“My cousins are boring. And anyway, we’ve come to surprise you!”
“We?”
“Yes, we,” Marius said, appearing behind Elodie. “It’s hot out here. Can you two hug inside the château, please?”
Elodie frowned at him and dragged me back into the kitchen, but I could only snicker at Marius’s refreshingly familiar impatience. He looked scrawnier than the last time I saw him, and I worried about him. I knew he worked as a day laborer on a nearby farm and that the foreman of the estate was known for his temper. He wouldn’t tell us the worst of it, but we knew the truth about the beatings he’d endured. I wished more than anything that he could be safe with us once more. But he was lucky to be employed anywhere and not just left on the street as an urchin.
“Happy birthday!” Elodie said, pulling a little package from underneath her cloak and holding it out to me. “I wanted to give it to you before I left, but I had to save up the money, and I didn’t want to get your hopes up if I couldn’t—”
“Elodie! You really shouldn’t have. You need to save your money,” I told her, touched more than words could say.
“I definitely should have. It’s your birthday. How could I not get you anything for your birthday? Open it!”
The package was wrapped in brown paper and tied with a pink ribbon. I set it on the table and unwrapped it slowly, my breath quickening with anticipation. The paper fell away to reveal a strawberry tart, golden and flaky, red jam oozing out of either end. It was the most wonderful thing I’d seen in a long time.
I threw my arms around her. “Thank you so much! You don’t know how much it means to me,” I said, tears clogging my voice.
Elodie patted my back gently. “You know we would never forget about you.”
“I got you something too,” said Marius somewhat petulantly.
He poked my back, and I turned to see his outstretched hand holding a beautiful bouquet of pink and white lilies.
“Lilies! My favorite! You remembered.”
“Course I remembered. All you used to do was talk about flowers,” he said, rolling his eyes. I elbowed him in the ribs. I missed bossing him around more than I could say.
I took the bouquet and lifted it to my nose. The lilies smelled heavenly, fresh and sweet, like they were drenched in the sunlight of warm, never-ending summer days.
“Thank you. They’re beautiful,” I said, giving him a hug.
He pulled away, blushing, but smiled proudly. “Is that stew?”
Marius promptly lost interest in the gift and walked past me to the kitchen table, leaning over the pot.
“Marius! Don’t be rude,” Elodie said.
“It’s fine. Do you want some?” I asked.
“Of course.” He grinned and rubbed his hands eagerly. “It smells good enough to eat!”
“Elodie?”
“Well . . .” she said, uncertain, but she couldn’t take her eyes from the pot. “Won’t Lady Catherine be upset? You know we’re supposed to wait until she’s done eating to have our meal.”
“Why don’t we take the stew, the lilies, and the tart, and have a meal down by the pond. You go on ahead of me. They’ll be done with supper soon, and I’ll meet you outside after I’ve finished cleaning up.”
“Sounds amazing,” Elodie said. “And we have one more piece of birthday news for you. Marius heard about two positions opening up in town in the same household, one for a maid and one for a seamstress. And they might need a stable boy too. The three of us could be together again.”
My heart jumped in my chest. “Are you serious?”
Elodie grinned widely and nodded. “Marius can tell you more about it.”
She turned to the door only to find that Marius had already scooped up the pot of stew and made his way outside.
“Well, he can tell you more when you’re finished in here, but I think this is the one for us!” she said with one final hug before she followed Marius out.
I sat back down at the kitchen table, willing Lady Catherine and the girls to hurry up and finish their supper. The nearest town was small. Positions didn’t open up often, so when they did, you had to move quickly. I thought this might finally be the way for me to make my escape from Lady Catherine’s grasp. I had stayed, hoping that I would someday receive the inheritance to which I was entitled. But that prospect grew dimmer by the day.
Chapter Twelve
The next day, I shouldered my way through the crowds of people packed into the market, the basket in my hands nearly full and quite heavy. It was warm and sunny with puffy white clouds dotting a brilliant blue sky, and a pleasant breeze made the walk to town enjoyable and helped ease some of the tension of being in a large crowd.
I would have preferred to take the carriage so I didn’t have to lug a heavy basket the few miles back to the château, but Lady Catherine wouldn’t allow it. A Louvois carriage could never be used for such a base activity as buying groceries, so I had to walk. I didn’t really mind. At least the long walk meant I could get away from the château for a few precious hours. I’d started the washing early that morning so I could take my time, maybe walk a few paces slower and enjoy the day.
Lady Catherine only gave me enough money to purchase items she’d specifically requested. She said we had more than enough food in the larder, and I should make do with that and the items I bought today. Anything else would be a waste of money. We didn’t really have enough food in the larder, so I would have to stretch everything as far as I possibly could.
My stepmother would rather die than tell me this, but I suspected she’d already spent the allowance she got from the king, presumably on material for the new dresses she’d ordered Elodie to make, and what she’d given me today was all we had left. Next month, when the king sent our three hundred livres, Lady Catherine would conveniently want me to store away as many groceries as possible.
At the butcher’s, I bought a few cuts of venison and a whole turkey. From the cheesemonger, I bought a block of hard Cantal and, of course, a round of Brie, Severine’s and Alexandre’s favorite. Now I just needed fruit, specifically pears, apples, and grapes. Lady Catherine refused to eat cheese without fruit, even though the prices were astronomically high this early in the season. It was difficult to find a fruit seller amongst the seemingly endless rows of stalls.
I stood up on my tiptoes but was still too short to see over the heads of people much taller than I, some clearly displeased that I was standing still when everyone else was moving. After nearly getting knocked over by a grumbling man who bumped me with his shoulder, then whacked in the face by a bushel of sunflowers carried by a woman who didn’t even notice me, I decided to just keep moving and hope I came across someone selling the fruit I needed before the sun set.