Chapter Nine
CHAPTER
Nine
Jasper’s voice echoed through Thea as Zofka and Talibah dressed her for the opera.
You should be in gold. Radiant as the sun.
No. She refused to allow Jasper’s opinions to vex her; nothing would tarnish the enchantment of tonight.
She sat in her linen shift, stays and stockings as Zofka painted her cheeks in two inverted triangles before blending the rouge, dabbing more onto the centre of Thea’s lips to give them an inviting plushness, and Talibah piled her soft curls atop her head.
Now and then, Thea glanced at the books stacked beside her bed, wishing she had not accepted so that she might stay home and read.
‘Shall we add a beauty patch to your cheek?’ Zofka mused, opening her patch box in pale pink porcelain, gifted from Gretel last spring. ‘Perhaps a heart?’
Thea winced before she could catch herself.
‘Or a moon,’ Zofka quickly added. Her smile turned mischievous. ‘We could put it next to your lips, give Malek an invitation to kiss you.’
‘She’s going to the theatre, not Versailles,’ Talibah laughed. ‘Next you’ll be giving her mouse-fur eyebrows.’
Zofka threw a cushion at Talibah as Thea laughed, feeling lighter than she had in hours.
After the disquieting exchange she’d had with Jasper, she’d managed to snatch a few hours of sleep.
A delicate French pastry, glittering with sugar and excitement, had practically been shoved down her throat by Zofka, who had shot a horrified look at the dark circles haunting Thea’s eyes, and fed her magical treats until they vanished, which Thea had not protested.
As Zofka perused her patches and Talibah fed Biscuit, who was pointing with his wing to a bowl of berries on the kitchen table, Thea swallowed a sickly gulp of feverfew and fairy’s tear elixir for her headache; she’d been expecting it to dissipate after she’d closed shop and had a nap, but it had only unfurled along the base of her skull, growing and spreading.
Hopefully she wasn’t ailing with anything; she already felt guilty over closing the apothecary early, but she’d suffered a distinct lack of customers in the hours leading up to her decision.
There were fewer magical folk wandering through the Magic Quarter while the wards were splintering and Pan Novak’s Hunters might be spotted, harassing another of the proprietors.
‘You are thinking too hard again,’ Talibah murmured as she darkened Thea’s eyebrows and lashes with the kohl Talibah lined her eyes with. ‘No wonder your head aches.’
‘Nothing misses your attention.’ Thea gave her a wry smile.
Talibah’s smile was creased with concern. ‘You, my dear friend, are an open book. I think a night out is exactly what you need. At the very least, it will distract you from whatever’s going on in your head.’
Thea agreed.
‘Now for the main event,’ Zofka cooed, waltzing over to Thea’s armoire. ‘The gown.’
Thea tied a thin, simple pannier around her waist before pulling on a quilted petticoat, one that would both fluff up her gown and keep her warm.
Zofka helped pin the stomacher to the front of Thea’s stays before Talibah lifted the skirt and then the rest of the gown over Thea.
It fell into place like a dream, and, thanks to Fleur’s enchanted design, the rest of the fabric shaped and secured itself, needing no further pinning.
Thea looked into her floor-length mirror, flanked by Zofka and Talibah.
Her new gown was beautiful, the fabric gauzy and gorgeous and more costly than anything she could remember owning, with brocaded vines traipsing over it, unveiling budding roses.
Though the more she gazed at it, the more she couldn’t help thinking that it looked as if she’d been swallowed by the night sky. It dimmed her star.
‘Hmm,’ Zofka began.
‘It was a beautiful gift,’ Talibah said at the same time.
‘Very generous,’ Zofka agreed.
‘And you look beautiful, dearest,’ Talibah told Thea as Zofka nodded beside her.
‘Very beautiful,’ Zofka added, giving Thea’s satin-gloved hand a squeeze.
‘It’s all right,’ Thea smiled. ‘I can see it too, and it doesn’t matter one bit.’ She clipped a pair of pearl earrings onto her lobes.
‘He has only just met you.’ Talibah slid a matching comb into Thea’s hair. ‘It would have been more surprising if he’d selected something that suited you perfectly.’
Zofka rummaged in Thea’s jewellery box. ‘Yes, that’s very true.
Besides, life would be boring if everyone knew each other already.
Getting to know someone, now that’s where the fun begins.
’ She pulled out a gold necklace. An oval pendant hung on a simple chain, engraved with violets.
‘I haven’t seen you wear this before; when did you get this? ’
Thea lifted her hair as Zofka fastened it around her neck.
‘I don’t remember, I’ve had it forever.’ She was already wearing it the day she awoke to her new life, standing outside the apothecary with Jasper.
Which meant only one thing: it had come from her previous life.
Sometimes she wore it as a talisman, as if the pendant would coax her memories back.
Inspire her to think of a name, the right name, the name that would unlock the key to her past.
‘It’s perfect for tonight.’ Talibah nodded her approval.
‘Sometimes I wonder if it was a gift from my mother,’ Thea whispered, pressing the pendant against her chest. ‘If she’s still out there, not knowing what happened to me—’ Her voice failed.
That thought was almost worse than the alternative, that perhaps her parents no longer lived at all, and she’d missed their last days.
‘Oh, Thea.’ Zofka’s blue eyes turned to mirrors.
Cinnamon hopped over and flopped at Thea’s stockinged feet. Before she could pick him up, Zofka beat her to it. ‘Oh no you don’t,’ Zofka laughed. ‘I am not wasting hours of primping for you to cover yourself in rabbit hair.’
‘Cinnamon doesn’t shed,’ Thea protested, grateful for the timely interruption.
She had enough clanging around in her head without bringing her missing past into the cacophony.
She was being taken to the opera by a man with dimples and a charming smile.
A man who’d asked her for the biggest challenge of her life as far as she could remember.