Page 56 of Duke's Daring Bookworm
“I’m willing to bet that’s the one,” Frankie said as she walked over and stood beside me. “With your coloring, the jewel tone will look amazing.”
“Yeah.” I started stripping off my robe right there, having lost any semblance of embarrassment hours ago. “Let’s put it on.”
They helped me into the dress. Silky fabric lined the inside and very little of the tulle touched my skin. It fit almost perfectly.
“We can have the waist taken in,” Clara said, clipping the excess fabric. I turned to the large mirror Frankie had propped up in the living room and gasped.
“I’m… beautiful.” I walked closer to the mirror to get a good look. There was just as much fabric as I imagined, but it flowed from the fitted bodice like a cloud. It was strapless, and I ran my hands along the scoop neck to the high points framing my cleavage and emphasizing my curves without showing more than I was comfortable with.
I imagined the look on Duke’s face when he saw me and knew immediately that this was the dress.
“I don’t care what you say, Frankie. I’m wearing this one.” I turned toward her sharply, ready to fight over it.
“I agree. That’s the dress,” she said with her hands up in surrender.
Clara pulled out a pair of gold heels to go with. The thinspikes screamed death trap.
“You don’t have anything better for balance?”
She looked at me like I was insane.
“These are the shoes that go with that dress. They’re John Christopher’s.” She didn’t put them down.
“Does John Christopher hate women?” I pulled back from Clara as she tried to push them toward me.
Frankie bent over, laughing.
“Oh, this is good.”
“What else do you have?”
Clara took a deep breath, looking between the shoes and my dress, before muttering something under her breath and searching through the piles of boxes she brought.
When she turned around, she had a pair of pearl studded platform heels that looked like I wouldn’t die wearing them.
“Yes,” I said immediately, and took them from her to try on. They fit like a dream and gave me enough height that I would almost look Duke in the eye.
“They are Arabella’s,” Clara said as if it meant anything to me.
“Arabella clearly doesn’t hate women. At least, not as much as John seemed to.”
I walked across the room, testing the heels and how the dress moved. I tried to do a model turn when I got to the other side but toppled slightly and had to catch myself on the wall.
“Ok, so I’m not walking runways anytime soon, but my god this is… amazing. Frankie, why don’t you dress like this all the time? I feel like a princess.”
She was laughing again.
“You feel like a goddess. I felt like a clown.”
Someday, I hoped she would tell me what caused her tohate the world she grew up in so much.
Clara clapped her hands to get my attention, and I hated that it worked.
“Now, about jewelry…” She turned to a sleek black box, pressing her thumb to a small square on the top, unlocking it with a click. Inside sat an array of sparkles and glitter, catching the light and my eye as she brought it close for my inspection.
I softly traced the lines of the jewels, afraid to break something so valuable. Clara pulled up layer after layer of black velvet to reveal gem after gem in every style I could imagine, all laid out for my choosing. It was as overwhelming as the dress choices.
I picked a gold leaf head band and simple pearl necklace to match the shoes, a choice that had both Frankie and Clara nodding and my shoulders relaxing in relief that I choose correctly.
