A New Dream by Maggie Ford (world of reading .TXT) 📕

know you’d have liked something nearer the West End, my darling, but the further west we go the more expensive it gets.’

Buoyed up by the success of their business lately, he had suggested looking for something near the West End theatres but it now seemed they’d have to be content with the cheaper Brick Lane area.

‘It would have been nice though,’ he said dreamily.

‘I know, but we can’t get too silly, darling,’ she warned. ‘Not yet. If we keep going as we are, in a year’s time we might find something better, but for now we just need something a little larger than what we’ve got. We ought to be looking for something with a kitchen and decent living room and a bedroom.’

She stopped, seeing him grinning, and realized she’d been speaking as if they were planning to marry. She half expected him to allude to it but when he didn’t, she hurried on, her gaze glued to the agent’s window.

‘Where you are now,’ she continued, taking care to allude only to him, ‘you have a back room with one chair and a table to eat off, which Betty now uses as a work bench, and that tiny alcove where you sleep, and I know you eat in there as well, sitting on the edge of the bed.’

The thought made her smile, despite the awkwardness of a moment ago. ‘That’s no way to live,’ she continued. ‘And we shall need enough room for some sort of a showroom for modelling garments and things.’

This time it felt safe to allude to them both for this was essentially a business partnership. But would there ever come a time when it would grow into something more? Yes, they had made love, careful, gentle love, and he had said he loved her, but he hadn’t actually spoken of taking their relationship further, and she didn’t want to push him to do so. Suddenly she was filled with doubt as to where all this was going.

‘Julia, oh my dear, read this!’ Victoria held the letter out to her daughter. ‘It says the landlord is putting the rent up by another two shillings! For a place like this, how could he? There’s not enough money coming in that we can afford to pay so much. And there’s been no work done at all on the place since we came here. Everything is falling down around us!’

Everything wasn’t exactly falling down, Julia thought. It was true that there was a broken roof tile, which meant that a bucket had to be placed in a corner of the kitchen to catch drips when it rained, and the very ancient and faded wallpaper was peeling off in one of the bedrooms from damp. The kitchen tap too was slowly furring up and becoming hard to turn on and off. But all this was nothing the landlord couldn’t have dealt with had he a mind to do so. Julia thought of the nicer place they’d have once a new shop was found.

She took the letter, pretending to read it slowly to hide her excitement. But there was also a touch of guilt at having thought only of her quest these last few weeks. She hadn’t informed her family that any day they’d learn of a huge weekly rise in their rent or notice to quit if they didn’t pay. Nor had she mentioned anything about imminent expiry of the lease on the shop.

She had certainly mentioned nothing about moving to other premises. It would have sent her mother into a panic, wrongly imagining herself deserted. Even a year after her husband’s death Victoria was still badly affected by the shock and by the loss of the home she had known all her married life. Another upheaval might have been too much for her. Julia had seen no reason to worry her too soon.

A rent rise of two shillings a week for this place was exorbitant and unfair, but despite what her mother had said, they could now afford it with four people all bringing in money. But to Julia it was the principle of the thing. She just prayed that once they found somewhere nicer to live, her mother might stop comparing her life now to the one she’d once known.

She also needed to consider that wherever they moved her mother’s new home would have to be practically on top of the shop so she wouldn’t feel isolated. But in time all the family would depart, leaving her on her own. Stephanie was of an age for meeting someone, marrying and setting up home; James too, and Ginny, though not for some time yet of course. But that eventuality needed to be faced. For herself though she couldn’t ever contemplate the day when she would leave her mother completely alone.

She made herself frown at the letter and as if on impulse screwed the demand into a ball. ‘We’re not having this! This place isn’t worth another shilling extra, let alone two!’

‘But we’ll be thrown on to the street,’ Victoria wailed. ‘It will be like last time all over again. And where would we go? I couldn’t bear…’

‘There are plenty of places,’ Julia broke in. ‘Mummy, please trust me. It’s going to be all right, you’ll see.’

For the moment it was the best she could think of to say. She tried to sound encouraging but with little more than a month to go, she and Simon would have their work cut out to find suitable premises, for them and her family. She didn’t dare tell them that as yet nothing had been found.

‘I don’t know what we’re going to do,’ she said to Simon after another fruitless search. ‘We could all be homeless in a couple of weeks.’ She could not admit it to him but panic was beginning to set in, making her feel sick whenever she thought about it, which was most of the time now as things became more urgent.

Simon held her in his arms as they