Beauty Unseen: The sisters of Folly trilogy (Book One)

Chapter One: Introductions

"I'm perfectly...content." Wendy whispered to herself as she sat and watched her young sisters dance, Clarissa and Penelope, twins just turned seventeen and set out for the Capital to judge of grace and beauty in their first season. She like a proud mother would, being herself, ten years their senior she played a heavy hand in raising them and she was thankful for it. She unconsciously gripped the skirts of her dress as she watched them twirl around the public ballroom, men also watched on enthralled by the ethereal looks.

Quite alike in appearance it was often hard for others to tell them apart, both slim with beautiful waif like shapes, taller than most of the young girls they lined up with in the dances, they stood out. Silky blonde hair fell to their waists with crowns of pearls adorning their heads, shining hazel eyes and rosebud pouts completed faces that were well suited for paintings they were so pleasant to gaze upon. But Wendy could always tell them apart seeing the fire inside of Penelope's eyes and her extroverted attitude always left her more subdued and introverted twin, Clarissa, chasing after Penelope and cleaning her messes.

She worried at her bottom lip and sent a prayer above that Penelope found a bit more sense before it was too late and their mother taught her the kind of lesson only Bianca was capable of giving. Her shoulders curling forward at the thought of the switch biting into her back, as though thinking of her had summoned her Wendy heard her sharp whisper beside her "Sit up straight, Wendy!" The words were hissed through her teeth as she feigned a stunning smile at a passing couple and fluttered her fan around her face, her blonde hair fluttered in wisps as the rest was piled on top of her head in an intricate updo. "This is your last season and we cannot have it being such a waste as you've allowed all the others to be."

A shuttering breath heaved from her as she tried to compose herself, her cheeks flamed red, and she kept her gaze pinned to the dance floor "I think we may safely believe that bad posture is not the reason I am unwed in my tenth season, mother" Wendy spoke quietly as she felt Bianca's sharp eyes picking apart her appearance "Even you have not spared my feelings in the truth of my looks, mother, so why lie to yourself and believe it is anything other than the fact that I lack the beauty to secure a husband?" Feeling brave by the surround crowd Wendy dared to meet her eyes, clashing like iron on iron.

Another hiss escaped Bianca's lips as she muttered something about her being a waste of her time as she moved away and fluttered around the dance floor her sisters currently occupied.

She was far too used to the ugly words to react outwardly though she had to admit to herself that they still cut at her heart, her chest suddenly feeling tight as her fan slipped from her lap and onto the floor at her feet.

Just as she moved to pick it up a masculine gloved hand grabbed it, she looked up and found a tall, blonde, gentleman smiling at her as he kneeled slightly in front of her to retrieve it "Yours I believe, madam." He stated more than he asked as he handed the fan back to her.

Unable to help herself, Wendy could feel the color flooding her cheeks as she accepted the fan "Thank you." She murmured as she dipped her head to show her gratitude.

"It is not even halfway through the evening, do you not care for dancing?" His overly-friendly voice asked and she was slightly surprised he was still standing there, unease rolling down her spine as his eyes swept along the couples dancing.

"Indeed I do." She spoke clearer this time, she felt the eyes of the Capital's peers as some of the older ladies leaned in with interest to listen. "I am watching my younger sisters dance though and I find to it being as entertaining to me as though I were dancing myself" another lie she told herself, to get over the sting of never being asked to dance.

"Ah, a true philosopher at heart then" he chuckled and she found herself pleased to have a normal conversation with someone outside of her family, though she wasn't ignoring the bored look behind his eyes, like she was better than nothing when it came to passing his time but she didn't quite meet his standards. "Forgive me, madam, for I have failed to introduce myself, Henry Alton, a pleasure." He proclaimed with all the airs of a Lord as he bent slightly at the waist in a bow to her.