Lorelei's Secret Read Online Free PDF Page B

tell.’
    ‘Oh, I could tell,’ I said.
    She looked lovely. She was wearing a kind of silky black T-shirt and a long slim skirt, and she had pulled her hair back from her face. In the week since we had met, it seemed as if I had spent my time doing nothing else but conjuring her image in my mind, but I saw now that I had remembered everything wrong. I saw now that the brown of her eyes was lightened with flecks of amber and that the heart-shape of her face was more round than angular.
    I saw the complex layering of pale gold and dark honey in her hair and the rose-flush of her skin. I saw now that she was beautiful.
    ‘So,’ I said as we walked toward my car, ‘where are we going?’
    ‘Well,’ she said, sounding rather apologetic, ‘I’m afraid the first thing we have to do is go to a wedding.’
    ‘A wedding.’ I did my best to quell rising panic. Socializing with strangers is not something I do well, as anyone I know will tell you.
    She went on in a rush. ‘I know that’s a really weird first-date activity, but they’re clients of mine and I promised I’d put in an appearance. We don’t have to stay long - don’t worry, I’m not going to know anyone there either, and I promise we can do something fun afterward.’
    ‘Great,’ I said resolutely. ‘That sounds like fun.’
    She laughed. ‘No, it doesn’t,’ she said. ‘And if you want to back out, I won’t mind. But I guarantee you, it won’t be like any other wedding you’ve ever been to.’
    I opened the car door for her. ‘Well, then,’ I said. ‘What are we waiting for?’
     
    We drove, following a small hand-drawn map that I imagine had been included in the wedding invitation.
    ‘So,’ I said. ‘You said these people are clients of yours.
    I don’t even know what you do.’
    She smiled. ‘Oh, that will become apparent,’ she said. ‘I think I’ll keep it a secret for a while longer.’
    ‘Am I going to be dressed all right for this thing?’ I asked.
    ‘It’s not formal, is it?’
    ‘No, not at all. I think it’s going to be kind of New-Agey, actually. They made a big deal on the invitation about this being the day of the vernal equinox - you know, when day and night are equal. They called it “the day the sun marries the moon.”’ She laughed. ‘I guess they were looking for something more dramatic than just “the day Brittany marries Todd.”’
    We were in the country now. It was late afternoon, nearing sunset. Eventually, we turned down a long dirt road
    that dead-ended at a patch of tall grass and wildflowers.
    A path had been cut into the growth and marked with
    garlands of roses on either side.
    A woman was standing at the entrance to the path, holding a large basket twined with ribbons. She smiled as we approached her, and she held the basket out toward us.
    ‘Please choose your masks,’ she said.
    I glanced at Lexy, who was watching me and smiling.
    ‘You go first,’ she said.
    I leaned forward warily and looked into the basket. I think I was expecting something like the Halloween masks I wore as a child, flimsy plastic monster faces and shiny superheroes with no backs to their heads, elastic bands stapled to the sides of the masks to keep them from
    slipping off your face. Instead, the basket was filled with wonders the likes of which I had never seen. A dozen papier-mache faces looked up at me with cutout eyes. I saw a frog first, then a zebra. A sunflower with vibrant yellow petals framing its face. A tall golden feather with ghostly features pressed into its wavy barbs. There were three-quarter-length masks with wrinkled brows and outrageously curved noses, and wild-looking jesters decked
    out in playing cards. A snaky-haired Medusa and a Bacchus crowned with grapes. I felt giddy with the choice.
    ‘Go on,’ Lexy said. ‘What do you want to be today?’
    I reached in and pulled out the first one I touched. It was a book, a thick, old-fashioned kind of book with its pages spread open. Eyes, nose, and