1I shot Neal a shy smile from behind Mary, he quickly smiled back and I made my way out of the room. Mary had cornered him in the library and now he was stuck talking to her, and I had to go grab a quick lunch before I started serving theirs. I had lost track of time.
Down in the kitchen I had grabbed an apple and a good sized piece of buttered bread. Before I was done the other servants came in and began grabbing things to set the tables. I stuffed the last half of bread into my mouth and hopped off the stool I had been sitting on.
"Don't worry Cam just grab something else to eat." Said my best friend Taren as he passed by "don't want you wasting away."
"But-"
"No buts" he said as he walked by again, with a pile of plates on each arm. "You can just do dish duty tomorrow morning!" He called from just outside the door.
"Gee thanks!" I yelled and grabbed another piece of bread.
I carefully stuck the last pin in Mary's hair and looked into the mirror to admire my work. I had taken the long hair and twisted it up against her head, I repeated this, adding more hair and she now had a twist going along both sides of her head and seemingly disappearing back into her long blond hair. That is what the pins were for. I had also used water and a heated rod to curl the bottom of her hair.
Her lips were colored with my own mix of berries to make them look like a light shade of maroon and her eyes were shadowed with a light purple powder. Her cheeks were slightly colored with powder blush and it made her face seem even skinnier.
All of this matched her elegant dark purple gown perfectly, it had puffy shoulders and long sleeves, the main part of the bodice and sleeves were embroidered silver. There were many layers to the skirt of the dress and the underlying layer that you could see was also embroidered.
"I look gorgeous!" I rolled my eyes at her comment "but you don't, go get changed you only have a little while to do so." My eyes went wide and I bolted out of the room.
When I was finished I stared at my self in the mirror, my light green gown was nothing compared to Mary's but I was happy with what I had. It had a square neck and long, loose, see through sleeves that hung loose at the top exposing my shoulders.
Another see through layer lay over my main skirt, over lapping it's self but leaving an open area where the main, shiny, silk like clothe could show through. Light berry gloss was on my lips and light green eye shadow was atop my eyes, I also had decent high heeled white strap shoes. My hair was pinned up in a mass behind my head.
I got up and made my way to the dining room, no one looked at me or noticed me as I slipped into the ball room. Almost everyone was already there, I was quite late because it took me so long to get ready. Suddenly music sounded and everyone looked to the stairs. Neal came walking down, in a dark blue suit with his father at his right, wearing bright red. The Sire family followed behind them.
It felt like hours before I got to see Neal, when in truth is was only one, he snuck away from a mob of nobles and came over to me. "Care to dance my lady?" His voice sounded odd, deeper and not because I hadn't seen him in years, I had already gotten used to the new him.
"But of course." I said and took his hand, I used the most formal, sultry, noble like voice I could muster.
The music picked up and we began to dance around the dance floor, I could feel a couple angry glares on my back among the confused ones. Neal leaned forward and whispered in my ear "act like your self, you are unnerving me."
I gave a light laugh "as long as you don't get all formal on me." He smiled back at me, silently agreeing as we danced on. I had learned to dance with Neal, or rather we learned together, since then, it seems, both of us had improved. We had attracted many stares because of our quick, complicated dance, one of which was very unwelcome.
When the song slowed and changed over to another Mary stepped in "Can I have this dance?" She asked, sickly sweet, I wanted to stomp my foot and yell 'I know what you are up to!' but I didn't.
"Yes milady." He said in a monotone voice, I smirked, milady not my lady.
"Will you let me have a quick were with Camella please Cornelius?" She beamed up at him and turned away, not letting him answer "What do you think you are doing? How dare you?! I don't want to see you dancing with him ever again!" She whispered ferociously.
" We learned to dance together Mary, we were simply testing our skills."
She scoffed, completely missing me using her real name "you? Learn how to dance with the prince? I don't even believe that you ever met him before!" With that she turned away and dragged Neal onto the dance floor. This time I stomped my foot.
"Excuse me miss but do you happen to know where the prince went off to?" A dark haired woman asked me a while later, I almost snapped at her then noticed a couple of other women looking around.
"No sorry madam, I do not, you might want to check the hallways through that door." I pointed to the door across the room from us. She nodded her thanks and ran off while I slipped through the door to my right.