“You’ve been here less than twenty-four hours, and you’re already stirring up trouble,” she said quietly to Emery, who smiled and winked at her.
“I’ve spent far too much of my life not stirring up trouble,” she murmured back. “It is far past time that I begin.”
Turning to Leah, Emery said, “I agree that money should be spent prudently. But you are to have your debut this Season in London. And from what your brother told me yesterday, we are due to leave for the city imminently. Which means that it is prudent to begin outfitting you for the upcoming Season. You cannot expect to stand out from the crowd and find a good match if you are not wearing the latest and most fashionable designs. In fact, he really should have started ordering your wardrobe months ago! We are running out of time, which makes going to the modiste today also very prudent.”
Leah looked convinced, and when Emery glanced at Celeste, she sent her another wink. Celeste looked away, smiling.
“You know so much!” Eve said, her eyes wide. “Did you have a marvelous London Season yourself?”
“Oh no,” Emery said, shaking her head. “My parents never let me attend the Season. They said it was too expensive, and since I already had a fiancé…” There was an awkward pause as they all remembered exactly who Emery had been engaged to, but she pushed past it. “However, I was always obsessed with the idea of it. I would read all the gossip columns, all the ladies’ journals with tips for how to stand out or make it the best Season, study all the fashion plates, and make my best friend tell me everything she’d learned. So, you’re in luck, Leah. In fact, you’re all in luck. Because when it comes to the London Season, I am an expert.”
She grinned at Leah, who smiled back at her tentatively.
“I supposed it would be nice to have a new ball gown,” Leah said, biting her lip. “I haven’t had anything exciting to wear in years…”
“It isn’t just nice, it is imperative,” Emery declared.
“What about me?” Eve asked at once. “Can I have a new ball gown, too?”
Emery laughed. “Well, considering you are not yet out, I do think a ball gown would be a bit of an extravagance. But what if we got you a new pair of gloves and a nice pelisse?”
“Oooh, yes please!” Eve gushed. “Lucien always says that I can make do with what I have.”
“And I’m sure he meant well by that,” Emery forced herself to say, “but he is not a woman, and he does not understand what is needed to stay in the height of women’s fashion. Which is something that will be expected of all of you, as the sisters of a Duke. The worst thing you can imagine would be to show up in London looking as if your brother didn’t spend a fortune on your wardrobe. It would be said he was penniless, or else that he didn’t care about your future and finding you a good husband. Believe me, I’ve seen it before.” She shuddered as she remembered the way the gossip columns had skewered the Duke of Rhinebeck for his failure to outfit his daughter properly three years ago.
“Then I think wemustgo to the modiste,” Celeste said, a coy smile on her lips. “To avoid scandal, of course.”
Emery winked again as Leah smiled and Eve clapped her hands together in glee. “Oh, we must.”
Emery had never had so much fun shopping her whole life. Every time she’d gone before, it had been with her mother, who, like Lucien with his sisters, would only let her buy the most practical, unadorned, simple dresses possible.
Lady Hillsborough was a spendthrift, and while Emery understood the importance of not wasting money, she wished that her mother had, at least once, indulged her. She was a young woman, after all, trying to discover her beauty and style, and her mother had never understood that.
“Why do you need beauty and style when you already have a husband lined up for you? A good, handsome, rich husband?” her mother had scolded her when she’d cried after visiting the modiste when she was eighteen. Lady Hillsborough had just told her she wouldn’t be attending the Season with Georgina, and her heart had been broken.
She was thinking about this when Leah emerged from the fitting room at the modiste wearing the most beautiful gown of rose-colored pink taffeta, her cheeks and eyes glowing with joy.
“Oh my goodness, Leah!” Emery gushed, the moment she saw her sister-in-law. “You look absolutely stunning!”
“Everyone will want to marry you!” Eve added, running over to her and taking her hands in hers. “You look so beautiful!”
“Do I really?” Leah asked, laughing and blushing as she swished her skirts. “I do feel rather pretty…” she said this as if it were something she was afraid to admit, and Emery beamed at her.
“You are very pretty,” she said, and Leah laughed again.
“Absolutely lovely,” Celeste said, standing from where she had been sitting and reading in the corner, soft affection shinning in her eyes for her sister.
“Oh, can I get a dress too?” Eve asked, turning to Emery with big, hopeful eyes. “Pleeeease? I want to look as beautiful as Leah!”
Emery laughed and put her arms around Eve. “Alright,” she said, hugging her close. “Why not? Every young lady should have at least one dress that makes her feel beautiful.”
She glanced at Celeste, who was watching all this cautiously. “Would you like one too, Celeste?”
Shyly, Celeste nodded. “If it really isn’t too much of an expense.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Emery said, although she did feel a slight tug of worry. She hadn’t expressly asked Lucien how much she could spend on dresses, and she didn’t want to spend too much.
However, he had told her that he wanted her to accompany his sisters to the modiste and he hadn’t told her there were any restrictions on price. And these girls deserved to be taken to an expensive modiste and find beautiful things. Not only that, but it filled Emery with a feeling of freedom and joy to see them all so happy.
