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

plum pudding Julia had made earlier in the year. And nor would there be any maid to clear away the dishes afterwards, to wash them up out of sight and out of mind. She and Ginny would do that between them.

But there was a threepenny box of Christmas crackers to add a festive air, especially if they had the courage to don the flimsy paper hats found inside each one, as Ginny and Simon did immediately.

Julia wondered if she’d have nerve enough to put hers on her head with Simon here and suddenly wished she hadn’t invited him after all. Her heart sank as she glanced across at her mother and Stephanie, both sitting there looking so alike with their firmed lips and straight faces.

She should have known it was going to be an uneasy atmosphere. Her mother sat in silence over the dinner table, leaving her struggling to encourage conversation. She felt a simmering resentment towards her, against Stephanie too, making a great play of ignoring Simon. It hurt her when within a few minutes he took off his paper hat and laid it beside his plate. It was a most uncomfortable looking gesture even though he smiled which made her feel even worse.

Simon was her friend, more than a friend, and Stephanie and their mother could think what they liked. She was more than relieved when soon after they’d eaten, Stephanie went out, leaving her and Ginny to clear away and wash up while their mother retired to the bedroom to rest.

Ginny had been a treasure, chatting away to Simon, asking about his shop and how it was going, laughing as she said she was looking forward to being a part-time model; treating him as more than a guest, as part of the family, putting him at ease enough to help with the washing up. But for Ginny Christmas would have been a dismal failure.

‘I’m sorry about my mother and Stephanie,’ Julia apologized as they went back downstairs, both of them, she felt, glad to be away.

He hadn’t stayed long after the washing up. Her mother had risen from an oddly short nap, which made Julia suspect that she was trying to make a point, to sit in her chair and pick up her crocheting as if he were not there – and after he’d brought her a bottle of fine port too, to have after dinner.

Her mother’s wintry smile as she accepted the gift had made Julia want to throttle her, but if Simon had been put out, he hadn’t shown it. He had even thanked her for her hospitality as he left, giving the excuse of having to go on somewhere else.

It was a fib, Julia knew, and she felt embarrassed and humiliated. For two pins she would have shaken her mother.

‘It’s a shame you have to go, Simon,’ she’d said incisively, adding, ‘Would your friends mind if I came with you?’

His face had lit up. ‘Of course not! It’s a party, open house,’ he’d lied easily.

So here she was, snuggled in a warm coat, scarf, hat and gloves, arm through his as they wandered leisurely without direction through the streets, dawdling contentedly despite the bite in the air and the threat of snow.

He brushed aside her apologies for her family’s rudeness. ‘Wait till you see my family,’ he said lightly and gave her arm a warm and purposeful squeeze. It was a promise of something more permanent to their relationship and made Julia’s heart glow as they strolled back the way they’d come.

No longer did she feel angered by her family’s conduct. In the shop’s dim back room, with just the glimmer of a street lamp filtering through the open connecting door, they sat side by side on his bed in the alcove. With its curtain drawn across they talked of the future, what to do when the lease finally expired, the need to find other premises, how she and her family would fare, where they would go.

‘You’ll still be nearby?’ he questioned anxiously.

‘Of course,’ she said, needing to whisper in this cloistered space. ‘We’ve a business to run. It’s doing well and soon we can begin to afford something better, and for my family too.’

‘Yes,’ he said, letting conversation die away.

They fell silent, but it was a silence that was comfortable and warm. She felt his arm gently encircle her waist and she lifted her face to receive an equally gentle kiss – a kiss that became gradually more ardent, then urgent, and she let herself sink back beneath him in complete trust.

It had indeed been a strange Christmas, unusual but lovely, and life was going to be marvellous from now on. Simon had been gentle, tender, taking care of her, and her trust in him was total. Yet so far there had been no talk of engagement. Maybe it was because of the need to find other premises, but time was flying by and already it was February, the expiry date of the lease only two months away.

Each day the sense of urgency was growing. Together they scanned ‘To Let’ advertisements in newspapers and Business Premises boards in estate agency windows with growing dismay.

‘Everything’s far dearer than I thought it would be,’ Julia said as they gazed in one window.

Simon squeezed her hand. ‘We’ll find something soon, don’t worry. It took me ages to find the one I have now. And now I’m due to lose it. I suppose I’ve been spoiled by the low rent on this present one. Thinking back, I made a bad bargain there.’

‘You probably saw it as a good one at the time,’ she consoled and felt him squeeze her hand a fraction tighter.

‘Perhaps you’re right. Come to think of it, in a way it was a very good bargain, because if I hadn’t taken it I might never have met you.’

She resisted the impulse to say that he might have met someone else. Instead she reached up and kissed his cheek before again growing serious. ‘I