Madame watched closely as the dark-haired one folded her hands in her lap and tilted up her head to meet her steady regard squarely. She did not blush or look swiftly away as so many simpering young misses did. She took a deep breath as if contemplating how to begin. Madame Vaussard took her cue and smiled reassuringly.
“I would have a riding habit made,” the young woman said coolly, “the most fashionable and eye-catching habit you can create. I would also like you to work with a milliner of your choice to design a hat with a face-obscuring veil. In keeping with my reasons for the veil, I also request your promise of secrecy. Can you do it?”
Madame Vaussard blinked at the forthright request. “Pardon, mademoiselle, I fear you go too fast for me.” Her estimation of the young woman was rapidly rising. “You will, perhaps, forgive my confusion. You are, please?”
“I am Miss Catherine Shreveton, and this is my cousin, Miss Susannah Shreveton.”
“Ah!Bon, you are two of the nieces that the Countess of Seaverness is presenting,non? The countess does not honor me with her custom,” Madame Vaussard said carefully.
“And you wonder at our presence here,” Catherine said.
The little Frenchwoman shrugged apologetically.
“It is because our illustrious relative does not frequent your establishment that I am here.” Catherine looked carefully at the dressmaker. “May I have your promise of secrecy?”
Madame Vaussard smiled. “My child, a woman’s dressmaker is often privileged to knowledge not shared by others. I would not be successful if I could not maintain my silence.”
Catherine and Susannah exchanged glances.
Susannah nodded slightly, then turned to Madame Vaussard. “My cousin’s situation is most unusual.”
“Ah, but isn’t that what makes life interesting?”
“I am certain you have known women without money who strive to appear as if they are rich.”
“This is lamentably true, for my bills, they go unpaid, and I suffer for it,” Madame Vaussard said pointedly, pinning both young women with a considering eye.
Catherine laughed. “Do not worry, Madame, I am not of their number; rather, I represent their opposite.”
"Qu’est-ce que?”
“My aunt thinks of me as a charity case and so tells all of London. It is not so. Have you heard of Burke Horses or Sir Eugene Burke, Madame?”
“Mais, oui!”
“He is my uncle. It is not a fact I wish bruited about. I desire to appear just as my aunt perceives me. I find this business of a London Season to be tantamount to a horse fair. I have no desire to be examined for length of limb, soundness of wind, or breeding potential.” Catherine said.
“Nonetheless, I would like to ride. As you might imagine, I ride Burke horses,” she said, almost apologetically. “It is not an accomplishment of most women; therefore, if I am to be seen on a Burke animal, I must be somewhat out of the ordinary.”
“Ah,je comprends, mademoiselle. You wish to be mysterious,n’est-ce pas?”
“That’s it, precisely.”
Madame Vaussard tapped her forefinger against her chin. Then a slow mischievous smile swept over her face, lighting her blue eyes. She’d wager her business that the Marquis knew her identity and had plans for the young woman that did not include anonymity.
“Tell me,s’il vous plait, do you intend to carry this charade throughout the Season?”
Catherine nodded.
“Ah, well. . . We shall see. But come now, let us go into the back and get your measurements and discuss fabrics. Come, come,” she said, shooing them through a green-curtained doorway into the back room.
Madame Vaussard remembered the Marquis’s smile and doubted Miss Shreveton would be overlooked in society forlong. The bon ton might not understand why they were paying attention to her, but they would follow Lord Stefton’s lead. And soon Miss Shreveton would find herself out of her depth.
Madame Vaussard secretly smiled as she followed them into her fitting room, already designing the perfect ball gown for her young client. She intended to start sewing it as soon as she finished the riding habit.
CHAPTER 6
“After that delicious dinner, I’m inclined to be indolent,” Captain Richard Chilberlain said, studying the play of candlelight on his cut crystal wine goblet.
