Page 33 of The Heiress in Disguise
Of course, those were only half her thoughts, for at the same time, she was eager for the conversation they were about to have. Whatever this was about, she wanted to find out about it. She wanted to know what had prompted him to keep following her, to keep seeking her out. And she wanted to know how he knew her name, for how could he possibly know? Almost no one even spoke her name aloud. She couldn’t understand where he could have heard it.
They rounded a corner and she turned to face him. “All right,” she said. “We can speak here, if it’s brief.”
“Thank you,” he said. “I know I’ve confused you today.”
“That would be putting it mildly,” she said. “You’ve confused me, yes, but you’ve also angered me.”
“Have I?” He looked concerned. “That was never my intention, Angelique.”
“Must you keep calling me that?”
“It’s your name,” he said quietly.
“My name isElla, and I’ve told you that many times.”
“And I know you’re lying,” he said gently. “I know who you are. How can you possibly think I don’t know? I’ve called you by your name—how many times now? You know that I know who you are.”
“You’re mistaken,” she said, feeling rather faint.
“No,” he disagreed. “I don’t think I am. “I think you’re concealing the truth of your identity. The only thing I don’t know iswhy.”
Angelique closed her eyes. “Will you please at least keep your voice down?”
“Are you admitting that you’re Angelique?”
“If you insist on continuing to use that name then for pity’s sake,lower your voice.”
He was silent for a moment, perhaps appreciating for the first time how serious she was. Angelique took a deep breath and tried to steady herself.
“Nobody can hear us here,” he said. It sounded as if he was trying to reassure her. “Everyone is at dinner. Whatever you might say, no one will hear it as long as we remain in this hallway.”
“Spoken like a lord,” she said dismissively. “You don’t know what it’s like to fear getting into trouble for the things you might say and do. You don’t know what it’s like to have to be careful all the time. It’s easy for you to say, oh, there’s no one here, no one will hear the things we say to one another. But people can take you by surprise, my lord. Someone could come around that corner at any moment.”
“Is there somewhere else you’d prefer to go? Somewhere more private?”
“I’m not going to take you anywhere private,” she told him. “Say what you need to say. Say it quickly and quietly so that we won’t risk being caught.”
“Very well, I’ll say it,” he said. “You are Lady Angelique. You are the daughter of Lord and Lady Somerset. They may be gone, but you’re still here, and I want to know what’s happened to you andwhy you insist upon pretending not to be the person I know you are.”
“Why are you asking me this?”
“If you answer my question, perhaps I will answer yours.”
“You know I’m risking getting into all sorts of trouble just by talking to you.”
“Of course I don’t know that. How could I know that? I know nothing about you.”
“You seem to know everything about me. And I don’t even know your name.”
“You are Lady Angelique. Is it not so?”
“Oh, verywell,” she said. “I am who you say I am. But if you have any concern or regard for me at all, you’ll stop this now, before you make more trouble than we can get ourselves out of. The lord and lady of the house donotlike to hear that name.”
“Why would it cause such trouble for me to refer to you by your name? For me to recognize you as Lady Angelique when we both know that’s who you are?”
She felt as if she was about to cry—whether from frustration that he wouldn’t stop when she kept asking him to or from relief at having finally been seen and recognized for who she was, she couldn’t have said.
“If you speak that name one more time,” she said, “I will end this conversation at once. I’ve just told you that Lord and Lady Leicester will be angry if they hear that name spoken aloud, and that’s trouble I don’t need. I’ll walk away from you, and I won’t speak to you again for the remainder of the night, and whatever questions you have will go unanswered.”
