I touched a velvet sleeve and guilt robbed me of the joy of luxury. Father had used the last of our wealth buying food staples to keep the peasants of Ravenwood from starving. I did not want to know what he had to sell to buy myPresentation dress.
Not wanting to give the finances of my dress more thought, I sat down at one of the dressing tables to let the maid comb and braid my hair as the other girls filtered into the room. Dinah and Camille were still all chatter, but Annalisa and Brietta were silent as their maids styledtheir hair.
Most of my hair fell loose, but my maid braided a thin band over the crown of my head to attach the family diadem to. The golden diadem was in the shape of a raven and its wings stretched down my temples to my ears. The Ravenwood diadem was one of the few family jewels Mother didnot sell.
I caught the reflection of me wearing the diadem in a mirror—I was the last remnant ofRavenwood dignity.
I walked over to the mirror wall and inspected every detail of my body. My hair was shining and the Ravenwood diadem gleamed in the sunlight from the windows. My face was clean, but the flush from the hot bath had disappeared. Mother had sent her own wax and berry mixture, so I opened the familiar round pot and applied the scarlet balm to my cheeks and lips. I licked my lips and tasted the faint sweetness ofthe berries—perfection.
Annalisa was a few mirrors down, hastily applying her own makeup. She smeared red pigment to her cheeks and lips so heavily she looked like she had just finished running for her life. She used brown wax to define her eyebrows, line her eyes, and darken her eyelashes. Her blonde curls were swept up on her head and held by a sparkling diamond tiara. Between the jewels and her painted face, Annalisa would have no troublebeing noticed.
Brietta stood in her undergarments and watched my maid help me into my dress. She wrung her hands faster as the seconds ticked by, so Merri tried to reassure her. “Don’t worry, Miss Elvar. Your dress should be onits way.”
Annalisa fussed as her maid laced up her deep blue dress with a flowing skirt. “I hope my father does not step on my skirt when he escorts me. He always hits the spirits before the Presentation and we all know how clumsyhe gets.”
“Actually,” Merri said with a wince, “His Excellency will escort MissElvar today.”
Annalisa’s nostrils flared and her painted cheeks turned even morescarlet. “What?”
“Lady Hyton, you see,” Merri said, clearly choosing her words carefully. “His Excellency said since Miss Elvar’s father could not be here due to the, uh, short notice of her graduation, he did not want her escort to be a man she had never met. Good news, though! Your uncle, Baron Amberfield, will escort you! I know how much youlike him!”
“Uncle Thorin?” Annalisa roared. “He chews grass likea cow!”
I kept my head down and used all my willpower not to roll my eyes. Only a few more hours before Selection Night began and I would get a reprieve from Annalisa’sbad attitude.
Before Merri could calm the dragon in the Hyton Blue dress, someone knocked gently on the door. Annalisa’s maid, happy to escape the proximity of the Duke’s fuming daughter, rushed to the door. On the other side were a pair of sweating maids who held a large bundle of silvery fabricbetween them.
Merri sighed with relief and quickly beckoned the maids over to Brietta. In a flash, they began to dress her in thesilver fabric.
“What is this?” Brietta asked as she stepped into the skirt ofthe dress.
“It is an old dress that belonged to…a former Duchess,” Merri said, tying the skirt tightly around Brietta’s waist. “She was also, uh, a woman ofsignificant stature.”
She tried to be subtle, but I knew exactly who she alluded to. Duchess Ilsa was rumored to be a half-giant since she came from the most northern part of Ravenwood. She had white hair, violet eyes, and skin so pale she looked as if she were chiseled from ice and brought to life with magic. All of Lycaster had called her the Diamond ofthe North.
Ilsa’s shimmering gown was at best a bad omen and at worst a warning of what would come. Dinah and Camille’s eyes were wide in fear as Brietta dressed in the clothing of the murdering sorceress, but Annalisawas incensed.
“How dare you break into the vault for her?” Annalisa spat, close to breathing fire and incinerating us all. “That washerPresentation dress. No one else should eventouch it!”
Even though it was tainted by a dark history, Ilsa’s stunning gown was absolutely fit for a Duchess—a timeless square neck paired with swirls of white embroidery decorating the bodice. The silvery blue fabric moved with the light of the room and complemented Brietta’s auburn hair and browneyes spectacularly.
The maids slipped Brietta’s arms through the sleeves of the bodice and Merri went around to fasten it closed. The bodice did not fasten with laces or clasps like the rest of our gowns, but instead had a column of twelve silver buttons on the back of the dress. Merri tried to bring the two sides of the bodice together at Brietta’s back, but Brietta’s breasts were so large that the dress wouldnot fasten.
“Hold your breath, Miss Elvar,” Merri grunted, tugging at the sides of the bodice with all her might but failing to join them. Brietta’s eyes welled up with tears as she sucked in her chest and made herself as small asshe could.
No. No more tears. I walked over to look at the back of the dress myself. The two sides of the bodice were nearly a forearm’s length apart. I eyed the buttons and hadan idea.
“Take the buttons off,” I said to Merri. “We can thread laces through thebutton holes.”
“No!” Annalisa roared as she stormed over to us. “You willnotdestroy mygrandmother’s dress!”
“Anna,” I hissed in a low voice so Brietta could not hear, “this is the only way the dress will fasten and we have no time tofind another—”
“Of course the dress is not going to fasten!” Annalisa shouted. “None of the Hyton dresses would ever fit Brietta’shuge body!”
I gritted my teeth even harder as Brietta startedto sob.
Annalisa’s wrathful eyes turned to Brietta. “It does not matter how much money your family has, or how good you think your poetry is, you do not belong in the Selection Night thatwe earned!”
