Her Graceful War Song by Summer's Blaze

Chapter 1631

Samuel no longer dared to show his face. On the other hand, Mr. Claude began appearing before me rather often.

Several times, he brought his servant and stopped by the shop set up to sell the embroidery made by the ladies at our workshop. Over the past few years, we had built up a fine list of noble ladies and officials' wives as regular customers. I would occasionally visit to play hostess.

Truth be told, the embroidery had no trouble selling. After all, in the entire capital, few could rival Ms. Moore's needlework. It was only when dealing with wealthy clients that the prices were higher.

Now that the court permitted women to register as heads of their own households, many of the ladies were eager to earn enough money to purchase a small house of their own and live comfortably.

As I held the title of duchess and was cousin to the regent's princess consort, the ladies of noble families were more than willing to befriend me.

At first, Mr. Claude only passed by the shop with his servant, casting a glance inside as he walked on. But when it became a regular occurrence, he began stepping inside to make purchases.

Besides clothing and robes, the shop also sold smaller embroidered goods like fans, handkerchiefs, folding screens, and other such objects. Most were made for

women.

He never bought clothes-only folding fans.

In truth, folding fans were rare. We mostly made round fans, stitched from fine materials and embroidered with birds, flowers, and all manner of creatures. Some were even double-sided, with designs so lifelike they seemed ready to fly off the silk.

easily as paper. Still, we

Every time he visited,

I was in the back room, going over the accounts, when I overheard him speaking with the

you have anything made by the duchess today?"

fan, but it's rather plain. We were planning to sell it at a

to me at once," he insisted,

he spoke again,

than the rest. You mustn't sell it cheaply; it ought to be priced higher. I'll take it, but don't let Her Grace know I bought

My embroidery wasn't bad, but compared

ladies, it fell far

awkward moment, I dared

Grace didn't

"She did. She's in the back

hall. From where I stood, I heard the sound of a coin pouch falling to the floor, followed by a long silence. After that came the clink of money being placed on the table and the hurried thump of footsteps

shop assistant stood stunned for a moment before muttering, "Why's he running

the back in a bit of

she had persistently tried to arrange a match between Mr. Claude and I. Strangely, though I had always