Between Two Worlds - Book 1

Chapter 14

I woke up before Blaine. We had spent the night in my room. I had hesitated for an hour to wake him up and send him to his bed, but the fact of knowing that there would be no one today at the manor and that for the entire day had made me put things into perspective and I had ended up falling asleep next to him. 

He wasn't working today. Deciding to let him enjoy a few more hours of sleep, I got up on my tiptoes, grabbing his grandmother's diary from the nightstand, and sat on the window sill. to be able to read in the light of day. I never closed the curtains. Nothing oppressed me more than pitch blackness and nothing was more pleasant than being woken up by natural daylight.

May 27th, 1939

Jon picked me up at seven o'clock sharp. I had just finished to prepare myself. In the afternoon, I had taken a bath and carefully washed my long black hair with a shampoo that promised to make it smell like jasmine all evening and make it look fuller and shinier than it already look.

The rest of the afternoon hadn't been enough to dry them, and mom went to ask to the flirtatious Miss Jenkins, to whom she sells milk and cheese every Wednesday, if she would lend me her  hair dryer. Always eager to gossip, she hastened to fetch her hair dryer while asking Mom about my nocturnal activities: "I'm sure your beautiful daughter has found a nice young man to invite her to the ball tonight. . ".

It wasn't a question, but a statement. She did try to find out who had my favors, but Mom was silent as a carp, dodging and changing the subject, then telling her that if she didn't rush to help me dry my hair, I'd will never be ready.

It was my first time using a hair dryer. We had always unanimously declared that this was an unnecessary expense. Hair has been drying alone or with the help of a towel since the dawn of time. However, I no longer found this invention so useless yesterday afternoon.

We then discussed what to do with my hair mass. I wanted to leave them long. It came to my lower back, see a little lower, and I know that Jon likes girls with long hair, he admitted it to me himself. Mom was of the opinion that I should pull them up in a bun, it would make my outfit more elegant.

It was finally dad who decided by saying that he loved it when I braided my hair. So mom spent her time doing me a long cascading braid that fell nicely down my back while giving the impression that I had curls. She then placed at the top of the braid a silver comb which represented several small white flowers which fell on a thin silver wire which she took the time to wrap along my braid. Each little flower was topped with a rhinestone, which made my now tamed mane shine brightly.

It was already past five o'clock when we finished this task. I quickly went downstairs to swallow something so as not to starve all evening and be ashamed in front of Jon when my stomach would start to protest with indiscreet gurgling noises to show me its displeasure at having remained empty all day. I then went upstairs to put on grandmma's dress and Madame Claude's pearls. I put on mom's golden pumps at the bottom of the stairs and went to parade in the living room where everyone was waiting for me.

"You are very beautiful" said dad with a moved voice.

He didn't add anything else and his expression remained indecipherable. Iain and Domhnall were much more expressive, hissing and spinning me around without ever being stingy with compliments.

The old clock didn't have time to strike seven o'clock when Jon was already knocking on the door. I was busy putting some powder on my cheeks. I wanted to rush to open it, but dad held me back by the arm.

"I'll let him in. You are not in a hurry are you ? The prom is only at eight o'clock and we live barely twenty minutes on foot from the school. Go back to powdering your nose."