Free A Love For Keeps (Truly Yours Digital Editions) by Janet Lee Barton Page A

on each outfit I make, Miss Connors?”
     
    Abigail rewarded her with a very slight nod. If Meagan had blinked, she would have missed it.
     
    “You do fine work, Miss Snow. I can see why I’ve been hearing good reports about your skill as a dressmaker and why Nate keeps telling me to let all of my friends know about the shop.”
     
    Meagan’s heart warmed at the thought that Nate was trying to send more business to her.
     
    “I would like to have a new dinner dress. Do you have some fashion plates available for me to look at?”
     
    “Certainly.” She motioned to the settee in front of the fireplace. “Please, make yourself comfortable. I just received the latest
Harpers Bazaar
and there are some lovely plates in it.”
     
    She handed the magazine to Abigail and then reached for another. “And here is the latest
Godey’s
that I have. I’m sure we can find something in these.”
     
    As it was teatime and her mother always insisted that she stop working and take a brief break in the afternoon, Meagan wasn’t surprised to see her enter the shop with a loaded tea tray. She’d taken to bringing in extra, just in case Meagan was with a customer, and she had never been so glad to see her mother as now.
     
    “Mama, thank you. I didn’t realize it was teatime already. Miss Connors, would you like a cup of tea and a tea cake?”
     
    Abigail looked up from the magazine. “I—yes, I suppose I would.”
     
    “You do remember my mother from church, don’t you?”
     
    “No, I’m afraid I don’t,” Abigail said quite bluntly.
     
    “There’s no reason you should, Miss Connors,” Meagan’s mother said. “We only met that one time.”
     
    Meagan wanted to shout that there was every reason to remember her sweet mother, but she kept to the manners she’d been raised with and said nothing. Nevertheless, she certainly wasn’t going to let her mother serve the woman.
     
    “How would you like your tea? With cream and sugar?”
     
    Abigail had gone back to perusing the magazine and didn’t look up. “Yes, that will be fine.”
     
    “Would you like a tea cake?” Meagan asked. She could feel her eyebrow rise.
     
    “No. Just tea.”
     
    Meagan looked at her mother and found her with a smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye as she fixed the cup of tea. Meagan sighed inwardly and smiled back as she took the cup of tea and set it down beside Abigail. “There you are.”
     
    The woman looked up from the magazine once more. “Yes, well, thank you.”
     
    “You are welcome. Have you seen anything you like?” Meagan took a sip of her own tea.
     
    “Yes, in fact, I have.” Abigail showed Meagan a fashion plate picturing a beautiful dinner dress in peacock blue satin trimmed in black Chantilly lace.
     
    “That is lovely.”
     
    “Can you make something like that for me?”
     
    “Of course. Would you want it in the same fabric? Or if not, I have several samples of other colors and different fabrics you may choose from.”
     
    “Let me look at those.”
     
    Never had Meagan dealt with a ruder woman. She wanted nothing more than to tell her so, but she couldn’t. Instead, she sighed as she went to get her samples. Her mother just shook her head and left the room.
     
    By the time Abigail left, Meagan had shown her every bolt and sample of fabric in the shop. After much deliberation, she finally decided that the design of the fashion plate would look better on her if it was made of a red-striped silk and black lace. Although Meagan thought it might be a little daring, she wasn’t about to argue with the woman’s choice.
     
    “When can you start on it?” Abigail asked.
     
    “I’ll have to order the fabric and trim, but it shouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks to come in. I can start on it then. I will need to take your measurements, though.”
     
    “Oh, yes. Can you do that now?”
     
    “Certainly.”
     
    “It won’t take long, will it? I’m having dinner with Nate and