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

where really posh people congregate – you know, horses and hounds and cricket, that sort of thing. That was back in May and we – well – fell for each other.’

‘Why haven’t you told me about him before now, Ginny?’ Julia cut in. ‘You’ve known him for four months and said nothing to anyone. And four months is not long enough for two people to think of getting engaged.’

Ginny’s happy smile turned to a frown. ‘You sound just like Mummy! You’re getting old-fashioned, like her. Why should four months be too soon for two people to know how they feel about each other? We’re in love.’

Julia’s thoughts returned to her previous suspicions, the awful thought still in her mind. ‘Then why haven’t you said anything about him until now?’

‘I don’t know.’ Ginny shrugged. ‘The time goes so quickly and there’s always so much to do. We’re mostly with lots of other people and, well, we just came together naturally. And anyway, why should I need to report to you?’

‘It’s not reporting, Ginny.’

‘Well, I’m telling you now,’ she rushed on, unaware that her retort might have sounded rude.

Julia didn’t have the heart now to ask if her sister was ‘all right’ in that way she couldn’t help wondering about. Ginny looked so happy. If she wasn’t ‘all right’, surely she’d have a guilty look about her. But she was radiant.

It was Stephanie who announced herself once again pregnant and over the moon about it. ‘I hope it’s a boy this time. Eddie so wants a boy.’

Her joy instantly resurrected all those feelings Julia had thought she’d buried in her work as she warmly congratulated her sister.

‘Have you told Mummy?’ she asked.

Stephanie pulled a face. ‘Not yet. I know what she’ll say the moment I do: “I wish your poor father was with us to hear your news. To think he’d be a grandfather.” Then she’ll go into one of her miseries and say she’s feeling poorly. I’d rather leave it for a while.’

These days their mother seemed to be continually ailing. She seemed almost to be giving up, complaining that all her children were leaving her. It was the natural course of things but she didn’t see it that way. If only she could see it not as a family diminishing but growing. She’d have so many more people popping in to see her. It was this constant lamenting about the emptiness of her life and never letting them forget their deceased father that put them off. If only she’d realize that accepting their new lives with serenity would bring them closer, that it was she who pushed them away rather than they who were staying away.

As Stephanie said when Julia thought she should bring little Violet to see her grandmother more often: ‘What’s the point? As soon as she sees her she bursts into tears and says, if only Father had lived to see his granddaughter. Doesn’t she see that if Father had lived I might not be married and have Violet? Eddie doesn’t know what to say. It’s embarrassing.’

It would have been the perfect wedding but for the rain, thought Julia as she stood with the congregation listening to the traditional resounding strains of the Wedding March playing James and Caroline out of the church. Luckily, with no hope of snapshots in the open air, it had been arranged that photographs were to be taken at a nearby studio.

James had organized every last thing from beginning to end. But one thing he couldn’t control – the weather. Julia thought she’d never seen such rain. Poor Caroline had arrived shielded by an umbrella held over her by her father. It was fortunate her wedding dress only came to just below the knees, following the current trend, and so didn’t suffer much. But the trading lace veil had to be bundled up unceremoniously by her mother, who held it at arm’s length as much under the umbrella as she could while the two made a most unladylike dash to the church porch, followed by the bridesmaids, also under umbrellas wielded by a couple of uncles.

Even so, Caroline entered the church all smiles, ignoring the fact that those already in the church were filling it with the faint damp odour of mackintoshes and umbrellas piled up on empty chairs at the back.

Julia felt sorry for her brother more than for Caroline. He’d worked so hard. In that staid manner which had now become part of him he seldom smiled even when pleased, reminding her so much of their father in looks and attitude.

She only hoped Caroline would be of a stronger character than her mother and weather James’s overbearing ways. Otherwise she could have a miserable life. But today she looked radiant despite the rain as she walked down the aisle on her father’s arm while James rose from his seat to stand beside her.

Julia saw her feel for his hand, and saw James grip it briefly, and felt her heart give a tug of envy. Angry with herself for feeling so when she should be thinking of the happiness of those two, she had felt for Simon’s hand, curling her fingers round it and feeling his curl around hers. ‘Darling, we should get married,’ she whispered and heard him whisper back, ‘I know.’

The rest of the service became a blur in the euphoria that swept over her. Now though, posing for the official photographer, with the small band of close relatives arranged about the newly-weds in the studio all smiling fixedly lest the result blur, she wondered how genuine had been those two words of Simon’s.

At the reception he was on the far side of the room – she could only glimpse him amidst the gathering, just beyond the wedding cake – and seemed oblivious to her. But if he’d meant what he said in the church surely he would be at her side now.

Her spirits drooping again, Julia smiled as Stephanie came up, champagne glass in hand though little