AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“But my lady, you already wore this, two years back, to the Chesterton winter ball,” the maid says, turning the dress back and forth. I hold my breath. The cape isn’t plain black silk like I had thought, but has a full moon picked out on it in an array of beads, gray, silver, dark gray, black, white, showing all the crevices and craters of its magical surface.
“Oh, not to worry, although we’ll have to take the hem up somewhat since she’s much shorter than me.” Lady Ruby turns her luminescent eyes on me, smiling broadly, and the maid inhales, while all the others stop in their tracks. They look to me.
“H-her, my lady?” The maid asks. There’s a rustle in the air, whispering, as they realize what’s going on.
“It’s my prerogative to have a guest of honor at my ball,” Lady Ruby says, standing up and gesturing to me to do the same. “See to it that she’s fitted by next week, and girls—“ She turns to them, drawing herself up to her full height. Like this, she is queenly, and I want to fall to my knees at the immense wave of power she gives off.
The girls nearly do, curtseying to her, heads bowed.
“This will be our little secret,” she says, voice commanding instant and complete obedience. My heart nearly stops in my chest. I would throw myself into traffic for her. I would jump off a cliff for her. I would—
“My lady, your twin requests your presence,” Jolan interrupts us, their quiet and firm demeanor slipping under the moment and only elevating it. They have stepped back into the room, not a shining blond hair out of place, their brown eyes resting only on Lady Ruby’s face, ignoring the rest of us as we aren’t of consequence.
“Excellent. I wondered when he would wake up,” Ruby says, and sweeps out of the room. Jolan follows her, without a glance to me or any of the maids. Footsteps retreat upstairs, Lady Ruby’s voice fading into the distance.
“Eva,” whispers one of the maids, as we are left alone. I look at them, and they return my gaze, scandalized and concerned. “What on earth have you done?”
37
Eva
"I don't know what you expect me to do at this point," I say, trying to keep the stress out of my tone as Mrs. Harris watches me from across my bedroom. There's a hairdresser, supplied by Lady Ruby, doing my hair, and my heart is frantically beating in my chest. I want to vomit. But that would ruin my black velvet dress, the sweetheart neckline threatening to show off my breasts more than I've ever shown them before. If I vomit, they're likely to pop right out. It's altogether a bad idea.
"And there was no way you could refuse?" Mrs. Harris asks me before wringing her hands and sighing. "Of course not. I am being foolish. But truly, you will be noticed. Someone will know you don't belong."
"Lady Ruby has been teaching me some dances," I say, and I bite the inside of my cheek. And it won't be the first time I've moved among the higher born.Hetook me to an opera, dressed me in satins like I was one of the French aristocrats, and then proceeded to debauch me in his private box.
That was back then. Before I knew better. Now I know better, and still manage to get myself into trouble, but at least I feel likeI have some say in it.
At least now I'm knowingly, willingly, ruining my life and my future. Beside, the masquerade may be a saving grace. Invitations went out weeks ago, and most of Benedict's co-conspirators in his little plan to unseat Mason have said they will come. This is my chance to walk beside them, listening in, and learning as much information as possible while remaining invisible. Invisible and unimpeachable. No one has to know that I'm not what I appear.
And then what? You just give Benedict up when you have enough facts? See him hang?
I ignore the swirling thoughts and the hairdresser steps back, admiring her work.
"Beautiful," she says, "comparable to any young miss from a good family."
"Surely not!" Mrs. Harris exclaims. The hairdresser turns to her, a knowing smile on her face.
"Half of them have more nose than they'd like to claim, or faces as long as horses. This miss looks the picture of a society beauty." She moves back toward me and lifts up the lid from a silver box sitting on the dressing table. Inside is a black silk mask, eye holes lined with sparkling, clear crystals. Silver whorls of glittering paint tease across the fabric. She pulls it out.
"One last touch," she murmurs as she puts it across my face. I close my eye. There's a tug of my hair, and she must be pinning its tying ribbons directly into my waves and braids. "Perfect."
I look at myself in the mirror, and hold my breath. A strange creature looks back at me, ripped right from the photos of thesociety blogs.
I look high born. I am not, but I look it. My stomach shivers, sending vines of trembling, sparkling sensations through my body. This is it. This is really happening.
"Whatever you do, do not get yourself into trouble," Mrs. Harris says, grabbing my arm as I go to leave my bedroom minutes later. "There won't be room for you in this house, no matter how much his grace has taken to you, if you get yourself into trouble."
"I'll stick to the shadows, no one will know I'm there," I insist. She looks at me with doubt framing her eyes.
"If you say so."
My slippered feet whisper down the stairs to the private waiting room Lady Ruby told me to hide in. The plan was for me to wait, and then I would slide in after most of the guests had arrived.
The room is still, but I can hear the muffled sound of conversation beyond its far-curtained door and the strains of classical music soaring through the air. It feels like each step I take will see me tumbling to the ground, that even in here, in this small box of a room sparsely furnished with a few sitting chairs, a mirror, and a rug, I'm being watched.
I have to remember that I'm wearing a mask. No one will know. Once I'm out there, amongst the hordes of hungry social climbers and nobility, I'll be completely invisible.
