Page 14 of The Heiress in Disguise
Her aunt laughed. “Prepare tea for the valet? Of course not, Ella. We aren’t going to have him sit down and drink tea with us! We’ll accept his gifts and send him back to his master.”
Angelique nodded and withdrew to the side of the room. She had been standing beside the wall for hours and her back was beginning to ache, but she knew she wouldn’t be dismissed until her aunt was good and ready for her to go. She had hoped to get some time to herself while preparing more tea, but of course she should have anticipated that tea wouldn’t be served to a valet. It had been wishful thinking on her part.
The sitting room door opened.
Angelique gasped aloud, but in the flurry of introductions, she was lucky—nobody heard her.
The servant from next door was the very man she had met the day the horse had gotten loose.
I thought he was a stable hand!She thought back on their conversation—he had never said that. She had assumed, and he hadn’t corrected her. Now she wondered why. What incentive could he have to hide who he was?
Perhaps she was overthinking. He probably hadn’t been hiding himself, really. Maybe he just hadn’t thought it worth his while to correct her on such a minor point. That was probably it.
“Good afternoon, Lady Leicester,” he said. “My name is Philip.”
“Good afternoon, Philip.”
“The Earl of Cambridge has sent me with this basket of gifts for you and your family.” He placed the basket of gifts on the table before them.
“Well, that’s very kind of the Earl,” Aunt Wilhelmina said merrily. “Please do convey our thanks and let him know we’d like to invite him to tea as soon as he’s able.”
“He’s quite busy,” Philip said. “But I will certainly convey the invitation, Lady Leicester.”
“I assume we’ll be seeing him at the masquerade, if nothing else?”
“Yes, I believe he plans to attend that.”
“Well, we’d love to get the chance to meet him sooner, but I do understand that he must be a busy man. We ought to send something back to thank him for his kindness.”
“I’m sure that isn’t necessary, my lady.”
“Of course it is.” Aunt Wilhelmina said. “Ella! Take Philip here to the kitchen and have something nice packed up so that he can take it back to the earl for us.
Angelique’s heart skipped a beat. She was going to be able to spend time with Philip after all! Her aunt clearly wasn’t aware that this was the same servant she had already met—but whatever the reason this was being permitted to happen Angelique had no complaints. “Would you follow me, please?” she said, beckoning to Philip.
He followed her out of the sitting room and toward the kitchen. “It’s lovely to see you again,” he said.
“Yes, but keep your voice down,” Angelique said anxiously. “I don’t want them to know that we’ve met before.”
“Why? What would they do if they knew that?”
“I don’t know,” Angelique admitted. “Lady Leicester is very unpredictable.”
“Do you mean she would punish you?”
“She might.”
“But for what? You didn’t do anything. I was the one who came running onto their property. You just happened to be there—where they had sent you!”
“I didn’t claim that it made sense,” Angelique said. “But I can tell you that Lady Leicester likes to be in control of a situation. She wouldn’t be fond of the idea that anything at all had taken place without her knowledge and permission.”
She couldn’t explain that her aunt did know she’d met a stable hand and didn’t realize that Philip was the same person. Thatsituation was too strange and would beg too many follow-up questions. She wanted to leave the topic as soon as possible, not continue answering his questions about it.
“How long have you worked for her?” Philip asked.
It was a slight change of subject, at least. “Many years now,” she said. “More than ten.”
“Since you were a child?” He frowned. “Is your family also employed here?”
