Once Swindled (Lack and Luster #1)

Chapter One

Most women expecting a proposal from the most eligible bachelor in Garlin society would be a bundle of nerves, but Mavis Hale was not most women.

As she sat across from Thaddeus Mayles at a small table on the private balcony of Montenari’s, overlooking the seashore, she observed him casually dismiss their waiter’s offer to pour a bottle of champagne that cost more than what the waiter likely made in a year.

Thaddeus was handsome enough to have his chiseled features and boyish smile regularly plastered all over Garlin’s society pages, and the careless magic he demonstrated when he waved an elegant hand in the direction of the champagne bottle to summon a stream into their glasses made him more than simply rich; it made him one of the Luster.

A misleading name, considering he was also duller than a bit of sea glass, but in Mavis’s eyes that was a credit in a potential fiancé, not a flaw.

“You look radiant tonight, Delphinia.” Thaddeus lifted his champagne glass toward her.

Mavis summoned a blush to her cheeks and tempered her smile into the sort of restrained and demure thing that gently bred Luster women were taught from birth but which she’d mastered with years of practice.

After six weeks in Garlin, the name Delphinia Lindcourt was nearly as familiar to Mavis as her own, and part of her would be disappointed when the time came for her to shed it like a snake leaving behind its skin.

Over the last five years, Mavis had played timid wallflowers, vivacious coquettes, and everything in between, but it was a shame that it had taken her so long to play a fool.

“Thank you, darling, I’m so glad you think so,” she said in a voice as polished as the ersatz diamond bracelet she wore.

They had the balcony to themselves. The inside of the restaurant was busy, and the sound of polite chatter and the music from Montenari’s resident string quartet wafted through the glass double doors.

Romantic as the location was, with the waves crashing against the shore below them and the night sky strewed with stars above, Mavis wished Thaddeus hadn’t secluded them like this.

She did enjoy an audience, after all, and she knew from experience that it was far easier to keep up a facade when surrounded by chaos.

She took a close-mouthed sip of her champagne—she had to keep her wits about her, though it was a shame to let something so expensive go to waste.

When she set the glass down again, she beamed at Thaddeus, giving him the empty-eyed, bright smile she had down to an art after months of practice.

The ring might be practically on her finger already, but Mavis’s job was far from done.

“How romantic tonight is—you know how much I adore Montenari’s.

And it seems as if everyone in Garlin is dining here tonight. ”

There was so much Mavis could work with when she played silly.

All it took was a vapid stare and a wide smile, and a girl could get away with murder—not that Mavis would know.

She always left her marks alive in the end, just a few thousand solas poorer and weathering the scandal of a broken engagement.

“Indeed,” Thaddeus said mildly, glancing through the windows to the crowded dining room full of Luster socialites draped in fine silks and jewels.

Everyone who was anyone in Garlin came to Montenari’s to ogle and let themselves be ogled in turn.

“Oriana was supposed to be here as well—I’d arranged for Llewellyn Everett to take her to dinner, but when I left home, she still had her nose buried in one of her books.

I do hope she hasn’t run off yet another suitor. ”

“I’m sure that when your sister meets the right suitor, she’ll prefer his company to books.

” Mavis needed to get tonight back on track and turn the conversation away from Thaddeus’s sister before it lingered there any longer, which she’d learned it was wont to do once he got started.

She fixed him with a coy smile and fluttered her eyelashes.

“I can’t think of a single book I’d rather spend time with than you, Thaddeus. ”

Thaddeus’s attention drew away from the dining room and back to her.

“As it happens, my own brother hoped to have dinner here tonight as well, but he couldn’t get away from work—things get so busy when he’s readying to break ground for one of his hotels,” she added.

Rafe was not Mavis’s brother, and unlike Mavis, he lacked a talent for playing to a crowd, but considering that his brother Leif’s nose had been broken too many times for him to pass for a Lucent gentleman, the role always fell to Rafe.

Rafe’s skills leaned more on planning than presentation, though, and he never attended a Luster event unless it couldn’t be avoided without raising suspicion.

He and Leif were back at the hotel suite they all shared now, likely having a grand time in far more comfortable clothes than Mavis’s tightly laced corset and heavy silk gown, and celebrating her new engagement prematurely, as they always did.

She envied them that, but while all three of them had a hand in the cons they ran, Mavis was the face, and unlike them, she couldn’t carry out her duties from the comfort of a hotel room.

“He seems to work an awful lot,” Thaddeus said, and Mavis struggled not to roll her eyes at the way he said work in his polished Lucent accent, as if it were a curse.

“Oh, he does.” She was careful to keep her voice airy. “Dagwood has never been content to be idle.”

A decade ago, the idea of any Luster working for a living would have been a scandal in itself, but ten years could change a lot.

Even the deep well of money Luster families inherited through countless generations could run dry eventually—as more than a few families had learned in a public and embarrassing fashion when they’d gone bankrupt and sold their ancient family estates to the newly wealthy Lack families who had cropped up through enterprise and hard work.

Those concepts were still foreign to most Lusters, including Thaddeus.

“All that work isn’t fair on you, though,” Thaddeus continued with what he likely thought was a sympathetic smile. “You’re the one who’s dragged around alongside him to a new city every few months while he plans and builds those hotels of his.”

“It isn’t so bad,” Mavis said, with a wistful sigh that hinted at a lie in her words.

A flutter of her eyelashes emphasized it.

“After all, I’d have never come to Garlin if not for Dagwood and his hotels.

Though I am so fond of it here—leaving will feel like an absolute tragedy when the time comes. ”

Thaddeus leaned forward, eagerly reaching for the opening she’d delivered him. “Actually, Delphinia, that was precisely what I wanted to talk with you about tonight.”

Here we go . . .

Thaddeus waved his hand again at the bottle of champagne, using his gift to refill his champagne glass and top hers up, though she hadn’t taken a sip. She laughed, clapping her hands at the trick, just as a child might. “Oh, that is marvelous, Thaddeus. You’re ever so clever.”

In truth, magic like Thaddeus’s was not uncommon among the Luster class.

In every city Mavis had traveled to, there had been at least one family with the same gift Thaddeus inherited from his father, for manipulating water and other liquids.

Like his fortune, his magic had been passed down through his family, though like with any genetic trait, there were variables.

Oriana, for instance, couldn’t manipulate water but instead was able to shift her features at will, changing herself into anyone she pleased.

It was far rarer than Thaddeus’s gift—he wouldn’t even be Mavis’s first fiancé to have water magic, though his was stronger.

Her fourth fiancé had barely had enough magic to manipulate a dewdrop, though in the end that hadn’t mattered.

His money had spent just as well as anyone else’s.

Thaddeus, though, believed her awe, and his chest swelled with pride as he lifted his champagne coupe.

Despite the expensive education afforded to him, Thaddeus was more dull witted than anyone Mavis had ever met, but perhaps that was why he was so attracted to women like Delphinia, who bolstered his ego and made him feel intelligent. “To us, my dear,” Thaddeus said.

Mavis lifted her own glass, touching the rim delicately to his before they each took a sip. “I can hardly believe we’ve known one another for a fortnight now! It seems like just yesterday, you were asking me to dance at the Gilroy ball.”

“I had to fight for that honor, you know. I practically tripped Herbert Livingston in my effort to reach you first, but I couldn’t help myself. When I saw you, I knew I simply must make your acquaintance.”

When Thaddeus glanced away to gesture to their waiter, Mavis took the opportunity to pinch her cheeks just hard enough to summon a bashful blush. He turned back to her and continued.

“And then when Mrs. Gilroy asked you to demonstrate your gift, you filled the ballroom with the illusion of dancing flowers. It was marvelous.”

Delphinia Lindcourt might have been naive enough to be flattered by his version of the story, but Mavis knew the truth: No one at the Gilroy ball had paid her the least bit of attention until she’d showcased her own gift for illusions.

Even now, Thaddeus leaned forward, his eyes eager, and she knew what he wanted from her.

Mavis smiled and gave it to him—the candlelit night air brightened in an instant, a shimmering prismatic light emitting from Mavis and reflecting a rainbow of colors around her, like she was a crystal in a chandelier.

Thaddeus grinned, his gray eyes glittering in awe, and a flurry of gasps and applause sounded from inside the restaurant as the other Lusters took in her illusion.

None of them noticed her fingers brushing over the bracelet on her left wrist, how she pressed the fourth jewel from the clasp, how the light came not from Mavis but from the bracelet itself.

It was only light, Leif explained to her when he first gave it to Mavis more than five years before, projected and refracted through the bracelet’s jewels, but it was a powerful enough illusion to fool even the shrewdest members of Luster society.

No one had ever seen an illusionist before, and Lusters liked nothing more than exclusivity, particularly when it came to their magic and the bloodlines they meticulously cultivated.

The gift Mavis claimed to have made her rarer than any jewel, in their eyes, and it was a large part of the reason why she was here with Thaddeus tonight.

Mavis released the stone, and the prism of light went dark once more as she settled her hands on her lap, careful not to touch the bracelet again. It was a gift, she claimed, no matter what alias she assumed, given to her by her dearly departed father.

In truth, Mavis’s father was not dear nor, to the best of her knowledge, departed, but the coos of sympathy endeared her to people and provided an excuse to keep the bracelet on always, and the mention of her father served as a reminder to Mavis of why she was here and what she was working toward.

Thaddeus snapped his fingers, and on cue, their waiter approached again, this time carrying a plate of oysters.

When he set the plate down in front of Mavis, she gasped.

Each oyster shell was filled with a different piece of jewelry, arranged in a circle.

There were sapphire earbobs and a dainty diamond choker.

A cameo brooch and a gold-and-ruby haircomb.

She lacked Leif’s expertise with valuing jewelry, but she guessed the value came close to five thousand solas—and that wasn’t counting the piece in the center.

There, in a final oyster shell, was a ring.

Gold band, cushion-cut diamond, flanked by a smaller diamond on either side.

The size of it was enough to make her left hand ache deliciously.

Thaddeus set his champagne coupe down and leaned across the table to pluck the ring from the oyster shell. “Delphinia Lindcourt, will you marry me?”

“Oh, Thaddeus,” she breathed, looking up at him with wide eyes, the very picture of surprise and awe.

It was, she had to admit, an excellent proposal.

It took a lot to shock Mavis after so many, but the oysters were a nice touch, and the extra jewelry might be overkill, but it certainly sweetened the pot, and Mavis couldn’t complain about that.

Still, as she surveyed Thaddeus, clearly pleased with himself and sipping his champagne without a care in the world, her mind traveled back to the first proposal she’d received, five years ago: a dark bedroom, skin to skin, the question whispered against her shoulder, a warm hand slipping the ring onto her finger, Arden Ryskamp’s twilight-blue eyes looking at her like she was something more precious than jewels.

Thaddeus’s proposal might have cracked the top three, but it didn’t come close to claiming the first spot. Mavis didn’t let herself think about that, though—not tonight. Her first proposal no longer mattered; this one did.

“Well?” There was no waver to Thaddeus’s voice, no nervousness in his eyes. He was not someone accustomed to rejection. Soon, that would change, but not tonight.

“I . . .” she began just as a blur of movement caught her eye inside the restaurant. A waiter in a starched black suit led old Mrs. Gellis to a table by the window, and Mavis’s eyes snagged on the man accompanying her. When his twilight-blue gaze collided with hers, Mavis’s breath caught.

This time, Arden Ryskamp didn’t look at Mavis like she was something more precious than jewels. This time, he looked like he was seeing a ghost.

Alarm bells rang out through Mavis’s mind, panic flooding her veins. She needed to run, she needed to—

“Delphinia, darling?” Thaddeus asked, forcing her attention back to him. For the first time since she met him, he appeared uncertain—nervous, even. “I asked you to marry me.”

“Oh.” Mavis cleared her throat, struggling to cling to her posh Luster accent even as her mind raced.

She was unable to keep her eyes from darting over his shoulder, to where Arden was still staring at her, slack jawed and pale and somehow every bit as handsome as he’d been five years ago.

It was good that he was shocked—shocked could buy her enough time to get out of here in one piece.

And if nothing else, she could leave with a few thousand solas around her finger.

Looking back at Thaddeus, she forced a dazed smile.

“Of course I’ll marry you, Thaddeus,” she told him and let him slip the ring onto her finger.

It was the tenth time a man had done so but the first time it felt like manacles tightening around her wrists.