Page 91 of Between Now and Forever

Not unless… I look up at Serene. She’s watching me with worry in her dark eyes.

She’s my friend. She’s the person who put the paper and pencils on my bed. I know it. It’s only Tuesday. I’ll have to wait until next Monday night, when the guests are gone and we’re having our desert. But I’m going to ask to use her phone. I’m sure she’s been given strict orders about it, but I’ll beg, blackmail, bribe, browbeat. Whatever.

Ihaveto find a way to get Carter a message.

* * *

I wouldn’t haveto wait for Monday for the opportunity. Guests start arriving the next day, and on Thanksgiving Thursday, I’m woken up by my grandmother and a team of makeup artists and people pulling racks of clothes and shoes behind them.

“Get up. You need to be ready in ninety minutes.”

By the time I’m awake enough to ask any questions, my grandmother is gone and none of the people she left behind can tell me what I’m getting ready for.

My grandmother comes back in when I’m dressed.

She inspects me, has me make some adjustments to my lipstick, but is obviously pleased by what she sees. I’m intensely uncomfortable in the stylish, yet entirely too mature for me, cream pencil skirt and matching blouse. They’ve tied a copper scarf around my neck and crammed my feet into a pair of copper patent leather pumps that are impractical in every way possible. My feet started to hurt the minute I put them on.

“What’s the occasion?” I ask, keeping my lips as still as possible for the makeup artist who is putting a final dab of gloss on my lips.

My grandmother claps her hands in delight and I get a sinking feeling in my gut. “We have the welcome lunch this afternoon. But first you’re meeting the man your father has chosen.” She says it so casually that the significance goes right over my head.

“Chosen for what?”

“For you to marry.”

“Oh shoot,” the makeup artist whispers when the sharp jerk of my head makes her lipstick wand run down my chin.

I stand up as she starts to wipe it up.

“What do you mean?”

My grandmother looks at me like I’m addlebrained.

“He’s here this weekend. Of course, we want you to have an opportunity to get to know him. Although your father is doing the choosing, I’ve stressed to him that your approval would be an added benefit.”

“I thought I was going to get to go home before this happened,” I say slowly, as the words sink in.

“Well, I let your father know you were ready to be presented and things moved faster than we thought. He’s here. If he likes what he sees in person, all will proceed.”

I stare at her in horror. The walls start to close in on me.

Serene walks into the room then. “Mr. Westfall is in the blue library, ma’am.”

She’s leaving me alone in this house with him. I turn sharply to look at her.

If she sees the alarm in my eyes, she ignores it. Her expression is serene and full of solemn expectation.

“Serene will escort you. Remember everything we’ve spent the last few months learning. Make your family proud,” she says and then she walks out of the room.

“Come on Miss Lizzy. It’ll be okay,” she says and takes my arm.

“No.” I sit back down.

She looks nervously at the glam squad still in the room and then tugs me up.

“Let’s go talk in the hall.”

“You can’t fight them from in here. You gotta get out of here. The only way is for them to think you are obeying. Believe me. Even when there is a gun to your head, you still have a choice. The finger on the trigger is only flesh and bone. But if you get yourself killed, you’ll never get a chance to break it.”

---