Page 77 of The Heiress in Disguise
“I know that one thing you had in mind when I first came back here was discovering what had happened to Angelique.”
“Yes. She was my best friend’s daughter, after all, and when I heard she had been sent away to live with relatives in France, I confess I was shocked. I had assumed that her aunt and uncle would have kept her with them—I was counting on the idea that they had. To find that they’d sent her away shocked me. You know there’s a part of me that has always wished we had just taken her in back then—but I couldn’t justify taking her away from her family.”
“Perhaps we should have done precisely that,” Antoine said darkly.
“What do you mean?”
“She isn’t in France at all, Mother. She’s over there right now. She’s been with them the whole time.”
“I don’t understand. Are you saying your informant gave you faulty information?”
“Yes, but it’s much worse than that. They’ve been spreading the lie that she was sent to France to live because they’ve been concealing her, trying to make her disappear in plain sight.
They’ve turned her into a servant, Mother. They’ve been mistreating her for years. They’ve forced her to work for them without any pay. They’ve even changed her name, so that no one would ever know who she was, and they would be able to take away her inheritance.”
Antoine’s mother and Charlotte both gasped at the revelation. “Why didn’t you send for me at once when you learned this?” his mother demanded. “Her mother was my best friend in the world. She’s been living in these terrible conditions without my knowledge—without my help—when I could have assisted her! I can’t believe this has been permitted to go on all this time. I should have been involved years ago. Is she all right?”
“She’s made the best of it, but I agree that it can’t be allowed to continue,” Antoine said. “And it won’t be. I have a plan to rescue her from her plight.”
“Well, thank goodness. But I can’t understand how any of us are thinking of a party at a time such as this! Never mind the party. We must go over there at once. I have to tell Angelique that Iknow who she is, that I loved her mother and that I have always loved her. She needs to know that she’s loved and cared for.”
“Mother—”
“The poor girl! She was nearly a second daughter to me. And when I think of how she must have suffered, it makes me feel horrible. Oh, I just want to take her in my arms and tell her that everything will be all right now that we know where she is. Poor thing!”
“Mother,” Antoine said sharply. “I know that you care for her. I know you want to help her. But we can’t simply rush over there and take her out of her current situation, you know.”
“But of course we can. We must!”
“No, we can’t,” Antoine said. “Think about what you’re saying. It’s not just a matter of letting her know that she’s cared for—though I agree that’s very important and should be done as soon as possible. But there is more she needs from us. We can help her to recover her inheritance and her place in society, if we handle this very carefully—and we need to do those things.”
“Do you really think you can do that?” his mother asked. “After all, you said yourself that she’s been living under a false name for years. How can you hope to restore her true identity when no one knows who she is?”
“I have a plan,” he said.
“But what kind of plan?”
“It’s a good one, I think. But I can’t possibly explain it all right now, unfortunately. I’m already running late. I didn’t think the two of you would be arriving until next week. Didn’t I tell you to wait until then to come?”
“Well, you’ve been putting us off for a very long time,” Charlotte pointed out. “Mother and I were both tired of waiting for you to tell us that we could come, and we decided to take matters into our own hands.”
“Yes, and I’m certainly glad we did!” their mother said. “Poor little Angelique! But then, she would be grown up now, wouldn’t she? She’d be a lady. Oh, and when I think of the life she must have had… If only I’d tried to find out sooner what was going on with her, perhaps I could have done more to help her!”
“It will do none of us any good to examine the past too critically,” Antoine said. “The best thing we can do now is to extricate her from that horrible situation—to get her away and restore the life that should be hers. And I think I’ll be able to do that.
But what I must do, Mother, is to get over to that party. Everything will happen tonight. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to saveher, and everything will be different after today. If things go well, we’ll be able to celebrate tonight. But I need you to trust me, Mother. I need you to believe that I’m going to be able to do this.”
“It’s not that I don’t trust you,” his mother said. “It’s just that every part of me wants to run over there and be the mother that poor girl hasn’t had in so long. She’s been so alone, and I should have been there!”
“We’re here for her now,” Antoine said firmly. “I’ve been able to spend time in her company, Mother, and I’ve seen that she’s in good condition. She’s happy and healthy, even if she has been put through an ordeal that she should never have had to face.
She’s going to be all right. All we need to do is to get her away from her dreadful relatives and allow her the opportunity to return to the life she should always have been living. Once we do that, I assure you that all will be well with her once more.”
His mother sighed. “I see that you have a plan,” she said. “But even so, I find it so difficult to sit here and do nothing. I feel strongly that I ought to be helping her directly. I trust that you know what you’re doing, of course, but I just want to run to her.”
“Wait for me here,” Antoine said. “Help Charlotte settle into the house, and by the time I return home tonight, everything will be settled. I should be able to give you good news then, and you’llbe able to do plenty to help Angelique. I know she’ll be happy to see you again.”
“I still want to go to the party,” Charlotte said. “All this excitement—I don’t want to miss out!”
