The morning after the wedding, servants at the Duke of Gonzales' estate noticed that the usually early Duke Simon and the newly appointed Duchess Maria even by noon, no one had seen them emerge from their room.

As the personal maid, Julia wasn’t sure if she should knock on the door to remind her two masters that they had missed lunch.

“I think if I go knock right now,” she told Lucia, “the Duke and Duchess probably won’t answer. And the Duke might even get angry.”

Lucia nodded in agreement. “Not might—he will get angry.”

Julia was anxious. “But if I don’t knock, they’ll miss lunch.”

As personal maids, reminding...