I Am Bree - Book 1

Chapter 12 - A Ball

 I couldn't come to any sort of conclusion in the short walk that took me to our door, and then I had to worry about other things. I removed Una's cloak and stuffed it beneath the tattered fabric of my dress. Madame would certainly never all me to keep such a fine gift, and the girls would be sure to notice if I entered our rooms wearing it.

Pushing the door open, I found myself in the midst of shocking chaos. The floor was covered in a mound of fine clothing and shoes. A stocking hung from the back of a chair, a fine hat was slung jauntily on the lamp, and there was no end to the array of underclothes and gowns. I could hear the nervous chattering as the girls scurried about to make their preparations. At that moment, Madame entered the room. She took in the sight of me with a haughty glare.

"Angela, get yourself decent." She said. "We have had no need of your help, thankfully, or I should have had to punish you a second time, and believe me, it would have been worse for you considering the rush we're in. The king sent maids to help everyone get ready, but you must hurry, because we haven't a moment to lose." She scurried out of the room without another word.

I stared after her for several moments, unsure of how I was expected to proceed. I had never attended a ball before; in fact, the most fancy thing I'd ever been involved in had been a tea party where my participation was limited to serving fresh delicacies as soon as they came out of the oven. With a resigned sigh, I made my way into the little room that had been declared mine upon our arrival.

The 'room' was rather small, and I suspected that it had been meant to be a closet of sorts. Despite that, I rather liked it. At least, it was mine.

Opening my trunk, I sorted through my hand-me-down things for the nicest, best fitting dress I could find. None of the clothing was very nice looking. They were covered in a various assortment of unremovable stains that even faithful Dotty couldn't find a way to cleanse from the material. Not only that, but they were rather ill-fitting, and all of them were outdated styles. I was going to be the most shabbily dressed girl in the entire ballroom.

I felt a little downcast at the prospect before me—especially after wearing Una's fine cloak. Surely, my 'family' couldn't want me to look this ridiculous, but there was no way around it. Donning my finery, I pulled my hair into a simple, neat bun at the back of my head.

I found some flowers in a vase in the outer room which had been sent to us by the king. Knowing the others were too busy to notice their disappearance, I wove them into a wreath on my head in an attempt to hid some of the more obvious scratches and bumps. The flowers had been very prettily sewn, but I knew their beauty was completely wasted on me. Looking at my reflection in the mirror, I felt awkward and completely our of place.

When I'd completed my preparations, there was nothing left for me but to wait in the main room for the maid to finish her work on the others. I could hear Madame and Adella criticizing the poor woman's efforts and felt sorry for her. With all their nitpicking and complaints, they were finished with hardly five minutes to spare. When the maid exited their room and saw me, she released an audible groan of despair.

"Does the young miss need help with her toilet?" Her voice was soft and gentle, and she had a faint lisp. She reminded me of a doe, and I quickly opened my mouth to put her worries to rest when Madame swept into the room with the girls on her heels.

"No, Angela doesn't like having help. You are free to go." She said in such a haughty tone that I wondered she had the ability to look at herself in the mirror.

She was little more than a servant herself, and at home, I almost wondered if she weren't even poorer than the king's hired helpers. For all her fancy airs, there was a stack of bills waiting to be paid on her bedside table. I had seen them when I cleaned her room a few days before we'd left, and although I dared not look too closely at them, the stack was so large as to be such a substantial sum that there was no way she could pay all them off in a month of Sundays.