The Prince and the Dressmaker

A piece of ruffle pattern with detailed text decorates Chapter 10’s frontispiece; it spills off the top and right of the page, and a small bit of another pattern peeks from the bottom left corner.

Paris is full of women whispering behind their hands. Carrying a hamper, Frances overhears Peter Trippley and two other men making fun of Sebastian for wearing dresses. They think the women who wanted to marry him must feel “stupid,” and explode laughing at the fact he was found wearing one of the Queen’s own gowns. Frances throws her hamper down in the doorway. With a furious glare, she calls the men monsters before running into the street. She skirts a crowd at the palace entrance and catches Emile at the side door to ask what happened. He says Sebastian disappeared and the King and Queen are returning to Belgonia, leaving Emile in Paris to listen for clues to their child’s whereabouts. Sebastian’s one request before his betrothal was that Emile return to Frances all the clothes she made.

Frances enters the empty dressing room and finds the trunks Sebastian packed. She kneels and begins to hang the dresses on the changing screen.