A Passion for Potions (Petalfall #1)

16. Sixteen - Alterations

Sixteen - Alterations

Ana

“And what is this?” Misses Scoggins lifts the dress I’ve just placed on her counter and looks it over with a scrutiny befitting her profession. “Oh, I remember this one... back before the Miller’s boy went off to the city and never returned.”

“And aren’t we all glad of that?” I try not to remember men who tell me they love me and then disappear the very next day.

She chuckles as she walks to the other side of her shop and starts opening cupboards. “I imagine there’s a handsome green fellow who’s responsible for its resurrection.”

“Mister Scoggins should probably consider who sells him his antacids before he goes telling too many tales.”

The dressmaker snorts a little laugh and says, “He’ll only tell me and we both know I don’t plan on letting your mother hear it.”

“Then yes. I have dinner at the manor house this evening.”

She lets out a little squeal and then glances toward the back room where her girls are always hard at work.

“No one will hear about it from me.” She pretends to lock her mouth and throw away the key.

“Now! What is the goal of this dinner, do you know if you want his attentions yet? Or are we simply feeling things out?”

“Oh, I want his attentions,” I say, giving her that morsel to chew on because I know she won’t share it until she’s certain that the secret has more value shared than kept.

But she certainly doesn’t need to know that it will be dinner for three instead of merely two. Or that I chose that particular dress in case Viggo does choose to tear it off of me.

“I would like to have the bodice relaced.”

She nods, toying with the old lacings. “I have some beautiful ribbon that’s just come in, or this lovely leather cording.”

“Actually, do you still have that soft chain?”

She blinks at me for a moment before her smile widens. “Of course!”

The dress goes back onto the counter and she pulls a ladder from the corner. “No one wanted it before. I honestly thought they’d find it in the drawers when they cleaned them out after I died.”

“Nonsense.” I hold the ladder steady for her as she climbs. “Everything you procure will find its home eventually. No one has ever questioned your taste.”

“You keep telling yourself that,” she mumbles the words as she digs the chain from the high drawer and holds it down to me.

The links are delicate gold.

The metal is probably why the chain wasn’t popular. It’s expensive... and I should probably avoid that expense, knowing its future, but I don’t exactly want Misses Scoggins to know that I plan to let those delicate links break and bend.

She puts the ladder away and hands both the dress and the chain back through the curtain, briefly instructing one of her daughters.

“Your mother was in earlier,” she says when she turns back to me, glancing at the door. “She wanted to see all of my new fabrics.”

“How lovely.” I try to smile, but my jaw is so tight, I am not sure I’ve managed it.

“Don’t worry. I only have enough fabric to make one full dress of each... No matching options.” She picks up a bolt of buttery yellow fabric. “I know better.”

“Thank you.” I take a deep breath and look at the fabric. I like it, but I doubt I would like the cut and style my mother would ask for.

“If you like this one, I’ll set it aside for you. There’s only enough to make a second dress for the Croft’s new baby. They’ll only dress her in yellow anyway.”

“Of course they will.” They named her Sunny. No other name would fit a baby that was that happy.

The girl who pokes her head out from the back offers me a quick smile before handing Misses Scoggins the dress with its newly attached chain. I don’t hear what she whispers to the woman before she disappears into the back again.

They seem too young to work so much, but I started mixing potions younger than they started sewing. And I cannot believe Misses Scoggins would overwork her own children.

But the curtain stays open, just long enough, I think I see... wings.

The intricacies of some of Misses Scoggins designs are pure magic... If that’s the case, I’ll never tell.

Vampires aren’t the only creatures people fear without need.

“I’m supposed to tell you that you have to bring this back after you’ve worn it tonight. The loops aren’t going to last more than a few more times and Tealing wants to redo the seams, but she doesn’t have the time to do it if you want to wear it tonight.”

“Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind.” We’ll see if it’s worth repairing in the morning.

The chains are looped in such a way that I won’t need Mina’s help to cinch me in—thank goodness—and Tealing added little metal hoops to the fabric loops, so that the chain slides easily through.

I pay Misses Scoggins and then hand her a small paper-wrapped packet. “For Mister Scoggins. In the event I don’t open early enough for him tomorrow.”

She chuckles as she thanks me. “And I will see you when you bring that dress back to be repaired.”

“Yes, you will.”

When I step out of the dressmaker’s shop, I can see someone on my shop’s stoop, but with the fading light and from this far away, I am not sure who it is until I’ve made it halfway across the square.

Mina sees me a moment after I realize it’s her. She leaps from the stoop and rushes to me.

I don’t rush to meet her. “What are you doing?”

“I’m here to make sure you keep your promises!” she says, stepping aside so I can open the door. “And because Leaf always calls me a child when you’re not around.”

My promise to let her join Leaf, Celese , Morganna, and I for tea and gossip. I had almost forgotten.

“You are a child.”

She rolls her eyes. “I know. When you say it, it’s fine. When she says it... I don’t know. It feels mean spirited or something.”

I place my dress on the chair in the small washroom In the back of the shop and Mina immediately grabs my hand, dragging me out the front. “Come on, I don’t want to miss anymore than I already have!”

She does, at least, let me lock up before we go to the teahouse next door, where Leaf already has cups waiting for us.

The fact that she had a cup and a seat ready for Mina reminds me that Leaf is only teasing when she’s hard on my sister.

I just hope Mina understands that sooner, rather than later.