Byrnes had not liked Lila Peabody, but he would have thought it presumptuous to voice an opinion on the matter. But Ashley had heard him speaking to his wife on the subject one day, and the butler had not spoken well of her grandfather's last girlfriend, stating most bluntly that Lila was no lady. Ashley smiled to herself as she remembered the butler's disapproving tone. But, of course, he was right: Lila Peabody had not been a lady, which had amused Ashley's grandfather.

Hearing Byrnes rolling in the dinner cart, Ashley seated herself at the little table that had been set up for her. Byrnes placed to her left a small salad plate of endive dressed lightly with a raspberry vinaigrette. Next came the dinner plate, which held a very rare piece of filet mignon, three small potato puffs, and several slender stalks of asparagus with a splash of Hollandaise sauce. The butler stood in attendance while Ashley ate in silence. When she had finished he cleared the dinner and salad plates from the table, replacing them with a dish of freshly hulled local strawberries dusted with sugar, and a tiny pitcher of thick cream.

"The berries were picked this afternoon, Miss Ashley. The strawberry patch is quite bountiful this year," Byrnes said. "Mrs. B. will be making jam and freezing some whole berries for the winter."

"They're delicious, and still warm with the sun," Ashley noted.

"Are there plans for this evening, Miss Ashley?" the butler wanted to know.

"No, I'll be going up to my quarters after I've finished," Ashley told him.

"If you don't mind my mentioning it, Ghostly and Graybar could use a good run on the beach, Miss Ashley."

"I have been neglecting them, haven't I?" Ashley said. "It won't be dark for a while. I'll take them out. Thanks, Byrnes." Finished with her dinner, she stood up. "Are they in the kitchen with Mrs. B.?"