A Passion for Potions (Petalfall #1)

68. Sixty-Eight - The Dress Maker’s Secret

Sixty-Eight - The Dress Maker’s Secret

Ana

I could have slept for two days, but there’s too much to do.

“Good morning, Misses Scoggins,” I say as the door jangles closed behind me.

“Ana!” Her smile twists into a frown. “I don’t have anything for you today. Should I?”

“I am not here to pick anything up.”

“Oh? Another order for me?” She chuckles and leans on her counter. “I’ll never tell you no. But your mother might get tetchy if you replace your whole wardrobe.”

“It’s nothing like that.” I take a deep breath and ignore the nervous flutter in my stomach. “Actually, I’m here for something special.”

“Oh?” She asks with a teasing smile and looks suggestively at my hand. Then, her eyes go wide and she stands fully upright. “Oh!”

She reaches for my hand and then snatches her own back.

She turns away and back to me and then away again, like she doesn’t know exactly where to go.

“Oh!” Shaking her hands in front of her, she does a little twirl before clapping and bouncing on her toes. “Oh! I’m so happy!”

“I am as well.” Pressing my lips together I watch her, waiting for the flutter of her understanding to calm.

My smile has started to hurt by the time she’s stilled.

“Come,” she drags me into the back and both of the girls there gasp, clutching fabric to their chest.

I can’t even look at them before she’s pulled me through to a little alcove off the rest. A dress form stands in the center, wrapped in creamy white fabric and lace.

“We can change anything you want,” she says, plucking sleeves from the table and holding them up. “I think off the shoulder would be best.”

“How long have you been working on this?”

Her smile is so wide, not a single trace of shame. “Most of the month.”

“You are incorrigible.”

“Maybe, but I was right.” She looks so pleased as she hands me a piece of lace.

It’s patterned with leaves and apricots, and it’s so delicate... “If I didn’t know better, I’d think it was magic.”

Misses Scoggins hand hovers over the fabric and she looks at me with pinched brows.

And then, she turns fully to me, hand gripping my wrist. “I trust you, Ana. And I want to tell you before he does. Do you believe me when I tell you the village is safe from me?”

I tip my head to the side, trying to figure out what she’s going to tell me before she has to.

I pitch my voice low, even though there’s no one here to hear me but her daughters. “I do, and whatever you are, you don’t have to tell me. You don’t owe me any secrets. Whatever Penny knows, that can stay between the two of you.”

She takes a deep breath and the whole room seems to breathe with her.

I turn when she glances behind me and her daughters stand there, holding the curtain open.

They’re not children like I had supposed. They might even be older than me... fae are rare in this realm, but there is no mistaking that her daughters are pixies. It’s no wonder they barely leave the shop... except in winter when they can hide beneath heavy cloaks and overly large hoods.

When I turn back, Misses Scoggins eyes are two different colors, her skin is covered in pale lines, like lightning.

I don’t know much about changelings... but I do know one that has maintained a human body for this long has to be incredibly powerful.

“Mister Scoggins isn’t actually looking for the perfect spice level, is he?”

“No,” she says.

“There is a plant that looks like a pepper that can open the door back to the fae realm,” Tealing says. “It’s rare, but if he can find it, he’ll find it somewhere around here.”

Callay nods. She never speaks.

“He wants to send you home?” I guess.

She holds my wrist tightly. “I survived by design. They’ve survived by a miracle.”

I don’t try to take her hand from my wrist, I just cover it with my own. “No one will ever find out about them, or you, because of me.”

She nods and then releases me, turning back to the dress as though she hasn’t revealed a secret that could end lives.

Her daughters go back to their work as well and when Misses Scoggins shakes out her shoulders, she looks the same as she did before.

“I know that the ceremony requires white, to symbolize starting fresh, but there’s nothing that says you can’t have a little color underneath.” She loosens the lacings and flips away one side of the bodice.

The fabric inside is green with a darker green embroidery of falling petals.

“A little reminder of where you’ve come from.” She smiles at me and pets the fabric.

“A reminder of where I’m always going to be.” I take her hand again, I am the one who squeezes this time. “None of this changes anything.”

“You’re wrong. This changes everything.” She looks at me with a sad sort of smile and then says, “Although... if the Queen tells him he has to take a different guard post, I think our Edric might just defy her for you.”

I laugh because what else could I say. “No more talk of treason, show me what else you’ve done. I know you’ve hidden more inside.”

She gives me a wicked smile and with a tug, she tears the whole skirt away.