New World, New Love by Rosalind Laker Read Free Book Online Page A

was all so different from making pretty things for her own pleasure. She hated every day in the workshop more and more, feeling as confined as a bird in a cage, and was sure she would start screaming aloud if it went on much longer. At least when she and Louise had been hiding in Pierre’s cellar there had always been the hope that the next day they would get away, which had kept her spirits up. But at the present time she could foresee no end to her present daily grind.
    It cheered her when in celebration of her sixteenth birthday Louise bought two tickets for a play at the John Street Theatre. They wore their best gowns and Louise had obtained good seats. Delphine was consumed by excitement. She had as much pleasure from seeing the bejewelled and elegantly dressed patrons in their boxes as she did from the performance itself. Afterwards they had a little celebratory supper at home. Throughout the next few days Delphine was often lost in thought, her hands falling idle in her lap as if the magic of the evening was still with her, and she was reprimanded several times.
    It was an overcast morning in early May when Miss Sullivan looked up from her rosewood and ormolu desk to see Daniel Lombard enter her shop. Swiftly she went to meet him, anticipating another good sale.
    ‘Good day, sir. Did your sister like the hat that I shipped to her?’
    ‘The hat? Oh, yes. She was very pleased with it, but I’m not here for another one today. My reason for calling is that I should like to have Madame de Vailly’s address.’
    Miss Sullivan was taken aback and her brows arched. ‘I couldn’t do that without her permission and I think she would be unlikely to give it.’ Louise’s cool farewell to him on the hat-buying day had not escaped her notice.
    ‘Then allow me to ask her myself.’
    ‘Out of the question! I have a rule that my employees cannot interrupt their work for any social reason.’
    He roamed restlessly around the showroom. ‘Come, come, ma’am, there’s no need for anyone’s work to be interrupted. You can give me the information easily enough. Let’s have no more prevaricating.’ His glance fell on some gauzy stoles and he picked up one at random, which shone delicately with silver threads, and tossed it on to her desk, knowing that it would be expensive. ‘I’ll take this.’ Then, as he drew some golden dollars from his pocket into his gloved palm in readiness to pay, he added crisply, ‘And so where does the widow live, ma’am?’
    Previously, when Louise had displayed the hats for him, he had noticed that she wore a wedding ring. Although she had come to America on her own with her sister, he wanted confirmation that she did not have a husband in France or elsewhere in exile.
    ‘You’ve made the most irregular request, Mr Lombard.’ Miss Sullivan did not want to antagonize him now, or else he might change his mind about taking the stole. She hated to lose a customer who chose what he wanted without asking the price. She was well aware that his purchase was a sop to her protests, but she felt her dignity demanded a final show of reluctance. ‘It is against my principles.’
    She saw him pick up another gauzy stole, sparkling with gold threads this time and double the price of the first, and she caught her breath slightly.
    His sharp glance shot towards her as if she had spoken. ‘Well, ma’am?’
    ‘I’ve been thinking,’ she said without further hesitation. ‘As you are already acquainted with the young widow, it is a different matter. I’m sure Louise would have no objection.’ She hoped he realized that she had given him a bonus in letting slip the Frenchwoman’s Christian name in case he did not know it already.
    ‘Thank you, ma’am. I look forward to doing business with you again.’
    He departed with his purchases, which at his request she had packed separately, the pink-striped boxes tied with ribbons. Miss Sullivan went to the door and peered after him through the glass panel.