“Of course,” she said. “I thought you were going to ask me somethinghard.”
“Well…” He gave her a slightly devious grin. “I’m hoping you’ll be willing to swap boats with Harriet in the middle.”
“Ah. I see,” she said, cocking an eyebrow. “Then whom willIbe sitting with? Will I be engaging in hand-to-hand combat with some notorious axe murderer on the way to dinner?”
“No, although if you were, I do hope you know my money would entirely be on you.”
“No need for flattery, Oliver, I’ve already said yes.”
“The only other person who knows about my feelings for Harriet is my closest friend, and he’s already agreed to help. So no pressure,” he said, batting his long eyelashes, “but ensuring my forever happiness is at this point all up to you.”
She relaxed. She knew Oliver’s best friend. A preppy, foppish young man named Evan Waxwell who rather inordinately loved croquet. Fine. It would be slightly painful, and perhaps scandalous if they were caught, but they could talk about mallets and wickets or whatever he wanted.
“Of course,” she said. She wanted to say,I would do anything for you.Especially this week—the last time she could help him, even though he didn’t know it yet. Instead she said, “If your mother finds out, she’s going to throw me out of the boat and drown me in the lagoon.”
“Don’t be silly. She has standards,” Oliver said. “That’s a Paul Poiret she’s wearing.”
Grace snorted.
She followed Oliver into the immense opening of the Under and Over the Sea ride, where they were ushered in by guards who unlatched a red velvet rope for them. The building had intricately sculpted towers that rose almost two hundred feet above their heads. Inside was a soaring foyer, its heavenly ceiling scattered with delicately painted domes. It was quiet and cool after the vibrant crush of humanity in the fairgrounds. Inside, waiters offered them drinks that looked like small vases made of frosted glass and topped with violets. Grace drank hers from a striped straw. It tasted like nothing she’d ever had before, sparkling and floral.
“To us!” Lillie said, toasting Grace and Oliver. As soon as they’d raised their glasses, Lillie’s eyes fell on someone in the crowd.
“Frannie!” she cried. She moved forward to give Frannie a kiss on the cheek and then pulled her back toward them. “You know Ollie, of course. And this is my beloved cousin, Grace,” Lillie said. “Grace, this is Frannie Allred.”
Frannie was dressed in a forest-green dress that set off her small waist and dark red hair. She gave Grace a smile that never reached her eyes.
“Oh yes, we’ve met,” she said, as if they were old friends. “How do you do, Grace?”
Grace smiled wanly.
“We must ride together on the gondola,” Frannie said, taking Lillie’s arm and turning her away. “I have so much to tell you.”
“I can’t wait! And Grace must come, too.”
“Oh, there’s only room for two,” Frannie said, her voice somehow both syrupy and sad.
Lillie frowned. “Well—”
“I’ll ride with Grace,” Oliver quickly volunteered.
“Yes. It’s fine. I’ll go with Oliver,” Grace said. She gave Lillie an encouraging nod. Then she returned Frannie’s disingenuous smile with a dazzling one of her own.
They were shown to a wide marble staircase leading down into a darkened pavilion, which was cavernous and lit inside to look like the night sky. Boats with gondoliers were lined up, lilting on the dark waves.
They waited with a handful of other guests in their finery while Aunt Clove and Uncle Reginald climbed into the first boat.
Then Lillie shot Grace an apologetic look and climbed into the second boat with Frannie.
“This is a clever little trick,” Grace said to Oliver as he helped her into the third. They pushed off from the pavilion and began to glide across the inky waves. A lantern hung from the back of their boat. The starry lights reflected in the dark, swirling tidepools left by the stroke of the oar. From somewhere in the distance, she could hear the deep pounding of drums. They echoed her own heartbeat.
Oliver spoke quietly to the gondolier, who gently pulled over beneath the first bridge in the underground lagoon, where another boat was waiting in the shadows.
“Thanks, mate,” Oliver said, handing him a hefty wad of bills.
“Hi, Harriet,” Grace said, looking into the shadows beneath the bridge. She smiled with genuine delight as Harriet stepped into the boat.
“Thanks for this, Grace,” Harriet said.
