The Best of All Possible Worlds

by Karen Lord

Her hair was a cloud of silver foam growing back from her temples in tiny soft curls, then expanding up and out in fierce glory. Few crowns of the traditional mold could encompass it, but none was necessary when diamonds of all colors, rose and white and gold, sparkled freely throughout her tresses, transforming the cloud to a starry nebula. Her eyebrows were golden and perfectly shaped, each one a gentle, delicate arc. Dark pupils stood out starkly in sea-gray irises; long, light brown eyelashes framed all with a sleepy sultriness. Her look was forgiving of the ordinariness of others and understanding of their natural desire to adore her. Slender limbs made her sprawl elegant; the very fineness of her bones drew the eye along her lines and subtle curves. Her skin defied common sense; it combined translucency with an amber tint, revealing an intricate tracery of blood vessels under the paler skin of her inner arm. She would have made an artist weep for shame that neither brush nor tint could do her justice.