Page 21 of The Heiress in Disguise
At least something was going according to plan.
Chapter 9
“Ella, have you procured the flowers for the masquerade?” Aunt Wilhelmina asked, as Ella helped Jane to serve the family their breakfast the following morning.
“I’ve made the arrangements, as you requested, Aunt Wilhelmina,” Angelique said. “The flowers will be delivered on the morning of the party.”
“Well, that’s cutting it a bit fine,” Aunt Wilhelmina said crossly. “How are we to be reassured that the flowers are really coming? What will we do if your merchant doesn’t come through? Then there will be no flowers at all, and how will that look to our guests?”
“I’m sure the merchant will deliver the flowers as promised,” Angelique said.
“You may be sure, but I’m not! I do wish you would have made arrangements to have them delivered sooner so that we wouldn’t have had to worry about this.”
Grace spoke up, which was a rarity for her. “Mother,” she said, “if the flowers had been delivered earlier, they would have wilted before the party, and that wouldn’t have looked good to our guests either. I’m sure Angelique did what she thought was bestby arranging for the delivery to happen on the morning of the party.”
“Nobody asked you for your opinion, Grace,” Aunt Wilhelmina snapped. “And I don’t know what you mean by using that name forElla. How many times must I remind you?”
Grace blushed and looked down.
Angelique’s heart went out to her youngest cousin. Grace was the only one who was kind to her, even in the face of reprimands like the one she had just suffered. It broke her heart to see Grace’s mother treat her as badly as she did. But Aunt Wilhelmina made no secret of the fact that she favored her elder two children and cared hardly at all for Grace. Everything Grace did was met with criticism and always had been.
Perhaps, Angelique thought, that was why Grace was willing to take chances on things like being kind to servants, even when it was clear that her mother would be angry with her about it. If someone was angry with you no matter what you did, there was nothing to lose by doing whatever you liked.
“The house is being cleaned today,” Aunt Wilhelmina said. “We’ll all want to go into town so as to be out of the way, so that the servants can do their jobs.”
Angelique breathed an inward sigh of relief. It would be very good to be away from her aunt and cousins, even if only for the few hours that they would spend in town shopping.
But then Aunt Wilhelmina spoke again. “Ella, you’ll come along with us,” she said. “We’ll need someone to carry our purchases.”
“Yes, Aunt Wilhelmina.” Angelique cursed her luck. Jane gave her a sympathetic look, and Angelique wished that she could trade places with her friend. Jane might have to clean, but at least she would enjoy a quiet day in which no one would criticize her. Angelique knew that her own day wouldn’t be nearly so peaceful.
“We’ll leave in a few hours,” Aunt Wilhelmina said. “In the meantime, Ella, you had better work on the decorations.”
“Yes, Aunt Wilhelmina.”
“I’d like to see as much as possible completed by the end of the day.”
“That may be difficult, what with the cleaning going on,” Angelique said.
“I don’t care if it’sdifficult. I gave you a job to do and I expect you to do it, and that’s all. No excuses.”
“Mother,” Gwyneth said, “Do you think we might be able to get new gowns for the ball while we’re in town today?”
“I think that’s a fine idea,” her mother said. “After all, we want you to look your best to impress the Earl of Cambridge, who we know will be in attendance. That means you’ll need to be wearing something of the latest style—he won’t be at all impressed if he sees you in last year’s fashions.”
“Does the earl care about fashion?” Grace asked mildly.
“Don’t be so silly, Grace,” her mother said. “Everyone cares about fashion.”
“Then perhaps I’d better have something new as well?”
“I suppose you’d better,” Aunt Wilhelmina sighed. “If I’m to have a hope of marrying you off, I’ll have to make sure people don’t think of you as our poor, tawdry cousin. For heaven’s sake, Grace,put down the butter. What have I told you about eating bread and butter? You can’t afford to gain any weight!”
Gwyneth sipped her tea demurely, but Angelique saw the smug smile on her face. Of course, being lean and willowy as she was, Gwyneth had the perfect ladylike figure that her mother believed all young ladies ought to have.
Angelique knew how Gwyneth enjoyed being the favored daughter of the family, how special and important it made her feel to be able to claim perfection that her younger sister didn’t have. She was, in all things, simplybetterthan Grace. At least, that was the way she and her mother saw it.
Grace set down the bread and butter, a hot flush on her cheeks. She picked up her tea instead. Angelique saw her eye the sugar lumps but knew that she wouldn’t dare reach for them under her mother’s watchful eye. Only the men in the family were allowed to have sugar in their tea.
