Chapter 82

I pulled the pearl and gold wire wreath from a clump of hair tangled on my shoulder. I felt proud of the way my hair looked. I couldn’t believe it was ruined.

“I can’t skip this ball,” Victor said. “Are you sure you can’t comb it or something?”

“No.” My lower lip quivered. “Look at me! I …I can’t be seen like this. Don’t you …you realize how buh …bad people will talk about me and laugh if they see me like this?”

I lost the fight to hold back my tears. “I’ll nuh …never live it down. Please, Victor, just take me home. You can come back by yourself.”

“Daisy, try to calm down. It’s just one ball,” Diana said.“No one has seen you.”

Victor put the Lamborghini into gear and backed out of the Phillips’ driveway. But instead of turning right to take me home, he turned left.

“Where are we going?” My voice was shrill, but I couldn’t help it. “I need to go home. If people at school heard about my hair looking like this, I wouldn’t be able to show my face again.”

Panic raced through me. How could I make him understand? When he kept driving toward the city, I reached for the door handle.

“No, Daisy, you can’t do that,” Diana said. “It’s not safe.”

Diana was right. I couldn’t jump out of the car at a stop sign, either. With my luck, somebody I knew would see me, and everybody would hear about it.

There was nowhere to hide. I felt so helpless.

But Victor took my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Calm down, Daisy. I have an idea. Trust me.”

I nodded, but there was no way he or I could make my hair look good again. Why couldn’t he understand I needed to go home?

“Wait and see what he has in mind,” Diana advised.

“Okay,” I agreed.

But my mouth dropped open, and I shook my head when Victor pulled into his parent’s driveway.

“No! No way! I don’t want your mother to see me like this. We just talked about me not embarrassing your family.”

“Don’t worry about my mother,” Victor insisted. “She’s the best person to have on your side when you’re in trouble. And I bet Mom has a maid who can fix your hair, and none of the staff here will say anything.”

“I’m still afraid to have anybody see me like this,” I insisted.

“Put your shoulder wrap over your head,” Victor suggested.

“Won’t that look strange?”

Victor’s right eyebrow rose toward his hairline. “Stranger than you look now?”

“Thanks,” I snapped and pulled the silk wrap over my head. I held it under my chin, with just my face sticking out.

Victor came around the car and opened the door for me. He took my hand and pulled me through the front door of his parent’s home.

Saunders immediately approached us.

“Mr. Klein, your parents are on their way out,” he said. “But I’m sure you’re also invited to the Phillips’ ball.”

“I need to speak to my mother before they leave. Where are they?”

“Your mother is in the drawing room, waiting for your father to come downstairs,” Saunders replied. “Please follow me, sir, and I’ll tell her you’re here.”

Lana was surprised to see us. “Victor, what are you doing here, and why does Daisy have her head covered up with a shawl?”

Victor surprised me by taking the blame. “Daisy had her hair done up in a special style for the ball, and I ruined it by not putting the top up on my car.”

“Ah, you men can be thoughtless at times,” she said, lovingly patting her son’s cheek.

She turned to me and said, “Let me see how bad the damage is to your hair.”

I lowered the shawl to my shoulders.

Lana put her hand over her mouth for a moment. I wasn’t sure if she was covering a gasp or a laugh.

“Oh, dear,” she said. “Don’t worry, Sarah can fix it. She has a gift for styling hair. I’m lucky to have her as my maid.”

Lana’s kindness made me cry again.

“There's no need for tears, dear. Everything will be just fine,” Lana said as she put an arm around my shoulders and led me up a wide double staircase to her bedroom.

“Sit at my vanity table, and I’ll call for Sara.” Lana pressed a button on the wall. “Your gown is lovely, but I thought you were going to wear your mother’s gown.”

“When I put it on, it showed a little I was comfortable with,” I explained. “I’ll wear it when I’m a little older.”

“There’s no hurry,” Lana agreed as a servant older than herself walked into the room. She explained to Sarah what happened, and the woman went straight to work.

“I’ll need something to get the tangles out,” Sarah said. “The wind can do some wicked damage to a nice hairstyle.”

She hurried into the adjoining bathroom and returned with several hair products and a wide-tooth comb.

Sarah worked a liquid through my hair that she called a detangler and then dried my hair carefully with a round brush. It was obvious the woman had lots of experience styling hair.

“What kind of an updo did you want?” Sarah asked. “You have such lovely thick hair with lots of body. I could style it many different ways.”

I wasn’t sure how to explain how Jennifer had done my hair. I was about to tell her to do her best when I remembered the photos I had sent to Amy.

I took out my phone and showed her the three photos of my hair before it was ruined.

“That style is easy to do, and it looks good on you, Miss,” Sarah said. “Don’t worry; I’ll have you ready for the ball in a few minutes.”

I handed her the pearl and gold wire wreath, and a few minutes later, my hair looked as good as it did when I left my home.

“Thank you, Sarah. Thank you so much,” I said as I smiled at my image in the vanity mirror.

“You’re very welcome.” Sarah gathered the detangler and her combs and brushes and left the room.

“And thank you too, Mrs. Klein,” I said. “I’m sorry to show up on your doorstep with another disaster.”

“It’s quite alright, Daisy,” Lana said. “And you can call me Lana instead of Mrs. Klein.”

I returned her smile. “Thank you, Lana.”

There was another knock on the door, and a handsome, middle-aged man entered the room. He had to be Victor’s father. I remembered seeing his photo on Lana’s desk.

“Are you ready to go yet?” Victor’s father asked. “We are late for the ball.”

“Of course,” Lana told her husband. “Harry, have you met Victor’s fiancé?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Well then, Harry, this is Daisy. Daisy, this is my husband, Victor Harrison Cline II, but he prefers to be called Harry.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Daisy,” Harry said.

“And you also, sir.” I couldn’t believe how much Victor resembled his father.

“You may call me Harry,” he said. “We are going to be family.”

“You look dashing, Harry,” Lana said stiffly. “Please go downstairs and tell Victor that Daisy will be ready for the ball in a few minutes.”

“Certainly,” Harry said with a nod.

After he left, Lana selected some cosmetics from her vanity table and helped me repair my makeup. I looked as good as I did when I left my home.

Then she handed me a beautiful silk scarf with pink roses on it.

“When Victor forgets to put the top up on the convertible, wrap this around your hair. It will keep it from getting ruined.”

I remember seeing movie stars wearing scarves when they traveled in convertibles in old movies. Now I understood why they wore them.

My eyes got misty again. “You’ve saved me from a lot of humiliation, Lana. I do appreciate it. You are so good to me.”

Lana wrapped her arms around me. “I’m glad I can be of help. You know, I always wanted a daughter, and now I feel like I have one.”

I returned Lana’s embrace, and then we both had to fix our eye makeup one more time before going downstairs

“There you girls are,” Harry said with an exaggerated sigh.

“I know you like to be prompt, Harry, but sometimes it’s nice to be fashionably late.”

“You look perfect again, Daisy.” Victor took my hand. “Shall we go to the ball, everyone?”