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With a measuring look, Dan moved off, headed back up the stairs. She felt Brendan step closer to her, his hand hovering an uncertain moment in her peripheral vision before it dropped to his side without touching her. "Mistress, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have - "
"No, Brendan, you weren't wrong. Turn around and let me see the brand. "
"I'm fine. " He took her cold hands in his, surprising her. "Stop worrying about me.
I'll take care of this. " He cocked a brow. "I'm a grown man, Mistress, and I let a lover go too far with me. It's up to me to deal with it. I'm more worried about you. "
"No one needs to worry about me. " Pulling away, she shouldered the bag. "Thank you for intervening on my behalf, Brendan. " She turned away from his concerned and unhappy gaze. "If you hadn't come into the room, I'd probably have gone much farther than I did. "
With that, she turned and ascended the stairs, followed closely by a watchful Ryan.
Chapter Fourteen
She'd planned Natalie Moorefield's birthday tea party down to every detail. For the first part of the week the activity helped calm her, helped her reclaim her routine as she brought all those details together. On Wednesday morning, the date of the party, she ran through the last preparations, checking the table settings, the decorations, the frosted cakes and assortment of cookies that were Natalie's favorites. She'd placed glass bowls of daisies on each table, bright and fresh, the way a little girl's life should be, full of smiles and hopes.
"It must have been quite a weekend. You've had that summer love look off and on all week. " Chloe watched her boss step back and judge if the tablecloth at station four was perfectly even on all edges.
"What's a summer love look?"
"That's somewhere between euphoria and abject misery. Panic and happiness. Like your face is about to break out from too much chocolate. You're exhausted and disheveled inside, even if everything is physically in place on the outside. Not sure if you want to laugh or cry, or shut yourself in your room all day with a bathtub and a good showerhead. Plus, you had a whisker burn along your throat. " Marguerite's hand flew to her neck and Chloe grinned. But as she saw misery take precedence in the blue-eyed gaze, she reached out, put a hand on Marguerite's arm.
"Hey, I'm sorry. I was just teasing. Was it that gorgeous tiger from last week? He seemed like a good guy - "
"He is. He's a good man. " Marguerite nodded, smoothing the tablecloth that Chloe noted had no wrinkles. "For the right woman. That's enough about that, now. Natalie's coming up the walkway. Did you put the little glass fish in the bowls?" Despite Gen's warning look, Chloe opened her mouth to pursue it further but the front screen door slammed.
"Miss M!" Natalie, looking like a seven-year-old princess in a pink dress with a lace crinoline and pink and white ribbons in her hair, did a spin for Marguerite's benefit.
"Look, Miss M! Mommy let me pierce my ears and took me to have a mani. . . manc. . .
My nails!" She thrust them out, the tiny cuticles covered with a light pink frost of polish. A set of small pink rhinestones glittered at her ears as she turned her head left and right, making the curls bounce.
To the jaded, the cynical, she would look a cliche, a gender-enforced stereotype. To Marguerite, she looked like happiness. She squatted, smoothing the fitted silk of her black cheongsam with its embroidered pattern of silver dragons beneath her hips in order to take the little face in her hands and turn it left and right. "Oh, they're so pretty.
And you're so pretty. "
"That's you. How come you don't have your ears pierced? You don't even wear jewelry. Most times. "
"I'm too much of a scaredy-cat," Marguerite confided, slanting a smile at Natalie's mother. Tina Moorefield was in a pale pink linen dress with a matching ribbon in her fall of chestnut hair. An early thirties bank executive, she looked a bit embarrassed but equally lovely, with a light tinge in her cheeks.
"Natalie said we had to match today. "
"Show her your fingers, Mommy. "
The mother smiled and dutifully extended her manicured fingers in a matching shade of pink.
"Here comes Ria, Sylvia and Mary!"
"I'm afraid she's been speaking in exclamation mode all day. " Tina laughed, watching her only child fly out the front door.
Indeed it seemed the party of eleven little girls all arrived at once, punctually on the heels of the guest of honor. There was a great deal of squealing and giggling as the children compared finery.
"This is wonderful. " Tina looked around the room, a mixture of elegance and fantasy. Sheer drapes hung in waves from the ceiling, sewn with silver stars, some of which hung free on threads to turn and throw their sparkle over the three round tables.
Each was set for five, the tablecloths strewn with rose petals and sprinkles shaped like stars. The three tea sets Marguerite had chosen to use were floral-pattern English bone china. One with deep pink roses at Natalie's table, one with bluebells and one with yellow daffodils.
"Marguerite, I never realized you would go to so much trouble. This is beyond my wildest dreams. I think I owe you more money. " Marguerite shook her head. "Natalie is compensation enough. " Tina's eyes glowed. "Isn't she something? Some days all I have to do is look at her to know my life's worth something. " There was a sudden mist in her eyes. "And to think at one time I thought it would be best if the both of us were dead. " Marguerite reached out, covered her hands with one of hers, squeezed firmly.
"None of that, now. That's past. "
