THE BETTER PART OF VALOR. Morgan Mackinnon

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      Chapter 18

      After a couple of sandwiches, a bucket of coffee, and more importantly, two glasses of whiskey, Secretary of Internal Development Rick Berstem greenlit the project and requested an update on progress as soon as humanly possible. Anything the team needed to reproduce, create, steal, or appropriate would be cleared through his office if necessary. Cresta requested a private session with Vernita and Stacie and explained why.

      “Here’s the bottom line. I’m going to need some special clothes, some special manners, and…all kinds of female advice for eighteen seventy-five, and I’d prefer to work with Vernita and Stacie for the time being. If I run into problems, I’ll let you all know.”

      The women met the next morning at Cresta’s house. Not early, but as Cresta put it, a sensible time like brunch-ish. She’d produced a buffet of small cinnamon rolls, a chafing dish of scrambled eggs, and a platter of bacon. Instead of ordinary wine, the drinks of the day were mimosas concocted of champagne and orange juice. Cresta even put out the “good” china Aunt Pat left her plus cut-glass flutes.

      “Thank you both for coming. I’m thinking there are a ton of things I need to take into account here. Everything from menstruation to clothes and shoes.”

      Vernita said they should make a list of categories and then address each one individually.

      “Let’s tackle menstruation first. You aren’t going to like this. There were no pads in that time. It was a belt around your waist and then things called sanitary towels which were tied or pinned to it. Take some safety pins because that will be easier. They were invented in eighteen forty-nine so won’t pose an anachronism. When the towels are soiled, you wash them, then hang them up to dry. The first sanitary belt wasn’t invented until eighteen seventy-nine and then by a man. Figures. You don’t have to shun men during this time like the Native American Indian women did…they had special tepees for this interval because it was considered so unclean. You just avoid sexual relations and keep the towels as clean as you can. No one will know.”

      Cresta stared. “Sexual relations? Did I hear you right? Girl, I am going back to the year eighteen seventy-five to do what amounts to a psychological evaluation of a fairly barbaric man and there is nothing sexual about it!”

      Stacie looked puzzled. “Barbaric?”

      “Okay. Wrong word. Since the beginning of time, civilizations have needed the support of a military faction for protection or, in some cases, conquest. If it were not for the military, countries and ethnic groups could just be taken over by hostile elements at the drop of a dime. However, there is a difference here. Mister Keogh had already fought in the Papal wars for the Catholic Pope for two years. He could have been done with war and gone home to idyllic Ireland. He didn’t. He sold his sword to the Union Army, joining as a Captain. For three long years, he led dozens of Cavalry charges and saw hundreds if not thousands of men die. The Civil War ends, and what does he do? He doesn’t go back to idyllic Ireland. He joins the regular US Army fighting Indians. The Civil War and the Indian Wars were not his wars to fight. I suspect our man loved the thrill of the chase and the blood of the kill. That’s one thing I must find out. What motivates him and how strong it is.”

      Clothing was another issue. Cresta accepted that it was going to take a couple of seamstresses some time to produce what she needed. Everything from everyday outfits to ball gowns to underwear. This is when the conversation turned to corsets and hoops for petticoats. Vernita and Stacie agreed it might be better if the dresses could be designed to look acceptable in the time frame but also be comfortable. And as Cresta said at least three times, women were not supposed to have seventeen-inch waists regardless of what Margaret Mitchell thought. Both women had done some research, and there were amusing stories out there about women wearing hoops invited to formal parties. They went, wearing the graduated metal circles connected by ties, under their petticoats, and then discovered they had to go through doors sideways with skirts tilted, revealing quite a bit of leg. The gentlemen at the parties loved it.

      Trunks and shoes could be obtained by reenactment costumers and probably some of the clothing as well, so when the meeting finally ended, Vernita and Stacie took Cresta’s measurements and promised to get right on the project.

      The only thing Cresta had to do until her clothing and accessories were ready was to arrange for the care and feeding of Max and Mettie, call Mother, and finally pray she, Cresta Leigh, would be “oddly pretty” enough to provoke some interest in Lieutenant Colonel Myles W. Keogh.