The Vespertine by Mitchell Saundra

Author:Mitchell, Saundra [Mitchell, Saundra]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 2011-03-07T05:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

I WAS SO EXCITED this morning," I told Zora as we wound our way through the refreshment room. "Why do I feel so ill now?"

Knowingly, Zora turned back to me, blocking the punch bowl for all comers, without the first indication that she cared. "It's anticipation. I told you to have that nerve tonic."

"It smelled like a ... I can't even say it in polite company."

"Well, I had some and look at me." Zora slipped her arm into mine, leading me along again. "Fine and fit and barely ready to have hysterics, considering it seems we're here entirely alone."

And with that, she gave voice to my distress.

Walking through the arch of Sienna Place had been very much an entrance to a fantasy. Under Mrs. Castillo's thoughtful gaze, we fashionably arrived an hour after the start and paid our way with new quarters. In exchange, a boy in a Grecian costume and golden diadem, presumably Apollo himself, offered us dance cards.

Past him, in the ballroom itself, tempered jets glowed along the walls and in ornate sunburst chandeliers overhead. Organza bunting, shimmering like sunlight on a lake, draped the windows, some opened to let out the heat, some closed to keep out the night. Dancing here, conversing there—the ballroom gleamed with all the jewels of respectable society.

Mrs. Castillo excused herself to sit with the other married ladies, no doubt thinking the four of us should manage quite well to chaperone one another with only an occasional glimpse from her to measure our manners.

"We'll sit over there," Mattie told us, soon after Mrs. Castillo took her leave.

She nodded at seats empty by the far windows—seats rather near a clutch of young men gesturing among themselves. Sarah swept her fan open, gazing mysteriously over its lace trim. Though she played at flirtatiousness, her voice came laced with sarcasm.

"Wish us luck on our fishing expedition, ladies."

Amused, we watched them go. As Mattie intended to dance as many dances as she could and Sarah needed time to introduce herself to the carpenters and musicians, apparently, they were wise to separate from us. We avoided too-long looks and pretended hem distress, all to the goal of saving ourselves and our cards for two alone.

"I've only just realized," I said, trying to keep bitterness from creeping into my voice, "you're the one who has an actual beau."

"Is there something on your mind?"

We turned our third circuit past the refreshment table, and I stopped to have some punch. I wondered what had turned it such a cloudy shade of storm, and when I took a sip, I had my answer. Lime, tart, teasing lime that left me puckering. "It's just ... it only just occurred to me that your invitation was made in the plain, but mine came by treachery."

Zora coughed on her punch and looked askance at me. "By treachery? Have we found ourselves at a pirates' ball?"

"Mock if you will, but it's true. If Mr. Witherspoon finds himself otherwise diverted tonight, then I'm his fool. There's nothing I can do about it.

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