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

see the back of the clutter in the corner. However, the others were more concerned about this suspicious young man with whom Julia had joined forces; a man about whom they knew nothing.

‘Carrying on like you’ve been doing, it’s disgusting!’ Stephanie had huffed. ‘How do we know what you both have been up to?’

‘We’ve been up to nothing, thank you!’ she’d shot back. ‘Unless you see doing business as being up to something.’

‘Business, huh!’ had been her terse retort.

James stayed silent but his disapproving expression spoke volumes.

Only Ginny supported her, saying quietly, ‘Well, I think it’s exciting.’

To which her mother replied sharply, ‘You know nothing about these things, Virginia! There’s something here that isn’t as it should be and I am terribly upset and disappointed by your behaviour, Julia. I cannot believe that you have kept us in the dark about what has been going on, saying nothing to me, your own mother.’

And so it had continued. Finally, at the end of her tether, Julia had shouted at them that nothing untoward had been going on, as they put it. She tried to explain that she had been endeavouring to start up a business, for their benefit as much as for herself, to help them all out of this miserable situation into which they’d been plunged.

And at last they had fallen silent; a silence that seemed to fill the room until eventually Julia left them to go early to bed. Later, when the others came to bed, there had been none of the usual chorus of goodnights except for Ginny who whispered, ‘Goodnight, Julia,’ only to receive a quiet command of ‘Go to sleep!’ from her mother, whose bed she shared.

This morning, after Ginny and Stephanie had gone to work, and before their mother had got up, Julia and her brother were alone in the kitchen as she served his breakfast.

‘Sis,’ he said, buttering his toast, ‘this person, how old is he?’

She paused in the act of pouring James’s tea for him. ‘This person?’

‘All right, the man you’ve been seeing.’ James kept his gaze on his plate. ‘I know he manages that shop downstairs but I’ve never seen him. None of us have. We know nothing about him, but from the state of the place as I pass on my way to work, he doesn’t seem the sort of person for you.’

‘Then you don’t know him,’ she snapped, resuming pouring his tea. ‘And I’m not seeing him in that sense. I told you, this is a business deal.’

‘It’s just that I’m concerned for you.’

Julia suppressed an angry retort. A boy not yet seventeen, behaving as if he were twenty-seven; how dare he take it upon himself to lecture her, giving himself airs and graces because he worked in a bank – how dare he!

‘I’m not prepared to talk about it,’ she said as evenly as she could, but was then unable to resist trying to present her side of the situation. ‘I wish you’d give me credit for knowing what I’m doing. I’m not having an affair. This is purely business and at last I can pull my weight. It was I who approached him to ask if there was a chance he could find a small corner of his shop to store that material for us and it went on from there.’

Briefly she told him how things had begun to develop. ‘It’s no more than pure business and I won’t have everyone reading anything into it other than that. We’ve discussed it and it might even develop into a good business.’

This was all she was prepared to divulge, and she ended the discussion by saying firmly, ‘And now you’d best hurry off or you’ll be late for work.’

James finished his cup of tea and got up from the tiny kitchen table, dabbing his lips on the paper napkin she’d provided for him. He gave her a searching look. ‘Be careful, Julia,’ he said. ‘You’re my sister and I care what happens to you. You’ve done such a lot for all of us, kept us together. I don’t want to see you done down by some unscrupulous business deal.’

For a second Julia found herself seeing another side to the brother she’d been judging so harshly lately. He was still the good-natured young boy she’d always been fond of and he genuinely had her well-being at heart.

‘I know what I’m doing,’ she offered in a sweeter tone. He was still looking at her.

‘I hope so. But can I say that if things don’t work out the way you hope, remember I’m here and I won’t let anything bad happen. I don’t know too much about business but being in a bank may count for something.’

A smile lit up his young face, eradicating any sign of pomposity. ‘Now I must go or I they’ll have my hide!’ he laughed playfully.

It was approaching nine thirty before her mother appeared from the bedroom to sit morosely by the living room window, staring stolidly out, not speaking except to decline breakfast.

‘I couldn’t eat,’ was all she said.

‘Then I’d best wash up and go downstairs,’ Julia told her brusquely, to be met with silence. With a sigh she put on a jacket and went out, saying, ‘I’ll be back in a tick. I thought I’d bring Mr Simon Layzell back with me. You remember, Mother, he’s the owner of the shop I’ll be doing business with. Then you can make your own judgement about him.’

With no reply forthcoming she had let herself out, returning moments later with Simon. But Victoria had retreated to the bedroom and locked the door. No amount of calling had enticed her out, so that Julia had been compelled to plead illness rather lamely on her mother’s behalf.

It was only as they bore the last of the bulky material down the stairs that Victoria had seen fit to emerge from the bedroom into the hallway to lean over the banisters and call down the narrow stairwell after her daughter like a