The Dressmaker: A Novel by Kate Alcott

Author:Kate Alcott
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780385535625
Publisher: Doubleday
Published: 2012-02-20T23:00:00+00:00

WALDORF-ASTORIA

SUNDAY EVENING, APRIL 21

Jucile was chattering away, looking very happy as Cosmo buttoned up the back of her beautiful tea gown. “Come in, come in,” she called gaily as Tess entered the suite. “We’re going to have a lovely evening because the most wonderful thing has happened. My sister is here!”

“That’s the first time you’ve ever called me wonderful,” an amused voice called out from the other room. And then there she was, the handsome woman Tess remembered twirling a parasol on the dock in Cherbourg, stretching out her hand. “Hello, Tess,” she said with a smile. “I’m Elinor Glyn—I don’t think we managed a proper introduction before. I hear you turned out to be anything but a proper maid—thank goodness for that.”

“How did you get here so quickly?” Tess asked, surprised.

“Well, dear, my ship didn’t sink.”

She said it with such light casualness. So there was still, after all, an ordinary world where jokes could be made. Tess liked her immediately.

“Elinor says we’re eating dinner in the Palm Room tonight, no more taking meals up here, like people guilty of something,” Lucile said, pulling away from Cosmo’s hands and twirling around. “It’s the Darlings that need to keep their heads down now. Did you see the story about his shameful masquerade?” She pulled on white kid gloves and twirled in her long, slender gown of raspberry silk. “Isn’t this the loveliest dress? Maybe I will model it myself at the spring show. Wouldn’t that be different?”

“You are the best model for all your gowns, dear,” said Cosmo promptly, almost automatically. He glanced at his watch and urged his wife to hurry. Their reservation downstairs was in ten minutes.

“Tess, you must join us,” Lucile said. “I have a gown ready for you in the next room.”

It wasn’t really an invitation, of course, more like an order. But Elinor’s arrival had improved Lucile’s mood with astonishing speed. Tess caught her breath when she saw the gown hanging on a closet door. It looked amazingly similar to the one Lucile had given her before the Titanic went down. The same colors, the same cut. Had she chosen it on purpose? It slid off the hanger, floating on her fingertips, as flimsy and ethereal as passing time.

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