Honor and Desire (Gold Sky #3) - Rebel Carter Page 0,29
eyes, and his smile vanished, as if it hadn’t been there a moment before. Even though they were still so close, their hands curled around the other, she felt a gulf of distance descend them. “Nothin’ to talk about, Seylah.”
“That’s not true. You know it,” she insisted, but went no further in her rebuke. There were limits. Boundaries to what she was able to say without fear.
August’s lips pressed into a thin line, and he released her hand. “Let’s mend the fence,” he said, stepping away from her and walking towards the fence to busy himself with the fallen brace. “There’s tools in the saddlebag.”
She nodded, even though he wasn’t looking her way, and turned away towards the horses. “Think we’ll need the hand saw?” She asked, opening the saddlebag. She swallowed hard, as if the gesture could shove the words back down where they belonged. Far away from her heart and definitely not passing her lips.
An affirmative grunt from August had her in motion. The time for trying to clear the air was done.
There was work to be done, and at least in that endeavor, it allowed them the peace of being together.
Chapter 5
“Well, it appears as if your fitting went well,” Seylah’s mother stood, staring at the stack of boxes and bags that had just been delivered from The Modern Dress. Seylah hadn’t quite known what to do with the vast amount of bags, and dare she say she had spotted a trunk in the mix. There were far more in the lot than Seylah had remembered being fitted for—five in all, but if she were honest, it all became something of a blur past a certain point.
Somewhere between the third pin stick, and her nearly being run over by a coach, Seylah’s memory had become spotty at best. She chewed on her bottom lip and nodded, considering the haul of new garments and accessories. She would sooner be tasked with bringing an entire unruly saloon to heel with naught, but a blunt kitchen knife than endure another fitting at Mrs. Rosemary’s.
“It seems that Mrs. Rosemary was enthusiastic,” Seylah said, finally. She glanced at her mother to see that she was smiling, if albeit a slightly remorseful one.
“I may have had a thing or two to do with her zealousness,” her mother said.
Seylah’s hands went to her hips. “A thing or two, or the whole thing?”
Julie blew out a sigh and threw up her hands. “Oh, all right, I had everything to do with it, but what else was I to do? Your day dresses were positively threadbare, and your sleeves are entirely too short, sweetheart. You’ve outgrown the dresses you’ve been wearing. You’re a woman now, proper and true. I don’t care about the fashion, but there is something to be said for being properly attired for the elements and for your worth. You needed new things and you just hate fittings.”
Seylah opened her mouth to protest, but she stopped short. Her mother was right, she did hate the fitting, avoided them at all costs, so much so that her mother was right. Her clothes were nearly threadbare, she had outgrown them by far, and then there was the bit about ‘worth’ that made her feel slightly abashed.
That was a matter Seylah had avoided for entirely too long, and she no longer was content to simply…exist. She wanted to thrive, she wanted to catch a man’s eye. Elliot Myers was a man that she wouldn’t mind starting with, and the new clothing from Mrs. Rosemary was just the thing to test the waters.
Julie came to stand beside the delivered clothing and picked up a hat box. “Not to mention that the fashion lately really is becoming for an active woman. Why, there are even pants now that are fashionable. You can go about your duties in town and still be feminine. Can you believe it?” And if you don’t like it then we can--”
“Okay,” Seylah said cutting her mother’s words off.
“Okay?”
Seylah nodded and held out her hands for the hat box. “Yes, okay. You are right, Mama. I’ve neglected things like this,” she nodded at the new clothing, “fashionable things, things that would make me truly shine. And the thing of it is, I can’t even remember why I did it.”
“Oh darling, that’s wonderful news.” Her mother rushed forward and hugged her, tightly, the hat box crushed between them. “I’m so happy for you. This year, this season will be absolutely lovely, you’ll see it.”