Love, Come to Me(18)

The Charitable Society sponsored its annual dance to raise funds for the poor and needy. They asked for ten cents from everyone who attended; twenty-five cents was the family rate. Having been elected as a member of the organizing committee, Lucy found much of her time taken up with planning meetings. The dance was to be held in the town hall—its theme, of course, was the advent of spring—and she spent an entire Saturday with the other women on the committee, decorating the second floor, the large balcony, and the main staircase.

The women helped each other to get ready in the dressing rooms, and Lucy felt pleasurable pangs of excitement in her stomach as she took out her dress from the box in which it had been carefully packed. It was a brand-new dress, one she had never worn before, and she knew that Daniel would be stunned by the sight of her in it. Perhaps tonight he would be so enchanted that he might even want to set the date of their wedding.

“Lace me extra tight,” she said breathlessly to Sally Hudson, a bubbly girl of nineteen who had been one of Lucy’s closest friends since childhood—mainly because Lucy had always been sweet on Daniel and had never competed against Sally when it came to men.

“Nineteen inches?” Sally asked, wrapping the laces around her fists and pulling firmly.

“It’s got to be eighteen . . . for the dress . . . I’m going to wear . . . ,” Lucy gasped, holding her breath and closing her eyes.

“I don’t think it’s going to work,” Sally said, yanking harder. “Why did you have a dress made with an eighteen-inch waist? You never get past nineteen—”

“I thought I . . . was going to be thinner.”

After a mighty tug, Sally knotted the laces and surveyed her handiwork admiringly. “Eighteen and a half . . . almost. A perfect hourglass.” She angled her blond head in a considering attitude. “But the next time you want to lace this tight, you should try the Swanbill. What’s the kind you’re wearing?”

“Thompson’s Glove-Fitting Corset. It’s new—”

“Oh, yes. I saw it advertised in Godey’s. But I’d never use anything except the Swanbill—it’s much stiffer.”

Industriously Lucy struggled into a bustle and petticoats, then lifted her arms as Sally dropped the new dress over her head. As it settled into place, there were several sighs of admiration heard around the room. The dress was made of white silk that glistened as pristinely as a new snowfall. The skirt was adorned with deep flounces of silk and huge puffs of transparent illusion, while the waist was trimmed with sprays of heartsease and leaves. The neckline of the bodice was almost indecently low and trimmed with silk rosettes, while the puffed sleeves were fastened with more rosettes. Sally fastened the gown and then gave Lucy an envious stare.

“Don’t ever speak to me again, Lucy Caldwell.” Sally held up a hand mirror for her and mock-scowled over the top of it. “You look exactly like an engraving in Godey’s.”

Lucy smiled and checked her hair in the mirror. Her chestnut locks had been crimped and fastened into a chignon. Several curls had been allowed to escape, and they bobbed enticingly against the back of her neck. Her malachite earrings and necklace emphasized the green in her hazel eyes, while her cheeks burned with a glow of anticipation. She knew she had never looked more attractive. “I wonder what Daniel will say,” she wondered aloud.

“He already loves you madly. I suppose he’ll do nothing more than fall to his knees and recite an ode to your beauty.” Sally smiled wickedly. “If I were you, Lucy, I’d be careful of Daniel trying to pull you into one of those empty offices downstairs.”

If only that were the problem, Lucy thought, and twisted her mouth ruefully. “I just hope he isn’t dreadfully late for the dance,” she said, fluffing out the petals of a silk rosette.

“Late?” Sally echoed. “Why? Does he have another one of those meetings with the other lawyers?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“I don’t know how you stand it, with Daniel so busy all the time—”

“I’m very proud of him. Daniel is the youngest railroad attorney at Boston and Lowell, and it’s taken a lot of dedication to get there. Now that the war is over, all sorts of new plans are being developed, and that means that he has to work that much harder—”

“Oh, well,” Sally interrupted, looking bored, “I guess you can get used to just about anything—even his long Friday meetings. I mean, at least you have a fiancé, which is more than most of us can say. With the shortage of men, it’s getting so that I can’t afford to be as selective as I once was. Just think—I’m already twenty and still not engaged—”

“You’re talking as if you’re some old spinster,” Lucy said, laughing.

“No—that’s one thing I’ll never be,” Sally stated with utter conviction. “I couldn’t bear to be like Daniel’s sister Abigail, thirty-three and never been kissed—oh, look, she’s heading over this way.”

Lucy smiled engagingly at Abigail, who was prim and tight-mouthed, a woman with an iron disposition and a complete lack of humor. Had she ever wanted to be kissed? It didn’t seem likely. Few people presented such an unapproachable front. Her eyes were dark brown, the same eyes that Daniel had, and her face seldom revealed whatever it was that she thought about. Abigail doted on Daniel, just as the rest of his family did. In fact, the Colliers doted on him so much that Lucy felt privately that in some ways they didn’t think she was good enough for him.