Chapter 2 #2
“Oh, can we go try on dresses at your grandma’s house?” Jill asked, the idea obviously coming to her unexpectedly. Rose had told the girls about what she’d done that morning earlier in the afternoon, and they’d been intrigued by all her descriptions of the long dresses and full skirts.
Julie’s face beamed. “Yes, yes, please!”
“Oh, and we can see the Pride,” Jill added, thinking of a new reason for excitement.
“The Pride!” Julie repeated.
Rose’s grandmother had the macabre habit of stuffing her Siamese cats after they died, and she had a large collection of them that she liked to display with her other treasures. Rose had told the girls about the stuffed cats several times, and they’d been fascinated.
Rose was sure her grandmother would be happy to show off the Pride, but she wasn’t sure she would allow the little girls to play with her family costumes.
Then she remembered something. “Oh, I know. My sisters and I used to play dress-up with some old dresses. I think they’re still up in the attic.
I could call my grandmama and see if we could come over for a little while this evening and play with them. ”
Both girls greeted this suggestion with loud enthusiasm that made Rose smile.
The dresses were rather threadbare and had never been as nice as the ball gowns and wedding dresses that her grandmother collected, but they were definitely old-fashioned, and there were hats and gloves to go with them.
Rose was sure the old trunk would still be there. The girls would have a grand time playing dress-up with them.
James gave them everything they could possibly want, and he made a point of always spending as much time with them as he possibly could. But Rose sometimes felt like the little girls were missing something.
They could really use a mother who would think about things they might enjoy like playing dress-up.
Rose called up her sister Kelly, who informed her that the trunk was still in the attic and it still held all the old clothes they used to play with.
Their grandmother had said it was “perfectly acceptable” for the girls to come over.
So they went out to eat hamburgers and fries, and then they’d headed downtown to visit the Beaufort home.
The girls had a wonderful time playing with the old clothes for over an hour in the parlor while Rose, Kelly, and their grandmother sat around drinking lemonade and smiling at them.
“Rosie, Rosie!” Julie exclaimed, coming over to where Rose was sitting.
The girl had on a long cotton dress with ruffles on the sleeves and skirt.
With it, she’d paired a little hat covered with flowers and a bird, a crocheted shawl, elbow-length gloves, a feather boa, and pince-nez, which kept falling off her small nose.
“Can you dress up with us too? We’re going to go to a ball! ”
“That sounds like lots of fun,” Rose said, “but I don’t think any of those clothes will fit me.”
“Do you have other big person clothes, Mrs. Beau-fort?” Julie asked, running over to where Rose’s grandmother was sitting in a rocking chair looking as stern and forbidding as ever in her black dress, tight gray bun, and frown.
The old woman looked down on the little girl without smiling. “I have many clothes for big people. What kind of clothes do you want?”
“A ball gown!”
Her grandmother shifted her eyes over to where Rose was sitting.
Rose couldn’t imagine what her grandmother was thinking.
She’d never seemed particularly fond of children, although she’d immediately stepped forward to take care of her three orphaned grandchildren when their parents died unexpectedly.
She hoped her grandmother wouldn’t be rude to sweet little Julie, although it was certainly possible.
The woman said exactly what she wanted, whenever she wanted to say it.
Before she could start to worry, her phone chirped, and she glanced down at her phone.
It was James. My dinner finished early, so I’ll come by the house.
She assumed he meant this house since she’d sent him a text to let him know the change of plans for the evening.
Her heartbeat sped up foolishly at the idea of his coming by her family’s home and meeting her sister and grandmother.
She texted, Okay, and sent him the address since he would have had no reason to know it.
“Your daddy’s done his dinner early so he’s going to come by,” she announced to the girls. “He’ll be here pretty soon, so I won’t have time to dress up.”
To her surprise, her grandmother got to her feet.
She was even shorter than Deanna, but she’d always had a dignified, intimidating presence.
“Of course you will,” she told Rose, giving her a familiar glare that meant she wouldn’t hear any arguments.
“You will dress up in a ball gown as these children want.”
“Yay! Hooray!” Jill and Julie shouted while Rose stared at her grandmother in astonishment. She had absolutely no idea why her grandmother would have decided that her playing dress-up at this particular moment was a wise course of action.
Rose glanced over to Kelly, who had been fiddling with the mechanism on one of the numerous old clocks that lined the surfaces of the parlor. Kelly had been a tomboy growing up, and she was still always trying to fix things.
Kelly had glanced up at her grandmother’s words, and now she met Rose’s eyes. She seemed to be hiding a smile, although she gave her sister a little shrug as if she too didn’t know what was going on.
Rose sighed. “Okay. If there’s a dress that will fit me, I can put it on for a few minutes, but we won’t have much time before your daddy gets here. The restaurant where he was eating isn’t very far away.”
The girls danced in glee as Rose eyed the piles of clothes she and Deanna had sorted earlier with skepticism. “I don’t think any of these will fit me. People were smaller back then.”
“What about this one?” Jill asked, picking up the ivory ball gown Rose had been working on before, the one in good condition they were going to display on a form.
“I’m afraid my waist will never fit into that dress,” Rose said with a little smile.
“I know,” her grandmother pronounced, walking over to where Jill was standing. She reached down and lifted up the lace wedding gown that had always been Rose’s favorite. “You will wear this one.”
“It’s a wedding gown. Not a ball gown.”
“It will do,” her grandmother said. “It belonged to Georgina Beaufort. She was with child on her wedding day, although that is not something that was spoken about.”
“Ooh, it’s gorgeous,” Jill said.
“Gorgeous!” Julie echoed.
“I don’t think it will fit,” Rose said. Even pregnant, Georgina Beaufort had obviously been smaller than her.
Her grandmother frowned even more sternly. “Of course it will. Put it on now.”
Rose sighed again, but went over to take the dress since it was easier just to not argue with the old woman. If the dress didn’t fit, then her point would be proved, and they would all have to accept the situation.
She took the dress into the sitting room in the back, made sure the doors were closed, and then took off her jeans and knit top. She examined the dress until she understood how it was to be fastened, and then she pulled it on over her head.
It fit a lot better than she expected, although it was quite snug in the hips and more of her breasts were forced up at the neckline than she would ever show in public.
She glanced in the mirror and was shocked by how pretty she looked. The pale lace fabric set off her fair skin and the slight auburn in her hair, and her figure looked lush and feminine.
Rather too lush. The amount of cleavage showing was incredibly inappropriate.
“Does it fit?” Julie shouted. Her mouth must be right at the doorknob if the volume was any evidence.
“Pretty much,” Rose called. “But I need some sort of shawl. Can you ask Kelly to help you find one to bring to me?”
Julie went happily to fulfill her duty and came back in less than two minutes. When Rose opened the door a crack, the girl thrust in a lace wrap that was so thin it was almost transparent.
Rose was hoping something with a little more coverage, but she wrapped the fabric to cover as much of her cleavage as possible, and then she went out to present herself.
The girls were delighted, and they all played they were getting ready to go to the ball. Kelly even volunteered to be the stagecoach driver, and she helped to set up a coach with three benches and a couple of old lanterns.
Rose was having such a good time that she forgot that James was on his way over and she should really get out of this wedding dress before he arrived.
James wasn’t having a good day.
There had been one annoyance after another at work, and then his business dinner had been a disaster when his boss said something stupid and alienated the owners of a start-up that they’d been trying to woo.
He wanted his girls and a little quiet, but they’d evidently decided to go over to Rose’s family’s house for the evening, which meant he would have to go there to find them.
He glanced down at his phone when a new text came in, thinking it might be Rose. It wasn’t. It was Genevieve sending him another selfie.
In this one she was wearing a very sexy top and grinning at him over a cocktail.
Who knew where she was this evening—out with friends as normal. He had no idea where she found the energy. He wanted his chair at home and a beer.
He must be getting old.
The selfie made him remember the conversation he’d had with Rose that morning about Jill. The girls needed to get to know Genevieve better. No time like the present to start since Genevieve clearly wasn’t doing anything important this evening.
He clicked on her number and waited for it to connect.
“Hey, baby,” she greeted him.
“Hi. How’s your day?”
“Fabulous. You should see the new shoes I bought this afternoon.”
She was always buying shoes. There was no way for him to keep up with them all. “I can’t wait. What are you doing right now?”