“You’ve already been in the dressing room, I can tell from the look on your faces,” Daisy said.
“Oh, Daisy! Most of my things are so … so …”
“Old-fashioned and childish,” supplied Daisy pertly. “Aye, and that’s the truth, but don’t you worry none, Mistress Velvet. Your mother’s gowns are always in the height of fashion no matter that she doesn’t go to court anymore. Since she’s away and they’re just hanging there in her wardrobe, I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t refit some of them for you.”
“A most sensible solution,” remarked Bess. “Might we see the gowns you think would suit Mistress Velvet, Daisy?”
“I’ll bring them in,” came the reply. “No one is allowed in my lady’s wardrobe but me.” She hurried from the room.
“What an old dragon,” Angel said. “I imagine she’s been with your mother forever.”
“Almost thirty years,” Velvet supplied. “She was very annoyed because Mama wouldn’t let her go along on her voyage this time, but then Daisy never really liked to travel with Mama anyway. She has an enormous family, for every time her husband, Bran Kelly, came home from the sea he used to give her another child before going off again.” Velvet giggled.
“How many children do they have?” Bess queried.
“Ten. She’s really an amazing woman, Daisy. All her babes lived, and all have grown up healthy and strong. There are seven sons and three daughters, whose names are Pansy, Marigold, and Clover.”
Before Velvet could divulge any more, however, Daisy returned to the bedchamber carrying several gowns, a young girl following behind her with more. “Pansy and I have brought you five, Mistress Velvet,” Daisy said. “These colors should suit you best. We’ll see what bolts of fabric are in the storeroom later and you may choose several to be made into additional gowns.”
The dresses drew gasps of admiration and not a touch of envy from both Bess and Angel. They were richly made, encrusted with gems, and embroidered with gold and silver threads. Three were jewel colors: sapphire blue, aquamarine, and amethyst; two were pastels: apple green and rose pink. It had not occurred to her new friends until this moment that Velvet de Marisco was a young heiress with the kind of wealth that is only fable in most cases. They had not associated her with that kind of wealth, for she was so unspoiled, innocent, and totally unpretentious.
Daisy quickly had the girl out of her riding clothes and into one of her mother’s gowns. She eyed her charge critically, walking slowly about her, nodding and muttering to herself. “Pansy!” she said sharply to her daughter. “Pansy, fetch the seamstress this minute!”
“Aye, Ma!” The girl ran off.
“I’m going to send her with you as your maid,” Daisy told Velvet. “I’ve taught her everything she knows, and she’ll do a good job for you.”
“But what of Violet?”
“Surely you wouldn’t expect a nursemaid to be a good tiring woman, Mistress Velvet? Oh, she’s been fine as long as you were here atQueen’s Malvernor in France with your grandparents, but at the Tudor court? Nay! Besides, Violet is with child and is to finally marry.”
“The assistant coachman!” Velvet exclaimed gleefully.
Bess Throckmorton and Angel Christman looked at each other and giggled. Each was thinking that country gossip was really no different from court gossip.
Daisy looked somewhat mortified. She didn’t like feeling foolish before these two fine ladies. After all, she had been at court before either of them was ever born. “There now,” she fussed at Velvet, “such things are not your concern. Your papa would have a fit if he thought you knew about them!”
Mercifully, Pansy had been quick and returned with Bonnie, the manor seamstress, who went to work at once to alter the gowns. Velvet was an inch taller than her beautiful mother, but each gown had a generous hem so that the length could be adjusted. The waist and bustline of the gowns, however, needed to be taken in as Velvet was more slender than Skye and far smaller in the bust. The seamstress marked the adjustments to be made on each gown, and then, gathering up the garments, took them away.
Daisy then dressed her charge in a silk chamber robe and led the way to the manor storeroom, where she displayed the many and exquisite fabrics kept there to the three girls.
“God’s foot!” swore Angel. “You could outfit the entire court for a year and a day with all of this.”
“Aye,” Daisy noted proudly.
It did not take Velvet long to decide, for she knew exactly what she wanted. She did not fancy heavy velvet fabric for the summer and early autumn. She chose instead a marvelous silk in topaz gold and another in sea green. For her duty gowns she chose half a dozen whites of various fabrics. Some were plain, some designed with colored and metallic threads and jewels. Then, seeing the gorgeous Angel almost salivating over a turquoise silk and Bess looking longingly at a bolt the color of red poppies, Velvet said, “Take those two also, Daisy.” She pointed at her friends’ choices. “Have Bonnie measure both Mistress Throckmorton and Mistress Christman before they leave and make them gowns to send along with mine.”
“Oh, no, Velvet!” Bess protested. “ ’Tis much, much too generous of you.”
“Don’t be silly,” Velvet replied. “There is, as Angel pointed out, enough fabric here to clothe the entire court. Please, Bess! You and Angel are the first friends I’ve made at court. I would so like to share my bounty with you.”
Quick tears sprang to Bess Throckmorton’s eyes. What a lovely child this was, she thought. She blinked the dampness away and said, “We thank you for your great kindness, Velvet de Marisco.”
“Amen!” breathed Angel somewhat irreverently, and when Bess sent her a chiding look, the blond girl answered most matter-of-factly, “Well, I thought you weren’t going to let us have them, Bess. That’s all right for you with a family to aid you, but a royal ward has precious little!”
Bess Throckmorton shook her head. “Nay, Angel. Were I a maid of wealth I should have long been married, but my brother lost my dowry in a poor investment. I am no better off than you for all my high connections.”
“Then thank God for the queen’s court, which houses and clothes, though not too generously, us poor but well-connected church mice.” Angel chuckled good-naturedly.
