Daphodile

Preparations

"Miss, I have to get you in your gown now or you're going to be late!" My maid calls out to me in her sweet voice from the other room. Her voice barely registers as my eyes are focused on the tiny slip of paper between my fingertips.

"Sorry Mathea, i'll only be a moment." I shout, my voice strained as I stand in my corset and undergarments, baffedly staring at yet another mysterious handwritten note that read:

Eyes are everywhere
but the spies are blind,
as you dance the night away
be courteous and kind
-X

The paper was slightly damp from the afternoon it probably spent sitting outside my windowsill with the birds and rain. This was now the third poem I'd received with no action or clue as to who was leaving them.

The damp parchment lightly fluttered in the air as I set in on my makeup dresser next to the tubes and containers of goop my maidens apply every morning. 
My maid suddenly enters my room, shouting some mumbled warning of her entrance as she burst open my wooden bedroom doors and I decide to wait to tell her about the third note.

I immediately showed her the first poem when I got it months ago and she laughed any concerns I had away.
' Darling, your mother will be irate with me if you're late. Hurry now."

I nod my head and approach her as she scurries to the other room and pulls a bright red silk ball gown from my wardrobe. Suddenly a slight look of disappointment appears on my face, and I frown slightly as I ask "What happened to the grey layered gown I designed with the tailor?"

Mathea fiddles with the dress's neckline slightly, rubbing the fabric.

"Your mother thought this one would be better for tonight dearie, im sorry."

"It's alright." I feign a fake smile hiding the disappointment at the new dress replacing the one I worked on myself.

"It's beautiful." I say with appreciation, "Now, let's get ready."

With that I stand still upon the dressing step as Mathea tightens my corset and boosts my ivory breasts and lessening the amount I'm able to breath.

Grabbing the gown she then pulls it over my head and kneels to slip on glass ruby heels. It feels as though the delicate red glass was made of gelatin with how comfortably they shaped my feet. Part of me was somewhat glad that I couldn't wear my grey dress at the sight of the cherry slippers. .

With a deep breath I look to Mathea and take her hand, steadying myself as I take a step down from the dressing platform, assuring her that "I'm ready."

With those words she helps me walk to my doors, knocking twice so that the guards on the other side swing them open and allow us to walk through the echoey corridor. Approaching the staircase we could hear the laughter and voices becoming more clear.

It was time for the ball.