Ruby moved behind the screen at the end of the costume room and discarded her day dress for the lilac gown. Bessie helped tie the laces in the back, and she was transformed. There was a lavender sash around the waist, and the bodice was edged in tulle, which only served to make the dress seem all the more feminine.
“Oh, Ruby.”
“What?” She turned to her friend. “What’s wrong?”
“You’re lovely. We’ll put your hair up and borrow some rhinestone hair clips from the costume department, and you’ll be the belle of the ball.”
6
Ruby lay on her back on her bed staring up at the ceiling. She had already bathed, and soon Bessie would come to dress her hair as promised, and Vern would pick her up to take her to the dinner party.
She was nervous. Besides Vernon, Zeta, and Lou, she would know no one at the party, and she felt out of her element. At home in Mississippi, when her mother threw a party or her family attended one, she knew everyone and had known them all her entire life.
She was Earl’s daughter, Lucille’s girl, Pernetta’s baby sister, and everyone smiled at her. She was in her element in the South, surrounded by her own people. But New York with its fast ways was foreign to her, and she worried about setting a wrong foot forward and appearing awkward and country backward.
She wanted to be liked, and she wanted to succeed. There was no alternative. Her mother and sister didn’t want her back home, and there was nowhere else to go. She would play the part of the ingenue, as Vernon had called her, and one day she would actually be the ingenue and play it no more. She must watch and wait for the right moment when she could step onstage and hear the roar of applause that would be entirely for her.
Vern picked her up promptly in a hired Electrobat taxicab. Ruby’s father had owned an automobile back home, so she had been inside one, but she was still amazed at their speed and uniqueness. Vernon had a different opinion.
“These things,” he pointed to the car, “a passing fancy, I tell you. They go too fast and aren’t safe,” he complained. “I’m surprised we aren’t all run over on the streets!”
“Then why did you hire it?” Ruby said, trying to hide her smile.
“Because we must arrive in style. Appearances are everything. And may I say you look absolutely charming.” His eyes took in her lilac gown.
“Thank you. You didn’t tell me much about this party. Who is giving it?”
Vernon winked at her. “Ah, my dear! Just wait! You are about to meet one of the wealthiest men in New York. His name is William Parker.”
“King Parker?” Ruby asked, remembering Bessie’s words.
“Just so, Ruby. Just so. He’s quite influential. I met him at a poker game. We got to talking, and he seemed interested in our little theater group. He wanted to meet our newest rising star.” He smiled.
“Star? Hardly that. I’m a card girl, Vern. Nothing more.”
“For now. But let’s wait and see what fate has in store for both of us,” he said mysteriously.
The taxicab pulled up to their destination, and after Vernon paid the driver, they stepped out in front of a brick and limestone mansion on Fifth Avenue.
“My goodness!” Ruby breathed out as she looked up at the façade.
“I suspect goodness had very little to do with it,” Vernon murmured under his breath.
A stately butler greeted them, and once their names were given, they were admitted inside. The mansion was filled with dark wood paneling, marble floors, and footmen moving through the crowd of people carrying silver trays filled with champagne glasses.
The ladies were dressed brightly with jewels dripping from their throats, hands, and ears while the men looked strangely similar in black-and-white evening clothes. Vernon procured two glasses of champagne and handed one to Ruby.
“Don’t worry about names and faces. Just smile when you meet King, and for God’s sake whatever you do, don’t get on the dragon’s bad side if you meet her.”
“Dragon?”
“His mother. His wife is ill, so his mother often acts as hostess for these events. She’s very protective of her son.”
“Of course she would be.”
Ruby sipped the champagne but didn’t care for it. It was sickly sweet, so she just held on to the glass as she looked at the people about her. Across the room was a woman who wore a dark blue dress that contrasted prettily with her darker skin tone.
“Who is that woman, Vern?” she asked quietly. “She’s lovely.”