You hadn't meant to wander so far.

The ballroom had become unbearable—too many perfumes mingling, too many voices layering over one another, too many calculating glances assessing your family's worth. One moment of air. That was all you had wanted.

Now the silence pressed against your ears, broken only by the soft crunch of snow beneath your boots.

He stood perhaps ten feet away, half-hidden in the shadow of a stone archway draped with ivy. Tall. Dressed entirely in black—a fitted coat with silver embroidery climbing the sleeves, high collar standing rigid against his jaw, gloves covering his hands completely. A veil of dark silk hung from his collar, obscuring the lower half of his face. Only his eyes were visible.

Crimson. Unmistakable even in the dim light.

He tilted his head slightly, studying you with an expression that might have been curiosity or might have been suspicion.