CHAPTER ONE
“Goodness, why are youalwayslurking in corners?” asked the tall, willowy young lady with the feathers in her hair, a scowl narrowing her blue eyes behind a gold mask that resembled a peacock. “Are you intent on frightening everyone and anyone who desires a momentary reprieve fromactuallyparticipating in the ball?”
Lady Teresa Wilds clenched her hands into fists, unwilling to give up her hideaway to this woman, Lady Juliet, and her gaggle of harpies. No matter what the event or where she tucked herself away—even at a masquerade where sheshouldhave been undiscoverable—Lady Julietalwaysmanaged to find Teresa, as if she had made it her mission to disrupt Teresa’s peace.
“You know, you really ought to at least try,” Lady Juliet remarked with a smirk. “If you do not, you shall end up a spinster. You must be, what, five-and-twenty by now? You have almost no time left, and one does not want to have to be in the position of scraping the barrel.”
“I am twenty,” Teresa muttered, hiding her book in the folds of her skirt.
Lady Juliet feigned a gasp that made her friends snort. “Heavens, you would never think it to look at you.” She paused. “I say this from a place of kindness, Lady Teresa, but you reallyshouldstop spending so much time out of doors. It has weathered your face terribly.”
“You cannot see my face,” Teresa said with all the curtness she could muster, her cheeks hot beneath her own mask: a bronze masterpiece of elegantly twisting curlicues and little fern embellishments, with an adorable nose, and surprisingly sharp teeth.
“Not tonight,” Lady Juliet replied with a smirk. “But I know what you look like beneath that mask. Honestly, what are you supposed to be?”
Teresa swallowed. “A bear.”
Like the fairytale…It was a German story she adored, where a cursed prince had been transformed into a bear by a mean-spirited dwarf, and had the curse broken by a beautiful maiden. But she was not going to give Lady Juliet the satisfaction of hearing that.
“How… unique,” Lady Juliet said, sniffing.
Her harpies giggled behind their hands: a pretty array of birds and rabbits, like every other lady at the masquerade, aside from the occasional deer and a butterfly or two.
“Have you nothing better to do than pester me?” Teresa asked wearily, struggling to raise her gaze to her antagonist.
Do not make me hate this mask.Teresa had spent an age designing it, and had yelped with joy upon its arrival from the metalsmith. It was precious to her, and these nasty ladies were tarnishing it.
“Pardon?” Lady Juliet replied loudly, cupping her ear. “I am afraid I cannot hear you. Do speak up. It truly is impossible to understand you.”
“And you can shut your mouth entirely, Juliet,” a different voice interjected, a force of nature pushing straight through the cluster of smirking, snickering women. “I always find myself wondering if it will finally be the night that you grow tired of the sound of your own voice, but I am perpetually disappointed.”
Teresa expelled a breath of relief at the sight of her dear, dear friend, Beatrice Johnson. A fellow outsider, but not at all for the same reasons: where Teresa was a wallflower, Beatrice was ivy that grew wild and wherever it pleased, impossible to ignore.
Lady Juliet scoffed in outrage. “Howdareyou speak to me that way!”
“Oh, I dare,” Beatrice shot back. “And there is far more that I could say, if you push me; far more that I could say if you do not leave my friend alone, and go and flutter your eyelashes at some poor soul in the ballroom at once.”
Lady Juliet hesitated.
“I could mention where you were this past Sunday, when you were supposed to be at church, but feigned a headache,” Beatrice continued, with a sly smile that seemed all the slier thanks to her fox mask.
The other young woman’s blue eyes widened, her mouth slack for a moment. In the next instant, she was mumbling something about not wanting to be associated with such hapless creatures and ushering her friends away from the quiet annex with all the haste of someone with a secret to keep.
Once they were gone, Beatrice sauntered over and sank down onto the floor, sitting at Teresa’s side. She nudged Teresa’s arm with an affectionate bump, that wicked grin still on her face, though her eyes were creased with concern.
“Sorry for being gone so long,” Beatrice said, lifting her mask. “My uncle and cousin arrived while I was fetching drinks, so I was distracted. I should have known those callous witches would find you. I still think you should consider carrying a stick with you, so you can whip them with it if they get too close.”
Teresa laughed halfheartedly. “And make myself twice as weird as everyone already thinks I am?”
“There is nothing weird about you,” Beatrice insisted, weaving her arm through Teresa’s. “You are interesting, you are unique, you are glorious, you are exemplary in every way, which is more than can be said for those nasty wastrels. I know it is easy for me to say, but do not listen to a word that comes out of their bitter mouths. All they are interested in is defeating potential rivals, andyou, dearest Tess, are a formidable threat.”
A snort erupted from Teresa’s throat. “I am as threatening to those ladies as a defanged, declawed, blind and deaf kitten.”
“The very sort of being that a gentleman wouldlongto scoop up and take care of,” Beatrice pointed out with a smile, and lightly touched her friend’s precious mask. “But you are not at all a helpless kitten. You are a fierce and remarkable she-bear, and I will not hear another word said against you, least of allbyyou.”
Lifting her chin, Teresa glanced at the opening to the annex, where Lady Juliet and her friends had been. She frowned at the absence, listening absently to the muffled music of the orchestra and the gentle babble of chatter coming from all those who belonged out there, who knew how tobeout there among society.
“Let us have a picnic tomorrow,” Beatrice suggested. “Forget all of this ever happened.”
