Chapter Five
When Grunewald departed Somerdale for Aylfenhame, it was with an incongruous vision of Bess in mind. Not as he had last seen her, bundled in layers of her shabby clothing and wearing, he suspected, every item of use that she owned. She appeared in his thoughts as she had presented herself last evening, wearing one of Mrs. Aylfendeane’s gowns. The red silk had much become her; red suited her colouring, and her rich dark hair.
But her appearance did not interest him so much as her manner. Ordinarily, the mere alteration of attire ought not to so transform a person; as an experienced masquerader, he knew that very well indeed. But Bess had needed only that, he thought, to appear in a wholly different light. She had not the deference, the ignorance, or the sense of inferiority w
