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‘You know those horse-drawn tramways? There are iron or wooden rails and the horse can draw a heavy load quite easily along them?’ Hannah did not wait for an answer ‘To e effort and would most certainly overturn the cart, injure the horse, possibly kill the driver Should the driver try to leave the tracks, drive a new path, risk that injury, just on the off chance it ht work?’

The silence stretched on Tess looked up and found Hannah’s eyes were closed, her breathing slow and deep She had fallen asleep, worn out, perhaps by emotion

Tess uncurled herself and put on her shoes, found her things and tiptoed out

‘I don’t think Mrs Seh to come back to work, not this side of Christmas I know it is almost three weeks away, but there is all the preparation to be thought of’ Tess folded back the notebook she was using to keep lists of things to be done Now a fresh page was headed Christht Alex just before William Bland, his secretary, arrived She was determined to pin him down for some answers

‘I thought she was not seriously ill’ He stoppedthe end of his pen with a pocket knife and looked up ‘I ain’

‘She is getting better, but the infection sees of all of the sufferers and they are worn out with coughing She needs a holiday somewhere she can be looked after What would she usually do at Christmas?’

‘Go back to her husband’s fa family and she’s very fond of them’ Alex squinted at the pen nib, then stuck it in the standish ‘I could send her down early, in the coach with rugs and hot bricks and one of the men to escort her’

‘That sounds like a good idea Shall I arrange it?’

‘No I’ll go and talk to her, if that dragon of a landlady will letelse in that very efficient little notebook?’

‘I need to know exactly what happens here at Christements for the rest of the staff are, whether you’ll be entertaining, whether you’ll be out much I need to plan for meals, shop for provisions,’ she added when he looked at her blankly ‘Phipps and MacDonald tell me they don’t have farooms’

‘What happens is that I don’t expect to see the of the twenty-sixth They fill the coal scuttles and leave the place tidy and I eat out atmy own bed once a year,’ he added, presu her mouth like a landed carp ‘I told you—I spend Christmas by ood brandy All of my friends of a sociable disposition will be out of town’

‘Then, you do notas it does not disturb you?’