Page 16 of The Heiress in Disguise
“Oh.” Angelique suddenly recalled where she had seen teeth like his before. Her childhood friend Antoine, with whom she had once caught fish in the creek behind her family home, had had the same pointed teeth. It was something she had admired about him—looking back, she supposed she had had a bit of a girlish crush on him when they were young.
But Antoine had abandoned her.
When he and his family had moved away, he had promised that he would write—that they would always remain close, if not physically, then through the letters they would exchange.
Angelique had clung to that hope for months, but no letters had ever come, and eventually she had been forced to accept the inevitable truth—he had forgotten about her. He had probably never cared about her at all, and had only offered to write because it had seemed like the polite thing to do.
She didn’t enjoy thinking about Antoine or about the friendship she’d lost, and she wasn’t happy to have him recalled to her now.
Philip did remind her of Antoine. The same dark hair, the same light brown eyes that could look almost golden in a certain light. The same teeth. And now he was telling her that he had engaged in the same activity as a youth that she had done with Antoine.
But these were all very common things. Brown hair! For heaven’s sake, thousands of men must have brown hair. The teeth were distinctive, but they weren’t one-of-a-kind. And she was sure that fishing in creeks was a common pastime for young boys.
No, what really made her think of Antoine, she decided, was the fact that she was starting to have feelings for Philip—and the fact that she knew those feelings could never be acted upon. Antoine had been three years older than she was, when they were children, which had felt like a lot back then.
And with Philip, Aunt Wilhelmina would always stand in the way. Angelique couldn’t hope that Philip would return her affections any more than she had hoped it with Antoine.
Of course she was reminded of him. They were the only two men who had ever made her feel anything like this in all her life.
And so maybe it was for the best that she couldn’t be around Philip anymore. It didn’t seem possible that she could find happiness with him, so it was best that she try to distance herself before she got too attached. If she didn’t do that, she knew, it was likely she would end up getting her heart broken.
Chapter 7
It is her.
Antoine felt in a state of shock as he walked back into his house. How could it be Angelique? How could she have found herself in the role of a servant?
But he was so certain. Just being around “Ella” again had made him feel even more sure of her identity, and when she had described roasting fish over a fire, there had no longer been any doubt in his mind—it had to be her.
It was something the two of them had done together in their youth, and he couldn’t imagine it was very common for girls to do such a thing. She’d even misspoken, calling herself a young lady, and had then quickly backtracked—I’m not a lady.
But she was. That was why she had made that mistake. She had forgotten the pretense for a moment and had referred to herself as who she really was. She was Lord Exeter’s daughter. Shewasa lady.
So why the charade? Why was she pretending to be a servant?
The answer came to him easily. She wasn’t pretending. In that house, she truly was a servant. He had seen her in front of Lady Leicester. He’d observed the way she bowed to Lady Leicester’sorders. She acted exactly the way one would expect a servant to behave. Either it was a ruse they were all in on, specifically to deceive Antoine—which sounded ridiculous in his own head—or else it was the truth. The family had made Angelique a servant.
“You look as if you’ve seen a ghost,” George commented, stepping into the foyer.
“I feel as if I have,” Antoine admitted. “I’ve just seen her again, George.”
“The servant girl next door?”
“And she’s not a servant. There’s no longer any doubt in my mind about her identity. It is Angelique.”
“You’re certain?”
“Yes. I can tell by the way she talked to me. The things she spoke of. I know how unlikely it seems, but it’s her. It has to be.”
“If you’re sure, then what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to go back over there and confront Lord and Lady Leicester about their treatment of her!” he exclaimed. “They need to know that they can’t get away with this—making a servant of their own niece. They were supposed to care for her,not use her in this way. I can’t believe they’d do something like this.”
“I suppose it’s better than if they had sent her away, as you thought they had,” George commented.
“I’m not sure it is, to be perfectly honest,” Antoine said. “I didn’twanther to have been sent off by her family, because I know that would hurt her. But at least I’d imagined that she might have gone to live with other family members who would care for her and treat her with the love and respect she deserves.
Notthis. Ordering her around and treating her as if she isn’t even a part of the family. And that name! She never called herselfEllawhen I knew her. I’m sure that’s their doing—either a way of keeping her identity a secret from outsiders, or perhaps even an attempt to make her forget who she is.”
