The Heiress Arrived as a Housemaid Before Her Engagement – What She Overheard Made Her…

Chapter 2

The estate was magnificent. The people inside it were not.

Morning sun poured through tall windows the next day, gilding the breakfast hall as servants carried silver trays across the long table. Fresh bread still warm from the ovens, butter curled into roses, smoked ham, boiled eggs, jars of fruit preserves, and tea that steamed in porcelain cups. The spread could have fed several struggling families for a week. Theodora, who had eaten only bread and weak coffee in the servants’ hall before dawn, watched the feast with a quiet, hollow ache in her stomach.

When breakfast ended, Duchess Honoria glanced at the untouched dishes with the expression of a woman staring at something rotten.

“Throw it away,” she said.