Chapter 2.24

Mrs. Priddy was pacing and looking at the front door with fire in her eyes.

Patricia was trying to look as small as possible while arranging some embroidered pieces to display. The day before, the client who needed the handkerchiefs appeared to ask about her order and got angry at the delay. Mrs. Priddy could only apologize and promise to have it the following day.

On the promised day, morning had passed and Isabelle did not show up. As midday rolled and afternoon made its way, Mrs. Priddy was close to getting something then and there. Luckily, there was no Cordelia to fan the flames as Patricia knew she would do. Cordelia was amazing with her hands, doing very beautiful embroidered pieces, but she was also very venomous in Patricia's opinion.

Mrs. Priddy even neglected eating her lunch as she waited for Isabelle. Patricia wondered if Isabelle would be fired after that one order. Not one to think too much about others, she refocused on her job and offered a cup of tea to Mrs. Priddy, hoping it would calm her down.

Just when her boss was about to pace again with the tea cup in her hand, the woman who had the older woman in that state appeared.

"Finally!" Mrs. Priddy cried out, startling Isabelle and the two men who walked in behind the latter. Of course, more than angry, Mrs. Priddy was relieved as losing a client was worse for the older woman than one of her workers suddenly quitting or disappearing with her materials.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Priddy. I am terribly sorry for my delay. I got sick and could not finish the order beforehand." Isabelle very calmly and gently apologized; without putting herself down and neither looking down on her boss. She was very dignified even when admitting her mistakes.

Patricia had seen this level of elegance only in those wealthy ladies in town. Making her a bit discomfited, uneasy.

"It's fine. Did you bring all the handkerchiefs?" Patricia winced at the lack of tact from Mrs. Priddy. She did not even ask if Isabelle was alright. Being sick was not an easy affair, especially for those who lived at villages. Though, Patricia was starting to doubt if Isabelle was truly from a village.

Isabelle nodded and turned towards the two men Mrs. Priddy and Patricia had ignored until then.

If Patricia had any doubt Isabelle came from a village due to her poise, then with the appearance of the two young men, unitdy and obviously malnourished, it was cut down at the roots. Although their overall physical appearance was not bad, their wiry frames toned down that charm by a lot.

The uneasy feeling quickly vanished after that.

Patricia was used to seeing the elegant, clean and fairer men in town so, she was not attracted to these worked, sweaty and very tanned men from the village. Of course, she was not trying to discriminate, but she just preferred men from town. Or maybe it was because her father and mother always reminded her to look for a town man and not a villager.

Either way, she soon put aside Isabelle's companions and looked at the handkerchiefs the young woman brought.

According to rumors, the wedding those handkerchiefs were going to be given at was a rushed matter as it was discovered the woman was already pregnant. So, they decided to formally unite the couple and avoid being gossiped about. Besides, although there were already some rumors about the affair going around, they had not spread so much because the people involved came from wealthy families in town.

Who would like to get in trouble with the rich?

"The craftsmanship is perfect." Mrs. Priddy nodded as she inspected each handkerchief. The worried woman from before had completely disappeared. "Right! I guess we are good here. A bit tight with time, but as long as the product is fine, then we have no problem." Mrs. Priddy said with a smile.

She had been pressured by the urgency of the client the day before, but she had been more worried of the extra money she would receive for making the order on time.

There was still a week for the wedding; however, Mrs. Priddy's embroidery shop always liked to give the products with ample time. That was why she had promised the handkerchiefs in a week. The client of course would give her the respective reward for tackling the order in such a short time. She never mentioned the rewards to her employees because that was her gain.

As the owner, she obviously had to make more money; otherwise, she would not be able to keep her business afloat. Especially, when some workers tended to disappear with her materials. With everything in order, Mrs. Priddy headed to the back of the store, towards her room, to take out the promised 30 coins for the job.

Patricia, meanwhile, watched how the man with the fierce appearance approached Isabelle and took the big box where the handkerchiefs had been stored. She had peeped at the embroidery materials Isabelle had in the box and discovered they were quite lacking, in quality and quantity; not quite the image of being a notable embroiderer.

Patricia was confused. How could Isabelle, being new and with just basic embroidery skills and materials, get such a good commission?

Patricia was taken out of her musings when the fierce man loudly kissed Isabelle before exiting the shop, not before giving the box to the younger man. Patricia flushed at the display and quickly got herself busy. No wonder her parents told her to look for a man in town, those men from villages were too…

The door loudly opened and a well-maintained middle-aged woman entered without even glancing at the people at the storefront. "Is my order finished, Mrs. Priddy?" She loudly inquired.

From the back, the called-out woman hurriedly came out carrying a nice-looking package, the handkerchiefs most likely, and subserviently greeted the other woman. "Yes. Yes. We finally have them. I'm sorry for the delay, Mrs. Soxanne." She opened the package and let Mrs. Soxanne check them out.

The woman just gave them a half-hearted look and nodded. "At least they are worth the money I'm paying." She said, not caring who heard. Then, she put the cloth bag she had been carrying on the counter. "Help me with this. My husband got this plain thing as a veil, but my daughter doesn't like it. Can you embroider something pretty on it?"

Mrs. Priddy took out the material from the bag and her eyebrows twitched. It was thinner than the fabrics she usually worked with. It had to be a new fabric coming from the capital or a wealthy city, and probably very expensive. For the father to have gotten the fabric meant he loved his daughter very dearly. Yet the daughter…

Basin Town was very close to the border, so they barely got the new cotton sheets in the market. For such a delicate fabric to arrive at Mrs. Priddy's hands… She really did not want to take up the job, but Mrs. Soxanne paid well. So, gritting her teeth, she asked, "Has she thought on what she'd like?"

"She wants it all to be very flowery. So, maybe some roses or tulips." Mrs. Soxanne relayed. The daughter did not pull up and went for the hardest flowers to embroider on such a thin fabric. Worst of it, she wanted the most conspicuous flowers to be embroidered on white, which was the color of the fabric. It would not look different than a pillow case or a sheet. Even curtains would look more elegant than the finished veil.

Mrs. Priddy tried very hard not to voice out how the daughter wanted to ruin such a good fabric and just smiled.

"70 coins for the work." The owner threw the price.

Mrs. Soxanne frowned and pursed her lips before sighing. "70 it is. In three days." She sentenced before striding out of the store, leaving three flabbergasted women and one bugged-eyed teen behind.

Mrs. Priddy did not think the woman was going to accept, but she actually hit the jackpot with such a work. Of course, the embroidery work was going to be a hard task but it was worth the 70 coins. Patricia was shaken to know such an easy work costed that much. At most, she had done 37 coins jobs! She looked at the piece of fabric in the older woman's hand with shining eyes. She wanted that job!

Meanwhile, Isabelle was thinking that 70 coins was too much to pay for ruining such nice fabric! Fabric which would have costed the same amount as the embroidery work. Furthermore, roses and tulips on such a thin fabric would look hideous! Worse if they used the same color as the original flowers. Felix's mind was spinning after hearing the price. 70 coins...

They had been dazed with just 30 coins, but here he was hearing a simple thing was going to cost that much... Towns were different indeed!

Mrs. Priddy came out from her stupor and looked down at the fabric in bewilderment. How was she going to embroider such an ugly design? As she pondered, someone softly cleared their throat to get her attention. The older woman looked up and noticed the waiting Isabelle.

"Oh, dear, I almost forgot." Mrs. Priddy said with a sheepish smile. "Here." Digging out a purse, she handed it to Isabelle. "Take the purse, too. It's a welcome gift from my part."

"Thank you, Mrs. Priddy." Isabelle smiled. "Are there any works I can do?" The owner opened her mouth to ask if she could do the embroidery for the veil. After all, if someone was to ruin the fabric, she did not want to be the culprit. However, she refrained from asking as she did not think the young woman had the experience to do it.

In the end, Mrs. Priddy decided to leave the work to Cordelia. Perhaps, the younger woman could save the fabric from not being completely ruined. For Isabelle, she ended up mentioning the work she had been planning to give her all along.

"Can you sew tassels?" Isabelle nodded. "Great. Mrs. Letaxe, the mayor's sister-in-law was invited to Mrs. Soxanne daughter's wedding. The woman is a bit of a cheapskate, so she decided to gift a set of sheets and a pair of pillow cases. Though, she still wanted to pretend to be high-class like the Soxanne family and asked me to add tassels to them." She gossiped while taking out the aforementioned things and putting them in a bag for easy carrying. "The smallest tassels! She said when I told her the price for the usual ones. She even bargained the price for the small ones!" Mrs. Priddy grumbled and complained. "Anyway, 10 coins for it. Within the week."

Isabelle accepted the work. Tassels were annoying to sew, but way easier than embroidering. And 10 coins were good money. Furthermore, they were in need of any money they could get so she could not be so picky.

She had wanted to take up the veil work, several ideas coming to her mind as soon as she saw the fabric despite the ugly design. But, since Mrs. Priddy did not mention it, then she said nothing as she did not want to seem greedy. She could see the dilemma on the owner's face, but she also would not give her ideas for free.

Anyway, with a new job in hand, she exited the shop with Felix taking the bag from her hands. And, with money in hand, she listed up the things she could buy in her mind while heading to the market, Felix dutifully following her.