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

would invariably speak to her mother. She felt herself bristle.

‘I have a business,’ she answered, lifting her head so that her neck appeared long and slender and dignified. ‘I design gowns. The premises I now have are proving too small and I need to expand. This one might be suitable and able to accommodate a modest-sized showroom, not too large.’

She saw interest steal into his expression, and a certain eager gleam. ‘I do happen to have quite a few far better premises on my books if you wish to view any of those,’ he said.

That-would mean larger rental and obviously more money for him. Julia almost smirked. ‘I would like to view this one,’ she said firmly. Before it’s snapped up by someone else, came the urgent thought. ‘My business partner should be here too, but if I find it suitable I would like you to hang on until I get back with him, which would be within half an hour. Would that be possible?’

A bird in the hand, she thought, and it seemed he was of the same mind.

‘I will be happy with that, Madam – Miss…?’

‘Longfield,’ she supplied.

‘Miss Longfield. My name is Bennett. If you would care to have a closer look at the property before speaking to your partner,’ he went on as she acknowledged his name, ‘I would be happy to take you. If it is what you are looking for, I will most certainly wait until you consult your partner in order for him to take a look at it, if that is convenient to you.’

At Julia’s acceptance he fumbled for the keys to the premises, at the same time instructing his assistant to hail a taxi. In no time at all, Julia was standing in the centre of the shop, its floor littered with – the debris left by its previous occupier – broken items of shop furniture, torn circulars, crumpled newspapers, ancient bills, along with lots of unidentifiable rubbish.

‘I do apologize for the mess,’ Bennett said, but Julia was more taken by the amount of space; it was twice as large as Simon’s present premises.

The back room was promising too, with a kitchen area, storeroom and office, each sectioned off by a flimsy partition. Cleared, the space would make a perfect, if modest, showroom for her garments. The problem then would be, where would the kitchen, storeroom and office go?

He seemed to read her mind. ‘There’s also upstairs accommodation – two floors, which could be sublet or kept for your own use. It seems the landlord is stipulating a lock, stock and barrel deal for the whole building.’

Julia looked at him in surprise as he went on, ‘They are goodsized rooms, I gather.’ His eyes narrowed cunningly. ‘Of course, they command a higher rent than that being asked for the shop, you understand; two self-contained flats, maybe in need of just a little repair and redecoration. They’ve only been vacant for a short while. You saw the “To Let” notices in the upper windows?’

She should have guessed there’d be a catch to it. In her excitement at finding out about the shop premises it hadn’t occurred to her to glance up at the windows above. She felt she’d been duped, and was disappointed and angry. Why hadn’t he mentioned this at the start, the cunning devil? No, it was a sprat to catch a mackerel and she’d been the gullible one. How could she and Simon afford the rent being asked on such a place? It was bound to be exorbitant. But slowly anger began to give way to thoughtfulness.

She forced herself to remain impassive. ‘So how much is he asking?’

He frowned, his lips pursed contemplatively before he finally announced a figure. ‘Of course, it is only an estimate,’ he said quickly as Julia in turn frowned and pursed her own lips. ‘It might be possible to persuade my client to negotiate a slightly lower figure.’

‘Even so, what worries me is why the whole building is vacant,’ she said, now suspecting he might be hiding some structural problem.

He looked quite put out. ‘Maybe it’s the times we live in, with so much unemployment, so many unable to meet rising prices, the mounting number of evictions.’

So it could be that the previous tenants, unable to pay the rent asked by a grasping landlord grown greedy like her own landlord, had been thrown out to shift for themselves and find somewhere cheaper.

Julia was beginning to feel a pang of sympathy for the two families but Bennett’s next words showed that this was unnecessary. ‘I believe the first floor was used as a stockroom by the proprietor of the shop, only the top floor let as private tenancy. I have to confess, I was told the top floor does need a bit of cleaning up and on that score alone I could perhaps come to an agreement for a lesser rental.’

Julia said nothing but her mind was already working fast. The top floor, cleaned up, could house her family, the first floor kept as a stockroom with enough space for Simon to live, under better conditions than he now did. This might prove a good deal after all, for it could cost more to find another flat. She needed to speak to Simon.

But there was also the lease. Simon had been naive enough to take on a lease on the verge of expiring. She would not be caught like that. She reflected that not so long ago she wouldn’t have had any idea what a lease was; this past year had taught her a lot.

‘Can you show me the top floor?’ she asked, trying to sound non-committal. ‘How long is the lease?’ she enquired as they mounted the echoing stairway from a separate door to the shop.

‘The lease,’ Bennett repeated, ‘is ninety-nine years with forty-five to go.’

It would easily see them out. Julia felt her heart leap, only to fall again as the door was opened and a musty odour of mice droppings greeted them.

Trying not