Wedded in Sin by Jade Lee Page A

all and she would not steal a customer’s dress.
    “Shush,” said Wendy as she enveloped Penny in a fierce hug. “You’ll take the gowns. They’re stitched badly and I’ll not have our name on them.” She took a moment to glare at her apprentice. “But they’ll do for you in a pinch. Come on. Tabby, you come, too. You can help pick some of Helaine’s dresses. She’s a lady now and will have all new things afore long, so she won’t mind a bit. Mr. Morrison, we’ll be just a few minutes.”
    Penny tried to object, but she was overruled. And truthfully, she didn’t fight very hard. She did need a better gown for a visit to a solicitor, even if he was a lying thief. And even more than that, Wendy’s brusk hug felt beyond wonderful. She hadn’t realized how rigidly she’d been holding herself until her friend bustled her up the stairs. Penny didn’t even have to look to know that Mrs. Appleton and Tommy were following behind. And Tabby, too, apparently.
    And then for the next half hour they washed her face, brushed her hair, and sorted through the gowns. They generally mothered her in the way that only a group of dear friends can. And by the end of it, Penny felt stronger. Perhaps even strong enough to face an evil solicitor.
    Or at least that was what she thought until she finally made it back downstairs and discovered that Mr. Morrison had disappeared.
    Samuel was bored. He knew from experience that women never took “just a few minutes” to do anything. And even if they did, it only took a few seconds for him to become bored. Or for his mind to start wandering, and once it did that, his body often followed. And that was exactly what happened.
    He settled in the front sitting room, just as he’d promised. But that only lasted long enough for all the women to make it upstairs. Then he stood and began inspecting the room he was in. Everything he saw confirmed his suspicion that the dress shop had just recently been in very dire circumstances. But the amount of work in the back room and the piles of receipts on the desk there indicated that the hard times were behind them. Or at least they were for the moment.
    But there was something that had caught his eye in the workroom. Something out of place even in the chaos of a women’s dressmaking shop. If only he could remember it. Normally he had perfect recall, but apparently Miss Shoemaker had the unwelcome attribute of distracting him when she was near. Things that would normally be burned onto his memory were inconsequential shadows instead. And this particular shadow drew him out of the front parlor and into the now empty workroom.
    He stood there frowning as he surveyed everything. What had been out of place? He wandered aimlessly through the tables laden with piles of fabrics and patterns. He spent a little time inspecting the desk placed to the side, and he couldn’t resist peeking at the books. Yes, the shop was definitely on the financial mend. But the aristocracy were a fickle bunch, and the news had yet to break that the new Lady Redhill was actually Lady Helaine, the daughter of the Thief of the Ton. Who knew what would happen here when everyone started talking about that?
    Meanwhile, he wandered on. He stepped through the new apprentice’s tiny area. As small as her corner of the shop was, every part of her work space seemed to be set at maximum distance from her chair. A bottle of buttons, a box of pins, even the thread she used was placed neatly but very far from where she sat. He made his conclusions there, then moved on to the seamstress’s primary work area. That was when he found what had seemed so out of place before. He hadn’t noticed it immediately because it was covered up by a half-made dress. But when he’d first walked into the room, Miss Drew had been stitching and so he had seen the pack of cards half slipped under a pile of fabric. As if someone had been practicing with them when they had been surprised and then quickly tried to