Читать книгу Rainy Days for the Harpers Girls - Rosie Clarke - Страница 10

Rachel was thoughtful as she brushed her hair that evening. Was she imagining it or were both Minnie and Maggie hiding something from her? She’d noticed Minnie fidgeting a couple of times when they were speaking to Rachel’s mother-in-law that afternoon and there was a look of sadness in her eyes that hadn’t been there until the past day or so. She sighed and shook her head, putting it down to Minnie’s loss of her sister. Rachel had hoped she was settling in well with them and in her new job, but it seemed she was still grieving. However, there was little she could do except be kind, gentle and give her time.

Maggie was a different matter. She had recovered from the death of her parents and the look in her eyes hadn’t been sadness; it was more as if she’d done something, she was uneasy about and didn’t want Rachel to know. Yet she was an honest girl and Rachel knew it couldn’t be very much. Again, she could do little unless Maggie confided in her…

Mind you, Rachel had her own secrets. She’d told no one that she’d been out to lunch the previous Sunday with William Bailey, the gentleman she’d met at Harpers and been out with a few times to tea and lunch until he let her down. Her friends would think she was mad, because of the way he’d betrayed her with that awful article he’d put his name to in the papers condemning the Women’s Movement, which meant so much to her and to her friends.

For a long time after she’d discovered his betrayal, Rachel had tried to keep William at arms’ length, but in the end, she’d allowed him to talk to her and then to take her out sometimes for tea or lunch – but she hadn’t told her friends she was meeting him again. She wasn’t sure why, except that she was certain they would think her foolish to trust him after he’d betrayed her so badly. However, he had explained that he hadn’t written the offending article but merely allowed his name to be attached to it, and he had admitted he was wrong.

‘I wish I’d spoken to you in the first place – or just refused to have anything to do with the article,’ he’d told Rachel when he’d taken her to tea that first time. ‘I wouldn’t have hurt you for the world – please believe me. I certainly do not consider you a fool. I was advised it was a good angle to get me a seat in parliament but had I realised that it would alienate you, I would have told them to keep their seat.’ He’d smiled at her remorsefully. ‘In fact, I did – I’m standing for a different constituency and they happen to be pro-suffragette…’ His eyes had twinkled at her in the way she’d always liked. ‘Can you find it in your heart to forgive me please?’

Rachel had found she was laughing. William had a sense of humour she liked, as well as being kind and generous, and she just hadn’t been able to stay angry with him for long. In fact, the more she knew of him, of his good works amongst the poor and his sympathy for the miners, the more she liked him. Besides, there had been a spate of rather foolish attacks on famous paintings and the pier at Great Yarmouth, which she thought foolish and detrimental to the cause.

Sighing, Rachel thrust thoughts of William to one side. She had other problems that needed her attention. Her mother-in-law wasn’t looking as well as she had and seemed to complain almost the whole time, she and Minnie were with her. Rachel didn’t mind for herself, but she thought her mother-in-law might have made an effort because Minnie was visiting – but she had always been a selfish woman.

Why didn’t she just leave her to get on with it? Rachel sometimes thought she was a fool to continue to visit her late husband’s mother. She’d begun it after Paul’s death, because she was grieving and it was her last link with the husband she’d lost, but there was nothing between them now – nothing but her sense of duty…

And then there was that little problem at work. Rachel had been told by two of the department heads that small items had disappeared from stock quite recently.

‘A little compact was missing from the cosmetic counter,’ Mrs Rowes had told Rachel when she’d asked her why she was doing a stock take midweek. ‘It had rouge in it and cost three shillings and ninepence. I know it isn’t much, Mrs Craven – but we’ve never lost anything from this department before…’

The same thing had been reported by Mr Brown, head of the men’s department. ‘A silk tie, Mrs Craven. Worth four shillings and sixpence. Not a huge amount – but still, one does not like petty theft. I would swear that it wasn’t one of my staff…’

‘A customer?’ Rachel had asked and he’d frowned.

‘My staff are vigilant and I keep an eye on the counters myself – but it may have happened when I was on my break…’

‘I suppose these things happen,’ Rachel had told him, ‘but report it to Mrs Harper and do your best to see it doesn’t happen again…’

‘One thing…’ Mr Brown had hesitated. ‘I hate to cast aspersions when I’ve no proof – but I saw a girl from one of the other departments in here the day the tie went missing. She was near the silk ties, but I didn’t see her take anything…’

‘One of the girls – do you know her name?’

‘I’ve seen her in the store. I think she may work in your old department, but I couldn’t swear to it…’

Mr Brown had described the girl as having reddish-brown hair. Rachel knew that one girl in her old department had that colour hair, but without proof she could do nothing – except keep an extra sharp eye out for pilfering.

Work problems should stay at work!

Rachel got into bed and closed her eyes. She had her room to herself again now, because they had decided she should and the others didn’t mind sharing. It was nice having her own room, but she hadn’t minded Maggie sleeping in the other single bed.

Once again, her thoughts returned to William Bailey. Rachel enjoyed meeting him for tea and lunch – but if he wanted more than friendship – and she sensed he did, could she really trust him?

Rachel had thought her marriage to Paul happy, but at the last he’d turned bitter, almost as if he blamed her for his debilitating illness, as if he resented that she would go on living after he was gone. At the end, he’d told her he still loved her and begged her forgiveness. She’d kissed him and told him she loved him, but the hurt had gone deep. It made her grief harder and for a long time she’d felt as if she could never trust or love again, but gradually the hurt had faded and she’d been able to remember the good times, the happy days when Paul had been so generous and kind, even though they’d never had much money to spare.

Life with William would be very different. He had a private income, inherited from his family, and a well-paid if precarious job as a Member of Parliament. Yet she knew that he didn’t have to earn a wage and if she became his wife, she would be secure for life – but she would not marry him for that reason. Her job and friendships at Harpers meant too much to her to be given up lightly. Of course, she didn’t know for sure if he would ask her to be his wife.

Smiling at her own foolishness, Rachel went to sleep. He would ask when he was ready, and she was quite content in her job at Harpers. She wasn’t sure that she was prepared to give up her independence to be a wife. Paul had always insisted that she must stay at home to take care of him, but she rather liked working and perhaps she would prefer to remain at Harpers rather than disappear into the background like so many wives.

Rachel checked her watch after she hung her jacket up in the cloakroom and placed her bag in her personal locker. It was a good system at Harpers and ensured that there was no pilfering of personal items; Sally had introduced it after a couple of girls had had a few shillings taken from their purses. No one had been caught and it was felt too awkward to question the staff over small thefts, though she’d been told to keep her eyes open for any unusual activity.

Leaving to start her first tour of the store, Rachel began with the ground floor, her sharp eyes moving over the counters, checking that everything was in place and nothing left on the floor or out on the counters. The cleaner was usually reliable, but on two mornings she’d picked up litter from the previous day. It was strange how ladies who looked very smart would carelessly drop a bus ticket or a receipt on the floor.

She was aware that the premises next door was in the process of being made ready to become a part of Harpers but wasn’t sure whether any work had yet been done as no one had said anything about it to her, and Mrs Harper was not in as much as she had been because of her pregnancy and so Rachel didn’t see her as often as she had once.

Everything on the ground floor was perfect and she stopped to watch as Mr Marco moved the blinds to gain access to his latest window display. He was so clever and he insisted on keeping everything secret until the last moment so that the staff was as surprised as the crowds that gathered to see the windows revealed whenever they were changed.

He turned and saw her, winked and then disappeared behind the blind. Rachel smiled to herself. Everyone liked Mr Marco, who always had a smile or a word for them – but she sometimes sensed he hid a secret sorrow from the world, though he’d never spoken of it and she would never dream of asking.

Seeing a girl scurrying towards the lifts, Rachel frowned. Janice Browning was cutting it fine; another minute and she would be late. Rachel wondered if Beth was strict enough over timekeeping. When she was the supervisor for the bag, hat and scarf department, she’d jumped on anyone arriving late, because once you let it go, the girls took advantage – or some of them did.

Frowning, Rachel took the lift up to the next floor and was in time to hear Beth telling Janice that she was only just on time. Maggie was already at her counter and Marion was rearranging the hat stands, which was supposed to be Janice Browning’s job. She’d thought they looked particularly nice recently and now knew why. Janice wasn’t the artistic one; it was Marion’s work.

‘Good-morning, Mrs Burrows,’ she said and smiled. ‘The department looks very nice. I congratulate you – and you, Miss Kaye. That colour combination is excellent…’

She noticed Janice Browning shoot a look of dislike at Marion and realised she may have made a mistake. By noticing and praising Marion’s work, she might have upset the older girl. Rachel knew that jealousy could sometimes cause trouble between the girls and decided not to mention that Miss Browning had been a little late. After all, it was no longer her job and Beth must manage it herself.

‘I shall get on,’ she said. ‘I will speak to you later, Mrs Burrows…’

With a nod of her head, she left them and continued her tour of the shop. Only if Beth came to her with a complaint about a member of staff could she do anything to help.