March 19th, 1891 — House of Lytton

Juliana did not yet feel as though anything about the blackmail situation had gotten beyond her control. The woman had made quite a mistake in sending her copies of all the letters she intended to send, in making her threat. First of all, it showed too much of her own motivations — she was invested in this dress, for whatever silly reason, and she would rather have made threats than followed through on them, at least for the time being. Second, it showed her hand; now Juliana knew exactly what to expect, if she did send them. The letter she'd written in response that morning was essentially calling her bluff. Juliana didn't think she would send them, because then she would have lost all of the power she had in the situation. She would essentially remove herself from the equation, becoming a nonissue. None of the letters Juliana had exchanged with her since then had been signed, and none had said anything at all incriminating. If she played this particular card, sending copies of Juliana's original letter to the three parties she had mentioned, she would have nothing left in her hand.

There was still a chance she might send the letters, if she didn't realize how foolish it would be, but Juliana wasn't concerned about that. Mrs. Finch was like a hornet with no stinger at this point; she could make an obnoxious buzz, if she felt so inclined, but nothing she did could hurt Juliana. Especially so long after the incident had passed, and with fresh gossip in the teeth of society already; if she made a big ordeal of the letter Juliana had supposedly written (she was prepared to claim, if necessary, that it was a forgery) then she would only look desperate, obsessed with an unassuming spinster for no reason. It wouldn't be a good look for her, and Juliana expected that Mrs. Finch was cunning enough to know that. So that was no matter. Witch Weekly was also an empty threat, she thought — if they wanted to start fighting with Meredith Watchword, she could just threaten to take her publication elsewhere. She assumed the editorial team would be hungrier for continued article fodder than they would be for some tired bit of scandal about a spinster, especially when they had no proof anything had happened. (Now, if the blackmailer knew about his coat hanging at home in her closet, that might be a different matter — but a plain handkerchief, torn into a dozen pieces, was hardly enough evidence to present in the court of public opinion).

The most dangerous of the three letters she'd threatened to send was the one to Mr. MacFusty, especially given his behavior most recently, but — well, she'd have to deal with that when the situation arose. In the meantime, she was planning for what she assumed would be the more likely scenario; getting this hateful girl a custom Lytton dress.

"Camilla," she asked, when they had a break between customers. Her tone was all innocence as she continued, "May I ask you a fashion question?"

  

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Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

Camilla couldn't wait for the boat trip later that month. She had reached a point of burn out and she needed the break, so she would gather up strength for the upcoming Season. She and Marcus had already gathered up a bunch of orders for debutante gowns each and their staff was working day and night to prepare them.

In spite of her tiredness that day, Camilla welcomed her friend's question with a smile. "Ask away, darling."

It was rare for her and Jules to talk about fashion outside of work. It was usually Camilla who went to her friends with fashion advice (though done so in good spirit, of course!)

  

"The enchanted dresses you design," Juliana said, with a cool, mischievous glint in her eye. "Have you ever had one malfunction? After you gave it to the customer, that is, not just here in the shop."

  

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Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

"It has happened, in the beginning," Camilla replied. Back when her and Marcus' charms hadn't been perfected. Thankfully, back then their customer poor had been friends mostly, so they had been understanding. "We designed this dress meant to cool you down during the summer months, but at some point the temperature got out of control. The lady had a cold for about a week and she wasn't very pleased, but we thankfully got it fixed."

  

Juliana listened, then pursed her lips. She looked down at the appointment book as though checking something, though really she already knew their next appointment wouldn't be arriving for another twenty minutes. "I'm sure that was quite dreadful for her, but I meant something a little more... spectacular. The sort of mistake that might have... significantly embarrassed a woman, while she was in the midst of a party or another public place."

  

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Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

"Oh," Camila said. "Well, we do our best to ensure that no charm malfunctions by the time we deliver to our customers. But, wild things have certainly happened during the testing period. Flame decorations actually burning, water effects being see-through, that kind of thing. Why?" She furrowed her eyes at her friend in a non-threatening way and more in a 'where are you going with this' way.

  

Juliana leaned back in her chair, biting her bottom lip slightly to hold back a smile at Camilla's descriptions. This was exactly the sort of thing she'd had in mind, when she asked the question. She'd suspected that it might be possible, but she hadn't heard of any instance of it happening, so she'd wanted to make sure what she wanted was within the realm of feasibility before she went and made what she knew would be a very big ask.

"Camilla," she said deliberately. "Would it be possible for me to commission a dress like that?"

  

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Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

Camilla stiffled a laugh. "Why, though?" She knew that her friend didn't share her love and enthusiasm for fashion, but this was something else. It was clear that Jules had schemes regarding this dress and the more Camilla knew about them, the more likely she was to suggest something even wilder for the end result.

  

Juliana crossed her hands over her lap, trying to weigh how much she ought to tell Camilla. She was encouraged that her friend hadn't dismissed the idea out of hand; she knew it would have consequences for Camilla if it was widely known that a Lytton dress had malfunctioned so spectacularly, and she'd been hesitant to ask because of that. She didn't want to hurt their business or their reputation — but if she gave in to this idiot girl once, and she got a perfectly acceptable dress out of it, she would only try to do it again and again. This was the way blackmail worked. Even if she gave the impression she was cooperating, Juliana was determined not to give her an inch.

After a moment, she leaned in to put her hands on the desk. She looked down and spoke very quietly; she thought Camilla would enjoy if this reveal was as dramatic as possible. "Camilla, someone is blackmailing me, and they're trying to extort me for a Lytton gown."

  

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Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

"Dear God!" Camilla exclaimed and then she actually laughed because that sounded too funny. "What sort of desperate person would do that!" She couldn't help but feel somewhat pleased with herself though - someone was going through the pain of blackmailing her friend for one her dresses.

"If they weren't blackmailing you I might have given them one for free, out of pity, for it is always good to be charitable."

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   Juliana Ainsworth

Well, she really couldn't have hoped for a better reaction than that. Camilla had immediately taken her side, without even knowing what they were blackmailing her about, and had come to the same conclusions that Juliana had come to — that this woman must be exceptionally desperate if she thought blackmailing Juliana was a good way to go about getting anything, especially a Lytton gown, which anyone could just make an appointment for at any point.

"It's horrendous," Juliana said enthusiastically. "You ought to see the letters she sends me. She's clearly a vicious sort of person by nature, and has a particular bone to pick with someone, but I don't know why she imagined it ought to be me. I can only imagine she thinks I must be an easy target because of that article in the magazine, but — really! I don't know that anyone would even care about that at this point," she pointed out. "I'm not exactly the darling of society."

  

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Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

Things had taken a catty turn and that particular C word had been even more wondrous then the other one, caffeine, of relieving Camilla from her tiredness.

"Oh, darling, don't be too harsh on her, perhaps all of her clothes got ruined by mold and now she's desperate to get something nice to wear!" She giggled as she was saying that.

"Does she want anything in particular, or could we get away with sewing our tag into a department store dress?" Someone who was blackmailing people for a dress probably cared more about the brand and the status it carried, than the design itself.

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   Juliana Ainsworth

Juliana giggled at this. She had expected Camilla to take this much more seriously, but she was not at all upset about the way things had unfolded. She was lucky to have a friend like Camilla, who would stand by her no matter what. This anonymous blackmailer hadn't known what she was getting herself into. Jules had tried to warn her off of it, though. Hadn't she said she would only embarrass herself if she pressed forward with her unfounded allegations?

"Camilla, you wouldn't believe. She said she demanded a custom gown, before Easter," Juliana said, as though this were the funniest joke she had heard all her life. "But she won't tell me her name to make her an appointment, and she didn't even send her measurements or anything. How could you design a dress for an imaginary woman? Honestly."

  

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Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

Camilla laughed rather ungracefully, with it ending in a snort and all. "Maybe we can send her a piece of fabric and tell her to drape it around herself like the ancient Greeks and Romans did and tell her it's the latest Lytton trend!" she went on to suggest cattily. "I bet she'd wear a scullery maid's uniform if it had our signature on it!"

Maybe she and Marcus could design a line inspired by domestic servant's uniforms - but glamified. The rich folks would love that. They'd think it very fashion-forward for sure.

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   Juliana Ainsworth

Juliana laughed lightly at this, but she didn't want to just make her blackmailer look a little silly — she wanted to give her such an embarrassing and life-ruining social moment she would regret having ever dared to make assumptions about Juliana in the first place, and certainly to have threatened her via letter. Jules had warned her that she would be sorry if she pursued this, and she wanted to follow through on it.

"Would you do it, then?" she asked. "If I managed to get enough information from her to actually make a dress?"

  

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Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

Camilla was as invested as her friend in teaching this anonymous blackmailer a lesson, but she also didn't want to risk her business' reputation.

"It would have to look like an accident," Camilla replied. "Like it was her fault. Maybe a charm that would make a giant stain appear... Or maybe a dress that magically gets too small or too big for her and then she could have her-" she made a round gesture above her breasts,"- flying out. And if she says anything, you could say her measurements were wrong."

The one good thing about her being anonymous was that she couldn't be traced back to the shop, as a customer, seeing that they kept a record.

"Oh! We could make the tag disappear, so if she tries to say anything, she'll look dellusional! Like that fairy tale with the King and his clothes!" Or lack, thereof.