Free Ours Is Just a Little Sorrow by Gwen Hayes Page A

maybe you were married to some old lout and Gid was
tempting you to the dark side or something."
    "I wouldn't have been the first married lover he's seduced, would I?"
    "Well, he doesn't tumble with unmarried girls, if that's what you're asking. He's not a despoiler of the virtuous, as a rule." She paused, realizing I
wasn't married. "He hasn't…"
    "No!" I answered, perhaps a little too emphatically. "We haven't…that is to say…we aren't…he doesn't like me that way."
    "Right."
    "Like you said, I'm an unmarried girl. Not his preference at all."
    "I'm certain that isn't true," she said as she spun my chair around to face the mirror.
    My breath hitched. "You're a magician."
    While I was not used to color on my face, it didn't look harsh. The kohl around my eyes sought to define them, but not obstruct them. My hair looked as if
she'd spent hours on it, not seconds. And the corset…
    I'd never thought much of my chest. It was there, it did its job with the pushing and pulling of air into my lungs. My breasts would never nourish a child,
so I really never thought much about them, other than the fact that they ran on the smaller side.
    The corset pushed my breasts up, of course, making them suddenly much more ample than they used to be. The color of the fabric did indeed look nice with my
coloring. I thought of the woman dancing on stage and a strange, alien sensation stole over me.
    I wanted Gideon to see me like this.
    "You're not going to fight me on this, are you, Violet?"
    I didn't even want to blink, lest I shutter myself from my reflection. "No, Min." I swallowed. "Thank you."
    I'd surprised her. She watched me watching myself for a moment. "You need gloves."
    She went in search of a specific pair that had somehow gone into hiding in a drawer. Once found, she unrolled the black lace onto my hands, pulling them
all the way to just inside my elbow. "You're going to out-fabulous everyone else out there." She paused. "I'm sorry about your friend, Violet. Shelby was
lucky to have you to remember her." There was more to say, but she shrugged away the serious tone. "Gideon will probably faint when he sees you. I hope you
carry smelling salts because I sure as hell don't have any around here."

Chapter 7

    G IDEON WAS standing at the bar when I descended the stairs. He brought his drink toward his lips, but stopped midway and stared. I hoped he was staring
because I looked pretty and not because I was an oddity one might find at the Cirque de Freaque that came around once a year.
    I'd never felt pretty before. It was certainly not something I strived for. Pretty was for other girls, girls less concerned with survival. I had always
desired to be practical. Practical and well fed.
    The man Gideon had been speaking to wondered where his attention had gone and followed Gideon's gaze, his eyes widening with appreciation as Gideon's
narrowed with…something else. I resisted the urge to tug the corset up. Minerva warned me that she'd slap my hand if she saw me do it.
    It was suddenly very hard to breathe.
    A different man, dressed in six or seven shades of green approached as I got to the bottom. He bowed, making a great show of it, and picked up my
lace-covered hand, kissing the back of it. "If I may be so bold as to ask for a dance?"
    "Not unless you want to die in the most painful, merciless way I can come up with. And believe me, at this moment, my imagination is fairly robust." Gideon
took my other hand, leading me away. "Come, sprite, I've given the band all my liquor money for the week if they promise to play only waltzes for the rest
of the evening."
    The other gentleman grimaced but put up no argument. I had a feeling no one liked to tangle with Gideon, though I didn't find him all that imposing myself.
He led me through the crowd, his hand firmly squeezing mine as if I might bolt.
    Once we reached the dance floor, he locked me in a tight embrace and we took flight, the colors and sounds whirring past me as Gideon deftly