A Lord of Many Masks (Wycliffe Family, #2)

by Jessica Scarlett

The Ton Whispers of women Whispers of men Whispers of someone caught kissing again Tales of the rich Tales of the poor Tales of a person who’s drab and a bore Secrets to shock you Secrets to sigh Secrets on secrets to fill the whole sky Take this deception Mix it with tea And you’ll have a ton of hypocrisy

Adventure Waits Be it as a pirate who Is heading out to sea Be it as a princess fair— Adventure waits for me Be it off in foreign lands In deserts without tree Or be it here in London town— Adventure waits for me Be it staying where I am While wishing I could be Someone other than my self Adventure waits for me Be it as a girl whose light Has gone and left her eyes Because my hopes and dreams crashed down And rendered me more wise— Be it so, so simple as A love that sets me free Content I’ll be, because I’ll know Adventure waits for me

My Lady Prima What secrets can I tell of her That noble, buxom goddess? Be she a maid, or maid it were Her manners shrewd and modest With wit as quick as any fox And laughter always handy Her beauty shines as to her flocks Each gentleman and dandy Their love for her is but increased Round tables of flirtation For when she chomps the sweetest feast She shows due moderation With charity surpassing nuns— Applaud her—sound the bugle! For never does she scorn the ones Deemed trivial and frugal And never would she dream her words Could be so misconstrued For like a colony of birds Like-minds are gently wooed She changes skin and flicks her tongue As swift as an iguana What praises of her can be sung— My Lady Prima donna

“If he is lost, then I will find him. If he is confused, then I will enlighten him. And if he has no place, then I will make him one, with me.”

“My heart is not yours to give. Even if it were, the moment you tried to retrieve it, you would find it missing. I gave it to William long ago, and he has not given it back.” The tears came now, threatening to fall, though they never did. “I love you. I would do anything to please you and make you happy. But William . . . I must tell him. I must do it. I cannot accept anyone else until I fully know his feelings. Please, Mama. Please understand this.”

“Then you and I—we are like two beats of one heart.

Always beside me, and never apart Like parallel lines, two beats of one heart I charted a course with the purpose unknown But lording the seas from a galleon’d throne Then turbulent waters crashed down with a might The waves of your hair streaming black as the night The heat of your stare, the brush of your lips The tide of your beauty o’ertaking my ships ‘Cast away now!’ my heart shouted at me, ‘And sail away from this spellbinding sea! Let me not drown in this cavernous deep— Let not my heavy soul wake from its sleep!’ Oh, had I but known you were trying to save My selfish belief from its watery grave! A savior you were, an angel of grace Yet sail’d I away from your warming embrace How blinded was I by my fear of the notion Of captaining ships through your terrible ocean Ne’er knew I my verdict would lead to my doom By fleeing away, I drowned in my tomb What then became of me? Fell I to my death? Yes death, and beyond, for I live without breath I hold it in waiting for scarcely a sign That I may be rescued—that still, you are mine To know I had held the whole sea in my hands! It’s anguish of mind that no man understands Now icy your stare as I thirst for your lips It’s anguish of body no man can eclipse Now where does your charted course carry and lead? To me, or my pain, or the torment I bleed? No; never beside me. Now always apart Like contrary lines crossing out my own heart