‘Reputations are fickle. Profits are not.’
She smirked. ‘That’s something my maid would say.’ Cath turned to face him. ‘It’s an impressive feat, is all I meant, to become so popular so quickly. Your hats are marvellous indeed.’
‘I appreciate the compliment. I daresay Hearts was without a proper hatter for far too long.’
‘Perhaps you’re right.’ Cath glanced around at the hats and headdresses that lined the walls. A rainbow of colours, a kaleidoscope of styles, a jamboree of textures. Every one of them seemed half magical. ‘I vaguely recall one other fine hatter, years ago, when I was just a child. My mother purchased from him regularly. I wonder whatever became of him.’
‘He went mad,’ said Hatta, with hardly a pause. ‘Then he killed himself. With a brim tolliker if my memory serves.’
She turned back to gape at him. Hatta was watching her, but his expression was unreadable.
‘Haven’t you ever heard the saying, “mad as a hatter”?’ he asked. ‘It’s an unfortunate family trait, one that’s been passed down for generations.’
Her lips pursed into a surprised O, but Cath couldn’t form a question or an apology, though both lingered on her tongue.
Finally, Hatta tsked her. ‘Don’t stand there looking so tragic, love. My father, and his father, and so many fathers back that one could never count them all. Every one a fine, gentlemanly hatter, and every one mad as March. But’ – his mouth curved into a sly smile – ‘I know a secret they didn’t know, so perhaps my fate isn’t as hopeless.’
Cath forced her mouth shut. Now that he had reminded her of the story, she could recall the tale of the hatter who had killed himself so many years ago. Why – Hatta must have been just a boy. But, like all tragedies in Hearts, it had been hushed and swept away, never to be spoken of again.
Her confusion increased when she thought of Jest’s tale. She had assumed Hatta was from Chess too, but how could he be from Chess and Hearts both?
‘May I know the secret?’ she asked.
He looked appalled to have been asked. ‘You do know that telling a secret destroys its secrecy, don’t you?’
‘I figured as much.’ She wondered, faintly, if there really was a secret at all, or if telling himself so was a part of his inherited madness.
Was he mad already? She couldn’t help inspecting him, newly speculative and curious. He didn’t seem mad. No more mad than anyone else she knew. No more mad than she was herself.
They were all a little mad, if one was to be forthright.
‘Well,’ she said, trying to push her thoughts back towards civilized conversation, ‘I’m glad to see your hat shop doing so well. I’m wishing the best for you.’
‘Wishes have value, Lady Pinkerton. You have my gratitude.’ He tipped his hat towards her. ‘If it isn’t presumptuous of me, might I suggest wearing the macaron during the baking contest? I trust you’re a participant.’
‘Oh – I am, actually.’
‘Good.’ He leaned closer. ‘Have you ever noticed how attraction is a subjective thing, difficult to capture in headwear, but charisma, now, that is more universal. I think I’ve accomplished something spectacular. One might even say you look irresistible right now, not unlike the treat that inspired the hat.’ He winked, though Cath wasn’t sure what the wink meant.
‘I’m not sure I had noticed that,’ she confessed.
He shrugged. ‘Others will, I assure you.’
His statement was punctuated by a trumpet blaring from the beach, reminding Cath that she was still at her family’s festival, and she still had the role of the Marquess’s daughter to play.
Her dread returned tenfold. ‘Forgive me, but I must go dance the lobster quadrille.’
‘Ah yes.’ Hatta drifted his hand through the air. ‘Obligations rest heavy on the shoulders of nobility.’
She couldn’t tell whether he was insulting her or not. ‘Heavier than you might think. Thank you again for the gift.’
‘Will you wear it during the dancing also? I’m sure you’ll be at the very centre of attention, and a businessman couldn’t complain over the attention.’
Cath pulled the hat more firmly on to her head. ‘Hatta, I’m not sure I shall ever take it off.’
He bowed. ‘Then off you go. And please, if you happen to see His Majesty, I hope you’ll give him my regards.’
She stumbled halfway to the door. ‘His Majesty?’
Hatta’s violet eyes glinted. ‘The King of Hearts, love? I thought you knew him, but as you look so surprised, I must have been mistaken.’ He held his hands out in supplication. ‘Nevertheless, your path is more likely to cross with him than is mine, and I wouldn’t complain of a kind reference put forth to our sovereign.’ His smile turned wry. ‘After all, I am a man of ambitions, Lady Pinkerton.’
CHAPTER 26
THE DAY HAD WARMED, tempting the festival guests down to the shore with its foaming waves and rocky outcroppings. Knowing that she was already too late to join the opening ceremonies, Cath did her best to dodge in between the conch shells that stood twice her height on the damp shore and the swarms of people as they drifted towards the beach, leaving the vibrant tents with their flapping pennants behind.
She noticed an inordinate number of guests wearing Hatta’s creations. It was easy to spot them in the crowd, with their elegant shapes and peculiar embellishments. She recalled Mary Ann telling her how popular his hats were becoming, but she hadn’t been ready to believe it. It had seemed, at the time, that Hatta’s Marvellous Millinery was her discovery, her special memory, but word had spread fast through the fashionable circles of Hearts.