Heidi stood outside her balcony, one hand on the railings and the other holding the letter she had avoided reading for almost a week. She looked at the bird who had happily perched itself on the nest it had made. She hoped Nicholas wouldn’t find it so that he could kill it for his amusement. Looking down at the letter, she read the content for the fourth time.
To my dear daughter Heidi,
It had been quite some time since you last visited Woville and as you remember, your sister Nora’s birthday is approaching this week. I understand it is difficult with the rules the council has set but we all wish you could come here to celebrate your sisters day. Even a day would be enough. It would make her and everyone happy. I hope to see your presence.
Love father.
A pitiful smile formed on her lips for herself. Maybe this was the closest amount of affection her father, Simeon Curtis had shown her. But she wasn’t a fool to not know who the letter was from. She had seen her father’s writing and this wasn’t his, nor any of her family members. As predicted it was possibly Scathlok’s writing with her father’s seal on the envelope. She had been utterly scared when she had received the letter, too scared to even read the words written in it that she didn’t dare to open it. She wasn’t anymore though. After Heidi had spoken her mind out of not wanting to go back to Woville at least not right at this moment, the man hadn’t questioned her. Instead asking her to stay to which she finally felt her heart at ease. The same day, she was told that the butler would write a letter back stating she couldn’t make it as she was ill in health. It was a plain white lie but that didn’t matter. For now she was safe from Duke Scathlok and that is all she could think of.
Heidi wondered what happened to the letter she had asked Lettice to send the last time they had met. Lettice had promised to send it right away after reaching home but it didn’t seem like there was any reply from her family on Howard’s whereabouts. Going back inside, she threw the letter in the cupboard to stand in front of the large oval mirror that reflected back her image. Today was the grand ball which was going to take place at night. The masquerade was solely taking place for the vampires and highly classified humans who were close to the vampires in either friendly or profitable ways. She had slept the entire noon to make sure she didn’t fall asleep at midnight when the ball would proceed.
Her hair was already done by one of the popular hairdresser of Bonelake by Stanley who had previously cut her hair. Unlike the many times where she tried curling up her hairs with hair curlers to fit it into a mess of hair, her hair had been combed to form a small bump at the top of her forehead, several pins had been used as the hairdresser had pulled the left strands of her hair and then the right, overlapping it back with the left strands and repeating it until pins were added to hold it still. The sides of her hair had been pulled above her ear. She wore the gown which she had bought with Lettice, the dress covering her entire back but leaving her neck bare. She hadn’t expected Nicholas to bring up the necklace with Warren and she bit her lip worried if Warren had a hunch about it. She didn’t love Warren but that didn’t mean she had the right to hurt him and she didn’t want to. It didn’t sit well with her heart but tonight she would attend the ball as Warren Lawson’s fiance.
Hearing the swift knocks on the door, she turned to look at the door open and the butler step in. Stanley, who had previously come to see if she was ready noticed her empty neck and decided to look for a necklace that would suit her from the room where most of the clothes, dresses, jewellery with other little things was stored.
“I found a really good choker but I didn’t think it would suit your attire, milady,” the butler said looking at the maroon looking gown that had tendrils of black that went down from the bottom half.
“Thank you for looking but I think I am fine without one, Stanley,” Heidi smiled to see the butler shake his head in refusal.
“It would look too empty. Don’t worry I brought something else instead,” he said to show a thin box in his hand which looked similar to a box where a ink quill would rest. He opened it, to reveal a long, gold made, delicate looking chain that had studs of diamond running at equal intervals of length, “If you would allow me,” he asked for her permission.
“Yes, please,” she answered, taking a seat in front of the dresser table and seeing him pull out the chain which was long enough to go past her bosom
“All the vampiress you shall meet tonight will have a choker on their neck, let’s do something similar to it,” the butler said seeing him fold the chain once then twice and again before putting it around her neck and looking at it in the mirror, “Maybe a slight adjustment,” he muttered to himself.
Seeing that the butler hadn’t changed his clothes for the Grand Ball, “Aren’t you going to be attending the ball with us tonight?” asked Heidi.
“No, Lady Heidi. I have work in the mansion here and if I weren’t here looking after the mansion, I wouldn’t be a butler,” he put another circle around her slender neck with the chain, “I have observed that you haven’t got used to having people refer to you as Lady Heidi. Is it that strange?”
Was her expressions like an open book to everyone around her? she asked herself. The butler seeing a small frown settle on the lady’s forehead.
“It’s not that,” she gave him a small smile through the mirror.
Before she came to the Rune’s mansion no one had given her such high social standing. She was either Heidi or Ms. Curtis. In the past, when her family and her went out, it was only Nora who was referred to as a Lady while Heidi was only a mere girl. For a child who had no future, who was picked from the streets into the house of the Curtis household, she never expected anything because she believed she had no right to it.
“It’s just hard to believe how things have turned out to be,” she looking at the butlers hands adjust the chains that had formed three circles, one tightly placed and the next chain looser and lower than the above one, the third circle following the same lead, “I never thought in my entire life that I would one day be sitting here, in a lord’s mansion to get ready for a ball.”
Things had changed. A lot more than she had thought and it made her think what was going to happen from this point on.