A stray wisp of thought intruded itself upon Isabel’s happiness: She saw Tiltager in her mind’s eye, and the Piper as he had been at the Alford Assembly, his attention fixed upon her for one brief, intense moment. Her last thought was of the Ferryman, laughing as she taught him to dance.
Then the music engulfed her, and everything else faded.
A short, sharp, piercing pain abruptly jolted Isabel out of her merry reverie some immeasurable time later. She gasped, stumbled and almost fell, for the pain came from her left ankle, and a weight hung there, dragging her off-balance. She blinked, brought suddenly back to her own mind. The cotillion whirled on around her, but she was no longer absorbed by it.
She knew a pang of regret, which she quickly smothered. Looking down, she was not surpris
