Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 137017 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 685(@200wpm)___ 548(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137017 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 685(@200wpm)___ 548(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
I paused. If my stepmother was responsible for sorting through my invitations, I’d bet they were all from lower-ranking noble houses.
One flip of the envelopes told me I was correct. The first was from the daughter of a baronet; the second, a viscount’s daughter; and the third I checked was from a baroness who’d recently moved to the capital city and was desperate to make connections.
“What’s your name?” I asked the maid.
She swallowed. “Annie, my lady.”
“Annie, do you know what happened to the invitations the marchioness discarded?”
She didn’t say anything.
“Please do not make me repeat myself. It’s exhausting.”
“They were put in the drawing room early this morning for Lady Sophia’s perusal, my lady.”
Ha.
So, they were going to make up some excuse why I couldn’t attend and send Sophia in my place, then when it was found out that I’d attended a tea party from a lower-ranking noble instead, I would look awful in high society.
Well, two could play at that game.
“Is the marchioness home?” I asked.
Annie shook her head. “No, my lady. She went with Lady Sophia to get their dresses fitted for the spring banquet’s ball next week.”
Ah, yes. The ball I was due to attend… without anything to wear.
“Very well. Please bring me the invitations the marchioness discarded.”
She hesitated, shifting uncomfortably. “I—”
“I’ve already told you how I feel about repeating myself, Annie.”
“Yes, my lady.” She bowed her head and backed out of the room, pulling the door closed behind her.
I sighed and buried my face in my hands. Why couldn’t I have reincarnated as a cat? I barely liked modern-day society, so this noble high society was going to be an absolute killer for me.
It was all politics, politics, politics.
If I was interested in that, I’d have become a politician instead of a lawyer in my past life.
Ugh.
“Here you are, Lady Alicia.” Annie set the invitations down in front of me on the table.
“Is that all of them?”
“It is.”
“Thank you.” I picked up the pile of envelopes. They’d already all been sliced open, which made me frown.
Wow.
She was shameless.
Although, it had made my life slightly easier.
As if these weren’t all addressed to me in the first place. Was I really sneaking into my own post?
The names signed on all these envelopes were from daughters of high-ranking nobility, just as I’d suspected. My stepmother was going through them and splitting them out, forcing Sophia into my position in society.
The old Alicia may have let it slide, but the new Alicia was going to fight back.
I picked up the envelope marked with the Alansia seal and pulled out the letter. The invitation was from Lady Georgina Alansia, the third child and only daughter of the duke and duchess. She was a year younger than me, and from the letter, it seems as though she’d invited me twice before, but I’d been unable to make it.
That was news to me.
I had no memory of ever receiving an invitation from her.
She was also the number one person that my stepmother would want Sophia to make friends with—while I knew she was determined to marry my sister off to the Crown Prince, there was no way she’d turn down a marriage proposal from House Alansia.
Well, I was going to blow all that up.
There was another invitation from the wife of the young Marquess Velian who was hosting her first tea party since he’d inherited the marquessate, and that was a contact I very much wanted. House Velian were heavily involved in the fashion market, and one of the reasons Marquess Velian had married Lady Isabelle was because of her eye for fashion. His mother had seen someone she could pass her personal exclusive boutique down to, and if I could become friends with Lady Isabelle, I would have a fast track to the trends in the empire.
Ugh.
I hated weighing people up based on how useful they would be to me in society.
Well, to be accurate, one half of me hated it. The part of me that was attuned to this life thanks to this body’s memories had no issue with it at all.
The sooner these two sides of me melded into one, the better. I was beginning to feel like I had multiple personalities.
I carried the stack of letters over to my desk and copied down the time and date of both tea parties, plus the names of all those I would be rejecting, before returning them to their respective envelopes.
“Please put these back where you found them. If she asks, tell her you moved them when you were cleaning.” I handed the stack back to Annie. “Bella will handle my responses.”
Annie swallowed. “Yes, my lady.”
“Oh, and Annie? Let’s keep this between you and me.” I pressed a finger to my lips in a ‘shh’ motion and smiled. “Please do let me know if any more invitations arrive for me.”