The True Love Wedding Dress by Catherine Anderson Read Free Book Online

winter and I need the funds for that? I know, we can tell Mr. Roundtree at the inn to cancel our order for champagne. I cannot imagine what Mr. Wellforde’s friends and relatives will think, our serving home-brewed ale as a toast to the happy couple, but if you must have that new gown instead of this one, which is free of cost except for taking in a seam or such and means so much to your own mother . . .”
    Susannah put on the gown. And started crying.
    “There, I told you the dress was wrong for me! I never did look good in any kind of white, you know that. My coloring is too pale. This ugly thing makes me look like I am waiting for burial, not my bride-groom,” she wailed.
    Katie pinched her daughter’s cheeks to bring color to them, but Susannah was right. The gown was wrong. When Katie held it up to her own face, her cheeks took on a rosy glow, her green eyes sparkled, and her fair hair gleamed with golden highlights. When Susannah put it on, her complexion turned pasty, her blue eyes faded to gray, and her soft blond curls looked dirty and dingy. Oh, dear.
    Then Mrs. Cole had a brilliant idea, better than butchering Blossom. “I know the perfect solution, darling! We can dye it! We can make it a pale blue to match your eyes, just what you wished. Remember how we dyed two of our old gowns when Lord Martindale passed on?”
    “They looked rusty and drab.”
    “That was because they were black and the fabrics were already old. Besides, I had never done it before. The gown will be stunning in blue, and Cook can help to make sure we get it right. It won’t be the velvet you wanted, but you will look beautiful. Don’t you feel it?”
    Susannah felt itchy. She snatched the dress off as soon as she could unfasten the buttons, without waiting for Katie to check the fit or the hem. “If you insist,” she said with a martyr’s sniff.
    “I must, darling. Now hurry, do, for we have much to accomplish before tonight’s dinner, especially if we need time to work on the gown. I can purchase the dye this morning when I take Cook’s shopping list into the village, if you look after the chickens and then set the table.”
    “For how many?”
    How many indeed?
    Katie had decided that his lordship could wait for his private conversation—until doomsday. Once the banns were called, she believed, not even an interfering, arrogant snob like Viscount Forde would try to stop the wedding. She had, therefore, already sent a note around to the inn saying she would be regrettably too busy for his call today, with music lessons and the ladies’ guild. Susannah was promised to her friends in the morning, and fittings on her trousseau in the afternoon, so she was not available either, also regrettably. But they would be delighted—the pen left an ink blot at all the lies—to have him join them for dinner. Too bad she could not put him off for another day or two, when his nephew might have returned. The viscount should see how devoted Gerald and Susannah were to each other before he condemned the match out of hand.
    Meantime, she meant him to see what a well-brought-up miss her daughter was, and how suited to polite company.
    She invited Squire Doddsworth and his eldest son, Roland, to join the dinner party, and the Reverend Mr. Carlson and his family. Miss Louisa Carlson was Susannah’s best friend and was au anges, she’d sworn out of her mother’s hearing, to meet a real London swell. Katie also invited the Dowager Lady Martindale, the highest-ranking female in the neighborhood and a particular favorite of both the Cole women. They listened to the lonely old countess’s tales of her younger days, and in return, she let them borrow the latest novels from her extensive library.
    There, a peeress, a magistrate, and a vicar were all pleased to sup at Cole Cottage. Let Lord Forde—Katie could not stifle a chuckle—lift his nose—which was slightly beaked—at that country society. And let him try to find a private moment for his