Read Online Shaken to the Core by Jae - Free Book Online Page A

arm.
    “You don’t have to do that.”
    “What?” Giuliana looked back and forth between the carpet and Miss Kate’s face. “Brush the carpets?”
    “Curtsy,” Miss Kate replied. “There’s no need for formalities when we’re alone.”
    What was she supposed to say to that? Miss Kate’s words didn’t fit the rules her mother imposed on every servant in the household.
    Miss Kate didn’t seem to care that a lady of her standing was supposed to ignore the hired help. She cocked her head and looked at Giuliana with an expectant smile.
    Truth be told, Giuliana enjoyed being treated like a human being, not a servant, by at least someone in the family. But it was a bittersweet experience, one that she couldn’t fully enjoy. If Mrs. Winthrop saw them talk to each other, she’d take her annoyance out on Giuliana. So she tried to stay out of sight as much as possible as she went about her duties, just the way a good servant was supposed to. But Miss Kate made that all but impossible.
    “I really cannot,” she whispered. “I should not…”
    “Shouldn’t do w—?”
    “Goodness gracious!” a loud voice behind her made Giuliana flinch. “Kathryn Elizabeth, surely you aren’t wearing that skirt again! I told you it’s much too short to be proper attire for a young lady.”
    Miss Kate sighed. “Mother, everyone is wearing them when riding around in automobiles. Long skirts are just not practical for climbing up onto a motorcar.”
    “Everyone? I don’t see the Bakers’ daughters or Mr. Jenkins’s sister wearing skirts like that. But then again, they aren’t driving all over town on their own, completely unescorted.” Mrs. Winthrop tsked and shook her head. “Your father is spoiling you too much. If your brother had lived, everything would be different.”
    Miss Kate’s spine stiffened. “But he didn’t. I’m the one who survived the darn typhoid fever. I know you wish it different, but—”
    Mrs. Winthrop gasped. “No. Never. I never thought that for a second.” She glanced at Giuliana, who was staring at the carpet, trying hard to make herself invisible. “Not in front of the help. Let’s go into the drawing room.”
    In passing, Miss Kate handed Giuliana the duster and the pair of goggles and whispered, “Thank you.” Then the door closed behind the two Winthrop women.
    Giuliana stared after them and slowly let out the breath she’d been holding. So the Winthrops’ lives weren’t as blessed as she had thought. All their money hadn’t saved their son from dying of typhoid. So it seemed she and Miss Kate had something in common after all. They had both lost a brother.
    She shook her head at herself. That didn’t mean they could ever be equals. Back to work. That carpet wouldn’t clean itself. She put Miss Kate’s duster and goggles away and then knelt on the carpet and picked up the brush. For a moment, she peeked toward the drawing room, wishing she could hear what was being spoken inside, then she resumed scrubbing.
    * * *
    Her mother pulled Kate over to the small table. Even when they were both seated, she didn ’t let go but kept holding on to Kate’s hands with an almost painful grip. She hadn’t known there was so much strength in her mother’s elegant fingers.
    “When your brother—”
    Kate interrupted by squeezing her fingers hard. “Say his name.”
    “Pardon me?”
    “His name. Father and you rarely mention it anymore.” Sometimes, it was as if her brother had never existed and she’d been an only child all along.
    Her mother dabbed at her eyes with a monogrammed handkerchief. “It’s not because I have forgotten him. It just…it hurts too much. When Cornelius Junior fell ill and we couldn’t get his fever down, I would have done anything, given anything to save him. Except for one thing.” She slid the handkerchief into the sleeve of her dress and looked at Kate with red-rimmed eyes. “I never prayed for the Lord to take you instead.”
    Kate searched her