Read Online Charm and Consequence by Stephanie Wardrop - Free Book Online

Summer.
    THE CINDERELLA MOMENT
    Jennifer Kloester
    Chapter One
    Angel knew the moment she saw it. The colour was exactly as she’d imagined—a deep midnight-blue. She ran her fingers over the velvet, catching it between her palms to test its weight. Just as she’d thought: pussycat soft, but heavy and luxuriant enough to hang perfectly.
    She lifted the bolt of cloth down from the rack and carried it to the counter. The salesgirl smothered a yawn. “How much?” she asked in a bored tone.
    If she only knew what it’s for, thought Angel. “I’ll need six yards.”
    The girl looked at her doubtfully. “That’ll be three hundred and eighty-nine dollars.”
    Please let there be enough, Angel thought, digging into her purse and placing the bills on the counter, her heart beating faster as the roll of cash gave up its twenties, tens and fives, until all that was left was a small wad of one-dollar bills.
    She counted slowly: three eighty-two, three eighty-three, three eighty-four . . . She was five dollars short. “Maybe just under six yards.”
    The girl unrolled the heavy bolt of cloth and Angel watched in quiet ecstasy as the fabric flowed in great velvet waves across the counter. It was perfect.
    ***
    The uptown bus seemed to take forever. It was a sultry May evening and Angel’s legs prickled with sweat under the parcel of fabric on her lap. It’d be hot walking home from her stop, but she didn’t care. She’d help her mother with dinner, rush through her homework and get started on the dress. She’d have to go carefully. This dress, more than anything she had ever made, needed to be exactly right, down to the tiniest detail. And when it came time to cut the velvet—well, she’d work up to that.
    It was nearly seven when she turned into Fifth Avenue and ran up the front steps of the five-storey townhouse. Inside, the marble foyer was brightly lit and she could hear voices upstairs. The hateful Margot by the sound of it, probably berating the cleaner again, unless—had Lily come home early from play rehearsal?
    Angel paused for a moment, straining to hear. The first voice reached a new pitch and the answering murmur grew even softer. Definitely Margot and definitely not Lily.
    It could be Clarissa. Angel hadn’t yet met Margot’s seventeen-year-old daughter, but she’d heard her. Last week, after Lily’s dad had left for South America, Lily and Clarissa had fought like cats. Afterward Lily had come down to the kitchen wing and burst into tears.
    Angel and her mother had tried to comfort her, but they’d both known it wasn’t the fight that had upset Lily so much as her dad inviting Margot and Clarissa Kane to stay the whole six weeks he was away.
    Lily had done everything to convince her dad not to invite them but she hadn’t succeeded. And it was only after the fight that Angel had realized how much Philip’s decision had upset her best friend. She’d never known Lily to lose her cool like that. Sure, she had a passion for drama, but she could always hold it in when she wanted to. Trouble was, as Lily told Angel later, on that occasion she hadn’t wanted to.
    In the week that followed, Lily came downstairs so often to report Clarissa’s latest iniquity that Angel suspected the older girl of deliberately trying to start another fight. So far, Lily had managed to refrain from taking the bait, but Angel doubted she’d last another five weeks without biting back.
    Angel listened again. The voices were moving away; she heard footsteps, a door close and silence. She sighed with relief and crossed the foyer. As she passed the hallstand she stopped. Thrown carelessly against the antique Japanese cabinet was Clarissa’s discarded schoolbag. Books, folders, pens, an iPad, headphones and a crumpled cheerleader’s uniform spilled out across the floor beside a black-and-white Moschino jacket.
    At least, it looked like one of the new Moschino designs . . . Angel hesitated, glanced nervously around and, satisfied