Free Phoenix and Ashes by Mercedes Lackey Page A

houses
were showing. As Alison had well remembered, the dressmaker was a very clever
little woman; within days of new gowns being shown for the season,
she
had sketches of every one of them, and was making copies.
    And
the gowns that
she
copied were not those of the houses that Alison
could afford to patronize. Oh no. These were the gowns that would make their
appearance on the lawns of stately homes like Longacre Park…
    For
the truly, fabulously wealthy, and the extremely well-connected, were no more
affected by the blockade than the theatrical dressmaker was. In the case of the
latter, it was because she had an entire warehouse of fabrics stockpiled, and
besides that, access to dozens, perhaps hundreds of old gowns and costumes that
could be remade. In the case of the former—well, where the
habitués of the Royal Enclosure were concerned, a bolt or two of fabric
could be brought over, somehow…
    Well,
perhaps this would be the year. And if the faintly frivolous gowns caused a
stirring of dismay at the Broom cricket games, or the country club tennis
matches, well, perhaps the owners of the gowns could move into territory this
summer where their appearance would harmonize with the surroundings, rather
than stand out from them.
    She
shook off her reverie. There was, of course, more to this biannual visit than
just the replenishing of a wardrobe. She had other calls to make while she was
here.
    “I’m
going out, girls,” she called out to them. “Have your dinner sent
up. And you are
not
—”
    “On
any account to stir from these rooms,” they replied in chorus, and ended
with a giggle.
    “Practice
your charms,” she said, with a lifted brow.
    “Oh,
Mama—” Lauralee objected. “They’re so much more
difficult here!”
    “All
the more important that you learn how to set them here,” she replied
severely. “You have no more magic than the old woman who taught
me—but if I have anything to say about it, you’ll learn how to make
much better use of it than she did.” A thought occurred to her that would
give them malicious amusement, and would set their minds on the proper task.
“Our windows overlook the street. Why don’t you exercise your skills
and your minds by making unsuitable persons conceive of a passion for one
another?”
    “Oh,
Mama!” Carolyn exclaimed, delight sparking in her eyes. “May
we?”
    “I
would not have told you to do so if I did not mean it,” she replied, with
a little smile of her own. “Make me a thorough report when I
return.”
    She
telephoned the Exeter Club as they set themselves and the small bits of
apparatus they would need at the window. There would be no need to find taxis
for this visit. Lord Alderscroft would send a car. This was, after all, the
business of the War Office.
     
    Maya
narrowed her eyes suspiciously as she watched Lord Alderscroft’s visitor.
He had not invited her into his own rooms; instead, they were meeting in the
same Aesthetic public dining room that she had been taken to the first time she
entered the doors of the Exeter Club.
    What
she had not known then was that one of the mirrors was one-way, and hid a tiny
spyhole. She didn’t think that anyone had been watching her that time,
but even if they had been, they hadn’t learned anything they
couldn’t have learned by watching her openly.
    Alderscroft
wanted her assessment of someone he wanted to keep an eye on Reggie Fenyx. It
was another Earth Master. And already Maya disliked her.
    “Really?”
the elegant woman said, her eyes widening slightly. “Young Fenyx is so
badly off as all that?”
    No,
Maya did not like Alison Robinson; she did not trust Mrs.Robinson one tiny
little bit. She had no reason for these feelings, other than her instinct,
though, which was not enough to give as a reason to Lord Alderscroft, who
distrusted feminine intuition.
    Were
the rumors true that far too many people that Alison Robinson was intended to
keep watch on died instead? And was that enough of a