly suitor?”
The housekeeper shrugged. “I couldn’t say, my lady. I really couldn’t.”
Griz walked to the window, which looked out onto the kitchen garden, and back again. “Mrs. MacKenna, was she liked belowstairs? Was there ever any trouble with her? Between her and any of the other staff?”
“She was liked well enough. I grumbled at her occasionally, told her off for gossiping. She was always too interested in everyone—”
“The other staff?” Griz interrupted.
“Yes. And the family and their guests. But never in a nasty way. She was just…interested, as I said. I don’t think she was malicious at all.”
“I never thought so,” Griz agreed. “Look, can you send Emmie and Janet in to me, here? I’d like to talk to them before the police come.”
Two minutes later, the two maids edged nervously into the housekeeper’s room and stood before her.
“Sit down,” Griz invited, indicating the two stools she had already pulled forward for the purpose. “And don’t look so worried. I’m only trying to work out what happened to poor Nancy, and anything you can tell me might help. Did you know she left the house yesterday evening?”
The maids glanced at one another, then Janet nodded miserably. “She asked us not to tell. Said she’d be back before you came home.”
“Did she say where she was going?”
Both shook their heads.
“Do either of you have any idea?”
Another exchange of glances. Then Emmie said, “We thought she was away to meet her fancy man.”
“Her fancy man?” Griz pounced on the scornful phrase. “Do you mean this gentleman she was expecting to marry her?”
The maids nodded, looking relieved that she had heard of this personage.
“Do you know his name?” Griz asked.
“I don’t think she ever said it,” Janet replied.
“But did you guess?” Griz persisted.
“Not really,” Janet said grudgingly.
“Unless she went back to the foreign gent,” Emmie volunteered.
Grizelda’s stomach twisted. “What foreign gent?”
“Someone she had high hopes of at the beginning of the year,” Janet said, “but she’d given up on him.”
“You don’t know that,” Emmie argued.
“I do. She spoke differently about this new man.”
“Maybe she just had the foreign gent more securely attached. After all, who has time to meet all these so-called gentlemen?”
“Do you know the foreign gentleman’s name?” Griz asked. She found she was crossing her fingers in the folds of her gown. Because she wanted the name and didn’t want it to be Dragan Tizsa’s.
“No.” Both maids shook their heads.
“But she went on about him being the most handsome man,” Janet volunteered, “and how we would all envy her.”
“Did she say where she had met him?”
Again, they shook their heads.
“And this new man,” Griz pursued. “Did she describe him in such glowing terms?”
“Don’t think she described him much at all,” Emmie offered. “Which is why I kept thinking he was the same man.”
Griz sighed. “Very well. Don’t be afraid to tell the police any of this, should they ask. Oh, one last thing. Did you find her a bit troubled over the last few days? Do you know what was bothering her?”
“No, my lady,” they chorused, jumping up and curtseying.
For the first time, Griz suspected they were not telling the truth. She was wondering how best to persuade them when their whispering at the door caught her attention.