The miniature dress is taking shape – it has a bodice and skirt that exactly matches the one Kitty is wearing. And it isn’t just limp fabric either. It is beginning to bulge and swell. The old woman must also be sewing a doll to wear the dress, building it up as she goes. Another flash of lightning, and Kitty wonders sleepily why she can’t seem to hear anything anymore. ‘Am I dreaming?’ she murmurs, and her voice sounds like it’s coming from a long way away. As she speaks, the old woman stops stitching for a moment. Kitty blinks. ‘Did you hear me?’ she says. The old woman’s paper-thin lips suck inward over her gums, then she blinks her milky eyes and resumes her sewing. The fire is blazing when Kitty awakens for the third time. The room is illuminated and the old woman is bent over her work, the needle flying in and out of the fabric. The doll has arms and legs now, and a head with yellow woollen hair. In the light of the fire, Kitty can see the diamond-shaped scraps of newsprint more clearly, can even read some of the words: Maisie Gummer missing Elizabeth Finch Harriet Larkin unable to recover girl of fourteen Bessie Smythe searched in vain Some of the newspaper diamonds look old. Very old. A flash of gold glints on the old woman’s finger as she reaches for a scrap of yellow fabric. She is wearing a ring, a simple thing set with a single ruby. Kitty has seen it before. That ring, she wants to say … That ring belonged to my cousin Ruth. But when she opens her mouth to say it, nothing comes out but croaks and wheezes. Maybe she has caught a chill. The old woman – is she so old, after all? – places careful stitches on the doll’s face – a pretty, bow-shaped mouth under an elegant nose. Who are you, Kitty tries to say. What did you do to Ruth? What are you doing to me? The woman’s mouth forms the shape of words, but Kitty can’t hear. For a fourth and final time, Kitty opens her eyes. She blinks heavily, trying to shake sleep away. The hut blurs around the edges. Once more, Kitty tries to rise from the chair, but she cannot move at all. Coloured fabric flashes before her and she sees that the woman has somehow exchanged clothes with her during the night. Now it is she who is wearing the beautiful coloured dress, and Kitty is just wearing rags. The woman’s red lips curl in a smile as she makes another stitch. It’s getting harder for Kitty to open her eyes after each blink. Stitch. Kitty sees the doll in her coloured dress, red bow mouth pursed shut. The woman is placing the last few stitches, the doll’s piercing blue eyes and dark lashes. Stitch. The woman glances at Kitty with eyes that are the same precise shade of blue. Stitch. The woman rises from her chair with a single graceful, fluid movement. Kitty’s sight grows dim. The last thing she sees is the woman move towards her. Then everything is milky grey and, no matter how many times she blinks, Kitty can’t see anything. She feels the doll pressed into her hands and, as she grips it, the stitches come undone and the doll collapses into tiny scraps of fabric and paper. Kitty feels the faint brushing of air as the woman passes her. Muscles creaking and aching, she manages to move her hand. She reaches out, groping until her paper-dry skin brushes the cool steel of a needle. She grasps it with twisted fingers, and with her other hand reaches for a tiny piece of fabric and a diamondshaped scrap of newspaper. Stitch. 36
37 The case of the fraudulent fur
- Page 1 and 2: Danielle Whitfield
- Page 3 and 4: Foreword Fashion Detective is an ex
- Page 5 and 6: Introduction Danielle Whitfield You
- Page 7 and 8: Unknown, England, Dress, c.1865 (de
- Page 9 and 10: Within the exhibition, four ghostly
- Page 11 and 12: Unknown, Australia, Dress, c.1865 1
- Page 13 and 14: Unknown, Australia, Wedding dress,
- Page 15 and 16: 14 The case of the fake Worth
- Page 17 and 18: Evidence According to Worth’s bio
- Page 19 and 20: THE REAL McCOY He followed her to a
- Page 21 and 22: Unknown, Australia, Waistcoat, 1890
- Page 23 and 24: 23 The case of the poisonous pigmen
- Page 25 and 26: x 1E3 Pulses 5 Calcium 19th century
- Page 27 and 28: Sulari Gentill eginald Kane was unt
- Page 29 and 30: 29 The secret in the doll’s dress
- Page 31 and 32: In the nineteenth century paper was
- Page 33 and 34: PAPER PIECING It is exquisite. Piec
- Page 35: It is a perfect fit. It requires no
- Page 39 and 40: Evidence On examination it can be s
- Page 41 and 42: ESCAPE FROM GRANTCHESTER MANOR It i
- Page 43 and 44: I probably have a few days, thought
- Page 45 and 46: List of works Note to reader The li
- Page 47 and 48: Unknown, England Sailor suit (c.190
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