Mrs Roundtree

Mrs Roundtree is the housekeeper at Lady Huntley’s home. After Cissie is brought there from Hatter’s Hall, she takes charge of the young woman’s immediate care, providing a safe place to recover and making clear that healing will take longer than simply restoring her physical health.

Identity and Role

Mrs Roundtree manages the household and its servants’ rooms. When Sunday arrives, she welcomes her as Cissie’s friend and explains that Cissie has been placed in the room next to her own, where she can keep an eye on her. The arrangement gives Cissie both privacy and close attention: she is not yet expected to return to work, though the servants’ quarters are intended to become her home once she is well enough to take up a position.

Care of Cissie

When Cissie returns from Hatter’s Hall still asleep, Mrs Roundtree takes control of the practical work of receiving her. She arranges for Cissie to be carried into the kitchen, bathed, dressed in a clean nightgown, fed, and put to bed. Her response is concrete and protective, meeting immediate needs before asking anything of the exhausted young woman.

Mrs Roundtree also recognizes the limits of what such care can accomplish. She expects Cissie’s body to improve with rest and nourishment, but acknowledges that the damage to her mind may take much longer to heal. The distinction matters: safety and kindness are available in the household, but neither erases Cissie’s experience or guarantees a quick recovery.

Recovery and Household Belonging

By the time Sunday visits, Cissie looks better, though she remains painfully thin and haunted by her experiences. Mrs Roundtree has told her to rest for at least another week rather than start work immediately; Cissie still suffers dreadful nightmares. The decision makes employment conditional on recovery, rather than treating Cissie’s arrival as an obligation to begin serving at once.

Mrs Roundtree’s care is supported by Zillah, who has washed and combed Cissie’s matted hair. Together with the room beside the housekeeper’s own and the prospect of a place in the servants’ quarters, this care begins to give Cissie a protected place in the household. Mrs Roundtree’s role is not to cure the past, but to provide the daily shelter, food, rest, and watchfulness through which recovery can begin.