Page 6 of The Fifth Life of Alicia
Something right out of Bridgerton and the like, basically.
More than that, there was a blonde-haired woman in a black and white maid’s costume calling me ‘Lady Alicia’ through her tears. I’d barely been able to comprehend my situation before a stout man who looked like he was on the run from the Vatican had been dragged into the room and cast a light over my body before proclaiming me healthy but in need of rest.
And, somehow, over the last week, I’d managed to piece together what the bloody hell had happened to me.
My body had died in that car crash, but my soul hadn’t.
For whatever reason, my soul had taken over someone else’s body—that of Lady Alicia Vermillion, a character from one of my favourite novels in my past life. I thought this was only something that happened in books and movies, but I had enough tiny bruises over my body from all my pinching of myself to prove that this was really happening.
I’d been given a second chance at life.
The only problem? I wasn’t the main character in the book this world was from. Even worse, in the novelThe Second Life of Lillia, Lady Alicia Vermillion is the villainess who taunts the main character, Lady Lillia de Armand, after Alicia’s husband falls for Lillia at first sight.
More than that, Alicia is accused of poisoning Lillia, and after the Crown Prince announces his intention to marry Lillia, Alicia is sentenced to death and beheaded.
I’d already died once at the age of twenty-six.
It wasn’t something I wanted to repeat.
Thankfully, along with the original Lady Alicia’s memories, I had all of mine from my past life as Alicia ‘Allie’ Montgomery, complete with that of the book’s plotline. I didn’t know much about Lady Alicia’s life from the novel, but if I combined what I did know with her memories, then maybe I could change her fate.
Ahem.
My fate.
We were one and the same now.
“What are you thinking about, my lady?”
I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to being called that.
“Ah.” I turned to Bella, the maid who’d been crying when I woke up. She was Lady Alicia’s personal maid—well,mypersonal maid. She didn’t appear often in the novel, but from what I remembered, she was Alicia’s only ally both before and after she was forced into the arranged marriage that started her downfall.
“Are you feeling unwell, my lady?” Bella asked, setting a cup of tea down on the table in front of me. “Shall I call for a doctor? Perhaps a pries—oh dear, I always forget we can’t do that.”
I waved my hand. “No, no. I was just lost in thought for a moment. Thank you for the tea.”
Bella’s brown eyes filled with tears. “Oh, my lady. I’m so glad.”
“Bella, stop crying. I’m fine, aren’t I?” I smiled softly at her, picking up my handkerchief from the table so I could dab at her cheeks. “I’m still a little tired, but that’s all.”
She sniffed. “I can’t believe you almost died.”
“Mm.” I tucked the handkerchief into her hand and turned my attention to my tea. “Wipe your tears.”
I wasn’t sure the original Aliciahadn’tdied. There was no other explanation as to why my soul had ended up here. She hadn’t been able to use magic, and while she’d resorted to underhanded and petty ways to piss off the heroine in the book, she’d never resorted to a magical means of hurting her. She didn’t seem the type to do any hinky-dinky soul-swapping black magic nonsense, and honestly? The Alicia I knew of had been kind of self-absorbed, so I couldn’t imagine her wanting to live as anyone else.
After all, the reason she’d died in the book was because she’d been unwilling to give up her husband and thus her position as Grand Duchess.
She was far more the type to turn back time to get revenge with her own two hands.
Yes.
I was almost certain that the original Aliciahaddied.
Right after her half-sister had pushed her down the stairs.
An incident that hadn’t happened in the book but existed very clearly in my memories.
