The Dressmakers: Silk Is For Seduction Part 31

"My mama made it," Lucie said. "She makes dresses for ladies and princesses."

She put Susannah back and the nursemaid led the little girl away. The latter dragged her feet, looking back over her shoulder at Lucie's doll.

"You ought to give Lucie business cards to hand out," Clevedon said. "Have you thought of adding a line of doll dresses?"

"No."

"Think about it."

She had too much to think about as it was. "Lady Clara is coming for a fitting later today," she said. "A dress for Friday night. One of the Season's most important b.a.l.l.s, I understand."

"Friday?" He frowned, thinking. "d.a.m.n. That must be Lady Brownlow's do. I suppose I'd better attend."

"Of course you'll attend," she said. "It's one of the high points of the Season."

"That doesn't say much for the Season."

"What is the matter with you?" she said. "I know you like to dance."

"In Paris," he said. "In Vienna. In Venice."

"Do you know how many men and women would give a vital organ to be invited to that ball?" she said.

"You?" he said. "Wouldn't you like to be there, showing off one of your creations?" A smile caught at the corner of his mouth and devilment danced in his eyes. "I should like to see you get into that party, uninvited."

She wanted to scream.

"Are you not paying attention?" she said. "You need to court Lady Clara. What you don't need is the woman everybody thinks is your latest liaison calling attention to herself. And what I don't need is to alienate precisely the people I want to come into my shop. How many times must I explain this to you? How can you be so thick?"

He looked away. "I was picturing you at the ball, and it amused me. Well, I'll imagine it while I'm there. That should allay the tedium."

She could picture herself there, too-not the self she was, but the self she might have been, a gentleman's daughter. But then, if she'd been welcome to that ball, she wouldn't have Lucie. She would never have learned how to make clothes. She would never have truly found herself.

Not to mention she'd look like the rest of them.

Her life wouldn't be so hard but it wouldn't be nearly so much fun. One need only consider how bored he was, the great, spoiled numskull! Lady Brownlow had recently been elected a patroness of Almack's. She was one of Society's premier hostesses. Her parties were famous. And he acted as though he was forced to attend a lecture in calculus or one of those other horrible mathematical things.

"You will attend," she said. "And you will not arrive late. You'll make it clear that you want only to see Lady Clara, to be with Lady Clara. You'll act as though no other woman in the place exists for you. You'll act as though you haven't known her for ages, but have only now truly discovered her. It will seem as though she has suddenly appeared to you, like a vision, like Venus rising from the sea."

She wished Sophy were here to offer less cliched dramatic imagery.

"You'll sweep her off her feet," she went on. "If the weather allows, you'll lure her out onto the terrace or balcony or someplace private, and you'll make it very romantic, and you'll make it impossible for her to say anything but yes. It's a seduction, Clevedon. Do keep that in mind. This isn't your dear friend or your sister. This is a woman, a beautiful, desirable woman, and you are going to seduce her into becoming your d.u.c.h.ess."

Countess of Brownlow's ball Friday night The Duke of Clevedon resolved to do exactly as Noirot advised. He refused to let himself think about what he was doing because, he told himself, there was nothing to think about. He wanted Clara to marry him. She'd always been meant for him. He'd always loved her.

Like a sister.

He crushed the thought the instant it popped into his mind. He went to Lady Brownlow's ball. He followed Noirot's instructions to the letter. He arrived not too early, because that would be gauche, but in good time. And he hunted Clara as he would have hunted a popular demimondaine or a das.h.i.+ng matron.

He exerted himself to amuse her, whispering witty remarks into her sh.e.l.l-shaped ear whenever he could get close enough. She was looking quite handsome this evening, and the sodding idiot beaux couldn't keep away.

Noirot had dressed Clara in rose crepe, one of those robe sort of things. The front opening of this one revealed a white satin under-dress. Some ribbons crisscrossed the deep white V of the bodice, calling attention to her decolletage, while the bodice itself was shaped in diagonal folds that emphasized her voluptuous figure.

The men were almost visibly drooling and the women were almost visibly green.

He led her out to dance, aware that he was the luckiest man at the ball.

And he loved her.

Like a sister.

He strangled the thought while they danced, and it lay lifeless and forgotten in a dark, cobwebbed corner of his mind for the ensuing hours. It still lay dead in the shadows when, as instructed, he led Clara out to the terrace. Others were there, but they'd found their own relatively private corners. No one could be completely private, of course. It wasn't that sort of party. The lights from the ballroom cast a faint glow over the terrace. A sickle moon was sinking behind the trees toward the horizon, but the wispy clouds racing overhead didn't conceal the stars. It was a romantic enough evening.

He made her laugh and he made her blush, and then, when he deemed the moment exactly right, he said, "I have something very important to ask you, my dear."

She smiled up at him. "Do you, indeed?"

"All my happiness depends on it," he said. Was that an amused smile? Mocking? But no, she was probably nervous. He was, certainly.

Time to take her in his arms.

He did it. She didn't push him away.

Good. That was good.

But something was wrong.

No, everything was perfect.

He bent his head to kiss her.

She put her hand up, blocking the route to her mouth.

He lifted his head, and something skittered inside, cool, like relief...

But no, that was impossible.

She was looking up at him, still smiling, but now there was a spark in her eyes. He tried to remember when he'd seen that expression before. Then he recalled her eyes sparking in the same way when she snapped at something her mother said.

He wished Noirot were there to shout instructions-or get control of Clara-because he sensed that the situation had taken an unexpected turn, and not a good one, and he wasn't at all sure how to turn it back.

Then he realized what he should have done.

Idiot.

He should have asked first.

He drew back and said, "Forgive me. That was stupid. Presumptuous."

She raised her perfect eyebrows.

His speech, the speech he'd practiced for hours, went straight out of his head. He plunged on. "I meant to ask, first, if you would do me the very great honor of becoming my wife." He started to reach inside his coat for the ring. "I meant-I hardly knew what I meant..." Where the devil was it? "You look so beautiful-"

"Stop it," she said. "Stop it. How stupid do you think I am?"

He paused in his searching. "Stupid? Certainly not... We've always understood each other, you and I. We've shared jokes. How could I write all those letters to a stupid girl?"

"You stopped writing them," she said. "You stopped writing as soon as you met- But no, that isn't the point. Look at me."

He took his hand away from his coat. "I've been looking all night," he said. "You're the most beautiful girl here. The most beautiful girl in London."

"I'm different!" she said. "I'm completely different. But you haven't noticed. I've changed. I've learned. All the other men notice. But not you. I'm still Clara to you. I'm still your friend. I'm not really a woman to you."

"Don't be absurd. All night-"

"All night you've been acting! You practiced this, didn't you? I can tell. There's no pa.s.sion!"

Her voice was climbing and he became aware of other terrace occupiers casually drawing nearer. "Clara, maybe we-"

"I deserve pa.s.sion," she said. "I deserve to be loved-in every way. I deserve a man who'll give his whole heart, not the part he isn't using at the moment, the part he can spare for his friends."

"That isn't fair," he said. "I've loved you all my life."

"Like a sister!"

The dead thing sprang up from its corner and came running to the front of his mind. He knocked it down again. "It's more than that," he said. "You know it's more than that."

"Is it? Well, I don't care." She tossed her head. Clara actually tossed her head. "It isn't more to me. When you're about, it's the same as if I were with Harry. No, it's worse, because lately you've been a dead bore, and he, obnoxious as he is, is at least entertaining. I know you men are bound to have your outside interests- Oh, why should I bother with euphemisms? We both know we're talking about other women. Mama has drummed that into me. We're supposed to overlook it. Men are born that way and it can't be helped. I was prepared to overlook it."

"Clara, I swear to you-"

"Don't," she said. "I'm long past that. If you can't keep an engagement for dinner, if you can't be bothered to send a message-a few words only: 'Sorry, Clara. Something came up.' But you can't do that much. If this is how it's going to be-you getting all broody and distracted every time you fall in l.u.s.t with somebody-well, I haven't the stomach for it. I won't put up with it, not for a dukedom. Not for three dukedoms. I deserve better than the role of quietly accepting wife. I'm an interesting woman. I read. I have opinions. I appreciate poetry. I have a sense of humor."

"I know all that. I've always known."

"I deserve to be loved, truly loved-mind, body, soul. And in case you haven't noticed, there's a line of men ready to give me all that. Why on earth should I settle for a man who can't give me anything but friends.h.i.+p? Why should I settle for you?"

She put up her chin and stormed away.

It was then he became aware that the place had grown quiet.

He looked in the direction she was walking. As many of the guests as could fit had jammed into the open French windows. The crowd gave way as she neared, and let her pa.s.s, which she did without hesitation, head high.

From the crowd came scattered bursts of applause.

He heard, from a distance, a shriek. Lady Warford.

Then he heard the buzzing of a crowd excited by scandal. The music started up again, and people drifted back into the ballroom.

He did not.

He made his way across the terrace, past the couples returning to their shadowy corners. He walked out into the garden, through the garden gate, on through a pa.s.sage, and into the street.

Then, finally, he paused and looked about him. That was when he realized he was shaking.

He lifted his hands and stared at them, wondering.

The thing inside, the thing he'd strangled and knocked down, bounded up again, and danced happily about.

The Duke of Clevedon stood, dragging in great lungfuls of the cool night air, as though... as though...

Then he realized why he trembled.

He felt like a man who'd climbed the steps to the gallows, felt the rope dropping over his head and onto his shoulders, heard the parson pray for his soul, felt the hood pulled over his head- -and at the last minute, the very last minute, the reprieve had come.

It was near dawn before Sophy came home.

Marcelline, who'd been lying in her bed staring into the darkness, got up when she heard her come up the stairs.

Sophy had gone to the ball. Clevedon was going to propose, and the world needed to know exactly what Lady Clara was wearing, along with who had made it. Sophy hadn't gone to find out what Lady Clara was wearing, of course. They already knew every detail, not only of the dress but of the accessories as well. Sophy had gone because, in exchange for the large amount of column s.p.a.ce she wanted in tomorrow's-today's, actually-Morning Spectacle, Tom Foxe would want inside information. From an eyewitness.

It was by no means the first time Sophy had entered a great house for this purpose. Hosts often needed to hire additional staff for larger events. Reputable agencies existed to meet the need. Sophy was registered, under another name, of course, with all of the agencies. She knew how to wait on her betters. She'd been doing it since she was Lucie's age. And she knew how to blend in. She was a Noirot, after all.

"It's all right," Sophy said as she took off her cloak. "It didn't go exactly as planned, but I've taken care of it."

"Didn't go exactly as planned," Marcelline repeated.

"She refused him."

"Mon dieu." Marcelline's chest felt tight. It was hard to breathe. She was in knots. Relief. Despair.

"What?" came Leonie's voice from behind her.

Marcelline and Sophy turned that way. Leonie stood in the open doorway of her bedroom. She hadn't bothered to pull on a dressing gown, and her nightcap-a wonderful froth of ribbons and lace-hung tipsily to one side of her head. She had the owlish look of one barely awake.

At least someone had slept this night.

"Lady Clara refused him," Sophy said. "I saw it all. He wooed her so beautifully. It was as though he was seeing her for the first time and he couldn't see anybody else. It was so romantic, like something in a novel-really, because we all know that men, generally speaking, are not very romantic."

"But what happened?" Leonie said. "It sounds perfect."

"It looked perfect. I was in a prime position, by the open French windows, and the wind carried their voices beautifully. When she said no, I vow, my mouth actually fell open. I don't know where she found the strength to refuse him, but she did, in no uncertain terms. They all heard it. The music had happened to stop at that moment, and others near the terrace heard, and word spread at a stunning rate. In a moment, you could have heard the proverbial pin drop. Everyone was straining to hear-and some of them were shoving to get to the windows."

Marcelline's shoulders sagged. "Oh, no."

"No need to worry," Sophy said briskly. "I saw at once what to do, and I've done it, and everything will work out very well. Please go back to bed. There's nothing on earth to fret about. I expect to have proof in the morning, and then you can see for yourselves. But for now, my loves, I must have some sleep. I'm ready to drop."