Sharon Sobel by The Eyes of Lady Claire (v5.0) (epub) Read Free Book Online

realizing it was a very small world, indeed. Several shops exhibited finery and provisions in large windows framing open doorways, through which women and girls passed each other with cheerful greetings. Several looked curiously at Camille and her new companion and curtsied, perhaps forgetting that the object of their deference could not see them. Claire nodded on her behalf, and took her hand.
    “You sense I need assistance,” Camille said. “That is very astute. I cannot be certain of the stairs in front of Mrs. Macy’s shop, and that is one of our destinations. She is a milliner, and I am in need of fresh ribbons for my bonnets.”
    Claire gently urged Camille to a shop that seemed to be that of a hatmaker, though the proprietor was Miss Shaw.
    “No, this does not seem right,” said Camille. “Is there not another such shop, a bit further up?”
    Claire squinted into the sun, though she knew she would get wrinkles about her eyes. “Yes, I believe there is. Is there truly a need for two milliners in such a place as Middlebury?”
    “Do you think us too provincial to care about fashion and style?” Camille asked, a bit irritably. It was the first time in their brief acquaintance Claire heard her so. “We manage very well here, you realize.”
    Claire looked at Camille’s simple blue dress, of a style popular several years before. If she saw a lady wearing it in London, she would assume the lady had limited resources and might even be wearing a friend’s castoff. But Camille’s dress scarcely had signs of wear, and fit her perfectly. Perhaps it was not the lady who was dated, but the dressmaker.
    “I see you manage very well, and Middlebury is charming. But when we are off to London, as you surely desire, we will have some new gowns made, more fitting to your rank and beauty.” Claire hoped she phrased that well, without giving any additional offense.
    Camille reached up and ran the back of her hand across her brow and eyelids, silently reminding Claire of what needed no reminding. “Do you not think I would be accepted as I am?”
    Now it was Claire’s turn to defend her town, for as surely as Camille knew Middlebury to be small and modest, Claire knew London society to be censorious and unforgiving.
    “I think you will be admired everywhere you go, both for your appearance and your capabilities.”
    “Faint praise, indeed,” Camille said and laughed.
    Claire was relieved she was restored to good humor. “I am sure the gentlemen will be fawning over you,” she added quickly.
    “As they surely do over any lady with a title and a large dowry, no matter her appearance and capabilities. What if I were to tell you that I am not interested in gentlemen or their attentions?” Camille asked coyly.
    “Are you telling me that?” Claire asked, realizing her noble mission to Brookside Cottage was being deflated on every front.
    “I am,” Camille said, smiling as if she had uttered the most clever witticism. Claire was unamused. “But I have not told you the answer to the riddle of why Middlebury has two milliners. Miss Shaw and Mrs. Macy are sisters, and the Misses Shaw were amiable partners in business for many years. Then Miss Lida Shaw decided to marry Mr. Macy, the blacksmith, and Miss Rose Shaw was set against it, and warned her of the dangers.”
    “Is Mr. Macy a violent or cruel man?” Claire asked, thinking of her own marriage.
    “I do not know, and inasmuch as Mr. Macy died within a year, I did not hear much about it. But the deed was already done, and there were already two milliners in town. And so it has stayed. Perhaps Miss Lida Shaw foresaw the dangers of separating family from one another.”
    “Is that why you are not interested in gentlemen? Has Lord Wentworth asked you to remain with him throughout your life?” Claire asked, thinking she was coming to understand much that perplexed her, and desiring nothing more than having it out with Camille’s selfish brother.
    “Let us visit Mrs.