“Not with Peter Fenestra so suspicious. Anyway, you couldn’t hire me to remain even if he would allow it. I’d rather starve.”
“You have no place to go, Tillie?”
“I’ll find work. If not in Riverview then I can return to the country. Anything will be better than what I’ve had.”
Penny groped in the dark for the lamp, relighting it.
“Tillie,” she said, “how would you like to work at our place for a few days?”
“You don’t mean it.”
“I do if it can be arranged,” Penny affirmed. “We have a housekeeper, but it occurred to me that she might take your place here.”
“She’d be very foolish to give up a good job for this.”
“It would only be temporary. I think I can induce her to make the change for a few days. The question is, can we get Peter Fenestra to accept her?”
“I doubt if he’ll hire anyone now that I am leaving. Why do you want your housekeeper in such a place as this, Penny?”