"Well, you're in for a treat, then." Kit smile but he wondered privately if this scheme would help or only abate matters. When he steered her through Clothes and Stuff's doorway, Margo spent a full minute in the center of the main aisle just staring. Then she gave a low sound of utter ecstasy, turned in a complete circle to gape at shelves, display racks, and glass cases, then ended with a wide-eyed, "Shopper's freaking paradise!"
She thereupon bolted for the nearest dress racks.
Malcolm took one look at Kit's face and convulsed with silent laughter.
"Oh, shut up," Kit groused. "Some help you are."
"Kit, you have to admit, there's a pretty darned funny side to this. She's eighteen. She's female. She's just been given an expense account in heaven."
"Oh, great. Make me feel better."
Malcolm's long face creased in a wide grin. "I suspect the Neo Edo can support it."
"Huh. Your taxes aren't due next time Primary cycles." Malcolm's eyes twinkled. "Oh, yes they are. I just don't have enough income for it to matter."
Kit thumped his shoulder. "Just wait I'll take care of that little problem."
"Thanks," Malcolm drawled. "I'll go from owing zip to owing a third of whatever you pay me."
"Well, I could just pay you two thirds of what we agreed on ...."
"Fat chance. A man's got his pride, after all. Hey, look, Connie has a new line ready for the London season."
He wandered off to do his own window shopping. Intrigued as always by the content's of Clothes and Stuff, Kit cruised the aisles as well, just to get a feel for what they'd need. Neat racks displayed costumes appropriate to La-La Land's resident gates. Costumes were situated in carefully arranged groupings, neatly labeled as to geographic location, exact time period, and appropriate occupation or social occasion. Items could be either rented (for those on a budget) or purchased (for those with essentially sky's-the-limit funds).
Shelving units and glass cases held every manner of accessory, including an astonishing variety of footgear, belts, undergarments, gloves, fans, hosiery, hats, coats and cloaks, appropriate equivalents of the modern handbag, jewelry, timepieces, even items designed to conceal weapons: shoulder holsters for guns and knives, belt holsters and sheaths, ankle rigs, even garter-belt sheaths and holsters. One entire case was devoted to wigs and false hairpieces in every conceivable shade, most attached to hairpins or combs to be added as necessary to elegant coiffures. Every one of them was styled after authentic period hairpieces.
Another section of the shop included appropriately designed luggage, lighting equipment from candle lanterns to oil lamps, sanitary and survival gear, tools, weapons, even historically appropriate eyeglasses. One employee on Connie's payroll did nothing but grind prescription glasses and long-wear contact lenses to order for those who needed them.
If it had existed down time and people had used it, or if it was necessary to survival and it could be disguised, Clothes and Stuff stocked it or was prepared to manufacture it.
Connie herself, in direct contrast to her shop, was anything but neat and organized She emerged from the back where she kept her office and design studio, noticed Kit, and waved. Kit chuckled. Beneath a hand basted kimono that gaped open because she hadn't tied on an obi to hold it closet she was clad in bits and pieces of Victorian undergarments. She wore hobnailed Roman "boots" on her feet and an ancient Meso American feathered headdress appropriate for a jaguar priest over long, glossy black hair. Her eyes, a startling Irish blue, sparkled as she came across the shop, clomping every step of the way in her ancient footgear.
"Hi, Kid What brings you in?"
He met her beside a glass case containing lace-and-lawn caps, feathered and plain fans, plus silk, leather, and cloth gloves while Margo emitted the most outlandish sounds he'd ever heard a female make off a mattress.
"What do you think?" he smiled, nodding toward the enraptured girl pawing through a rack of ball gowns.
"Margo, of course. I'm sending her down the Britannia Gate with Malcolm. Sort of a trial run just to get her feet wet, give her a taste for time travel."
"Good idea. Hang on a sec, would you? These feathers itch."
She lifted off the headdress. The glossy black hair came with it. She shook out her own hair, then vanished into the back. When she returned, the kimono had gone as well, replaced by a set of cowboy-style leather chaps, worn over woolen drawers and a boned corset. Occasionally Kit had known her to change clothing five times during the course of a twenty-minute conversation as she tried out various new creations. Across the room, Margo noticed. She stared for a full thirty seconds, round-eyed, then returned to her window shopping with another silly squeal as her attention rested on something else utterly wonderful.
"Very becoming," Kit drawled.
Connie laughed. "They`re hideous and the corset is cutting me in half, but I had to be sure the busks and side steels were bent to the right shape before I had William stitch the cover closed."
"And the chaps?"
"The customer said they chafed him. I'm testing them out to see what the problem is."
"Uh-huh."
Kit, like most 'eighty-sixers, had eventually realized that when she was working, Connie Logan was completely unconcerned about her appearance. And since she worked most of the hours she was awake "What do you mean, do something fun for a change? I love designing clothes!"--Connie Logan was at first glance the most eccentric loon in a time station crammed full of them.
Kit thought she was the most charming nut he'd ever known.
Even he deferred to her encyclopedic knowledge.
"London, is it?" Connie asked, peering toward Margo, who had discovered the Roman stolas with their richly embroidered hems. "What's the program? Simple tour? Teaching experience? Test-run scouting trip?"
"All the above. I leave the outfitting choices to you and Malcolm."
"But not to Margo?' Connie smiled.
He rolled his eyes. "Let's see what she picks on her own and judge from that."
"Fair enough. Rent or buy?"
"Rent what's rescuable when they get back. I'll buy what's ruined."
"Okay." Her glance traveled beyond Kit's shoulder to a group of tourists selecting accessories for the dresses they carried. "Oh, damn..." She bolted past Kit's shoulder. "No, no, no, not that fan, that's an evening fan for the opera, what you have there is a morning dress for strolling and paying calls. You'd stick out like an idiot, carrying that around London. Here, what you need is this, or this, or maybe this ...And that pair of slippers is completely wrong, what you need are these side-button boots. Size six? Hmm ...a little narrow, I think. Try this six-and-a-half."
The astonished tourists gaped at the figure Connie made, her girlish pudginess stuffed into a lawn shift, woolen combinations peeking out from under several layers of petticoats, the tightly laced corset which created unsightly bulges both above and below, topped off with the leather chaps-tied on over the petticoats. The Roman "boots" were icing on the cake.
"Uh ...thank you..."
They accepted Connie's choices a bit reluctantly, but obediently sat down to try on the boots.
Connie came back shaking her head. "If they`d just read the signs ...You have to watch 'em like hawks. Let's check on Margo. Oh, Lord, she's already in trouble ...."
And Connie was off again, before Kit could open his mouth to add a single comment.
"No, no, Margo, not that, you've got a charity schoolgirl's cap paired with a lady's tea gown ...."
"Malcolm," Kit waved to get the guide's attention; "get over here! Connie's on the warpath and we need some decisions!"
Malcolm, looking for all the world like a truant schoolboy caught in a candy store, hastened over. "Sorry. Just catching up on the newest down-time styles.