𝚂𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚍 ✔

Chapter Three

The next morning mother woke me up at dawn to leave for the dress boutique right away. She insisted that the dresses needed to have been decided on, and ordered, as soon as possible if they were to be ready before the three weeks we had to prepare were up.

Adela joined us, but it was not out of her excitement for shopping, that was for sure. She was upset. No, actually she was furious. I had never seen her so jealous before, not even of Georgiana Fairefax, her rival of sixteen years.

I felt guilty for finding pleasure in all of their suffering, their discontent, but what they had been going through was honestly harmless. They were, after all, only being made to treat me like family, something that shouldn't have needed to have been forced upon them in the first place.

Though, I understood Adela's current hate for me. As she sees it, I took away her one chance to become a princess or rather her one chance to wed a prince. But it was not my choice and the only ones in the situation that she should have blamed were our parents.

Now, the reasoning behind their choice was unknown to either of us. However, there had to have been something terribly wrong with the whole ordeal for them to even think about giving up the chance to make Adela a princess and boost their own status in society, let alone do it.

When we entered the store, Mrs. Lattesworth looked as if the devil himself had appeared. "Oh, my goodness. . . What brings you all back here so early this morning? Was something wrong with the dress, Lady Beckett?"

"I am sure you have heard the rumors." Mother rolled her eyes. "I am here to have dresses made for Emma. I would like to order eight casual, four semi-formal, five formal and one spectacular dress that will set her apart from all the other suitresses, and I need them all in three weeks' time."

Mrs. Lattesworth's eyes grew wide at the large order, but once she looked at me there was a twinkle of excitement in them. It felt nice knowing someone was happy for me for a change. "Of course, My Lady. Emma lets strip you down at once and get your measurements. We have a lot to do and little time to do it."

Mother and Adela sat down on one of the tufted pale blue and silver couches in the fitting room and waited for us to return.

The two of us disappeared off into the back, far, corner of the fitting room, where we stood behind a changing screen.

Mrs. Lattesworth helped me get out of the corset I was wearing. But, unbeknownst to her, it also caused me severe pain every time I had to take it off, though, that was not her fault. While she was removing the corset, she accidentally pulled the shoulder of my smock down which, in turn, revealed part of my upper body.

She stood there for a moment, trying to contain the expression on her face, then sighed just before she whispered, "You poor child. I cannot imagine how painful it is to wear clothes, day in and day out, that have been made for another who is much smaller. These are bruises, yes?" She pointed at the purple, yellow and blue splotches on my skin. "I hope that they are only from the dresses and nothing else."

"Yes, Mrs. Lattesworth, they are from the dresses." Little did she know, that under my smock the entirety of my ribs, parts of my breasts, waist and hips were covered in them. She only saw just a sliver of the physical manifestation that came from mother's neglect.

"How do you function? How are you able to speak, sit and walk if you are this tightly laced at all times?" Her dark eyes had started to fill with tears.

"You get used to the pain after so long." I smiled, trying to keep her from crying, "Thinking of sitting in a hot bath before bed is what gets me through the worst of it."

Saying it out loud made me feel exposed. I was ashamed of my bruises, and I was scared that if mother found out she would punish me for having them, for being shapelier than my sister.