Remember Me by Margaret Thornton

long-lost daughter, Hetty, had come to find him. Her adoptive parents had both died, and so had Bella, with whom the young woman had been reunited during the last two years of her real mother’s life.
    William had realised almost at once that he liked Hetty. He had recognised her immediately; with her black curly hair, deep brown eyes and bold features she was the image of Bella, as she had been when he first met her. But Hetty was of a kinder, more gentle disposition than her mother; and William’s wife,children and stepchildren had gradually come to welcome her as a member of their family. The only one who had not met her was Samuel.
    Hetty had been brought up, as Henrietta Collier, by her adoptive parents in the town of Ashington in Northumberland. She still lived there, working in the office of one of the many coal mines. Her visits to Scarborough to see her father and her newly discovered family were not very frequent, but were always happy and enjoyable occasions. William had grown very fond of her during the two years he had known her; she was now twenty-six years old. He had realised that good could come out of something which, at one time, he had regarded as a disaster.
    The firm of Isaac Moon and Son was continuing to prosper, too, which was satisfying to William and his father, and also to Patrick, who, one day, when William took over, would become the ‘son’ of the establishment.
    The business had been started in the mid-nineteenth century, in quite a small way at first, by Joshua Moon, Isaac’s father. Over the years the firm had thrived and grown, earning them a good reputation in the town, due to their sympathetic dealings with their clients. In the early years much of the laying-out process had been done by a ‘handywoman’ of the neighbourhood, often the same woman who acted as midwife at the births. Nowadays the undertakers frequently performed this task themselves. For many years now they hadowned their own hearse and two black horses. Jet and Ebony, however, the two original mares, had been put out to grass for a well-deserved retirement. They had been replaced by two different mares, Velvet, an all black horse, and Star, who was black with a white star shape on her forehead.
    Some twelve years ago William and Clara, with Isaac’s blessing, had opened an adjoining shop. This at first had been called Moon’s Mourning Modes and had sold all manner of clothes, for both men and women, and artefacts concerned with the cult of mourning, at its height during the reign of Queen Victoria.
    Now, however, in keeping with the times and the reign of a new monarch, the store had diversified. It was now known as Moon’s Modes for all Seasons and stocked, in addition to a certain amount of mourning wear, clothing for all occasions: bridal gowns and wedding accessories as well as garments, both casual and more sophisticated, for afternoon and evening wear. Faith had now taken over as joint manageress, along with Miss Muriel Phipps, who had served them well for several years. It was typical of Faith that she had not wanted to rule the roost, even though she was the owner’s wife. The two women worked well together and that business, too, was flourishing.
    William Moon, in the March of 1907, was a contented man.

Chapter Five
    M organ’s Melody Makers were to perform for two weeks in Blackpool at the Eastern Pavilion, at the landward end of the North Pier. It was a fairly new building, having been completed in 1903, its architecture consisting of a domed roof with pagoda-shaped turrets, and, inside the building, ornate marble pillars, brightly coloured paintwork and a multitude of chandeliers, each with a circle of electric light bulbs, suspended from the concave ceiling. The only drawback, to the audience if not to the performers, was the seating arrangement: rows and rows of wooden benches, with backs admittedly, but not nearly so comfortable as the plush seats to be found in the town’s Grand Theatre or the