Luca, having no set duties, chanced to be idling in the private salon just off the long exercise gallery of the cadre when she sent a maid with the message to the servants’ quarters on the lower floor. He made no comment, but when the servants filed into the room, he set aside the piece of wood he was carving and moved to stand behind her chair.Mara, seated at a desk that she had taken as her own, was grateful for the silent gesture of support. She had managed her father's house for some years, ordering the buying of food and supplies, directing the slaves in the cleaning and repair. But that was different from handling French servants with their ancient notions of the perquisites of having a place in a household, their belief in their own worth that amounted very nearly to a sense of superiority, and their republican notions of equality. She would have to take a high hand if she was not to be overborne.Twenty-one household employees had presented themselves. According to the account book listing their names and wages, there were a cook, two assistants, three scullery maids, four housemaids, two under-housemaids, four footmen, a gardener, an under-gardener, a coachman, and two men whose duty it was to dispose of garbage and slop.
