The Maid's Secret

Molly opens the diary and is overcome with emotion when she sees her gran’s greeting and imagines her voice saying, “Dear Molly” (196). She closes the book again, deciding to wait to read it. Everyone urges Molly to take some time off of work and stay at home where she will be safe. Molly is dumbfounded at the idea of not going to work. She finally agrees but feels like a prisoner in her own home.

The next day, Molly passes the time by deep-cleaning the apartment. She begins with Gran’s curio cabinet. As she polishes one of Gran’s cherished silver spoons, she remembers the day, many years ago, when she and Gran came across it in a box of items being discarded outside a large estate. Gran would not allow Molly to take anything until she checked with the owners, and even then, she only allowed Molly to choose one thing from the box. 

She told Molly that generosity meant leaving enough for others, and Molly chose the silver spoon because she knew it was the item her gran would love the most. This meant leaving behind a teacup that Molly herself wanted. Gran’s eyes were teary with pride at Molly’s understanding of generosity. 

Recalling this incident, Molly cannot believe that Maggie would accuse Gran of stealing the egg. She sits down to read the diary, but she is interrupted by a call from Mr. Snow, who tells her they have found the Fabergé egg.

The narrative returns to Gran’s diary. 

Flora learns that as part of his consent for her marriage to Algernon, Reginald negotiated a merger with Braun’s company. He is placed in charge of traditional investments, and Magnus heads a division devoted to buying and selling valuable artifacts. The Fabergé egg is another thing Reginald negotiated for: Even if Algernon calls off the wedding, the egg is Flora’s to keep. Flora asks whether they have paperwork to that effect, but her parents tell her not to worry.

Reginald invites Magnus and Algernon to the Gray estate to hunt and decides that William and John will serve as their assistants. On the appointed day, it is raining hard, but the men insist on following through with their plans. 

The families sit down to eat before the hunt, and Mrs. Mead, who is serving the table, breaches etiquette by speaking to the Brauns to ask if they know a family called the Farquars. The Brauns are discomfited to hear the name, and Magnus becomes angry when Mrs. Mead mentions that Algernon attended college with the Farquars’ daughter. Audrey quickly sends Mrs. Mead back to the kitchen, leaving only a new maid, Penelope, waiting at the table.

Algernon asks Penelope whether he knows her from somewhere. A shaken Penelope denies this but is flustered enough to spill hot tea on Magnus’s lap. Algernon asks Flora for a tour of the mansion, and she is eager to oblige since he has been distant since the engagement. 

Algernon asks to be shown to Reginald’s office. He sits at the desk, looking through papers, until Flora urges him not to disturb anything. He implies that he and Magnus stole the egg from the baron who formerly owned it. When Flora protests about the ethics of this, Algernon becomes angry. He tells her that her only job is to look pretty and keep her mouth shut. He rifles through her father’s filing cabinets, curtly dismissing her from the room.

Finally, the men all leave to go hunting. While the women are sitting in the parlor chatting, Penelope comes in, pale and upset. She asks where Mrs. Mead is, and Audrey sends her to the kitchen. Flora sees Mrs. Mead run past and hears a door slam. About half an hour later, there is a crashing noise, and the women hurry into the conservatory to see what the noise was. The five men from the hunting party stand in shock around Mrs. Mead’s bloody corpse.

In the present, Stark picks Molly up, and they go to the hotel. When they arrive, Mr. Snow brings them into his office, where Angela, Juan, Sunshine, Lily, and Cheryl are already assembled. The Fabergé egg sits on Mr. Snow’s desk, and next to it is Molly’s maid cart. 

Cheryl explains that because Molly was absent from work, she was using Molly’s cart. Lily points out that this is because Molly, unlike Cheryl, makes sure that her cart is fully stocked for the next day at the end of each shift. Sunshine takes up the story next, saying that she found Molly’s cart in the hallway, saw that it was full of dirty laundry, and decided to be helpful and take it downstairs. She found Cheryl, who took the cart back and stopped off in the kitchen to return dirty plates from the guests’ rooms.

While Cheryl was there, she helped herself to some sweets Juan made. He stepped out into the hallway, intending to tell Cheryl off, and saw Molly’s cart. He asked Lily, who was passing by, why it was being used when Molly was at home. Lily took the cart again, intending to put it away. On her way, she stopped at the hotel bar to give Angela some tea towels. Her arrival startled Angela, who spilled a drink on the cart. As they were throwing away soggy toilet paper, they discovered the egg, hidden in the center of the perfectly stacked pyramid of toilet paper rolls.

Angela believes that the egg was either in the cart from the beginning of the day or someone in Mr. Snow’s office put it there. Stark says that whoever left the egg there must have intended for Molly to find it. Molly is frightened that the egg being found places her in danger from whoever threatened her. Detective Stark examines the cart and finds a second note: “Dear Molly, Sell the egg or you die” (217).

The narrative returns to Gran’s diary. 

The police arrive at Gray Manor, and Algernon and his father claim that only one shot was fired—the one that fatally wounded Mrs. Mead—but William and John swear there were two shots. John admits to having fired his gun, but only into the air. Algernon refuses to admit to firing his gun at all. Since Algernon insisted on lending John one of his two identical rifles when the hunting party went out, and rain washed both guns clean, there is no way to establish which gun each man was carrying at the time of the shot.

Flora, William, and John are all devastated by Mrs. Mead’s death. John has the additional burden of being under police suspicion. Flora realizes for the first time that loving relationships are something that can vanish in a heartbeat, and her mother’s cold reaction to Mrs. Mead’s death makes her question her parents’ snobbish values. 

At the funeral, Algernon offers no words of comfort. Listening to the many tributes to Mrs. Mead, Flora realizes there was more to the woman than she ever knew. John gives the final eulogy, speaking about Mrs. Mead’s loving heart, generosity, and passionate defense of the lower classes. After the funeral, Flora thanks John for sharing Mrs. Mead with her, saying that she does not deserve either Mrs. Mead or John himself. John embraces her, and she feels all her old feelings for him return.

When she has a moment alone with Penelope later on, Flora finds out why Mrs. Mead was running to the woods: She was running to tell William and John something Penelope told her. Penelope formerly worked for the baron who once owned the Fabergé egg. It was stolen during a visit from Algernon and Magnus after Penelope saw Algernon alone in the art wing of the estate. The baron blamed the staff and fired everyone. 

Algernon recognized Penelope when she was serving dinner and cornered her later, threatening to hurt her if she told anyone what she knew. Penelope is sure that Algernon murdered Mrs. Mead intentionally because Algernon found her at the funeral and told her that quiet deer do not get shot like “the noisy ones” (228). Flora decides that she will break her engagement and make sure that Algernon does not get away with what he has done.

In the present, Stark says she will continue investigating the threats against Molly. Molly asks whether anyone has seen a man in a trench coat, and Sunshine reminds her that they saw one on the day the egg was appraised. 

Mr. Snow puts the egg in the hotel safe, and everyone but Molly, Angela, and Stark leaves the room. Not understanding why thieves would return the golden egg, they agree to consult with the only art experts they know—the Bees. Stark drives Molly and Angela to Brown and Beagle’s office, where they are impressed by the large collection of valuable art pieces. 

Unfortunately, after hearing about the egg’s return, the two art experts are just as baffled as everyone else. They urge Molly to sell the egg quickly. On her way out, Molly notices a portrait of Beagle’s recently deceased grandfather, Baron Beagle. When Beagle explains that his grandfather taught him everything he knows about art, Molly suggests that they do a profile of his grandfather on their show. Beagle says that his grandfather never liked the spotlight, commenting, “He suffered several losses over his career, and he worked hard to claw his way back to success” (236).

The narrative returns to Gran’s diary. 

Flora tries to explain to her parents what she has learned, but they refuse to believe Penelope’s story. They expected her to forget the story and continue her engagement to Algernon. When she refuses, her father grabs her and shakes his fist in her face, angrily informing her that she has no choice. 

Flora runs out of his office to the oak tree where John left her repaired book when they were children. John is there, sitting under the tree, holding Mrs. Mead’s claddagh ring. He explains that it had been her wedding ring, and though she stopped wearing it when she was widowed, it still reminded him of her.

Flora tells John what she has learned about Algernon. He is angry and frustrated, knowing that Algernon will never be held accountable because of his family name. Flora apologizes for not believing John’s and Mrs. Mead’s warnings about Algernon. John tells her that Mrs. Mead loved her very much, and there was something Mrs. Mead had been wanting to give Flora. He hurries to the cottage and returns with a leather-bound diary.

John suggests that Flora write her life story in the diary. He tells her that she could write about him, but that he would rather be in her life, not just in her diary. She realizes then that John is the authentic treasure that she mistook Algernon for. 

John explains that he will go to college in the fall on a full scholarship, and Flora begins to cry. She understands how deluded she was about Algernon and tells John she will not be marrying him. She also confesses that she is in love with John. John is thrilled, and they kiss and have sex.

In the present, back at home, Molly picks up the diary and goes into her gran’s bedroom, which is still kept exactly as it was before Flora died. She hears her gran urging her, “Turn the page. Start a new chapter” (246). She falls asleep on Flora’s bed and wakes when Juan comes home. Juan tells her that Cheryl came into the kitchen at work to apologize to him. He and Molly are both astonished and wonder if she has some hidden agenda.

That night, Molly stays up reading Gran’s diary after Juan goes to bed. For the first time, she can make sense of many things about her grandmother that puzzled her. She reads until dawn, not stopping until she has read the last page. When Juan wakes, Molly tells him that she knows who took the Fabergé egg, and she might also know who returned it.

The narrative returns to Gran’s diary. 

The next time the Brauns are at Gray Manor, Flora announces that she is breaking off her engagement. The Brauns storm out of the house, and Magnus sends over paperwork indicating that he will be completing his purchase of Reginald’s company. Flora’s parents are furious at her. Audrey begins drinking more and money becomes a serious problem. 

Flora hides the golden egg behind some books, hoping that it will not be remembered by either family. She compares herself to the egg, noting that even something regarded as a great treasure can one day be coldly discarded as trash.

Flora soon realizes that she is pregnant. John is elated, planning to defer his college enrollment so that he can marry Flora and support their child. He gives her Mrs. Mead’s ring as an engagement ring. When Flora tells her parents, Reginald hits her across the face, telling her that she is “a disgraced woman” and “good for nothing now” (257). He fires Uncle Willy immediately.

Flora retreats to her room, where Audrey finds her. Audrey urges her to either have an abortion or have the baby at a birth house and put it up for adoption. Because Flora wants to protect John’s future and make sure he can still go to college, she agrees to go to the birth house. She doesn’t tell John her plan. Instead, she agrees to run away with him but decides that when he arrives to meet her at the oak tree where they first made love, he will find only the claddagh ring she had left behind.