Chapter 9: The Bargain of 1907

The kettle screamed.

Old Betty crossed the kitchen with a steadiness that suggested she had crossed it ten thousand times and no longer needed to look where she was going. She lifted the kettle from the burner with the particular economy of motion that belongs to people who have stopped performing domesticity for anyone's benefit. Four mugs. Not three. She had known there would be four.

No one mentioned that.