Sisterhood - Temptation Ch. 23

None of them spoke for several seconds. Katharina made a quick sweep of the crowd in front of the doors, picking out patches of color. She recalled Josephine's bright white dress with splashes of pastel dye. She saw nothing like it. She looked once again, dwelling a little longer on each face that was in view, then she turned to look to her side.

It seemed that both of the others were likewise staring out towards the doors, looking. Emmie was teetering on the tips of her toes, her head craned up. Katharina wondered whether Emmie knew what Josephine looked like. Ivy was a little taller than Emmie, but her neck too was outstretched and her head tilted upwards. Her eyes darted from side to side beneath a frown of concentration.

After observing Ivy's face for some seconds more, Katharina spoke to her, "So you think she might have come out already ahead of you?"

Ivy pursed her lips and her frown deepened, "I guess probably not. I think she was still dancing when I got out here. And I haven't been anywhere else."

"Right," Katharina remembered the dance, "I heard her call one more switch while I was still dancing. Maybe she just wanted to dance some more."

Emmie hopped back down off her tiptoes onto the soles of her feet, "So what does she look like, your friend?"

"Shortish, but a bit taller than you," Katharina replied, "Like Ivy's height. Brownish-red hair. Slim. White dress, very short, with patches of color on it."

When Katharina heard herself mention the color of Josephine's dress, she recalled another girl who had also been dressed in white. Then immediately her eye was drawn to a bright flash among the darker colors of the crowd. The leg of a pair of tight white pants, just like Lena's. Katharina felt her heartbeat slowly creep up to a quick, heavy thud as she contemplated the prospect of meeting Lena again now, or of Lena simply noticing her with Emmie, and inferring the nature of her earlier ploy in the dance, if she had not done so already.

But when Katharina looked up, it was another girl, a taller one, wearing a sky-blue jacket over her white t-shirt. Black hair. Katharina didn't recognize her. She breathed a slow sigh and chided herself for her nervousness. She looked over the crowd again, this time searching also for Yvonne. She had to think back for a moment before she remembered what Yvonne had most recently been wearing, the deep red dress with the glossy embroidery.

"Don't see anyone like that," Emmie murmured, squinting.

"No," Katharina shook her head. She turned to Ivy, "You don't want to go in and get her?"

"With bitch... face in there?" Ivy snorted, "No thanks."

"Bitch face?" Emmie giggled.

"The other girl you were with before," Ivy grumbled.

Katharina looked again at the doors, watched the two pillars of the stone arch, the trickle of girls filing out past each of them, "Just feels a bit like we're abandoning her to fend for herself."

"I think she'll be fine. She's pretty badass," Ivy replied, "She handled minislut harassing her, no problem."

Emmie turned to Ivy, "You have some lovely names for your friends."

"It's affectionate," Ivy shook her head, grinning, "So Katja, do you want to go in and look for her then?"

Katharina delayed replying as she searched the crowd once more. She did not like the idea of returning to the Great Hall. The airy space of the hallways was comforting, cool and relatively calm. Without thinking about it explicitly, she had already told herself that she was finally on her way to the North Wing, that there would be no more shoving and dancing, no more having to be careful what she did and said, or who she ran into. She looked intently at the edges of the doorway, focused the force of her imagination, willing Josephine to appear.

"Alright then," she replied finally. She sighed and turned to Emmie, "Emmie, wait here. I'll just fetch our friend and I'll be right back."

Emmie smiled at her, then after a moment's hesitation stood up on her tiptoes again and landed a kiss on Katharina's cheek. As her lips left Katharina's skin, Emmie spoke in cheerful imitation of a kissing sound, "Mwah. Come back safe."

Katharina put her hand at the side of Emmie's head and slipped her fingers under her thick curly hair to scratch her scalp affectionately. Then she turned and walked briskly towards the crowd in front of the main door to the hall.

As she wove through the first few huddles of girls standing around, Katharina kept up a quick step. Her head remained still, fixed on the doorway ahead, but she let her eyes dart from side to side, taking in as much as she could. She wanted to give the impression that she was determinedly heading somewhere. She did not want to have to stop to talk to any girls that she knew.

She saw a few familiar faces among those filing out of the hall as she slipped in, other novices, girls from the dorm rooms on her floor. No Josephine, nor Lena or Yvonne. Once inside and among the dense crowd she sought out the space behind one of the thick pillars along the flanks of the hall. She had not thought about where to look for Josephine. The further she strayed from the entrance, the greater the chance that Josephine would pass her by and exit ahead. Of all the places Josephine might be within the hall, the dance floor seemed the most probable. She had seemed to enjoy the dance, and would probably have no difficulty finding partners. But the bar alcove was closer, and also less crowded than the center of the hall, so Katharina headed for the first cluster of tall tables at the edge of the bar space.

Only three or four strides later, Katharina saw a shade of movement cross her field of view, very close. Another girl was walking very determinedly across her path. Katharina lurched and then flinched, but too late to avoid colliding with the girl's shoulder and the flank of her body.

"Oh, sorry!" Katharina called out as she flailed her arms.

In the force of the collision, Katharina got the impression of a sturdy figure. The girl was broad-bodied, and soft. Katharina felt the warmth of the girl's skin as her hands clutched briefly at the girl's bare shoulders, trying to steady herself. She let go quickly and stumbled aside.

The girl stood still and turned to look at her. Katharina saw a familiar eye-catching teal dress, short and buttoned at the front. Then she looked up, and recognized the girl's face too.

"Oh! My fault," Caroline laughed. She seemed unperturbed by their collision. In her high heels, she was about the same height as Katharina. But with her thick legs and broad back she looked robust. After teetering for a second, she straightened out the front of her dress and continued, "Ivy? Was it?"

"Katja," Katharina replied, "But Ivy was my friend who you also met earlier, right."

"Oh sorry," Caroline laughed again, "Katja. Of course. This place is just so busy and I've met so many people."

At the mention of their earlier encounter, Katharina recalled that Caroline had then been on her way to the North Wing in Vera's company. She looked around, then tried discreetly to gauge the direction in which Caroline had been heading, to see whether she might see Vera. She saw the irregular rank of girls waiting to be served at the counter. It was difficult at a glance to pick any out that might resemble Vera.

"Nice to see you. So you're... you were..." Katharina began, but she found her attention drawn away from Caroline's face, and she heard her own words trail off as she was distracted.

A scrap of brightness and color pulled her gaze to the far edge of the bar space, where the door to the guest bathroom had just swung open. The door fell back into place behind a girl in a bright white dress with pastel-colored patches. The girl turned, heading away towards the main doors to the hall, and her face was obscured. But it was unmistakably Josephine. Not only the dress, but also the glossy red-brown hair and the slender figure.

Katharina turned back to Caroline and saw Caroline's eyes glance about. Caroline held out her hands and looked at her searchingly, "You busy? Or shall we dance?"

"Um," Katharina hesitated. She saw Josephine already skipping away. "Oh wow that would be lovely, but I'm afraid I have to meet... a friend."

Caroline laughed. She dropped her hands to her lap and then raised one to wave, "Okay. Well, I hope I see you later. You go. I can see you're in a hurry."

"Oh. Yes, later. Would be nice," Katharina smiled, relieved, "Enjoy the dance."

Katharina turned and waved as she walked away, and saw Caroline standing watching her, looking right at her. She smiled at Caroline and then as soon as she found herself back in a thicker part of the crowd she hastened her steps.

Ahead, she could no longer see Josephine. There were too many other bodies in the way. But she felt she had a fairly good notion of the direction in which she had set off. Trying to move quickly became a frustrating experience in the chaos of the ball. With her collision with Caroline in immediate memory, Katharina divided her attention between the girls ambling all around her, occasionally crossing her path, and her more distant target, the spot just to one side of the main doors, where there would probably be a stream of girls slowly exiting, and where it had appeared that Josephine had been heading.

Then as she steered around a tight group of girls standing and conversing, Katharina saw Josephine again, sooner than she had anticipated. Katharina was herself just past the final pillar before the open surface in front of the doors. Josephine was only a few meters ahead, at the edge of the haphazard shift in the pattern of movement on the floor, where the arbitrary crisscrossing paths of the main crowd began to flow into a clear funnel of bodies passing in and out through the wide archway.

Katharina tried to hurry ahead and past the girls around her who were now moving to take their places in the slow shuffle out of the hall. But she found herself unable to close much of the distance between herself and Josephine without darting rudely in front of anyone.

"Jo," Katharina called out.

When she heard her own voice she regretted it immediately. She hated having to call out to get someone's attention. In part because in general she disliked drawing attention to herself, but also because of the risk of the embarrassment of being ignored, what she would imagine other girls would be thinking about her if she appeared to be pursuing someone and was rejected.

Just as Katharina was gathering her breath for another, louder call, Josephine turned. Josephine's tousled bob of hair fluttered about her head as she looked around, seeking the source of the call, and then her gaze fell on Katharina.

"Katja!" Josephine called back. She waved and darted back towards where Katharina was waiting.

The rush of relief that Katharina had experienced when Josephine heard her call deepened when Josephine ran straight up to her and took her arm.

"Hi. Sorry," Katharina smiled, "I guess you were on your way back out anyway."

"It's nice to see you," Josephine smiled at her excitedly.

Josephine hopped on her toes and her head darted forward to place a lingering kiss on Katharina's cheek. Then she turned her head for Katharina to kiss her likewise. As Josephine pulled away and took her hand, Katharina caught a hint of a heady scent on the skin of Josephine's face. It was faint, but very particular. At first Katharina thought it might simply be a slight sweat, but it was stronger than that. Katharina took a discreet, slow inward breath and identified the special smell of a girl's excitement.

Katharina examined Josephine's expression, while trying not to appear to be doing so or to be thinking too deeply. Josephine's cheeks were flushed pink, and her bright eyes were wide with exhilaration. She looked energized, more so than before. There was also a subtle smear of redness around her lips. Not bright enough to be lipstick, but rather the rosy redness that comes from rubbing the face, or from a prolonged bout of kissing.

"So," Katharina shook her head, aware she was staring. She held out her hand towards the door and nodded.

Josephine took Katharina's hand and they continued to file out towards the doorway. Whoever was standing behind them bumped and trod on the backs of Katharina's shoes as they moved forward, but then there seemed to come a mumbled 'sorry', so Katharina glanced back, smiling, and waved her hand. A tall girl smiled back at her apologetically.

Close among the others exiting the hall, the chatter intensified. When Josephine turned and said something, Katharina didn't hear what it was. She cocked her head and leaned closer, "Hm?"

"So were you successful?" Josephine said louder, with her lips by Katharina's ear.

Katharina laughed and nodded. She pointed ahead as they passed through the arch of the main door, "Come. Join us."

There came the short squeeze at the nexus of the doorway. Katharina hunched her shoulders in and held Josephine closer. Then they and the others around them spilled out into the tall open space of the hallway. The other girls around them spread out and found their friends and partners, or headed directly for the stairway or the gardens.

Katharina led Josephine over to the angle where the northward continuation of the hallway met the central east-west corridor. Ivy and Emmie were standing as they had been. Katharina had worried that some fresh obstacle or misfortune might have arisen in her absence and again thwarted their progress, perhaps Yvonne returning to harass them, or else Emmie deciding she wanted to go with Lena after all, or didn't want to go at all.

As Katharina approached, Emmie greeted her with a subtle smile. She saw Emmie's eyes drift to the side, to Josephine, and Katharina wondered whether the little flicker of Emmie's eyelids was intrigue, or envy, or something simpler, mere acknowledgment.

"Hi!" Josephine waved and bounded forward to put her arms around Ivy's neck and kiss her repeatedly and noisily on the mouth and cheeks.

Seeing Emmie looking at her, Katharina hurried forward to do the same. When she embraced Emmie and felt again their bodies pressed together, a shudder of warm excitement swept up through her insides. Still, she couldn't quite bring herself to do exactly as Josephine had done, or not with the same innocent enthusiasm, to wrap her arms around Emmie and kiss her without hesitation. It wasn't that she was unsure whether she desired Emmie, but rather that she had not known her for long. Seeing her again now in the presence of the other girls felt a little like meeting her for the first time, and so to cover her in kisses seemed somehow presumptuous. Katharina gave a single careful kiss, wavering about where to place it, and letting it land at the edge of Emmie's mouth, not quite on her lips. She was pleased to hear Emmie hum appreciatively and feel Emmie's arm wrapped around her waist.

Katharina turned to face the other two, "So, found her. This is our friend Josephine. And this is Emmie."

Josephine turned her face away from Ivy's to address Katharina, left her arms still draped over Ivy's shoulders, "Your date?"

Katharina hesitated. She glanced at Emmie, who replied before Katharina could speak, "Yes. I have graciously accepted to be Katja's date to this North Wing place."

"Great," Josephine turned back to Ivy, "So that's where we're going now?"

"Yes," Ivy nodded, "Right away. Come on Katja," she turned and took Josephine by the hand, and looked back at Katharina, "Let's get going, before anything else happens."

They set off, Ivy and Josephine leading the way along up the hallway and past the first few paneless arched windows that looked onto the courtyard gardens.

"Before anything else happens?" Emmie asked, "What sort of stuff happened before then?"

"Never mind," Ivy waved her hand.

Katharina followed. With Emmie's arm still about her waist and their bodies close side by side, it was a little awkward keeping a stable walking pace, and they moved slowly, but she found that she was extremely glad of the close contact with Emmie, of the apparent affirmation of Emmie's attraction to her.

"Ivy and I have been trying to get to the North Wing for a while," Katharina answered, "But we had a few setbacks."

"And you can't just go there?" said Emmie, "That wouldn't work?"

Josephine bounced around to face Katharina and Emmie, and continued walking backwards beside Ivy, "Too easy. They have to take one of us as a date or else they won't get in."

Emmie clutched Katharina's arm and leaned onto her. She nuzzled her face into Katharina's shoulder and looked up at her, smiling, "I see. So you're just using me to get into this fancy party?"

"Um, yeah," Katharina replied, "How do you feel about that?"

Emmie's smile tightened into the peculiar playful pout that Katharina had seen before, "Horribly betrayed."

Ahead, Josephine held tight to Ivy. "Scandalous," she called over her shoulder, laughing.

Ivy and Josephine were moving a little faster. Both of them had an energetic stride, and Josephine seemed particularly animated. Every few paces she hopped or sprang up on her toes, as if she were having to expend an excess of excited energy. Already when she had found Josephine in the Great Hall just before, Katharina had noticed a flush of exhilaration on Josephine's face. She was obviously an excitable girl, and had seemed that way since Katharina had first met her. But her gaiety and her enthusiasm had noticeably intensified since the last time they had been together.

Emmie was slower. Not because of any reluctance or lack of enthusiasm, as far as Katharina could tell. She simply seemed to be a person who by inclination walked at a more leisurely pace. Emmie sped up a little as Ivy and Josephine gradually drifted ahead. With Emmie still clutching close to her side, Katharina had a clear impression of how her body moved. Emmie was shorter than her, and the other two. And her figure was a lot rounder, too. Katharina tried not to look too pointedly to her side, but she could see, and also feel, the heavy lurch of Emmie's bust with the rhythm of her steps. It had not especially occurred to Katharina before how awkward it must sometimes be for big-breasted girls to move quickly.

She thought then of Emmie's discarded bra, still in Vera's chambers upstairs. She looked up in the direction of the upper floors on the opposite side of the house, tried to picture where she had left it. She thought she remembered it draped over one of Vera's armchairs. As she swept her gaze idly across the tall walls of the hallway, Katharina noted the brightness of the moonlight that was shining in through the open arches that gave onto the courtyard gardens. The moon had sunk across the sky since earlier in the evening. Katharina did not recall it having shone in so clearly back then. Now, it almost swamped the soft lighting of the hall.

"Getting a bit busier," Ivy's voice murmured from ahead, not seeming to address anybody in particular.

Katharina could hear a mixture of voices from the gardens through the paneless windows to her right, behind the cover of palm leaves and tall bushes. No single voice or word was distinguishable, but there was the unmistakable murmur of conversation, and the occasional scuffing or clacking of shoes on stone. She was not sure which garden she was looking onto. It was perhaps already Anna's, as the rightward turn of the hallway was close ahead.

It occurred to Katharina to glance behind her to see whether there were other girls also making their way northwards. She saw one couple, then another larger group, quite far off, and turned her gaze away before she could make out whether she knew any of them. Then ahead, two more rounded the corner, walking in the opposite direction. They were two other novice girls who Katharina knew by name but did not often speak to, Vanessa and Friederike.