“How dare you!”
“How dare I what?”
“Speak to me in such an insulting way!” Phillipa cried while clutching her chest dramatically.
“Oh, please. You have been insulting and bullying me since I was a child, don’t pretend my words hurt you.”
She turned fully. Until now, she’d kept her cheek averted, not that they ever noticed much about her, Mary thought.
“I have guided you,” Phillipa said.
“You have never once guided me,” Mary scoffed.
“Mary, don’t speak to your sister that way,” Lady Blake said.
“And yet it is all right for her to constantly talk to me as if I was something stuck to her shoe, is it, Mother?”
She didn’t know what had come over her lately, but something had, and suddenly she was tired of her sister and mother’s treatment of her.
“We are simply trying to help you navigate society,” Lady Blake said.
“You can call it whatever you wish, but we all know what it really is,” Mary muttered.
“Mary!” her mother gasped.
“Lady Raine and Mrs. Deville have arrived, my lady,” Harrison, the Blake family butler, said from the parlor doorway, interrupting the heated discussion that was about to become more so if Mary had her way. She snapped her teeth together.
“Very good, Harrison. Give us a few minutes and then show them in,” Mary’s mother said. “Now, Mary, I have no idea what has come over you to speak as you are, but you will not do so again.”
“Tell you the truth, do you mean, Mother?”
“I have said a dress will be selected but nothing more, and I reserve the right to say you can wear it or not,” Lady Blake added, ignoring Mary’s question.
“Good day!” Dimity sailed in followed by Beth. “Come along, Mary, we have not a moment to lose. Today we will be creating you!”
When Dimity walked into a room, she commanded all eyes. Today she wore a long silver coat, and skirts of lavender could be seen through the opening. Her bonnet was matching, and she looked her usual beautiful, elegant self. Beth too was stunning. Her cloak was midnight blue with a white dress beneath. Mary wanted to sigh at the picture they presented.
She would never be a beauty like them, but she could at least dress better.
“Now, Lady Raine, I have said a single dress.” Her mother was a bit panicky now. Phillipa was scowling.
“Nonsense. If something is to be done, it must be done right,” Dimity said. “Come along, Mary. Ruby and Freya await us in the carriage.”
“What happened to your cheek?” Beth said as Mary rose from her chair.
All eyes turned to look at her.
“What is wrong with her cheek?” Phillipa asked.
“Mary, what has happened?” her mother said at the same time.
“How is it you didn’t notice?” Dimity had that look in her eyes that usually spelled trouble for whoever had put it there. She was glaring at her mother and Phillipa now.
“Why did you say nothing, Mary?” Lady Blake demanded. “You can’t go out like that. People will see it.”
“It’s a scratch, Mother, and not a deep one. No one sees me anyway,” Mary added under her breath, sounding petulant and hating herself for it.
“Do you not actually ever look at your youngest daughter, Lady Blake?” Dimity demanded, eyes blazing.
