Fragile Blossoms by Dodie Hamilton Page B

She handed back the fur cape.
    ‘Pardon me.’ He hung it back about Julia’s shoulders. ‘It’s chilly out there first thing in the morning. Best you keep it.’
    She didn’t argue. She could hardly walk the streets with bare shoulders.
    ‘Might I call you a cab?’
    ‘Thank you, I can walk. It’s not far to the station.’
    Julia turned down the path. She’d walked about twenty paces when Jamieson came after her. ‘You dropped your handkerchief!’
    ‘My handkerchief?’
    ‘Yes.’
    A handkerchief was proffered, a scrap of paper visible through the cloth.
    She took it. ‘Thank you, Jamieson.’
    He bowed. ‘No, madam, thank you.’

Five
Too Late
    Julia didn’t read the note until she was inside the Cottage. Throughout the long train journey home, early morning travellers trying not to stare, the handkerchief remained clenched in her fist along with tears she could not shed. Once indoors and having waded through Mrs Mac’s grievances she went to bedroom and locking the door unfolded the cloth. Scrawled on the back of a laundry list was an address in London and the words ‘ she’s here .’
    What do I do now, thought Julia? I can’t go back neither can I abandon Bella. One person would help. She changed and went to the post-office where she wired Stefan saying she needed help and would he call at his earliest convenience. It seemed wrong to involve another but what else could she do.
    Needing to see Matty she went to the Lord Nelson. ‘Is Matty well?’
    ‘He’s fine!’ Nan bundled her in through the door, ‘which is more than can be said for you! You look terrible!’
    ‘I didn’t sleep well last night.’ A lock grated in Julia’s ears and a door handle rattled. ‘It was rather noisy.’
    Nan stared. ‘Is that what made you look like this, noise?
    Mute, Julia could only shake her head. Nan questioned the trip, how was the opera, what was it like. Julia described the gowns and the jewels but after a while her account of the evening lacklustre to her own ears she was silent.
    ‘That don’t sound like much,’ said Nan. ‘I reckon I’d get more satisfaction from a brass band playin’ in the park. Will you be going again?’
    ‘I doubt it.’
    ‘Well that’s no bad thing. If you’re runnin’ about with your posh friends you’re not with your lad. You need to find a way to maintain yourself, Anna. Don’t want to lean on others especially if they’re going to let you down.’
    Days passed and Julia began to wonder if offering Bella a home was a mistake. Evelyn Carrington feels things very deeply. She is many people, a woman who loves to give and make others happy, and another woman who drinks and takes pills and flies into a rage, and beats her brother about the head with whatever’s to hand, and threatens servants who displease with instant dismissal; so many people under one skin, which one was uppermost when breathing through keyholes.
    Julia wrote thanking Evie for her many kindnesses. The letter posted she determined to put all thoughts of Russell Square to the past. It is as Nan said she must make her own way.
    Sunday was a long day made longer by peevish servants. Julia could hear them in the kitchen, nothing specific, a general moaning long enough and loud enough to be one moan too many. She rang the bell. There was scuffling outside who should enter first. Caps askew they pushed through the door.
    Julia regarded them. ‘I am presently rethinking my domestic arrangements. As yet my plans are unclear but since any change I make affects you I thought it only fair to warn you.’
    ‘ Warn you !’ The words hung in the air. Neither woman spoke. Whatever they planned to say, a long list of petty annoyances, it shrivelled to nought.
    Recognising a warning light Mrs Mac retreated. Maggie was less knowing. ‘Would madam like Master Matthew’s boots polished? They’re a bit scuffed. And did madam know Maggie takes Kaiser for his evening walk and gets him to do his business.’ After