I inspected the gold embossing on my new card.“But Mr.Edmund still has influence here?”
“Oh, yes,” Blair said cheerily, unfazed by her coworker’s glower.“Mr.de Clare lets him do occasional odd jobs for the store, like inspections and bookkeeping.”
Dinah shoved a roll of blue tissue paper into Blair’s arms.“Cut these to size,” she said.Blair pouted as she was ushered aside.
Dinah turned back to me.“Say, are you really the royal seamstress?”
I dropped the parcel of soap into my satchel, which promptly swallowed it up, barely leaving a bulge.She gaped at this display of magic.
“Only for a winter,” I said.
“Mr.Edmund must’ve considered you extremely important to give you his personal discount,” Dinah said.
Blair joined Dinah at the counter again, twirling her strawberry blonde braids around her fingers.“Or extremely pretty.He gave them to several ladies this summer, remember?He nearly set his cap at one of them even though by then he was already—”
“Propriety, Blair,” Dinah scolded.She managed a smile in my direction.“Either way, it is an honor.”
I took this in.The rich and powerful would be the rich and powerful, I supposed.It wouldn’t surprise me if Edmund de Clare wooed about every attractive young lady who wandered into his vicinity.The thought lowered him in my esteem, but the lesser part of me reveled in my distinction.
You’ve met the man for about two minutes tops, I reminded myself, but couldn’t quite tamp down my giddiness.
The moment I said goodbye to the shop girls and left the grooming department, I headed straight for the second floor where the fabrics and trims were.Mr.Edmund’s card was a temptation in my hand.I bought an entire bolt of white silk satin, flashed the card, and walked out with my arms full before I succumbed to anything else.Nearly a hundred yards of silk, all for less than one hundred silvers!
Around me, the sheer volume of customers lent a steady hum of murmurs that echoed in the cavernous atrium, most of them noblemen’s daughters and their mamas on the hunt for anything to prepare for the next Season.The magnificent glittering chandelier above the lobby threw iridescent shards of light on the seafoam green carpet.
For a moment, I let myself imagine what it would be like to run a business in this crystal palace instead of under Mrs.Lewis’s mildewy roof.More light.More foot traffic.More money to send Christabella.
A tendril of hope bloomed within me.If Mr.Edmund de Clare had any inkling of influence, perhaps he’d lend me his ear and I could get another interview.He did seem more amenable to witches than his father did.
My hope withered when I looked over to the vacant storefront emblazoned withJeraldine’s Dress Emporium.Two witch dress shops might seem redundant.I had always been a delusional optimist, but lately that part of me had worn thin.
At the end of the day, how much sway did an illegitimate son have over a department store empire that wasn’t his to inherit?
7
The front door of myshop was locked from the inside.
