By The Sea, Book One: Tess by Antoinette Stockenberg Page A

much dimmed as it
had ceased to exist for Tess. Her mind would not go near the event;
it skipped past it, much as a child, whistling resolutely, hurries
past a graveyard with eyes averted
    Besides, Tess was eighteen now. Her body had
a will of its own, and kneeling on rice every night seemed to be
doing little to tame it. Tess understood, more or less, about a
man's love for a woman, but now she had a handsome face to picture,
a voice to recall, a touch to re-live. This was new, and she let
herself be drawn into the fantasy of it.
    In a trance she pushed a chair against the
door, then returned to the dresser drawer, took out the silver
mask, and tied it around her face. In a trance she stared at
herself in the mirror, lost herself in her deep green eyes, fell in
love with herself as she hoped Edward Hillyard might. She became
caught up utterly in the dream that was Edward, whispering his
name, begging for more, more ....
    "Tess! Mother of Mary, what is going on
here?" cried Bridget from the other side of the door. "Open up!"
She began rattling the doorknob back and forth without success.
    Tess was up like a shot, tearing off the
mask, removing the chair. She lived in a blessed fishbowl!
    "I ... needed the chair to kill a spider,"
she explained as Bridget marched through.
    "And a very big spider it must have been,"
Bridget said with her usual sarcasm.
    "The chair was to stand on, Bridget.
Were you looking for me or for Maggie?"
    "You, silly. Maggie's in the laundry,
finishing some smoothing. Has she told you a kind of holiday has
been declared tonight?"
    "She did say some had the evening off."
    "And now more of us as well. We're going
a-promenading in Freebody Park, even Maggie." Bridget lowered her
voice. "Something is up. Mrs. Bracken acted queerly when she saw me
a bit ago—but nobody can figure out what it is. We thought you
might know, being a lady's maid and all." She waited
expectantly.
    "Miss Cornelia hasn't told me anything,
Bridget." When Bridget looked skeptical, Tess added, "Some sort of
entertainment is planned, I suppose."
    Bridget's look turned frigid. "You don't
say. Well—we're all leaving in an hour," she said curtly and
left.
    Was Tess the only one from Beau Rêve
invited to this stupid ball?
    She made sure she was well away from the
servants' quarters when the round-up for the promenade took place.
Before long the house was quiet, and Tess left the safety of Miss
Cornelia's dressing room to get ready for what she could not help
feeling was a meeting with destiny. Hadn't Cornelia said "Anything
can happen at a ball"?
    From nowhere visions of Edward Hillyard
sprang up before her. All she had to do was stroke the silver mask
and he was there for her, with his thick, shining hair and his
intense blue eyes. He was easily the most handsome man she'd ever
seen, and tonight—well, tonight.
    No one was left to notice her as she slipped
out of the house and hurried to the corner of Bellevue and Ruggles.
There was indeed a cab, facing south. Tess had only the vaguest
idea where The Ledge was—she hadn't wanted to give herself away by
inquiring—and was prepared to be humiliated by the driver, but he
only said, "You the one's goin' to the Ledge shindig?"—and motioned
for her to climb in.
    Her mask was in her bag; she had no idea
when to put it on. She was on such unfamiliar ground. Why the
secrecy? Why the impromptu holiday, if the servants hadn't been
invited? Tess didn't even know how much the carriage had cost
Hillyard. She'd only traveled by trolley—five cents—and reports
that a hired carriage cost two dollars or more simply staggered
her. Newport! So rich, so jaded, so desperate to do things
differently. How unlike the country houses of England. How unlike
Wrexham, where the tradition itself was part of the joy. As long as
Tess lived, she would never understand American society.
    Her musings were interrupted by the clatter
of a coach pulling out alongside her cab to pass it. The coachman
wore the livery