G
irl! Put some more coal on that fire. I told you not to let
it burn down so low. There’s a chill in here! I don’t want
to look like a snow queen in my portrait. Hurry up, why
don’t you?” The plain young woman rustled only slightly
in the direction of the little brown child in the corner of
the room. The shining pleats of red silk that pooled around
the young woman hardly moved.
The child blinked away sleep. She was so tired, she’d
been dozing. It took her a minute to gain her senses, but
she knew that her mistress wouldn’t dare reach out to strike
her. This time. She would never risk putting a hair out of
place, not after the hours she’d spent carefully arranging
her curls and painting her face for the picture-taking man.
And besides, he had said the mistress must be still as
stone while he was preparing to make his exposure. But she
could move her lips.
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