Storm clouds threatening the calm of the ocean, dragon scales protecting a fearless beast… What owner of an underworld gaming hellwouldn’twish to associate himself with such imagery, even if it was all in his mind?
The shopkeeper gathered the reams into his arms. “Shall I send a few yards of each directly to your tailor or would you like to commission the final garments here?”
“I’ll take the fabric with me.”
“Of course.” If the shopkeeper found this request unusual, he showed no sign. “I’ll wrap up your order immediately.”
In moments, the fabric was cut and wrapped, the transaction completed, and Max was out of the shop and back out beneath the overcast sky. He took the first hack he could find straight to his sister’s door.
“Max!” Frances’s tired eyes lit with pleasure as she welcomed him into the humble apartment Max had finally procured for her after years of bitter arguments over who should pay for what.
“Mouse!” he replied with equal pleasure, as he threw himself onto the least-comfortable of the worn furniture in order to allow his sister the better cushion.
In actuality, Frances was nobody’s mouse, but as she was already the strongest, most stubborn woman of Max’s acquaintance, it would not do at all to let on just how much sway she held over her elder brother.
He tossed his recent purchase to the threadbare rug at her feet. “I need a new waistcoat.”
“You already own six identical waistcoats,” she said without bothering to inspect the package. “I cannot possibly get to it in the next fortnight. Madame Drouart has me hemming an apparently endless trousseau for—”
“Green,” Max interrupted. “And blue.”
“Liar.” Frances shoved her seamstress-for-hire work aside and reached for the carefully wrapped package at her feet.
“I’ll pay twice as much as Madame Drouart’s trousseau.”
“The trousseau is for a Miss Rosenthal, and you won’t pay a penny more than the current rate.”
“What would Madame Drouart charge Prinney?”
“You aren’t Prinney,” Frances pointed out wryly. “Besides, I’ve no doubt hemming the Regent’s unmentionables is such a privilege, I should be expected to do so for free.”
“Then I shall pay whatever the prince’s rateshouldbe.” Max gestured toward his purchase. “Open it.”
With painstaking care so as not to damage any part of the paper, Frances unwrapped the parcel to reveal twin pools of dragon-scale-green and ocean-storm-blue within.
“Oh, Max,” she breathed, as she pressed the rich softness to her chest. “These are beautiful. You are truly going to wear colors again?”
He waved away this line of questioning before it could turn to the past. These days, he made it a point to focus on nothing but the future.
“I suppose I shall wear them a fortnight or two from now,” he said instead. “Depending on your agenda.”
“I’ll start tonight,” Frances said immediately.
“If you start a single moment ahead of schedule, you must charge me an additional premium,” Max reminded her. “If there is no time for new projects, then there is no time for new projects. I will never speak to you again if I catch you destroying your fingers or your eyesight staying up all night hunched over a single candle to sew without cease.”
He did not add the wordagain, because neither of them had forgotten her chapped, engorged fingers or the terror of having to bind her eyes for a week in the hopes of restoring her ruined vision.
That was when he had plucked her from the hellish textile dungeon where she traded her health for a worn cot and a few pennies, and installed her in the safest, most comfortable apartment he could afford.
Frances had only allowed such highhandedness because she had been both medically blindfolded and drowsy on laudanum at the time. She’d refused to accept anything that remotely smacked of charity ever since.
He supposed they were far more alike than either wished to admit.
“I will start this very night,” Frances said again, her voice firm. “Do not worry, brother dear. I have learned not to take on more than I can handle.”
Max hoped that was true. Nonetheless, he would be sure to drop in as often as possible. Seeing family was good for both of them.
“Where did you find such exquisite fabric?” his sister asked.
