872
In Trier, on Saturday afternoon, Audrey was invited to have tea with Miss Ileana.
Led by the pastry maid, Audrey arrived at the afternoon tea room reserved for the young lady. Their footsteps echoed through the residence, which felt empty with so few people in it. Along the way, they occasionally encountered a servant or two attending to other duties.
Social customs in Intis were clearly far more relaxed and casual than those in Loen. When Audrey entered the tea room, Ileana was lounging lazily on a chaise longue, a common piece of furniture in Intis, holding a stack of documents and letters. Exquisite pastries had been laid out on the little round table beside her. Only when she saw Audrey approach did she wave a hand in greeting, without getting up.
Had this been Loen, Audrey would already have had to consider whether to act insulted and turn to leave, or conclude that her hosts were being far too neglectful and did not care at all about their invited guest's feelings.
But this was Intis. Audrey naturally took a seat at the table, and the pastry maid behind her closed the door and left.
Audrey had observed the Montmartre family's servants the night before. She could tell that every servant seemed busy, yet none complained.
The residence seemed to have undergone a major round of layoffs. It should originally have followed the Loen model of "one servant for every room, one servant for every task," but now the staff had been drastically reduced. Only one or two servants with the same duties remained, while all the others had been dismissed, leaving every remaining servant constantly on the move. The "pastry maid" who had brought her here was responsible for the entire family's pastries: those served before and after