She Took the Rags, I Took the Empire novel · Chapter 6 of 24
Chapter 6: The Luncheon
Adelaide's charity luncheon was held on the lawn of the Ellingham house, in a white tent with a hundred chairs.
I wore a navy suit that Dinah's mother had taken in at the waist the night before.
She had pinned it with her mouth full of pins.
"No one will look at the suit," she said. "They'll look at you."
I did not go to apologize.
I went because I wanted to look Adelaide in the eye while she demanded it.
A woman at the entrance checked my name against the list and handed me a place card.
It said STAFF TABLE.
The staff table sat behind the caterers, next to the portable toilets.
I carried the card across the lawn and held it up in the middle of the tent.
"Excuse me," I said. "There's been a mistake with my seat."
A hundred women in pastel dresses turned their heads.
Adelaide stood at the head table in a pale pink suit and pearls.
She wore the smile she used for photographers.
"Cora, darling," she said. "No mistake. Come up and say what you came to say."
I walked up the center aisle.
Dinah sat at the end of the head table in cream silk with Quentin's hand on the back of her chair.
My ring was on her finger.
She didn't look at me, and she kept her eyes on her water glass.
"That's a charming jacket," Adelaide said. "Is it secondhand?"
"It's my friend's mother's."
"How resourceful. Well."
She turned to the tent and held her hands out.
"Ladies, I wanted you to hear this from Cora herself. She had every advantage this family could give her, and she made a scene at my husband's dinner."
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