A small secret sadness curled deep inside her chest. Laura shook her head and focused on the positive. If her dream of being a bride was lost, Laura would be the designer who made the dreams of other brides come true.
II
Painted Silk
Chapter Seven
“That’s a terrible idea,”Nicole gasped when Laura finished explaining.
They were in the sunny conservatory in Du Montfort Hall. Millie had made introductions then gone upstairs to visit her future father-in-law. The idea was that Laura would meet him soon because he wanted to know everything about his son’s wedding. For now, Laura and Nicole were left alone.
The wedding planner was exactly as Millie had described her. Smooth, well-dressed in a black and cream Jackie O suit, and colour-coordinated to within an inch of her life.
She was also very strong-willed. Her eyes had gleamed when Millie first introduced them and mentioned Laura would be making her wedding gown. But as soon as she found out Laura was not a famous designer, a look of disappointment had replaced the smiles.
“The thing is, this is a society wedding. It’ll be in the press. Your clients back home might feel insulted that you left them for better things. They might …”
“No need to worry.” Laura laughed trying to warm up the conversation. “I don’t have any clients at the moment. I just left my last job and even sold my flat, so I have nothing waiting for me in Brighton.”
“The thing is…Reporters will want to know who designed the dress, and you are…” Nicole pursed her lips again. She was going to get bad wrinkles if she kept this up. “Unknown.”
Laura resisted the temptation to stand up and walk out. Rivalry and bitchiness were very common in the fashion industry. Besides she’d been raised by her grandmother. It would take more than a sniffy over-dressed wedding planner to frighten her.
“Everyone starts out as unknown. But I have talent and will make something beautiful. Please don’t worry.”
“And you’re going to make this dress…” Nicole looked down at the page Laura had given her. It had an outline of the process, what was called in the industry ‘a critical path,’ the tasks and deadlines for a garment. “You say here you’re ordering fabric?”
“Yes.”
Hope flared in Nicole’s eyes. “From a famous house? Dior? I can contact any—”
“Not necessarily.” Laura hastened to explain before Nicole started reeling off names of design houses. “I’m looking for a specific look to match Millie’s personality. Sometimes, small fabric merchants can have just what we want.”
The hope turned to horror.
“You can’t be serious. This is a society wedding. There’ll be press here, a lot of attention. Everyone will want to know about the dress. We’re not talking about some …village nuptials.” The delicate pause seemed to imply something distasteful, and the fact Nicole had looked Laura up and down while saying the last two words suggested she held her responsible for lowering the tone.
“Well, I’m sure all opinions are valid here, but I take my instructions from the bride herself.”
Nicole didn’t even pause to think. “Millie is a wonderful young lady, but she’s too nice…to everybody.”
Clearly Laura was one of the cheap “everybody.”
“And she’s easily pleased. Sometimes too easily. It’s my job to keep some quality control here. I’ll speak to Millie. She might be a…a…” The words ‘country bumpkin’ hovered in the air unspoken while she pursed her lips, swallowed, then said in a cold voice, “An ordinary woman, but she’s marrying an aristocrat. There are standards to be maintained.”
Again, the slow glance up and down Laura’s body. It made her painfully aware of her shapeless jeans, baggy jumper and functional boots. Clothes not meant to impress or seduce, quite the opposite, in fact.
But that was no reason to let people speak to her like a lower order of insect. She sat up straighter. “Are you suggesting I’m –”
“On no, no, no,” Nicole interrupted, smooth as a polyester scarf. “Please don’t take this the wrong way.”
In Laura’s experience, when people asked you not to take something the wrong way, it meant they were about to insult you. She braced herself.
“She only met you two days ago, and I’m sure you’re a lovely person, but for her to offer you the job? I mean, I know you’re currently unemployed and homeless but…Well. This is what I mean, Millie’s very charitable and likes to be nice to everybody.”
The cow! The complete cow!
Well, the woman had clearly decided to show her true colours. If Laura was going to change, to become the lion everyone told her she could be, then here was a good place to start.
