Everything Forbidden
Chapter One
Three years later
1817
"Mama," Miranda Albright said with a sigh as she watched her mother hold up yet another silken gown to her younger sister Penelope. "Honestly, you should not have purchased these things without speaking to me first!"
Dorthea Albright turned her rotund form on her eldest daughter with a harsh frown. "This is my home, Miranda! I do not ask my children for permission for anything I do."
Miranda shut her eyes and counted to ten in her head very slowly. The hesitation wasn't nearly enough to keep her anger and frustration in check. Still, she somehow managed to maintain a calm tone when she replied.
"But, Mama, the cost of all these things!" she said through tightly gritted teeth as she motioned to the pile of fabric and hats and . . . were those jewels stacked on the settee? "I have been managing the finances for six months and I know better what can fit into our budget and what cannot."
Her mother snorted as her eyes rolled heavenward. "You know better. Ha! You know how to keep us in rags."
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