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I look, for the first time, like I ahts she spent dancing with one to bed She would coht I slept She would be sweaty and perfuers, ten toes," she would whisper into irl is safe in her drea like I’d just been enchanted

What would irl--this almost-woman--in the mirror?

As for myself, I’m speechless With her talent for color Deirdre has hter, my brown eye nearly as intense as Rose’s stare She has dressed me and painted me well for the role; I aic bride

I think it speaks for itself, but in theto hear what I think of her work "It’s beautiful," is all I can say

"My father was a painter," she says, with a hint of pride "He tried his best to teach ood He toldcan be a canvas, and I suppose you’re my canvas now"

She says no more about her parents, and I don’t ask

She touches up lets and pinned back with a sioes on until the watch on Deirdre’s wrist begins to beep And then she helps h heels and carries the train of my dress down the hallway We descend in the elevator and weave through ato think this house has no end, we cooes ahead of me, opens the door just barely, and pokes her head in She appears to be talking to someone

Deirdre steps back, and a little boy peers out at me

He’s her size or close to it His eyes sweep across me, head to toe "I like it," he says

"Thank you, Adair I like yours, too," Deirdre says

There’s such professionalisin?"

"All ready here Check with Elle"

Deirdre disappears behind the door with hi, and when the door opens, another little girl peers out at ether excitedly "Oh, it’s lovely!" she shrieks, and then disappears

When the door opens again, Deirdre takesroom It’s s machines, and everywhere ribbons drip from shelves and lay strewn across tables "The other brides are all ready," Deirdre says She looks around herself to be sure no one else can hear, and then whispers to me, "But I think you’re the prettiest"

The other brides stand in corners of the roo fussed over by their domestics, all of whohtening the white velvet bodice on a y bride with dark hair, who stares despondently at her shoulder and does not seeirl, who pearl barrettes in the hair of a bride who could not tip the scale above a hundred pounds This bride has her red hair done up in a beehive, and her dress is white with just a slight glimmer of rainbow hues when shetranslucent butterfly wings in back that seelitter, which I realize is solitter ever touches the ground The bride is wriggling uncoh, a bit too small to fill in the chest of it

On tiptoes the redhead wouldn’t even reachto be a bride And the y girl is too forlorn And I a

Yet here we are

This dress is so coainst my skin, and Deirdre is so proud, and here I stand in the room where I suppose my wardrobes are to be constructed for the rest of my life And all I can think of is how I can escape

An air duct? An unlocked door?

And, of course, I think of my twin brother, Rowan

Without each other we are only half of a whole I can hardly stand the thought of hih the scarlet district for my face in a brothel? Will he use one of the delivery trucks fros he could ever do, of all the places he could ever search, I ae groves and horses and gardens, so very far from New York

I will have to find him instead Stupidly, I look to the too-small air duct for a solution where there is none

The domestics summon each of us brides to the center of the room It’s the first time we’ve been able to look at one another, really It was so dark in that van, and then we’d been too horrified to do anything but keep our eyes fore were assessed Add the sleeping gas in the liers