The day of the masquerade dawned like any other. Regina almost wondered if she didn’t have the date wrong. A part of her had expected the day to dawn with thunderclouds and rain, some sort of signal of the danger and last chance she was throwing herself into.

Instead, however, the day began as usual, with sunlight streaming in through the windows. Regina rose and took breakfast with Aunt Jane.

She didn’t go over to Lord Harrison’s, however. There was no time for a last card game, so much as she might want there to be. She and Aunt Jane had to ride all the way to Lord and Lady Morrison’s, and there she must meet up with her sisters and prepare for the ball.

Cora would take her own carriage to the Morrison lands. She would take with her Regina’s second dress and accessories and have them in her own chambers until the time was right.

The night before, Lord Harrison had stopped her just before she went out the door to return home.

“A few last words,” he had said. The moonlight from the door and the firelight from the grate had warred on his face. The duality had reminded her of their first meeting and how he had taken her outside.

Would she always be partially entranced by him, she had wondered. Would she ever truly know him, know his heart, or would there always be a part of him that was bathed in shadow and unknowable to her?

Not that she had a right to think such things. Regina reminded herself that she was not his bride.

“Tomorrow you will be afraid,” Lord Harrison had told her. “Ah, do not protest. I would be more worried if you were not afraid. It would mean that you are overestimating yourself. It would mean that you were forgetting the importance of what you are doing.

“But I want to remind you that even though you are afraid, you do not have to let it own you. You are capable of doing this. You have the ability to defeat Lord Pettifier. I know that, from the bottom of my soul.

“I do not praise lightly. I’ve tried to avoid praising you, because I have not wanted you to slack off in your work or to fill your head with overconfidence. But I believe in you. And I will be there, even if I cannot help you directly. I will not leave the room, and if things should turn ugly, I will be at your side in an instant. You will be safe.”

Of course she would be safe, she had wanted to say. So long as Lord Harrison was there with her she felt as though she could take on a dragon, because if it looked like the dragon might eat her he’d jump in to help her—even if he wouldn’t interfere until that point.

She appreciated that. She could slay this dragon on her own. Or at least, she hoped that she could.

With Lord Harrison’s encouragement ringing in her ears, she started the day with Aunt Jane. She wouldn’t see him until after she had changed into her second dress with Cora and prepared to enter the card room. She missed him already, like a limb.

She did so hate these ridiculous feelings.

Aunt Jane did not know the full story but she was not an ignorant woman. She knew that something was afoot.

“Are you quite all right, my dear?” She asked. “You seem rather quiet this morning.”

Regina wanted to laugh. She had not realized that she had become talkative. Her sisters would think nothing of her being silent at the breakfast table. In fact, with all of their chatter, they would not even notice. They might not even know if she came down at all.

“This will be my first ball in some time,” Regina answered. “I am nervous for it. Especially since I have promised myself and Lady Cora to try out being more social and seeing where that shall lead.”

“I think that you will find yourself surprised at your own abilities,” Aunt Jane replied.

They ate, retired to change and to pack, and then were loaded up into their carriage to begin the journey.

Regina had to admit that her thoughts were somewhere other than the rolling hills and green woods that they passed through. It was all rather lovely and at any other time she would have enjoyed it. The peace and quiet and the view were all together quite something. She could see why poets waxed poetic about the English countryside.

And yet, she almost couldn’t see any of it. She kept picturing in her mind’s eye all the times she had seen Lord Harrison. It was as if, after this, she would not be allowed to daydream on him, and so she must get it all done at once.

“You seem rather distracted,” Aunt Jane noted.

Regina could not offer up an explanation. Fortunately she did not need to, for Aunt Jane continued to speak.

“You know, my poor husband—may he rest in peace—had quite a time of it in wooing me.”

“Oh?” Regina asked. She was not sure where this direction of conversation was going, but she did owe Aunt Jane much. The woman had let her into her home and had allowed Regina to spend time with a man with an escort that Aunt Jane hardly knew. It was skirting propriety, and yet Aunt Jane had never complained.

“Yes. Harold—for that was his name—Harold had to practically fling himself at my feet to show me that he cared for me. When he proposed, most ladies would see that as a sign of affection. Men generally care for their wives when they choose them, even if they are not passionately in love with them.

“But that was not enough for me. I was convinced that he had proposed because of my good breeding and my looks. It honestly did not occur to me that he should choose me because he had fallen in love with me. What was I? I thought.

“In my mind, you see, I was a poor imitation of a proper woman. I had never been good at needlepoint or the piano. I could not draw. I loved to dance but I fear I was not very good at it.

“And I did not have the habit of conversing easily with those I did not know. I learned, in time, but that was later. At the time of his proposal I was quite inadequate at the dinner table for talk.

“Yet, somehow, he loved me. He had seen things in me that I did not see even in myself. I loved him, of course. He was so handsome. Do not tell my daughter this but she takes her good looks from him. She has always been convinced that she looks after me and I cannot bring myself to tell her that her father was always more handsome than I.

“But in any case. I did love him. He was gentle and kind, witty, and excellent at riding and dancing. I couldn’t fathom that a man such as that could love me in return. I resigned myself, therefore, to simply be content to be his wife and to have him near me, even if I did not have his love.

“And you know, the man seemed determined to prove me wrong. He would arrange for my favorite flowers to be sent to me. He would purchase me gifts when he went out, little ribbons and baubles and such. He consulted me about all matters and seemed to truly value my opinion. When he was away he would write me such long letters—the whole bundle of them seemed to weigh a pound!

“After about a year of this, my poor suffering husband came home, and presents me with this beautiful pearl necklace. I was quite astonished, for I knew that it must have cost him dear and should make me quite the envy of all the ladies at the next ball.

“I burst into tears.” Aunt Jane chuckled at herself, shaking her head. “You see my father was a good man in many respects but he was not faithful to my mother. Oh, we all knew it, though no one spoke of it. Every time he broke one of his marriage vows he would gift her with some truly astonishing jewelry. It was his way of absolving his guilt.

“So when my Harold brought me the necklace, I was sure that it meant he had strayed. I could not bear it, for though I knew he did not return my love I had also thought that he was a good man who would stay faithful.

“The idea of him betraying our marriage broke me, and I simply cried my eyes out. The poor man was so confused! He asked if I did not like pearls, if I was with child and therefore temperamental, if I was sick and needed care.

“Finally I got round to telling him why I was so upset. You should have seen his face!” Aunt Jane laughed heartily. “I had never seen the man more surprised!”

Aunt Jane sobered up. “More than that, though, my dear, he was appalled. I could see it in his eyes.

“He knelt before me and took my hand. I shall never forget that moment. He looked at me—and for the first time I saw it. I suppose that he had been looking at me like that the entire time but I hadn’t seen it until that moment.

“He looked up at me and said, ‘Darling’. He called me that you know but I had never heard it with such reverence. ‘Darling’, he said, ‘How is it that you can doubt my utter devotion to you?’

“I responded that his devotion to a wife he did not love must naturally be suspect. A man’s loyalty to a wife he loves is one thing. Loyalty to a woman he has married for the sanctity of marriage, a wife he respects well enough but does not love—what can be expected of him then?

“My husband was appalled, and rightly so. I don’t think it had occurred to him in that moment that I did not know that he loved me. I had certainly never voiced my thoughts aloud. It was not my place and it was, or so I supposed, so obvious that there was no point in speaking of it.

“He took me into his arms and—well. I won’t tell you what he said or did in that moment. I must have some secrets.” Aunt Jane winked at her. “But I remember realizing, oh. He is in love with me, as I am in love with him. What a fool I was not to see it.”

Aunt Jane reached over to a small red velvet box that she had been carrying with some of her luggage. She placed her hand over it and Regina knew without a moment’s doubt that the pearl necklace was inside.

“Will you be wearing it tonight?” She asked.

Aunt Jane nodded. “I always wear it on special occasions. I get out so rarely now. Whenever I do, I feel as though he is with me.”

Regina supposed that was why Aunt Jane had told her that story. She was feeling nostalgic and missing her husband. If only Regina should be so lucky as to find someone who loved her in that way.

Aunt Jane sighed, as though she had fired an arrow and it had missed its mark. Then she perked up, peering through the window. “Oh! Lovely sight, is it not? I always feel my heart swell when I see it. Of course that is largely because I know my daughter resides within.”

Regina peered through the window as well and saw indeed that they were approaching the Morrison estate. There was no turning back now. In a few short hours, she would be seated at the card table.

Time to shove all thoughts of romance and Lord Harrison and daydreams out of her head. She could not be Regina the girl right now.

She had to be Regina the card player.