“That wouldn’t surprise me.” Elizabeth reached for the pile of letters sitting on the sideboard where Martin always placed them for her. “You know she wanted to help me out in the office as well.”

“So she told me.” Violet placed the cups in the sink and ran hot water over them. “If you ask me, you’d be daft to let her in there. Gawd knows the damage she’d do. Not exactly that bright, our Polly.”

Elizabeth merely nodded. Her mind was on the subject she wanted to broach and how to word it without upsetting Violet. Absently sifting through the bills, she said carefully, “I’ve decided it might be a good idea to invite Major Monroe to dinner tomorrow night. I thought we could have it in the main dining room. What do you think?”

Violet spun around to face her. “So that’s why you got your hair cut.”

Elizabeth could feel her cheeks growing warm. “Don’t be silly, Violet.”

“You’re the one being silly. I thought you said you wouldn’t be caught dead with a Yank?”

Elizabeth lifted her chin. Violet had been with the family since she was born. After Lord and Lady Hartleigh had perished in a bombing raid while attending a concert in London, Violet had done her best to fill in, and it had been largely due to her efforts that Elizabeth had succeeded in taking over the reigns of the Manor House and its huge estate. Nevertheless, there was a limit to which she would allow the housekeeper’s interference in her personal life, no matter how well meaning.

In fact, Elizabeth was well aware that if her mother were able to witness the familiarity between her only heir and a lowly servant, she would come back to haunt both of them. Mavis Hartleigh had spent the major portion of her life trying to live down the fact that until she’d married the future Earl of Wellsborough, she’d been a servant herself.