Free Let Me Be Your Hero by Elaine Coffman

it down and picked up another choice. “This dark blue linen would make up nicely. And this—” Claire noticedthe way Greer’s eyes seemed to light up “—is so beautiful.” She held up a pale green print. “I ken it is no’ a sensible choice, since we seldom go to parties.”
    Claire smiled. Greer was the dearest, sweetest person God ever created. She was the kind who returned a compliment with a grander compliment, or wrote a thank-ye letter to someone who sent a thank-ye letter to her.
    “Do ye want to know what I think?” Claire asked. “I think ye should get the one that makes ye the happiest. Even if ye choose the green print, ye will enjoy the wearing o’ it, even if it is in yer room, or to walk the dogs. Ye should dress to please yerself, Greer, and hang all those fussy rules. Sometimes a luxury can do much more for yer spirit than a dozen necessities. It is how ye deal with it in yer heart.”
    Greer smiled. “Oh, thank ye, Claire. I wanted it, ye ken, but I was afraid it would be too vain to want something that was not practical.”
    Claire leaned close and whispered, “Ye have a trunkful of practical, though, do ye not?”
    “Aye, and I shall have the green print.” She hugged Claire.
    As for Claire, she chose a thin wool twill in a deep purple, and white bobbin lace to edge the low-cut neck.
    “Weel now, my lovelies,” Isobel said. “Tomorrow I shall take all of ye to Stirling, where ye shall be measured, so the dressmaker can set to work. Then we will shop for bonnets and flowers and furbelows, too, and petticoats and satin ribbons and stockings the color of cream.”
    “We can do all o’ that in one day?” Kenna asked.
    “Oh, my dear, of course we can. We will stay at the Inn of Two Doves. I think three days and two nights should give us enough time. If not, we shall stay one more day.”
    “What about Kendrew?” Greer asked.
    “Lord Walter is taking Kendrew to Glasgow. There is a horse auction and they shall buy Kendrew his own horse.”
    The girls all gasped. “A horse for Kendrew,” Kenna said. “He has always wanted his own horse.”
    “Weel, now he shall have it.”
    That night, when Claire said prayers with Briana and kissed her good-night, Briana hugged her fiercely and said, “I think Isobel is the nicest person.”
    “I think it is nice to see ye happy, darling Briana. Now, go to sleep, we have a long day tomorrow.”
    True to her word, Isobel, Claire and her sisters all left for Stirling the following day, and in spite of Claire’s hesitation to accept Isobel, she had to admit the trip was the most marvelous outing she and her sisters had ever taken. In the beginning, Claire was a wee bit embarrassed for they looked like a traveling troop of mourners, all wearing their black, save Briana, whom Isobel said would do better in dark gray, due to her younger age.
    When she mentioned this, Isobel laughed. “Let me tell ye something. Ye can put a beautiful woman in a wolf pelt and her beauty will still be noticed. It isna what ye wear, but how ye wear it that counts. Besides, there is a certain attractiveness about a beauty in mourning that attracts the eye…especially the eye of a lad, ye ken?”
    By the time they returned home three days later,they had been measured for one black mourning dress, and a dress from the Parisian fabric, and the proper petticoats and undergarments. Isobel also purchased sleeping gowns and black stockings.
    Once they were home, things settled into a normal routine, with Kendrew spending time on his Highland pony, and Claire and her sisters busy with their lessons from a new governess that was hired, although the girls were able to persuade Isobel not to let poor Aggie go.
    “But she is hardly a tutor,” Isobel said. “Yer education has been horribly neglected.”
    The girls and Kendrew all put up such a fuss, Isobel agreed to keep Aggie and the new governess, Miss Kathleen O’Malley, who was as Irish as her name.
    From the day of their