Chapter 5: The House Rules

At midnight I went down to the kitchen to find out what the rich eat when nobody is watching.

The answer was nothing. The pantry was full of tins with French on them.

I found a heel of bread at the back.

Behind the good oil, there was a jar of peanut butter.

I was making a sandwich when Mason came in with a kettle.

He stopped in the doorway and looked at me, and at the jar.

"The peanut butter is the cook's," he said. "She hides it."

"From who?"

"Mrs. Prescott."

I put down the knife.

"I won't tell," I said.

He filled the kettle and set it on the burner.

"Godfrey has a cup of chamomile at midnight," he said.

"It steeps for eight minutes, never seven or nine. If it's nine, he won't say anything, but he'll drink half."

"That's a lot of rules for a tea."

"It's one rule."

"Eight minutes is one rule. Not saying anything is a second rule. Drinking half is a penalty."

He looked at me for a moment. "I'd like you to sit down, Miss Tanner."

"You sit down."

"Staff don't sit in the kitchen with family."

"I'm not family yet," I said. "I'm a guest on a week's trial. Sit."

"No."

I took the chair by the stove and pushed the other one out with my foot.

He stood.

I stood.

"If I sit while you stand, you're working and I'm not," I said.

"If we both stand, we're even. I'm going to stand here until the tea is done."

"That is a very long time."

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