The Shoe Queen
Chapters (67)
- Cover
- “And may I say, those shoes are adorable.”
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- ( I )
- ( one )
- ( two )
- ( three )
- ( four )
- ( five )
- ( six )
- ( seven )
- ( eight )
- ( nine )
- ( ten )
- ( II )
- ( eleven )
- ( twelve )
- ( thirteen )
- ( fourteen )
- ( fifteen )
- ( III )
- ( sixteen )
- ( seventeen )
- ( eighteen )
- ( nineteen )
- ( IV )
- ( twenty )
- ( twenty-one )
- ( twenty-two )
- ( twenty-three )
- ( twenty-four )
- ( V )
- ( twenty-five )
- ( twenty-six )
- ( twenty-seven )
- ( twenty-eight )
- ( twenty-nine )
- VI
- ( thirty )
- ( thirty-one )
- ( thirty-two )
- ( thirty-three )
- ( thirty-four )
- ( VII )
- ( thirty-five )
- ( thirty-six )
- ( thirty-seven )
- ( thirty-eight )
- ( thirty-nine )
- ( forty )
- ( forty-one )
- ( forty-two )
- ( VIII )
- ( forty-three )
- ( forty-four )
- ( forty-five )
- ( forty-six )
- ( forty-seven )
- ( forty-eight )
- ( forty-nine )
- ( fifty )
- ( fifty-one )
- Acknowledgments
- Acknowledgments
- Questions for Discussion
Cover
“And may I say, those shoes are adorable.”
The shoes were somewhere between ivory and silver, and appeared to be made entirely of lace. Lace layered upon lace, spidery and fine. A slipper shape and a Louis heel—not too thick, not too high, not too low. Delicate toes. There was something about these shoes…. Beautiful but subtle. Quietly calling all attention to themselves without the need to scream out. Genevieve’s heart ached for them. She wished so much that she was wearing them in place of her own purpose-built poetic pumps. She’d been proud of them at the start of the evening but now they seemed, frankly, childish. They were no more than fancy dress accessories, and this was wrong. Shoes should always be more than accessories.
She absolutely longed for those lace slippers to be on her feet, and instead…
Instead they were adorning the feet of their hostess, Violet de Frémont.
Title Page
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2007 by Anna Davis
Originally published in Great Britain in 2007 by Doubleday a division of Transworld Publishers
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
For information address Pocket Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
POCKET and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-5955-9
ISBN-10: 1-4165-5955-8
Dedication
for the two shoe queens in my life:
carole
whose collection rivals even genevieve’s
&
natalie
whose first word was “shoes”
( I )
QUARTERS
( one )
THE FANCY-DRESS THEME was refuse and waste paper. Genevieve Shelby King’s kingfisher-blue dress was all patched over with pages from old literary journals. Her blue silk dancing slippers were embroidered with fragments of poems and tipped with bows made from sonnets. She was one big mass of poetry.
Handing her fur to the man by the door, Genevieve entered the marble-floored hall on the arm of her best friend, Lulu. Count Etienne de Frémont’s grand house was all dressed up like his guests. High above their heads, suspended on invisible wires from the ceiling, hung a selection of bicycle wheels, empty bottles and ancient boots.
“It’s very Dada,” said Lulu.
“Dada was over years ago,” said Genevieve. “Why didn’t someone tell Violet de Frémont?” And they swept through to the party, leaving Genevieve’s husband, Robert, back in the hallway, fumbling for change to tip the coat man and muttering under his breath. It was often this way—the girls whispering and giggling together, scheming and sharing secrets, while Robert followed behind.