“Walk me through your tasks,” and Neelke had given her a look that said: It’s you who gives me my tasks. Still, she did. They went from the kitchen to the living room, they considered the curtains and the duster and the oil that needed to be applied to the staircase railing. They went through the linens and the name of the washer who did the job in town, they went through the bathroom and the beds and the silver and the windows. Isabel said, “It’s quite a lot, isn’t it.” And Neelke, with a frown, said: “It’s a house.” She said, “There’s always a lot to do in a house.”
