Miss Swan's POV
I was giving the final touches to my costume when Constance came into my room. Her shy smile grew wide as she took in the daring swathes of peacock blue silk, the sparkling sequins and the feathers adorning my person.
"I'm sorry, I came looking for Isabella, but I can see she is not here. Can you help me find her O exotic princess?" she swept a low bow and stifled a pretty giggle with her hand. I laughed too, relieved that she was not too outraged at my outfit for the evening. I had been worrying about it all day.
Ever since Lady Laura's servant had brought it over this morning it had sat in a black box on my bed, teasing me mercilessly with its ribbons and glitter. Was it going to be too much? Or too little? I had been almost too afraid to look. When I had peeked, I was been pleased with the colour and pleased too that Laura's sharp eye had noticed that blue was my favourite shade. I also noticed that I would have to go without a corset for the costume to look authentic and this was the first thing that stood to remind me of my nefarious intentions for the evening ahead. I had some difficulty deciding which piece of the outfit draped over which part of my body but now I thought I had it just right. The sparkles and the feathers left just enough of my pale skin on show to transform me into a true exotic dancer but covered just enough of me to keep me decent. In the box were a small palette of coloured powders and a note from Laura explaining that these were for my eyes, it would help to conceal my identity together with the mask which was also enclosed. I was just adding some swirls of vivid blue and green to my eyes when Constance made her entrance.
"Just think, "she said settling down next to me on the long stool which faced the dressing mirror, "only two weeks ago you were too shy to wear powder." I looked quickly to her, not sure if she was teasing me or making a comment on my recent behaviour. I needn't have worried; her eyes were crinkled with a genuine smile.
"Do you think it's all too much?" I asked raising my hand to remove a feather from my hair, I had decided I should wear my hair unpinned and the dark waves fell over my shoulders. Constance stopped my hand in its movement and held it in her own for a moment.
"Not at all. You will be masked and that's the fun of it. No one will know who you are... unless you speak of course!" I frowned in confusion, speak? Why shouldn't I speak? "Your accent! It will give you away instantly" Constance laughed again as she brushed the hair back from my shoulder.
"Of course, "I nodded understanding. "I shall be a mute Salome."
"Shall I help you fix the rest of these feathers and sparkles?" Constance stood and began fastening the paste diamonds into my hair with her quick fingers. Her mouth was pursed in concentration and I busied myself with the rest of my eye colour and was just picking up the small pot of rouge I had borrowed from Libby in order to dab a little on my lips when she spoke again.
"Isabella?" her voice seemed to frame a question and so I looked up into the mirror, she was looking back at me in the glass, her face serious.
"Mm?" I murmured applying the rouge to my lips with my fingertip.
"I wanted to speak to you about the night at Lord Choughton's... I... I don't want you to think I..." she sighed in frustration, her hands falling to her sides, her eyes wide and frank. "I'm sorry I..." I turned to face her and held her hands in mine.
"There is nothing to apologise for Constance. You have been nothing to me but a true friend and sister who has comforted and cared for me throughout my visit to your home. Please do not apologise for anything." I kissed one of her hands, noticing the red stain my lips left upon the white fingers. I rubbed them with my hand. Constance let out a breath.
"Oh thank goodness. I have been wondering what to say, if I should say anything at all, ever since we came back but I couldn't..." she ended sighing again and I smiled up at her. "I'm so glad you came to London, Isabella. " I turned back to the mirror and Constance once again picked up the paste gems and began placing them in my hair. "There," she stood back to admire her work. "You look ravishing! Is that not one of Mr Cullen's words?" she giggled. Finished with my toilette I picked up the mask of peacock feathers and fastened it across my brow and into my hair. Constance gasped behind me and my eyes flicked to hers in the mirror. Her mouth was open and her eyes betrayed the surprise she felt at my transformation.
I looked at myself in the mirror and I confess, look though I might, I could not see myself there. Instead there sat before me an exotic and striking woman. My dark hair fell over my shoulders glittering and twinkling in the gas light. The eyes of the peacock feather mask seemed to merge with my own and the effect was one of a marble statue of an eastern goddess. This goddess had full, red lips which pouted voluptuously, her skin was milky white and contrasted sharply with the vivid colours of the fabric which clung and draped over her body. The folds of her robe accentuated her breasts and her narrow waist, the soft material making it plain that my usual undergarments were in absence. I felt strangely nude and yet completely hidden all at once. It was as though my new, secret self, so soon emerged from her cocoon of respectability was finally stepping out, her butterfly wings gloriously on show.
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With my heavy cloak covering my costume and protecting me from the night air I left Constance waving on the doorstep and alighted the carriage Laura had sent for me. On the seat inside I found a small silver flask and a note. The paper was rose scented and the perfume filled the carriage as I opened it.
'Dear Salomé,' it read, the hand writing extravagant and flowing, 'a little nip to warm the senses.' I opened the flask and sniffed the contents. The heady flavour was immediately recognisable, brandy. I raised the flask to my lips and took a long drink. It burned deliciously in my throat and I felt it slipping down, warming and awakening as it trickled through my body. By the time the carriage was slowing to a halt outside the Ashton's town house the flask was empty.
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The butler showed me into a quiet hall, so silent that I began to wonder if I had been mistaken in the date of the party. Then I remembered Laura's note about the brandy and relaxed. Perhaps the party had not yet begun? The butler was opening a small door towards the back of the hallway. It led to dark stairs leading down, lit by stout flickering candles set into niches carved high into the stone walls. The whole of the passage way, each step, the walls and the ceiling were hewn from stone. I looked with some surprise to the butler's face but he showed no emotion and merely handed me a lantern from a collection of various others just inside the door. As I held it aloft with a trembling hand he quickly lit the candle within it, closed the door and left me in the dimly lit stairway.
My lantern was made of stained glass, as deep a blue as my costume beneath the cloak I still wore and I wondered briefly if Laura had instructed him to give me this particular light. The steps were clean and my feet, in their silken slippers, made pattering noises as I carefully picked my way down. The darkness drew back a little as I descended and I could hear music coming from below my feet. Deeper and deeper I went each step leaving behind the girl I was once was and bringing me nearer and nearer to the woman I was to become. The symbolism lay heavy about me as though the whole event was merely a stage for my seduction of Mr Cullen. My stomach quivered when I thought of him. What would his costume be? Would he recognise me? How on earth would I go about seducing him? The music was more obvious now, a reedy pipe and a heavy drumbeat sounding together in some arcane tribal rhythm. The next turn of the steps would be the last; I took a deep breath and rounded the corner.
Such a sight was laid out before me! The cavern, for such was the only word I could conjure for such a place, was vast. The low ceiling carved from the stone and stretching back further than I could imagine the Ashton house could cover. The whole place was hung and swathed about in diaphanous fabrics in bright jewel colours. They shimmered, softening the glow of the stained glass lanterns which hung from the roof, low over the heads of the revellers. I saw women dressed in fantastical costumes dancing and drinking and laughing. Their jewels sparkling in the dim light like a sultan's treasure. They reclined on low couches and cushions; some were dancing sinuously to the strange music. The air was heavily scented with perfume and another fragrance, heavy and cloying which aroused in me a strangely familiar feeling.
A gentleman dressed as Roman emperor brushed by me, on his arm was Cleopatra, her sparkling silver snake wound about her temple and her kohl rimmed mask obscuring her identity. It seemed that each of the revellers had their opposite; there was an oriental emperor and his geisha shuffling beside him in her long kimono. There a French lord and his courtesan and there a man dressed as Samson, his muscles shown off by the leather of his short tunic, pulling a giggling Delilah onto his knee. I searched in vain for someone I knew but none of the characters seemed to be Laura, Bosie or Mr Cullen.
My attention was drawn to a young highwayman making his way towards me. His high leather boots gleamed in the dim light and the musket at his belt seemed alarmingly realistic. In his hand he held a decanter of some green liquid and a small velvet bag, obviously his booty from the evening. His wide hat was topped with a broad white feather and this dipped dangerously near the lanterns as he made his way across the floor to me. His frame was slight and I frowned, trying to think who he might be. In a moment he was upon me and he swept his hat off in a low bow. His dark curls alerted me to his identity immediately.
"Laura!" I gasped in surprise as she stood again, her mischievous eyes twinkling behind the black scarf that covered her mouth. "What a marvellous costume! I never would have thought of coming as a man!"
"Well I couldn't come as a whore could I?" her laugh was loud and infectious. "Besides you've seen that outfit!" She passed me the decanter she was swinging beside her. "Absinthe!" She nodded toward some cushions behind us and sat herself down in a most unladylike fashion, her legs splayed out like a man. She rummaged in the velvet bag and brought out a small object which looked like a forked spoon. From beside her she produced a small wine glass.
I watched in fascination as she placed the fork over the wine glass. I had no idea what she was doing.
"What's abs...?" I asked unsure how to pronounce the foreign word. She looked back to me from her task of placing a small lump of what looked like sugar onto the fork.
"Nectar of the Gods, Isabella. It will give you just the courage you need to seduce your Romeo." She began pouring the green liquid onto the sugar and I watched as the sugar began to crumble and dissolve. Laura flourished a match and touched it to the sugar. It blazed with a blue green flame. I had started back a little and she grabbed my arm with one hand as she held the burning fork in the other. "The water!" she hissed moving her head to gesture to a vessel behind me which seemed to contain water. As I passed it to her chunks ice clinked against the glass. Swiftly she doused the flame with the water and passed me the glass. Her alchemy finished, she laughed with delight at the wonder written upon my face. "Drink it down dear! And let the party begin!"
I touched the warm liquid to my lips. They stung with the pungent aniseed flavour and the sweet mixture slipped down my throat seeming to tingle in the very cells of my body. Laura tilted my hand and the drink spilled into me quicker than I had anticipated. As I wiped drops from my chin I felt a familiar lazy warmth settling through my limbs and I looked up at her with heavily lidded eyes.
"Now there is the vixen I met at Madam Chang's," she whispered in my ear, her hot breath tickling my throat. She pulled down the scarf which covered her lips and brought my face towards hers; giving me a slow and languorous kiss. Her tongue stroked against mine causing me to shiver and cling to her, my body on fire. She broke the kiss and looked me in the eyes. She was so beautiful, this girl boy creature with her lips of flame. She spun me slowly to face the crowded room. The music seemed to reach inside me and pull me into its rhythm. I felt my hips begin to sway, hypnotised by the beat. "There, "Laura breathed again in my ear, her hand pointing out across the room. "There is your Romeo."
I looked and there he was. How was it that I had not seen him before? His presence was luminous, divine. He leant against the stone wall, a champagne glass in his hand. His doublet was made of pale grey silk and studded with pearls and sparkling gems. His white shirt slashed open a little at the neck to reveal the bulge of his Adam's apple and the soft curling hairs upon his chest. His long, lean legs were tightly clad in a darker shade of silken hose, accentuating his calves and thighs. His hair was like fire, swept around his head in a messy tangle and from his ear was a tear shaped pearl. A gentle push from Laura sent me spinning towards him like a moon caught in the orbit of its planet.
So, did you spot yourself at the party Roguettes? Who were you sporting with you naughty ladies? Did you recognise me?
Will Salome succeed in her planned seduction of Romeo? Will Lady Laura hold anyone to ransom? Who has Bosie come dressed as? Send me a review gentle reader and all will be revealed! (Yes that is a bribe!)
As usual a big thank you to my partners in crime Awesomesauce76 and Jrh927 (read their stories, they're fab!).
