Beyond All Measure by Dorothy Love

distrust of Yanks, maybe that evened the score.

SEVEN
    Ada set aside her thimble and closed her eyes. Her fingers were sore from the constant pressure of the needle, and her insides were a jumble of nerves. Now that the quilt was finished, Mariah would expect to talk about her hat, and Lillian was sure to disapprove. The older woman had been quiet during the afternoon. Whether she was preoccupied or just feeling poorly, Ada couldn’t tell.
    Mariah got to her feet. From a small cupboard on the far wall, she took out glasses and plates and opened her woven basket to retrieve jars of lemonade and a platter of cookies. Carrie and Bea removed the quilt from the frame and carefully folded it for delivery to the orphanage.
    “I can’t stay.” Bea tossed her hair and picked up her sewing bag. “I must prepare for tomorrow’s school-board meeting.” She sent Ada a withering glance. “Some of us have important work to do.”
    Mariah flipped the pages of her fashion magazine. “Good-bye, Bea.”
    When she departed, Mariah set the magazine aside. “I know we’re supposed to love everybody, but it’s difficult to have any charitable feelings toward someone as cantankerous as Bea.” She patted the empty chair next to hers. “Ada, come and look at these hats. And don’t give Bea Goldston another thought.”
    She handed Ada the Godey’s Lady’s Book , opened to a page featuring the latest styles in hats. “I like this one. Can you make one like it for me?”
    Ada studied the drawing of a pale yellow postilion-styled hat with a cinnamon brown brim and matching brown pompoms on each side. The crown was encircled with three rows of cinnamon velvet. “It’s simple enough to make,” she said, “but I’d want to trim it with a color other than brown. Green satin, perhaps, or an ostrich feather.”
    “Perfect! How about green satin and ostrich plumes?”
    “I can do that. It’s easy to change the trimmings to match whatever dress you want to wear.” Ada flipped through the magazine and tried to shake off her lingering irritation toward the schoolteacher. “For instance, this hat has a buckle trim.”
    “I like feathers better. When can you start?” Mariah laughed at her own excitement, and Carrie smiled. Despite Bea’s sour comments and Lillian’s disapproving frown, Ada felt, for the first time in a long while, the sweetness of belonging.
    Mariah flipped through the book until she found a drawing of a round, crowned hat with a wide brim, decorated with flowers and feathers. “I like this one too.”
    Ada considered Mariah’s small form, her warm brown eyes, heart-shaped face, and thick copper curls. “I could make that hat for you as well, but before you decide, would you take a look at my sketchbook?”
    Mariah took the book and turned the pages, exclaiming over Ada’s sketches of feathered bonnets, satin toques, and small flat hats in leghorn straw decorated with pleating, flowers, netting, and beads.
    Ada pointed to the sketch she’d made with Mariah in mind— a small toque fashioned of the finest straw, trimmed with chocolate brown velvet and blond lace, and set off with tiny green-feather ferns surrounding a single rust-colored flower. “This is a copy of a hat my mother bought in Paris one year. It’s still very much in fashion, and it’s perfect for you.”
    Mariah pored over the sketch. Even Carrie seemed momentarily interested. Her eyes lingered on the page before she left her chair to stare out the window. Ada’s heart broke for her.
    “I adore it!” Mariah said. “How much will you charge?”
    Ada stole a glance at Lillian. She could ill afford to anger the old woman, but she had to think of her own future. The sooner she could bring in some paying customers and get her business started, the better. Lillian stared out the window, feigning disinterest, but Ada could tell the older woman was taking in every word.
    “Another two dollars should cover it.” Taking into account the cost of her