Laughing, the men descended on Nellie and Jace.
“Well?” Houston asked her husband Kane as he stared at Nellie. “What was it you said about ‘fat ladies’?”
Kane grinned. “There’s fat and there’s fat. She looks like a peach, as plump and as ri
pe as a peach.”
Houston slipped her arm through her husband’s. “Knowing your love for peaches, I think I’d as soon you stayed away from Nellie.”
He smiled down at his wife. “I’ll bet that little sister of hers ain’t gonna like Nellie’s looks.”
“I fear not,” Houston said softly.
It took Terel a while to realize that her audience of adoring men was leaving her. Since she’d arrived, she’d been the most popular girl in the room. She had been swamped with invitations for dances, and for social events in the coming weeks. She had sat on a lovely gilt chair and held court with all the condescension of a princess talking to her subjects. Louisa, Charlene, and Mae had stood together in a corner and given Terel looks of rage. Each look had made Terel feel even better.
Six men had left before she realized the numbers were dwindling. She saw one very handsome man punch another and motion with his head. Both men disappeared into the crowd. Terel looked at Charlene and saw that she, too, was looking toward the center of the room.
Terel stopped fluttering her fan and, as the music stopped and the dancers drew aside, she saw what everyone was looking at. In the center of the room, wearing a dress that any woman would sell her soul for, was Nellie. Only this Nellie, with her head up, with diamonds flashing off her body, with a smile of happiness on her beautiful face, was not the Nellie who washed and ironed clothes. This Nellie was altogether different.
She was looking up at Jace Montgomery, and Terel saw that he was even better-looking than usual, and he was looking at Nellie as no man had ever looked at Terel.
Terel clenched her fists so hard, her nails cut into her palms.
“Who would have thought,” Charlene whispered, “that your competition would come from your own sister?” She was very angry at Terel’s recent and inexplicable popularity.
“Doesn’t Nellie look nice?” Mae said. “I’ve never seen her look so pretty. Where do you think she got that dress?”
Terel began to realize that people were looking at her. She forced a smile, then stood and made her way toward Nellie.
“Terel,” Nellie said, kissing her sister’s cheek, “I was able to come after all.”
Terel looked at the diamonds around Nellie’s throat and in her ears, and at the pearls on her dress. “I’m so very glad. Did a man buy you that dress?” There was an insinuation in her voice that Nellie had traded “favors” for the dress.
“I gave Nellie the dress,” Houston said before Nellie could speak, and she gave Terel a hard look.
Terel was aware of people watching her, as though daring her to say or do something.
“May I have this dance?” Jace asked Nellie. He didn’t give Terel a chance to say another word before he swept her away.
After that, the ball lost all excitement for Terel. Nothing meant anything to her—not the invitations she received, not the compliments of the men—nothing. She could not take her eyes off Nellie. How? Terel thought. How could someone as fat and as boring as Nellie cause so much interest? Nearly everyone at the ball was swarming around Nellie. There were young men around Terel, yes, but there were no women, neither young nor old.
But everyone was speaking to Nellie. Old women, young women, men, even the Taggert children, allowed into the ball for a few minutes, went to see their Cousin Jace and ended by kissing Nellie good night. Terel grimaced when she heard the oohs from people at the children’s kissing of Nellie.
Nellie’s presence might have been bearable if it had been only older people paying attention to her, but it was the men’s attention that infuriated Terel. All the boys asked Terel to dance, but all the men asked Nellie to dance. She saw Dr. Westfield dancing with Nellie, then laughing uproariously at something she said. Edan Nylund and Rafe Taggert, men who’d never so much as looked at Terel, asked Nellie to dance.
“I never looked at Nellie before,” the young man dancing with Terel said. “I guess I thought she was old, and maybe a little—well—fat, but she doesn’t look fat tonight. She moves like a goddess.”
Terel stopped dancing and left the man standing alone on the dance floor. She left the ballroom and went outside into the cool night air.
“Couldn’t bear to see how much people like Nellie?”
She jumped, then turned to see Jace standing in the shadows. “I have no idea what you mean, Mr. Montgomery. I am very pleased to see my sister so happy.”
“You’re not pleased to see anyone have more than you do.”
“I’ll not stand here and be insulted like this.” She started to go back to the ballroom, but Jace caught her arm.
“I know what you’re up to, you don’t fool me one bit. You’re a spoiled brat who’s had everything given to her all her life, and you think Nellie was put on this earth to give to you. Tonight you’re eaten alive with jealousy because you know that everyone in there likes Nellie, and you know that not one of them likes you.”