housekeeper

With their day’s letter to Lumawoo still clutched in Alexander’s hand, the Incorrigibles marched upstairs to knock on the good housekeeper’s door.

The approaching rhythmic jingle-jingle-jingle of a great ring of keys banging against ample hips confirmed it: It was Mrs. Clarke, the head housekeeper of Ashton Place, chugging toward them at a slow but steady speed.

The children had apologized, but clearly they also felt that an injustice had been done, for why should they be scolded for playing matador when the housekeeper was not?

White women hired Colored women as housekeepers and domestics.

But during a quiet aside, Minka ominously mentions to Liz that a chocolate cake made by the housekeeper tastes terrible, the observation sounding more like a warning than a culinary assessment.