Julia wasn’t sure she remembered. It all made so much sense when Christopher explained it to her, his sweet face downcast as he talked of her sheeplike docility.

“You know,” she said vaguely. “We just have to get married, and we never get to see anything. Oh, Charlotte,” she said, abandoning the messy question of ethics, “it will be fun, don’t you see? There’s nothing improper about going to a party chaperoned by … by a theologian!”

A small thread of rebellion lit in Charlotte. After all, had anyone asked her whether she wanted to come out? Whether she wanted to get married? But of course she did want to get married, and the only way to do it was to come out, so that train of thought didn’t lead anywhere.

“I won’t go if you don’t,” said Julia in a small voice. “We’ll just look.”

The corner of Charlotte’s mouth quirked up in a grin and Julia answered her unspoken consent with a squeal.

“You must promise me that you won’t run off to dance with your curate and leave me alone,” Charlotte said sternly.

“Oh, I wouldn’t, Charlotte!” Julia’s eyes were glowing. “We’ll have to go up to the attic and find something to wear. Costumes. I think there are some old dominoes up there.”

Charlotte tried to remain calm but it was no use. Her reasonable, unexcitable temperament had deserted her, leaving a racing pulse and a seductive taste of excitement.

Julia jumped up. “This is the perfect time to go to the attic. Mama and Papa always visit the tenants on Sundays until time for luncheon.”

So the girls crept up the stairs, all the way past the servants’ floor into the huge, echoing attics that lay under the timbers of Squire Brentorton’s manor roof. Blocks of pale sunshine fell across old pine boards, the dusty shapes of covered furniture, trunks of outdated clothing. Charlotte paused for a moment and watched dust specks eddy and dance in the light as Julia briskly trotted across the floor toward the trunks. Within a minute she had found two voluminous black cloaks that would cover their whole bodies. At first it appeared that there were no masks, but then with a little shriek Julia pulled them from the corner of another trunk.

“Hush, Julia!” Charlotte’s heart raced.

“It’s quite all right,” Julia replied, looking up from where she was bundling the dominoes into a clumsy parcel. “No one except one of the servants could possibly hear us.”

“And what if one of the servants did hear a noise and came to investigate?” Charlotte demanded.

“Oh, Charlotte, you’re such an innocent.” Julia laughed. “We would bribe him, of course.”