Miss Bradshaw's Bought Betrothal

All on her own.

The dressmaker, a lovely woman with a brash northern accent and enormous, coarse hands, had stared at the frock she was wearing in disbelief and asked if the woman who had made it had had the cheek to want paying for such a disgrace to the profession. Then she had gone about draping all the soft and floaty fabrics that Evie had always been told to avoid over her body and dismissing all of Evie’s panicked comments to the contrary.

Some of her assertions had made Evie blush, especially her recurring compliment of, ‘You have a wonderful pair of bosoms, Miss Bradshaw, you really should show them off.’ But as the dressmaker also made dresses for the vicar’s wife, Evie was trying not to panic about how revealing the finished garments would be.

Later today, the first new gowns would finally be ready and, fear of showing too much of those bosoms aside, already Evie was brimming with excitement and looking forward to wearing one of them to breakfast in the morning to gauge Finn’s opinion. The change of appearance somehow signalled the start of her new life. A life that she was determined to grab with both hands.

Her new attorney was already hunting for suitable properties and as soon as he forwarded his findings to her, then Evie could start to look at them and decide where she was going to live for the rest of her days. But until then, she would enjoy doing what she had been doing since her arrival in this stunning part of the country. After breakfast, she would spend a few hours chatting and reading to Aunt Winnie. When her aunt went for her afternoon nap, Evie would take a walk over the meadow, paddle for a while in the stream and then go to the village. Going out on her own, whenever and wherever she wanted, was a novelty that she doubted she would ever grow tired of.