Laura Parnell couldn’t stop shaking. She’d never felt such bone-deep humiliation as when Mrs. Friessen fired her. Jules had shown her the door, scolding her the entire way through the mansion. Adding to her shame, she then forced her to stand at the back door with her coat on while the head housekeeper summoned two men, neither of whom had a sliver of interest in her predicament. When they arrived with Jules five minutes later, Laura had been unable to swallow and was shaking, an agony twisting up her stomach. She wondered if she might vomit right in the doorway. No matter how she tried, her brain just wouldn’t grasp how bad the situation really was.
Stan, a young, blond man she recognized as Mrs. Friessen’s driver, grabbed her elbow roughly and said, “Let’s go. Start walking, girl.” Ed,
