How weird, Olivia thought as she started to get ready herself. It was supposed to be me feeling like I didn’t fit in, not Ivy.
Chapter Four
A little less than an hour later, Ivy teetered at the top of a steep, twisting stone staircase.
How can I possibly survive this? Ivy thought. Four flights of stairs in these shoes . . . The heels weren’t high, but she was used to chunky boots, not dainty slippers. She gripped the handrail and willed herself not to collapse.
In front of her, Olivia stepped confidently down the stairs in her pink dress and silver Grecian sandals.
Ivy took a first tentative step, holding up the short train of satiny fabric that trailed behind the borrowed blue dress, and her ankle wobbled.
‘These shoes are impossible!’ Ivy declared, stopping.
Olivia turned back a few steps below her. ‘Just remember, toe first, not heel.’
‘I’m trying!’ Ivy replied.
What’s more embarrassing? Ivy thought, wishing Olivia had let her wear her own shoes. Boots with formal wear or falling flat on my face?
‘What if I get it all wrong?’ Ivy said. ‘What if I embarrass Dad in front of everyone?’
Olivia looked up at her. ‘You won’t. Besides, I’ll be right by your side the whole time. Now, come on.’
‘Good evening,’ Horatio said from the bottom of the last staircase, making Ivy jump. ‘May I show you to the drawing room?’
‘Yes, please,’ Olivia said.
More like show me to the firing squad, Ivy thought but followed anyway.
‘The guests have already arrived, including the Queen.’ Horatio led them back through the entrance hall and down one of the other long corridors.
Olivia gasped. ‘The Queen?’
Ivy stumbled in shock and nearly twisted her ankle.
They passed a fierce-looking suit of armour that was standing to attention, holding a huge battleaxe. Ivy half-expected it to come thumping after her, shouting, ‘Intruder!’
The sisters walked past a pretty young girl, a little older than them, with long, black braided hair wearing a white linen apron and black dress. She was heading in the opposite direction but paused to curtsy.
Ivy stopped. ‘Hi,’ she said. ‘I’m Ivy.’
‘Um.’ The girl glanced from Ivy to Olivia to Horatio. He gave her a small nod, as though granting her permission to speak. ‘Hello, miss. I’m Tessa.’
‘Hi, Tessa,’ Olivia said. ‘Nice to meet you.’
‘I love your bracelet,’ Ivy said, admiring the black eyelet ribbon wound around her wrist.
Tessa smiled. ‘Thanks. It isn’t technically part of my uniform, but Madam doesn’t mind.’
Horatio coughed lightly.
‘Ah, yes. Your guests are all waiting.’ Tessa curtsied again and hurried away.
‘She seems nice,’ Ivy said to Olivia as they walked after Horatio.
A few minutes later, Horatio paused in front of a doorway with two footmen standing on either side.
Stop worrying, Ivy, she told herself. This is no big deal. She paused for a moment and closed her eyes, wishing Brendan was with her.
The two footmen opened the doors at the same time and thirty pale faces turned to stare. Black dresses and sparkling jewels or dinner jackets and shiny shoes adorned people who were definitely from a different generation to Olivia and Ivy. This was the society that her grandmother wanted to introduce them to, the very top of the vampire food chain.
Chair feet scraped against polished floorboards as all the men stood up. Someone was playing the piano softly in the corner.
This is so much more formal than anywhere I’ve been, Ivy thought, wanting to scurry back upstairs to the safety of her room.
Ivy’s glance was drawn to one woman who was sitting in a chair, wearing a silver dress. She wore several strands of pearls in a choker at her neck and watched the twins closely. Ivy could see right away that she was the Queen.
‘I present Olivia Abbott and Ivy Vega,’ Horatio said with a bow, and Ivy had no choice but to walk into the room. There was a moment’s silence, and then everyone broke into smiles and applause.
What are they clapping for? Ivy thought. We haven’t done anything.
Olivia dropped into a curtsy and gave Ivy a nudge to follow suit. Ivy copied her sister, and hoped she wasn’t going to topple over, but the skirt of her borrowed dress got tangled up in her legs. It’s eating me alive! she thought desperately.
The Count came over and led the sisters into the middle of the room. Ivy tried hard not to wobble in her shoes.
‘This is your great-uncle Dragos and your great-aunt Elisabeta,’ said the Count, introducing an elderly man in a military uniform and a lady wearing long white gloves and sparkling sapphires. ‘Your great-uncle and aunt are the Viscount and Viscountess of Kolozs.’
Olivia struck up a conversation right away about the house but Ivy felt tongue-tied by all of the assured, elegant people.
‘How are you doing?’ the Count whispered.
‘It’s a little . . . um . . . more elegant than I expected,’ Ivy whispered back and his grey moustache twitched up into a smile.
‘Just wait until the Valentine’s Day ball.’ He winked at her.
Ivy gulped. Uh oh, she thought. What am I going to wear to a ball?
After Ivy had been introduced to too many people with complicated names and titles – including the Queen – the tinkle of a bell rang out.
A man wearing a dinner jacket and a red cravat announced, ‘Dinner is served.’
Glasses clinked as people put them on tables and stood up.
‘Isn’t this so exciting?’ Olivia whispered, her eyes sparkling even brighter than their great-aunt’s jewels.
Ivy nodded, not wanting to spoil it for her sister.
‘You look so beautiful!’ the Countess whispered to Ivy, taking her elbow and walking her towards a door at the other end of the room. But before she could catch a glimpse of the dinner table, Ivy heard the room behind her suddenly fall silent.
Oh no, Ivy thought. Did I step wrong?
She looked back into the drawing room. Her dad stood in the entrance looking as out of place as Ivy felt.
This must be even harder for him, Ivy thought. Today was his first time back in Transylvania for more than thirteen years. After he had run away with Ivy and Olivia’s human mother, his relationship had been forbidden and denounced. He had been the centre of a huge royal scandal.