Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 107756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
I had not realized she had entered. Of course, she most likely knew the contents of the letter I now held to my chest. Her ability to appear when I least wished her to was astounding—or very well calculated on her part.
“I believe pearls will do just fine, Mama,” I muttered, rising from my bed.
“Can I wear the diamonds, Mama?” Hathor ran in to ask.
“You may not!” she said.
“Mama, can you not be so obviously biased in her favor! I am your daughter, too,” Hathor said.
If Hathor kept Mama occupied, perhaps I could make my escape.
“Aphrodite, where are you going?” my mother called after me.
“For a walk around town!” I said, rushing down the stairs.
“But you need to prepare!” She followed after me.
“The ball is not for several hours. Mama, I could walk to the other end of the town and back and still have time.”
“Then help your sisters!”
I spun around and looked over her shoulder. “Hathor, do you need my help?”
She crossed her arms. “I am quite capable of looking well enough without you. It is not as if you ever know much to do anyway.”
“Yes, thank heaven for natural beauty,” I said, knowing how she would reply. She inhaled like a pufferfish, her arms dropping, and I, along with my mother, braced for impact.
“Let her go, Mama! Hopefully, she falls into a pigsty and never returns!”
“Hathor!” my mother yelled at her.
“And then her ghost would forever haunt you,” Abena said, her head appearing at the top of the steps. “Everyone would say, ‘Oh, such a shame about poor Odite.’ All your days, they would talk of her. And I would tell them you cursed her.”
“You little bug!” Hathor went after her.
“Girls! You will cease this moment!”
I glanced over to the library door where my father was watching. He looked at me and shook his head. I winked, moving to the door.
“Chaperone,” he mouthed to me, and just then, fortunately, Silva stepped out of the drawing room.
I rushed over and linked arms with her. “May I steal you away?”
Before she could answer, I took her with me out the door as another maid joined, rushing with our purses.
“Where on earth do you wish to go?” Silva said as they started to walk.
“The moon? Is such a thing possible?” I asked.
“No, not at all.” She laughed.
“Forgive me for pulling you away like this. I needed peace and, in the process, may have disturbed yours.” I nodded to other ladies as they passed us by.
“No matter. A walk always does the body and mind good.”
“I believe so, too, though I prefer a walk through nature and not the town,” I said.
There were so many people it was impossible to truly relax.
“I find it amusing.”
“Find what amusing?” I questioned.
She looked at me. “You wish to escape your family, yet I rather enjoy them.”
“I enjoy them as well, just not all the time and especially not when I wish to be alone. I never get the chance to be alone. I have always had my brother, then, of course, my governess, then my sisters came, and I found myself never not under watch.”
“Such is the nature for all young ladies, even I.”
“Yes, but was your home not less chaotic as an only child?”
“And endlessly boring!” She sighed and glanced over at me. “I am already plain, so belonging to a plain house is overdoing it. Do you not think so?”
I giggled. “No.”
“You truly do not know how blessed you are to live in such a household,” she said as we turned and crossed the street, “where everyone loves and cares for and teases one another. Even your mama and papa.”
“Are not husbands and wives meant to care for each other?”
“What is meant to happen and what actually transpires is often not the same. It is rare for true love matches to exist and survive the tenure of marriage. My parents, though I love them dearly, cannot wait to be separated from each other.”
“I am sorry.”
“No, do not be,” she mused, “it is a system that works for them. They have their own rooms and appointments, times at which they both eat, and it changes only when we have company.”
That sounded terribly depressing. I wished not to pry, but I thought that surely such an arrangement was not the case for Silva and my brother.
“Ladies.”
One word.
It took just one word, and I was able to discern whose voice it was. So when I lifted my head and saw Evander alongside his sister, my heart fell.
“Your Grace,” Silva spoke to him first.
“Lady Montagu.” He nodded to her and then refocused on me. “Lady Aphrodite. How are you both this morning?”
I still did not speak, so Silva did. “Quite well, Your Grace. If you will excuse us—”
“Thank heavens I ran into you both,” Verity exclaimed suddenly. “I have been utterly at a loss about what to do.”