Page 23 of The Heiress in Disguise
But she placed one of the beautiful new handkerchiefs in her pocket. It felt like a good luck charm.
Chapter 10
“I expected you to be ready half an hour ago, Ella.”
Angelique stood in the foyer, doing her best to collect herself. She was still in a bit of a shocked state after having received the gifts. All she could think about was who might have given them to her.
“Now, girls,” Aunt Wilhelmina said to her daughters, “remember that we’re all looking for gowns in our signature colors! It won’t do for us to change our usual look—you want the gentlemen who see you to have an easy way of remembering who it was that caught their eye.”
“Of course, Mother,” Gwyneth said happily. “You know how I love the pale pink gowns we always choose for me.”
“I don’t want to wear yellow again,” Grace objected. “It doesn’t suit me at all, Mother.”
“Oh, Grace, for heaven’s sake—do stop that,” Aunt Wilhelmina said. “You always find something to complain about! I could dress you in anything at all and you would find fault with it.”
That wasn’t true, of course. Angelique thought Grace was quite right. She wasn’t sure why Aunt Wilhelmina always put Grace in yellow, unless she was really that frightened that Grace mightoutdo her sister, which did seem unlikely to happen. But the gowns made matters so much worse than they had to be for Grace, who would have looked lovely in a bolder color, like a deep green or blue.
Of course, ordinarily she never had such things, since most of her clothes were Gwyneth’s hand-me-downs, and Gwyneth really did look better in pastels. But today, for once, Aunt Wilhelmina seemed ready to buy something new for Grace—why shouldn’t it be something Grace liked and looked good in?
Aunt Wilhelmina would never be persuaded by anyone, of course. “You’ll wear the gown I choose for you, Grace, and you’ll be grateful for it,” she said. “And Ella, why don’t you have your coat on? For heaven’s sake, we need to leave now.”
“I think it would be better for me to stay behind,” Angelique said.
Aunt Wilhelmina stared at her. “Excuse me? I told you I needed you along to carry our things. You can’t just tell me that you don’t want to come. Who do you think you are?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to come,” Angelique said, even though she certainly didn’t want to, and she wouldn’t have been putting up any argument about it under ordinary circumstances. “But you told me that you wanted to see all the decorating for the party done by the end of the day.”
“So?”
“If I’m to finish, I’ll need the whole afternoon. I won’t be able to go into town.”
“You’ll get everything done or there won’t be any dinner for you tonight, how’s that?”
“I understand,” Angelique persisted. “But even if you don’t allow me any dinner, the decorating still won’t be done. I’m not trying to be difficult, Aunt Wilhelmina, but I simply can’t get the decorating done and also go into town with you. It will have to be one or the other.”
Angelique watched as her aunt turned that over in her mind, clearly trying to make a decision.
“Fine,” Aunt Wilhelmina snapped at last. “You stay here, then, Ella, but if this place isn’t decorated fully by sundown, you can bet there will be dire consequences. Girls, the carriage is ready. Come along.”
She turned and led the way out the front door. Angelique stood and watched her go, hardly able to believe that her plan had worked. Now she would have the afternoon to herself, free of her aunt and cousins. It was a dream come true.
She had fibbed about needing the whole day to decorate. With the rest of the staff on hand helping, they would be able toget the job done without any trouble at all—she wasn’t worried about that. In fact, being alone in the house meant she would have the chance to relax and think about the gifts from her Fairy Godmother.
She wondered who it could be. Who would go out of their way to do something kind for her like that? Nobody ever had before. For that matter, who even knew that she—Angelique, that was—was there? Apart from her family members and some of the staff, nobody in the world knew her true identity.
At least, that was what Angelique had always believed. But clearly there was someone who did know who she was.
She wandered down to the stream that ran between her family’s property and the house next door. The one where Philip, the handsome servant, lived. Today, for once, her thoughts weren’t drifting in his direction at all. She had too many other things on her mind. She wanted to find out who had sent her those gifts—but how could she possibly figure that out?
She wasn’t sure how long she had been down there when she heard the sound of barking dogs, and stopped singing the song she’d been singing in a low voice. Where there were dogs there were usually people. Was someone about to come along and see her?
And if they did, what would the consequences of that discovery be? Would she be reported to her aunt? If Aunt Wilhelminafound out she’d been lingering by the water, after she’d made such a big production out of the fact that she needed this time to work on decorating, her wrath would know no bounds.
The dog—a hunting hound—raced around the corner. Automatically, Angelique reached out a hand and caught him by the collar.
And then Philip appeared.
He was out of breath. Apparently he had been chasing the hound, but he broke into a smile the moment he spotted Angelique. “Why, hello, Ella,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”
