Page 49 of The Heiress in Disguise
“I am, yes—but I’m more worried about my fairy godmother, whoever she may be. Someone has been extremely kind to me, and I would hate to see them punished for that.”
“How could Lady Leicester punish whoever it is? Unless you believe it’s a member of the household—but it seems very unlikely anyone in the household would give you a lot of gifts. I found it difficult even to believe that Lady Grace would give you that bracelet, though I was prepared to accept it if you told me that was what had happened.”
“No, I agree with you,” Angelique said. “There’s no one in this house who would show me such care and concern. It has to have been someone else. Someone outside of our household. That’s why it started when we came to London. It’s someone who lives here.”
“But who would do that?” Jane asked. “Who would leave gifts for someone else’s servants? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“It happened,” Angelique said. She went to her drawer and removed the notes she had received. “Look. These are the notes I’ve been getting with the gifts.”
“So many,” Jane marveled, flipping through them. “This has really happened so many different times?”
“It’s a surprise to me each time. But yes, it does seem to keep happening.”
“I can’t believe it. What kinds of gifts have you received? Is it always jewelry? Because I don’t know where you’re even going to wear that bracelet. If I thought it was stolen, Lady Leicester certainly will. You’ll be in terrible trouble.”
“Oh, I’d never wear it in front of her,” Angelique said. “Even if she knew for a fact that it wasn’t stolen, she would pretend to think that it was so that she could take it away from me.”
“I’m sure you’re right. But do show me what else you’ve received. I’m dying to see the gifts.”
“And you really won’t tell anybody if I show you?”
“Of course, I won’t! I can’t believe you would think I’d do that. Aren’t we friends?”
Angelique nodded. “We are, of course.” Jane was one of the only friends she had, after all. If she couldn’t trust Jane, she couldn’t trust anyone.
She went around the room, gathering up the gifts from their various hiding places, and brought them over to the bed. Jane’s eyes grew as wide as saucers as Angelique laid everything out. “This is a treasure trove,” she said. “All these fine things, and you never told me!”
“I wasn’t sure who I could tell,” Angelique defended herself. “My fairy godmother, whoever she is, didn’t reveal her identity to me, and that made me think the whole thing ought to stay a secret. It wasn’t out of any particular desire to keep you in the dark that I chose not to speak to you of any of this. I hope you aren’t angry with me.”
“No,” Jane said quickly. “No, of course I’m not angry. How could I be angry?”
But there was something unfriendly in her tone. Angelique looked at her friend closely and was surprised by what she saw. It was an expression she had often seen on Gwyneth’s face, every time her cousin looked at her own reflection and then happened to glance at Angelique.
Jane was jealous.
It made sense to her. Angelique couldn’t swear that she wouldn’t have been jealous herself if she’d had to watch Jane receive a lot of fine gifts. She thought she probably would have felt some amount of envy in that situation, and she couldn’t be angry that Jane felt the same way.
What she did feel was guilt. Even though it had become more convenient to let her friend in on the truth, perhaps she still shouldn’t have done it. Maybe it was unkind to let Jane see these things, knowing that she hadn’t been selected to receive them. After all, they still didn’t knowwhyAngelique had been chosen.
“Take something,” Angelique said, responding to that gut feeling within her that wanted to make things right for her friend.
Jane looked at her. “What do you mean?”
“There’s no reason I need to keep all of these things for myself. I haven’t wanted to share them because I’ve been trying to keep the secret—but go ahead, take something. Now that you know there’s no reason we can’t share.”
“You’ll share this with me?” There was a greedy glint in Jane’s eye that Angelique had never seen there before. It concerned her, but it didn’t cause her to waver in her determination to do a kind thing for her friend.
“Of course I’ll share,” she said loyally. “There’s no reason I need to keep it all for myself. Take a few things, if you’d like!”
Jane stepped forward to the bed and perused the offerings eagerly. Angelique took a step back and slid her hand into her pocket, letting the bracelet fall off her wrist and come to rest there—she didn’t want to take a chance that Jane might want to take that. It had been too meaningful to her in the moment it had reminded her of her mother. She wanted to share, but that was something she knew she needed to keep for herself.
Jane began to load up her arms and her pockets with items from the bed. She took a few of the handkerchiefs, two of the soaps, several of the fine foods, and one of the bottles of perfume. Angelique watched, restraining herself from saying anything. She had told Jane that this would be all right to do. She had offered. She could hardly justify changing her mind now.
It was certainly true that she hadn’t expected Jane to take so much—she’d envisioned that her friend might take one or two items, and instead she was taking nearly half of what was there. It was as if she had understood Angelique’s offer to share as an offer to split these things evenly, and Angelique had never intended that.
But perhaps Jane was right. Maybe Angeliqueshouldgive away that many of the gifts. They’d been given to her, but that was no reason to suppose that she was any more worthy of them thananybody else. It was right that Jane should get those things, she decided, and she wouldn’t argue. Besides, it was a gift to her to be able to make her friend happy.
Finally, Jane seemed satisfied. She stepped back from the bed. “You’ll tell me if you get any more gifts, won’t you? I don’t like the idea of secrets between the two of us.”
