Chapter 34

"This is for our daughter's future. What if she ends up as a housekeeper, too? They'll say that all three generations in our family are doomed to be housekeepers," James said. His words struck Jolene deeply. Being a housekeeper was still honest work. They weren't beneath anyone. Yet in other people's eyes, even being a sales clerk was more respectable than being a housekeeper. In that glittering circle of wealth, Jolene and her mother were the lowest of the low. Just as Juliet had said, if she could learn even a fraction of Amanda's ways, she might at least escape the bottom rung. Jolene began plotting how to get Juliet into the Greene family. She persuaded her mother, who worked as a caretaker for Alicia, to drop hints about Juliet. "My granddaughter's very bright," Clara would say. "Her father's a deadbeat. No one looks after her back home." Every few days, Jolene and Clara took half days off. They'd emphasized how no one could care for Juliet. Alicia was kindhearted. She no