The Magnificent Masquerade by Elizabeth Mansfield Page A

Come,
let's get you dressed for dinner."
    Emily obligingly shed herself of her traveling
dress while Kitty, in proper abigail manner, undid the buttons of the gown
she'd laid out and helped Emily into it. However, when Emily remarked that Toby
Wishart was expected to arrive for dinner, Kitty promptly raised it up again
and pulled it over Emily's head. "In that case, you must wear something
more enticing. Here. Let's try the lavender crepe with the silver threads. That
should catch his eye."
    Emily complied, but she didn't understand
Kitty's motives. "Why should I be enticing?" she asked. "You
don't want him to like me, do you?"
    "Why not?" She led Emily to the
dressing table and began to brush her hair. "The more he likes you, the
less likely he is to like me when the truth of my. identity is finally
revealed. Oh, dear, I'm all thumbs at this. You'd better do your own hair.
You're so much handier than 1."
    Emily took the brush. "You did your braid
very well. I don't think I could have done it better."
    Kitty shrugged. "Mrs. Prowne plaited it.
She's the housekeeper, you see, and she was given the task of turning me out.
But I'm sure she'll expect me to braid it myself tomorrow, and you know what a
botch I'll make of it then. However, we can't concern ourselves with that now.
Here, I'll pin the bun for you. There, that's lovely. Just let the curl hang
over your shoulder, so. Good. Now stand up and let me adjust the neck line of
your gown. I think you should show a great deal of decolletage, don't
you?" And she proceeded to pull the neckline down so that the upper curves
of Emily's breasts were visible. Then she carefully pinned the decolletage in
place with pins that Emily supplied.
    By the time all was done, the hour was quite advanced.
Emily nervously remarked that the entire household might already be awaiting
her arrival downstairs. "I'd better go. Do I look presentable?"
    Kitty studied her carefully. "Yes, I think
you look-oh, no!"
    Emily blanched. "What is it?"
    "Your boots! You can't wear those dreadful
boots with an evening dress. Quickly, take them off. Where are my black
slippers? Did I put them in the cupboard there?" She rummaged through the
shelves wildly, tossing things about in careless haste. "If I can only find
them, we can stuff the toes with a couple of handkerchiefs and they'll do well
enough. Now, where-?"
    But it was Emily who found them, and it was
Emily who found the handkerchiefs, too. At last she was ready. But she couldn't
bring herself to go. The room was terribly untidy, and she'd been trained not
to ignore dishevelment. "I'd better do something about this jumble,"
she said, looking about her un easily.
    "Don't be silly. Get along with you,"
Kitty urged.
    "I suppose I'd better. I'll put things
back in place when I return."
    "You'll do nothing of the kind, Miss
Jessup," Kitty declared. "Who's the abigail here?"
    Emily didn't argue. If she had to play her
role, it was only fair that Kitty play hers. And keeping the room neat was part
of Kitty's role. "Very well," Emily said, "I'll go. There's only
one thing more I'd like to do." And she turned to the tall mirror that
stood in the comer. She hadn't had time before, but surely she could take a
moment now, she decided, to take one quick glimpse.
    She looked into the mirror and gasped. Surely,
she thought, the creature in the glass was someone else entirely. The silky
dress with its silvery threads sparkling amid the lavender clung to a form that
appeared to her to be more mature and shapely than her own. Her hair glowed
with auburn highlights that she'd never noticed before. And her cheeks, which
had always seemed to her to be too full and pasty-pale to be pretty, now glowed
pink with excitement. But what really reddened them was the sight of her
half-exposed bosom. "Goodness, Miss Jessup, you can't mean me to appear so
... so naked!" she exclaimed.
    "You look breathtaking," Kitty
insisted. "And dash it all, stop calling me Miss Jessup!"
    "But I thought