Before I forget, I want to thank my wonderful, lovely, talented (and
neglected) editor KittyLynne. Wild Angels would not be what it is without
her help, input and constant support!
I'd also like to thank all my readers, reviewers, and everyone who has supported me throughout the writing of this story.
*smooch*
I don't own Fushigi Yugi and probably never will . . .oh woe is me.
Wild Angels
By Amiboshi-chan
Chapter four The train car swayed and rocked like a half-broken mustang. Mr. And Mrs. O'Bannion lurched unsteadily up the aisle, doggedly making their way forward to the dining car, while Missy sat beside Yui and tried not to notice Tasuki sitting across the aisle from her.
He wasn't easy to ignore.
Missy once again focused on his worn Justins, hitched carelessly up on the back of the empty seat in front of him. He shifted, causing his arms to flex. Heavy muscle corded beneath the rolled-up sleeves of a sturdy tan colored work shirt. Soft worn denim and battered leather chaps hugged his long legs.
Patricia O'Bannion had been tight-lipped with disapproval over Tasuki's decision to travel in his ranch clothes, but that did nothing to deter him; he certainly was quite a different image from the one she'd seen when he first arrived from New York. Missy sighed at the thought, and wished she could forget how much he had changed.
Nakago, sitting in the window seat beside Tasuki, gave his friend a sidelong look of amused curiosity. For his efforts, he earned a flashy smile of cocky arrogance. Then Tasuki pulled his hat low over his forehead and hunkered down in the seat.
Missy fumed silently. 'His nonsense is enough to make a preacher cuss.'
Why oh why did he have to come along? Although, a part of her was thrilled that he had, for she wanted him there to see her triumph.
'If I do triumph.'
She shook the negative thought from her head. She would succeed, and she didn't give a hoot in hell what Tasuki McCarty thought, anyway.
But...why did the man have to be so goll-dang contrary about everything? And why did she have to keep noticing? There was no excuse for him to be dressing like a cowhand on this trip...unless it was just one more attempt at making her feel foolish. Each time she glanced at him she was painfully reminded of where she came from and how she did not fit in with refined society.
'He's doing it to shame me.'
Anger and disappointment settled over her like a wet blanket as she turned to look out the window. The countryside sped by at an amazing pace. At this rate they would be in New York in no time.
"Are you nervous?" Yui's soft voice drew Missy's attention from the brown and green ribbons of landscape shooting by the window.
"Do I seem nervous?" Missy challenged.
"Maybe a little." Yui gave her a sympathetic smile and nodded towards Missy's lap.
Following the line of her gaze, Missy discovered her fingers were busy tying the strings of her reticule into tight little knots. Her hands immediately stilled, but there was no use denying how she felt- not with the truth of it tangled in her fingers.
"Oh...I'm sorry! I hope I haven't ruined it." She murmured in distress. After all, her entire outfit had been borrowed, from the jaunty hat on her head, which was courtesy of her cousin Ellen, to the pale green skirt and traveling jacket that were from Yui.
"Do not worry." Yui waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. "I just hope you are not regretting your decision to take us up on this invitation since . . . well, since Tasuki decided to come along."
Missy looked up and caught Tasuki eyeing her from under the brim of his hat. She drew herself up and stuck out her chin a little, determined not to let him see how much his scrutiny and his disapproval had unnerved her.
"I ain't nervous! Not a bit!" She asserted, more loudly than necessary. "I'm lookin' forward to a great adventure. What do I care if he decided to go back home?"
She saw Tasuki's lips twitch, and she heard his quiet chuckle. Then he pulled the brim of his hat back down over his eyes, and sank lower in the seat as if he was going to take a nap. Missy cursed under her breath.
"Damn that man! He would like nothin' better than to see me tuckin' my tail between my legs and runnin' back home. He probably can't wait for me to get there and make a goll-darn fool of myself. That's why he changed his mind at the last minute about coming and hopped on the train at the last minute."
Yui smiled. "Tasuki does seem to have . . .a rather strong affect on you."
Missy snorted. "I guess you could say that. He makes me so consarned mad I could just spit!" She looked down as she started to unknot the strings on the reticule.
A skeptical smile tickled the corners of Yui's mouth. "Is that all? He only makes you angry?"
Missy glanced up quickly. "Of course that's all! He makes me madder than a hornet!" The boldfaced lie nearly choked her. Tasuki did a lot more than make her angry, and had ever since she'd made the mistake of letting him wrap his arms around her and pull her out onto the dance floor at the wedding. If only she had not been fool enough to think that it had meant something to him. "And I swear, if he gives me that superior look of his one more time, I'll . . .I'll... well, I'll think of somethin'!" She went back to working on the knots, still muttering under her breath. "How I wish . . ." Her voice trailed off.
"What, Missy? What do you wish?" Yui studied her closely.
"Promise you won't laugh?" Missy lowered her voice so there would be no chance of Tasuki or Nakago overhearing.
"I promise."
"I do wish I hadn't been stupid enough to accept this invitation...but now I'm in it up to my hocks." She sighed and scooted lower in the seat, as if she could somehow disappear altogether. Without conscious thought, her eyes skimmed over Tasuki. Something about the way he looked, so relaxed and unconcerned, with denim clad, muscular legs casually propped against the next seat, made her angry all over again.
Abruptly, she turned back to Yui and the rest of the words came out in a rush. "Even more, I wish I could be a lady! I want to talk right, walk right, and act right, so I can show..." her unwilling gaze slid back across the aisle to the manly form that so unnerved her, "...him."
Yui smiled as if she understood, but Missy knew that she didn't. How could anyone understand how deeply Tasuki had wounded her?
Tasuki had endured her teasing and taunting for over a year while he went about proving himself, giving back as good as he got. Then the sidewinder had to go and made her think he had feelings for her when he'd held her in his arms, taught her to dance.
Why in tarnation had he done it, and why had it thrown her so? How could she expect Yui to understand these things when she didn't understand them herself?
"I'll teach you." Yui's eyebrows rose toward her hairline.
"Beg pardon?" Missy tore her thoughts from Tasuki.
"I'll teach you how to be a lady," Yui whispered. "We could make a bargain."
Missy's heart beat a little faster within the confines of her chest. "Now you're teasing me, just like he does."
Yui tugged unconsciously at a strand of wispy blonde hair beside her cheek. ""No, I'm not- I wouldn't ever tease about something as important as this." She looked up. "Trust me, Missy."
"I think you're funnin' me. I put that dress on at Ellen and Cyril's wedding, and I tried, I really did, but I saw the look on Tasuki's face." Missy swallowed hard. "He was shamed and embarrassed for me."
"He did look distressed, but I am not sure you were the reason...or, at least, not in the way you think." Yui regarded Tasuki across the narrow aisle. "He is a changed man," she added, nodding in his direction. "If a fine Eastern gentleman can learn to be a rough riding cowboy, then there's no reason that you can't learn to be a proper lady."
Missy had said the same thing to herself not all that long ago. She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head thoughtfully, considering the idea. "If I agreed, I'd sure like to repay you for your kindness...but what do I have that someone like you would want?"
"There is something." Yui lowered her voice to a whisper, and glanced around as if she expected someone to be listening in on their conversation.
Missy leaned closer, inspired to whisper by Yui's behavior. "Name it."
"I want you to teach me how to ride."
Missy's stomach dropped as the little glimmer of hope that had welled within her died a quick death. Obviously, Yui was having some fun at her expense. "Be serious." She said curtly.
However, not a trace of humor could be found in the blonde's wide-eyed _expression. "I am serious. I was a sickly child, and my father still insists in treating me as if I am still frail. It took weeks of begging him, just to be allowed to take this trip." A sheen of moisture sparkled in the cornflower blue eyes. "You cannot imagine what it's like to be treated like a fragile china doll locked away behind a glass door. I'd like to prove to him that I can be strong and capable—like you."
Missy released the pent-up breath she had been holding. "But you—you're a real lady." Undisguised admiration rang in her voice.
"You can be one too, Missy...though for the life of me I can't understand why it's so important to you." Yui's cheeks flushed and she ducked her head. "If you will teach me what you know, then I'll do the same."
"I don't think it's gonna be very easy to turn me into a lady of refinement," Missy smiled, "but if you're game to try, then you've got yourself a deal."
"One more thing, Missy." Yui's blue eyes suddenly turned icy. "This has to be our secret. If my father finds out, he will put a stop to our plan. He is a stubborn man, and he's afraid of losing me."
"It'll be our secret," Missy swore solemnly, as her defiant gaze raked over Tasuki's form once more.
~ ~ ~*~ ~ ~
Tasuki flopped over in his berth. He was unable to sleep, even though the mattress was well padded and the train car was unusually quiet. As mile after mile slid by, he finally came to accept that stubborn little Missy was going to see this thing through to the end.
So why on earth was he going home, the last place he wanted to be? He hadn't even had time to pack his clothes. But at least Mrs. O'Bannion was pleased by his impulsive decision.
'If only I were as well.'
He was simply going along as a courtesy to the Brooks family, to Cyril —and to keep Missy from wreaking havoc on the whole of New York City.
'It has to be that. What other reason could there be?'
He had tried to speak to Missy before the train left, to let her know that she was making a mistake by leaving the Territory, but she always seemed to have her head bent in some secretive conversation with Yui.
"How on earth can they have so much to talk about?" He asked the night sky.
Once on the train, he'd hoped to trap her somewhere and tease her into speaking to him. But so far he had not been able to steal a single moment alone with her. It was frustrating. And what was even more puzzling was his unrelenting desire to speak to her.
Why did he care if she went to New York and made herself miserable? So what if she made a fool of herself by trying to be something she was not? Missy had ridden rough and hard over him for a full year. He should be tickled to think of her going to New York, where she would be as out of place as a house tabby in a cougar's den.
He should've been...but he wasn't, and he knew why. There were men in New York—lots of young, very eligible men—who would find the unpolished Missy O'Bannion a novelty far too tempting to pass up. For all her tough ways, she was as an innocent as a lamb, and would have no idea how to deal with the jaded cads who would flock to her.
"Why should I give a damn?" he muttered to himself. "She can go make a fool of herself, get her feelings hurt—hell, she can even get her heart broken! I don't care one damn bit!"
But he did care.
"Ah hell, it's only because she's Ellen's cousin. I owe it to Chichiri to keep an eye out for her." Tasuki mollified himself with that thought until sleep overtook him.
But he did not rest. Instead he dreamed of chasing Missy across the moonlit prairie. She was a fleet-footed sprite with flowing auburn hair, who remained forever just beyond his reach.
~ ~ ~*~ ~ ~
"Missy, you are still dropping your 'g'," Yui whispered in the darkness. The pair were curled up in their flannel gowns inside the snug sleeping berth as the train rocked and clicked rhythmically through the night. The only illumination was a weak shaft of moonlight peeking through the partially opened curtain, turning Yui's pale hair to liquid silver.
Missy turned and peered out the window. A late frost covered the early grass with a mantle of diamonds that sparkled at the train sped by. "I never knew speakin'—I mean speaking—could be so goll-darned hard." Missy sighed.
"That's the other thing, Missy. You must try not to use phrases like 'goll- darned' and 'consarned'. And you'll have to quit damning Tasuki in every other breath."
Missy giggled, fell back on her pillows and laced her fingers behind her head. "I may quit sayin' . . .saying it, but I won't promise to quit thinking it." She emphasized her g with precision.
"Just as long as you don't say it aloud." Yui giggled in turn and pulled the carved bone brush through her hair. "In your mind you may curse dear Tasuki to whatever degree of perdition suits you, but a lady never lets such thoughts cross her lips."
"He is going to be in for quite a shock. I can hardly wait until he gets a gander at me." Missy closed her eyes and imagined it in her mind.
"A look at you," Yui corrected softly. "Not a gander."
"A look at me," Missy repeated, dutifully.
Yui smiled at the enthusiasm of her pupil. "We must spend some time working on your hair. It is so silky and thick, I am sure we can find a very flattering style for you. Perhaps an upsweep of some sort . . . you have lovely features. We need to accentuate them."
"Lovely features?" Missy opened her eyes and sat up. She wasn't quite sure how to take the compliment. Nobody, not even Ellen, had ever talked to her the way Yui did. The bright blond girl was her exact opposite in every way, and yet they were already as close as sisters. With a poignant tug on her heart, she realized Yui had become her first female friend. Having grown up talking to male farmhands and her brothers, there was something sweet and satisfying about having a female friend in which to confide.
"At the next stop I want to send a wire home," Yui continued. "We must ask Aunt Patricia if you may come to my house straightaway. My dressmaker, Miss Baldwin, is an absolute treasure! She can get some dresses made for you and nobody will know what we are up to . . . at least, not until we are ready for them to find out." Yui put the brush aside and clapped her smooth white hands together. "It will be deliciously fun! We'll have a party to introduce you properly to society!"
"Do you really believe it will work?" Missy's nose crinkled with doubt.
"Of course it will," Yui said confidently. "I can't wait to see the looks on everyone's faces when they see the transformation!" Yui cast a sly look at Missy as she added, "And when you teach me to ride, my papa will be forced to realize that I am not the frail child he thinks me to be!"
~ ~ ~*~ ~ ~
Sweet little Yui has a mischievous streak in her, it seems . .
I'd also like to thank all my readers, reviewers, and everyone who has supported me throughout the writing of this story.
*smooch*
I don't own Fushigi Yugi and probably never will . . .oh woe is me.
Wild Angels
By Amiboshi-chan
Chapter four The train car swayed and rocked like a half-broken mustang. Mr. And Mrs. O'Bannion lurched unsteadily up the aisle, doggedly making their way forward to the dining car, while Missy sat beside Yui and tried not to notice Tasuki sitting across the aisle from her.
He wasn't easy to ignore.
Missy once again focused on his worn Justins, hitched carelessly up on the back of the empty seat in front of him. He shifted, causing his arms to flex. Heavy muscle corded beneath the rolled-up sleeves of a sturdy tan colored work shirt. Soft worn denim and battered leather chaps hugged his long legs.
Patricia O'Bannion had been tight-lipped with disapproval over Tasuki's decision to travel in his ranch clothes, but that did nothing to deter him; he certainly was quite a different image from the one she'd seen when he first arrived from New York. Missy sighed at the thought, and wished she could forget how much he had changed.
Nakago, sitting in the window seat beside Tasuki, gave his friend a sidelong look of amused curiosity. For his efforts, he earned a flashy smile of cocky arrogance. Then Tasuki pulled his hat low over his forehead and hunkered down in the seat.
Missy fumed silently. 'His nonsense is enough to make a preacher cuss.'
Why oh why did he have to come along? Although, a part of her was thrilled that he had, for she wanted him there to see her triumph.
'If I do triumph.'
She shook the negative thought from her head. She would succeed, and she didn't give a hoot in hell what Tasuki McCarty thought, anyway.
But...why did the man have to be so goll-dang contrary about everything? And why did she have to keep noticing? There was no excuse for him to be dressing like a cowhand on this trip...unless it was just one more attempt at making her feel foolish. Each time she glanced at him she was painfully reminded of where she came from and how she did not fit in with refined society.
'He's doing it to shame me.'
Anger and disappointment settled over her like a wet blanket as she turned to look out the window. The countryside sped by at an amazing pace. At this rate they would be in New York in no time.
"Are you nervous?" Yui's soft voice drew Missy's attention from the brown and green ribbons of landscape shooting by the window.
"Do I seem nervous?" Missy challenged.
"Maybe a little." Yui gave her a sympathetic smile and nodded towards Missy's lap.
Following the line of her gaze, Missy discovered her fingers were busy tying the strings of her reticule into tight little knots. Her hands immediately stilled, but there was no use denying how she felt- not with the truth of it tangled in her fingers.
"Oh...I'm sorry! I hope I haven't ruined it." She murmured in distress. After all, her entire outfit had been borrowed, from the jaunty hat on her head, which was courtesy of her cousin Ellen, to the pale green skirt and traveling jacket that were from Yui.
"Do not worry." Yui waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. "I just hope you are not regretting your decision to take us up on this invitation since . . . well, since Tasuki decided to come along."
Missy looked up and caught Tasuki eyeing her from under the brim of his hat. She drew herself up and stuck out her chin a little, determined not to let him see how much his scrutiny and his disapproval had unnerved her.
"I ain't nervous! Not a bit!" She asserted, more loudly than necessary. "I'm lookin' forward to a great adventure. What do I care if he decided to go back home?"
She saw Tasuki's lips twitch, and she heard his quiet chuckle. Then he pulled the brim of his hat back down over his eyes, and sank lower in the seat as if he was going to take a nap. Missy cursed under her breath.
"Damn that man! He would like nothin' better than to see me tuckin' my tail between my legs and runnin' back home. He probably can't wait for me to get there and make a goll-darn fool of myself. That's why he changed his mind at the last minute about coming and hopped on the train at the last minute."
Yui smiled. "Tasuki does seem to have . . .a rather strong affect on you."
Missy snorted. "I guess you could say that. He makes me so consarned mad I could just spit!" She looked down as she started to unknot the strings on the reticule.
A skeptical smile tickled the corners of Yui's mouth. "Is that all? He only makes you angry?"
Missy glanced up quickly. "Of course that's all! He makes me madder than a hornet!" The boldfaced lie nearly choked her. Tasuki did a lot more than make her angry, and had ever since she'd made the mistake of letting him wrap his arms around her and pull her out onto the dance floor at the wedding. If only she had not been fool enough to think that it had meant something to him. "And I swear, if he gives me that superior look of his one more time, I'll . . .I'll... well, I'll think of somethin'!" She went back to working on the knots, still muttering under her breath. "How I wish . . ." Her voice trailed off.
"What, Missy? What do you wish?" Yui studied her closely.
"Promise you won't laugh?" Missy lowered her voice so there would be no chance of Tasuki or Nakago overhearing.
"I promise."
"I do wish I hadn't been stupid enough to accept this invitation...but now I'm in it up to my hocks." She sighed and scooted lower in the seat, as if she could somehow disappear altogether. Without conscious thought, her eyes skimmed over Tasuki. Something about the way he looked, so relaxed and unconcerned, with denim clad, muscular legs casually propped against the next seat, made her angry all over again.
Abruptly, she turned back to Yui and the rest of the words came out in a rush. "Even more, I wish I could be a lady! I want to talk right, walk right, and act right, so I can show..." her unwilling gaze slid back across the aisle to the manly form that so unnerved her, "...him."
Yui smiled as if she understood, but Missy knew that she didn't. How could anyone understand how deeply Tasuki had wounded her?
Tasuki had endured her teasing and taunting for over a year while he went about proving himself, giving back as good as he got. Then the sidewinder had to go and made her think he had feelings for her when he'd held her in his arms, taught her to dance.
Why in tarnation had he done it, and why had it thrown her so? How could she expect Yui to understand these things when she didn't understand them herself?
"I'll teach you." Yui's eyebrows rose toward her hairline.
"Beg pardon?" Missy tore her thoughts from Tasuki.
"I'll teach you how to be a lady," Yui whispered. "We could make a bargain."
Missy's heart beat a little faster within the confines of her chest. "Now you're teasing me, just like he does."
Yui tugged unconsciously at a strand of wispy blonde hair beside her cheek. ""No, I'm not- I wouldn't ever tease about something as important as this." She looked up. "Trust me, Missy."
"I think you're funnin' me. I put that dress on at Ellen and Cyril's wedding, and I tried, I really did, but I saw the look on Tasuki's face." Missy swallowed hard. "He was shamed and embarrassed for me."
"He did look distressed, but I am not sure you were the reason...or, at least, not in the way you think." Yui regarded Tasuki across the narrow aisle. "He is a changed man," she added, nodding in his direction. "If a fine Eastern gentleman can learn to be a rough riding cowboy, then there's no reason that you can't learn to be a proper lady."
Missy had said the same thing to herself not all that long ago. She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head thoughtfully, considering the idea. "If I agreed, I'd sure like to repay you for your kindness...but what do I have that someone like you would want?"
"There is something." Yui lowered her voice to a whisper, and glanced around as if she expected someone to be listening in on their conversation.
Missy leaned closer, inspired to whisper by Yui's behavior. "Name it."
"I want you to teach me how to ride."
Missy's stomach dropped as the little glimmer of hope that had welled within her died a quick death. Obviously, Yui was having some fun at her expense. "Be serious." She said curtly.
However, not a trace of humor could be found in the blonde's wide-eyed _expression. "I am serious. I was a sickly child, and my father still insists in treating me as if I am still frail. It took weeks of begging him, just to be allowed to take this trip." A sheen of moisture sparkled in the cornflower blue eyes. "You cannot imagine what it's like to be treated like a fragile china doll locked away behind a glass door. I'd like to prove to him that I can be strong and capable—like you."
Missy released the pent-up breath she had been holding. "But you—you're a real lady." Undisguised admiration rang in her voice.
"You can be one too, Missy...though for the life of me I can't understand why it's so important to you." Yui's cheeks flushed and she ducked her head. "If you will teach me what you know, then I'll do the same."
"I don't think it's gonna be very easy to turn me into a lady of refinement," Missy smiled, "but if you're game to try, then you've got yourself a deal."
"One more thing, Missy." Yui's blue eyes suddenly turned icy. "This has to be our secret. If my father finds out, he will put a stop to our plan. He is a stubborn man, and he's afraid of losing me."
"It'll be our secret," Missy swore solemnly, as her defiant gaze raked over Tasuki's form once more.
~ ~ ~*~ ~ ~
Tasuki flopped over in his berth. He was unable to sleep, even though the mattress was well padded and the train car was unusually quiet. As mile after mile slid by, he finally came to accept that stubborn little Missy was going to see this thing through to the end.
So why on earth was he going home, the last place he wanted to be? He hadn't even had time to pack his clothes. But at least Mrs. O'Bannion was pleased by his impulsive decision.
'If only I were as well.'
He was simply going along as a courtesy to the Brooks family, to Cyril —and to keep Missy from wreaking havoc on the whole of New York City.
'It has to be that. What other reason could there be?'
He had tried to speak to Missy before the train left, to let her know that she was making a mistake by leaving the Territory, but she always seemed to have her head bent in some secretive conversation with Yui.
"How on earth can they have so much to talk about?" He asked the night sky.
Once on the train, he'd hoped to trap her somewhere and tease her into speaking to him. But so far he had not been able to steal a single moment alone with her. It was frustrating. And what was even more puzzling was his unrelenting desire to speak to her.
Why did he care if she went to New York and made herself miserable? So what if she made a fool of herself by trying to be something she was not? Missy had ridden rough and hard over him for a full year. He should be tickled to think of her going to New York, where she would be as out of place as a house tabby in a cougar's den.
He should've been...but he wasn't, and he knew why. There were men in New York—lots of young, very eligible men—who would find the unpolished Missy O'Bannion a novelty far too tempting to pass up. For all her tough ways, she was as an innocent as a lamb, and would have no idea how to deal with the jaded cads who would flock to her.
"Why should I give a damn?" he muttered to himself. "She can go make a fool of herself, get her feelings hurt—hell, she can even get her heart broken! I don't care one damn bit!"
But he did care.
"Ah hell, it's only because she's Ellen's cousin. I owe it to Chichiri to keep an eye out for her." Tasuki mollified himself with that thought until sleep overtook him.
But he did not rest. Instead he dreamed of chasing Missy across the moonlit prairie. She was a fleet-footed sprite with flowing auburn hair, who remained forever just beyond his reach.
~ ~ ~*~ ~ ~
"Missy, you are still dropping your 'g'," Yui whispered in the darkness. The pair were curled up in their flannel gowns inside the snug sleeping berth as the train rocked and clicked rhythmically through the night. The only illumination was a weak shaft of moonlight peeking through the partially opened curtain, turning Yui's pale hair to liquid silver.
Missy turned and peered out the window. A late frost covered the early grass with a mantle of diamonds that sparkled at the train sped by. "I never knew speakin'—I mean speaking—could be so goll-darned hard." Missy sighed.
"That's the other thing, Missy. You must try not to use phrases like 'goll- darned' and 'consarned'. And you'll have to quit damning Tasuki in every other breath."
Missy giggled, fell back on her pillows and laced her fingers behind her head. "I may quit sayin' . . .saying it, but I won't promise to quit thinking it." She emphasized her g with precision.
"Just as long as you don't say it aloud." Yui giggled in turn and pulled the carved bone brush through her hair. "In your mind you may curse dear Tasuki to whatever degree of perdition suits you, but a lady never lets such thoughts cross her lips."
"He is going to be in for quite a shock. I can hardly wait until he gets a gander at me." Missy closed her eyes and imagined it in her mind.
"A look at you," Yui corrected softly. "Not a gander."
"A look at me," Missy repeated, dutifully.
Yui smiled at the enthusiasm of her pupil. "We must spend some time working on your hair. It is so silky and thick, I am sure we can find a very flattering style for you. Perhaps an upsweep of some sort . . . you have lovely features. We need to accentuate them."
"Lovely features?" Missy opened her eyes and sat up. She wasn't quite sure how to take the compliment. Nobody, not even Ellen, had ever talked to her the way Yui did. The bright blond girl was her exact opposite in every way, and yet they were already as close as sisters. With a poignant tug on her heart, she realized Yui had become her first female friend. Having grown up talking to male farmhands and her brothers, there was something sweet and satisfying about having a female friend in which to confide.
"At the next stop I want to send a wire home," Yui continued. "We must ask Aunt Patricia if you may come to my house straightaway. My dressmaker, Miss Baldwin, is an absolute treasure! She can get some dresses made for you and nobody will know what we are up to . . . at least, not until we are ready for them to find out." Yui put the brush aside and clapped her smooth white hands together. "It will be deliciously fun! We'll have a party to introduce you properly to society!"
"Do you really believe it will work?" Missy's nose crinkled with doubt.
"Of course it will," Yui said confidently. "I can't wait to see the looks on everyone's faces when they see the transformation!" Yui cast a sly look at Missy as she added, "And when you teach me to ride, my papa will be forced to realize that I am not the frail child he thinks me to be!"
~ ~ ~*~ ~ ~
Sweet little Yui has a mischievous streak in her, it seems . .