Captive Magics

34 - New City

Two birds pretended to be fish would not have been unalike Lissy and Leander when they arrived in the city looking entirely out of place and fashion, and perhaps it was the excitement of this which had perked up Lissy's mood, for she was effervescent.

Conscious of how conspicuous they were, Leander watched the passers-by for clues on how to dress and act. The women of the capital were more different from Lissy than Leander was from the men, purely by their dress. Leander felt he could easily pass for a country rustic or a mild oddity, but Lissy wore a plain but pretty skirt and blouse as she might at home. Here the ladies who passed them (shooting curious sideways glances) dressed in flounces and bustles, bedecked with elaborately knotted fabric in ruffles and frills. And, Leander realised as he watched one of them walk past, they all had a tiny oval portrait hung somewhere around their bustle, swaying slightly as they walked. He realised his gaze was resting on a lady's skirts and snapped his head away, embarrassed. Lissy smirked at him.

"Peculiar, aren't they?"

"Very. Do you think they are of their husbands and beaus?"

"They're iconic figures, could you not read the script below?"

"No, my spectacles are safely in the trunk. We must get to a draper's as soon as possible," he said anxiously.

"You worry too much," she told him with abundant cheer.

"We should be careful! We're already attracting attention. Look, that man over there is looking at you. I don't like it."

"All will be well."

"All will be well if we're careful and don't attract the wrong sort of attention," he insisted. "What if you get arrested? I don't think the Grand Mage could do much to help." Lissy just smiled, and hooked her hand around the crook of his arm.

"Oh, Leander."

"I will be next to useless if you get arrested, we need to be careful," he grumbled, and glared at his feet moodily.

"I shall visit a draper's shop at the earliest possible convenience and purchase some dresses," she assured him with a squeeze of his arm. "But we must find some accommodation first."

She was right, he decided: they had more pressing needs and limited funds. They found a cheap inn to stay at for a few days and then swiftly signed for the lease on a small but attractive townhouse. The price was uncomfortably high. Lissy and Leander parted afterwards to hunt for work across the city, aware of how much they required it.

As he walked to the draper's where he had agreed to meet her at the end of the day, Leander mused on how much of a past he would have to invent for himself if he was to get a job here. Just then Lissy appeared in the door of the shop, flourishing her skirts cheerfully at him. He stopped short.

"Oh."

"Do you not like it?"

"I do, actually," he admitted to his own surprise, studying her briefly, and then looking away feeling uncomfortably warm. She smoothed her hands over the fabric at her hips.

"I thought I might go for magenta, but Mrs Pattery who measured me up disapproved strongly. She thought it would argue with my hair. So, I went for the navy blue as you see, and she's making me up another in green." She plumped the bow of her bustle and then grinned at him. "I say, they are ridiculous things these dresses, but such fun to wear. There's a gentleman around the corner who is painting a miniature for me to attach to my skirts, so let us walk there now."

"Who is he painting for you?"

"Well, you see, I asked him who most people choose and he said it is common for ladies to pick from the lesser known saints which their family reveres," she said vaguely, attention on the progress of a pitiful-looking beggar being chased from a greengrocer's. "By the bye, did you have any good fortune with your job hunt? I'm afraid I'm talking of fashion, and entertaining as it is our other concerns are much more pressing. Please don't think me foolish."