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Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

Sugar is sweet,

And so are you

I will look for you tonight--

Love, Daniel

Luce al the Daniel she kneould never write Clearly, someone else had been behind it Bill?

But to the part of Luce that was Lucinda, the words were a chaos of scribbles She couldn’t read, Luce realized And yet, once theof the poe break open in Lucinda Her past self found this the freshest, o to the festival and she would find Daniel She would show Lucinda hoerful their love could be

Tonight there would be dancing Tonight there would be ic in the air And--even if it was the only ti history of Daniel and Lucinda--tonight there would be the particular joy of spending Valentine’s Day with the one she loved

THREE

DELIGHT IN DISORDER

"Eleanor!" Luce shouted over a dense crowd of dancers as her friend bounced past in the spirited line of a jig But Eleanor didn’t hear her

It was hard to say whether Luce’s voice was drowned out by the delighted hoots of a crowd at a puppet show in one of thearea for the raucous, hungry crowd lining up at the long food tables on the eastern side of the green Or maybe it was just the sea of dancers in the middle, who bounded, twirled, and spun with reckless, roh the dancers at the Valentine’s Faire were not just dancing--but also hollering, laughing, belting out verses to the troubadour’sto friends across theit all at once And all at the top of their lungs

Eleanor was out of earshot, spinning as she stareen Luce had no choice but to turn back to her clumsy partner and curtsy

He was a spindly olderlips whose slouched shoulders made him look like he wanted to hide behind his too-small lynx-face mask

And yet Lucinda didn’t care She couldn’t re They’d been dancing since the sun kissed the horizon; now the stars shone like armor in the sky There were always so ht was chilly, but Luce’s face was flushed and her forehead was da neared its end, she thanked her partner and sidled between a line of dancers, eager to get away

Because despite the joys of dancing under the stars, Luce hadn’t forgotten about the real reason she was here

She looked out across the green and worried that even if Daniel was soht never find hiathered on a wobbly dais at the northern edge of the green, plucking on lutes and lyres to play a song as sweet as a Beatles ballad At a high school dance, these slow songs were the ones thatLuce, a little anxious--but here, the s and no one was ever at a loss for a partner You just grabbed the nearest war jig for this one, a circling dance in groups of eight for another Luce felt Lucinda knowing some of the moves innately; the rest of them were easy to pick up

If only Daniel were here …

Luce withdrew to the edge of the green, taking a break She studied the women’s dresses By modern standards, they weren’t fancy, but the woant as any of the fine gowns she’d seen at Versailles Many were made of wool; a few had linen or cotton accents sewn into a collar or a hem Most people in the city only owned one pair of shoes, so worn leather boots abounded, but Luce quickly realized how h-heeled shoes that pinched her feet

The ed to look dapper in their best breeches Most wore a long wool tunic on top for warmth Hoods were tossed back over their shoulders--the weather that night was above freezing, almost mild Most of their leather masks were painted tothe floral designs of the ladies’ loves, which looked expensive But ht were cold and chapped and red

Cats stared fros searched for their owners a the mess of bodies The air smelled like pine and sweat and beeswax candles and the sweetwound down, Luce spotted Eleanor, who seemed happy to be plucked from the arm of a boy whose red mask was painted like a fox’s face

"Where’s Laura?"

Eleanor pointed toward a stand of trees, where their young friend leaned close to a boy they didn’t recognize, whispering so in the air It looked like he took a great deal of care with his hair He wore a irls shared a giggle as theywith her husband on a wool blanket spread out on the grass They were sharing a wooden cup of stea, which ain

There were lovers everywhere Even Lucinda’s parents had turned out for the Faire Her father’s hite beard scraped her reen

Luce sighed, then fingered the lace doily in her pocket

Roses are red, violets are blue, if Daniel didn’t write these words, then who?

The last tiedly from Daniel, it had been a trap set by the Outcasts--