Changeling (Sorcery and Society Book 1)(42)
“I’m not sure,” Ivy said. “I’ve never seen another reverb patient before.”
With Callista crossing the room from the left, her eyes locked on the girl’s struggle to dab at the stain, I made another choice, and I wasn’t sure if it was wise or not. I straightened my shoulders and practically keelhauled Ivy across the floor until we cut Callista off from her trajectory and stopped in front of Alicia.
“Until you can get it home to your laundress, there’s no help for it,” I told her softly, as she tried to rub at the stain with a handkerchief. “Strawberries and silk do not mix.”
“I’m usually not so clumsy,” she muttered. The Snipe in me, who had seen enough stained party clothes to know one never rubbed at stains, winced.
“I don’t think so,” Ivy told her. “Millicent is a walking accident – for other people.”
I pulled the smaller girl behind a bank of enormous potted palms, large enough to hide us from the rest of the room. I reached into my hair, fumbling against the large satin bow tucked under my hair. With Ivy’s help, I finally managed to undo the knot, I stretched the ribbon between my hands and wrapped the wide edge around her waist like a sash. The improvisation hid the offending strawberry marks, and the darker green looked quite nice against her light green silk.
“Keep it, maybe you’ll be able to wear the dress again,” I said, tucking loose ends of hair back into my coiffure.
“Oh, I couldn’t possibly let you do that,” she insisted, shaking her head.
“I’ve never been one for poofy hair bows,” I promised her. “I think they make my head look like a sailboat.” I splayed my hands behind my head like antlers. She giggled, making her shoulders and face relax a bit.
“Really, I think it looks lovely. I don’t think we were officially introduced the other day in the library, when you disappeared after giving me some maddeningly unhelpful advice. I’m Cassandra Reed. This is Ivy Cowell. She enjoys laughing at my expense at the breakfast table. And you are?”
“Alicia McCray,” she said, extending her hand to touch mine as she curtsied.
McCray House Sigil
“Lovely to officially meet you,” I responded as I returned the courtesy, a near impossibility in the tight corner we’d chosen for our encampment.
“And you as well,” Ivy said, dropping in a much more graceful curtsy than I could manage. “Though I’m not sure I enjoy laughing at your expense. It just happened.”
“I would have believed that if the laughter hadn’t been so loud, but it’s possible I earned it later.”
“Thank you so much for coming to my aid,” Alicia whispered. “I am terrible at these parties, really I am. I would much rather be in my room or in the library, doing, well anything, but talking to people I don’t know or do know and don’t particularly like. But Mother insists that if I’m going to be a proper young lady, I need to learn to ignore my ‘fits of pique’ and smile through it all.”
I smiled at her, not sure whether it would make her feel better or worse to tell Alicia that I was just glad that she wasn’t a library ghost. I guessed it would make her feel worse.
“That sounds very familiar,” I said, as we pushed carefully through the palms to ease back into the noise of the party. “And the ribbon was no trouble at all. I would hope that if my dress were damaged, someone would do the same for me. But given the attitudes of some of my classmates, I accept that it’s unlikely.”
“Oh! Poor Alicia!” I heard a nasal voice exclaim behind me. Alicia jumped slightly at my side. And Ivy cowered. Cowered. And that made me angry.
“Oh, my lady’s maid has just the thing to get that stain out,” Callista said, clucking under her tongue as she made a great fuss of moving Alicia’s improvised sash aside and inspecting the damage to her gown. “Of course, I only offer that help to my dearest, closest friends.”
My brow lifted and I wondered why Callista was being so very overt about manipulating Alicia into a corner. What did Alicia have that Callista would want? She was young, so little, people barely noticed Alicia was there. She didn’t post any sort of threat to Callista’s hold on the school. Why would Callista orchestrate the collision that led to the damaged dress in the first place, so she would have a chance to “rescue” Alicia from her predicament… Wait. McCray. Alicia was a McCray, as in crayfire lamps and crayfire engines. Everybody knew that the McCrays were rolling in money thanks to our society’s dependence on their most recent inventions. Maybe Callista was trying to force a connection to that wealth through “friendship?”
“And of course, as my dearest closest friend, you would introduce me to your family, including your charming brother.” Callista nodded significantly to a tall, dark-haired handsome boy standing with several of the older Palmer boys near the garden door.
And there we had it. Callista was trying to strong-arm her way into a relationship with Alicia’s attractive and very rich brother. I contained my urge to roll my eyes, but it was a very near thing.
“Sarah has a wonderful hand with laundry.”
I started at the mention of my birth name, thinking perhaps Callista had ferreted my secret out, and that this was some twisted attempt to discredit me publically, and in high fashion.