The Tempestuous Debutante: Book 4 in the Cotillion Ball Series (Crimson Romance) (8 page)

He lifted his head from the bridle he was cleaning when the crunch of wheels over gravel signaled a carriage pulling up outside the stable. He was not expecting anyone today. He hurried to the stable doors, where he spied the Fitzpatricks’ now-familiar carriage. He grinned as Colleen and Jasmine alighted and tied the reins to the fence post.

“’Tis an unexpected pleasure to see the likes of you ladies today.” He led them into the stable. “Come into the tack room where ’tis warm.”

Colleen found a corner of the room where she could sit with her knitting. Parr picked up a can of leather polish and a rag and began to work again. Jasmine flitted from one piece of apparatus to another, running her fingers over them, before she sat by his side and observed him while he worked the sweet-smelling polish into the leather, making it supple once again.

“So, what brings you two lovely ladies here today?” Parr asked. “Not that I’m complaining about the company or anything.”

“I need your help, Parr. I’ve decided to do what you suggested, and go into competition with Philippe. After all, he has only one boot design he can make, but I have come up with several other good ideas.”

Parr’s grin nearly split his face. “Sin-e! That’s that, then.” He clapped his hands together. “That’s the spirit. Take the bloody bastard on, I say. So, what help can I be giving ye?”

“Well, I have a few ideas of my own, but what other things should I consider in a boot?”

Parr stopped his work, and waved the rag around the room. “Take your lead from this room, I’d say. Use buckles, rivets, leather trim, different colors of leather. The sole and heel are the most important parts, so you can get really carried away on the rest of the boot.” Parr stared into Jasmine’s deep brown eyes, which were snapping in excitement.

“Ooh, you’re right. There’s so much I can do with the styles … ” Her voice tapered off and she stared at the floor. Her hand went to her stomach.

“What is it, cailín?”

“Can I do this, Parr? After all, I’m just a woman.”

He took her hands in his own. Her eyes rose to meet his. “You’re not just a woman. You are an incredible woman. For the love of God, women are the ones who have babies, who keep their families together, who work day and night to provide for their babogs until they’re full grown and who keep the home fires burning. You are much stronger than we men are. I know ya can do this.”

Jasmine’s eyes had locked onto his during his speech. He was pleased to see the sparkle of excitement return to them.

“You’re right. I can do this. Just you watch me.” She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you, Parr, for believing in me.”

He walked the ladies back to their carriage and helped them into it. As it pulled away, Parr put his hand to his cheek.
She kissed me!
Oh, he’d been kissed by women, and had experienced much more than a chaste peck on the cheek. But he’d never experienced sparks from a kiss before. His cheek was still warm to the touch. ’Twas a pity, though, that was all he would ever get from her.
She thinks you’re just a stable boy, someone to flirt with, be friends with, but never one to take seriously.
With a sigh, he returned to his tasks. But his thoughts stayed with Jasmine all afternoon.

• • •

Jasmine strode into Blake Morgan’s shop with Colleen by her side. He was busy with a customer, but nodded to them. They browsed the store as they waited their turn to talk to him. Jasmine picked up a soft gray wool tweed cap to examine. She placed it on her head and glanced in the mirror.

“This would be a great cap for Parr, don’t you think, Colleen?”

“Since when are you thinking of buying presents for someone other than yourself, missy?”

Jasmine squirmed a bit. Colleen was right. She always had more things she wanted to buy for herself than she had money from her allowance. Still, Parr had not charged her for her riding lessons, and she should pay him back. And his current cap was looking mighty dreadful.

“It means nothing, Colleen. I merely think he should receive some compensation for helping me with my riding, that’s all. He refused my money, but he can’t refuse a gift, can he?” She primped in front of the mirror again, viewing the cap from as many angles as she could. “Yes, I think this is a good choice.”

Blake finished up with his customer and moved to their side.

“You startled me for a moment, Miss Fitzpatrick. I thought you were Heather.”

Jasmine extended her gloved hand to him. “Well, you should have no problem telling us apart now, Mr. Morgan, since I’m the only one left in town. Nice to see you again.”

“And may I say you look lovely this morning? That dress is a perfect color for you. You have a good eye.”

Jasmine smoothed the skirt of her lavender silk gown, which fell in three flounces, each one with a darker color at the edge, and straightened out the fringe on the bodice. Despite the fact this man had relegated her to the sidelines last season in his pursuit of her sister, she couldn’t help but be pleased by his comments on her attire. Especially since this was another of last year’s styles that she and Colleen had updated.

“What brings you here today?”

“Well, for starters, I’ll buy this cap for a friend. And I want to talk over a business proposition with you.”

Blake Morgan’s eyes widened. “A business proposition? What could you possibly know about business?”

Jasmine’s spine stiffened at his comment. “Mr. Morgan, some of us women want more from life than to sit around and embroider samplers while orchestrating our children’s lives. I want to talk to you about becoming a partner in your business.”

“Does your father know about this? We talked, briefly, last year about expanding my business, but nothing ever came of it. And with the rumblings that England is cutting back on our exports, it seems likely that nothing will happen this year, either.”

Jasmine blew out a breath. “I remember hearing you’d spoken with Papa about opening a women’s dress shop. But I’ve come to talk to you about offering ladies’ shoes and boots for sale, along with your collection of men’s hats and footwear.”

“Well, I’ll be. I hadn’t thought of ladies’ shoes and boots before. Do you have any experience in the design and production of them?”

Jasmine quickly filled him in on the theft of her clever design by Philippe Louboutin, and her discussion with Colleen’s cobbler about producing her designs.

“I’m not a fan of sharing my hard work, and especially not getting the credit I deserve. I have many more boot designs that we can manufacture. We can compete with Monsieur Louboutin, and give him a run for his money. What do you say?”

“Do you have some of your designs with you?”

Jasmine nearly jumped up and down in her excitement. However, she controlled herself, and acted with the decorum that would be better suited to a business arrangement. “I brought some of my boot designs with me today, yes.” Colleen handed her the sketchpad she’d been working on furiously since the previous day, when she visited the tack room on Alistair’s property. Jasmine opened it to the first page of completed boot designs and handed it to Blake. He sat with the pad on top of the desk while Jasmine and Colleen took seats on the opposite side of the piece of heavy furniture.

The room was deadly quiet, except for the soft hush made as Blake turned each page of the sketchpad. He carefully studied each one without comment, until he got to the last design. Jasmine controlled her impulse to squirm in her chair. He lifted his eyes from the page and handed the pad back to her.

“I am impressed with what I’ve seen. But let’s think beyond footwear for a moment. I have a corner on the silk market in the city, and have a notion to do more with it than fashion it into top hats and sell the occasional yard to a dressmaker. What about ladies’ fashion? Does your creativity extend to dresses, too? ”

Jasmine and Colleen shot a glance at each other. “I’ve been designing dresses for years in my head, and now I’ve taken to experimenting with my own clothes, updating last year’s gowns. This dress I’m wearing today is one of my creations. I do the design work and Colleen does the actual sewing.”

Blake stared at her, hard. Jasmine remembered that one of Heather’s complaints about him was that he thought women were the weaker sex, and shouldn’t cloud their limited mental capacities with things such as business and current affairs. But surely he wouldn’t turn his back on a sound business proposition, would he?

“When could this new cobbler start production?”

“He’s ready as soon as I give him an order to fulfill.”

Blake extended his hand to her then. “We’ll need to talk to your father, but I think we can be partners, as long as you include dressmaking, too.”

Jasmine took the outstretched hand in her own and shook it, just as she’d seen men do. “I’ll talk to Papa, Mr. Morgan. I’m looking forward to this.”

Jasmine could barely control herself on the ride home. Colleen’s face was flush with excitement as well, she noted. They both jumped up and down on the padded seats of the carriage and squealed their joy. Jasmine was pleased that they were in an enclosed carriage today, with Robert, the groomsman, handling the reins. Their childish reaction to the news would not be seen by everyone on the streets. If Robert heard them screaming, he at least would be enough of a professional not to do more than raise an eyebrow at them when they alighted from the carriage. Jasmine took a peek out the carriage window, though, relieved to see no one looking at them.

“I can’t believe we pulled it off!” Jasmine clasped hands with her lady’s maid.

“I had no doubt, lass, in your abilities. Although I have to say, I was a bit skeptical of Mr. Morgan being accepting of your offer. I never did care for the man when he was seeing Heather. Always thought he was a bit full o’ himself.”

“Yes, he’s maybe not husband material for the Fitzpatrick women, but he could be just what I need for a business partner. Who would have guessed that Papa’s decree of no new clothes would evolve into this?”

“Speaking of Mr. Fitzpatrick, have you given any thought to what you’ll say to him?”

“No, not yet, although I have some ideas flitting around in my head. We’ll need to find a new lady’s maid, for one thing, since you’ll be too busy working in the shop to care for my clothing and hair. Second, I think we need to invest in one of those newfangled sewing machines and hire someone to use it for straight seams. You can oversee the shop’s day-to-day operations and do the handwork on the dresses. I’ll design them, and find us the clientele we need. Can you think of anything else?”

“Well, there is the fabric, beads, buckles, fringes, seed pearls, thread, and all that, too. I know we can buy silks and satins from Mr. Morgan at a reduced price, but all the other things that you decorate your gowns with will have to be purchased by us. Oh, this is so exciting.”

Jasmine leaned back in her seat, her stomach turning cartwheels. Who would have thought a simple boot design could have mushroomed into a possible business venture? She couldn’t wait to tell Parr. He had championed her all along, first with figuring out a way for her to ride again, and now the boots, which led to an even bigger venture. Parr was the only man she’d come up against who realized she was more than a pretty face. He believed in her, and he was the first one she wanted to share her news with.

Oh, and Alistair, too. After all, she was doing this to make herself desirable to Alistair. Wouldn’t he be pleased to hear of her ingenuity. He might just begin to turn his attentions from Lydia Smith if he realized Jasmine also had a clever mind for business. And that was what she wanted, wasn’t it?

But, of course, none of those conversations could take place until she convinced her father she was capable of doing this, and secured the necessary funds from his bank. Her endeavor was a bit different from Heather deciding to become a teacher. Heather had no need for inventory, other than the books from the nursery that they’d used when learning to read. And Jasmine’s mind worked differently from her older sister, Ginger’s, since she had no use for numbers and would never be content to work at the family bank. Maybe her brother Halwyn could help set up a bookkeeping program for her.

She opened her sketchpad and began to write out her inventory of merchandise needed for the new dress design shop. February was going to be so much more exciting than January had been.

• • •

Since Colleen had a vested interest in her plans, Jasmine didn’t think it inappropriate to bring her along for moral support as she approached her father. Jasmine took a deep breath and squeezed Colleen’s hand before she knocked on the library door. At his gruff response, she opened the door and the two of them stepped inside. She inhaled the familiar scent of tobacco, leather, and sandalwood soap, and was instantly put at ease. Her father had never really denied her anything, except this year’s wardrobe. Surely he’d at least listen to her proposition.

“Papa, may I discuss something serious with you?”

“Certainly, child. You know you can come to me anytime you need to. Does this have something to do with Colleen as well?” He motioned for them to sit in front of his desk and smiled. “Are you having some difficulty?”

“No, Papa, no difficulty. And yes, it does have something to do with Colleen.”

George Fitzpatrick set his paper down on the desk, finally, along with his pipe. “All right, you’ve got my undivided attention. Do continue.”

“Well, you know how you denied me a new wardrobe this season?”

“Not this again, Jasmine. You are well aware of the reasons I cannot grant you a new armoire of clothing.” George picked up his pipe again, and sat back in his chair.

This was his subtle way of saying the conversation was at an end, and that she should excuse herself. She took another deep breath, and plunged ahead.

“I’m not here to complain, Papa. Instead, I want to thank you for helping me find myself. I’ve been taking my old clothes and drawing new designs for them, and Colleen’s been stitching them up for me. Haven’t you noticed?”

“As I’ve told you before, your beauty comes from the inside, not from your clothes.”