Shit.
I was going to—“Aaaachoo!”
I shifted a handkerchief to wipe my nose. How feckin’ mortifying. Maybe no one heard me.
“Is there someone in there with you?”Aveen’s sister asked.
“It’s . . . um . . . Sylvia,” Aveen lied. “She’s helping me decide which dress to wear tomorrow.”
“Really? I just saw Sylvia on the stairs not five minutes ago, carrying a vase of flowers to the parlor.”
“I . . . Um . . .”
I’d have to teach that human a thing or two about lying if she hoped to get away with this ruse of ours.
I had to fix this.
I needed to become someone else. Someone the sister didn’t know. Someone new to town. Someone like . . .
I shifted the closest dress, throwing on a glamour to make it fit. There wasn’t time to check myself before I evanesced out of the closet and popped my head around the corner to wave at the two women speaking in hushed tones.
“This must be Keelynn,” I said in a snooty Vellanian accent I’d once heard in Gaul. “I have heard so much about you. Aveen talks of nothing else.”
“That’s right.” The sister looked down her nose at me. “Who are you?”
Rude.“Lady Marissa DeWarn, of course. Don’t tell me Aveen has kept me a secret! You little minx.” I whapped Aveen a bit too hard.You’re a lady. Be ladylike.Dainty. Simpering.“Aveen and I met a few weeks ago at the market. She has been such a dote, helping me settle into life here in Graystones. It’s so different from Vellana. Dreadfully dreary and mundane. I could die of boredom.”
“You’re from Vellana?” the sister asked.
I nodded. “My brother is the ambassador, perhaps you remember him?”
Aveen just stared at me as if I had turned myself into a dragon. If she didn’t get it together, she was going to blow this for both of us.
“Oh, Edward. Yes. I met him.” The sister’s frown deepened. “It’s so strange I haven’t met you, though. He never mentioned a sister.”
“That’s because he’s wretched.” I swatted her shoulder like a dainty, dainty girl. Lady Marissa wouldn’t hurt a fly. “Thinks women should stay cooped up in the house, spending their time pushing needles and thread through bits of fabric and banging keys on the dreadful pianoforte.” Lady Marissa was a progressive woman ahead of her time, after all.
The sister’s giggle made my head hurt. “If he believes that, then perhaps he is wretched. Are you staying for dinner, Lady Marissa?”
Oh! Dinner. What a lovely idea.“Yes.”
Aveen said, “No,” at the same time, of course. This was the most fun I’d had in ages. I wasn’t about to let it end just because she had a sour look on her face.
“I’ll, um, leave the two of you to sort that out,” said the sister. “You should stay for dinner, though. Aveen never has friends over. I was beginning to think I was her only friend.”
The moment the door closed, I bounced to the mirror to check myself out. Damn, I made a good-looking woman.The black hair really suited my eye color. I should wear it more often.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?Lady Marissa?” Aveen choked.
“Have you seen the layer of dust at the back of your closet? You should fire your maid.” My breasts were too small, weren’t they?
“So, you have enough magic to turn yourself into a woman, and yet you cannot vanish?”
“It was a good thing too. Otherwise, that would’ve been dreadfully awkward.” I twisted to check out my arse. “Does this dress make me look fat?”
“Rían!”
“All right. You don’t need to yell.” And certainly not in my good feckin’ ear. I’d be deaf as a post if she kept roaring like that. “I’m standing right here. I do not know why my magic is acting up. It has never done this. It is quite embarrassing. But you have to admit, I do make quite a stunning woman.” I pulled out the front of my dress to make sure I got the nipples right. People always forgot about the nipples.