CHAPTER XVII

Alexander looked at his reflection in the mirror – he was wearing the perfect costume dress for a costume party. He would surely be envied by everyone that night.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Lafayette's voice suddenly shouted from the doorstep, "I am definitely not letting you out like that"

"What? It's a costume party!" Alex voice croaked.

"It's a masquerade! You cannot – I repeat it, cannot – wear a Darth Vader costume!"

"Why not?!" he breathed through the black mask, his voice distorted by the changer in the helmet, "no one would recognize me anyway. Also, no one would ever challenge a former Jedi knight by saying that his costume is not appropriate!"

"I'm not going with you like this!" Gilbert said with a resolved tone, "that is definitive."

"But mum – " Alex joked, throwing the helmet on the bed nonetheless.

"Herc! Can you help me here, please?"

Gilbert, who was wearing a very elegant white suit with golden buttons and details and a golden mask that covered the upper half of his face, stormed out of Alex's room at once, only to come back with a silver-masked Hercules, who was wearing a dark grey suit with blue tie and waistcoat.

"Alexander," Herc sighed, rolling his eyes like he usually did with his children, "why aren't you wearing the suit I gave you for your birthday?"

"I feel constricted in that one."

"And a black cape is so much better, I guess."

"Just in case I have to subdue the rest of the world tonight."

"Do you want John to be scolded by his father because of you? He told you to behave."

This time, he touched a raw nerve and Alex lowed his head in surrender. "All right, I'll get changed. But I don't have a stupid mask."

"You silly thing, I've bought you one last week!" Gilbert said haughtily, and produced a dark blue mask, decorated with silver arabesques. The Frenchman smiled when he saw Alex's eyes widen. "Beautiful, huh? Much better than the helmet anyway."

"Shut up and gimme that!"

"Wow – de rien, mon ami!" Gilbert snorted and walked away.

Alex changed into the blue suit Hercules had handmade for his last birthday, opting for the waistcoat rather than the jacket, and leaving his collar unbuttoned – he really hated ties and bow ties. In the end, he wore the mask. He had to admit it, he wasn't as cool as Darth Vader, but he was quite a vision dressed like that. He needed to thank Laf, as usual.

"Gilbert! Gil – what happened?" he immediately asked when he opened his room's door, only to find his friend in tears.

"E-Elizabeth twisted an ankle and cannot look after the kids tonight," he sobbed, throwing the mask away, "Herc has to stay at home with them and help her."

"Oh shit. I'm so sorry – look, if you want to go with him I can stay and look after them."

"No way, you're the one invited." Gilbert wiped away his tears, "it's just that every time I come back everything's so perfect that I almost forget... but then, stuff like this happen and I'm suddenly reminded that we've chosen two different lives."

Alex sat next to him and took his friend into his arms, patting his back softly. They both knew that, despite how sad it sounded, what Gil and Herc were doing was the best thing to do; but sometimes, when you have to face an ugly truth, the thing you need the most is a friend by your side. After a couple of minutes, Gilbert drew away and smiled weakly.

"I'll go wash my face. I'll be back in a blink."

Alex stood there, helplessly watching his friend wear his mask back – all his masks.

"Voilà! I'm better now. Shouldn't we head out?"

"Yeah – let's go."

The place Henry Laurens had rent to host the party was magnificent. It was an old Victorian villa with a huge garden and several decorated ball rooms; the main one was towered by a wide staircase and a circular balcony that ran along the whole perimeter. Despite the fact electricity was used to lit the entire room, candles filled every empty spot of the place, giving it a magical touch. But the real beauty were the people themselves – men were dressed in their most expensive suits and tuxedos, ties and cufflinks in place, while women were showing off their best evening dresses or, in more than few cases, colourful replicas of late Victorian dresses. The whole lot was also wearing beautiful and picturesque masks – some had glitters, some were plain, some had plumes of every kind, others were painted. The whole scene was breath-taking.

As soon as they entered the room, Gilbert spotted the buffet table and, murmuring a 'thank god' when he recognised the French wine collection, left Alexander alone. Alex stood awkwardly on the top of the staircase, looking around for anyone he knew – specifically, John – with a worried look. After having determined that he would never be able to pick out John from the masked crowd, he scanned the room one more time in search of the familiar mane of curly hair. No fluffy shapes around – he wasn't there. Why should he, after all? He hated pharmaceutical firms and Henry Laurens's was the biggest in town. Alex's lips curved into a smile remembering how Thomas used to call people like those – 'leeches without soul' was the nicest epithet.

"What are you laughing at?" John's voice rescued him from sweet dangerous thoughts and from his loneliness.

"John!" Alex hugged him quickly before admiring his outfit, "oh my god, man, you look ready for your wedding."

"Don't need to tell me. It was chosen by my folks, obviously - my father has been acting like a pain in the ass for days. 'Everything needs to be perfect' and his son cannot be the exception," he sighed.

Alex placed a hand on his shoulder. "Come on, don't think about it now. Let's just worry about having fun tonight."

"Right!" John's eyes lit up again, "where's Gilbert?"

"He's devouring all the cheese provisions, as it seems," Alex laughed, pointing at the buffet table where Gilbert was now eyeing a Camembert wheel with a glass of red whine in a hand and a slice of toasted bread in the other.

"Let's go."

The food was delicious but they soon lost interest in the buffet and turned their attention to what was happening in the ball room – a small orchestra was playing a waltz and the majority of the people was already dancing, while others were scattered at the tables all around, drinking and adding some sudden crack of laughter to the music. After a couple of hours, Henry Laurens appeared with a microphone ("Very anachronistic." "Shut up!") and thanked all his guests for being there, asking them to move outside for the desserts, more dances and 'a surprise'. As soon as the crowd started walking towards the garden, John was dragged away by his mother to be introduced to other wealthy families; Alex and Gilbert decided to loot the dessert table and then scrolled around the garden until they finally sat at a table with two other women who were chatting and giggling, a glass of champagne in their hands.

"Oh my God, if I go on like this, I'll get drunk!" one of them chuckled, "I need a break!"

"But I want to dance!" the pink-masked woman glanced at Alex and Gil, "if only a gentleman offered me a dance!"

"I can't dance, I'm sorry m'lady," Alexander made up an excuse at once; Lafayette, on the other hand, wasn't that quick - he wasn't used at refusing women.

"Then I'll dance with you, sweetheart!" she chirped, landing her hand on Gilbert's, who stood up and bowed lightly in an impeccable way, stepping on Alex's foot while heading to the dance floor.

The other woman looked awkwardly at Alex and offered him a shy smile before getting up and going away. Alex relaxed for the first time after hours, enjoying some minutes alone.

"Can I take a seat?"

Alex opened his eyes, startled by the voice. "Shit – oh, sorry, of course you can sit here!"

In front of him there was a tall woman who wore a long dark red dress and a pearled mask, with some plumes on the left side; her black hair were braided and coiled on her head in a bun.

"Thank you – "

"Alexander."

"Alexander." She repeated with a sweet voice and smiled, taking a seat. "I'm Martha."

"Nice to meet you. Are you enjoying the party?"

"I – not really. You see, tonight I've realised that this kind of things are way funnier when you drink."

Alex nodded in agreement and, casting a quick glance around, nonchalantly stole a bottle from the nearby table. "Can I cheer you up with some champagne then?"

She smiled again, amused by the deed. "I would love to, but I really mustn't," she gestured towards her belly and Alex cocked his head, confused. "I'm pregnant. Good, it's nice to know that it's not that obvious!"

Alexander chuckled, pouring the champagne into his own glass. "I'm sorry, I'm usually a good observer, but tonight – " He stopped, looking up from his glass and directly to the other side of the garden, where a man was watching them. He was dressed in a plain black suit and wore a white mask that covered three-quarters of his face – it instantly gave Alex a 'Phantom of the Opera' vibes. He couldn't be sure the man was actually watching them – he was far away and the mask prevented Alex from seeing his eyes, but Alex couldn't brush off the feeling of being watched.

" – tonight, you're distracted by something," Martha ended his thought, following the direction of his stare with her eyes, "or someone."

He couldn't be him. First of all, Alex could see no hair popping from behind the masked face; then, he would never wear such a plain dress - he wouldn't waste such an occasion to show off one of his horrible suits. Alex forced himself to look away from the man and turned back to Martha, who was smiling politely at him. "Sorry," he said again, "it's just that I broke up with my boyfriend a couple of months ago and I thought I'd have recovered by now… but I still surprise myself looking for him everywhere I go."

"Oh, I'm sorry you two broke up," she said, a little surprised by the sudden burst of honesty, "was it serious?"

"It was for me, I guess," Alex mumbled. "I don't know, I thought I loved him but, in fact, I didn't even know him – to be honest, I'd never fallen in love before and maybe I was just thinking in the heat of the moment."

"You still feel something though."

"What?"

"You said that you search for him."

"Oh, right… well, I do feel something – I never faked my emotions as he did."

"Why do you think he faked them?"

"Because he lied to me on something important. He – " Alex hesitated a moment and then gave in; what the hell, they were being honest and then it wasn't like this woman really knew who he was – "he was married."

"Oh." She breathed in and stood silent for a moment. "I'm sorry he lied to you – you know, people's lives are complicated sometimes."

"Is yours?"

"Very."

Alex's sad expression cracked into a smile at last. "Let's have a non-alcoholic toast to our troublesome lives then." He poured some water for Martha and raised his glass of champagne, sipping the last bit.

She smiled back and silently drank her water, her gaze wandering around the garden in a thoughtful way. In the end, she got up and cast Alexander one last smile. "Well, Alexander, it's been a pleasure. I hope you'll find your happiness someday."

Alex stood up, without really knowing what to say – how do you part with a stranger who knows your secrets? But she fled at once, without waiting for him to answer. Alex's gaze followed her figure until he lost her among the crowd. Only then, he remembered about the phantom and turned towards the dance floor to see if he was still there; but he was nowhere to be found, he'd disappeared into thin air like a real ghost.

A/N:

First of all, thank you for all your comments in the previous chapters, I can't thank you enough and I'm very happy that you like the story so far! *hugs* Aaaaaand here's Martha! We'll see more of her in the next chapters – but for now: did you expect Alex to meet her? What do you think about their conversation? And what about the 'Phantom of the Opera' mask? (if you haven't watched the play, please do it right now!)

Anyway, this part was too long to be published into a single chapter, so this is the first part of the masquerade, the next chapter will be published next week!