Chapter 9

At the shop I found that my bolt ends had been delivered so I stored them in the ‘special’ room. Everything seemed to be ticking over nicely and I chatted with everyone for a while until Roberta commented, “You’re happy today. I would think that you may have got a good seeing to last night. Was it Jim or have you found another stud?”

I laughed. “About as far from a stud as it’s possible to get but I was satisfied and so was she.”

Roberta had once been Robert and understood the implications immediately, grabbing me in a hug. “That’s something I had thought about myself but have been afraid to try. I’m not sure my mother would understand.”

I whispered, “It’s all right, Bobbie, it may be a residual memory of when we were boys. Colette has the same problem and I have seen her looking at me oddly sometimes; but although I once had a crush on her it is not the same as I experienced last night.”

A customer came in so Roberta needed to get into salesgirl mode, something she had got very good at. I watched her work for a minute or two and then felt Helen at my side. She had an empty cup in her hand and asked me if I wanted some tea.

I said I would and she called to Roberta that we would be in the kitchen if we were needed. Sitting at the little table with steaming cups in front of us she said, “Last year was a very strange one. I started out wondering whether I would be able to stay open and then this magic angel came and asked for a job. Then I had more business than I could cope with and she went out and brought back another magic angel. The sales last year was three times more than my best year before that and it is keeping going at the same pace.”

I told her that she had learned a lot herself and the stock lines we now held turned over with a nice ting of the cash register.

“I have watched the two of you work often enough to see that you have a power that I don’t have but I have learned to start asking the questions that you do and I can almost see what they are talking about.”

“Would you like the power, just a little bit?”

She looked startled, “Could I?”

“The problem is that once you have the power it does not turn off when the door shuts. You have it all day, every day, and you may not want to know what other people are actually thinking. If you want, I can give you a little bit of the power to see what the customers are thinking about and, if you don’t like it, I can take it away again. I warn you, though, it is addictive.”

She nodded and I asked her to stand so I could hug her. When I did I directed some power into her and tried to also instil some ability not to misuse it.

Before we left the kitchen I told her that I had signed a deal with the House of Jules to help him out on special projects and that he was going to pay me a good retainer.

“I can let you stop paying me as I am hardly here some weeks” I said.

She shook her head, “No, what I pay you is a drop in the ocean against what you have brought me. I will continue your wage and will take whatever time you can spare. Now, quickly, tell me about these special projects.”

There was a back copy of the fashion magazine in the kitchen so I picked it up and found the first picture of Lady Appleby. I showed her the picture. “That was the first one I designed for them and he made four dresses in different fabrics and colours for her. The day before yesterday I designed a dress for her to wear at the opening of Tommy on Broadway and yesterday I was sitting with a Baroness designing dresses for her to wear at various events, including a royal garden party.”

“It all came about from my fashion show at the Chelsea last year and the one this term with the Dianna dresses. It has all been a whirlwind but I have told Jules that I need to be here and that he has to fit in with my plans. The problem is that the ladies who buy from him have no concept that other, less noble folks, have any free will at all.”

Just then we heard Roberta call from the door that the shop was filling up so I said, “Come on Helen, now is the time to see how you go with your new abilities.”

We had a steady stream of ladies with open purses looking for spring clothes and the cash register kept tinging in a very satisfying way. I could see Helen master the art of not looking too closely at her customer as she built up a picture and became unerringly correct in her choices when she went to the racks.

Even Roberta noticed and asked me if I had passed her any powers and I told her it was just for a test run to see if she could handle it. Roberta said, “Thank you, it was getting a bit tiring being the only one here with the sight.”

I took Helen off for lunch and sat where I could keep an eye on the shop while she went to get something to eat. She had a twinkle in her eye when she sat down with a salad filled roll on a plate.

“It was so funny. I asked the girl at the counter if she had any fresh rolls and she immediately thought of one she was keeping for her own lunch so I pointed to it and said that this one looked good. She had no choice but to give it to me.”

We ate our lunch in a calm silence and then I saw four women go into the shop and the auras looked wrong. I said “Go get the centre security, I think we have some shoplifters.”

I kept my eyes on them and I saw that one was keeping Roberta busy while three started taking items off the racks and going into the changing rooms and coming out empty handed.

Helen came back with the two burly guys that patrolled the centre and I pointed out the shoplifters. As they had decided that they had stolen enough they turned to leave the shop, only to find that their exit was blocked by a couple of large blokes.

Of course there was the bluster, the ‘you can’t stop us leaving’, followed by the ‘can’t search us, it’s against the law’. The last coincided with the arrival of a couple of female police officers who took the four girls into our kitchen, one watching over them while the other spoke to us and took notes when I described the clothes I had seen them take.

The security guys guarded to exit while the two policewomen got the girls to remove their outer clothing, ticking off each item I had described as it appeared. When all were down to their underwear they were allowed to put their own clothes back on.

Ours was in a pile with all the tags still showing. One of the policewomen had called up a van and the felons were paraded through the shopping centre in handcuffs to be loaded up and taken to the police station. Helen took the pile of clothes and went over to the dry cleaning shop to get them all cleaned before they went back on the racks.

When she came back she remarked that our stock was so nice it was worth stealing. I said that I wondered if it was worth getting a criminal record for.

Roberta was upset at how they had put one over her and we told her that they must have done it countless times as they had been very good at it. I later heard that the police had been around all of the shops in the area with photos of the girls and had found out that they were, indeed, very well practised as no-one had been able to catch them in the act before.

When their homes were searched, the police found piles of clothes and small electrical goods which eventually found their way back to the real owners who also had big pictures of them with the note “Don’t serve any of these girls.”

I rang May the following day to see how she was getting on with the boucle and she told me that the only one she could get in a light blue also had a red and white twist in it but she thought it would work.

I made an arrangement to pick her up on Saturday morning and we would go somewhere together, perhaps bring an overnight bag. I quickly looked in the papers at local shows or events and found a show I thought we would like. I rang a hotel nearby and booked a double room, just in case we were too late to go home.

Friday I was back in the Chelsea to pick up my results and to look into the Arts Office. They told me I could start the next term and that I should be up to speed as the first two terms were drawing and they thought that if I sat the two exams they could credit me the terms I had missed. That sounded good so I arranged to get the fees paid,and organised two days at the beginning of the next term to see if I was up to scratch.

That weekend I took May to a zoo, a meal, a show and both of us to seventh heaven on Saturday night. Sunday was interesting to wake up in the arms of a girl who gave me a kiss and said, “I think it may be love.”

“You, my darling, may be right. In fact you are the rightest May I have ever met. I have never felt like this before and if it is love, then I want more.” So we did have some more before breakfast and checking out.

Sunday we went to one of the Art Galleries where we strolled, hand in hand, and I studied all of the pictures, their composition and methods of painting. They had a small exhibition of Leonardo sketches on loan and it was good to see just how the master portrayed so much with so few pencil strokes.

I gave her lunch and took her home, saying that I needed to sort a few things out for work next week. At her front door we kissed and she said, “Thank you for being you,” before she went inside. I went home with a big smile on my face.

Monday I spent some time in the shop first and then went on the train into London. I popped into the Chelsea to have a look at my cubby hole and found a note from the admin saying that my copyright applications had been processed and there was an envelope with the two certificates in.

There was also a note that I needed to pay the fees involved so I went to the admin office and gave them a cheque. I put the receipt in the envelope.

I then made my way to the House of Jules and asked if I could go and see May. I was let into the inner sanctum and went to the sewing room where I found her in a little area that had been set up just for my creations.

I gave her a hug and said I was just in to see the boucle material. She had made most of the dress and it was on a dummy. Boucle is not the easiest material in the world to work with but she had done wonders.

I noticed a pile of labels on the worktop and, when I looked at one, it read ‘Asquith Designs from the House of Jules’. I put one in my bag and then had a look at where she was with the Baroness order but she was still in the phase of finding the right fabric.

I asked if Lady A’s outfit would be ready in time and she told me it would be done before the end of the week and delivered before she flew to New York. It was cutting it fine but it would grace the Broadway red carpet on the night.

I gave May a little arm squeeze and said that I still tingled when I thought of Saturday night and wondered if we could do it again sometime. She smiled and said she was looking forward to it already.

Just then Jules came bustling in and cried, “Amity, thank goodness you are here. I have a lady in the studio that is insistent that you talk to her as her good friend, the Lady Appleby, has been singing your praises. May, you can take ten minutes and assist.”

“Jules, your urgency is not mine. You need to stop pandering to any woman who walks through the door if you want this line to remain sought after and, by extension, expensive.”

We followed him to the studio with May giving me a sketch-book. The lady waiting for us was not happy at being kept waiting and, as we walked in, said, “It’s about time. I need a dress for a very important party next weekend and I want you to design and make it, let me know when I can pick it up,” and then went to pick up her bag to leave.

“No, I do not work that way. If that is your way of ordering a creation you would be better off letting Jules create it for you. I am a bespoke designer and, as such, need you to sit and talk to me for at least ten minutes while I get an idea of what you would like as well as what you have looked good in before.”

“Do you know who I am?”

“No, but that doesn’t matter. If you are famous and rich enough to order one of my designs on a whim then I am sure that others would recognise you. Jules didn’t tell me who was waiting to see me and you have not had the manners to introduce yourself.”

I turned to go and, as I gave the sketch-book to a startled May, standing next to Jules who had gone white and had his jaw hanging open.

“Wait, please, I seemed to have forgotten my upbringing today. Please, let us sit as you say and talk. I am interested in you now, most young girls would have fallen at my feet and allowed me to walk over them. It is refreshing to find someone so young yet so feisty.”

I turned back, looked at her, “I am Amity Asquith and this is May Smith. Together we are Asquith Designs and will create something that you will look good in and also love wearing. Now, May only has a little while as she needs to get back to making an outfit for one of our exclusive clients so we had better sit down and start the process!”

“I am pleased to meet you both, I am Anna Oubis and I have made several romantic comedy movies over the last few years. I am sorry but I thought that every girl I meet would have seen them,”

She sat down then said. “Oh Jules, be a dear and get us some tea.”

I sat. “I’m sorry but I can’t think of any film I have seen that could be classed as romantic comedy. For me, romance is a serious business.”

I could see that May was having a problem keeping herself in check; whether through wanting to laugh or wanting to ask for an autograph, I couldn’t tell.

I opened the sketch-book at a clean page and asked “Now, to get down to the business in hand, what is the event you need a dress for?”

So we started the process of drawing out of her the sort of style she needed, the image she wanted to project and the clothes that she had felt good in on previous occasions. During that time Jules had come back bearing a tray with tea and biscuits on it and May had gained enough self-composure to add design elements.

At the end of a quarter of an hour we had drained the teacups, eaten the biscuits, completed a drawing and, I think, became friends.

When I showed her the final result she sat there stunned before a big grin appeared, “By the hairs on my arsehole, girl, I think you have really nailed it! Oops, that was a throwback to my younger days before I got class.”

Because of the time limits, I turned to a totally gobsmacked Jules and said “Jules dear, as this is a rush thing, can we have another couple of your best dressmakers helping May for a week? Make sure you tell them that she will be in charge.”

Without waiting for his reply I turned to Anna and asked “Have we got your latest measurements on file?” This led to her being taken to another room for May to take the measurements while I added them to the sketch page.

As she was about to leave, Anna hugged both of us and told us that we were a fresh breeze in her world and that we may hear from her another time.

May looked at me after she had gone and asked, “What in Hades have I got myself into knowing you?” and sat down shaking with laughter. “Oh, I don’t watch rom-coms, I take romance seriously! That was priceless and I think I love you even more for saying it.”

We were alone so we kissed and I then said “Back into you cell, minion, we have dresses to make and film stars to conquer! Don’t forget, whoever Jules sends to you, let them make suggestions but you call the shots. I am going to go and see him now and put the fear of god into him and it won’t need a dragon.”

We both had smiles on our faces as we went separate ways. I found Jules in his office so went in and sat in front of his desk, taking out the label and laying it in front of him.

“Getting a little forward, are we, Jules?” I said. “You could have asked me if you could put our agreement on the label before getting them made. I recall that I signed on with you to work part-time and that you would pay me for my drawings; am I right?”

He nodded and I pulled out my copyright paperwork and showed him the Asquith Design one, saying “Now, you have been good so far but I have to remind you that the agreement only covers the exclusive clientele who will be silly enough to pay the outrageous prices you are putting on my creations.”

Again he nodded so I carried on “I certainly do not want to see this label appearing on a range of dresses that I have not personally been involved in and I saw enough of the labels down there to last twenty years if they were only for my designs. So, what did you think you could do with my, now copyright, brand?”

He gulped. “I told that girl in reception to get the name copyrighted but I suppose she forgot. You have me over a barrel, Amity, what do you want?”

“What I want is for us both to come out of this ahead,” I said, “The Asquith Design label will only be used on the small amount of output that will make you a lot of money. For that to happen I will require another two hundred pounds per label used as payment for using the copyright. I am sure that you have plenty in the pricing to cover that. If you want to use the basis of any of my designs I will allow you to use the name Amity Creations on the label and will require fifty pounds for each label used in that way.”

“I have the copyright to that name here as well. That will allow you to have a new range that you can show on the catwalk. One thing is a must, though, these dresses can never, I repeat never, be in the colours that our exclusive clients have bought, and some changes can be made to differentiate them as well. I will also use the Amity Creations label on my own output for clothes I make up in Redhill.”

“That sounds reasonable, as long as you continue in the same way as it is at present. I agree, we can both profit on this and we can both retain our individual control. Anything else?” he asked.

“Yes” I said “May needs a bigger space down in the sewing room or even a separate room for herself and her helpers as they are needed. If it doesn’t work out you can always but it back to the way it was before. Also, on my designs May is in charge of the dressmaking.”

He smiled. “Amity, you are a witch, you know.”

“For such an observant comment, Jules, I think you can take May and me out to lunch so we can get on a friendly footing for the future.”

Marianne Gregory © 2022