The Dressmakers: Silk Is For Seduction Part 23

"Varley rescued some account books or some such from wherever you'd hidden them, as well." He gestured at the sideboard. "Everything is in hand. Pray take some breakfast."

"In hand?" she said, and he thought she staggered a bit. But that was his mind, playing tricks. Nothing staggered Noirot.

Yet she sat down hard, in the chair to his left, opposite Lucie.

"Shall I make you a plate, Mama?" Lucie said with a suspicious sweetness. "Joseph will help me." She set down her cutlery, wiped her hands carefully on her napkin, and made to climb down from her throne. The footman Joseph obediently came forward, helped her down, and followed her to the sideboard. She pointed and he dutifully filled the plate according to her directions.

"It's grand to be a duke," the blonde sister said.

"So it is," he said. "I live in a house large enough to accommodate your work without disrupting my own life. I have a good number of servants, all of whom will be happy to do something a little different, if offered. And I possess the resources to a.s.sist you, without the least discomfort to myself, in getting your business going again."

Joseph set the filled plate down before Mrs. Noirot, then returned to Lucie, who directed him regarding her aunts' breakfasts.

"Accommodate us?" Noirot said. "You can't be serious."

"I understand that time is of the essence," he said. "You don't wish to lose any more business than can absolutely be helped. I've consulted with Varley on the matter. It's his opinion that a suitable new location can be found within a few days. In the meantime, he agreed that you can do what needs to be done more quickly and easily from here."

"Here," she repeated. "You're suggesting we set up shop in Clevedon House."

"It's the simplest solution," he said.

He knew it was. He'd thought about the problem and little else for most of the night. By concentrating on her business difficulties, he'd kept the other thoughts at bay. "I'm not used to so much drama in my life. I was too excited, you see, to fall asleep. While I lay awake, my mind gnawed on your dilemma."

"It didn't occur to you that your mind might be addled by all the excitement?"

"On the contrary, I believe my mind was sharpened by the experience, in the way that metal is sharpened after being thrust into a fierce flame," he said.

Her dark gaze met his, and then he couldn't block out the memory of their hurried, furious coupling on the worktable: her choked sounds of pleasure, the mad heat and ferocious joy...

Business, he told himself. Stick to business. Order. Logic.

"Mrs. Michaels can help you organize a proper work s.p.a.ce," he said. "You and your sisters may take my vehicles and servants, and purchase what you need to fill the most pressing orders. Your seamstresses may come here, as soon as you like, to start working. If you need additional help, Mrs. Michaels will select the better needlewomen from among the maids."

Her face had gone very white, indeed. Her sisters were watching her. He couldn't tell whether they were alarmed or not. They showed as little of their feelings as she did. But they must have sensed she needed help because the blonde jumped in.

"I like it better than our plan," she said. "Marcelline was going to play cards, to win the money to buy what we needed."

Marcelline.

He was aware of his pulse racing and of the mad excitement that made it race. So ridiculous. Through shipwreck, physical intimacy, catastrophic fire, they'd maintained the polite forms of address. She'd been "Noirot" to him and he was "your grace" or "Clevedon" to her. But now he sat among family members, and they'd revealed who she was to them.

He couldn't say it aloud, but he could feel it on his tongue.

Marcelline. It was a name like a secret, a whisper in the dark.

She was all secrets and guile-and of course she would play cards to get money, he thought.

"We can send for Belcher," the redhead said. "He and your grace's solicitor-Varley, is it?-can draw up papers for a loan."

"Nonsense," Clevedon said. "Whatever your supplies cost can be only a fraction of what we give away to sundry charities every month."

Noirot's-Marcelline's-color came and went. "We're not a charity," she said. She leaned toward him, and in a low, choked voice, she added, "I owe you my daughter's life. Don't make me owe you any more."

His heart tightened into a fist, and it beat against his chest. There was a moment of pain so fierce he had to look away and catch his breath.

His gaze went to Lucie, the child he had saved.

Noirot thought it was a debt she owed him, one impossible to repay. She had no way of knowing the value of the gift he'd been given.

He couldn't save Alice. He'd been far away when the accident happened. He knew he could never bring her back. He knew that saving this child could not bring her back.

But he knew, too, that when he'd carried Lucie, alive and unhurt, out of the burning building, he'd felt not only profound relief but a joy greater than anything he could have imagined.

Lucie, with Joseph's help, was settling back upon her throne.

"It isn't the same," he said, scorning to whisper. Let the servants hear, and make what they would of it. "For once, put your pride aside and your need to dominate everybody, and do the sensible thing."

"You're the one who's not being sensible," she said. "Think of the talk."

"My sister is being sensible in that regard, certainly," the redhead said. "We can't accept gifts from you, your grace. We've lost our shop, but we can't lose our reputation."

"We can't give the t.i.ttle-tattles ammunition," the blonde said. "Our rivals-"

"We have no rivals," Noirot said, chin up, dark eyes flashing.

He bit back a smile.

"I mean, those who fancy themselves our rivals will be sure to tell lurid tales," the blonde said.

He looked at Lucie. "What do you say, Erroll?"

"May I play with the dollhouse?"

"Of course you may, sweetling."

To Noirot he said, "You three drive a hard bargain. A loan it is."

"Thank you," Noirot said. Her sisters echoed her. At her glance, they all rose. "May I leave Lucie in your servants' care, your grace?" she said. "You're all determined to spoil her, and she's not going to discourage you, and I haven't time for a battle of wills. We haven't a minute to lose. We absolutely must have Lady Clara's dress ready by seven o'clock this evening."

He stared at her. "You must be joking," he said. "Your shop burnt down. Surely your customers won't expect you to complete orders today."

"You don't understand," Marcelline said. "Lady Clara has nothing to wear to Almack's tonight. I threw out all of her clothes. She must have that dress. I promised."

Five o'clock that afternoon Clevedon House was in a state of what its owner hoped was controlled chaos.

Servants hurried to and fro, some carrying in the goods the women had shopped for in the morning-what seemed to Clevedon like bales of fabric, along with boxes containing who knew what-while others raced from one part of the house to another, carrying messages or sustenance, fetching this or that from cupboards and closets and even the attics.

A bevy of seamstresses had arrived in the late morning, gaping at their surroundings before they disappeared into the rooms on the first floor set aside for the temporary workplace.

The redhead-Miss Leonie Noirot she turned out to be-at some point a.s.sured him that all would settle by tomorrow, once everyone was properly installed and their materials in place. She thanked him more than once for his rescue of the account books and only smiled when he told her that was none of his doing; he wouldn't know a ledger from a book of sermons, never having looked into either item.

The blonde, meanwhile-she was Miss Sophia Noirot-had borrowed paper and pens and ink to write advertising for the newspapers. He'd offered his private study for her use, because Miss Leonie had told him that Sophy needed quiet in which to compose-really, it was like writing a chapter of a novel, she explained-and their work area was too busy, with people coming and going and Marcelline giving orders right and left.

Clevedon had retreated to the library. He could have fled the house altogether, but that seemed irresponsible. He'd started this; he ought to see it through. As it turned out, he was needed more than he'd supposed. Every now and again someone came by with a question only he could answer or a problem only he could solve. Usually, this was one of Noirot's sisters, for madame herself kept scrupulously away, but sometimes it was Mrs. Michaels and occasionally Halliday, regarding one issue or other that puzzled even his omniscience.

The truth was, Clevedon didn't want to flee. He found the enterprise vastly interesting. Every so often, he would stand in the library doorway to watch the hurrying to and fro. He would have liked to watch the women make Clara's dress, but Miss Sophia had tactfully warned him away: The seamstresses would never be able to concentrate with a gentleman about, she said. As it was, the big footmen in their finery threw the women into a flutter.

Clevedon still had doubts they'd be able to finish the dress in time. The materials had not arrived until early afternoon, and what hints he'd caught of the design told him the labor involved would be prodigious.

At present he was scanning a copy of a woman's magazine, La Belle a.s.semblee, that one of his aunts had left behind. Hearing approaching footsteps, he put the magazine down and pushed a heap of invitations on top of it.

The door opened and the footman Thomas announced Lord Longmore, who stormed in close on the servant's heels, black eyes blazing. "Have you taken leave of your senses?" he demanded.

Thomas quietly made himself scarce.

"Good afternoon, Longmore," Clevedon said. "I'm in excellent health, thank you. I regret to say that you seem to be in a state of delirium. I hope it isn't a contagious fever. I've a rather large company in the house at present, and I should hate for them all to come down with whatever is ailing you."

"Don't talk rubbish," Longmore said. "When I read this morning's papers, I thought it was another of their lunatic fantasies-like that nonsense about suicidal scenes with a temperamental dressmaker. And so I attempted to tell my mother, who, as you can well imagine, is in a frenzy."

That brought Clevedon back to earth with a thud.

He'd forgotten about Lady Warford. But what difference did it make? He refused to let her nerves and hysterias control his behavior. She was her husband's problem.

"I come here because nothing must do, Mother says, but I must see for myself what my friend is about," Longmore went on. "And what do I discover when I arrive? It turns out that the newspapers, not to mention my mother, have sadly understated the case. I find that my friend has settled three unwed women, not in a discreet cottage in Kensington, but in his ancestral home! And along with them another half dozen females-and the servants sweating like coal-carriers, fetching and carrying for shopkeepers! With my own eyes I saw Halliday carrying what looked to be a laundry basket. A laundry basket!"

The house steward oversaw the household. He kept his master's books and acted as his secretary. He gave orders. He did not sully his hands with fetching and carrying. If he'd carried a basket, then Halliday was doing it for his own amus.e.m.e.nt-or as an excuse to appease his curiosity about the strangers in their midst.

Longmore was still ranting. "I know you like to play with convention," he said, "but this- Plague take it, words fail me! Never mind my mother, how am I to look my sister in the eye?"

"Well, that's amusing," Clevedon said.

"Amusing?"

"Considering the women are here still only because of your sister," Clevedon said. "They engaged to make a dress for Clara for this evening, and they seem to believe that nothing-acts of G.o.d or man, plague, pestilence, flood, famine, or fire-excuses them from keeping their promise. It is very curious. They seem to view a promise to make a dress in the same uncompromising light you and I would view a debt of honor."

"The dress be d.a.m.ned," Longmore said. "Have you been eating opium? Drinking absinthe? Contracted a fever? The clap, perchance? I understand it goes to the brain. That dressmaker-"

"Which one do you mean?" Clevedon said. "There are three of them."

"Don't play with me," Longmore snapped. "By G.o.d, you're enough to try the patience of all the saints and martyrs combined. You'll drive me to call you out. I will not let you make a fool of my sister. You will not-"

He broke off because the door flew open and Miss Sophia hurried into the room. "Your grace, I wonder-"

She stopped short, apparently noticing Longmore belatedly. Or maybe she'd noticed the instant she came through the door, if not before. Clevedon suspected that both sisters were as well supplied with guile as Noirot. For all he knew, Miss Sophia had interrupted on purpose. They'd probably heard Longmore at the other end of the house.

In any case, he would have been hard for her to miss, not only because he was as tall as Clevedon but also because he was standing in her way.

But maybe she'd mistaken him for Clevedon. People did sometimes, from the back or from a distance. They were both large dark-haired men, though Longmore dressed more carelessly.

Whatever the reason, she appeared surprised and stopped short. "I do beg your pardon," she said. "How rude of me to burst in."

"Not at all," Clevedon said. "I told you not to stand on ceremony with me. We haven't time for ceremony. This is only my friend-or perhaps former friend-Lord Longmore. Longmore, though you don't deserve it, I'll allow you to meet Miss Noirot, one of our esteemed dressmakers."

Longmore, meanwhile, who'd spun around at her abrupt entrance, had not taken his eyes off her. For a moment he appeared dumbstruck. Then he bowed. "Miss Noirot."

"My lord." She curtseyed.

And, oh, it was one of those curtsies, not precisely like Noirot's, but something equally impressive in its own way.

Longmore's black eyes widened.

"What is it, then?" Clevedon said.

Sophia's blue gaze, suspiciously innocent, came back to him. "It's about the notice we're putting in the papers, your grace. I write these all the time, and you would think it'd give me no trouble at all, but I continue to struggle, in spite of having quiet."

She'd heard, Clevedon thought. She'd heard Longmore raging, and she'd stepped in. She was the one who'd written the account for the papers of the famous gown Noirot had worn. She was the one in charge of turning difficulties and scandal to the shop's advantage.

"It's the shock," Clevedon said, playing along. "You can't expect to recover overnight, especially when everything is in a turmoil."

"To be sure, I can't judge my own prose," she said. "Will you give me your opinion?" She shot a glance at Longmore. "If his lordship would pardon the intrusion."

Longmore stalked away and flung himself onto the sofa.

" 'Mrs. Noirot begs leave to inform her friends and the public in general,' " she read, " 'that she intends re-opening her showrooms very shortly, with a new and elegant a.s.sortment of millinery and dresses, in the first style of fashion, on reasonable terms-' "

"Leave out 'reasonable terms,' " Clevedon cut in. "Economies matter to the middling cla.s.ses. If you want the custom of my friends' ladies, it's better to be unreasonable. If it isn't expensive, they won't value it."

She nodded. "There, you see? Marcelline would have caught that-but I daren't interrupt her. If Lady Clara's dress isn't finished on time, my sister will be devastated."

Clevedon saw Longmore shoot the dressmaker a darkling look from under his thick black eyebrows. "If my mother lets her wear the dress," he muttered.

Blue eyes wide, Sophia turned fully toward him. "Not let her wear the dress? You can't be serious. My sister is killing herself to finish that dress."

"My dear girl-" Longmore began.

"Our shop burned down," Sophia said. "My sister's little girl-my niece-the only niece I have-nearly died in that fire. His grace saved her life-he risked his own-he ran into a burning building." Her voice was climbing. "He took us in-he's lent us money to buy supplies-we are all running ourselves ragged to fulfill our obligations to our customers-and you say-you say your mother won't let Lady Clara wear our dr-dress." Her voice shook. Tears shimmered in her blue eyes.

Longmore leapt up from the sofa. "I say," he said. "There's no need to take on."

Sophia drew herself up. "If her ladyship your mother says a word against that dress-against my sister-after what she's endured-I promise you, I shall personally, with my own bare hands, strangle her, marchioness or no."

She threw down the advertis.e.m.e.nt she'd written and stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

Longmore picked up the piece of paper, opened the door, and went after her.

Clevedon waited until their footsteps had faded. Then he clapped his hands. "Well done, Miss Noirot," he said. "Well done."

Smiling, he quietly closed the door, and returned to perusing La Belle a.s.semblee.