Evelina nodded. ‘Merci, merci.’
The woman reached out and crooked her finger beneath Evelina’s chin, studying her face before making a noise in her throat and dropping her hand. ‘Paris at night is not a place for a pretty girl like you, do you hear me? If a man tries to talk to you, keep walking, as quickly as you can. Don’t stop until you reach the boarding house.’
Evelina thanked her, assuring her that she understood before hurrying along, keeping her head down as she followed the directions given to her. The shadows seemed to leap at her as the sky became even darker, and she heard laughter down an alley that made her move even faster. How could a place that had been so vibrant and picturesque during the day, when she’d visited with her mother, become so terrifying? It was as if every dark corner hid a secret that she didn’t want to hear whispered.
She felt inside her pocket for her money, knowing how little it was, and how few nights of safety she would be able to pay for before it ran out. But it was all she had, and she was terrified that someone might try to steal it from her. She was going to have to find a job, and quickly, as well as somewhere safe to hide her earnings.
There was a small sign hanging from a door when she rounded the corner, and Evelina hurried up the steps, her hand raised to knock, when the door suddenly swung open. She immediately came face to face with an old woman, with deep lines creasing her face as she scowled at her.
‘Madame, my name is Evelina Lavigne and I?—’
She saw a much younger woman standing inside through the open door, her face streaked with tears, and she noticed that the old woman standing before her was holding an evening dress in her hands.
‘What do you want?’ the woman snapped.
‘I’m looking for a room,’ Evelina said, surprised by the rude response.
‘We have no rooms available.’
She went to shut the door but Evelina leaped forward, pressing herself against it. ‘But I have nowhere else to go! Please, madame, please?—’
The door was shut in her face, and Evelina stood there as darkness seemed to wrap itself around her, the realisation of what it truly meant to be on the streets and all alone settling over her. But just as she was about to turn away, her shoulders slumped in resignation, she heard raised voices from inside.
‘What do you mean, you can’t mend it? She needs to wear it within the hour!’
There were more muffled words exchanged before the door suddenly flew open again, and a young woman in what appeared to be a maid’s uniform ran past her, crying. Evelina quicklystepped forward before the door shut again, realising what was happening.
‘Madame—’ Evelina began, as her gaze fell on the dress in her arms.
‘You again! I said I have no rooms available, and unless you know a seamstress who can disguise a hole in a couture House of Chanel dress?—’
‘May I?’ Evelina asked, setting her bags down at her feet and gently coaxing the fabric from the woman’s hands before she could stop her. She turned it over and immediately found the rip in the back, which had clearly rendered it unwearable to the young woman inside.
She ran her fingers up the seam, smiling when she recognised exactly how she could fix it. It wasn’t hard, not for someone used to taking garments apart and making new clothes from them.
‘Do you have a sewing machine? I have thread in my bag and?—’
The woman in front of her planted her hands on her hips. ‘You’re telling me you can fix this?’
Evelina smiled, even though she was terribly nervous, still holding the dress. ‘I can. Most certainly I can.’
‘How much do you charge?’
‘I’ve just arrived in Paris and I need a room, madame, that’s why I’m here. If you can find a bed for me?—’
‘Come in,’ the woman said, flapping her hands for Evelina to step forward into the house, before calling out past her. ‘Raphaël, come and fetch the mademoiselle’s bags! She will be staying with us tonight.’
Evelina found herself shuffled inside, smiling at the tearful younger lady and the gentleman beside her who was patting her shoulder as if she needed constant consoling, before being bustled upstairs into a tiny attic room by the olderwoman, presumably Juliette, and pointed towards an old sewing machine. Evelina dusted it off and laid out the dress on the table beside it, carefully inspecting the garment in front of her and trying not to grin too widely as she realised that it was the very first time she’d held a House of Chanel dress in her hands.
See, Papa. Sewing has already secured my first night’s board in Paris. And she smiled to herself as her fingers skimmed the dress, a pin between her lips as she carefully folded the fabric together and set to work.
9
PARIS, 1927, TWO MONTHS LATER
Evelina had worked many hours alongside her mother over the years: at markets, bent over roses and vegetables, and helping out on the rose farm whenever she was needed, and although she’d lamented it at the time, now she was grateful. For if she hadn’t been used to such backbreaking work, she would surely have stumbled within her first week in Paris, and been running home with her tail between her legs by the end of the first month. She’d oftentimes wondered if her father would have taken her back, if he wanted to see her come begging, having failed at what she set out to do, or whether he would have closed the door on her and forbidden his wife and other daughters to open it.
After the first night, when she’d easily mended the dress and saved the evening for the other house guest, Juliette had told her that she could stay in the attic room for as long as she needed, for a rather modest sum that included breakfast and also an evening meal. It seemed that her efforts in fixing the dress that night had endeared her to Juliette, who often asked her to mend things when she returned from work each day. It wasn’t unusual for her to arrive home and find a basket of folded items waiting on her small bed, and in exchange for her generously discounted rent,she’d sit in the stuffy room with the tiny window cracked open, humming as she mended all manner of things until late into the night. But she didn’t mind—it meant she had somewhere safe to stay, and two meals a day, without having to spend what little money she had.
