"Bless you," Millie breathed. "We've not had a bite to eat in two days."
Hannish could scarcely believe his ears. "What?"
"The duchess claims I…we are getting too fat."
He took the small handbag from her and gave in to his urge to take Millie in his arms for a moment. "I am so sorry."
"'Tis not your doin'." She smiled when he released her, just to comfort her old friend.
"Prescot, see they are both well fed."
"Yes, Sir," said Prescot.
*
Millie didn't need anyone to show her the way to the kitchen, she was so hungry; she could have just followed the smell of Jessie's freshly baked bread. Brookton was already there, greedily filling his empty stomach with warm bread and cold beef stew. He had curly blond hair that needed a good trim and his clothes were not in the best of shape.
Trying to keep out of the line of Olivia's fire, McKenna sat among the servants at the kitchen table and by the way Brookton was devouring his food, she soon suspected the truth. "She dinna feed you, did she."
"Not these last two days," Millie admitted, quickly sitting down at the table.
"But you have been on the train; there are meals to be had on trains."
"Aye, if you've the price," said Millie. As soon as Halen set a bowl of stew down in front of her, she stopped talking, put a spoonful in her mouth, barely chewed and quickly swallowed to get it into her empty stomach. Then she closed her eyes and let the tears roll down her cheeks.
McKenna felt like crying too, but she wanted to know more. "Did she starve you on the ship as well?"
It was Brookton who answered, "She tried to, but the captain caught on and made her pay for our meals."
"But why? Hannish allows her to buy all she wants."
Millie exchanged glances with Brookton and then bowed her head. "We have tried, but we can see no reason for it."
"She has not paid your wages, has she," McKenna watched each shake their heads. "Why did you not tell me? I would have done something."
"What could you do?" Brookton asked, "Tell your brother, and let him confront her from this many miles away? There would be hell to pay for that."
"Yes, I see you are right." McKenna paused to take a forgotten breath. "Where did you last see Mr. Graham?"
"He got off the train the same as we, only a bit later," Brookton answered.
McKenna lowered her voice. "My brother knows he stayed with Olivia in New York and suspects the worst. I pray you do not say too much."