He was a chillingly good liar, Grace noted—and between him and Aunt Clove, she didn’t get to speak to Lillie privately until they were entering the Chinese pavilion.
Lillie was dressed in a red silk dress with an exquisite, intricate pattern of lace over the bodice that was mirrored along the hem. The neck was high but draped with strands of lace that emulated delicate necklaces. Her hair was pulled up with pins in the shape of gold lotus blossoms that caught the light.
She was nothing short of stunning. Several heads turned wherever she moved.
Lillie didn’t seem to notice.
The Imperial Chinese pavilion was set beside the Belgium exhibit and just in front of Cuba. The Ferris wheel was visible in the distance, peeking out from beyond the elegant, upwardly sloping eaves of the vibrant red entrance gate. They passed through it and stepped into the Chinese pavilion, which had a fragrant rose garden, a goldfish pond, and an intricate pagoda carved with six thousand pieces of wood, ivory, and ebony. Red Chinese lanterns hung from the timbers, delicately swaying with the evening breeze.
“I need your help tomorrow evening,” Lillie whispered to Grace, taking her arm. “Can you distract Oliver for me so I can slip away?”
“What do you mean, distract him?” Grace asked. “We’re in the middle of the fair. Shall I propose a game of croquet?”
“I’ll pretend to go off with some friends tomorrow evening. I just need him and my mother to not be asking questions. It shouldn’t behard.” Lillie’s fingertips grazed her blood-red lips. Her hair smelled like it always did, clean and faintly of lavender. “Not as though he hasn’t been distracted enough lately,” she said under her breath.
Grace paused. “What do you mean?” she asked.
Lillie’s eyes scanned the crowded palace, pausing for a moment on Harriet. She almost seemed to say something.
“Never mind,” she said.
“Look,” Grace said, eager to change the subject. “There’s the prince.”
Prince Pu Lun was speaking with the fair’s president and organizer, David Francis. He was flanked by bodyguards and wore small circular spectacles. His ornate silk robes were intricately embroidered with gold-wrapped thread that shimmered in the light.
“Cheers.” Lillie accepted a teacup, raising it to Grace just as Adolphus Busch, the St. Louis beer brewing magnate, presented the prince with the gift of a brand-new carriage.
The crowd exploded with applause.
Grace sipped her tea, which was strong with jasmine, and followed Lillie toward the open-air balconies, where the sunrise was beginning to streak across the sky in shades of soft pink and lilac. She knew, even without having to ask, where Lillie was going tomorrow: the Evening Dispensary. She was the only one who knew Lillie’s secret and she held it close to her breast, as careful as an infant, knowing what it would cost Lillie if high society—or worse, her own mother—found out. Sneaking off to help female doctors at the underground women’s clinic was dangerous, but it wasn’t wrong. It was noble, actually, and that was why Grace was willing to help her. She loved her good, good cousin. Her smart and wickedly funny and kindhearted cousin. She gave Lillie an affectionate kiss on the cheek, just because she could. For one more week at least, she could do that whenever shepleased. And then she glanced over her shoulder, scanning the room for Earnest.
“Cousin,” Oliver said, finishing his drink. “You look lovely tonight.”
“Thank you,” Grace said. She smoothed down her dress. “So does Harriet,” she added, so that only Oliver could hear.
“She looks happy,” Oliver said, as Harriet laughed throatily at something Theo said. And she did. She was beautiful, wearing a black dress patterned with iridescent shells that caught the dim light. Theodore was sharply handsome in a tailored black suit, his face all angles in the shadows.
“Indeed,” said Grace lightly. “Mr. Parker is playing his role well.”
Too well?she wondered. She wouldn’t put it past Theodore Parker to be the sort of man to steal his friend’s love. And, a darker part of her thought, if Harriet was merely out for money and status, then Theo had even more to offer her than Oliver.
She felt almost violently protective of her cousins. She wanted their every happiness. And yet she knew how money distorted things. How enticing Oliver might be for his fortune alone. How difficult it could be to tell the truth of feelings when money was involved.
After all—she liked Earnest Allred. She could feel her attraction to him growing. But she wanted to make certain she liked him for genuine reasons, and not just what he could do for her. Or in exchange, she would come to no longer like herself.
Almost as though summoned by her thoughts, Frannie Allred appeared at the palace entrance dressed in a jewel-blue dress that set off her pale skin and auburn hair. Grace leaned forward and her heart rose, but the man on Frannie’s arm wasn’t Earnest. Instead he was a tall, handsome redhead that Frannie gazed at adoringly.
Grace felt the sharp prick of disappointment.Careful, she cautioned herself.Don’t get your hopes up.
She’d been burned enough times to know that people in these circles worked with different sets of rules than she did. Perhaps, despite asking her to dance, Earnest wasn’t coming tonight after all.
“Looking for someone?” Theodore asked wryly, appearing at Grace’s elbow, sipping his yellow wine. She smelled a whiff of honey and smoke.
She didn’t look at him. “For a man who hates parties you seem to attend a frightful lot of them,” she said.
“With company this pleasant,” he said smoothly, “who could blame me?”
She rolled her eyes. The air was pungent with floral scents of yellow wine and sprays of peach blossoms and chrysanthemums. Grace loved the smell of the intricately carved teakwood chairs, the rustle of the Chinese women’s rich silks. The way she felt so far away from her real life. She plastered a smile on her face as Oliver and Lillie approached with a young Chinese man, trying to chase away the disappointment that Earnest was still not there.
