the dressing table, peering seriously into the oval mirror as she inserted a gold fobbed, tear shaped garnet earring into her left ear. She turned to smile at May as she entered the room.
"Oh, honey!" May exclaimed. "Aren't you the vision! I've never seen anyone look so beautiful in my entire life, and I'm not making that up. Darling, you'll pop the eyes right out of that boy's head, out of every boy's head!"
Angelina wore a velvet evening gown in a deep shade of garnet that matched her earrings to perfection and set off her dark looks and creamy skin as no other color could. The bodice was low cut and sleeveless. Angelina intended it to catch Tonio's eye.
At each shoulder, one narrow velvet strap ended in a small tassel and lapped over the sides of her bust. Another narrow, lace covered ruffled strap hung beneath the first, capping each softly contoured shoulder. An oversized velvet bow at the front of the dress underlined her cleavage spilling provocatively over the top of the bodice. Her waist was encircled by a narrow band of garnet satin ribbon, beneath which her skirt clung suggestively to her hips before flaring to slightly more fullness and ending in two elegant velvet ruffles that kissed the floor and whispered as she walked.
Angelina had pulled her hair into an elegant creation that she had copied with studied determination from the New York society pages. Softly waved, then pulled into a lustrous bun of curls that ran from the top of her head to the nape of her neck where a few soft wisps escaped to curl airily. A few similar wisps adorned her forehead. Gone was the painfully foreign peasant girl she had been and in her place was a beautiful American woman.
"I hope so, May."
"You'd better take a shawl tonight or you'll surely freeze in that dress."
"Now you sound like my mama." She pulled on a pair of garnet velvet gloves that reached well above her elbows.
"Would your mama let you out of the house in a dress like that?"
"Certainly not, May! Not in hundred years!"
"So then, I'm certainly not your mama, aiding and abetting you like I am. To tell the truth, what I am is envious. Oh, to be young and beautiful! I was young once, but I was never beautiful."
"May, you've always been beautiful. On the inside where most people are ugly. Only a beautiful person would've gone to all this trouble for me. Tonio doesn't suspect, does he?"
"Angelina, that man is out of his head thinking you've gone back to Italy."
"Good. You'll send word when he arrives at the ball? I can't arrive before he does, it would ruin everything."
"I'll send word the moment he shows up. You're really going to go through with this?"
Angelina smiled. "You mean proposing to him? Yes."
"It's not traditional."
"I suppose not, but what did traditional get me? An arranged marriage to a man twice my age who died before I could meet him. I want Tonio. I won't lose him again."
May gave Angelina a little hug of support and turned to leave the room. "I'll send word when he arrives."
"Excellent!" Angelina sprayed herself with a heady perfume as May left the room and walked down the hall. This perfume should send his senses reeling, Angelina thought.
# # #
Tonio leaned on the bar, eyeing the crowd dispassionately. Several women gave him flirtatious looks, willing him to leave his post and ask them to the adjoining ballroom for a dance. He was fully aware of their appeals and just as fully disinterested. He dressed in a starched white shirt, white satin vest and bow tie, and tails which May had forced him into. He'd just as soon be in his black fringed jacket and jeans. A plate of appetizers sat on the counter in front of him. Harry Scott lounged to his left.
"You seem immune to the ladies' charms tonight, Tonio. Several attractive ones have been eyeing you for some time. Perhaps it's the monkey suit. You seem to be the only man in the place so attired."
"More than half of them are whores from the Lux. What's wrong with May, planning an event like this in a town where the men outnumber the women in such quantity? The Lux ladies will end up with more money by morning than the benefit collected, mark my words. Miners who can't find enough to feed themselves can always scrounge up enough for a good time with one of the willing