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

as they sat side by side in the back of the taxi. And, as her unhappiness grew into anger, Julia vowed that if he wouldn’t talk to her she wasn’t going to talk to him.

Her mind was in turmoil. What if the place had already been snapped up in the hour and a half it had taken her to get back home, wait for Simon to deal with his customer, and then explain herself to Simon and finally for him to agree to accompany her back to the shop? She suddenly felt like a foolish little woman.

Defiantly she kept her head erect, her neck long and stiff, the tiny seed of anger inside her beginning to grow like some perfidious weed. Yes, he had taken her into his business without any real cost to herself, but it was she who had kept his shop going with her contribution of those beautiful materials of her father’s. She knew they had attracted more custom than he had ever had before. But for her he would have closed down and left ages ago. At the thought of his leaving, Julia experienced a sick feeling, knowing she would have lost him for ever. But she hadn’t been in love with him then, just rather strongly attracted; she would have got over it.

If he had left though, where would she and her family have been, trying to meet extra rent with nowhere to go if they couldn’t pay? She would never have had this opportunity to help them. She’d have had to take a job, paying less than her materials were reaping. They would never have been able to afford extra rent. Where would they be now? How strange, she mused, that one small incident, one small decision, can change a whole life utterly. If she had made a different decision all those months ago, she wouldn’t have had Simon; she wouldn’t have known what it was to have him make love to her, to have him ask her to marry him, even though that time still seemed as far away as ever.

She had him to thank for where she was now. Yet at this moment he seemed to be looking upon her as if she were no more than a headstrong and naive girl. But she did have a good head on her shoulders, and he wasn’t prepared to acknowledge it, sitting beside her without saying a word to her. How would he react when they reached their destination? Well, we will see, won’t we, she thought, determined to stand up to any negative reaction he might display. But the thought failed to bring any comfort.

Julia turned away to gaze disconsolately out of the taxi window at the passing shops, the pavements thronged with people shopping, at blank-faced business buildings, and finally at the theatres of Leicester Square. The taxi turned into a side street and stopped outside the building she had viewed earlier, still with its advertising placard, still with the ‘To Let’ notices pasted on its upper windows.

Simon paid off the cabbie. ‘This is it then,’ he said flatly.

She nodded but he was already walking up to the shop front, shielding his eyes with one hand and leaning towards the glass to see inside.

‘It looks a decent-sized area.’ His voice was as normal as if there had been no friction between them. Perhaps it had only been in her imagination all along. She came to stand beside him.

‘The agent said the rent was only eighteen shillings a week because it needs a lot of doing up.’

‘Did he say what he wanted for the other rooms upstairs?’

‘I think he said something like twelve shillings and sixpence a week for the first floor and ten and six for the one at the top.’

‘That sounds a bit steep,’ he observed.

‘We are in the West End,’ she reminded and he laughed lightly.

‘Then we’ll have to try and beat them down a bit, won’t we?’ he said.

‘Part of the ground floor could be a wonderful area for a showroom. Ginny is still willing to be a model until we can get a professional one.’

She saw him catch his lower lip between his teeth in a speculative gesture and though he said nothing she felt her spirits lift a little.

Her feelings of rebellion vanished like wisps of smoke in a spring breeze and she made herself stand prudently aside for him to take over the business dealings with Mr Bennett. It was more comfortable to stay in the background, listening to Simon talking business, behaving like a man of the world. It was a side to him she’d never seen before.

By the time the transaction was concluded, she’d lost all track of the conversation, glaringly aware of how sheltered a life she had led; she who had once been so sure of her ability to confront single-handedly this great big cold world of business and finance.

‘Well, darling,’ said Simon as they came away, ‘we’ve done it!’

Julia smiled but now it was her turn to fall silent and fretful. Had they bitten off more than they could chew? She’d sat by as Simon engaged the estate agent in deep discussion. Bennett had proved to be a harder nut doing business with another man than he had been with her, a woman to be handled gently and politely. She had felt suddenly very inadequate, knowing she would either have lost her temper or wilted completely if a man had addressed her in the manner in which those two had spoken to each other.

Simon had finally beaten the rent down a fraction during the agent’s long phone call to the vendor, which had involved a good deal of haggling and reasoning. Even a fraction was better than nothing and Julia had sat there, her heart pounding with anticipation and immense pride for Simon as he wrote a cheque for the down payment.

‘I do so love you,’ she whispered as they sat side by side in the taxi that brought them back