The British Princess

Part 26

A light blue satin dress with draped sleeves and a sash around the waist. The long skirt of the dress flows backwards and the detailed pencil sketch captures the vibrant fabric. A scribble in the corner has all the details of the dress written down, every note about how the piece is designed.

I turn the page to a rose pink gown with a layered skirt. This drawing is even more refined, with little details like gold flecks in the mesh layering and puffy, royal looking sleeves.

"Wow I love this one Tate." I say to the boy beside me, who's watching eagerly for my reaction.

"Thanks." Tate says with a proud grin, the tips of his ears going pink slightly as I smile at him.

I flick through some of his designs again, so impressed by the quality, "I can't believe you drew all of these."

He simply shrugs, "It gave me something to do. And I was wondering if I could ask you something."

"Of course. What is it?"

He looks into his lap briefly, nervous, "Well I wanted to know if it would be possible to get someone who could actually make one of these dresses."

"Like bringing your talent to life. I like that idea." I say and his head snaps up, clearly happy that I'm going along with his idea.

"Do you think it's possible?"

I nod at his excited tone, "Of course it is. I'm not much of a seamstress myself, but I'm I can find you someone."

"Ok cool. I think you'd look awesome in some of these dresses." Tate says with a proud look across his face.

"You want me to wear your designs?"

Tate smiles shyly, "Well yeah. I had you in mind when I drew them."

"That's sweet of you, thank you." I say and grin at the adorable expression Tate has across his face.

"No problem. I just wanted something I can give you, because you've been doing so much for all us selected."

I try to wave him off, "You really don't need to do anything for me."

"I want to. I really do." Tate says and meets my eye with a smile.

I look back down to the book and turn back to a pretty, burgundy coloured gown.

"Well this is my favourite." I say and point to the design, absolutely in love with the way he's drawn the fabric and the sheer cape like material that flows off the shoulders.

"That's one of my favourites too." Tate says and rests his hand on the book, his fingers brushing mine gently on the page.

I can't keep the smile off my face as I chat with Tate, and thinking about all this effort he put into designing these dresses for me makes me feel so lucky.

"I think I know the perfect person to help design these dresses. Do you want to go now? We'd have a better chance of speaking to him now." I say as I stand, holding my hand out to Tate.

He smiles and takes my hand, rising from his seat to be beside me, "That sounds good."

"And since your a budding designer, you are going to love the workroom." I say, leading him with me, his book in hand as I take him towards where the seamstresses work.

"I'm intrigued." Tate says and when I glance back to check on him he shoots me a grin.

We move down the halls quickly and soon find ourselves out front of the workroom. The entrance is a small wooden door labelled, Staff Workroom.