Auburn and red: three names, and no more
One drawer of the cabinetThree women here have auburn hair, and there is nobody else on the list in that range. It is the smallest drawer in the cabinet and the house has no intention of padding it, because a fourth name added for the sake of the number would be brown and everybody would know.
The three are unalike in every respect except the colour: 161 cm to 172 cm, petite to slim to curvy, twenty-two to twenty-eight, and two Belgravia addresses against one in Mayfair. What they share is that all three are quiet about it, which is not what people expect of the colour.
Auburn and red, as hung
Belgravia, and a small room
Lea is 161 cm, petite and hazel eyed, and her auburn hair is long and wavy without having been asked to be. She is twenty-three. She does not fill a room, she settles it, and she is honest that she is better in a room of six than a room of sixty. Her evenings sit in Belgravia, usually at a table she keeps for the whole of the night, and two hours is her sensible minimum.
Belgravia, and a longer evening
Patricia is 172 cm and slim, brown eyed, her auburn brown hair long, and she is twenty-eight. In daylight she is in linen and florals with it pinned off her face; after eight she turns plainer and darker, and the change is noticeable enough that guests mention it. She is discreet by instinct, names no places or people, and suggests three hours because dinner takes two and the walk home should not be rushed.
Mayfair, and the dark red end
Luna is 171 cm and curvy, her hair long, loose and dark auburn red, her eyes brown. She is twenty-two, wears white almost exclusively, which with that colouring is deliberate staging and she knows it, and the pearls are old and hers. She is very hard to hurry and treats that as a virtue. A full dinner in Mayfair suits her considerably better than a short call.
What three names means in practice
It means the drawer is often the answer to a diary rather than a preference. Three women cannot cover every night of a week, and a guest who is set on the colour should write earlier than he otherwise would. Name all three in the message and let Tamsin say which of them has the evening, which is faster than three separate enquiries and gets the same answer.
It also means the three are asked for by name rather than by drawer more often than anybody else here, which they find funny.
Where else the three sit
One in petite, one in curvaceous and one in both statuesque and slim and slender. Two are in early twenties and one in late twenties. Nobody in this drawer is above thirty, which is the one thing it cannot offer.
Asking for one of the three
Give the date, the hours and where you are staying, and say if you would take whichever of the three is free, because that answer usually comes back the same afternoon. The figure is confirmed in writing before anything is held and reaches her in person when she arrives. The whole ladder is on the rates page.