Dangly Earrings

Rating: T

Summery: As a spy Liam keeps quite a few secrets, the most important of which would be the fact that he is a woman. Girl!Liam.

Characters: Liam, Break, Ada, Sharon, Barma

Comments: This sprung from the prompt below which I knew I had to fill as soon as I saw it on account of the fact that when I read the very first scene where Liam appears in in the manga I actually mistook Liam for a short haired woman. I blame those earrings and the rather lashy way Liam's eyes are drawn.

Because of the fact that Liam is girl undercover the gender pronouns tend to flit rather schizophrenically between he and she, I tired to make the turning points obvious for sake of clear reading. Not sure how well that worked out.

I've never done a female version of a character cannonly male, it was an interesting hat to put on, even if it did seen to make the characters act a bit oddly; Liam refused to angst when I wanted him (… her in this case) to, Ada seemed determined to borrow her brother's perceptiveness, and Break decided he was going to be flirtatious every time I let him be in a scene. Not what I expected at all but I had a good time writing this, which more than made up for the unpredictability.

(FFN has apparently extended its ongoing attempt to mess with my formatting to eating all of my scene breaks. Messy lines with thus have to do.)

Prompt: "girl!Liam. DO IT."

It was, quite possibly, the deepest cover it was possible to be under. Not that this was what he had intended all those years ago, in truth it had started as more a temporary situation than anything else.

He (and it was a mark of how far this had gone that he had even trained himself to think of 'himself' in the male pronouns as Liam) had not thought that he would spend the last twenty-four years pretending to be what he was truly not, but he couldn't really blame the one who had started it.

Her mother had meant the best when she had tried to find a better life for her daughter, it was just that the only noble house that habitually recruited servants from their level of the lower class was the Barma household and at the time the only available position was for a errand boy. So she had taken a long hard look at her rather solemn, not all that feminine daughter and made a hard choice that in the future Liam would alternately curse and thank her for.

She had explained it all rather carefully to her, making sure that while she understood fully what she was getting into she also understood that she had very little choice if she wanted a better life than the daughter of a failing innkeeper's widow. With that perspective several years of pretending to be a boy seemed not all the bad to Liam, though since she was seven at the time just the appeal of wearing pants would have sold her on the idea.

It was still fairly surprising that she had gotten away with that early masquerade for so long, since there were eyes everywhere in the Barma household and most of them belonged to rather spooky illusions. Liam learned very quickly two things, the first being how to identify Lord Barma's illusion and the second being that the strange blurriness she saw the world as was not normal for everyone else. Never before had it been pointed out to her that her vision was so bad, but glasses were out of the question as she didn't exactly have much of a chance of putting money away to save. She sent just about everything back home, hoping that with the addition of the meager income of a errand boy her mother would be able to pull the inn out of the downward spiral it had been in for years.

Looking back Liam had to admit that she'd been lucky to get away with pretending to be a boy for the four years that she had; but most of that had been due in large part to the fact that from roughly seven to eleven girls and boys, at the casual glance, looked the same with their hair cut short. There was chance that she might have remained incognito for another few years if the breasts issue hadn't ruined things.

Or, rather, it was a combination of the breasts issue (which was just beginning to make itself apparent) and some very poor timing. The under butler decided that he wanted to take his one sided flirtation to the next level and was persistent enough that she couldn't get away before he had ripped her coat and shirt. The rip had so strategically revealed exactly the developing problem she'd been doing her best to hide with ever looser uniforms that she had to wonder if discovering if she really was a boy or not hadn't been the plan along.

Then again, any of those doubts were instantly wiped away by the utterly horrified look on the under butler's face; apparently the fact that the errand boy he wanted to molest was not, in point of fact, a boy put him into something of a snit. Before Liam could really catch up with evens beyond trying to hold her torn uniform coat closed the under butler had marched her to Lord Barma, though the story he told was massively edited.

Apparently wily, irresistibly alluring (for an eleven year old) Liam had attempted to seduce him, a married man with four children. The under butler, colored in his own story as a morally right thinking man who was completely and utterly faithful to his beloved wife, was utterly horrified at the offer and had come to the Lord of the house to demand Liam be fired immediately.

Lord Barma, who, in Liam's rather limited experience was a bored looking man who seemed to not get enough sleep and was constantly away at some place called 'Pandora', had taken one look at the smug under butler and the furiously blushing, completely tongue-tied Liam and sent the under butler away. He then summoned the butler and told him to make provisions for finding a new under butler as the current one was not employed by the Barma family anymore.

And after he had done all that he turned the bored, lazy eyed gaze on Liam, who was still standing in the corner of the room, making a studious inspection of the floor and trying to be invisible.

"You do that very well." he remarked, making Liam jump and jerk her gaze up from the floor so quickly it made her neck hurt.

"S-sir?"

With a sigh the Duke appeared to note the way she was making a effort to keep the ripped pieces of her coat closed over her chest -something that required both hands due to the extent of the ripping- and reached to the blanket that was folded over the back of the couch he was sitting on. He tossed it at Liam, resulting in a rather awkward catch from her as she tried to keep her uniform closed and get the blanket.

When she'd finally wrapped it around her shoulders he leaned back on his couch and surveyed her intently from over the fan he flicked out. "You have that strange little power that makes you next thing to invisible when you stand near a wall and don't speak. I know it because some of my best people have that exact power. You actually managed to keep your secret and I've employed you for, let's see…" he frowned and closed his fan to tap it against his chin as he thought, "About four years. That holds promise. Come here." The last was accompanied with a gesture so imperious that Liam almost fell over her own feet trying to obey it.

Lord Barma reached out and took hold of her chin, raising it so he could see her face better. "Hmm, there is potential. Definite potential. I do think we can come to an arrangement, you and I."

On seeing the way Liam's face went pale as the implications of that statement went through her mind Lord Barma gave an annoyed 'tut' and dropped his hand. "Not in that way. You see, at this very moment you have two options, in the first you are fired from this household, exposed as the impostor you are; I know this second option will be much more appealing, as if you were desperate enough to go through this trouble in the first place your previous situation must have been tragic."

"And… that would be, sir?" Liam asked cautiously.

"My information network is always in need of another agent. This second option sees you with a bit of a promotion, your cover intact and working as one of my people."

"An… agent. What, exactly, is that?"

"A spy," Lord Barma said airily. "You would need training, of course, but I rather think you'll take to it well, what with this lovely practice you've had."

"And I can keep my job?" Liam asked, still looking for the horrible drawback.

"No. You'll get a better one, a far more interesting one too." Lord Barma looked thoughtful for a moment, "In fact, do particularly well and in a few years I might consider placing you on the Pandora detachment."

There really wasn't an option, only the illusion of an actual choice.

The following months were occupied with the 'training' Lord Barma and the subjects were as varied as they were interesting: how to be unobtrusive, how to blend into a crowd, how to keep her face from giving away her thoughts, and, importantly, how to prefect her act. There were things, like a breaking voice, that she was going to have to fake in the next couple of years and other things that as a girl she was going to have to be aware of hiding.

In the middle of this training a pair of glasses quietly appeared on her bedside table, without comment. Lord Barma did look most pleased her wearing them though, which gave her a shrewd idea of where they had come from.

One agent, an interesting man who she spent three weeks being instructed in codes by before she was dropped the merest of hints that he was a woman, she would forever remember because he had been the one to give her the binder that kept her breasts from showing. And he gave her address of the desecrate seamstress who made them too, an invaluable thing. No more plagued by the worry that certain bulges where they shouldn't be wouldn't be he could go back to wearing a properly fitting uniform again, which was something of a relief.

Three months after that Lord Barma judged he had come along in his training enough to send him on his first information gathering mission. It wasn't a serious one by any means, he was next thing to given to the Rainsworth household for a few years and was expected to gather information about the family members. Since the Rainsworth family had been close to the Barma family for years this was the perfect mission to start him on; if he was caught where he wasn't supposed to be or hearing what he wasn't supposed to be Barma could simply remove him from the house and explain to the head of the house (an old friend of his apparently) the situation.

That didn't mean he could relax, there was still the danger of being discovered not as a spy but as a girl, however as long as he was very, very careful it wasn't that bad.

And it was during the time he spent in the Rainsworth household that he cultivated a friendship with the youngest member of the family, Miss Sharon. That she was a tad starved for attention and was badly in need of someone to play with helped a great deal and Liam sincerely enjoyed the days he spent with her.

Miss Sharon was an exciting playmate, but she was also a fount of information about her family, mostly harmless things, though every once and a while she told him something that he would add to his list of things to report to Lord Barma when he next sent a missive to him.

Not that he played with her just for the information, she was also a genuinely good friend, despite their age difference. It was also nice to vicariously absorb a slice of what his life could have been like had he not decided to work for the Barma household. He didn't regret it much, but sometimes, when he found his fingers pausing overlong on the ribbon he was tying in Miss Sharon's hair because he liked the feel of the silk, he did feel a tiny pang of envy for things he would never know.

The two years ended without his being discovered, which meant he could return to the Barma household, though he would still visit the Rainsworth estate often to see Miss Sharon. She badly needed the playmate and they would get up to endless amounts of mischief together just like when he lived in the Rainsworth mansion.

It was during one of these visits that they snuck down to the Rainsworth gate for a very fateful visit.

The addition of the angry, taciturn stranger who would eventually call himself Xerxes Break to the Rainsworth mansion led to Liam's second mission, he was tasked to find as much as he could about the man. This initially did not go well; he got knocked off his feet by the man and almost lost his glasses but after that rather disastrous first encounter he did manage to figure out that if he took Miss Sharon with him when he went to visit Break the man would be in a much more amiable mood.

Well, Miss Sharon tended to have that affect on people.

He really never did learn much about the man that was useful to Lord Barma, but he'd been told some missions went that way. He did learn many little, useless things about Xerxes Break, like that the man disliked rain, that he was found of poetry and candy, and that he had once lost someone who looked very like Miss Sharon. Several times Liam caught him watching his young friend with the sad eye of someone who saw glimpses of the past haunting him in the present. When Liam reported his findings to Lord Barma he omitted the last bit, it just seemed too… too vague, too unsure to put down as solid fact, no matter how much he believed it.

Gradually the combined effects of the Rainsworth household managed to smooth out Xerxes Break's more violent behavior, blunting his anger and bringing a real smile to his face. That last part suspired Liam more than anything else, he had never thought the snarling, angry stranger who had knocked him off his feet only a few months ago could have evolved so much.

Time moved on, in the inevitable way it did and the next year Lord Barma made good on his word to put Liam in Pandora, as he had handled himself well on his previous two missions and was now old enough to be put into Pandora without raising any eyebrows.

Liam enjoyed the chance to explore the organization, learning the headquarters, memorizing the faces of the members, and slowly, so as not to arouse suspicion, building alliances.

A good spy, he had been told, was the one that everyone trusted too much to suspect.

And he was certainly no threat to anyone, being young and dutiful and not that ambitious; that worked in his favor, more people were willing to talk to him because he was Lord Barma's harmless servant. He was unobtrusive and uninteresting, doing his job so well that most of the time people forgot he was even there.

That was perfect; it was exactly how he wanted it.

Everything was under control.

Then, three months later, Xerxes Break became a Pandora contractor and began his campaign to win his friendship. Liam was less than thrilled, Break had a habit of drawing attention to them that he didn't like, and he was tired of having his pockets magically fill with candy whenever he wasn't looking.

Still, Xerxes Break was hard to fight and sometimes it was easier to give in than fight a loosing battle. Besides, Break had the respect of most of Pandora for managing a contract with the Mad Hatter, which was something useful, even if Liam was never able to manipulate it to his advantage it was good to know he had that.

And… he enjoyed having a friend. Even if Break could be insufferable, annoying, and messy, he certainly kept things interesting. Sometimes too interesting.

Miss Sharon joined Pandora only six months after that, but Liam was away on a field mission when she made a contract with Eques and couldn't congratulate her until he came back. Unfortunately she asked him the same question most of the Pandora members he came to know well asked him eventually, "Are you going to try to make a Contact one of these days?"

He had had to explain that he had been instructed to try to contract with a certain Chain by his master and he had yet to manage it. The truth was that Lord Barma had told him that as a contractor he would be more noticeable than he should be and so he had never become one. However now that he was older the fact that he hadn't even made the effort to get a Chain made him an oddity and thus notable for that.

During his next report he added in the comment from Miss Sharon along with his own thoughts on the matter. Lord Barma sent him away and apparently considered the situation for a few hours before sending him a note that instructed him to come to the Barma gate to make a contract.

The result was the rather lovable March Hare, who, despite the fact his powers were very limited, was impossible to dislike. He was rather lucky to have a chain who liked him so much that it submitted easily to orders, he'd seen all the trouble Vincent Nightray's Chain gave him and he couldn't afford drawing that much attention to himself.

Of course, with the March Hare as his Chain he had to do some quick explaining to those who he had told that stock explanation to, as everyone knew the March Hare's power was useless in battle even if no one knew exactly what it did. In most cases a rather embarrassed profession that he had failed to acquire the Chain Lord Barma had wanted him to did the trick, though Miss Sharon's curiosity took more information to lay to rest.

She and Xerxes Break badgered him endlessly over tea and made him add many details he hadn't initially worked out to the story to keep them satisfied. Break had smiled oddly and remarked that the March Hare suited him, a comment that Liam stewed over for weeks with the certain paranoia that had been growing ever since Break had made such a point of being his friend. Did the man suspect?

That was impossible; Liam had never slipped up not in all this time. His act was perfect. Now if only Break would stop giving him that knowing look… well, he'd sleep a lot easier.

Not long after the interest in his new chain died down he received an assignment that was somewhat awkward. Lord Barma had long been suspicious of Vincent Nightray and recent reports had told him that Nightray was showing a marked interest in Ada Vessalius. Liam's mission was to find out if the young lady in question was mixed up in Vincent Nightray's work or if she knew anything about what he was up to. Unfortunately he was to do this covertly and that only way to manage that was to spend a great deal of time with her. Society being what it was the only way for a young woman to spend a lot of time with an… apparent young man was for them to be courting.

So he set out the court Ada Vessalius, feeling awkward and stupid all the way. One of the advantages of being… well, the politest way he had heard it described was 'a bit uptight', was that no had ever thought it odd when he turned down any romantic overtures made in his direction. Not that these had been entirely common. This all meant he was not all that sure how to go about courting a lady, some careful planning and research was called for. Fortunately for timing and logistics he was given his assignment during the break her school gave its students for the summer season.

Some smiles in the right places, some discreetly given flowers, and a few pleasant walks through with her through the Vessalius gardens seemed right; he had no intention to sweep this girl off her feet, just to get her talking about Vincent Nightray. It helped that Miss Ada seemed to enjoy herself no matter what they did; she was content to walk with him for hours, the two of them talking easily back and forth or even to go to the theatre or to a library.

She was quite different from Miss Sharon; there was a sense of softness in Miss Ada, a certain naiveté that was quite charming. But despite that she was quite clever and she had a lovely gift for mimicry that often had him laughing. They both spent a great deal of time around the various nobles of the country, her in society and he in his work, and they delighted in talking about the people they knew -not gossiping as such, more comparing notes.

He carefully kept from mentioning the Nightray family as a whole during these conversations, it was a delicate subject for any Vessalius and he didn't want her suspicious of his actual intentions.

This went on for several months, until a minor disaster struck.

After going to see a play that he had thought was rather bad but Miss Ada had liked he was escorting her back to Pandora as her uncle was there and she wanted to see him before she went home. They were almost there when Miss Ada's skirt caught on the leg of a table and she stumbled, stepping on the front hem of her skirt and throwing herself more off balance. She lurched toward him, grabbing his coat to keep from falling.

Unfortunately the way her weight pulled him ripped a small and yet important hook in the binder; the ominous sound of the rip and the sudden addition of Miss Ada's weight surprised him enough that he completely failed to recover. They both ended up on the floor, with him lying on top of her in such a way that brought her face in close proximity to his. It would have been awkward for romantic reasons except that the fact their chests were next thing to pressed together meant she could now feel what his ripped binder had loosened enough to make painfully obvious.

She blinked at him for one stunned moment, then her mouth fell open. He could feel his face go scarlet and he scrambled off her quickly, pulling her to her own feet once he got to his own. Miss Ada still had her mouth open, and she was busy staring at his chest, where the slightest hint of curves could be just barely seen under the many layers of the Pandora uniform.

"You're a wo-"

Quickly he clamped a hand over her mouth and glanced up and down the hallway; thankfully it was empty. Taking care not to be rough but with great urgency he took her arm and pulled her into a corridor off the hallway, very, very glad that his office was in this hall. She followed him into his office with no sign of hesitation, even taking the seat he offered her -the only other seat in the room besides the one behind his desk- without comment.

Gesturing at her to wait he stepped into the small storage room that was attached to his office, carefully closing the door behind him. There was one cabinet with a drawer which had a false back, where he stored things that would be a bit difficult to explain should they be found. Among those were a spare binder, which he quickly switched out with the ripped one so that when he emerged back into his office the incriminating evidence was hidden again.

Miss Ada stared at him from the moment he re-entered the room, not taking her eyes off his as he crossed the room to sit on the edge of his paperwork heaped desk.

"But you walk like a man does." she said finally. She was giving a look similar to the one his instructors had sometimes given him, studying, watching the smallest hint of what they knew was there to peak through and betray him. "And you're taller than almost anyone I know! But you're a…" she lowered her voice, probably understanding that this was quiet the secret, "A woman. And you were courting me! Was that why you never tired to kiss me? Or is- I don't understand any of this- why would- and you- but I-"

He laced his fingers in his lap and waited for her to come to the end of the thought.

Catching the way he was watching her she paused and then said, "I'm babbling. Sorry."

"Perfectly understandable, I… suppose a bit of explanation would be in order." he would have rather liked to do a detailed inspection of the floor, but he owed it her -since he had manipulated her- to meet her eyes. "Where exactly do you want me to start?" he asked.

"Tell me why you were courting me. No… wait," she interrupted before he could start to speak. "First, why are you doing this?"

"I…" he paused, he was going to have to be careful about this, but now that she knew that she'd been deceived she deserved to know some of it if only to stop her looking at him in such a betrayed way. "My work for Lord Barma makes this necessary. I'm sorry, I can't tell you everything."

"Then tell me what you can." she said firmly.

And so he did, carefully editing out parts so that he didn't blatantly say "I'm a spy" but if Ada was half as clever as he thought she was she could read between the lines. He told her how he'd been trained to hide his gender, that he worked for Duke Barma, who had been the one to instruct him to get close for her, though he pointedly failed to mention why. And he made sure he added an apology for manipulating her, since he genuinely felt bad about that.

She listened carefully to what he said -she always listened carefully, those who wrote her off as a girl with a head of fluff failed to see that- and when he'd finished she thought for a long moment before she spoke.

"So you… gather information for Lord Barma?" She asked, then at his raised eyebrow she added airily, "Oh, everyone knows that Lord Barma has a spy network bigger than anyone else's. They say that's why he seems to know everything. And the way you said you 'work' for him made me think…"

"I can't tell you anything about that." he said, his voice neutral.

"I think… I have an idea that might help you." she said slowly, as if she was still really putting the thought together in her mind. "I mean, you're going to sort of get in trouble for my finding out about… things, right?"

"I'm not exactly sure." Which was the truth; Lord Barma had never exactly specified what would happen if he was found out. Besides, this was not the public outing that he'd been fearing, this was just one person and was possibly containable. "It's quite likely."

"So if you possibly gave Lord Barma an upside to me knowing… about you…" Miss Ada suddenly rose from her chair, a grin on her face, "This'll work. I know it will! Let me just get the details lined up," she started for the door before he could even half rise to stop her, "Don't worry, Mister Liam, I think I know how to fix this!"

She left him on his feet and ineffectually reaching out to stop her. So much for containment, he hadn't even had time to tell her not to mention this to anyone else. He could only hope that she would have the sense to know that.

The next day he got an invitation to the Rainsworth household, which in and of itself was nothing odd but ever since the last day's unpleasant surprise he was a bit twitchy. Sharon did sometimes invite him to stay at the estate what she had nothing urgent from Pandora and he had no complaints about it as long as his paperwork pile wasn't too extensive. But there was a small note at the bottom of the letter that mentioned Ada Vessalius would be there too, which made him quite suspicious.

It turned out he had good reason, as soon as he walked into Miss Sharon's study she gave him such a knowing look that he immediately sighed and had to resist giving Miss Ada a dark look. She seemed to tell he was annoyed because she immediately held up both hands. "I didn't tell her." she protested, "She already knew."

That was quite the surprise but Miss Sharon shrugged off his frown. "We grew up together, Liam. I spent a lot of time with you and I saw enough to put things to put them together. Anyway," she waved that away and gestured for him to sit. "We need to keep Lord Barma from being vexed with you. Ada came to me with her idea and I think it's quite good. I'll be willing to help too."

"And what, exactly, is this plan?" he asked carefully.

"Well, I imagine sometimes it would be difficult to gather information when you are so obviously Liam Lunettes. And a man. There are places that as both of those you can't go. Why not be either of those?" And then she grinned very wickedly. "Isn't it such a brilliant plan?"

And so Lissandra was born -since Lord Barma had seconded the idea and seemed pleased enough with it to forgive the fact that he'd ruined his cover- she was an interesting cover.

Both Miss Ada and Miss Sharon had helped in Lissandra's creation and had worked to make her believable. He didn't know a lot of the ins and outs of a lady's manners, though he remembered the basics from seeing Miss Sharon instructed in them.

It was like taking everything he'd been trained to do to appear to be a man and reversing it. Shoulders were rounded instead of squared, the voice was pitched up a little instead of down, the list went on and on. He found it fascinating, a whole new side of his work that he'd never considered.

The enthusiasm Miss Sharon, and sometimes Miss Ada but she had trouble contriving reason to visit the Rainsworth estate as often as he could, threw herself into making this new cover realistic was somewhat disturbing. Shoving him into dresses with far to many petticoats and doing his makeup seemed to entertain her to no end, he thought he looked rather silly, but that might have been the short hair.

As it turned out no self respecting woman had hair as short as his, they found a wig -which didn't match his eyebrows, and he had to darken them so they wouldn't give him away to anyone who got close. The wig helped, but he still thought he looked like Mister Liam shoehorned into a dress.

"Trust me," Miss Sharon told her, "You look fine. A bit solemn maybe but you make a very elegant lady."

This side project was quite entertaining, it gave him something to do aside from trying to clear Xerxes' Break's backlog. The constant switching between one gender and the other for those first couple of weeks was a little confusing; he had to be careful not to mix them. The only time he ever really made a noticeable mistake was when he forgot to remove the dangling earrings Miss Sharon had insisted he wear before returning to Pandora.

They were little bits of ribbon with a ring on the end and she had quite liked them, until Liam realized he was still wearing them in the middle of a Pandora meeting. That had been quite embarrassing, but no one commented and beyond a few sideways looks no one particularly seemed to care.

Earrings for men were still in fashion, but shot ones, not the rather dangling ones he had on -they hadn't been popular almost a hundred years. Maybe it would have caused comment but he was Liam and people tended to edit him out of what they noticed even when he was standing right next to them (that was a skill he'd carefully cultivated).

The exception to this was Break, who perched on the arm of his chair as the meeting let out. He reached over to tug one of the earrings. "I like them." he said, smiling the smile that always made Liam nervously wonder how much the man knew. "They suit you."

And, because this was how things between the two of them worked, Break was gone before Liam could find a response to that. His pocket was suddenly full of candy too.

About two months later Lady Lissandra, the distant niece of Lord Barma, was introduced to the society of nobles. She was foreign, which would forgive any oddities she might have, and visiting from the Barma estate in the neighboring country. In fact, in soon became common knowledge that she was going to be visiting her uncle often, perhaps with the intention of living at her uncle's estate eventually.

But not to find a husband, as the most forthright of the ladies soon made it their task to find out. Lady Lissandra was already engaged, which made her a safe friend for any young lady who didn't want a distraction from her or young man who didn't want rumors of him courting to circulate.

She was a quiet, bookish woman, and was content to be a wallflower at most parties. It wasn't long before her infrequent appearances at parties failed to be something of note, which was exactly what Liam wanted. As Lissandra she could pass the barrier not being a noble put in her way and talk with members of high society as, well, not quite equals, but certainly as someone closer than Liam Lunettes was.

The information she gleaned was invaluable, it was more than enough to placate Lord Barma, who had been more than skeptical about how much she would be able to pick up in this method that this plan had been a good one.

Idling in the corner during yet another party Liam turned the stem of her drink in her fingers and smiled to herself. Despite the antithesis of the two covers she was hiding under she enjoyed them both. As Liam he could be industrious and useful and have the satisfaction of doing a job no one else could and as Lissandra she could have her fill of the things that it was impossible to have while being Liam, silly things like the feel of a petticoats against her legs and the weight of hair on her shoulders (even if it wasn't technically her hair), and the delicate pattern of ladylike conversation.

Even if both lives could be called a lie she didn't much mind. That was the price of being a spy. You had to resign yourself to the fact that even in an established cover you could never really live, just maintain. Important things to life, especially the prospect of having a lover, were completely out of the question.

Not that Liam was overly concerned with that, but the thought was a side-effect of so much conversation with young ladies whose greatest priority was ensuring a good marriage to a husband they wouldn't want to murder in his sleep. She had had to create a persona for her phony fiancé in response to the many questions about him she got from those she usually spoke with at parties as apparently he was the subject of great interest.

She should have paid more attention to the traits she gave to her supposed betrothed, one of the younger daughters of the branch family of the Rainsworths once actually said, "Why he sounds rather like the funny Xerxes Break; you know, Miss Sharon's servant?"

She'd laughed nervously, said, "Oh, yes, I've seen him about,", and changed the subject.

Tonight she was momentarily alone, her friends having all been lured away from the wall by gentlemen who wanted a dance. There had actually been a gentleman who had asked her for a dance; however he'd been trying to get Lady Megan to dance with him originally until Lord Reynald had whisked her away first.

Since the young man was clearly just being polite in asking her so she'd turned him down in favor of lingering by the wall and listening to the snatches of conversation that drifted her way. There was nothing useful in them but she filed away the information for later study just in case, one never knew.

Sipping from her drink Liam watched the dancers twirl around the floor out of the corner of her eye, glad that Lord Barma had approved the purchase of these slightly larger glasses for her female cover. Previously Lord Gilbert, blushing at the attention the other ladies around her had been lavishing on him, had told her she reminded him of someone when she pushed her glasses farther up her nose by the edge of their frames. That had been too close, Liam did her best to squash the habit while being Lissandra but Lord Barma had thought it best to change the type of glasses she wore while a woman.

The less there was to connect Liam and Lissandra the better. It was a shame that nature had decided to make her so tall; as a man it worked in his favor but as a woman it was something to be remarked over.

There was nothing she could do to hide it but slump and poor posture was not something any lady of good breeding had. So she towered over most of the people in the room, especially in the heels Miss Sharon insisted she wear tonight, which had taken some getting used to.

The tug on the sleeve of her gown made her glance to the side to see Miss Ada stood there and was gesturing to her to follow. Liam set her drink on the tray of a passing server and trailed after her through the throng. Miss Ada slipped into a nook safe from other's eyes by dint of being behind a pillar and turned to Liam.

"You have the wrong earrings on." Miss Ada whispered, already reaching up to undue the left one from her earlobe. "These are the ones you usually wear."

Reaching up to feel her other ear Liam found that she was telling the truth, these were the ones that 'Liam' habitually wore, and immediately started undoing the other earring. "I must not have been paying attention." she sighed, "That was foolish."

"Everyone gets tired." Miss Ada said, "And I doubt anyone noticed. Here," she took something from what must have been a pocket sewn into her skirt. There were earrings, simple gold drops. "I always carry extra," she explained. "I have this horrible habit of loosing one halfway through the night."

"Thank you." Liam said in relief -Lord Barma would have been very angry at her for making such an amateur mistake. If Miss Ada had had the extra set, she would have had to tell him that that was the reason she left the party early and missed a chance to gather information while she found new ones. All the fuss over a simple set of earrings would seem petty to anyone else but they were one of the many things that made up her identify as Lissandra.

Besides, how many people wore earrings like those and glasses? Even with her hair much darker than it naturally was due to the wig it only took one person getting suspicious to ruin everything.

"By the way," Miss Ada said, as she was helping her put the new earrings in, "Is Lady Sharon here?"

"No," Liam replied, "She usually doesn't attend parties." Though that was more due to her state as an un-aging contractor than because Miss Sharon didn't like gatherings.

"That's odd," Miss Ada frowned, "I thought I saw her servant here."

"You saw Break?"

"Is that his name? I only saw him for a moment, I might have been mistaken. Now, I've got to get back to the party. There's a young man…" She giggled and slipped out from behind the pillar before Liam could ask which young man.

Well, that was an interesting thing to consider. With her older brother missing for several years Miss Ada was the (as yet unnamed but heavily rumored) heir to the Vessalius household. Whoever it was hopefully hadn't chosen to court her because of that.

Still, as long as it wasn't some repulsive creature like Vincent Nightray -who smiled at him sometimes in a way he rather hated- it was good that Miss Ada had found a young man.

Checking that the new earrings were secure in her ears Liam moved out from the shelter of the pillar and back into the flow of the party. The corner she had been previously in had filled with a group of old gentlemen who were talking seriously over their drinks so she went to find another place to hover inconspicuously, skirting around the dancers.

Suddenly there was an arm around her waist and she was being twirled out into the dancing couples. Around and around her partner spun with her, strangely out of beat with the other dancers -and the music too- until they were in the thick of the dancers, almost in the middle of the floor.

Her unknown partner then halted, forcing several couples to veer around them to avoid collision. What on earth was this man thinking? For that matter, what exactly did he think he was doing? Lissandra was spoken for; no one should be sweeping her off her feet without asking permission first.

"Shame you changed your earrings," a very familiar voice breathed in her ear. "The other ones suited you more… Mister Liam."

She froze for a moment, then had to stifle the urge to scream, "XERXES BREAK!" which was quite difficult. Slowly Liam looked down -she was taller than him- and was met with Break's quite wicked grin.

Very deliberately Liam trod on his foot, even if Break was wearing proper boots with her heels it would hurt. The smile wavered but didn't completely disappear. "Don't get pouty." he spoke in voice so low that it was probably impossible to hear any farther away than she was. "I'm not about to ruin your fun."

"How did you…" the thought that Miss Sharon might have told him must have been very clear on her face because Break's smiled widened.

"It wasn't Sharon if that's what you were thinking. I put it together all on my lonesome. Not that it was that difficult, knowing you as well as I do. Or, rather, knowing Mister Liam as well as I do. I don't think I've been introduced to this lovely lady yet."

She blinked at him. Was Break actually flirting? Did he know how easily he could ruin her cover? He didn't have to go to these lengths; a simple yank at her wig would expose her to everyone.

"You don't have to worry," he murmured, apparently reading her confusion on her face, "I'm hardly going to ruin this for you, not after you got all dressed up. That duke sent you for to gather information?"

If it wasn't so unladylike to roll her eyes she might have. "Of course." she said, and gave an irritated huff. "You're making me conspicuous. People are watching."

"They can't hear us." Break, with easy confidence. "Not over the music and the chatter."

"And you assume none of the nobility know how to read lips?"

He smiled up at her, "My, my, what an agreeably suspicious mind you have, Mister Liam. Though considering what you are it makes perfect sense. Still, imagine what people would say if I pulled you away to a private little corner? You would know how the nobility like to gossip."

"This isn't much better." she grumbled. "I'm engaged, I can't go off dancing willy-nilly with however I like."

"You… are?" the crestfallen look on Break's face was extremely confusing, as was the way the hand that was still holding one of hers in a mockery of a dance form curled closed over her fingers.

Discretely she tried to put some distance between them but the arm Break still had around her waist kept her from backing away. "Lady Lissandra, niece of Lord Barma is."

"Oh." Break brightened almost visibly and released her hand to pull out a brightly wrapped candy. "That's a different case entirely. Hmm," he was surveying her thoughtfully, "You don't have any pockets."

Liam followed his speculative gaze downwards and colored, only now remembering that this season's fashions called for showing a generous amount of cleavage. Then she realized what that look meant he was intending to do and scowled at Break, "Don't you dare. Especially not in front of all these people."

Break tisked, tucking the sweet into the wrist of her glove. "You're really no fun at all sometimes."

She sighed, long and weary, suddenly horribly tired of the party, the staring people, and the act. As if he sensed what she was feeling he pulled her just that tiny bit closer so she could lean against him, taking some of the weight off her aching feet.

If she wanted to to keep her cover perfect she should have pulled away from him, she should have told him to stop what he was doing, to stay away. But down that path lay a bleak and loveless future. One that was very alone.

So instead Liam let her chin rest on top of Break's head.

"Xerxes Break, you are going to get me into so much trouble."

End.