Chapter 2
“Pick that up,” Esther said without looking away from the mirror. “If a maid left a shawl like that, I’d dismiss her. You, at least, can bend and fetch it.”
Prudence stared at the shawl that Esther had dropped to the floor merely moments ago. It was within her reach, and yet she was commanding Prudence to do so.
Esther was her older sister, only by a few years, but the way that she commanded her, one would think that their age difference was much greater.
“But it is perfectly within your reach,” Prudence argued, making a face. “Is it not possible for you to pick it up yourself?”
Even though Prudence had phrased her words as merely an innocent question, her sister did not interpret it in the same manner. On the contrary, Esther got visibly annoyed at having been asked, almost as though Prudence had no right to do so entirely.
“Are you challenging me?” Esther said in a harsh voice. “I would not do such a thing, if I were in your position.”
“I am merely pointing out a simple fact…” Prudence hurried to explain herself.
“Do as you are told,” Esther snapped, and the manner in which she spoke to her seemed all too familiar.
Prudence was no stranger to being commanded, or ordered around. It had been the norm, or rather even the preferred way of speaking at the nunnery. But now that she had returned to her ‘home’, she felt surprised that the same thing carried over here.
As she had been away at the nunnery for most of her life, she had never gotten a chance to get to know her siblings, Esther and Jasper. Foolishly, she had hoped to build a good relationship with them but the more she got to know them, the more she realized that such a thing was perhaps impossible.
“Are you even listening to me?” Esther snapped at her once again, breaking Prudence out of her little reverie.
Prudence did not respond. Perhaps this is normal, she told herself, having little reference of life outside of the nunnery and complied with the order she had received. Once the shawl had been picked up, Esther spoke up again.
“Good. It would be nice if you started to make yourself useful around here. It is a shame that you have been deposited on our heads out of nowhere like this. As if Father did not have enough burdens.”
Prudence hung the shawl, trying not to let herself feel the sting of the comment.
“I am trying my very best not to be a burden,” she replied back, but once again, Esther took it as an invitation to argue.
“Then, you are not doing a very good job at it, are you?” she snapped.
Once again, Prudence did not understand the hostility in her tone. She had been trying her best to make herself pleasant, and not cause any trouble. But Esther seemed to have made a prior judgement on Prudence, which was neither good nor appeared to be one that could be changed easily.
“You know,” Prudence said, “I had always wondered what it would be like to have a sister. Somehow, I had imagined that we would get along better than we are currently.”
Esther rolled her eyes. “It’s silly to hear you refer yourself as that. In fact, I was perfectly happy when you were not in the picture, and I was the only daughter in this house.”
“And now you feel as though you have to share that spot with me?” Prudence observed. Once again, she was truly curious to know why her siblings seemed to act so strangely with her.
“I would not call this sharing.” Esther shrugged her shoulders and looked at Prudence with something that could only be described as contempt. “That would imply an equal standing between the two of us.”
Ah. Prudence felt her stomach twist into knots at the suggestion that she was somehow lesser. It was something that she had been made to feel plenty at the nunnery, but surely, family was not supposed to do that.
It had been a few weeks since the news of the Duke had reached them.
At first, there had only been shock. But as more time passed, Prudence could not help but notice a strange sort of tension brewing in the house.
She felt that her family resented her for what had happened, even though she had little to do with any of it.
Her father barely spoke to her, and her siblings were always rude. The message that they were putting out was clear as day, and it was that she was not welcome here.
“What is going on here?” Jasper entered the room a moment later. His gaze swept across the room before finally landing on Prudence, settling in an expression of disappointment. “What are you doing?”
Prudence folded her arms out in front of her. What was she doing, anyway? It would be an insult to the word conversation if she were to say that she was having one with Esther.
“Not much, I suppose,” she replied.
“Great, well, why not make yourself useful and fetch me a cup of tea?” he said, dismissively.
“You cannot do it yourself?” Prudence asked. Once again, she was just trying to understand why it was that her siblings loved to dish out orders for her, as though she was a slave of some sort.
“She has a knack for challenging us,” Esther said to their brother from a distance.
“I suppose she will have to be coached out of this awful habit though I anticipate that it will take a lot of patience. She seems to be stubborn, and I believe that the nunnery did not do the best job at teaching her suitable manners.”
“Indeed. Who’s going to be the one to do it?” Jasper replied, as though she was not even in the room.
“She has caused me enough trouble already.” Esther shot daggers at her through her gaze. “After the disastrous wedding situation, my prospects for marriage are worse. And therefore, I cannot stand to spend more time with her than I already have to.”
Prudence felt wracked with guilt and felt compelled to pour her brother the cup of tea. The idea that somehow, because of her, Esther’s prospects for marriage had gotten worse was not something that she could digest easily.
I did not want any of this, she thought to herself. Strangely, ever since she had left the nunnery, her life had felt like a series of events that she did not wish to happen, but they did anyway.
“Good. You seem to learn quickly enough,” Jasper said as he watched her pour out the tea, but somehow, his tone seemed to signal even more contempt instead of any praise.
“Don’t give her so much credit.” Esther scowled again. “Or it might just get to her head. I suspect she will be a great deal of work.”
“Right. Yes. We do not want anything to get to her head,” Jasper added.
Once again, Prudence did not know whether she should contribute to the conversation or stay silent. Both seemed like bad options.
“Tell us, Prudence,” Jasper directed his question over to her, though his tone lacked any sort of warmth. “If we are to train you to stop being a nuisance, we ought to know what we are working with. What was your training like at the nunnery?”
Before Prudence could even begin to answer, Esther spoke instead.
“They did not teach her how to be a lady.” Esther scowled. “Such an expectation would be too much from her. And it would be insulting to the proper training that I received to be a lady.”
“Yes, yes. I am not saying that she is at the same level as you,” Jasper went on, “but I am merely trying to gauge.”
“I do not wish to sound rude,” Prudence started, hesitantly. “But it is the both of you speak to one another as though I am not even in the room.”
Esther snorted out a laugh, but Jasper seemed to get annoyed.
“And what is wrong with that?” he snapped, “You are not important enough to be considered a worthy presence. The sooner that you get that through your head, the better.”
“But we share the same blood,” Prudence argued. In her heart, she had held onto hope that things could be sorted between the siblings. She did not wish to make enemies amongst them.
“Yours is of a lower caliber,” Jasper smiled. “After all, do you forget that it was you that father chose to send to the nunnery, and not us?”
His words stung more that Prudence expected them to. Years ago, when Prudence had been very young, her father had made the decision to send her off to the nunnery to ease his own burdens. It was one less child to look after, after all.
That initial rejection had stung her, though she had tried her best to mask it. But now hearing her own brother say the words to her, it felt like old wounds were resurfacing.
“Yes, but I have returned now,” she said, though in a much quieter voice than before. Whatever little confidence she had left was shaken.
“To the excitement of no one,” Jasper rolled his eyes. “Since we do not know what to do with you now, I suppose you should make yourself useful by assuming a role in the house.”
Prudence looked on, waiting for an explanation.
“The role of a maid,” Jasper smirked. “That would suit you.”
Prudence felt as though someone had struck her in the face. It was one thing to be ordered around but another thing to be prescribed the status of a maid by her own siblings.
“You wish for me to be…” Prudence struggled with saying the world out loud, “a maid?”
“Yes, that is what I said,” Jasper asked, carefully watching her reaction. He seemed to extract some sort of joy from watching her get uncomfortable. “It does not matter either way. If you really wished for an exalted status, then you should not have lost your husband to be so recklessly.”
Once again, he seemed to be implying that it was somehow her fault.
“I did not ask him to die,” Prudence objected in what felt like a ridiculous explanation.
If this is how things were going to proceed, her life here was going to be more difficult than the nunnery.
“You didn’t ask him to live, either,” Jasper argued, as if that were clever. “If you’d married him, at least we could have had the use of his name while he cooled. As it is, we have nothing but the scandal and not a bit of advantage.”
“I could not marry a dead man.”
“You could have married him when he was alive,” Esther bit back sharply. “You could have kept your head down and your eyes lower and your mouth closed.”
“You say that as though any of this was in my control.” Prudence felt her voice break.
“It might not have been,” Jasper replied. “But considering your situation now, you should have been more careful.”
Prudence was normally not one to show emotion so easily, but here she felt outnumbered. Her lower lip began to shake and Jasper laughed.
“Let it alone, sister. She looks like she’ll cry. If she cries, she gets blotchy and is even less useful to us.”
“No, I am fine,” Prudence replied, though her voice was shaking as she said the words. “Do you require anything else from me?”
“Yes,” Esther said. “Take these notes to the post. Two to be sent at once, three to be left at the stationer for copying. And on your way, stop at Mrs. Fitch’s and fetch the reticule I left. Do not wear I and do not touch the embroidery. If you smudge it, you can pay for it with… what? Prayer?”
Prudence took the notes and avoided responding to the insult.
“I will go now,” she said.
“And you shall sweep the house later, too,” Jasper declared. “I shall tell the rest of the maids to not do so. It will be saved specifically for you.”
Once again, Prudence felt at a loss for words. She had never expected such cruelty.
In the nunnery, she would often wonder what it would be like if she was still in contact with her family. In her dreams, she had imagined them to be a perfect bunch who loved her intensely and accepted her despite her flaws. But here, the situation was the opposite.
It made her stomach sink.
“Go now,” Jasper said. “I cannot stand to see so much of you.”
A while later, she found herself sweeping the floors of their house. It was not a new thing for her as she had been made to do so at the nunnery as well, but it felt especially demoralizing.
She fetched the brush and swept the ashes into the pan. The old soot made her sneeze, but she held her breath and blinked.
One of them maids was eyeing her as she did.
“What?” she asked.
“N-nothing,” the maid replied. “Are you certain that you do not need my help?”
“She doesn’t,” Jasper’s voice answered instead. “And what did I tell you? Miss Bastable must not be assisted in any way.”
The maid blushed and quickly scurried off.
“Faster next time,” Jasper said. “A good maid knows the value of speed.”
“I am not a maid,” Prudence argued.
“Not by training,” Jasper said. “By result, perhaps. Since you don’t know how to be a lady, you can be something that earns her bread. The household is not a charity, Prudence.”
Prudence folded the brush into its place.
“I do not eat much,” she pointed out.
“You are still an extra mouth to feed,” Jasper replied. It was that moment that they were interrupted by their father, Giles.
He eyed both of his children.
“Is she causing you trouble?” he asked his son. Prudence could not help but notice how he had the safe expression of scorn for her.
“Not more than she has already caused. But I am only trying to coach her to behave in a manner that is better,” Jasper sighed. “You must know that this is a difficult task.”
Their father merely nodded. The next moment, footsteps hurried along the corridor, and the butler filled the doorway.
“Mr. Bastable is wanted in the hall,” he said. “A visitor gives his name as the Duke of Danvers.”
Prudence’s hand flew to her throat, and a shocked silence filled the room.
“The Duke of Danvers?” her father asked. “Are you sure it is not the valet?”
“That is the name that I was given,” the butler replied.
The family exchanged a series of glances. Surely, this was a strange thing. How was it possible that the Duke was living now?
“Let us go find this out,” Giles said, and they all headed downstairs to greet their guest. Prudence remained in the back, feeling nervousness swell inside of her.
What was going on?
In the drawing room, a man awaited them. He was dressed in black and had a stoic expression on his face.
Giles stared at him.
“Who are you?” he demanded and then, sharper, “You are not the Duke of Danvers.”
The newcomer bowed once. “My name is Cassian Whistler, but I suppose, you should refer to me as the Duke of Danvers.”
He had a way of talking that just oozed out confidence. If he was an impersonator, then Prudence noted that he must be a very competent one because he surely had the confidence of a duke.
Giles made an angry sound.
“We were sent a valet last week who informed us that the Duke is no longer living. Do not play games in my house,” he said. “I do not wish to entertain this level of nonsense.”
“I would really reconsider your words before speaking,” the man replied. “My brother, Alastair Whistler, is dead. I am Cassian Whistler, the new Duke of Danvers.”