Page 8 of The Duke's Bride in Disguise
"Upon my thigh," Ava whispered, knowing that one should never mention body parts in front of well-bred ladies, "A small heart shape."
"Gemini," the girl whispered again, reaching out to take Ava's hand in her own. "I have the exact same mark. What do you think it means?"
It means that we must be twins, Ava thought, but even in her shock she knew that she could not suggest such a thing to a member of theton. Luckily, Mary, the Irish maid, seemed to have no reservations in speaking her mind.
"What else can it mean, but that you're twins?" she said with a roll of her eyes. "I've never seen two people more alike in my life. Look—even that mole upon your cheek is the same, Lady Emily."
"It's not a mole, it's a freckle," Lady Emily replied defensively, raising a gloved hand to her cheek. Ava, despite her best effort not to, snorted with laughter at the girl's objection to calling her mole—or was it their mole?—a mole.
"I rather think," Ava said, assuming an air of composure that she did not truly feel, "That now is not the time to quibble over semantics."
"You're right," Lady Emily cast her a smile, "It's not. I simply must know everything about you. What's your name? Where were you born? Where did you grow up? Who were your parents?"
"Ava Smith. London. The Asylum for Orphaned Girls in Lambeth. And, I don't know," Ava answered in one quick exhalation of breath.
"You're an orphan?" Lady Emily turned to her maid, her brow creased in confusion. "Whatever can Mother and Father have been thinking, leaving my twin sister to be raised in an orphanage? It wasn't as though they didn't have the funds to raise twins! How can they have been so cruel?"
"Ahem," Mary cleared her throat delicately. "My lady, I do not think the Marquess and Marchioness of Havisham would have been anyway inclined toward discarding their own flesh and blood to a filthy orphanage. Perhaps, and don't take fright, you too were born within the asylum walls, but Lord and Lady Fairfax adopted you out? That's the explanation that makes most sense to my mind."
"But," Lady Emily turned back toward Ava, her eyes resting upon her worn dress and sturdy boots. "Why would they have taken only one of us?"
"That, I do not know," Mary replied with a shrug, casting a pitying glance upon Ava, though Ava was dealing with too many conflicting emotions of her own to notice. For the first twelve years of her life she had known no family, and then when she had finally found a make-shift clan in Percy and Mr Hobbs, it had been snatched away from her. Now, standing before her, was a girl who, to all intents and purposes, shared her blood. It was all a little much for Ava to handle.
"Take a big whiff," Mary, spotting that Ava was about to faint, shoved a bottle of something pungent under her nose. Ava did as she was instructed, and inhaled a big sniff of what smelled like mint and rosemary, and instantly felt much revived.
"There's no shame in taking a fit of the vapours, my girl," Mary said, placing a comforting hand upon Ava's arm, leading her into the reading room and seating her down upon the chaise lounge. "Must be mighty strange, to find family after all these years alone."
Ava nodded, her eyes cast down to her hands which rested in her lap. She did not wish to look up, for fear that Lady Emily might see the tears in her eyes and scorn her sentimentality. Never, in all her life, had she so feared rejection. What she longed to do, was to take her sister in her arms and embrace her in a bone-crushing hug; but society's diktats were deeply ingrained and she dared not reach out and touch her sister, the Lady.
Her ruminations were interrupted by a soft "oofh" as Lady Emily threw herself down beside Ava on the chaise lounge and idly threaded Ava's fingers through her own.
"Gemini," her sister said, squeezing her hand with excitement, "I have always wanted a sister and now I have one. Oh, I am so happy we have found each other. Let's never separate again."
Her words warmed Ava's very bones, until a crashing realisation made her sit up straight.
"I leave tomorrow," she said, her fingers still interlaced with those of her twin, "For Kent. I have been offered a position as a governess."
"Oh, fudge and fiddlesticks," Emily replied, her small nose wrinkling in annoyance, "We simply can't let you go. You must stay here, so that we can spend more time together. Though..."
She trailed off, her brow creased in a frown.
"What is it?" Ava prompted, wondering what it was that had made her sister's mood dip so suddenly.
"I am to be married," Emily said, the look of distaste upon her face expressing to Ava just how little her twin relished the thought, "To the most odious of men—"
She broke off, casting Mary, who had clucked disapprovingly at her description of her beau, an aggrieved glare.
"He is odious," she repeated churlishly, "Oh, he walks around as though he has a fire poker up his bottom and he's so cold--like a dead fish. All he wants, is for me to be his broodmare and produce an heir and a spare with pure, aristocratic lineage. He does not love me, nor I him."
"Gosh," Ava wrinkled her own nose at this description. Quite possibly, as Boris had suggested, she had read too many novels and had corrupted her mind with silly notions...but she truly believed that love—real romantic love—existed for everyone. The idea of Emily handing herself away into a loveless marriage with this fish of a man, was too much for Ava to bear.
"Whatever shall we do?" she wondered aloud, only realising after she spoke that unconsciously she had referred to herself and Emily as "we". It felt natural, though they had only known each other a few minutes, to think of she and her sister as being part of a pair.
"I don't know," her sister chewed on her bottom lip thoughtfully, "Honestly, I told Papa that I did not wish to marry Kilbride, but he insisted I accept his proposal. The only saving grace is that he allowed me insist on a long engagement, so that the duke and I could be certain of each other before we wed. That's it!"
Emily snapped her fingers, oblivious to the shocked look on Ava's face as she registered that her twin was engaged to the duke who she had been coveting from afar for so long.
"What's it?" Ava asked, pulling herself back into the present.
