A Gift of Dragons - Anne McCaffrey [42]
She opened a large wardrobe and, from the many there, she brought out a long gown with full sleeves and some fine embroidered trim that made all three girls gasp.
“It’s lovely. Oh, I couldn’t wear something this valuable,” Tenna exclaimed, backing away.
“Nonsense,” Silvina said, and gestured for Tenna to slip out of her runner top.
When Tenna carefully slipped on the dress, the softness of the fabric against her skin made her feel . . . special. She tried a little spin and the long skirt swirled about her ankles while the full sleeves billowed about her arms. It was the most flattering dress she’d worn and she examined it thoroughly, committing the details of its design to her mind so that she could reproduce it the next time she had marks enough for a Gather dress. The one she had at home was nowhere near as splendid as this. Could she, should she dance, in something as elegant as this? What if she spilled something on it?
“I’m not sure . . . ,” she began as she faced her companions.
“Not sure!” Rosa was indignant. “Why, that deep blue shows up your lovely skin and your eyes . . . they are blue, aren’t they, or is it the dress makes them so? And it fits like it was made for you!”
Tenna looked down at the low-cut front of the bodice. Whoever it had been made for had had a lot more breast. She didn’t fill it out properly. Silvina was rummaging through another box.
“Here,” she said, and stuffed two pads in the front, settling them with such a practiced hand that the adjustment was done before Tenna could protest.
“There! That’s much better,” Spacia said, and then giggled. “I have to pad, too. But it’d be worse for us as runners to be heavy, bumping around all the time.”
Tenna tentatively felt her newly improved form but, as she looked at herself in the mirror, she could see that the fit of the top was vastly improved and she looked more . . . more . . . well, it fit better. The fabric was so smooth to the touch, it was a pleasure just to feel the dress on her. And this shade of blue . . .
“This is Harper blue,” she said with surprise.
“Of course it is,” Silvina said with a laugh. “Not that it matters. You’ll be wearing runner cords . . . though right now,” and Silvina’s appreciative grin broadened, “you don’t look runnerish . . . if you’ll forgive my frankness.”
Tenna couldn’t help admiring how much better her figure looked with that little alteration. She had a slim waist and the dress hugged it before flaring out over hips that she knew to be too bony and best covered.
“The pads won’t . . . pop out . . . will they, when I’m dancing?”
“If you’ll take off the dress, I’ll put a few stitches to secure them where they should stay,” Silvina said.
That was done so quickly that Silvina was folding the lovely dress over Tenna’s arm before she realized it.
“Now, shoes?” Spacia asked. “She can’t wear spikes. . . .”
“She might better wear them,” Rosa said dourly, “with some of those louts who come to a Fort Gather. Haligon’s not the only one who’ll home in on her, looking that way.”
Silvina had cast a measuring glance at Tenna’s long, narrow feet and now took a long box down from one of the many shelves in this huge storeroom.
“Should have something to fit even narrow runner feet . . . ,” she murmured, and came up with a pair of soft, ankle-high, black suede boots. “Try these.”
They did not fit. But the fourth pair—in dark red—were only slightly too long.
“Wear thick anklets and they’ll fit fine,” Spacia suggested.
And the three girls left, Tenna carefully transporting the dress to the station. Rose and Spacia insisted on sharing the burden of the boots and the underskirt that Silvina had offered to complete the costume.
The last sliver of sticklebush was on the pad the next morning and Beveny added it to the others, handing the evidence packet over to Torlo,