Her Graceful War Song novel 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.

Folding fans were trickier—harder to make as silk brocade didn't fold as easily as paper. Still, we created a few now and then, simply for their delicate beauty when opened.

Mr. Claude was quite taken with them. Every time he visited, he would purchase one.

One day, I happened to be there, though not in the front hall. I was in the back room, going over the accounts, when I overheard him speaking with the shop assistant.

"Do you have anything made by the duchess today?" he asked.

"There's a round fan, but it's rather plain. We were planning to sell it at a lower price," the shop assistant replied.

"Truly? Show it to me at once," he insisted, sounding delighted.

A moment passed before he spoke again, full of praise.

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