Pendragon Read Free

on her birthday. Her rich red hair had tumbled out of her stylish riding hat and was in curls and tangles down her back.
    She looked flushed and happy and in high spirits. “I love to be back in London,” she said as she stripped off her York tan riding gloves, the leather incredibly soft. “It’s ever so when we first arrive. Everything is fresh and new again. Now, it’s your first Season, Meggie, and I am so pleased that Tysen gave you over into our care. What fun we shall have. I’ve come to tell you that Douglas will be taking you to Madame Jordan’s this morning.”
    â€œWho is Madame Jordan?”
    â€œWhy, she’s my dressmaker, has been since Douglas and I married.” Alex broke off a moment, a wicked memory breaking into a big smile. “Hmmm, oh yes, between the two of them, you will look like a princess. Trust whatever your uncle says. He has excellent style.”
    Both her uncles had had excellent style when it came to ladies’ clothes, Meggie had been told all her life. Her own father did too, one assumed, since all Sherbrooke males had unconscionable portions of luck and style, but as a vicar, he normally didn’t let his style out in full company.
    Mary Rose, Meggie’s stepmother, and Meggie, in a house full of males, had long ago pulled together and seen to their own shopping, enjoying it immensely. Because they weren’t dolts, the four males in the Vicarage household, including Alec and Rory, knew that they were to instantly compliment any new garment, the greater the length of the compliment, the better treatment accordedthem. Their father, hardly ever a dolt, roundly endorsed this.
    â€œNow, Douglas wishes to leave as soon as he changes from his riding clothes. He has a meeting with the foreign office this afternoon. I do hope it’s not yet another offer of a diplomatic post. The last one was to Rome. It was very hot when we were there. We spent a lot of time with cardinals and bishops, and that meant I was very well covered up.”
    â€œI would perhaps consider Paris,” Meggie said.
    â€œHe turned that down two years ago,” Alex said. Indeed, Lord Northcliffe had turned down several diplomatic offerings, and was frequently called in by the King, George IV, particularly on matters pertaining to the French, a people Douglas understood very well, and then he would snort.
    An hour later Meggie and her uncle were discussing fashion with Madame Jordan in her elegant shop in the heart of Regent Street, at #14, on the east side.
    It wasn’t raining, a miracle, Meggie said to her uncle, since it had poured all the way to London, poured the entire previous evening, but beginning at dawn, April was strutting beautiful spring plumage. Flowers were bursting out and trees were turning green. Meggie couldn’t breathe deeply enough.
    There were only three ladies and their maids in the shop that morning because it was quite early. Madame Jordan took one look at Meggie’s uncle, and flew to him, presenting her cheek to be kissed, which he did. After tea and gossip, Madame Jordan said to Uncle Douglas, considering Meggie irrelevant to the process, which she was, “Just fancy, a young lady for you to apply your excellent taste to, my lord. She will be a beauty, with my assistance. Hmmm, a nice waist, which is good since ladies are now allowed to have waistlines again, and her bosom is ample. Yes, nice skin, and that hair, the same rich color as Mr. Ryder Sherbrooke’s and Lady Sinjun’s, all blonds and browns and sunlight. And those blue eyes, I will make them sparkle with magnificence. Now, let me take hermeasurements, and we will see what is what.” Meggie was stripped to her petticoat and chemise and stockings, stood upon a small dais, measured, large swatches of material draped over her, from the filmiest silks to the most brilliant and shimmery satins, all with Uncle Douglas looking on, making comments, stroking his