The Dressmakers: Silk Is For Seduction Part 18

Noirot folded her hands and, while Clevedon and Clara watched, astonished, her eyes filled. The tears hung there, glistening, but did not fall. She said, "Dearest Mama, I know you do not wish for me to be mortified in front of all my acquaintance. And here," Noirot added in a more normal voice, "be sure to mention somebody your mother loathes. And when her ladyship says this is all nonsense, as she well might, you will tell her about the French gentleman who was mad in love with a married woman-"

"That isn't the sort of thing for Clara to-"

"Pray let her finish," Clara said. "You're the one who brought me to this aggravating person, and I've steeled myself to suffer with her in order to be beautiful."

"Your ladyship is already beautiful," Noirot said. "How many times must I repeat it? That's what's so infuriating. A perfect diamond must have the perfect setting. A masterpiece must have the perfect frame. A-"

"Yes, yes, but we know that argument won't work with Mama. What about the gentleman and the married woman?"

"His friends reasoned with him, pleaded with him-all in vain," Noirot said. "Then, one night, at an entertainment, the lady asked him to fetch her shawl. He hastened to serve her, imagining the silken softness of a cashmere shawl, the scent of the woman he loved enhancing its perfection..."

Clevedon remembered Noirot's scent, the memory reawakened only minutes ago: the scent her bonnet held. He remembered inhaling her, his face in her neck.

". . . a cashmere shawl that would put all the other ladies' cashmeres to shame. He found the garment but-quelle horreur!-not cashmere at all. Rabbit hair! Sick with disgust, he fell instantly and permanently out of love, and abandoned her."

Clara stared at her. "You're roasting me," she said.

Clevedon collected himself and said, "You'll find the anecdote in Lady Morgan's book about France. It was published some years ago, but the principle remains. I wish you'd seen my friend Aronduille's face when I asked him whether it mattered what a woman wore. I wish you could have heard him and his friends talking about it, quoting philosophers, arguing about Ingres and Balzac and Stendhal and David, art and fashion, the meaning of beauty, and so on."

Clara glanced at him, then returned to Noirot. "Well, then, I shall try it, and I shall say it is all because Clevedon is so infernally discriminating, worse even than Longmore-"

"Clara would it not be better if you-"

"But what am I to wear to Almack's tomorrow night?" Clara said. "You've rejected everything."

Almack's, he thought. Another dreary evening among the same people. He would have to pluck Clara from her hordes of admirers and dance with her. Whatever she wore, he would know Noirot had touched it.

He said, "Since no one was being murdered, and I seem to be de trop-"

"Not at all, your grace," Noirot said. "You've arrived in the nick of time. Her ladyship has been remarkably patient and open-minded, considering that I've upset her universe."

"You have, rather," Clara said.

"But here is his grace, come to take you for a drive. Fresh air, the very thing you need after this trying morning and afternoon."

"But Almack's-"

"I shall send you a dress tomorrow," Noirot said. "I or one of my sisters will personally deliver it to you, at not later than seven o'clock, at which time we shall make any final adjustments you require. The dress will be perfect."

"But my mother-"

"You will have already dealt with her, as I suggested," Noirot said.

Clara looked at Clevedon. "She is the most dictatorial creature," she said.

"His grace has been so kind as to mention this character flaw before," Noirot said with nary a glance at Clevedon. "I serve women of fashion all day long, six days a week. One must either dominate or be dominated."

Ah, there it was: the disarming frankness, leavened with a touch of humor.

Gad, she was beyond anything!

"I have had enough of being dominated for the present," Clara said. "Clevedon, pray be patient another few minutes, and I shall be glad to take the air with you. I promise to be back in a trice. Mrs. Noirot has left me a few paltry items she finds not completely abhorrent. My maid shall not have any momentous decisions to make regarding bonnets or anything else."

She started toward the door, and hesitated. Then, with the look of one who'd made up her mind, she went out.

She had exactly what she wanted, Marcelline told herself. More than she'd hoped for. She hadn't even had to wait for the betrothal. She had Lady Clara already, and a large order. Tomorrow night, the creme de la creme of Society would see Lady Clara Fairfax wearing a Noirot creation.

Maison Noirot would soon be the foremost dressmaking establishment in London.

Marcelline had accomplished everything-and more-than she'd planned when she set out for Paris, mere weeks ago.

She could not be happier.

She told herself this while she set about sorting the various rejected items of Lady Clara's wardrobe.

"Are you going to burn them?" came Clevedon's voice from the corner to which he'd withdrawn.

"Certainly not," she said.

"But they have no redeeming qualities," he said. "I should never have noticed the poor choices in color before you poisoned my mind, but even I can discern inferior cut and st.i.tchery."

"They can be taken apart and remade," Marcelline said. "I am a patroness of a charitable establishment for women. Her ladyship was so generous as to allow me to take half the discards for my girls."

"Your girls," he said. "You-you're a philanthropist?" He laughed.

She longed to throw something at him.

A chair. Herself.

But that was her shallow Noirot heart speaking. He was beautiful. Watching him move made her mouth go dry. It wasn't fair that she couldn't have him without complications. In bed-or on a carriage seat or against a wall-it wouldn't matter that he was idle and arrogant and oblivious. If only she could simply use him and discard him, the way men used and discarded women.

But she couldn't. And she'd used him already, though not in that way. She'd used him in a more important way. She'd got what she'd wanted.

A maid entered, and Marcelline spent a moment directing her. When she went out again with a heap of clothing, Marcelline did not take up the conversation where it had stopped. She did not take up the conversation at all.

She wouldn't let him disturb her in any way. She was very, very happy. She'd achieved her goals.

"Which set of unfortunate women is it?" he said. "I'll tell my secretary to make a donation. If they can make anything of those dresses, they'll have earned it."

"The Milliners' Society for the Education of Indigent Females." She could have added that she and her sisters had founded it last year. They'd learned at an early age more than they wanted to know about indigence and the difficulties of earning a living.

But her past was a secret under lock and key. "Some of our girls have gone on to become ladies' maids," she said. "The majority find places as seamstresses, for which there's always need, particularly during mourning periods." Luckily for them, the court was frequently in mourning, thanks to the British royal family's penchant for marrying their Continental cousins.

The butler entered, followed by a footman carrying a tray of refreshments to sustain his grace during the wait for her ladyship.

Marcelline was famished. She'd been waiting on Lady Clara since this morning, and had not been offered a bite to eat or anything to drink. But mere tradesmen did not merit feeding.

Oh, would the girl never be dressed? How long did it take to tie on a bonnet and throw a shawl about one's shoulders? One would think, given her anxieties about Marcelline ruining his life, Lady Clara would not leave them alone together for above half a minute.

But they were hardly alone, with servants going to and fro. Not that Lady Clara had anything to worry about, servants or no servants.

The only designs Marcelline had were upon her ladyship's statuesque person-and her father's and future husband's purses.

That was all.

She was very, very happy.

The silence stretched out, broken only by the servants' comings and goings.

Then, at last, at long last, Lady Clara reappeared.

Marcelline stopped sorting for long enough to make an adjustment to her ladyship's bonnet-it was not tilted precisely as it ought to be-and to twitch her cashmere shawl into a more enticing arrangement. Her shawls were very fine. One could not fault her there.

Having arranged Lady Clara to her satisfaction, Marcelline stepped away, made a proper curtsey, and returned to her work.

She was aware of Clevedon's big frame pa.s.sing not far from her. She was aware of the m.u.f.fled sound of his boots on the carpet. She heard the low murmur, his voice mingling with Lady Clara's, and the latter's soft laughter.

Marcelline kept busy with her work and did not watch them go.

And when they were gone, she told herself she'd done a fine job, and she'd done n.o.body any great wrong-a miracle, considering her bloodline-and she had every reason to be glad.

That evening The gown Mrs. Whitwood had returned lay on the counter. The enraged customer had come and gone while Marcelline was dancing attendance upon Lady Clara Fairfax at Warford House.

Sophy had soothed Mrs. Whitwood. Sophy could soothe Attila the Hun. The dress would be remade. The cost was mainly in labor, the smallest cost of making a dress. Still, it cost time-time that Marcelline, her sisters, and her seamstresses could be spending on other orders.

If this kept up, they'd be ruined. It wasn't simply that they couldn't afford to keep remaking dresses. They couldn't afford the damage to their reputation.

Marcelline was studying the dress, deciding what to change. "Who worked on it?" she asked Pritchett, her senior seamstress.

"Madame, if there is a fault with the workmanship it must be mine," Pritchett said. "I supervised every st.i.tch of this dress. But madame can see for herself. It is precisely as madame ordered."

"Indeed, and the details, as you know, are of my own design," Marcelline said. "It's very strange that another dress should appear, bearing these same details. The angle and width of the pleats of the bodice was my own invention. How curious that another dressmaker should have precisely the same idea, in the same style of dress."

"Most unfortunate, madame," Pritchett said. "Yet some would think it a miracle we haven't had this problem before, when you consider that we take in all sorts of girls, from the streets, practically. One doesn't wish to be uncharitable. Some of them don't know any better, I daresay. Never taught right from wrong, you know. I shall be happy to work late-as late as needed-to make the dress over, if madame wishes."

"No, I'll want you fresh tomorrow," Marcelline said. "Lady Clara Fairfax's ball dress must be ready to deliver at seven o'clock sharp in the evening. I shall want all my seamstresses well rested and alert. Better to come in early. Let us say eight o'clock in the morning." She glanced at her pendant watch. "It's nearly eight. Send them all home now, Pritchett. Tell them we want them here at precisely eight o'clock tomorrow morning, ready for a very busy day."

She rarely kept her seamstresses past nine o'clock, even when the shop was frantically busy, as it had been when Dr. Farquar's daughter had needed to be married in a hurry-or when Mrs. Whitwood, having quarreled with Dowdy, had come to Maison Noirot to have herself and her five daughters fitted out in mourning for a very rich aunt.

Marcelline's personal experience had taught her that one did better work early in the day. By nightfall, spirits flagged and eyesight failed. The workroom had a skylight, but that was no use after sunset.

"Yes, Madame, but we have not quite completed Mrs. Plumley's redingote."

"It isn't wanted until Thursday," Marcelline said. "Everybody is to go home, and prepare for a long, hard day tomorrow."

"Yes, Madame."

Marcelline watched her go out of the showroom.

The trap she and her sisters had set yesterday morning was simple enough.

Before they went home at the end of the workday, the seamstresses were required to put everything away. The workroom was to be left neat and tidy. No stray bits of thread or ribbon, b.u.t.tons or thimbles should remain on the worktable, the chairs, the floor, or anywhere else. The room had been perfectly neat early yesterday morning when Marcelline deliberately dropped a sketch of a dress for Mrs. Sharp on the floor.

The first seamstress arriving in the morning-and that was usually Pritchett-should have noticed the sketch, and turned it over to Marcelline, Sophy, or Leonie. But when Sophy went in, shortly after the girls' workday began, the sketch was gone and n.o.body said a word about it. It didn't turn up until this morning. Selina Jeffreys found it under her chair when she came to work.

Pritchett had scolded her for hurrying away at night and leaving a mess. She'd made a great fuss about the sketch-Madame's work was never to be carelessly handled.

But Marcelline, Leonie, and Sophy knew there hadn't been a mess, and that Jeffreys's place had been as clean and orderly as the others. Nothing had been lying under her chair or anyone else's.

Well, now they knew. And now they were ready.

The shop door swung open, setting the bell jangling.

She looked up from the dress, and her heart squeezed painfully.

Clevedon stood for a moment, his green gaze sweeping the shop and finally coming to rest on her. He frowned, then quickly smoothed his beautiful face and sauntered toward her. Riveted on that remarkable face, too handsome to be real, it took her a moment to notice the large box he was carrying.

"Your grace," she said, bobbing a quick curtsey.

"Mrs. Noirot," he said. He set the box on the counter.

"That cannot be Lady Clara's new dress," she said. "Sophy said her ladyship was delighted with it."

"Why the devil should I be returning Clara's purchases?" he said. "I'm not her servant. This is for Erroll."

Marcelline's heart beat harder, with rage now. She was aware of her face heating. It probably didn't show, but she didn't care whether it did or not. "Take it back," she said.

"Certainly not," he said. "I went to a good deal of trouble. I know nothing about children anymore, and you will not believe the number and variety of-"

"You may not give my daughter gifts," Marcelline said.

He took the lid off the box, and lifted from it a doll-such a doll! She had black curling hair and vivid blue gla.s.s eyes. She was dressed in silver net and lace, trimmed with pearls. "I'm not taking it back," he said. "Burn it, then."

At that moment, Lucie burst through the door from the back. She stopped short at the sight of the doll, which the beast hadn't the grace to return to its box.

She'd been watching the street from the window upstairs, no doubt, as she always did. She'd recognized his fine carriage.

She was six years old. It was too much to expect her to resist the doll. Her eyes widened. Yet she managed a creditable "Good evening, your grace," and a curtsey. All the while, her eyes never left the doll. "My, that's a fine doll," she said. "I think it's the most beautiful doll I've ever seen in all my life."

All six years of it.

"You're going to pay for this," Marcelline said under her breath. "And painfully."

"Is it, indeed?" he said to Lucie. "I'm not a good judge of these matters."

"Oh, yes." Lucie drew a step nearer. "She isn't like ordinary dolls. Her eyes are blue gla.s.s, you see. And her face is so lifelike. And her hair is so beautiful, I think it must be real hair."

"Perhaps you'd like to hold her," Clevedon said.