Mom looked at me for a few secondsbefore she seemed to accept that answer."Come on then," she said. "I'll help you take off the wig."I nodded, and fol...lowed my mom back to Sarah's room. Once I had slumpedinto the chair at my vanity, my mom started pulling out the pins. I satthere with my eyes closed, letting her do the work. I hoped I could goto bed early."How are you doing, honey?" Mom revealed her ulterior motive to helpingme. I wanted to sleep, but she wanted to talk."I'm okay," I told her. This was so hard. If I looked at him, I knew I’d cave. Knew that I’d lose all sense of perspective and reason and just be reckless. But there was more than my livelihood at stake here. ‘The shop…’ I began. ‘I told you. I will pay you so you can pay someone to help Alice. She will manage without you. And you will still be able to choose the stock you buy from Maretti.’ He gave a soft chuckle. ‘Of course, you won’t need to choose, because if you decide to work for me, you’ll know that you want. They would be armed with quite hefty sticks and the unlucky losers looked likely to end up very bruised indeed. No blows to the head were permitted, but bodies were to be well and truly battered. All good clean fun!Bernice was the first to collapse. Frank had been a slim and dapper little man twenty years ago, but that was before his penchant for sweet and fatty food had added considerably to his body weight. These days he was a tubby and extremely roly poly figure! Frank was a ponderous burden. His mask was a depiction of the God of the Hunt, leaves and feathers glued in place to give him a look of the woods. In the firelight he was something to behold. Golden muscles rippled as he moved to watch her progress and his skin shimmered with what seemed to be unearthly power. Reaching his side, Princess glanced at the altar. She spotted the glasses of blessed wine, both full on the table. Her gaze cut back to her chosen partner and she stared into his dark eyes questioningly. His jaw was.