Changeling by Molly Harper

Author:Molly Harper [Harper, Molly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-64197-034-1
Publisher: NYLA

McCray House Sigil

“Lovely to officially meet you,” I responded as I returned the courtesy, a near impossibility in the tight corner we’d chosen for our encampment.

“And you as well,” Ivy said, dropping in a much more graceful curtsy than I could manage. “Though I’m not sure I enjoy laughing at your expense. It just happened.”

“I would have believed that if the laughter hadn’t been so loud, but it’s possible I earned it later.”

“Thank you so much for coming to my aid,” Alicia whispered. “I am terrible at these parties, really I am. I would much rather be in my room or in the library, doing, well anything, but talking to people I don’t know or do know and don’t particularly like. But Mother insists that if I’m going to be a proper young lady, I need to learn to ignore my ‘fits of pique’ and smile through it all.”

I smiled at her, not sure whether it would make her feel better or worse to tell Alicia that I was just glad that she wasn’t a library ghost. I guessed it would make her feel worse.

“That sounds very familiar,” I said, as we pushed carefully through the palms to ease back into the noise of the party. “And the ribbon was no trouble at all. I would hope that if my dress were damaged, someone would do the same for me. But given the attitudes of some of my classmates, I accept that it’s unlikely.”

“Oh! Poor Alicia!” I heard a nasal voice exclaim behind me. Alicia jumped slightly at my side. And Ivy cowered. Cowered. And that made me angry.

“Oh, my lady’s maid has just the thing to get that stain out,” Callista said, clucking under her tongue as she made a great fuss of moving Alicia’s improvised sash aside and inspecting the damage to her gown. “Of course, I only offer that help to my dearest, closest friends.”

My brow lifted and I wondered why Callista was being so very overt about manipulating Alicia into a corner. What did Alicia have that Callista would want? She was young, so little, people barely noticed Alicia was there. She didn’t post any sort of threat to Callista’s hold on the school. Why would Callista orchestrate the collision that led to the damaged dress in the first place, so she would have a chance to “rescue” Alicia from her predicament… Wait. McCray. Alicia was a McCray, as in crayfire lamps and crayfire engines. Everybody knew that the McCrays were rolling in money thanks to our society’s dependence on their most recent inventions. Maybe Callista was trying to force a connection to that wealth through “friendship?”

“And of course, as my dearest closest friend, you would introduce me to your family, including your charming brother.” Callista nodded significantly to a tall, dark-haired handsome boy standing with several of the older Palmer boys near the garden door.

And there we had it. Callista was trying to strong-arm her way into a relationship with Alicia’s attractive and very rich brother.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.