I am a lady’s maid in a world obsessed with perfect pairings.
In my last life, my mistress, Lady Arabella, forced me into a marriage with her fiancé’s valet, all “for my own good.”
She’d said it with a bashful smile. “My horse is a match for the Viscount’s horse, my dog for his dog… so it’s only right that my maid should be paired with his valet. It will show the world how perfectly matched the Viscount and I are.”
The man was a philandering brute who beat me when he was drunk. I was trapped in a living hell. But when I pleaded with my mistress for help, she turned a blind eye. When I finally escaped, she personally dragged me back to that monster’s side.
“You are such an embarrassment to me,” she said, her voice like ice. “If you weren’t so defiant, a good man like Sterling would never have laid a hand on you.”
In the end, six months pregnant, I was beaten to death.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back in that same moment. Lady Arabella was holding my hand, her face beaming with warmth. “Aurora,” she said, “I have fou- nd you the most wonderful match. When you marry Sterling, you can continue to serve me for the rest of our lives.”
“You’ve been with me since we were children. I’ve always thought of you as a sister. I am to marry Viscount Langley, so it is only fitting that my handmaidens marry his retainers. It’s a match made in heaven, isn’t it?”
My heart seized. A dull ache spread through my chest, and I had to fight to keep my body from trembling.
I was rebom.
It was the exact same scene as before. Last time, seeing her so delighted, I couldn’t bear to disappoint her and agreed.
But my marriage was hell on earth. Sterling was indeed a loyal valet to his master, but he was a degenerate in his private life. Though he kept no mistresses openly, he had a legion of “confidantes” scattered across the city. When he drank, his personality twisted, and he would beat me until I was black and blue. I suffered two miscarriages at his hands.
And my mistress, the one who had sworn to be my champion if I ever faced any trouble, ignored my desperate cries for help.
“Aurora, you are too headstrong,” she would lecture. “How can a man like Sterling ever love a woman like that? What man doesn’t have a few dalliances? You must learn to be soft, gentle, and submissive if you want to keep his heart.”
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She had found her perfect match. She and the Viscount were a picture of marital bliss, their love the talk of the town. Meanwhile, I was drowning, tormented daily. With her tacit approval, Sterling grew ever more brazen. The beatings became more frequent, and he would often withhold food as punishment. Through it all, she demanded I plaster on a smile and listen to her tales of domestic happiness.
I finally escaped, only to be hunted down by her and her men. She personally returned me to Sterling’s clutches.
And so, six months pregnant with my third child, I died under a torrent of his enraged blows.
This time, I will not be her pawn. I will not repeat the mistakes of my past.
Lady Arabella was still chattering excitedly, pulling me down to sit beside her. She dangled a jade pendant from her waist for me to see, her cheeks flushed. “Look, the Viscount and I have a matching everything. The other day, he gave me a parrot and kept one for himself–a perfect male and female pair.”
“And this pendant, it’s a set of a dragon and a phoenix. He has one, I have the other. I was just thinking, perhaps I should buy a male dog to send to the Viscount. It would be a perfect match for my little Snowball, and they could have puppies.”
Snowball was a tiny female terrier. My mistress had owned her for three years. Ever since she had met her future husband, every mosquita that flew past had to be
