Page 18 of Duke of Moonstone
“I do.”
“For whom?”
“For my future duchess.”
Madame Leclerc smiled as though she might know the reason for his taking a duchess. “And she is not present, Your Grace?”
“She is not.”
“Her measurements?—”
“I do not have them.” He had anticipated this objection and had an answer. “She is of moderate height. Slender. Her coloring is fair, golden-brown hair.” He paused, because the next part required him to have been paying more attention than he had intended to admit to. “Blue eyes.”
Madame Leclerc’s expression shifted by a fraction. “You know the color of her eyes at least, Your Grace.”
“I am observant.”
“Mm.” She turned to her assistants and said something rapid and quiet in French that Alexander did not entirely catch though he was fairly certain the wordromantiqueappeared in it which was both inaccurate and beside the point. She turned back to him. “I will need to see her for the fitting.”
Alexander thought of Lady Montfort. If anyone was familiar with Lady Frances’ measurements, it would be her. Certainly, it would be easier to send Madame Leclerc to Lady Frances, but he was hesitant to do that, given how much she was resisting this marriage.
“I will have her measurements sent to you. The dress itself, however, I want to begin today. Ivory, I think. The finest silk you have. Whatever trimming you consider appropriate for a duchess. I trust your judgment on the details, Madame Leclerc; you know your work better than I do. But it must be ready by Thursday.”
She stared at him. “Thursday?”
“Yes.”
“Your Grace. A dress of this quality requires?—”
“Additional seamstresses,” he said. “Hire them. Whatever the cost is, it will be met. Thursday.”
Madame Leclerc looked at him for a long moment, as if deciding whether her professional pride was more offended by the timeline or appeased by the budget, then she turned to her assistants, issued a series of instructions at a pace that suggested the decision had been made, and began laying out fabric samples on the chaise.
“The ivory is an option,” she said, holding up a length of silk that caught the afternoon light with the particular quality of something very expensive. “Or there is a white with a silver thread—very fine, very delicate, appropriate for a winter duchess.” She paused. “Which does she prefer?”
Alexander looked at the fabric samples and thought about Lady Frances Pembroke sitting across from him in her sister’s drawing room, with her spine very straight and her eyes bright.
“Both,” he said. “Make dresses with both and let her choose.”
Madame Leclerc turned to look at him. Something in her expression had shifted, not warmth exactly—she did not appear to be a woman who trafficked heavily in warmth—but something that was a degree or two less brisk than it had been. “Youare providing the dress yourself,” she said. “Without consulting her.”
“She will have the final choice,” Alexander said. “I am simply ensuring that the choices are worth having.”
Madame Leclerc looked at him for another moment then she said something to her assistant in French, and this time Alexander was quite certain he caught the wordbienwhich he took as a professional endorsement and moved on.
By five o’clock, the solicitor had been, the legal papers were underway, and the letter to the Archbishop’s office had been dispatched by hand. The household had been notified. The letter to Wiltshire was on its way.
Alexander sat in his study with a glass of brandy he had not poured for pleasure and looked at the list of things that had been accomplished today and the list of things that still remained.
He was in control but felt uneasy. And that was a very unusual thing.
CHAPTER 8
“Two days?” Lavinia set down her teacup. “He has given you two days?”
“Indeed.” Frances put the letter on the table between them and looked at it as though it might say something different if she waited long enough. It did not.
Friday at eleven o’clockremained exactly where it was in exactly the handwriting she was coming to recognize. “He has arranged everything, apparently. The church, the license, and he has even sent a dress. Two dresses, actually.”
