Lovesick Mannequins – Anna Harmon

That the nickname seemed determined to cling to her side. “We’ll see if you can return it after Francine finds the receipts.” “What if I don’t want to return it? Fashion is how I express myself maman.” Madame LeBeau lifted a stern brow. “Find a medium of art to do that.” “Fashion is art,” Celine bellowed. “More than, in fact. It combines al the other mediums into one.” There were times when she knew how far to push her mother on this.

It was like a blinker going off somewhere in the distance, alerting Celine that if she pressed a little longer something o someone would burst. And there were other times when Celine hersel threatened to burst if she didn’t speak her mind. “I am not returning the dress,” she said, point-blank. “It shows who I am.” “Oh, don’t be absurd, Celine. You can’t possibly wear that thing again It’s vulgar.” “If it makes you feel any better, I have yet to witness a man drop to his knees because he’s seen my bare back, maman.”

Leaning back, feigning disinterest, Celine began examining her nails.“Then again, the day still has four hours left. Who knows what will happen.” “Do not tire me with your liberal spirit tonight. We will not discuss this again.” Returning her focus to her magazine, she flipped a page, the subject o outrageous dresses forgotten. “Do you have your costume ready?”

“What costume?” Celine shot back. “Honestly, Celine.” She folded the magazine in half with an irritated flap and set it aside. “For Ménard’s philanthropic party. Jacques sent one ove for you. There was something about Rome on the note…I can’t be too sure.” Celine cursed silently. Just when she thought she could finally relax Frankly, she had forgotten all about the soirée.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author except for the use of brief quotations in book reviews. For permission requests, contact author, Anna Harmon. All characters in this publication—other than the obvious historical characters —are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Any use of this publication to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI technologies is expressly prohibited. The author does not support AI, and no AI has been used in the creation of this book. Cover artwork by Ivery (@_ivery on Instagram) First edition: 2026 OceanofPDF.com LOVESICK MANNEQUINS Anna Harmon OceanofPDF.com To my grandmothers, whose stories inspired this one. OceanofPDF.com Chapter 1 Glamour Girl Spring approached Paris at a lazy pace in 1921, bringing with it the flowery presence of warm mornings and the loud, jazzy pace of brisk evenings.

The residual chill in the air didn’t seem to deter the magnates from their routine stop at the seedy clubs up in Montmartre, or the jazz babies from hitching thei skirts a little higher to dance the night away. And it certainly hadn’t stopped Celine LeBeau from jumping the garden fence, looking no better than a feral creature, and taking her bicycle to Folies-Bergère when the clock struck nine.

It was rather unfashionable of he to show up on two wheels, considering everyone else in her social circle was being chauffeured around, but Madame LeBeau had strict rules about the places where her daughter was to be seen and Celine wasn’t in the mood to receive a chiding. Not tonight, at least. The music hall was packed, yet it continued to welcome more patrons with every inward swing of the doors. Celine had situated herself in one of the booths on the second floor, tucked away into the left wing, as she waited fo her friend to deliver the news.

Anaïs Ménard had a penchant for being a scandalmonger, among othe things. Such as being late. As a waitress approached the table to replenish her glass, Celine let he gaze wander over the railing, scrutinising the first floor.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 90c393e04ba61131
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 3,120,202 bytes (2.976 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 387
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 665.69 minutes
• Total Words: 133,138
• Total Characters: 755,310
• Average Words per Page: 344.03
• Average Characters per Page: 1951.71

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