Page 44 (1/2)

"I’ll wear Anne’s cheoas made of pale lilac taffeta, so delicate that the fabric flowed to the ground without pleats or folds It fit very close on the bodice and buttoned from the bosom to the hem with small canary-yellow buttons

"Are you sure, my lady? You said that you would never wear it, because we couldn’t fit a corset under that bodice," Willa said

"I have changed own for Villiers’s sake Willa knew the reason, but they preserved the fiction, the way polite women do Willa buttoned her up and then went off to borrow Anne’s face paints

"Lady Anne will not be at supper," she reported, co back with a small box in hand

"Is she ill?"

"Marie says that she was up and about for a short ti, but she felt so poorly that she went back to bed and has been able to take nothing but chicken broth"

Eleanor grinned "She overindulged last night" She picked up Anne’s face paints and began experi dark lines around her eyes, the way Anne had the night before, but soer-like than mysterious

"You’ve overdone it," Willa said dubiously

"I look like a badger, don’t I?"

"More like someone with the Black Death Not that I’ve ever seen the illness, but you look mortal with all that around your eyes"

Eleanor shuddered and rubbed some off Then removed a little more Drew some more back on Put color on her lips and on her cheeks Rubbed soes of her eyes

Rubbed sooas the opposite of the stiff satin gowns that had been in style so long The French chemise had been introduced only last year, and she hadn’t even thought of buying one But her sister had

Thank goodness for Anne and her predilection for fashion Willa had piled her hair in waves of curls, with small sprays of violets tucked here and there And after all that work, her eyes were perfect S person Or a badger

Her lips were criesture to the hter

"Do you think I’ to leave

"No Not at all It’s as if--well, it’s as if it’s more you, if you see what Ilike a hussy, which was a disconcerting thought

"It’s just too bad that we’re not in London," Willa went on happily "Because those gentleo absolutely mad They would fall at your feet"

"I don’t know that I want men at my feet Would you?"

"That’s not for me," Willa said

"Why not?"

"Because that’s for ladies and gentlemen You should have four or five beaux at least, my lady I want just one"

"I think," said Eleanor, "that I want just one as well"

"It would be a great waste," Willa said, shaking her head "Look at your gown, and how beautiful you are, and all And then there’s your dowry It’s always better if a gentleht off other men"