Diamonds

“Oh, here, let me!”

“Thank you.” Mary lifted her hair out of the way, and did her best not to swoon at the feeling of Maria’s fingers on the nape of her neck, her touch teasingly gentle as she fastened the clasp of her necklace.

“There.”

Mary let go of her hair and turned to find Maria beaming at her. “How does it look?”

“You don’t need me to tell you that you look beautiful.”

If she were to be immodest, she’d have to admit that was true. Mary put a lot of care into her wardrobe and toilette, and she knew that the choker, strings of evenly matched white pearls interspersed with bars of yellow tourmaline, suited her very well indeed. “Maybe I just want to hear you say it.”

“Well, who I am to deny you? You look beautiful.”

It was hardly the first time she’d heard it - even as Alan’s fiance she’d attracted a fair few admirers, and now the engagement was officially broken there seemed to be positive bevies of the poor idiots - but it was the first time she’d heard it from a girl, or at least from a girl who she knew to be attracted to her. It was, she thought as she felt the flush creep up to her cheeks, a rather different experience than hearing it from a man. “Thank you. So do you.”

She did. The dress was one of Sophia’s, adjusted by Mary’s own maid because Honore was the best seamstress at the academy. It was a soft blush pink, satin covered by a layer of embroidered net, with a wide scoop neck enhanced by a frill of lace.

Mary was aware that shorter dresses were popular among the middle classes, for their greater practicality, but to her they would always look childish. She wore her dresses scandalously short for a woman of her age and class, and they barely showed her shoes. This was the first time she’d ever seen Maria in a full-length gown, and the effect was… arresting.

The white opera gloves were Katarina’s, but they fit well enough, and the white satin pumps were more of Sophia’s cast off, as she was the only one of them with feet as small as Maria's.

A real hairdo just wasn’t possible with hair as short as Maria’s, but Honore was a wizard with a set of curling tongs, and her hair fell in carefully set curls, arranged artfully to frame her sweet face. She hardly needed any enhancements to her natural beauty, but she had permitted Mary to apply a touch of lip rouge, just enough to make her look even more kissable than she normally did.

She looked like she belongs among the great and the good who would be attending the ball, but she still looked like herself, and really there was nothing more Mary could ask of her and Honore’s artistic efforts.

“There’s just one thing missing.”

The necklace had been a gift from her father, though she had only worn it once. It was made up of delicate flowers studded with diamonds that could have been made to mirror the embroidery on the dress. It didn't go with anything she owned, but she’d never been able to bring herself to get rid of it.

“Here.”

Maria reached for it but stopped short of actually touching. “Oh Mary, I… I couldn’t.”

“Of course you could. It doesn’t suit me in the least, but it will look splendid on you, I know it. Take it. My gift to you.”

“Oh no, you’ve already been so generous, I really shouldn’t…”

“Dearheart, you deserve all the diamonds I can give you and more. Please?”

“It’s very unfair of you to say things like that when I can’t kiss you without smudging both our makeup. Alright. If you’re sure.”

It felt like she was talking about rather more than the necklace. “I’ve been sure since that day in the library.” She stood, switching her hips to straighten out her skirts, and stepped behind Maria, arranging the necklace and hooking the fastening closed. “There. Now you look perfect.”

“Not so perfect as you.”

“I haven’t even done my hair yet.” She’d set it in rags overnight, but so far she had only got as far as brushing out her curls. She adored her dress, a truly ludicrous garment which was more ruffle than dress, but getting it on had not been the most dignified moment of her life, and there was no way she could have managed it without completely ruining any hairstyle. “We’d better call Honore in or we’ll be quite unfashionably late.”

“Well then, before she arrives…” Mary rose and cupped Mary’s cheek. Before Mary could scold her for getting powder on her gloves, Maria leant in and pressed a careful kiss to her lips, as featherlight as the brush of a butterfly’s wing. “Dear Mary. I am so very glad I met you.”