All those who were expected to be present at Stewart's masquerade party had arrived and were conversing with each other.
At such an event where the host was none other than the head of Stewart. An advanced man who was also the richest in the county, so no one would dare arrive late.
That is, no one, except Valerie.
The head of the house made his toast, thanked all who were present, and said his few words of appreciation for the birth of one more grandchild. And after which, he descended the podium, hoping to rest as this party was more than strenuous.
Halfway into the party, his son and daughter-in-law took their leave with the baby and the head of the house was already making his way out when a lady arrived.
Dressed in bright red, and wearing a bright red mask, her presence could not be ignored.
"Who is that?" The guests had started talking.
"How can she wear something so loud? Does she think she's attending a wedding or something?"
"Look how confident she is. Does she think this is her playground that she can walk into whenever she wants?"
"She clearly disregards the head of the house. She should be thrown out."
Lucy, in the company of a few ladies, watched this proud lady walk in and she felt very uneasy. The stance of this lady, the way she walked, and her confidence level... It reminded her of one person.
And then, their eyes met and she caught her lips curling up in a smirk before glancing away.
"Oh my, I can think of only one individual who'd dare to be presumptuous like this." someone said and this dragged their attention to the right track.
"Really, me too. If you look closely, you'll see that her eyes are red as well. There's only one person who has red eyes in this country."
Lucy gripped the glass in her hand while trying to maintain her facial expression.
'That bitch! She's the one. How did she get in here?'
"Oh, but I was sure only one invitation was sent to all households. Miss Lucy is here so how come she's here as well?"
More and more talks filled the hall and Lucy got mad.
She was sure Valerie didn't have the invitation since she was the one who took it so how did she get in? Then, a thought came to mind.
'Did she sneak in?' she wondered. 'If she did, I can get the guards to throw her out and add one more rumor. That's great.' she became elated.
The ladies in her company were young ladies from different families who attended this party in hopes of finding a spouse of equal standing to theirs.
All along they had been talking about the different guys that were in attendance and how they wished to talk to them.
This proved that they were no less than naive little children, though they were well over 20 years old and were flocking over Lucy simply because she was richer than all of them and very pretty and nice. So they thought.
Lucy decided to use their nativity and the fact that they had never really seen Valerie in action, against them.
"Oh gosh!" she exclaimed, getting their attention.
"What's wrong, Miss Lucy?" One asked and Lucy shook her head, looking pitiful.
"I don't know, but I think my sister sneaked in." She said, "Before I left the house, she demanded I hand her my invitation but I refused since it had originally been sent to me. Yet, here she is."
"What?"
"How could she ask you to give her your invitation?" They were very far gone into her trickery and inwardly, she called them fools.
"And so she sneaked in like a rat, huh?" A bold one asked. "I guess the rumors are true. Just look at what she's wearing. She's clearly looking for attention."
"I don't know what she was thinking when she picked out such a dress." Lucy continued her innocent and pitiful act. "Anyway, she can't stay here any longer. Who knows what sort of trouble she'll cause?"
The foolish girls who were tricked by Lucy immediately agreed and one said,
"You're right. Let's call the guards on her before she does anything crazy. She doesn't deserve to be here."
Then, the bold lady said,
"I'll go and talk to her in the meantime. If she walks out on her own, it's good for her. But if she doesn't, she has herself to blame."
"You girls are so thoughtful. Thank you. She might've bribed her way in so let's not call the guards that checked the invites." Lucy said and they agreed.
"Good idea."
With her hand over her mouth and her lips curled up in a smirk, Lucy mocked the ladies who were blindly following her words, 'Fools. I'll have you do my bidding and chase that bitch out of here.'
Meanwhile, Valerie, who had confidently strolled through the hall, ignored all the chatter around her and went straight to the wine table, got herself a glass of red wine. To her, it was of utmost priority as that would complete her look.
'Max, you really went and did it this time, didn't you?' she thought and sipped her wine. 'Well, I'm not complaining. This is the kind of attention I was looking for.'
Suddenly, a lady walked up to her and said,
"Have you no shame?" She demanded but Valerie ignored her and kept sipping her wine, glancing at the podium and thinking to herself,
'It seems the head of the house already said his words. Should I go and greet him? This might be my chance to know who he is.' She thought. 'Hm, but he might be wearing a mask though.'
"Are you really ignoring me right now? Even if you're a Ross, it doesn't give you the right to be rude." She declared but Valerie was still out of it, thinking of something else that was far more useful than listening to her bicker.
The lady got furious and snatched the glass of wine from Valerie's hand, in the process, spilling it on her dress. This earned gasps from everyone and the bold lady wondered why they were making a big deal out of it.
"It's your fault it got on your dress." She said and dropped the glass before folding her arms. Showing that she was not afraid at all. 'I'll show you all. She's just a pompous rich brat.'
Valerie looked at her dress. The wine was not very visible. In fact, it had blended well with her dress but this act could not be forgiven simply because the stain did not show.
"You shouldn't have ignored me." The lady said. "I was going to ask nicely that you leave since you're an uninvited guest but you had to go ahead and act rude."
"Rude?" Valerie asked, her voice sending shivers down the lady's spine and she looked back.
What was that? It couldn't have been just her voice that made her feel shivers, right?
"Let me remind you," Valerie said as she picked up one of the bottles and refilled her glass. "You're the one who walked up to me and spilled wine on my dress."
"Yeah, so?"
"Will you apologize?" Valerie asked but the lady decided to act haughty and retain her pride.
"Why should I apologize You're the one who ignored me. And besides," she sneered, mocking Valerie, and said, "You're the one who didn't have a firm grip on your glass. So it was your mistake."
"In that case, I hope you brought a spare dress because I'm afraid I don't have a firm grip on my own glass, as someone had pointed out." She said and before the lady could fully understand what she was saying, Valerie had raised her hand above the lady's head, and with a smirk wide on her lips, she poured the full glass of wine on the lady and said, "Oops, my hand slipped."