My good name

'I couldn't believe what had just happened to me. As I sat in the station cafe I did not know whether I wanted to cry or be sick. That morning I had woken up feeling incredibly happy. I was looking forward to a relaxing day saying "goodbye" to all my work friends and after lunch being chauffeured to the station to travel home for a long weekend before jetting off to my next job in Paris. I had packed my case the evening before to give me time to enjoy my last day.

'Just as the children and I were finishing breakfast my employer, Lady Jane, came into the nursery with a face like thunder. She demanded that I open my suitcase so she could search it. I was shocked, but I knew I had nothing to hide. First she pulled out the outgrown girls' dresses that she had said I could have. Then, to my horror, she found one of her own silk scarves folded among my T-shirts. I still do not know how it got there. I had picked up my pile of ironed clothes from the laundry room where the housekeeper left them, and I can only assume it must have accidentally been put in with my things. I would certainly never wear a headscarf or have any use for one. Like most people my age, my chosen headgear would have been a baseball cap. Lady Jane was furious and called me a thief. She said that in a stock-taking she had discovered that tins of pet food and household linen were missing, and asked me what I had done with them. She told me that as my childcare had been so good she would not inform the police, but I was to leave the house immediately. I bundled my possessions back into the case and asked permission to call a taxi to take me to the station. None of the other staff seemed to want to speak to me and avoided my eye when I tried to say goodbye.