Promises Prevail (The Promise Series) (59 page)

“No need to be thanking her,” Pearl said as she rapidly filled the other glasses. “The woman knows a good thing when she tastes it, and I’m sure she means to make a pretty penny off the deal.”

Millie raised her glass to Jenna. “That’s the God’s honest truth.”

She paused, her eyes dropping to Jenna’s chest before widening.

“Pearl, did you get a description off Clint before making up this dress?”

“Of course!”

“Well,” Millie took a sip of her whiskey and frowned, “I’ve never known a man to under describe that aspect of a woman’s body.”

Pearl looked up, frowned, and took a quick sip of her drink before setting it on the floor. She whipped her tape measure from around her neck, crossing the room in four steps.

“Clint’s no different than any other man,” she grumbled, wrapping the tape around Jenna’s chest before letting it drop to tug at the tight material under Jenna’s armpit. “Which is why I took his assessment with a grain of salt.”

“More than a grain,” Mara murmured, glancing up. “Sure you can’t spare of bit of that Jenna?” she asked with a rueful glance at her flat chest.

“You can have all you want.”

Lorie snorted. “Like she needs it. Cougar already looks at her like the frosting on his favorite cake, and she’s looking for more incentive?”

Mara shrugged, took a sip of her liquor and shuddered. “Can’t help thinking about the women he knew before me.”

“Doesn’t matter who came before,” Millie tossed back the rest of her drink. “All that matters is that none come after, and Mara honey, that man of yours is a one-woman man.”

“Yes, he is.” Mara’s smile reflected her satisfaction with that fact.

“And,” Elizabeth tossed in after covering Brianna’s ears, “I heard through Asa that Cougar finds your measurements exactly to his liking.”

Jenna closed her eyes, feeling more like a cow with every word. Mara was delicate and dainty and everything men liked about a woman, while she was a woman whose curves overflowed even a dressmaker’s expectations.

“Maybe we could find something that would,” she brushed her hands over her breasts, “flatten me?”

Her whisper landed in the conversation like a rock in a pond, disturbing the equanimity with ripples of surprise.

Pearl’s “Why on earth would we want to do that?” was almost overwhelmed by Millicent’s “Honey, with a chest like that you need to think in terms of flaunting, not hiding.”

“She’s got a point,” Lorie put in. “If you lowered that neckline just a little, there isn’t a man in the territory who wouldn’t drop to a heel.”

Lower the neckline? She was already showing her collarbones and three inches of cleavage. “I don’t want men panting over me.”

“Just Clint,” Dorothy said, her voice sympathetic.

“Yes.” She would love for Clint to feel about her the way Cougar felt about Mara, as if even her flaws were something to celebrate. But for that to happen, he’d have to love her.

“Well, just having Clint notice you is not going to solve your problem,” Pearl muttered as she adjusted the dress with efficient movements. She whipped small scissors out of her belt and two snips later the darts in the left bodice relaxed with startling swiftness.

Jenna grabbed for the bodice, almost spilled her drink, and settled for standing absolutely still.

“I don’t have a problem.”

“I heard you don’t feel Clint loves you.”

She closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath as Pearl snipped the darts on the other side. She let her breath out slowly. At least she could take a regular breath.

“Clint’s a good husband.”

“Huh.” Dorothy set her glass on the small wooden table with a decisive click. “Not if he hasn’t told you he loves you.”

“Especially if you told him you loved him.”

“Selfish bastard, playing it safe.”

Jenna closed her fist on the impulse to yell. “Don’t you call him that. He’s a wonderful man. Much better than I deserve.”

Pearl picked her glass up and drained the last drop.

“Hell, with an attitude like that, no wonder you need our help.”

“I don’t need your help.”

Pearl eyed the loosened bodice. “The rest of the fit is just fine, but the top is going to be an issue.” She shook her head. “And of course you need our help, otherwise you wouldn’t be making excuses for your man.”

“He can’t help that he doesn’t love me.”

“Jenna, don’t take this the wrong way,” Elizabeth ventured as Bri began to fuss, her little fist working against her gums, “but you are plain nuts if you don’t think Clint loves you.”

“That man can’t breathe straight for want of you,” Mara added.

Even she wasn’t naive enough to think wanting had anything to do with love.

“He cares about me and feels protective, but that’s not the same as loving.”

And Jenna couldn’t blame him. She wasn’t strong yet. But she would be.

“I tell you,” Millie said, pouring another glass all around, stopping when she got to Jenna, “emotion is wasted on the young.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” Pearl agreed around the pins she was tucking in her mouth as she tugged the bodice down.

Jenna edged it back up with her free hand as Pearl reached for her glass. She might as well have saved her time as the minute Pearl finished her drink, she was back to tugging it down.

“I think if I lower the bodice, I can get the fall right.” She stepped back the length of her arm. “And you certainly have the stature to carry it off.”

This time Pearl didn’t let go when Jenna tugged.

“Clint said not to get anything too low-cut.”

Pearl still didn’t let go. “Clint isn’t wearing it.”

“Pearl’s got a point,” Elizabeth said that with a matter-of-factness that had Jenna looking at her twice.

“Is your dress this low?” She couldn’t believe Asa would allow Elizabeth to wear anything that low. He was known to be a very possessive man.

Elizabeth grinned, squared her shoulders and thrust out her chest.

“Lower. I’ve got to take advantage of this baby bounty while it lasts.”

“Wonderful,” Mara laughed, “there’s hope for me yet. Just need to get a baby for me to feed, and I’ll be one of the bountiful.”

Millicent raised her eyebrows. “Bountiful?”

Mara shrugged and took Bri from Elizabeth. “No harm in dreaming big.”

“As if that husband of yours isn’t bounty enough,” Pearl muttered around the pins.

Jenna could only blink at the way the women talked, as if their husband’s opinions were not paramount.

“Asa will allow you to wear a dress like that?” she asked Elizabeth.

“He’s not going to be happy, but by the time he finds out, we’ll be at the social and it will be too late.”

“What will he do?”

Elizabeth shrugged and unbuttoned her jacket. “He’ll whisper threats in my ear about what he’ll do when he gets me home and then he’ll spend all night drooling over my new breasts and glaring at the men who’d like a peek.”

“And when you get home?”

Elizabeth smiled widely. “He’ll take me upstairs to the bedroom and show me how much he appreciates my charms.”

“Wont’ he be jealous?”

Elizabeth laughed. “I’m counting on it.”

Her expression gave Jenna pause. Elizabeth was looking forward to her night with her husband, to tempting him and teasing him and reaping the results. Jenna couldn’t imagine teasing Clint like that, testing the edge of his patience while tempting his desire.

But Mara obviously could. She held Bri above her head, laughing with the child as she kicked her feet and waved her hands.

“You know, Pearl. I’m thinking my dress is a bit too modest.”

“And going to stay that way too,” Pearl muttered. “Cougar about tore the head off that boy who he decided was dancing too close last summer.”

“He didn’t really hurt him.”

“Scared him out of town, though, and my Evie was just getting around to settling on him.”

Millicent laughed. “Wishful thinking on your part that Evie has plans on settling down. She reminds me too much of you.”

Pearl pulled herself to her full height. “I am the soul of propriety.”

“Which doesn’t mean you didn’t kick over a few traces in your day.” Millie finished off her second glass of drink. “And it looks like Evie intends to follow in her mother’s footsteps.”

“Heaven forbid.”

For all of her eye-rolling, Pearl didn’t seem that upset with the situation.

“How old is Evie?” Jenna sucked in her breath when Pearl looked up. She didn’t want to be stabbed.

“She’s twenty.” Pearl shook her head as she folded the loose bodice under and pinned it in place. “And not in any hurry to provide me with grandchildren.”

Jenna was afraid to glance down but a kind of morbid fascination had her looking, and promptly had her hand flying up to cover her chest.

“I can’t wear a dress like this!”

Pearl’s answer was an arch of her brow. “Why not?”

“My bosom is showing.”

“I prefer to think of it as being showcased.”

“Clint would kill me.”

Lorie choked on her drink. “I may be the only maiden here, but even I know the last thing on his mind if he saw you in that dress would be murder. You’re beautiful, Jenna.”

Beautiful? She took her hands away from her chest and turned to the mirror while murmuring, “He told me not to make it too low.”

When she faced the mirror fully, she looked up.

“It’s low, but not too low,” Elizabeth offered, coming up behind her and taking the glass from her hand.

It was beautiful. She’d never seen anything like it. Her whole life she’d worn baggy gray or brown high-necked dresses. Dresses designed to diminish a woman’s looks, to lower her ability to tempt a man from the straight and narrow. But if Clint saw her in this dress…

Oh heavens, she wanted him to see her in this dress that seemed to capture the light and reflect it in flattering shimmers over her skin. This dress that fit her like a glove and made her look sensuously curved rather than fat. This dress that made her hair blonder, her eyes bluer. This dress that made her look like a woman who should be on his arm.

“It’s beautiful,” she whispered.

Pearl shook her head and handed Jenna back her glass.

“A dress can only enhance what’s already there.” She adjusted the seam under her left arm. “And you’ve always had a lot to work with.”

“I’m not beautiful.”

“Clint told Asa you were,” Elizabeth pointed out.

“When?”

“The first time he saw you outside the mercantile.”

“That was a long time ago. How would you know?”