38“Bonjour, Molly,” said Antoinette. “I’m rather surprised to see you again so soon. Georgina, you may leave us.”
The housekeeper threw Molly a surreptitious look of solidarity and scurried out of the room.
“So tell me, chérie, why you are hanging about the kitchen with my housekeeper? I believed you had a more subtle sense of social manners.”
“Oh,” said Molly, with a fake-sounding chuckle, “Georgina and I get on quite well. I’m very interested in Italian cooking, you know. Well, any kind of cooking, really. Food. Food of almost any type—I love it all.” Her coat was over the back of a kitchen chair and she removed it and started to put it on. There was much to ask Antoinette, many holes that still needed filling in, but perhaps this wasn’t the moment.
“Don’t speak such foolishness, it’
