She looked down at the bed. There, among the gifts she had not asked for and the cards her old friends from New York had sent to the Suffolk mansion, not knowing she’d been banished to the Buckingham all this time, was the little lavender drawstring pouch. She upended its contents into her palm. The two phials of Midnight Rooms powder were still intact. She gazed at them for a long time.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t been tempted. But she’d stayed strong.

She looked around her. These same four walls. The same telephone by the bed, by which she’d call for the same meals from the same room service. No one to talk to. Still no formal introduction to English high society, and no way to make friends here without one. It was no surprise she’d found solace in these little drawstring pouches. But . . .

The chambermaid. The disgrace of it all. Being peeled off the carpet, sponged clean by that girl with the lame leg. Vivienne meant to be noticed, but not like this. And they’ll all be gossiping, of course. You can’t trust a chambermaid to keep her lips sealed. She’ll have told anyone who’ll listen – as if being trapped here at the Buckingham Hotel wasn’t bad enough already.

Well, at the Masquerade Ball, I’ll stand up and be seen. Not for the wreck they all think I am. Not as the spoilt little rich girl they all loathe. I’ll stand in front of them all – talented and elegant, with poise and grace. Somebody to reckon with. Somebody to . . . love.

And then? Then, when my mother’s finally seen? Well, then I’ll tell them. I’m leaving. I’m leaving with Nathaniel. I’ll follow him to the continent. I’ll follow him to the other side of the world. Wherever his stardom takes him. Anywhere but here.

She had been staring at the phials of powder too long. Temptation grew stronger the longer she stared. In a sudden moment of clarity, she dropped them back in the lavender pouch and buried it in the pile of clothing at the bottom of her armoire.

Then she sat at the bedstead, produced an ink pen and pad of hotel notepaper, and began to inscribe the words she had been thinking about for so long.

It was time to put her plan into action.

*

By prior arrangement, the ballroom was to be closed between the celebrations of Christmas and the ball at New Year. This morning an army of chambermaids and porters had gathered to strip back the Christmas decorations and begin hanging the adornments for the ball.