Page 33 of Murder in Matrimony (A Lady of Letters Mystery #4)

“Miss Hernandez.” Amelia proceeded to introduce her family.

Miss Hernandez only had eyes for Margaret. She looked her frame up and down. “You have gained weight since I measured you.”

Amelia and Penelope snickered. Winifred covered a giggle with her hand.

“Those four pieces of cake, I wager,” Mrs. Scott whispered.

Madge frowned. “It’s been a very stressful time. Food calms my nerves.”

“You know what calms my nerves, Miss Margaret? Girls who do not change weight after I make their dress.” She flicked a finger. “Come.”

Madge’s gown awaited them in the dressing room. It was white satin silk with applique lace, fine yet understated compared to many other wedding dresses Miss Hernandez had done this season. Knowing Madge could not object to the design, Amelia released a sigh of relief.

Miss Hernandez’s thoughts, however, were unreadable as she instructed Madge to allow her assistant to help her into the gown.

She waited in the anteroom with them, her arms crossed, reserving judgment.

A few minutes later, when Margaret appeared in the dress, Miss Hernandez smiled with pleasure.

“The weight looks good on you. Your chest is not so flat.”

“You look stunning, Madge!” Mrs. Scott exclaimed. “Simply stunning.”

“I agree,” seconded Penelope. “If I could have chosen from all the wedding dresses in the world, this would have been the one for you.”

Sarah clasped her hands to her chest and sighed.

“You look very pretty,” said Winifred.

Madge’s eyes snapped to Winifred. “Do I?”

“Very much.” Winifred seemed to sense a different question that hadn’t been asked. She tilted her head in that way she did when she knew Amelia had something on her mind, her nose a perfect button.

Madge pulled lightly on the skirt.

Balderdash! She doesn’t like it. Amelia rushed to agree with her family, assuring Madge it was the most perfect wedding dress she’d ever seen.

“I’ve never seen a better fit or a more beautiful bride.

Captain Fitz is going to be quite smitten.

” She hoped bringing up his name would remind Madge why she was wearing the dress in the first place.

Madge sniffed.

“You do not like it?” asked Miss Hernandez.

“Oh, I do.” Madge stared at the dress in the glass. “I guess I never saw myself as a bride. That is all.”

Miss Hernandez’s dark eyebrows came together sharply. “It is not a question of the dress then. I’ll give you some time with your family.”

When the dressmaker closed the door, Mrs. Scott went to her daughter. “Margaret Ann, what’s the matter?”

“Look at me, Mama.” Madge was still staring into the glass.

Mrs. Scott gestured to her reflection. “I am looking, and you look beautiful.”

“You know what I mean.” Madge pointed to Winifred. “Even Lady Winifred knows what I mean. I am not a woman who wears dresses and tends houses. I am more comfortable in the shed with a hammer. What am I going to do when the captain finds out I can’t cook soup?”

Amelia detected the panic in her sister’s voice and rushed to ease her mind.

She remembered her own raucous feelings the morning of her marriage to Edgar.

One moment she’d been watering horses, and the next she was to be the wife of an earl.

She’d almost run away that morning, but she was so happy that she hadn’t.

Marriage, she had found, wasn’t based on soup alone, and no matter what the domestic magazines said, they would never adequately relay what happened between two people after they married.

“Many women in London do not cook their own soup, and I am lucky to count myself one of them.” Amelia smiled.

“Captain Fitz is not marrying you for your cooking skills. He is marrying you for you.”

“That’s right,” Penelope seconded.

Madge shook her head, and several fiery strands fell from her loose coiffure.

“But why am I marrying him? How well do I know him? Not well at all. My head was turned by him, naturally. He is a good-looking man. But do I want to spend all the days of my life with him? Think of it. Every second from now until my last breath will be in his company.”

Amelia frowned. “When you put it that way, any marriage sounds dreadful.”

“Exactly.” Madge crossed her arms. “Which is why I do not know if marriage is for me.”

And there it was. The idea that Winifred had put in Amelia’s mind days ago.

Under the time constraint, the wedding arrangements were trying; delaying them would be more trying still.

Then Aunt Tabitha must be considered. Picturing her face upon hearing the news of Madge’s reluctance made Amelia’s heart turn to lead.

Yet, she would rather face all of it than see Madge miserable or Captain Fitz taken unaware by the situation.

Madge was young, and London had perhaps gone to her head.

Going back to Somerset might have changed things, changed her mind.

“Have you felt this way long?” asked Amelia.

Madge tipped her chin. “Ever since I put on this blasted dress.”

So about thirty seconds.

“Margaret Ann, watch your language,” Mrs. Scott scolded. “Children are present.”

“Maybe it’s the dress.” Amelia knew how much her sister hated frills. Perhaps they were having an adverse effect on her. “Take it off. Then we’ll talk.”

“What about our dresses?” asked Sarah.

“We might not need them after all,” Penelope muttered.

Mrs. Scott motioned to her daughters. “Come along, girls. You, too, Lady Winifred. We will try on our dresses while Amelia talks to Madge. She knows the situation best.”

“But Mama—” Amelia started, but it was too late. They were gone. For better or worse, she would be the one to talk to Madge.