Real Vampires: Glory and the Pirates by Bartlett, Gerry (red white royal blue TXT) 📕

would keep up my practice with the sword. Since I was immortal, I had time to eventually become what Flo called a maestra. If I didn’t lose my head or my heart first.

14

It took weeks for me to find out what our man riding to Edinburgh would bring back to us. He finally arrived followed by heavily laden carts. Jeremiah met him down at the beach then sent one of the carts and a carriage to the castle.

“Only look, Glory! It is Madame Clotilde, recently arrived from Paris. When I was in Edinburgh, she was the talk of the ladies at court.” Flo was excited. “Come help me get her settled. I heard her talking to her assistant. She called this the wilds of Scotland. She is threatening to go right back to town.”

I hurried toward the carriage. Colin was trying to hand down a slight woman who wore the latest fashion. She was speaking in French but even from across the courtyard, I could tell she was complaining. Her dress was wider than the carriage door and she struggled to push it out without damaging it. With what could only be French curses, she jerked the skirt free.

“Careful, Madame.” Colin grabbed her hand when she wobbled as she hit the ground. She shook her hand free of Colin’s grip as if she had touched a nasty bug.

A tiny woman emerged from the carriage carrying a case. “Madame Clothilde, tu vas bien?” She hurried to fuss with the skirt until it settled into perfect shape. Wings of decorative lace surrounded the madame’s face which was set in a frown.

“I suppose we must speak English here in the land of the Scottish savages.” She closed her eyes and breathed, as if gathering strength.

I was comforted by the fact that the moat had been freshened by a recent rain. She couldn’t complain of that smell at least. I waited to approach her, in no hurry to hear complaints.

When she opened her eyes, she smoothed down the front of her skirt, plucking at a silk rosebud. “Jolie, don’t forget my bourse. I may need my salts. This place is already making my head pound.” She seemed determined to be displeased.

Flo rushed up to her and actually curtsied. Not her court one, but showy enough that I wanted to remind her that this Frenchwoman was being paid to serve us. The ladies made their answering curtsies. I was glad to see that theirs were low enough to show they understood who was to be pleased here. That made me feel better.

“Madame Clotilde, I am Florence daVinci. You are here to make clothes for me. Laird Campbell, my protector, sent for you.” Flo fluttered around the woman. She exclaimed over the rosettes on the woman’s bodice and the trim running around the bottom of the massive skirt.

A lorgnette dangling from a silk ribbon was drawn up from the front of that very low bodice. Madame looked Flo over. Finally, she smiled.

“Ah, it will be a pleasure to dress you, Madame daVinci. You have an exquisite figure.”

“Merci.” Flo said a few more words in French then turned to introduce me. “I believe you have also been paid well to make a few things for my dear friend, Madame St. Clair. Her protector is Lord Jeremiah Campbell, the Guardian of the Coast. This is his castle.”

Now I was studied through that glass. I wore one of the dresses I had bought in Edinburgh. It was the latest fashion there but apparently not up to Madame Clotilde’s standards if I read her pursed lips and frown correctly. Or was it the fact that I was a much larger woman than my tiny friend Flo that made the seamstress scowl?

“Madame St. Clair. You are more of a challenge. You like your pastries, no?” She patted her own breasts then hips, as if to show me where all those pastries had gone to live.

“I did, once.” I didn’t bother to explain. “Flo, Colin will take care of their bags. Let’s go inside and ask Lady Anne to find rooms for our guests.”

Madame Clotilde gazed around the courtyard. “It smells like the stables here. If I don’t have a satisfactory room, I will go straight back to Edinburgh. The message did not explain that I would be working in such a primitive place. I am not being paid that well.”

“I assure you, madame, we will be able to accommodate you.” I walked ahead of her. “But suit yourself.” I had spent too many hours at court listening to whispered comments not to recognize her attitude. Next, she’d be calling me a fat cow behind my back. I comforted myself that Jeremiah liked my ample backside.

“Glory!” Flo gasped and hurried to walk next to Clotilde and compliment her again.

I ignored them. There was no way that woman would agree to make the britches Flo and I were so set on. I decided then and there to put Maggie to work on them.

Lady Anne found rooms that would suit a woman she saw as a glorified seamstress. The exhausted madame started to complain but her assistant pointed out there was a fine roaring fire. The clever Jolie also managed to produce a tray with what was apparently the woman’s favorite restorative chocolate on it. Since it was late by mortal standards, a pair of maids quickly made up the bed with the madame’s own linens. Flo and I left them to settle in.

“She is not going to like how we stay up all night. She was yawning already and it was not yet midnight!” Flo led me up the stairs to Lady Anne’s solar. She was working on a miniature of that lady as a wedding present and had set up her paints there. “Anne will be here in a moment. I want to get my colors right for her skin tone. But first, what should we do about Madame Clotilde? I want my new wardrobe.”

“Pick out your fabrics.