*Ainslee*

The dress is alabaster white. I know this because both Mrs. Dotty and Princess Sophia told me. I would be wearing alabaster white.

Now, I am wearing alabaster white.

My mother hovers over me, tears streaking down her cheeks, resplendent in a gown of her own, tailor-made for her. She isn’t ill anymore, now that Nelson is mayor and people in Beoutown are eating. Still, the way she was staring at the huge steak the servants put in front of her last night told me I am still living a much higher life than she is.

“You’re just so beautiful, my darling girl,” my mother whispers, gently brushing the...