So watch out.
Amazing, Luce whispered. So if I could just find Daniel, I'd be able to feel exactly what she feels toward him.
Sure, I guess, but you do realize that once I snap my fingers, Lys has obligations at this ball that don't include Daniel. This isn't really his scene, and by that I mean, no way the guards would let a poor stable boy in here.
Luce didn't care about any of that. Poor stable boy or not, she would find him. She couldn't wait. Inside Lys's body she could even hold him, maybe even kiss him. The anticipation of it was almost overwhelming.
Hello? Bill flicked a hard finger against her temple. You ready yet? Get in there, see what you can see--then get out while the getting's good, if you know what I mean.
Luce nodded. She straightened Lys's black gown and held her head a little higher. Snap to it.
And...go. Bill snapped his fingers.
For a split second, the party snagged like a scratched record. Then every mid conversation syllable, every whiff of perfume being carried through the air, every drop of punch sliding down every bejeweled throat, every note of music from every player in the orchestra, picked up, smoothed out, and carried on as if nothing in the world had happened.
Only Luce had changed. Her mind became assaulted by a thousand words and images. A sprawling thatch-roofed country house in the foothills of the Alps. A chestnut-colored horse named Gauche. The smell of straw everywhere. A single long-stemmed white peony laid across her pillow. And Daniel. Daniel. Daniel. Coming back from the well with four heavy buckets of water balanced from a pole laid across his shoulders. Grooming Gauche first thing every morning so Lys could take him for a ride. When it came to small, lovely favors for Luce, there was nothing Daniel overlooked, even in the midst of all the labor he did for her father. His violet eyes finding her always. Daniel in her dreams, in her heart, in her arms. It was like the flashes of Luschka's memories that had come to her in Moscow when she'd touched the church gate--but stronger, more overwhelming, intrinsically a part of her.
Daniel was here. In the stables or the servants' quarters. He was here. And she would find him.
Something rustled near Luce's neck. She jumped.
Just me. Bill flitted over the top of her capelet. You're doing great.
The great golden doors at the head of the room were eased open by two footmen, who stood at attention on either side. The girls in line in front of Luce began to titter with excitement, and then a hush swept the room. Meanwhile, Luce was looking for the fastest way out of here and into Daniel's arms.
Focus, Luce, Bill said, as if reading her mind. You're about to be called into duty.
The strings of the orchestra began playing the baroque opening chords of the Ballet de Jeunesse, and the whole room shifted its attention. Luce followed everyone else's gaze and gasped: She recognized the man who stood there in the doorway, gazing out at the party with a patch over one eye.
It was the Duc de Bourbon, the cousin of the king.
He was tall and skinny, as wilted as a bean plant in a drought. His ill-fitting blue velvet suit was ornamented with a mauve sash to match the mauve stockings on his twig-thin legs. His ostentatious powdered wig and his milky-white face were both exceptionally ugly.
She didn't recognize the duke from some photograph in a history book. She knew far too much about him. She knew everything. Like how the royal ladies-in-waiting swapped bawdy jokes about the sad size of the duke's scepter. About how he'd lost that eye (hunting accident, on a trip he'd joined to appease the king). And about how right now, the duke was going to send in the girls whom he'd preselected as suitable marriage material for the twelve-year-old king waiting inside.
And Luce--no, Lys--was an early favorite of the duke's to fill the slot. That was the reason for the heavy, aching feeling in her chest: Lys couldn't marry the king, because she loved Daniel. She had loved him passionately for years. But in this life, Daniel was a servant, and the two of them were forced to hide their romance. Luce felt Lys's paralyzing fear--that if she took the king's fancy tonight, all hope of having a life with Daniel would disappear.
Bill had warned her that going 3-D would be intense, but there