A Brighter Tomorrow by Maggie Ford (read with me .txt) 📕

the practice of all the staff to attend at least once a month in an organized group while he and his wife and daughter, when she was alive, would attend separately. After his loss it had fallen away, so Ellie was told.

She knew their outings were the subject of much tittle-tattle from the staff, but she didn’t care. She was making the most of it. The better she got on with him the more he indulged her. She was saving quite a tidy sum from the allowance he was giving her. She’d told him she wanted to open a post-office account, which pleased him, seeing her as an astute young person.

‘But not a post-office account, a bank account,’ he’d suggested. ‘Far more interest to be gained.’

She’d never been inside a bank, much less opened an account with one. It had made her feel very important, but slowly she became quite familiar with the interior of the little branch that she now entered boldly to add her small but regular contribution to the amount already building in her impressive-looking savings-account book.

‘But you mustn’t let saving become your sole interest,’ he’d advised. ‘The allowance I give you, my dear, is so that you may dress nicely and make me proud to show you off to others.’

That made her smile, as if she were his little indulgence. Openly she obliged, but in secret hoarded as much as she could to further her plan when the time came. To this end she’d often tell him, while feigning a shamefaced expression, that she had overspent. She happily suffered his mild rebuke that she must learn to handle money better, knowing that he’d give her a little top-up with a warning to be more careful. This also went towards that day when she would track down the man who never left her mind.

This morning she sat over a simple breakfast, watching Doctor Lowe open his mail, each envelope slit with a silver letter opener, each carefully read before the next envelope was opened, each piece of mail methodically put on to its separate pile.

She never spoke while he was doing this; nor did he. But today he suddenly sat forward, his brows coming together in a frown.

‘Oh, dear!’ he finally exclaimed.

Ellie continued to sit quietly, though she itched to know what had so startled him. As he glanced up at her, she couldn’t help a quizzical glance. It was apparently all he needed.

‘Mrs Lowe requests to return home. It seems she has had a falling-out with her sister.’ He shook his head in a sad gesture. ‘It does not do to rely on the continuing hospitality of a relative. Sooner or later something comes to a head. It’s bound to. Most married couples have differences of opinion. It is quite another matter when someone who is no doubt outstaying their welcome disrupts a marital relationship. I rather think her presence has most likely come between husband and wife.’

‘Will Mrs Lowe come back then?’ Ellie asked cautiously. She didn’t want to be the one seen to be interfering in this marital relationship.

He returned his gaze to the letter. ‘It seems she will have to. Little else one can do.’

Ellie felt her heart beginning to sink. Gone those little trips with him. Not that she enjoyed being in his company, but it gave him time to think of her as close to him; hence his joy in having her tutored, seeing her well clothed and, more than that, his generosity to her with money.

Placing the letter on its own on his desk, he looked up at Ellie again.

‘It is only Christian to accept her back. This is her home. Though there is one thing that she will have to understand: no more complaints at my interest in you, my dear. I’ll not have her say anything against you, nor snub you, nor expect you to resume your previous role in this house.’

‘What about my sister?’ Ellie ventured. ‘She and me… I mean she and I weren’t allowed to associate with each other, and I missed Dora awfully – even more when she went away with Mrs Lowe.’

Doctor Lowe smiled. ‘Don’t worry yourself, my dear; I will make sure that is rectified.’ He got up and came round the desk towards her. ‘It must have been such a very sad time for you to be parted from your sister.’

Ellie tried not to shrink from his embrace, fatherly though it was, his arm about her shoulders drawing her close as she sat. Releasing her, he patted her hand. ‘I would never see you unhappy, my dear child. Never.’

Christmas at the Lowes’ family home was like nothing Ellie had ever experienced and she revelled in every moment of it. She’d never seen so much food as was on that table and continued to be served during the entire evening until by bedtime she felt utterly bloated.

Mrs Jenkins and Rose were both included in the evening. Florrie had gone home to her own family in North London, but Rose, having no family, remained here. In larger establishments the staff probably would have had their own party below stairs, but since there were only two of them here Doctor Lowe had them to join in, Mrs Jenkins getting very happy on port wine.

Ellie did feel a little awkward before them, being addressed as ‘miss’, no longer one of them – awkward, too, having Mrs Lowe nearby while utterly ignoring her. But she was no longer bothered: she had Dora here now, and neither Mrs Jenkins’s exaggerated deference nor Mrs Lowe’s silent pique could get under her skin any more.

Only one other person she would have liked to be there: that was Michael Deel. He was, of course, with his own family. On any other Tuesday he’d have been here tutoring her and, despite the jollifications going on this evening, she found herself missing him. But at least she’d see him on the Thursday.

Since October he had come on Monday and Thursday as