Page 23 of The Last Casterglass
“Nothing,” Althea said after a moment. “I’m just…really glad you feel that way.”
All right, that wasn’t so bad. Seph gave a twitchy little shrug. “Good.”
Althea glanced at Olivia, and Seph felt herself start to prickle again. “What?” she asked, her voice sharpening a little.
“I think Althea is just a bit surprised at how accommodating you’re being, darling,” Violet chimed in. “You can get your back up, can’t you? Just like your aunt Matilda.”
This only made Seph prickle all the more and for a second one of her usual retorts rose like a bubble in her throat but then she made herself swallow it down. “I didn’t even know we had an aunt Matilda,” she managed.
“Well, technically she was a cousin. Or maybe a second cousin. On your father’s side. She came to our wedding… She was horribly offended that we didn’t ask her to do a reading, but the truth was I’d never even met her before. That was the last we saw of her, I think…and also the last we saw of a pair of Meissen shepherdesses.”
Althea let out a choking laugh. “Are you saying she stole them?”
Violet shrugged, unperturbed. “They were her wedding present, to be fair. I suppose she decided to take them back.”
And this was the person she was like? Seph glanced at Althea and Olivia, who gave her commiserating smiles that suddenly had her smiling back, as if they were all sharing a joke while their mother continued to reflect on the moody Aunt Matilda.
“So let’s see this dress,” Seph finally said.
“Of course.” Tilly had finished unwrapping the plastic from the hangers and she handed the first dress to Althea, who held it up. “This is yours,” she said to Seph as she handed her a hanger. “Olivia’s is a bit more flowing, but they’re both in the same fabric. Do you want to try it on?” She nodded towards the screen.
“Okay.” Seph stroked the soft velvet as she took the dress behind the screen. It was a simple sheath in forest green, with a darker green satin band around the empire waist, and cap sleeves.
“Very Jane Austen,” Olivia remarked as she took her own dress. “While mine is a bit more Goth fairy tale.”
“I thought they’d suit your personalities,” Althea replied. “Simple for Seph, and a bit more frou-frou for you.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Olivia replied with a laugh, “as I am sure Seph will.”
“I’m definitely not frou-frou,” Seph replied with a shudder. She wasn’t even sure what that meant, but she thought she could guess.
“Try it on then,” Althea urged, and quickly Seph scrambled out of her clothes and then slipped on the dress. It fit snugly, skimming her breasts and hips, before falling straight all the way to her ankles. She smoothed her hands over the soft material, once more amazed at the transformation a simple dress could cause. Even more than last night, when she’d worn Olivia’s dress, this outfit made her look like a different person. Feel like a different person. Like someone she might one day want to be. And really, she was already taking tiny steps towards becoming that person, simply by being here.
“Well?” Althea asked, and slowly, shyly, Seph ventured out from behind the screen.
“Oh, Seph!” Olivia exclaimed, and Violet turned misty-eyed.
“Oh, darling,” she said. “You look beautiful. Just as I did at your age. We have the same colouring, you know—”
“We all have the same colouring, Mum,” Althea reminded her.
“Short hair really suits you,” Olivia said frankly. “So curly! I always wanted curly hair. Where did that gene come from, I wonder?”
“Your great-aunt Winifred, on your father’s side,” Violet replied immediately. “She had absolute ringlets, right into old age. Very proud of them, too. Insisted she’d never had a perm, but I did wonder sometimes.” She gave Seph an affectionate smile. “Really, darling, you look so lovely. I don’t know why you hide that figure of yours! If I had a waist that small, I’d be cinching it with a belt every day of my life.”
“Surely you had a waist that small when you were younger,” Althea teased, and Violet considered the matter seriously.
“Not quite as small,” she allowed after a moment, “but almost.”
“What do you think, Seph?” Althea asked, her tone turning serious. “Can you stomach wearing it for a day? I know you’d rather be in dungarees and boots—”
“No, it’s fine,” Seph said quickly. “I mean, it’s…better than fine.” She smiled hesitantly. “I think I actually sort of like it.”
Again, this was met with a thunderclap of silence. She saw Olivia and Althea exchange glances. “What?” she demanded. She was trying not to go all prickly, but it was hard.
“Nothing, nothing,” Olivia said quickly. “It’s wonderful that you like it. And you look gorgeous. Now I’ll try on mine.”
Olivia looked just as gorgeous in her more ‘frou-frou’ dress, with its flowing skirt and long sleeves. She twirled extravagantly before Tilly got busy with both of them, measuring and pinning, and then Violet tried on her dress, a simple sheath in royal-blue crepe.