“Like this gown?”
“Yes, like a gown, a handsome beau for a beautiful belle…”
“You deserve all that,” Jordan agreed. “Where is your handsome beau?”
Catrina moved aside, her lips puckered. “I have my eye on someone. And yes. We do get what we deserve if we take the steps needed to obtain it. Such things require work, Jordan. Thought and planning. Careful consideration.”
Jordan slipped into the gown—all satin, silk, and splendor. She swayed, helping settle the fabric over her petticoats. “And you believe I deserve every attention this amazing dress will fetch me?”
“Most certainly so.”
Jordan did a little spin before her mirrors, admiring the way the sleeves fluttered and the golden fabric lay against her skin in a neckline cut to dazzle Rowen.
Her hand flew to her chest. Dazzling Rowen was not necessarily the best strategy.
“What are you doing, you silly goose?” Catrina asked, pulling Jordan’s hand away.
“I—Rowen…”
“What about you and Rowen?” Catrina’s tone sharpened, her eyes narrowing the faintest bit. “You two aren’t having trouble again, are you?”
“No, I mean … I don’t know. I think he’s going to … He said he has a special surprise for me tonight.”
Her eyes still thin, Catrina whispered, “Surprises can be good.”
“I think he’s going to ask for my promise.”
“Oh.” Something in Catrina’s features tightened. “Well, isn’t it about time?”
Jordan’s nose crinkled. “I’m not certain…”
“You’re not certain about what?”
“What if he’s not the right one for me? I mean, should I not know if Rowen Burchette is meant to be mine and I his? Should it not be as Shakespeare wrote—with ‘sweet pangs—Unstaid and skittish in all motions else, Save in the constant image of the creature, That is belov’d’?”
“You feel no pangs?”
“No. Not a pang nor a twinge.”
“And no skittishness … no sensation of being off balance?”
“No.”
One of Catrina’s slender eyebrows arched. “You are full of doubt, poor little dear.” Her lips twisted but her eyes sparked. “Are you afraid he might ask for your promise in an effort to climb rank?” Catrina’s eyes popped wide open. “Not that Rowen would ever do something so callous—using you merely to raise his status.”
“No,” Jordan whispered, though the thought had occurred to her shortly after they’d first met. Rowen was a beautiful boy and rank could never be far from mind when someone like him came into the life of someone like her. His family was a class below her own—still perfectly acceptable as marriage material, but not the step up the social ladder her parents wanted her to take.
Promising herself to Rowen was only a gain to him. And a misstep could be disastrous to rank—a badly planned marriage, a social faux pas, magick discovered in one’s heritage … Many things could send a family hurtling toward ruin. But magick—it was the worst—it was a nearly inescapable taint and the only thing that did more than ruin a family’s reputation. Magick was even worse than being a Catholic in Philadelphia.
Magick ruined everything.
“Then you must tell him no should he ask,” Catrina said to their reflections. “And perhaps it is best if you do not draw undue attention to yourself. Step out of the dress.”
“What? No. I am in the dress and wish to remain so.” Jordan set her hands on her hips.
“It is so … showy…”
“It took so long for you to convince me to wear it and now you change your mind? I think not. Perhaps you are jealous?”
Catrina’s eyes grew small again.
“I jest!” Jordan grinned. “This dress feels delightful,” she whispered. “It feels like destiny.”
Catrina peered at her from beneath long eyelashes. “You are right,” she said, turning Jordan around so she could better pull taut the lacings that ran up her corset. “This dress is destined for you. Now suck in your breath,” she urged.
Jordan obeyed, holding her breath so long as Catrina fumbled her fingers around the lacings that the room swam in her sight and her knees went soft. Catrina tugged the dress closed and smacked Jordan on the back, so she hauled in a fresh breath. Cinched so tight her stomach felt tucked in with her lungs and her décolletage defied more than gravity—it defied reason, she realized, glimpsing herself in the mirror—Jordan stumbled forward.
“Fantastic!” Catrina said with a little clap. “Now a final spin…”
Jordan obliged, stopping so fast her layered skirts swayed out like they’d continue without her. She laughed. “The skirts are so thick I don’t imagine I’ll fit through a single doorway.”
“But it shapes you marvelously. You are a bell-shaped belle. You’ve always had nice breasts, but now it looks like you have hips, too, and a waist so distinguished a wasp would be envious.” Catrina stepped around her, touching her hair to gather up little strands and let loose others. “Your necklace?”
Jordan handed her the black velvet band with its butterfly wing pendant glinting under glass.
“Perfection,” Catrina announced. “Just…” She reached out, pinching Jordan’s cheeks so fast Jordan had no chance to block her.
“Ouch! What—”
“A real blush is far better than any rouge the Old World might manufacture.”
“Then get me to blush, not bruise,” Jordan suggested, pulling on her gloves and sliding on a few bracelets.
Frowning, Catrina yanked two bracelets off. “You mustn’t look garish.”
“Why must you change me,” Jordan snapped before slapping a hand across her own mouth. “I apologize. That did not come out as I intended.” She lowered her eyes. “It is merely … I am happy the way things are. I am content as one might be being imperfect and understanding I may never love Rowen—well—not in the way most want. I don’t want anything to change. I am comfortable.”
“Fine, fine. It is your party. If you want to be comfortable and wear too many bracelets to be seemly, be my guest. If you want to blush, perhaps Rowen will recite a limerick…”
Jordan clicked her tongue at her friend as they squeezed out the door together, skirts shifting awkwardly in too narrow a space. “Rowen would do no such thing—”
“Ha! You’re blushing even now, you little liar. Here. Take your shawl.”
Jordan settled the sheer shawl around her shoulders. It did nothing to hide her bosom.
“Stop frowning,” Catrina demanded.
Down the hall they went, pausing at the top of the stairs to observe the crowd milling about in the hall and foyer below.
The walls were painted the rich sunset hue of Spanish Red and trimmed with bone-colored chair rails. Wainscoting lined the lower third of the foyer, so bright against the deep red it nearly glowed, and hiding every seam between ceiling and wall hung meticulously carved wooden molding the creamy color of whalebone ivory so perfect no scrimshander had dared yet carve his art into it.
It made for a powerful scene, filled with powerful people.
Jordan sighed. “You’re right, of course. Rowen is always good for at least one questionable joke or song.”
Catrina adjusted her skirts, and, scanning the crowd, announced to Jordan, “And there he is now. Speak of the devil.”
Rowen stood spotlighted by the wall sconces just inside the foyer, the glow of their renewed stormcells stroking the angles of his jaw and turning his normally golden hair into something otherworldly.