Free The Hatmaker's Heart: A Novel by Carla Stewart Page B

handful of bills from her handbag and handed them to Iris. “Have fun.”
    *  *  *
    Smoke hung like thin clouds in the air at Lily’s Place. A jazz combo played “The Four O’Clock Blues” as Nell and Iris sipped ginger ale through straws. They’d arrived at eight, lucky to get a table near the dance floor.
    The day had been a whirlwind. When they left Aunt Sarah at the hotel, Nell had taken her cousins to Sal’s for the gnocchi Felice had promised. Afterward, Jeanette and Greta joined them for a shopping spree to get sequins, feathers, and elastic for headbands that Jeanette insisted all the girls were wearing. Her roommates were thrilled over Iris and Mittie joining them and opened their closets to them. Somehow they’d come up with five outfits that didn’t require too many alterations. When they put on the headbands Nell whipped together, they all giggled like schoolgirls.
    Calvin was waiting outside when they arrived and let out a low whistle when Nell introduced him to her roommates and cousins. “Bet there’s not another fella in Manhattan who has a date with five gorgeous dolls.”
    Jeanette stepped forward and hooked her arm in Calvin’s and batted her eyes. “You’ve got that right. What I want to know is why Nell kept a handsome fella like you from us all this time.”
    From the light coming through the front window of Lily’s Place, Nell could see Calvin blush. He was sort of cute, with his dark hair and black eyes. He was more like the brother she never had, nothing more, and even if she were interested, she shuddered at what Mr. Fields might think of two employees fraternizing.
    Once they were inside, Calvin took turns dancing with Mittie, Greta, and Jeanette. When Nell teased him about saying he couldn’t dance, he told her he’d been to his share of bar mitzvahs. He tried to drag Nell out on the floor, but she told him she’d rather just sit with Iris and catch up on news from home. Which wasn’t entirely a lie. That afternoon Iris had confided in her that her parents were concerned about Mittie because she was so unfocused and couldn’t decide what to do with her life. But rather than talk about Mittie, who went off dancing with first one dapper fellow, then another, Nell and Iris talked about fashion, and Nell admitted she’d really come to the club to get ideas and see what girls were wearing.
    “Like that girl over there in the navy drop waist. You’d look cute in that.”
    Iris made a face. “You don’t think it’s too low-cut?”
    “Not if it had a sheer georgette overlay on the top. And a real hat, a cloche maybe with soft folds and a beaded flower in gold to give it an elegant look.”
    Iris nodded toward a girl at the bar. “That rose color is divine.”
    “L-look at her profile, those high cheekbones. I’d love to do a hat for her.”
    “I’d like to pack you up and take you home with us. You could help me with my wardrobe. I’m a fright at putting things together. I haven’t really said anything, but this debutante thing was all Mother’s idea. She wanted Mittie to go through it, too, but you know Mittie—she wanted none of it. The truth is, Mother met Daddy when she did her season in London, so she thinks it’s a shoo-in for me to find a husband.”
    “Is that what you want? To get married?”
    “Not when I’m eighteen. Look at you, you’re independent and have a career. I’d like to go to college first. Mother says the only reason to do that is to find a husband, and then you never know what you’ll end up with. At least the gentlemen who come to the debutante functions are from proper families . Mother’s words, not mine.”
    A guy with his necktie askew staggered by their table, then stopped and turned around to look at them. He blinked his eyes and lifted his glass. “Am I seeing double or are you two twins?”
    Iris and Nell looked at each other. They were both replicas of Aunt Sarah and their Yorkshire kin. Their mothers had always joked that