Chapter 2
"Okay, my dear girl, now tell me what all this was about," Dorothy Lynley said smiling at Barbara after they got to the tearoom and had their tea.
Still a bit out of breath but feeling lucky to have escaped this dreadful sales assistants as if it had been a hold-up Barbara sighed: "It was a stupid idea at all. I have to attend this gala dinner from the MET next Friday, thanks to your son by the way. As I have this afternoon off, I went home and looked at my wardrobe. I still have the dress I wore at the DI`s engagement party and it still fits but then I thought that perhaps I could try something a bit more colourful and went to town.
And then you know what happened, I was looking at a burgundy red dress when this two girls came and told me that the fashion are light colours now and put me into this disaster…"
Watching Barbara Dorothy remembered that simple black velvet dress very well and also that the woman on the other side of the table hadn´t felt comfortable in it at all. She really liked her son´s partner, her straightforwardness and loyalty. Barbara had been her only source of information about her son after his wife had died and he had buried himself in grief. It was also to his partner that he somehow had gone out of it again, yes, she liked Barbara very much and as she had time until she would meet her friends she decided to help Barbara now.
"That really was a disaster," she said smiling. "These young girls don´t understand that fashion isn´t anything. You were right with your choice. You shouldn´t wear light colours, with your hair and complexion you need darker or richer colours, Barbara. And there are some points you should keep in mind buying an evening dress: Frist you should really like it, second you should feel comfortable wearing it and third you should be able to walk, take steps, bend down and sit down in it without problems."
Sipping her tea which was really soothing Barbara listened to Lady Asherton more than she had imagined she would and smiling back she answered: "You forgot point four, not let yourself be driven over by the sales person. Although I guess that never happened to you."
Now Dorothy laughed: "Oh, I also had to learn that, my dear! You know what, I know the perfect shop to get dress for you."
Seeing Barbara´s sceptical look she went on: "Oh don´t you worry, it´s not Harrods or some well-known designer shop, you will like it."
With that Dorothy paid the tea and off they were Barbara still trying to figure out if she had gone from bad to worse now…
A/N: It´s just a short chapter but I still try to figure out how to get them all involed now, so one after another we go...
