When Molly was brought to the Folly, the kitchen became her refuge. The kind servants stopped gawping at her long before the Gentlemen did.

Although they stared, Molly wanted to please the Gentlemen. They protected the Folly... protected her. "There are two ways to please men," the housekeeper often said, and one of those was wicked outside marriage.

Now there's only one Gentleman left to defend the Folly, and only Molly to take care of him. She throws some raw meat to Toby, then bends over her book, as intent as any Gentleman studying spells. Caper Sauce for Boiled Mutton...


Notes:

A caryatid is a stone carving of a draped female figure used in place of a column to support part of a building. Caper Sauce for Boiled Mutton is a recipe from Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management, published in 1861. It was the cookbook and household manual for middle-class Victorian England. There would certainly have been a copy in the Folly for the use of the housekeeper or cook.