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.

as easily as paper. Still, we created a few now and then, simply for

taken with them. Every time

I happened to be there, though not in the front hall. I was in the back room, going over the accounts, when

you have anything made by the duchess today?" he

planning to sell it at a lower price," the shop

it to me at

passed before he spoke again, full of

better than the rest. You mustn't sell it cheaply; it ought to be priced

wasn't bad, but

it fell far

an awkward moment, I

Grace didn't come in today,

replied, "She did. She's in 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

"Why's he running off?

sat in the back in a

Mr. Claude and I. Strangely, though