I head to the rose garden for our forbidden second dance. It's harder than usual to slip away, what with Nicholas watching me like a hawk, but I finally manage it as the chandeliers dim overhead, and the music grows languid. Tension fills the ballroom as the dancers move closer, lips parting on a collective sigh, and even my overprotective brother can't resist the spell.
He partners with a woman dressed all in green silk, twigs and red berries woven around the edge of her mask, and I dodge my mother's searching eyes to duck through the patio doors.
The gardens are dark. Couples moan in the shadows, clothes rustling in the quiet, and my dress swishes against my legs as I plunge down our usual path. I've only been here a handful of times, and always in the darkness, but it's as familiar as
