“I thought I hated parties. As it turns out, I just hadn’t found the right person to endure them with,” he murmured, admiring her dress.
“Though I hope you’ll still glower at everyone from the staircase,” she said. “Your black cloud is so… mysterious.”
She kissed his jaw, tracing her fingers across his birthmark.
“Stop,” he said in a low voice, gently turning his mouth toward hers, “or we won’t make it to our own party.”
When she pulled away, his hands reluctantly trailed after her. On her dressing table, he picked up a small, gilded spoon.
The gold caught the light. It was painted with the words1904 WORLD’S FAIR.
“For better or for worse,” he said, turning it in his fingers. “It brought us together.”
And after tonight, for all its beauty and horror, the fair would close forever. The buildings of the Ivory City would soon be razed. The Ferris wheel would be disassembled, its parts sent elsewhere. The winding canals would be filled in, to be erased by the growth of new earth and flowers. It had been a temporary moment in time that forever impacted the people who had walked through its gates.
“After you,” Theodore said, his gaze falling to the ring he had given her. It sparkled on her hand. “Mrs. Parker.”
Grace made her way down the massive staircase. Her train spread out behind her, a ripple of echoes down the stairs. It never ceased to amaze her when she took the turn on the landing that this was all hers.
She surveyed the house, with its arches of blooming flowers, lanterns, and luminaries that lined the sweeping front hallway.
She took a moment to appreciate it, but also to remind herself that she didn’tneedit. She was determined never to be a slave to wealth, but to make it work for her. To use it to reshape the world more how she wanted to see it.
Which was why they were holding the ball that night in the first place.
She adjusted a hanging bough of dew drops along the edge of the banister.
“Lillie,” she said, her stomach filling with warmth at the sight of her cousin.
Lillie turned. She was a vision in soft pink, her silk sleeves falling from her exposed shoulders in arcs of gold-and rose-colored beads like freshly dropping petals.
She greeted Grace with a kiss on the cheek. She smelled like narcissus.
“Thank you for the dress,” Lillie said.
Grace squeezed her. “Only twenty more and I’ll have repaid the favor,” she said.
She was happy that her cousin looked lovely. Lillie was glowing. She held a fizzing drink in her hand that almost matched the color of her gown.
“Where’s Oliver?” Grace asked.
“I believe he’s showing the kitchen staff how to make a proper peanut butter and pickle sandwich,” she said.
“Oliver!” Grace said, sighing. She shook her head as though warding off a headache.
“What?” he asked, sauntering up behind her. “I know how much you’ve always loved my PB-and-pick-which,” he said. “Or are they not sophisticated enough for you now, my darling?”
It had taken months, but the color was finally returning to his face.
“You look dashing, and a little impish, and that always looks good on you,” she said.
He kissed her cheek. “To be honest, I think I’ll feel better tomorrow, when this fair is finally behind us.”
She squeezed his hand. In the days to follow, workers would demolish the building where Harriet died, as though it had never been there. The city would move on, even if Oliver had not yet. But for the first time, his eyes lit up when Theodore offered him a box of cigars.
“He looks better tonight,” Grace commented as the two men ambled away.
“He does,” Lillie said. “His appetite has finally returned, and my mother is keeping him well-fed. Or so I hear.”
