"Stop day-dreaming, silly child, or thou shalt make us late!" called Allegra's father, for Allegra had been taking her time down the path to her uncle's home. She hurried along at her father's command, but she was not daydreaming.

She had heard something in the shrub beside the wall. She heard men; whispering voices, quiet laughter, and many 'shh's. She knew she was the only one who noticed them...were they trying to break in, to crash the party?

Then an idea made her gasp. Who should be sneaking into a Capulet ball but the Montagues? It must have been them, for who else would come uninvited? Was her beloved Mercutio was among these men? She knew that crashing a party would be typical of him. But if so, would she see hitm again? And - her stomach churned - would he see her?

Thank Heaven I am wearing a mask.

Allegra caught up with her family. Her heart pounded again, and although she breathed deeply, she would not calm down. She was perhaps going to see him tonight, and he was perhaps going to see her, and she was not ready, and she could not tell her parents...

"Allegra, what ails thee? Thou look'st as though thou hast seen a ghost," said Theobald, Allegra's eldest brother, but not in a thoughtful way; he looked suspicious. Theobald always had a peculiar way of almost reading Allegra's mind.

"Hmm?" Allegra said. "Oh, erm.. nothing doth trouble me, brother, why ask you?" she said very quickly.

Ricardo, the next eldest child, answered for his brother, "We saw thee stray behind. Thou hast been slow and silent all evening, Allegra; 'tis not like thee. Thou art not ill again?"

Could she tell them? No. If the men really were Montagues (and Mercutio was among them), what would her brothers do to them?

"No," Allegra said. "I am as well tonight as every night..but I've something to ask of the two of you. "

"What, Allie?" Ricardo said.

Allegra took a deep breath, and asked them, "Are you an acquaintance of a gentleman called Mercutio?"

Theobald narrowed his eyes. "I've heard of a breed of rat called a Mercutio, but never a gentleman! Why dost thou even think of him?"

"I -" Allegra began.

"Allie, thou must never think of him!" Ricardo told me. "He is an animal, rude and wild to a degree unbelievable, and friend of the Montagues!" Ricardo looked worried. "Hath he violated thee, in such a way he should be punished?"

"No!" Allegra cried. "He would not do that to me! I -" she faltered. "I am but a girl, so whither should he have of me?"

Theobald scoffed. "Mercutio would find a maid easy to have - and thyself, a maid of the Capulet house, gleefully. If ever he should meet thee, he will do with thee what he should like, and his friends would praise him for't …"

"Theo, be not so indecent!" Allegra snapped. "He would not!"

"Mes chéris!" Allegra's mother cried as they came nearer to the house. "I bid you not quarrel, you weel embarass your fozzair's fam-eely."

"Heed us, Allie," Ricardo whispered, "Mercutio is a villain. If ever he pesters thee, come thee to us and we will take him out."

Allegra sighed. "Oh, Ricky!z'

Allegra's despair, however, did not last long.

"ALLEGRA!"

Allegra beamed as she saw Juliet running toward her from inside her home.

Juliet and Allegra embraced for the first time in weeks as the rest of their families greeted each other.

Allegra, as always, was the first to speak. "Juliet, how tall art thou! Ay me, thou art taller than I am!"

Juliet laughed. "I would but be a little taller, and I shall be as I'd like. Thou wert always the tall one!" She looked at Allegra. "Ay me, thou look'st not like the cousin I knew autumn last. Look at thy hair, 'tis so long!" Juliet took her cousin's hand and began pulling her in. "Why, come! Every other maid's here, they have been asking where Allegra is all evening..."

"Hath Tibby arrived?" Allegra asked.

"Tibby?" Juliet asked, continuing to pull Allegra into the house. "Is that a new name thou hast decided for our poor cousin?'"

Allegra nodded. "Call him not 'poor' yet; thou wilt not have a need till I am done with him." She gave quite a wicked grin.

"Oh, me!" Juliet said, but actually broke into a laugh.

The masquerade was more crowded than Mercutio had imagined. Hallelujah.

A hundred and fifty masks of all different colors and shapes filled the grand hall, and the Capulets and their friends danced and laughed and drank. Mercutio, Benvolio, and Romeo had entered together through a window, desperate not to be noticed by the Capulets. They had noticed, but tonight, they were not Montagues; just two gentleman and one idiot in costume.

"So many maidens... so little time," Mercutio said to Benvolio through his bright green mask.

Benvolio snorted. "Sorry, friend, but there is no maiden alive who will want to love that," he said, poking Mercutio's mask as the two friends made their way through the mingling crowd in the ballroom.

"What! This, my friend, is art! I have never seen anything so romantic, or dramatic... what woman would object this thrilling disguise? Other than thyself," Mercutio said, loudly enough so that people around them gave them annoyed glares.

"Hmm, let me think," Benvolio said, rolling his eyes behind his mask. "Any maiden with a sense of style and taste in men."

Mercutio raised his eyebrows. "Well, then. I see someone's in touch with their feminine side, isn't she, Benvolia?"

""Jackass," Benvolio said, shaking his head.

"Thank you," Mercutio said.

They proceeded through the hall, still unrecognized.

"Where's Romeo gone off to?" Benvolio asked, looking around.

"Mercutio shrugged. "Probably to elope with fabulous Rosaline."

"Romeo, elope!" Benvolio laughed at the ridiculous idea. "Never."

"Where is dear Tibby?" Mercutio asked.

Benvolio squinted, and then pointed to the center of the ballroom, where there was an enormous statue of three huge bronze knights in armor. Tybalt was sitting on the statue's circular edge, eating from a plate of food. He looked colorless. He had no mask; he wore a formal hose, and his dark hair was neatly parted to one side of his head, like always.

"There," Benvolio said. "Calmer than he was this morning. He just sits there. What hath he been doing?"

"Being boring," Mercutio answered. His mischievous smile appeared from behind his mask. "Allow me to go liven things up for him -"

"Benvoilio grabbed him as he stepped towards Tybalt.

"Mercutio, do not even think about it!" Benvolio said. "This is a formal party; thou wilt only embarrass thyself."

"Aw, but Ben!" said Mercutio joyfully. "'Twill turn this dead party into a hilarious disaster."

Benvolio would not listen. "Hilarious for no one but yourself! And look, he is already talking to some gentle maid!"

Mercutio did look, and then looked some more.

There was a girl there. She was fair and smiling, but that was nothing new; every girl in Verona smiled at Tybalt.

"The first tonight of a hundred maids to fawn o'er him," Benvolio muttered.

Mercutio snorted. "Forsooth!"

But Tybalt was not smiling back at her. Why shouldn't he smile at a pretty maid who smiled at him? Mercutio thought. But the maiden did not flirt with Tybalt...she annoyed him.

"Wait, Mercutio, is not that the maiden we saw near the plaza today?" Benvolio asked.

Mercutio's lips were pursed as he studied her. "Ay, Benvolio. 'Tis that maiden. Was she at the brawl?"

Benvolio looked as well. "Nay. How come her to be bothering him and not giving colours, either way?"

"I know not," Mercutio said. He turned to Benvolio. "I cannot hear."

"Nor can I," Benvolio said.

"Well, then, why do we just stand here?"

Mercutio took off in the direction of the statue's other side.

"Mercutio, art thou mad? We must not be seen!" Benvoilio cried, but, knowing there was no hope in stopping Mercutio from doing anything stupid, he followed his friend, praying that Tybalt would not recognize him.

"About time!" Mercutio whispered once Benvolio joined him. "Now, shush!"

"What are we -"

"Shush!" said Mercutio, peering over the side of the statue at Tybalt and the maiden.

"Ooo, Tibby!" the maiden said. "Thou has never looked so MARVELOUS!"

"Get off, get off!" Tybalt cried, pushing the maiden away. "Do not taunt me. You told me a half-hour ago I looked like a great fat hog!"

"I did so there, for there you looked like a great fat hog," the maiden said, pointing across the party to where the moresca was beginning. "This light is different, thou lookest much fairer here - more like a great fat cow than a great fat hog, thou handsome thing!"

"Mercutio struggled not to laugh and did not win the fight.

"You are a nuisance!" Tybalt told the maiden. "Be gone!"

"Nuisance!" the maiden said. "Dear Tibby, hast not thou called me that my entire life? I am sure I know I am a nuisance by now. Call thee me an even bigger word, such as 'miscreant' or 'ruffian', something that will shall make me even cry."

"Rapscallion, then!" Tybalt yelled, his face reddening with embarrassment. "Idiot! Bothersome...little..."

"Ay, good Tibby?" the maiden asked, grinning.

Tybalt could not finish. He groaned.

"You have embarrassed me and demeaned yourself. To hell with you!"

"Oh, I go there every time I look at your face, dear Tibby!" said the maiden loudly, so that a few people around her laughed at Tybalt.

"Your mother shall hear of this, child!" Tybalt fumed.

The maiden laughed. "So she will! She shall laugh about it with thy mother, who will tell all Verona that her sweet baby Tibby was humiliated by a silly little nuisance. I know she will; she tells every thing she doth hear to all else in our family."

"MY MOTHER IS A SAINT!" Tybalt yelled in the maiden's face.

"Ay - they should call her SAINT DOG-THING OF VERONA!" the maiden yelled back. "AMEN!"

Mercutio burst out laughing, but so did everyone who had heard the maiden, so no one noticed him.

"Clear out of here, you idiot girl!" Tybalt yelled.

The maiden bowed sweepingly. "Oh, I will. But before I do..."

She took a piece of bruschetta from the plate in Tyblat's hands and popped it into her mouth, before giving Tybalt an long kiss at which crowd of people screamed with the laughter and applauded.

"So long, Tibby," the maiden said, waving innocently at the dumbfounded Tybalt. She went to join the raving crowd, and Tybalt stormed off in the other direction.

Mercutio turned to Benvolio. "Who is she?"

Benvolio frowned. "Someone mad." He raised an eyebrow. "Someone with gall, especially for a maid..I wonder why I have never seen her before..."

Mercutio did not hear Benvolio. He had only just seen her today, but surely, he had seen her before that - long before that.

"Gall, indeed..."