A Lady Never Tells(151)

Therefore, as soon as Vivian had learned of the ball, she had sent a note posthaste to Madame Arceneaux, ordering new ball gowns for the Bascombe sisters. The day before the ball, Vivian arrived at Willowmere followed by two footmen with a trunk.#p#分页标题#e#

“I thought it would be a problem coming up with four gowns all white and yet distinctive enough,” Vivian told them. “But Madame’s taste and ingenuity have won the day.”

Prue and Junie took the four ball gowns out of the trunk and laid them across the bed in Mary’s room. The gowns themselves were exactly alike—puff-sleeved concoctions of white satin slips over which hung round dresses of Urlings net. Flounces of white Urlings lace festooned the bottoms of the skirts, each point of the festoons anchored by a small cluster of satin roses. The difference among the dresses lay in the color of the satin roses and the ribbons that decorated the short sleeves and ran around the high waists. Blue satin ribbons and roses adorned Rose’s dress, while Lily’s were pink, Camellia’s yellow, and Mary’s a delicate lavender. White kid gloves, white satin slippers, and white lace fans decorated with matching ribbons completed the outfits.

“Vivian!” The Bascombe sisters showered their friend with thanks.

Vivian simply smiled and said, “I could not let you make your first public appearance in anything less than an Arceneaux gown.”

The following evening, when the girls were dressed, with their hair done up in curls in the French style, small satin roses of the same color as the trim of their dresses pinned into their hair, the effect of all of them together was both dramatic and sweetly innocent.

As she made her way downstairs with her sisters, Mary knew that she looked her best. She was filled with a jittering anticipation. Royce had been gone for almost four days. He had returned that afternoon, she had heard, but as she had been upstairs in the midst of dressing for the party, she had not seen him. She would never have admitted how badly she wanted to see him, how much she had missed him. How many times a day she had thought about him.

Royce was standing in the entryway chatting with the earl and Fitz when the girls made their way down the stairs. He turned, and his reaction when he spotted Mary was everything she could have hoped for. He took an involuntary step forward, his face suddenly taut, his eyes burning.

“Mary …”

She could not hold back a triumphant smile. Perhaps there was hope for them. Maybe if she married Royce, someday his desire for her might turn to love.

Royce bent over her hand, murmuring, “You dazzle the eyes tonight, my Marigold. Every man at the ball will be jealous of me for arriving with you.”

“A pretty speech, sir,” she retorted. “But we shall see how they feel after they have danced with me.”

At the ball, Lady Sabrina greeted them beside her husband. She was coolly beautiful in an ice blue satin gown, pearls looped around her throat and palely glowing in her earlobes. She could have been the goddess of the moon, Mary thought, lovely and unobtainable, the object of any man’s desire.

“Darling Mary!” Sabrina greeted her with a smile, but now Mary could see that it did not reach the woman’s eyes. “How lovely you look. I hope you are not too nervous about your first ball. I am sure that you will not stumble or do anything wrong.”

“Oh, no, I intend to be too busy having fun to do anything like that,” Mary responded easily. “You look very pretty, too. What a lovely dress you’re wearing. But where is Lady Vivian? I would have thought she would be here to help greet your guests.” Mary had little doubt that Sabrina had purposely excluded Lady Vivian from the receiving line; she would not want the competition of Vivian’s dazzling beauty.

“Oh, you know our Vivian.” Sabrina smiled noncommittally and passed Mary on to Lord Humphrey. “And Sir Royce,” she purred, reaching out to take his hand. “So wonderful to see you again.”#p#分页标题#e#

“Hello, Lady Sabrina.” He gave her a perfunctory bow. “Lovely party.” He moved on to shake Lord Humphrey’s hand.

Mary danced a cotillion with Royce first, followed by a dance each with the earl and Fitz, so that by the time she was asked out onto the floor by Lady Vivian’s stately uncle, her nerves were almost entirely gone, and she was able to get through the steps with only a minor bobble.

She glanced around, happily noting that her sisters all seemed to be dancing and chatting without problem. Even the normally reserved Rose was much more animated tonight, a state due, Mary suspected, to Sam Treadwell’s presence by her side. Mary chatted with Charlotte and Lady Vivian, who was absolutely stunning in an emerald silk gown with black lace trim and an elegant little train.