Page 43 of The Marquess' Disguised Heiress
He smiled at her shocked expression and cleared his throat to make sure his voice came out much heavier and more velvety than George’s voice. He certainly could not afford for Eliza to find any resemblance between him and George and ruin this entire charade.
“Hello, Lady Eliza.” She flushed as he called out to her but came closer still. “George told me you wished to see me?”
“That was not what I said,” Eliza stuttered, clearly feeling at a loss for words. Her pale skin had stained scarlet, and Alexander understood she must be feeling caught. She had perhaps never expected George to somehow find the masked man and bring him here to meet with her. Her shock was clearly visible through her eyes.
“Should I leave then?” he asked, his tone indicating his jesting manner, and Eliza shook her head.
“Please, no!” she interjected, “Now that you are already here, leaving would be counterproductive. You must stay.”
Alexander remained seated on the log but angled his body to face Eliza. He watched as she took a few tentative steps towards the log and sat down as well, exactly where she had been seated yesterday when she had been with George.
She was uncomfortable and perhaps even nervous, but Alexander understood all of those emotions. The last time she had met him was several days ago, and their meeting had been tainted with mystery, and now here he was again, still behind a mask.
“How are you doing, Lady Eliza?”
“Can you stop calling me that?”
“I can only call you by your real name, and I know that to be Lady Eliza. I will not be calling you Beth and becoming a part of the forces that have stolen your very identity from you.”
She sighed.
“Who are you? And why are you still wearing the mask?” she asked, staring into his eyes. “And why do you feel oddly familiar, as if we have met before or I know you?”
Alexander wanted to do nothing more than reveal his identity, her pained and confused expression beckoning him to do it almost immediately.
However, he knew this was not the right time. It was much safer to remain anonymous for both his and Eliza’s sake until he had concrete proof to expose the Russel family.
“You must think of me as a friend,” he replied at last, “a friend who knows who you really are and would be honoured if you decide to confide in him about your true feelings, emotions, and everything that has happened to you in the past few years.”
“Why would I choose to confide in a man who refuses to reveal his name or his face?”
She was right.
“You have no reason to confide in me except for the trust you might feel towards me in your heart.” He smiled underneath the mask. “Although, you must remember that people often find it easier to confide in strangers than to the people they know closely. This mask is for both of us so you can talk to me about yourself openly without worrying about who I am or what I might think about your situation. I am simply a friend, even if both nameless and faceless.”
Eliza blinked, her face tilting to one side as she regarded him with interest.
“There is an appeal to that idea of talking to a nameless face.”
Alexander felt as if he was going in the right direction and just a little more coaxing would make her reveal the truth about herself and everything that went on with her in the Russel house. He needed to hear the details from Eliza alone to make more sense of the situation, and for that, he would need to make sure she trusted him enough to divulge the truth.
“You can be honest with me, Lady Eliza,” he replied. “You must tell me what happened with you about twelve, thirteen years ago? How did you end up being a servant in the very house that belongs to you?”
Eliza stayed silent, staring at the tree behind him. He could see she was lost in her own thoughts.
“What happened to your inheritance, My Lady? What happened to all the old servants of the house who knew you?”
“How is it that you know so much about me and my life? No one knows these things about me but you. How could this be possible?”
“Just consider me a good friend, Lady Eliza,” he replied. “Everything about me will be revealed to you in good time, but the time is not now. You must simply take my word and trust me enough to tell me what happened. I must hear it all from you to make sense of the situation.”
Her face shifted as she turned to look at Alexander, her eyes turning softer. Alexander felt as if, at that moment, she looked at him differently, and part of her was ready to trust him. Eliza sighed deeply, smiling a sad smile as she stared into his eyes, for it was the only part visible through the mask on his face.
“It was rather difficult after my parents died. Things were very difficult because I had to grapple with their loss along with settling in with a new family, which had moved into my house and was living there as if they owned it. Everything felt wrong, but I still had all the old servants who loved me, cared for me, and wanted the best for me. Despite that, it only took Uncle Edgar and Aunty Beatrice a few years to gain complete control of the house.”
“What do you mean?”
“Just two years after my parents’ death, Aunty Beatrice casually started asking me to do chores here and there, and I never thought much of it until one day she fired all the old servants, and a new set came in. My room was taken away from me, and I was asked to move to the attic, and they told me that from now on, I was going to be a servant in the house rather than the lady of the house, and I must do everything asked of me. They told me my new name was supposed to be Beth, and everyone was going to call me just that because Eliza no longer existed.”
