Pansy went on looking at the tray. All that food smelled all right but she didn’t have one teeny bit of appetite to enjoy it. The thought of eating just made her feel sick.

“Well go on, girl! Don’t stand there gaping at it. Take it up to room nine.”

Her thoughts shattered, Pansy leapt for the table, bumping her hip against it as she reached for the tray. “Ow… that hurt!”

Michel muttered something and crashed another saucepan lid down on the stove.

Pansy grabbed the tray and fled out the door.

Crossing the lobby, she spotted Ellie hovering in the entrance to the hallway. Pansy frowned. The guests should all be in the dining room, and that’s where Ellie was supposed to be, helping Gertie wait on the tables. If it weren’t for that blinking girl, she’d be helping Gertie instead of carrying a tray that weighed a ton all the way upstairs to room nine.

She reached the stairs and started up them. As she turned into the curve of the staircase, she glanced down again. Just in time to see Charlie, the footman Gertie had mentioned, dart across the lobby, pull Ellie out under the kissing bough, and smother her face with his.

Mesmerized, Pansy stood and watched. At least it wasn’t her Samuel who was acting in such a scandalous manner. Her lips twitched. She wouldn’t mind at all if Samuel acted that way, as long as it was her he was kissing.

“Excuse me, I’d like to pass.”

Pansy jumped back from the railing, slopping soup over into the dish beneath it. Her face flamed when she saw one of the guests glaring down at her. Muttering apologies, she slammed her back against the far railing and waited for him to descend the stairs before peeking over the banister again.

Ellie and Charlie had disappeared, which was just as well, considering Sir Walter Hayesbury was now striding across the lobby to the hallway, obviously late for dinner and even more obviously put out by it.

Pansy scrambled up the rest of the stairs and hurried down the hallway to room nine. It would be just her luck for Mr. Mortimer to complain because his dinner was cold. Then she’d be in hot water.