Free Ours Is Just a Little Sorrow by Gwen Hayes

protest, we were interrupted by a deep, male voice. "Imagine my surprise to find my whyrlygig had gone to town without me this
evening."
    I spun to face my accuser. He took the glass from my hand and sniffed it before handing it back. He exchanged telling glances with Minerva, and she smiled
as if she'd not only eaten the canary, but possibly one of its friends as well.
    Then he trained his gaze back to me and the heat left my face. "Gideon-"
    "Dare I ask what you're doing here?"
    "She's having a drink with me," Minerva answered. "Want one?" she asked, the playful tone of her query caused an answering, visible throb of his temple.
    "I'm sorry I borrowed your transport without asking, Gideon. I didn't think you would need it as I thought you were already out and had taken a coach."
    Minerva leaned back on her stool and sent me a saucy wink. She was not helping matters at all. If it turned out that Gideon really were furious, I risked
losing my job.
    Of course, I'd already risked my employ by sneaking out at night. I may as well enjoy it. I began unbuttoning my cloak.
    "Not that little number again. Gideon, you have the fashion sense of a …well, of a man." She grabbed my wrist. "Come with me, Miss Prim."
    Despite my protest, and Gideon's, she dragged me to the stairs, up a flight, and into a small room. Material of every color hung from any available piece
of furniture or knob. A huge vanity alit with bulbs of aether was covered in pots of color and brushes of varied size.
    She rummaged through a rack of clothes until she found what she was looking for and then sent me behind the privacy screen.
    I looked at the garment she'd thrust in my hand and began a very emotional protest. "I simply cannot wear this."
    "You must. That color of red will be amazing with your skin tone."
    "It's a corset. It should go under a dress, not become my dress."
    "Violet, do you want to stand out? Because if I were you, and I were visiting a place where I hoped no one recognizes me, I would want to blend in. If you
want to blend in, you must not look like a lady sneaking into ribaldery. Own thyself, love. "
    She had a point. And the color was perfection. I'd never seen anything that shimmered quite as much.
    After I came out, she gave me an approving huff and sat me in the chair at her vanity. Before I could manage a word, she'd undone my hair. It held the
waves from drying in coils, so she pulled it to one side and adorned the other with a comb decorated with peacock feathers.
    "Close your eyes," she demanded.
    "Why?"
    "So I don't blind you." She began dusting my eyelids.
    "Why are you doing this?"
    "I have poured blood, sweat, and tears into building the reputation of this ribaldery up. I won't have people thinking we no longer enforce a fabulous
code."
    "A fabulous code?"
    More dusting, this time on my cheeks. "Yes, only fabulous people with wicked sensibilities are allowed. You have the spirit, but not the wardrobe."
    "I have the spirit?"
    "Gideon wouldn't bring a useless moppet with him. He's as much to lose from his reputation here as you do in your world if you were found out." She did
something to my lips with a special quill. "Now, are you going to tell me why you came without him tonight? And why he looks at you with such concern?"
    I was still absorbing the idea that she thought I had a fabulous, wicked spirit, so it took me a moment to formulate an answer. "I needed a distraction. To
not think."
    "Why?" She surveyed my face and picked up another pot of color.
    "A friend…a friend of mine is missing. They believe her to be murdered."
    She raised a brow. "The maid from Havendish? You're not a lady then." She took in the new information with the kind of concentration John used for numbers.
"Interesting."
    "She wasn't a maid. She was a companion. And her name was Shelby." It was important that they get it right. "Why did you think I was a lady?"
    Minerva shrugged. "You're so cool and collected, even when he's trying to ruffle you. I figured