Page 25 of The Heiress Masquerade (Dollar Princess #2)

The rest of the week felt as if the days had turned into months, and glacial months at that, given she and Harrison had barely spoken to each other since the scene at the hotel, both actively doing their best to avoid each other.

Which was a good thing, even if it didn’t feel good at all. Though how they were going to stay out of each other’s way when they had Wilheimer’s house party to attend tomorrow, Aimee didn’t know. The idea of being with him after how things had ended was unsettling, even if Mrs. Holbrook would be there, too.

She still couldn’t believe he’d conveniently managed not to tell her he was heir to an earldom. Who did that? Most men would be boasting of that fact, not actively trying to conceal it. If he’d told her that sooner, she would have stayed well away, for there was no way she was living in this country, with its weather and rigid rules that would ensure her place was in the bedroom and ballroom and nowhere else. It was not the life she’d ever envisaged for herself, even if her mother had.

Thinking about her mother, Aimee wondered if perhaps her mother had orchestrated the trip, with the knowledge Aimee would convince Evie to swap places with her, to put her in Harrison’s vicinity? But that was ridiculous; her mother wouldn’t do that, not with the potential scandal it could cause if it became known.

She imagined her parents must have thought Harrison would be the perfect catch given he was not only a future earl but he’d all but been groomed to take over her father’s business. Well, not on Aimee’s watch he wouldn’t. She would make her father see she could run his companies, and she’d do it, without being married to her father’s golden boy.

“Is everything all right?” Molly asked, walking over with a stack of papers and putting them on Aimee’s desk, concern in her gaze.

“Yes, sort of.”

“Sort of?”

“It’s fine. Really, it is.” Aimee smiled at her, determined not to let Harrison Stone affect her mood.

Molly returned her smile. “Yes, you sound sort of fine.”

Aimee laughed lightly at that and then sighed. “I’m a bit out of sorts is all. There’s a lot going on.”

“Ah yes, the big meeting at Wilheimer’s house party,” Molly replied. “You’ll be fine. I’m sure you’ve gotten used to attending such fancy things, being Mr. Thornton-Jones’s niece.”

“That I have.” Truer words couldn’t be said, well, except the part about being his niece. “The number of house parties I’ve attended over the years makes another one seem very boring.” At least she was looking forward to translating for the men in their meetings over the weekend. That at least should keep her thoughts from straying to Harrison, even if the man would be right there beside her.

“It must have been fascinating,” Molly said, her eyes radiating interest. “To have gone from thinking you were a regular somebody, to knowing you’re the niece of one of the richest men in the world. It’s a bit of a fairy tale, isn’t it?”

“I suppose so.” Evie had seemed shocked and amazed by it all.

“Was your cousin upset by your arrival?” Molly asked. “I imagine she wouldn’t have been thrilled to share her father’s affections, being an only child.”

“Actually, she was thrilled to find out she had a cousin.” It was true, too; when her parents had first told her they’d discovered Evie’s existence, she’d immediately decided that Evie would be like a sister to her. “Aimee always wanted siblings. She was lonely as an only child.”

It felt odd to talk about herself in the third person.

“How terrible for the lonely little rich girl.” Deidre spoke up from behind them, obviously eavesdropping again. “I imagine she told you that nonsense but really hated knowing you existed and were going to live with them. After all, what heiress would want to share her things?”

Aimee raised her brow. “My family is so wealthy, Deidre, that nothing needs to be shared and they can buy whatever they want, for whomever they want, whenever they want.”

Not that they ever did that, even though they had the means to, but Deidre didn’t need to know that. Aimee’s parents hadn’t gotten to where they were by frivolously spending their hard-earned money, and when Aimee was a child, they’d always made sure she’d shared her toys with the servants’ children, along with gifting the toys she no longer played with to the children on their estates.

“Yes, how lucky for you, going from being a poor little orphan girl to some heiress’s companion.” Deidre sounded bored. “I imagine it got quite tedious doing her bidding, which is why you’ve obviously come here and set your sights on the boss in there.” She glanced over to Harrison’s office and Aimee felt her cheeks go red with mortification. Was it that obvious that something had happened between Harrison and her?

“Deidre, stop being so rude,” Molly said.

“What?” Deidre scowled over at Molly. “Anyone can see she’s always glancing over to his doorway. Clearly, something happened between them.”

“You’re jealous of Evie and her life,” Molly said defensively. “And the fact she’s attracted Mr. Stone’s attention, which you’ve been trying to do for months with no success.”

“Oh please,” Deidre scoffed. “I’m not jealous of her.” She narrowed her eyes over to Aimee. “I have my future already mapped out, with certain plans in place to ensure I will be a wealthy woman who doesn’t want for anything, you wait and see.”

“Having a liaison with an accountant from downstairs isn’t going to make you wealthy,” Molly said.

Deidre smiled smugly. “At least I have a man whom I’m about to have lunch with. So I’ll leave you two to your pathetic girl talk.” She pursed her lips at them, before turning on her heel and leaving the room.

“Does she do any work apart from eavesdrop and be mean?” Aimee asked.

Molly laughed. “Not really, but she gets away with it because she’s Mrs. Holbrook’s niece.”

“She is?” That was the first Aimee had heard about it. “Well, that explains a lot.”

“Yes, but promise you won’t say anything to either of them,” Molly replied. “I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it, given neither of them talk about it, and I don’t normally gossip.”

“I promise.” Aimee nodded, finally understanding why Deidre felt like she could come and go as she pleased.

“Thank you. I think you and I are kindred spirits, and as we both have to put up with her, I thought you deserved to know why she gets away with so much.”

Aimee grinned. “Yes, though, thankfully, I only have to put up with her temporarily, whereas you’ll have to deal with her after I’m gone, permanently.”

“Want to swap places?” Molly smiled back.

“No.” She’d already done quite enough swapping places to last her a lifetime. “Why doesn’t Mrs. Holbrook mention that Deidre’s her niece?”

“Well, that’s a rather interesting story.” Molly glanced around the room, making sure they were still alone. “You see, I think she’s a bit embarrassed by the circumstances surrounding Deidre’s birth.”

“Why would she be embarrassed?”

Molly pressed her lips together. “I overheard them arguing once, and apparently Deidre is the love child of Thomas Thornton-Jones.”

Aimee’s whole body froze. “No, that’s not possible. My f—uncle would never have had an affair. He wouldn’t do that to my aunt. He loves her more than life itself.” There was no way her father would cheat on her mother. There was even less of a chance her mother would allow it or put up with it.

Molly cringed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to speak badly of your uncle. But Deidre is four-and-twenty just like me, so perhaps the affair occurred before your aunt and uncle were even together?”

The math worked out given her parents had been married for twenty-three years.

“In any event, I think Deidre dislikes you so, and more particularly your cousin, Aimee, because apparently when her mother confronted your uncle about it when Deidre was just a little girl, he refused to acknowledge their affair, claiming Deidre’s mother was a liar and had fabricated the whole thing, and that Deidre wasn’t his child.”

“Then she’s not his daughter,” Aimee emphatically replied.

“She believes she is.”

“My uncle would never deny a child of his, regardless of that child’s birth status. He just wouldn’t.”

“I didn’t mean to upset you, and I probably shouldn’t have said anything.” There was an expression of regret in Molly’s eyes. “But I thought you should know why Deidre was treating you so poorly. In her mind, you’ve succeeded where she never will; you’ve integrated with the Thornton-Joneses, and are living the life she believes she should have had. Although she probably thinks it’s more your cousin’s life she should have, given she believes Thomas is her father. The way she speaks of your cousin Aimee, it’s with venom.” Molly rubbed her hands over her arms.

“There’s simply no way my uncle fathered Deidre,” Aimee replied, still trying to wrap her head around the information. “If he had, he would have done the honorable thing and ensured she was looked after financially, and he would have acknowledged her as his. The fact that he didn’t means that Deidre’s mother is lying.”

“Was lying. She died shortly after she confronted your uncle,” Molly said. “I heard Mrs. Holbrook say she jumped in front of a train in her sadness, or perhaps she said madness? I can’t quite remember.”

“Why would Mrs. Holbrook work for my uncle then, given the situation with her sister?”

Molly sighed. “I heard her tell Deidre that Deidre’s mother was mad and living in a fantasy world, and that she’d most likely made it all up.”

“I told you my uncle isn’t Deidre’s father.” The very idea of it was unfathomable. Her father was one of the most honorable, trustworthy men she knew. He’d always instilled in her that taking responsibility for one’s own actions was imperative to living a successful life.

“That’s not what Deidre believes.” Molly shrugged. “In any event, I merely told you, so you don’t take anything she says to heart given she truly loathes your uncle.”

“Then why is she even working here?”

“Money of course. And it’s a rather easy job given her aunt doesn’t bother overly with supervising her.” Molly’s brown eyes seemed uncertain. “I don’t know, perhaps she even wants to be as close as she can to the Thornton-Joneses given her history, and this is about as close as she can get?”

“Perhaps,” Aimee agreed, wondering if Deidre could be behind the alterations in the ledgers, to punish the company, and in doing so Aimee’s father, who certainly wasn’t Deirdre’s. That required planning and calculation, and an astute head for figures, which Deidre didn’t seem to possess. Though she’d been seeing someone in accounting; perhaps they could have done her dirty work for her?

“Excuse me, Miss Jenkins?” Fred said from the doorway.

For a moment, Aimee glanced around for Evie, and then remembered she was Miss Jenkins to Fred.

“This came for you.” He walked over and handed her a note.

“Thank you, Fred.” She smiled at him and took the paper.

Fred nodded his head before he turned and left.

Glancing down at the note, her smile faded. “Oh my God.”

“What’s wrong?” Molly asked.

“And here I was thinking I was the one royally screwing up the plan.”

“I don’t understand…” Molly said.

“My cousin has gotten herself engaged to a duke.”

“She has?” Molly’s eyes went wide in wonder. “Why, that’s amazing. She’ll be a duchess…how lucky for her. Goodness, don’t tell Deidre, though. She’ll be as jealous as sin thinking it should be her in your cousin’s place.”

“She did the one thing I warned her not to,” Aimee said, caring little about if Deidre was jealous or not, when all she could think about was Evie and the mess she’d not only gotten herself into, but Aimee, too. Because how on earth could they keep their swap a secret if Evie was engaged to a duke while pretending to be Aimee?

Aimee’s parents were bound to hear about it and there would be no stopping her mother sending her father over to investigate. And if that happened, they could kiss their masquerade goodbye. “I can’t believe she went and got herself accidentally engaged when I explicitly told her that was the one thing not to do. I mean, how does someone even get accidentally engaged?”

“You tell your cousin what to do?” Molly asked. “I thought you were her companion?”

“It’s a companion’s job to guide the person she’s a companion to,” Aimee improvised, thinking that did sound like what Evie did, even if Aimee didn’t listen to any of her guidance, at least not most of the time. “Clearly, though, my cousin didn’t listen to me as she should have.”

How could her normally sensible cousin have been caught kissing a duke and, because of that, now found herself accidentally engaged to him? Then Evie had had the audacity to send a note to Aimee telling her not to worry because she had a plan.

Evie with a plan? When did Evie ever have a plan? Never was when. So it was bound to be a plan that was going to get them both caught if Aimee didn’t fix things.

“Can you cover for me, Molly?” she turned and asked. “I have to go and sort out whatever this mess is that my cousin’s gotten herself into.”

“Yes, of course. I’ll tell them there’s been a family emergency you’ve had to attend to.”

“Well, that’s certainly the truth.” Aimee reached over and squeezed Molly’s hand. “Thank you.” She quickly grabbed her satchel, flung it over her shoulder, and bolted out the door.

Who would have thought that sensible Evie would be the one to unravel their masquerade? And now Aimee was going to have to do whatever she could to rectify the problem, because rectify it she had to. She couldn’t go back to New York just yet, not when she was so close to helping with the Wilheimer deal.

Yes, that was the only reason she didn’t want to leave London yet, not because of some six-foot-three, stubborn bull of a man, who’d ignored her for the past week. The darn man. He wasn’t the reason she wasn’t ready to go just yet. And maybe, just maybe, if she kept telling herself that, she might believe it.