The Mice in the Kitchen

Chapter 12

After lunch, the duchess requested Oda's presence to have a private chat with her. The old nursemaid, who had begun to consider herself free from any suspicion, obeyed the order disheartened, convinced that she would not find a way to avoid telling the truth ─and suffering terrible consequences.

The duchess had a serious expression, but smiling eyes.

'Would you like me to go straight to the point, Oda?'

The old woman inhaled deeply and let the air out slowly through her nose.

'Yes, I beg you.'

'You come from an interesting family,' the aristocrat began. 'Perhaps your mother had a collection of bottles such as the one you saw in my room?'

'My father was a doctor. The court doctor. She just helped him.'

'But she knew how to prepare ointments.'

'She knew what my father taught her. Remedies and things he needed in his job.'

'However, she was accused of sorcery. Of making potions.'

Oda couldn't restrain herself from giving a hint of a bitter smile remembering all that.

'Yes, she was. And it was thanks to him, to how highly he was thought of, that my mother was only forced to stop assisting him.'

The servant almost added a comment regarding the danger of knowledge for women, which someone as virtuous as the duchess must surely be aware of. But, at the last moment, she decided not to. The lady was, clearly, scheming something, and it was highly unlikely for the injustice that had taken place against her mother to have aroused a feeling of solidarity in her.

The duchess's silence was a mixture of haughtiness and doubts regarding how to proceed. These pauses in the middle of a conversation had always made Oda nervous, but, being a servant, she had learned to control her impulses and always let her masters and mistresses decide how and when to continue. On this occasion, despite her impatience to know the intentions of the woman that was opposite her, she actually preferred the other person to show her cards before making a false move. She found her inferiority to be advantageous in this case, and she decided to make the most of it.

Finally, the duchess spoke.

'If, Oda, after all these years, the story has reached my ears, it is because the suspicions about her were not so easily dispelled.'

It was not a question. It was not an order. The nursemaid did not reply.

'Aren't you going to say anything?'

'What would Your Ladyship want me to say?'

'I want to know,' Wilhelmina answered, losing her composure a bit, despite having recovered her calmer tone of voice, 'if that has anything to do with the fact that you poked around my belongings.'

The time had come to lie or not. Having reached this point, Oda was counting on already knowing which course was better. But she didn't, so she decided to lie.

'I am terribly sorry that you have reached that conclusion. And I must respectfully inform you that you are mistaken. I assure you that the girl took your pendant by mistake and I merely went to give it back to you. Or is there anything else missing?'

'You know perfectly well there is not,' said the duchess, chewing every word. 'And this is not what you intended to tell me when you came through that door. You have chosen to undervalue me; and it was the wrong decision. It would have been much better for you to fear everything you know there is to fear about me.'