“Because,” the modiste overrode eagerly, “the details of lace would be lost. I intend to embroider the gauze with deep purple flowers. A shower of blossoms, Miss Dyer, cascading along the length of you, perhaps gathering at the hem. And if I were to entwine the flowers with gold wire throughout…”

“Oh,” Adelaide breathed, the vision of it appearing in her mind. “The windows at St. George’s would catch the gold in the light.”

Madame nodded slowly, still wearing her broad grin. “Indeed, miss. You will be shimmering without any help from Lord Basset’s diamonds. But with those as well? Angelic and ethereal.”

“He does have amethysts,” Adelaide felt the need to point out, the coloring of the ensemble reminding her. “If that would suit better.”

“Amethysts are for dinners and concerts, my dear,” Madame told her firmly, eyes sharp. “Not for weddings. Gold and amethyst pins in your hair, perhaps, but not as your wedding gems. And if you will allow me to get, perhaps, a little carried away, I should like to add a cape to your gown.”

Adelaide blinked at that. The rest of it had all sounded quite lovely up to that point, but a cape? She would look more ridiculous than elegant if this went too far.

“I see your doubts,” Madame said with a chuckle. “Allow me to allay those fears. The cape, Miss Dyer, would be part of the dress. It would start at the shoulders.” She moved around Adelaide, setting her hands just inside the sleeves at each shoulder. “White satin, Miss Dyer. A great length of it to fall behind you in waves. Delicate and elegant, lined with gold only on the inside. And your lace veil, pinned with combs into your tresses, disappears into its depths.”

It was a vision that even Adelaide had never dreamed of, and that was saying a very great deal. When she had managed to scheme Basset into paying for her trousseau, and insisting on having the finest wedding gown, she hadn’t imagined anything in particular except for making him pay. She’d had no doubt that ideas would come to her as she considered her tastes and styles for the day, and extravagance would certainly come into the design.

But this…

“Can you really do that?” Adelaide whispered, as though someone were standing close and might tell her intended what they were planning.

Madame Hubert came around to her front once more and nodded very firmly. “Not only can I, Miss Dyer, but I will. It will be my most extraordinary creation, and only you can wear it.”

Excitement welled within Adelaide’s chest, which was the first she could claim since her engagement, and the idea of walking down the aisle of the church to a dumbfounded Basset was the most entertaining image she’d conjured in some time.