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“The food looks quite good,” she told Blackstone, grabbing an empty plate and taking her share. “You should really try to eat something.”
He turned to face her, his handsome face still flushed with anger. “How can you be so calm?”
She poured herself a glass of water and sat down with her plate. “You seem like a man who has rarely been in a situation where there is nothing you can do to change things. As a woman, and a servant, my entire life has been spent in situations I have absolutely no control over. I suppose I’ve learned to simply bide my time and try to be as comfortable as possible.”
Her words were only half true. Her lifehadbeen spent that way, which was why she’d stopped being so patient and started fighting so hard to change things, to try and make a better world. But look where that had gotten her. The world seemed determined to prove that she would never be anything more than the bastard daughter of a disgraced servant.
A long beat of silence passed between them, but then he gave a huff of something that wasn’t quite laughter and came toward the table. “Are they fattening us up for the slaughter? I wasn’t expecting this sort of spread.”
Heather made herself a sandwich and took a bite, moaning softly in delight at the crusty soft bread, salty ham, and sharp cheese. “It’s really good.”
He stared at her with an arrested look, and she suddenly became self-conscious. “Do I have something on my face?”
“No.” He cleared his throat and sat down. “You just looked like you were enjoying it.”
Flushing, she dropped her gaze to her plate, realizing the sound she’d made had been decidedly sexual. She continued to eat in silence, very aware of the attraction simmering between them. Although she’d been attracted to him from the beginning, she hadn’t expected him to reciprocate. Should she try to capitalize upon it? Get the information that Jacob wanted in the hopes that he’d actually let her out of here alive?
Sadly, she trusted Blackstone, though he was practically a stranger, more than she trusted the man she’d once thought she loved. No, she would not prostitute herself to Blackstone for information. Instead, she’d just have to believe that somehow he’d manage to get them out of this. If Jacob’s goonhadcome alone, she was quite certain they’d be on their way out of here by now. Jacob was not as smart as he thought he was. Perhaps he’d eventually make a mistake.
“It’s a good sign that they’re wearing masks,” he said after a long while. “It means that they’re going to let us go and don’t want us to know who they are. If they didn’t plan to let us out of here, there would be no reason to hide their identities.”
It’s a good sign for you, but I already know who they are.
She put down her sandwich and tried to smile. “Thank you. I didn’t think of that.”
He reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “Don’t give up hope. We still don’t even know what they want with us.”
“Well, I don’t think it’s good,” she replied with a rusty laugh. “Do you?”
“No,” he said with a frustrated sigh. “But I don’t understand why they didn’t tell us just now. Why leave us wondering?”
“I don’t know,” she muttered, and at least that was the truth. She really didn’t have any idea of what game Jacob was playing at. She couldn’t imagine how he thought any of this was going to make things better for him.
Drake made a sandwich of his own and took a few bites, seeming lost in thought, but then he lifted his gaze to hers. “How did you come to work for Allison?”
His own use of Allison’s first name showed that he had more than a passing acquaintance with her, but she supposed that made sense. Thetonwasn’t that big. He’d probably grown up with Allison. She also sensed that he was just trying to make conversation, but for the first time, she actually had the urge to tell him the truth, not the watered-down version she’d been spouting for years. If she didn’t come out of this thing alive, it would be nice to know that at least one person had known her real story. And if she didn’t survive, he probably wouldn’t either, so what was the harm in it?
She took a deep breath, then let it out again, holding his dark gaze. “Do you really want to know? Or are you just trying to make small talk?”
“I never make small talk,” he said with a hint of a smile. “I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t honestly want to know.”
Biting her lip, she made the quick decision to take him at his word. “My mother was the Countess of Winters’ lady’s maid.”
He blinked, obviously having expected something more than that. “Oh. I suppose that makes sense. So she taught you from a young age then?”
“She did,” Heather agreed. “But it wasn’t that easy. You see, the Earl of Winters apparently had his eye on my mother. Pursued her relentlessly. When she refused to give in to him, he... took her by force.”
Drake’s face paled. “He raped his wife’s lady’s maid? That’s despicable.”
Heather swallowed convulsively, wondering if the next part was going to make him look down his nose at her even more than he already did. “Even worse, she soon realized she was with child. She was pregnant with me.”
“Oh.” He put down his sandwich, still holding her gaze, his dark eyes soft with understanding instead of judgment. “I’m so sorry. Knowing that you were conceived in that way must be a terrible burden to bear.”
She nodded, blinking back a sudden wash of stinging tears. “He kicked her out when it became impossible to hide. Let her go without reference. She had a little bit of savings set aside, enough to get her through my birth, but then she found herself penniless with a bastard child. No decent family would hire her as a lady’s maid, but she had to make a living somehow.”
He said nothing, but once again, he reached across the table to squeeze her hand.
Taking courage from this show of support, she forced herself to go on. “She became a prostitute. She had no other choice. But when she was home, in the cheap flat where I grew up, she’d teach me all the skills I needed to become a good lady’s maid myself. She wanted more for me than what she’d sunk to.”
