A New Dream - Maggie Ford (interesting novels to read TXT) 📗

fall away, his customers to dwindle, it was taking a long time to get the place back on its feet. There was so much cleaning up to do, as well as serious repair work and redecorating to the style that she and Simon had chosen, that two months had gone by and nothing was yet up and running. In fact they seemed to be teetering on the edge of disaster. With rent, rates, builders’ and decorators’ bills to be met, the money was flying out and nothing yet coming in, and there was still so much more to do. Julia’s nights were sleepless from worry, the more so since some of their outlay had been partly due to her lack of forethought.

As soon as they’d arrived, transferring all their stock from the old shop to this, she had ordered more materials for her side of the business. She now realized that she’d let herself be carried away; she who had worried about Simon’s spending. Instead he had shown himself to be the steady one. Neither of them, however, could have envisaged the amount of work needed here and the way it would delay the start of trading. Meanwhile Julia watched the loan he’d raised from the bank dwindling alarmingly.

‘We’re not going to do it, are we?’ she said quietly as they sat on their own together in the half-decorated back room. Her family were upstairs in their flat, content to relax. Young James had worked his socks off helping to get the place up to scratch. He’d been a treasure, while Ginny had helped with painting bits and pieces. Stephanie of course had done nothing at all to help. Julia was not surprised but nevertheless annoyed at her sister’s selfishness.

But none of them had any inkling of her and Simon’s worries and she wasn’t about to pop their bubble just yet. She dreaded having to tell them that she and Simon might have made a mistake. God, how would they take it, especially her mother? They were content with their lot. James was doing well at his bank job, now earning three pounds a week, a man’s wage, he boasted. Last month Ginny had excitedly disclosed that her wages were now up to one pound ten shillings a week. Eager to show that she could go one better than her sister, Stephanie had immediately and carelessly declared hers to be almost two pounds a week.

‘An assistant on the cosmetics counter of a high-class department store is expected to advise customers of what is best for them. It’s an important position and of course I am earning good money.’ Although the other two were giving more or less three-quarters of their wages towards the family upkeep, Stephanie contributed only half of hers. ‘My job calls for me to look the part and that takes more money than if you’re just office staff. And James merely needs a suit, shirt and tie to look smart.’

It annoyed Julia that her mother meekly accepted the excuse, yet it was hardly worth making a fuss about since the combined income of the four of them was now more than enough to pay rent, rates and food, with enough left for clothes when needed. And now that summer was here there were no worries yet about buying coal. It was here, in the shop that the hammer was threatening to fall.

‘We mustn’t give up hope yet,’ Simon said as they sat over a cup of tea at the small table in the shop’s back room, as yet still to be redesigned and decorated. At least the shop was now looking good.

Simon had insisted they shouldn’t try to trade while it was being done up. ‘It’s just the thing to turn customers away,’ he had said, but the money he’d borrowed was running out far too quickly for her peace of mind.

Sixteen

Betty Lewis looked up from cutting out a gold lamé evening dress to Julia’s own design. ‘This is lovely, just right fer these warm, end o’ September evenings. Mind you, I don’t exactly like these new knee-length hems, but I do like yer idea of this back panel. It sort o’ flows, don’t yer think?’

Yes, she did. After selling known labels Julia had tried designing her own dresses and had found herself quite good at it. Now suddenly the vogue was for skirts up to the knees and as a designer of sorts she needed to go along with the times. But this delicate panel she’d come up with, draped from the back of the shoulders to fall straight down to just above the ankles, rippled like a golden river and gave a wonderful effect as one moved. In fact these days she was full of new ideas, ever eager to see the finished product.

Betty was proving a treasure. She’d jumped at the chance to come with them when she and Simon had moved. Now in charge of a couple of girls who treadled away on sewing machines, Betty was the cutter for the clothes Julia was devising with growing confidence.

She was helped by today’s fashion for simple, straight lines and often wondered if she’d have achieved the same success twenty years ago when the fashion was for intricate gowns with wasp waists and figure-hugging drapes.

Surprisingly, despite their misgivings, the shop had finally opened for business and was proving a success. Julia had begun by making clothes for window display as she’d done in the old shop, to help sell her materials. Instead it was the dresses that had sold. Simon had helped by sending out leaflets to publicize them and now, six months later, she was being asked more and more often to design garments exclusively for a specific clientele.

Her first commission had been terrifying. She’d lost sleep worrying about it, visualizing her customer shaking her head in disappointment, she feeling a fool and never getting another commission. But the woman had been delighted. Julia had discovered a gift she never knew she had;