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• Thursday, February 11, 2010 - It was like the biggest,
brightest jewel in the...
| It was like the biggest,
brightest jewel in the world"Here are the Ellintons," said Mrs"Come this way, Hannah, we'll leave our wraps in the ladies'
cloakroom But Hannah Ellinton stopped short in the doorway and
backed away involuntarily
Rosemary and Scarlett had to move aside quickly to avoid running into
the ruby brocade figure in front of themWhat could be wrong?
Scarlett craned her neck to seeThe scene had become so familiar to
her during the Season that she couldn't imagine why Hannah was so
shockedSeveral girls and women were seated on a low bench near
the
wallTheir skirts were pulled up above their knees, their feet in
basins of soapy waterWhile they gossiped and laughed with one
another, their maids washed and dried and powdered their feet, then
unrolled their mended stockings up their legs and put their dancing
slippers onIt was the regular routine replica chanel watches for all the women who walked
through the city's dusty streets to the Season's ballsWhat did the
Yankee woman expect? That people would dance in their boots? She
nudged Mrs"You're blocking the door," she saidHannah
apologized and moved on insideEleanor Butler turned from the
mirror
where she was rearranging her hairpins"Good," she said, "I was
afraid for a minute that I'd lost you She hadn't seen Hannah's
reaction"I want you to meet ShebaShe'll take care of anything you
need tonightEllinton was led unprotestingly to the corner of
the room where the fattest woman she had ever seen was sitting in a
wide, worn, faded brocade wing chair, her goldenbrown skin only a
tone
darker than the gold brocadeSheba pushed herself up from her
throne
to be presented to MrsButler's
daughter-in-lawScarlett hurried over, eager to see the woman she'd
heard so much imitation louis vuitton bucket bag about
Everyone knew that she was the best seamstress in all Charleston,
trained when she was the Rutledges' slave by the modiste Mrs
Rutledge
imported from Paris to make her daughter's trousseauShe still
sewed
for MrsRutledge and her daughter and a few select ladies of her
choosingSheba could remake rags and flour sacks into creations as
elegant as anything in Gody's Lady's Book
Baptized Queen of Sheba by her lay-preacher father, she was indeed a
queen in her own worldShe ruled the ladies' cloakroom at the Saint
Cecilia every year, supervising her two neatly uniformed maids, and
any
maids accompanying the ladies, in rapid, effective action to meet any
and all feminine emergenciesTorn hems, spots and stains, lost
buttons, drooping curls, faintness, overeating, bruised insteps, broken
hearts -Sheba and her minions dealt with them allEvery ball had a
room set aside for chanel pearl necklace ladies' needs and maids to staff it, but only the
Saint Cecilia had Queen of Sheba
She politely refused to work her magic at any ball other than the
finestShe could afford to be particularRhett had told Scarlett
what most people knew but no one said aloudSheba owned the most
lavish and profitable whorehouse on notorious "Mulatto Alley," the
stretch of Chalmers Street, only two blocks from the Saint Cecilia,
where officers and soldiers of the occupying military forces spent the
better part of their pay packets on cheap whiskey, crooked gambling
wheels, and women of every age, every shade of skin, and every
price
Scarlett looked at Hannah Ellinton's bewildered expressionI'll bet
she's one of those abolitionists who's never seen a black person close
up in her life, she thoughtI wonder what she'd do if somebody told
her about Sheba's other business
Rhett said chanel replica Sheha's got more than a million dollars in gold in a vault in
a bank in EnglandI doubt the Ellintons can match that
hen Scarlett reached the entrance to the ballroom, it was her turn to
stop short, unaware that there were others following herShe was
overwhelmed by a beauty that was magical, too lovely to be realThe
huge ballroom was lit brilliantly, yet softly, by candlelightFrom
four cascades of crystal that seemed to float high aboveFrom paired
gilt-and-crystal sconces on the long side wallsFrom tall giltframed
mirrors that reflected the flames again and again in opposing images
From night-black tall windows that acted as mirrorsFrom tall
multi-armed silver candelabra on long tables at each side of the door,
holding monumental silver punch bowls that held curving light
reflections golden in their rounded sidesScarlett laughed with
delight and stepped across the chanel watch black . si |
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