Of Corsets, Velveteen Gloves, and Victor's Embarrassment

"...There is one more thing to consider," Vanessa told him in a singsong voice.

Victor was hypnotized by the many colors and cuts of the hanging gowns before him, and offhandedly inquired as to what, before he saw the flash of red Vanessa was demonstrating for him.

"When we've bought the dress, we'll need undergarments..."

The red of the silk was alluring, and lurid. The ribboned pipping on the shoulder straps looked like residual fingertips - Victor couldn't help but imagine the silken dip and curve of Lily's shoulders and the exacting angle of her collarbone.

He turned away, red cheeked, and shamefaced, but Vanessa's light giggle let him release his mask of reserve.

"Do you like it?" She asked more seriously.

Reaching for the garment he allowed his fingers to slide over the material. It felt like water, cool and fluid. Yet it also felt like skin - Lily's skin when it was cool and quacking after her resurrection, or the crisp slickness of the back of her neck when it was wet from the washbasin.

"It's..." It was a struggle to control his stammer, "...it's lovely...the craftsmanship..."

Vanessa smiled again. "I believe that's a good start, Doctor." She took his arm again. "Shall we continue?"

When Victor tried to fold the silken underthing under his free arm, Vanessa stopped him, gesturing to one of the salesgirls to keep it aside for them.

Vanessa pointed out another adroitly crafted dress form. "Now, this is very nice." Victor noted the practical caramel colored skirt with the embellished piping stitched down the front. "This will create height where before there was none. See how the stitching draws the eye?"

Victor fingered the skirt and looked over the lace bodice that accompanied it.

"It's a very practical and stylish ensemble..." Vanessa went on.

Victor was listening to Vanessa but in his mind he was imagining the way Lily's newly cut hair would just graze the top of the lace at her shoulders, and how the swell of her hip would sway underneath the skirt.

"...Doctor?"

"Yes? Oh, yes, forgive me, yes, I think this is the one."

Vanessa clapped her hands together in triumph. "Excellent." She turned away to one of the salesgirls and gave her further instructions. Victor ran his finger down the

Length of the bodices front one more time before turning away.

After another hour of corsets, stockings, and shoes, Victor felt himself to be done in. "I really cannot thank you enough, Ms. Ives. As you can see I would be lost here if it were just myself."

Vanessa smiled, a refreshing change to her customary looks of anguish and torment. "Of course, Doctor, and if you'll allow me..." She held up a pair of white velveteen gloves with a pattern of pink lilies embroidered on the front. "I'd love to buy these for her myself, as a welcome to London gift. You did say her name was Lily, didn't you?"

"Yes." Victor felt flabbergasted. Not just from Vanessa's thoughtfulness, but also from the image that was stirring on his mind from the thought of Lily's long fingers, and how and where those fingers might touch him. "Thank you, Vanessa, that is more than kind, I'm sure she'll be delighted to have them. In the country, as you can imagine, such niceties are very rare indeed."

Vanessa tilted her head, appraising him. "We're you close, the two of you, growing up?"

"Very. We were inseparable, you might say. I had only brothers, you see..." He felt his memory cloud over as it always did recently when he reinvented his past with Lily. Erasing the many painful memories of his mother's death, and the cruelty of his older brothers for a tranquil life and children's games and young love.

"Well, Doctor." The attendants had packed away all of his purchases and tied the many sized boxes with a thick cream ribbon for him to carry under his arm. "I hope everything is to her liking, and..." Vanessa hesitated, "...to yours, as well." She cleared her throat, conspiratorially. "I cannot wait to meet her."

"Yes, yes, she will arrive soon."

When he left Vanessa the anticipatory pulse of seeing Lily again was as strong as a heartbeat and his footfalls could not take him there fast enough.