Page 54 of The Heiress in Disguise
“When did you become Ella?” he asked.
“Years ago. After the deaths of… my parents.” He could see that the words pained her. She closed her eyes and shivered slightly. “My aunt and uncle were left as my guardians, but they had no interest in another child. I think…
I think they were especially perturbed by the thought of a daughter who might compete with Gwyneth for the attentionof gentlemen in society. My aunt doesn’t want her to face any competition. It’s the reason my cousin Grace is forced to wear unflattering clothes, and it’s a part of the reason I’ve been placed in this life. Although it’s certainly not the only reason.”
“I expect they wanted to disinherit you as well.”
“Yes, I think so,” Angelique said. “It feels so wrong to say that out loud.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m so adjusted to trying not to speak against them, I suppose. It feels as if I shouldn’t.”
“They haven’t been good to you, Lady Angelique. You don’t owe them anything.”
Angelique looked down and shook her head. “I don’t know if that’s true or not,” she admitted. “They’ve taken so much from me. But at the same time, theyhaveprovided for me in their way. I was only a child when I lost my parents. They were all I had.”
“They’ve told people you were sent to live with family in France,” he recalled. “Was that ever seriously considered?”
“I don’t think so,” Angelique said. “By keeping me close, they were able to control me. And I’m grateful,” she added quickly. “I didn’t want to go to France, to live with people I didn’t even know in a country that wasn’t mine.”
“Your relatives there might have treated you better, though.”
“Perhaps they would have, but it would have meant being away from my only friends,” she said. “I have people here who do care for me—servants who worked for my parents, who my aunt and uncle have been persuaded to keep on their staff. It helps me to be close to someone. If I was sent away, I would have no one.”
“I see.” He began to comprehend why she would put up with the treatment she had received all this time. If the people she cared about most in the world were there too, of course she wouldn’t wish to leave. That would make it even more difficult to extricate her from this situation.
He’d have to find out who her closest confidantes were, he decided. Maybe if he knew that, he would be able to hire them away. It seemed likely that they would wish to follow Angelique if they had the freedom to do so, and that was something he could easily provide.
She looked at him strangely. “You seem very familiar to me,” she said.
He was at once thrilled and wary. “Do I? I don’t believe you and I have met before.”
“I wouldn’t know, since I don’t know who you are,” she said.
“But I think… I think that wemusthave met before, mustn’t we? If you know who I am, and you know so much about me, you must have known me at some point in my life. I know that you say you’ve never lied to me, and I’m inclined to trust you, however foolish that might be. But I think you’re lying to me now. I think you’ve met me at another place, in another time, and that’s why you’re taking such an interest now.”
He looked her in the eyes, unable to confirm or deny her suspicions, and wishing—not for the first time—that he could simply drop his disguise and be honest with her.
Chapter 24
How can I feel such trust for someone I hardly know? I’m being entirely unwise by allowing myself to open up to him!
Angelique could hardly believe how easy she had found it, so far, to answer the gentleman’s questions. He already knew a frightening amount about her, and instead of pulling back from him, she was giving him even more information.
She couldn’t understand what it was about him that invited such confidence, but she knew that she would have been hard pressed to stop talking to him. It felt as if she had been waiting all her life to find someone who would ask her these questions—someone for whom she would be willing to answer them.
“Why do I trust you?” she asked, feeling strangely near to tears.
“It’s easier to trust strangers sometimes,” he said gently. “It helps that you don’t know who I am, I think.”
“If you took off that mask, would I know your face?”
“That’s something I don’t think you want me to answer,” he told her. “I think it’s better for you that I remain a stranger for now.”
She nodded slowly, accepting his decision, even though he had all but told her that shewouldknow the face beneath that mask. Who could he be? She hadn’t met any gentlemen in London—but perhaps their paths had crossed at the masquerade. Perhaps she had seen him there out of his mask, and that was what he meant by implying that she would recognize him if he removed his mask.
“You don’t have to tell me anything,” he told her. “Not if it’s too much for you.”
