However, they took but a few steps across the ballroom when suddenly the music that was playing from the stringed quartet cut out. It was sharp and unexpected, as if the musicians had all suffered a heart attack at once. This, of course, saw the humdrum of the ballroom stifle, heads turning, mutters rising to see what was the cause of the stoppage.
“What is going on…” Alicia looked about, brow furrowed. “Why did they…” She trailed off as a commotion broke out near the ballroom’s entrance.
Clara saw it too. Or rather, she saw the masses of lords and ladies hurriedly part, creating a walkway as if a horse was about to tear through the room. There was no such thing, of course. Rather, the reason for the commotion and the music ceasing, from surprise, it must have been, was the arrival of a single lord whom Clara had never seen before.If I had, I would certainly remember.
“No,” Alicia gasped from beside her. “It cannot be…”
“What? Who is it?”
“His Grace,” she said in a hushed whisper; awe filled her voice. “The Duke of Ravencourt.”
Clara had met powerful men before. She had met men of importance, of worth, who carried themselves with an air of sophistication and righteous propriety that gave them a natural air of superiority. That was nothing new to her and could be true of half the men here. But as she watched the duke enter the ballroom, noticing how the crowd parted for him, gaped and stared, whispered behind their hands while leaning away as if fearing that he might overhear them, she realized that she hadneverseen one of his like before. Ever.
Dressed entirely in black, he was tall and thin but by no means frail. Like a sword wrought from iron, power emanated from his frame—danger, too, as if just looking at him might see you cut. Sharp lines made up his face, and deep grey eyes judged and looked down upon everything that they saw. Handsome heundoubtedly was, but that hardly seemed important; such was the aura of the man.
“Who is he?” Clara breathed. She stared at him, but she did not care.
“I just told you,” Alicia said, also staring. Everyone in the ballroom was happy to gape, while just as happy to keep their distance. He was a tiger released in their midst, calm for now, but who knew when he would choose to pounce?
“No…” Clara tore her eyes free and looked to her friend. “Whoishe? Why the commotion?”
Alicia gave her head a shake and focused back on Clara. “You have not heard of the Duke of Ravencourt?”
“Would I be asking if I had?”
She sighed. “Sometimes I forget how your father has locked you away.” She glanced across the room, taking note of the duke’s trajectory, and then took Clara by the hand and dragged her further away. “You are not going to believe it when I tell you,” she began, her voice low.
“Surely it cannot be that bad…” She looked over Alicia’s shoulder, and still the duke walked casually as people watched him. None approached. None got too close. Stranger still, he did not seem to care.
“Worse,” Alicia insisted. “To begin with, it is said that he…” She looked about quickly, her voice turning even lower. “Murdered his own wife!”
Clara’s eyes turned wide. “No.”
Alicia nodded. “Furious that she would not take with child, he poisoned her. Although some say that he smothered her with a pillow, laughing as he did so.”
“That is…” Her eyes drifted past Alicia. The duke was now sitting alone across the back wall of the room. He appeared bored. Disinterested, even.Why is he here?
“To make matters worse, when his father found out, he was forced to murder him as well!” she continued excitedly. “It is said that he pushed him from the window of the tallest tower, right into an open grave.”
“There is no way.”
Alicia shrugged. “Then why does he never leave his home? That is what proves it! Since then, he has been seen in public only a handful of times. Less than that! I once heard someone claim that his wife and father are not even dead, that he keeps them locked away as prisoners. His wife to give him children, his father to beat and bloody when his temper turns…”
A chill ran through the ballroom suddenly, and Clara felt it wrap her body and touch her bones. She shuddered, unable to keepglancing at the duke, even if each time she did, that feeling of dread rose inside of her so that she might scream.
And yet there is just something about him that I cannot stop looking at. Past the rumors. Past the terror. I do not know what it is, but…she found him again, biting her lip now as she studied the man who sat alone, looking bored, avoided by everyone as if he were a snake lurking in the grass. Despite his power and her vulnerability, she could understand his isolation.
“What are you looking at!” Alicia grabbed Clara. “Stop!”
“Oh!” Clara gave her head a shake and turned from the duke. “Sorry, I was just…” She trailed off as she cast her gaze across the ballroom, spying on something else that brought her even more dread than what the duke had done. “Oh no.”
It was her father, and he was coming right for her. Worse still, walking by his side was Lord Ayles.
“He’s here,” Clara said, panic rising. “Lord Ayles, he is…” Her chin trembled, and her stomach began to knot. She thought she might be sick.
It is done. Any hope that I had. Any dreams I might have wished on. No… this is… I cannot believe that…
Clara couldn’t quite say exactly what went through her mind in that moment. It was as if time stood still, and she could see into the future. Her life with Lord Ayles, how dreadful it was sure tobe. There would be no love. No romance. No sense of happiness. She would be little more than a slave to him, a prize to be shown off and used at his whim. It was the end as she knew it, and there was nothing she could do…
