I hadn’t heard about Mr. Sternfeld having a sister. Probably because she wasn’t the one with the inheritance.
“Is your sister here too?” Genevieve inquired.
“Ah, yes. She arrived last night, but Olivia is deathly timid,” Mr. Sternfeld said, easing his arm out of Julianna’s claws. “New places scare her.”
“Poor dear,” Julianna crooned. She inched closer to him. “It must be so difficult for her.”
I rolled my eyes at her poor attempt at compassion.
“That’s unfortunate,” Genevieve said. “I always find strange places more bearable when I have a friend. Perhaps Amarante and I can meet her sometime.”
Mr. Sternfeld beamed. “Now there’s an idea! How would you like to join us and Grandfather for dinner next week, Miss Genevieve? You too, Miss Amarante. And your mother, if she deigns to join us.”
“That would be wonderful,” Genevieve said.
I nodded, knowing that Lydia would force us to go whether I liked it or not.
“I’d love to meet your sister as well, Mr. Sternfeld,” Julianna said, batting her eyes.
“Apologies, Miss Julianna. Our dining table is rather small,” he said. “Perhaps another time?”
Julianna was fuming when Mr. Sternfeld went off to tell Lydia about the dinner plans. My stepmother would be elated. After all, this was an auction and Mr. Sternfeld, the poor man, was the prize cow we had just won.
“Well, Genevieve, I reckon you’re proud of yourself?” our witch of a neighbor said.
“Pardon?” My stepsister looked taken aback.
Julianna’s heeled shoe smashed into Genevieve’s sketchbook. “Don’t act innocent. Mr. Sternfeld is soon to become a lord. You ought to give up. He will never marry a commoner’s daughter.”
I clenched my fists. “Take that back, Julianna.”
She merely huffed. “That is a horrid gown you have on, Amarante. Did you raid your mother’s closet? Oh, I forget. You don’t have one.”
Before I could spit out an equally venomous remark, she sneered and stalked away.
“Oh, Amarante! How could she?” Genevieve exclaimed.
“Insulting us in our own home! She gets nastier by the day,” I said. “And look what she did to your drawing!”
The sketch was now crinkled and stained with Julianna’s filthy footprint. Genevieve frowned and brushed it off with her sleeve. “I wonder why she’s like this. Hardships of her own, perhaps?”
I scoffed. Only Genevieve would be concerned about Julianna, who basked in her own sense of superiority because her mother was a dame and her father was a wealthy courtier.
I was more concerned with how to punish her.
A shriek of laughter came from the children playing a few feet away. A boy was chasing his friend with a handful of dirt from the rose bushes, which Rowena had recently fertilized. I grinned.
At the front of the garden, Lydia tapped her glass with a fork, beaming from ear to ear. No doubt Mr. Sternfeld had just invited her to dinner. I took the opportunity to slip off.
“It is an honor...no—aprivilege, to welcome a new member to our neighborhood, Mr. Cedric Sternfeld!” my stepmother announced.
The guests gave a polite applause as Mr. Sternfeld stepped up. I ducked behind a dense rosebush with pale yellow blooms. The boy chasing his friend now sat on the grass, kneading the dirt in his hands. I tapped him on the shoulder.
“Mind if I take some of that?” I asked.
He shrugged.
“Much obliged.” I pinched the dirt between my fingers and emerged from the bushes.
