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“I am,” she answered “Where else?”

“I have some new red silk in Tell your sisters It would make a fine dress”

Elsa stopped

Red silk

She had never worn red silk “Show me Please”

“Ah! Of course You could surprise them with it”

Mr Hurst bustled her into the store Everywhere Elsa looked, she saw color: boxes full of peas and strawberries, stacks of lavender soap, each bar wrapped in tissue paper, bags of flour and sugar, jars of pickles

He led her past sets of china and silverware and folded multicolored tablecloths and aprons, to a stack of fabrics He rifled through, pulled out a folded length of ruby-red silk

Elsa took off her kid gloves, laid them aside, and reached for the silk She had never touched anything so soft And today was her birthday…

“With Charlotte’s coloring—”

“I’ll take it,” Elsa said Had she put a slightly rude e her strangely

Mr Hurst wrapped the fabric in brown paper and secured it with twine and handed it to her

Elsa was just about to leave when she saw a beaded, glittery silver headband It was exactly the sort of thing the Countess Olenska e of Innocence

ELSA WALKED HOME FROM the library with the brown-paper-wrapped red silk held tightly to her chest

She opened the ornate black scrolled gate and stepped into her arden that was clipped and contained and sed path stood the large Wolcott horandfather for the woman he loved