Hunter's Moon Read Online Free Page A

daydreamed and worried. Not for the first time, I wished I had a friend of my own age to confide in. My mind wandered to my childhood playmates Rafiel and Margy. We’d been so happy in each other’s company and I’d always expected we’d remain friends forever.
    But not long after Belladonna had arrived, Margy and Rafiel had left with their parents. Nobody told me why, but I could tell that Belladonna hadn’t been impressed by my closeness to servants’ children. Although I missed Margy a good deal, strangely, it was Rafiel I missed the most. I wished many times that I could find out where they’d gone but I didn’t dare ask questions. So in time I accepted it. As my stepmother had said, it was for the best. Their path in life was very different to mine. They’d understand. But although my head knew what she was saying, my heart did not. I felt the loss of my friends, and that was one of the reasons I was so looking forward to the ball. Surely among all the other young people of good social standing there’d be someone who I might make friends with, someone of whom Belladonna approved.
    Evening came at last and I stood downstairs in my ball gown, waiting for Belladonna to come down from her rooms. The Mirror photographer had come earlier to take the customary photograph of Belladonna, but nobody else had seen what Belladonna would wear to the ball. As she appeared at the top of the stairs, I couldn’t help gasping. Last night’s dress had been simply elegant. This one, though, was truly magnificent. It had layers of heavy gleaming-white satin and deep-gold brocade; itwas full-skirted, puff-sleeved and low-cut. Belladonna’s golden hair, piled on her head in artful curls, was topped by a sparkling diamond tiara. Dangling from her ears were massive diamond-and-gold drops and at her throat she wore another magnificent diamond. Her high-heeled shoes were gold satin; her evening bag was threaded with gold beads. She shone like the sun and beside her I immediately felt like a pale and distant moon.
    â€˜Do you like it?’ she asked, with a little smile.
    I nodded, mutely. She would outshine every other woman at the ball, there was not a shred of doubt of that. Her official portrait in the Mirror as the Fairest Lady would be stunning. If only Father could be there to see her, how happy and proud he would be! I wished more than ever that he had not had to leave so suddenly. I did not know exactly what unexpected, urgent business had taken him away – he did not talk of business to me – and if Belladonna knew what had called him away, she kept quiet, too.
    â€˜Let’s go, then, dear Bianca,’ she said brightly, and took my arm.
    And so together we went out of the house and down the steps, onto Moonlight Boulevard. Drago bowed deeply as he opened the door of the carriage. Just before I went in after Belladonna, I turned around and saw the house staff crowded around to watch us go. I noticed that some of them looked a little askance at me. Was there something not quite right with my dress? Feeling a little self-conscious with their eyes on my back, I hurriedly stepped into the carriage.

Four
    Duke Ottakar’s palace is on Grand Boulevard, not far from Moonlight Boulevard. By day, its slender white towers and silver roofs, which could be seen from our house, gleamed in the sun. By night, they shone eerily in the white glow of the new gas lamps that had been installed along the driveway – the Duke loves everything that’s modern, and had torn out the friendly yellow-light lanterns in favour of these things. For a moment, as I looked out from our carriage window at the palace shining over the tops of all the other houses, I felt a little shiver run down my spine.
    â€˜A goose walking over your grave,’ Margy used to call that spine-tingling feeling, and though I never really understood that saying, I knew what she meant. It’s a feeling that