“I wish I could…I hate to say it, but rebel a little, you know. Do something my parents would hate to see me do, be a little wild,” Rachel blurted.
“Like what?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she despaired. “But I want to do something.”
He pulled away from her, “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” Rachel shrugged. “But it's only a dream; one I cannot see coming true. I wish I had not said anything. Please forget it.”
He nodded and turned away, but as Rachel said her goodbyes and headed inside, Rachel had the suspicion that William had not forgotten anything she had said. She loved that he cared about her, and Rachel knew that he would do all he could to help her if given the chance, but she knew that he could not.
That night, she realized that her assumption was wrong.
She was readying for bed when Jane came to her. “My Lady. Mr. Smith wants to take you somewhere.”
Shaken, Rachel asked, “It is past seven. Take me where?”
“He did not tell me, My Lady,” Jane said. “He only said that you wanted to do something wild.”
Redness coated her cheeks at knowing that her maid had learned her secret. “Should I get dressed?”
“I think you should,” Jane said as she stepped into Rachel’s wardrobe and came back with a hooded cloak over her arm and a pair of half-boots. “I am not sure where he is taking you, but I doubt silk slippers will do well.”
She changed quickly and followed Jane to the servant’s door, where William stood as cloaked as she was. Before she went to him, she turned to Jane. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because I think you should be happy as much as you can be before you are married off,” Jane said staunchly. “If I lose my position, so be it. I think Mr. Smith is going to take care of you. Now go.”
With her heart in her throat, Rachel left the last step and went to William’s side. From under the cowl of his cloak, she saw his eyes glimmer like cut gems. Wordlessly, he reached for her, grasped her hand, and following the shadows, left the main part of the manor.
He led her to a waiting hackney and helped her in, then told the driver a word that had her body trembling, “To Vauxhall.”
“William,” she whispered fervently. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, sweetheart, I am,” William assured her. He then pulled an object from a satchel she had not realized he’d been carrying and handed it to her. It was a mask made of delicate white feathers. “Wear this tonight as a masked ball is happening there.”
She let him slip the mask over her face and felt the softest of velvet on her skin. He smiled, then tilted her head up just to lay a warm kiss on her lips. “A masked angel.”
“And you?” Rachel asked. “What are you going to be?”
He plucked a colorful jester’s mask from the satchel and slipped it over his nose. “What people have thought I am for most of my life.”
Rachel bit her lips in horror. “What?”
“Don’t fret about it,” he grinned. “I am fully comfortable with them thinking so. Sometimes you must pretend to be what you are not just to have peace around you. Something I think you know all too well.”
“Sadly, I do,” Rachel said as she looked out the window.
Rarely had she had the chance to look on London at nighttime, as her parents had always had the velvet curtain down when they came back from the few balls she attended.
What she saw both puzzled and broke her heart. Children were in rags. Drunken men streamed from taverns with bottles in their hands, and women in slips of nothing disappeared down the dark alley mouths with men in tow.
“Tis very different than you would have thought this great city was, hm?” William asked knowingly.
“Very,” Rachel replied. “It's troubling. Are those women…”
“Harlots, yes,” William said. “For many of them, it is their only way to maintain a livelihood. Most of those children you see are orphans at the bidding of gang leaders. They do not have happy lives, and some of them are starved if they do not bring back enough valuables for the leader to pawn.”
“No…” Rachel whispered.
