A New Dream, Maggie Ford [books to read romance txt] 📗

of his solicitor, his accountant, his bank, and especially keeping her and her family in the dark. And now here she was, pulling and tugging at heavy bales of cloth like a navvy, in the hope of saving something from this mess. Although she had no notion of what she was hoping to achieve; nothing but a vague, possibly foolish, idea that was forming in her head – an idea probably every bit as foolish as those her father had harboured and which had brought his family to this plight.

So absorbed was she by the tension of it all, the fear of being caught, that she suddenly realized that for the first time since reading Chester’s cruel letter she’d forgotten about him.

Casting the memory of him from her, lest she be undermined by it, she forced her thoughts back to her task. This wasn’t the time to starting crying. Tears would come later at some odd, unexpected time when she was alone.

She squeezed one last bolt of grey wild silk into the car. It broke her heart to have to leave the rest of the beautiful stuff behind but there wasn’t an inch of space anywhere to fit in another. But all in all they’d done a good job.

The vehicle’s interior was packed tight from floor to roof, leaving only space enough for the driver, so she had to call a cab while Fred made off with their ill-gotten gains. Glancing at her little gold wristwatch – which would soon join the jewellery she hoped to sell – she saw that the hands were creeping towards nine o’clock. Glad to be away at last she was nevertheless filled with satisfaction.

She had given Fred the address of the flat she’d found. Now that she had paid the first month’s rent, it was hers to store in it whatever she liked. The material would be safe there, away from the prying eyes of those in authority. Whether or not removing it was illegal she had no idea. She knew that the family’s personal possessions, items of jewellery, clothing and the like, could not be seized. Maybe bolts of cloth might be lumped in with these, but it was best to be safe than sorry.

Between them, she and Fred humped the heavy fabric up the dark stairs, leaving it in a heap on the floor in one corner of the living room. She would decide where to put it all later. There wouldn’t be much furniture left anyway to take up room after the bailiffs had been at it.

As Fred drove her back for what would be her last couple of hours in her old home, the only home she’d ever known, she sat in silence in the back seat. The next few hours were going to be hard, trying to console her mother, comfort her sisters, and James too. He had been so very hurt by this turn of fortune, seeing his future falling about his ears, blaming his father, just as she too blamed him.

She knew little about her brother, separated as they had been from each other during their growing up years, boarded at different schools. How would she deal with him if he let himself be undermined by bitterness, by anger?

Julia felt her own anger rise. Damn his anger! She too felt bitter, all this her father’s fault. And Chester had done nothing to help, in fact had moved out of the scene so fast that it had taken her breath away. She had been so confident she could rely on him. Well, damn them all!

She stiffened her back against the seat. She had to win through somehow. But if only she had Chester to support her, comfort her. She suddenly felt herself wanting his comfort so badly at this minute.

Tears began to cloud her eyes, her throat closing up at the thought of him. She hated him with all her heart yet so wanted him. Unseen by Fred, intent on his driving, she fumbled in her little leather handbag for a handkerchief and let herself weep silently into it.

Six

Closing the door on her lovely home for the last time wrenched Julia’s heart enough to make her feel almost sick.

Standing in the hall gazing around at everything she’d ever known, so familiar, it had grieved her that for years she’d taken it all so much for granted that it had become virtually unnoticeable. It had always been there and so she had believed, without giving it much thought, that it always would be. Perhaps for the first time in her life she was actually seeing the furniture she was leaving behind. As she closed the door on it all there came a deep, slow sense of loss with the realization that she would never again see this decor, these lamps, the furniture she’d known so well.

At the gate stood their cases, with their personal items beside them. The two pieces of furniture her mother had been allowed to take, her little writing desk and a small dressing table that had belonged to her own mother, had been loaded onto a small van ready to be transported to the flat where they would live from now on. Her mother was crying, dabbing her eyes with an already soaked handkerchief, her body hunched, her head resting against Stephanie’s shoulder.

Struggling with her own tears, Julia left the door keys by the iron foot-scraper to be retrieved the moment the taxi bore her family out of sight. She glanced at the car sitting at the end of the street, its occupants instructed to check the contents of the house to ensure that everything they had been ordered to leave was present.

Refusing to look back, though her soul ached to do so, Julia came to join her little family that now included her brother. He stood silent and tight-lipped, his young, good-looking features marred by bitterness, his hopes and plans for university now no more.

Mrs Granby was standing with them. She was going