I've got a situation in my NaNo Regency in which the butler, passing through the hallway between dining room and somewhere (butler's pantry?) during a dinner party in the household in which he works, discovers two maids up to no good outside the cook's room (I'm assuming that the cook and the housekeeper would be housed on the lower level, in accordance with their status in the household; if I'm mistaken, please correct me). He needs to find a place to confine them till after the dinner party is over so that he can find out what they've been doing and stop them from further nefarious activities. Where and how would he confine them? He's not going to harm them, just keep them out of circulation until he has time to deal with them.
Thanks!
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42,600 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 17 37
A storeroom - for linen or crockery or something that they don't have to get at before the dinner party, although he may worry that they would damage the china, or the sheets. The housekeeper would normally have the keys to all the rooms, but the butler might have spares, or borrow them. The cellar - but the wine is down there, and he might think that's unwise.
There could be an empty or unused room - where the boot boy usually works, but he's not there at the moment, or the laundry. Again - there would be a key, possibly in the lock...
Or their own room, if they are live in - he can usher them quickly up the back stairs, and lock them in their attic bedroom.
Hope that gives you some ideas. It does rather depend on what sort of nefarious they are getting up to.
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57,894 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 21 12
He could lock them in the pantry or the linen storage closet, (the housekeeper would have the key to the linen closet.) He could confine them in the butler's pantry - it's the room that the butler uses to perform some of his duties, like polishing the silver and he would most likely have the only key for that room, other than the one the owner of the house has. Or he could lock them in the stillroom.
Or as the other poster said, he could get them up to the attics via the servants stairs and lock them into their own rooms.
----------Julie
When you're going through hell, keep going.
Winston Churchill