Page 4 of The Heiress in Disguise
Angelique went next to Marcus’s room. She knocked on his door.
“Don’t just stand out there like a fool,” he called. “Bring me my breakfast.”
Angelique took a deep breath before opening the door.I’m lucky,she reminded herself.I have a place to live. I have a roof over my head and three sure meals a day, and for all they can be cruel, I know Aunt Wilhelmina and Uncle Clive will never throw me out on the street. I can handle Marcus’s taunts.
She went into the room and set his tray on his bedside table.
Marcus was standing beside the window, but he turned to face her. “You ought to wear something nicer than that old frock,Ella,” he said. “Perhaps mother wouldn’t insist on treating you like a servant if you didn’t insist on dressing like one.”
Angelique said nothing.
“Or, no, that’s right,” Marcus said. “You don’t have any fine clothes, do you?”
She didn’t respond.
“Nothing of your mother’s you could wear? She had such nice things, didn’t she?”
Comments like that would have outraged Angelique in her youth. All of her mother’s things had been taken by Aunt Wilhelmina, and those that didn’t fit had been put aside for, and since given to, Gwyneth. It still galled Angelique to see her cousin walking around in gowns and jewels that had once belonged to Angelique’s mother, but she had long since stopped allowing Marcus to provoke her with his mean-spirited comments.
“I always feel,” she said lightly, “that anyone who has to rely on fine clothes in order to feel happy has a barren soul. Don’t you think so?”
Marcus’ jaw dropped. She could tell that he knew he had been insulted, but she could also see that he wasn’t entirely sure how it had happened to him. She had no intention of clearing the matter up for him. “Enjoy your breakfast,” she said with a smile, and went back out into the hall.
The third breakfast delivery was for Gwyneth. Blonde and slender, she was already sitting in front of the looking glass and admiring her reflection when Angelique entered the room. “Put it over there,” she said, pointing, without looking away from her own face.
Angelique did as she’d been asked. She could concede that her cousin was very pretty, but the amount of self-admiration that Gwyneth indulged in was a little embarrassing. Surely no one could need to spend that much time staring at herself?
“It’s just tea, right?” Gwyneth asked. “There’s no honey or sugar in it, is there?”
“It’s tea with lemon, just as you like it,” Angelique assured her. “And just as I bring it to you every single day.”
“Are you talking back to me?” Gwyneth asked. “If you are, I’m going to tell Mother, and you’ll be punished.”
“Of course I’m not,” Angelique said, though she had been, a little bit. “I only wanted to reassure you that you could trust me. I prepare your breakfast every day, after all, and don’t I always do it to your liking?”
“It’s more important than ever now,” Gwyneth said. “I hope to marry soon, and that won’t happen if I allow myself to become chubby like my sister. So there is to benosugar in any tea I am given! I hope that’s clear to you, Ella.”
“Crystal clear,” Angelique said. “Your mother says you’re to pack your things, by the way, since we’ll be leaving for the citytomorrow. Your father is having a masquerade ball with a friend there.”
“Oh!” Gwyneth said. “How exciting! Perhaps I’ll meet a handsome gentleman who’ll wish to marry me. I’m sure that would be lovely for you as well, wouldn’t it, Ella? When I move to my husband’s home, I’ll let Mother know that you ought to have this room again. There’s no reason for you to go on sleeping in the attic once I’m out of the house, and after all, thiswasyour room once.”
“Indeed,” Angelique said. “It’s so considerate of you to think of me.” She took a moment to be grateful for the fact that she had the strength of will to say such things, without actually meaning them. She imagined it must be hard for some servants to remember that they weren’t any less worthy and valuable as people than the people they served.
Just because Gwyneth had come in here and taken over this room, forcing Angelique to move to the attic, didn’t mean she was any less worthy of the room that had once belonged to her. She didn’t need her heartless cousin to remind her of that, either. She knew who she was. She was stillAngelique, despite fourteen years of her family doing their best to turn her into nothing but Ella.
She left Gwyneth’s room and went on to Grace’s. Her youngest cousin slept at the very end of the hall, and according to her mother, she was also supposed to have nothing but unsweetened tea for her breakfast. But Grace was the one person in the housewho was kind to Angelique, and Angelique didn’t like to see her suffer.
“You brought chocolate,” Grace said, her eyes lighting up at the sight of the steaming cup.
“And that’s not all,” Angelique said. She pulled a folded-up napkin out of her pocket.
Grace unwrapped it. “Cookies! Oh, Angelique, you’re the best. Mother would never have allowed me to eat these. I’d have to sit there watching while Marcus and Gwyneth ate them at dinner, and I would have nothing.”
“Just don’t you ever mention that I gave them to you,” Angelique warned. “I don’t need that kind of trouble!”
“No, I won’t tell,” Grace agreed. She held out a cookie. “Would you like to stay and have one with me?”
“That’s so kind,” Angelique said, smiling. “I have to get back down to the kitchen, I’m afraid. There’s a lot of work still to be done today, and I can’t fall behind.
