Silk hose; silk knitted hose, which clung to the leg as mere cut-and-sewn hose couldn’t. Silk shifts, three of them, as fine as cobweb, and trimmed with lace. Undergown, of silk-satin, once white but re-dyed in ochre—not new, but no one would ever know that unless they got their noses within an inch of the seams. Overgown, also not new, but very, very cleverly put together from two “donor” gowns, one of which was the source of the embroidery, the other of the foundation fabric—silk-and-linen twill in a rich re-dyed brown.
Now, how am I going to use this little entertainment? It’s too soon to throw any nets—and too dangerous—but a bit of bait . . .
Young Manfred was very much attracted to her, of that she was quite certain. But would he remember where she had told him she was going? Probably not. He did not strike her as the kind of young man who would remember such things. So—how to remind him?
It was as she was tying the embroidered girdle just under her breasts that it came to her, and she laughed. Of course! She would send him a short length of perfumed rope, with a card saying only Casa Louise. She would pay a messenger to see that it went only into Manfred’s hands. He must go outside of the chapter house and the Imperial embassy sometime.
The sobbing had stopped, the buzz of conversation increased. Good. Time to go.
She gathered all that she wanted to take with her in a very small bag. She hadn’t wasted any of her earnings—until now—on cosmetics or clothing as the other girls did. But her savings—except for enough to take her to her new home—weren’t here. They were on deposit with a goldsmith. So the cosmetics and hair ornaments and jewelry all fitted into a very small bag. She left her robe lying on the floor with her two dresses; some other girl could have it and welcome. She flung over her splendid gown the cloak that had come wrapped around the dress and the rest—the plain side, a dark tabby-weave linen that no one here would look twice at. She drew the hood over her head, and slipped out the door.
The doorman was gone—nursing a bruised and possibly broken skull, she suspected. There had been no one in the Madame’s room, either. Luck smiled upon her tonight.
She did have to walk a little, and this was the most hazardous part of the undertaking—footpads, toughs; she was fair game for anyone who saw her—but they, too, had been frightened out of the area along with the gondoliers. When she finally found one free and flagged him to the side of the canal, she was far enough away from the Red Cat that no one was likely to connect her to the place.
“Casa Louise. Don’t hurry,” she ordered the gondolier. She drew the curtains around the tiny “cabin,” but did not blow out the lamp, for she was going to need it—and every moment it would take to get to Casa Louise.
By the time the boat nosed into the mooring at this most prestigious of Houses, Francesca had completed her transformation. Her hair was now arranged as elegantly as that of any merchant princess, twined with strings of lustrous glass and semiprecious beads, held in place with bejeweled pins. The careful use of cosmetics turned handsome features into something dramatic. And the cloak, now turned right-way around, showed its true face of ochre velvet and gold cording. When she drew back the curtains and the gondolier stooped to offer his hand to help her up, his eyes widened in admiration.
He aided her onto the walkway, and when he withdrew his hand, there was a coin of sufficient worth in it to assure his satisfaction and silence.
Casa Louise, unlike the Red Cat, boasted a landing lit by lanterns, with more lanterns on either side of the door, and two footmen beneath each one. The place was a well-lit stage, for very few of those who arrived here were reluctant to be seen.
Francesca glided up to the footmen with practiced grace and studied aplomb. “Francesca de Chevreuse,” she told the right-hand man, taking up her new identity and name for the first time with immense satisfaction. She did not have to add I am expected, because he would already have been informed.