Rainy Days for the Harpers Girls. Rosie Clarke

meet occasionally when I’m in London. It won’t be that often…’

      Maggie nodded but the waitress had approached and she waited until their order was given and they were once more alone.

      ‘I’m not sure…’ Maggie said, flustered and embarrassed to refuse, even though she’d told herself she would never forgive him for not supporting her when her mother lay dying. ‘But only as friends – if you expect more, then perhaps we should not…’

      ‘And that is your final word?’ Ralf asked.

      ‘Yes,’ she managed. ‘We could be friends but no more…’

      Ralf was silent as the waitress returned with their tea and a plate of cakes. She sipped her tea but found that she wasn’t hungry and declined the cream cakes, though Ralf tucked into one with evident enjoyment. Afterwards, he looked at her and her eyes were drawn to a little smear of cream on his mouth.

      ‘I enjoyed that,’ he said and his eyes were intent on her face. ‘You won’t change your mind?’

      Maggie shook her head and she saw the acceptance in his eyes.

      ‘Then I think you are right. Thank you for today, but I shall not trouble you again…’

      Maggie found it impossible to speak as he summoned the waitress, paid for their tea and then left. She felt sorry that what had begun so brightly had ended this way and yet she knew it was right.

      As she got up to leave the little café, Maggie knew the only man she wanted to meet for tea in future was Tim.

      ‘Did you have a good evening?’ Maggie asked when Minnie and Rachel returned from their visiting.

      ‘Yes, not too bad,’ Rachel said. ‘We visited our old landlady and old friends at the boarding house and then called on my mother-in-law, because she wants Minnie to make her a new dress…’

      ‘Oh, that’s rather nice…’

      ‘Yes, I suppose,’ Rachel agreed. ‘It helps Minnie supplement her income and she likes embroidering, so she was happy.’ Rachel sighed. ‘What about you? What did you do? I felt a bit mean for leaving you alone…’

      ‘I went out to tea with a friend,’ Maggie replied, not meeting her eyes, because she didn’t want to tell her who she’d had tea with; Rachel would think her a fool to meet Ralf again.

      ‘Oh, well, that’s all right then… Minnie wants to take us both out to lunch on Sunday – unless you’re going to visit Becky Stockbridge?’

      ‘No, her father is taking her to visit her maternal grandmother in Henley,’ Maggie said. ‘I can have lunch, but I shall be meeting Tim Burrows for tea on Sunday.’ He’d written to tell her he would be home and she was looking forward to it. Suddenly, she was looking forward to seeing Tim again very much.

      7

      Rachel was thoughtful as she brushed her hair that evening. Was she imagining it or were both Minnie and Maggie hiding something from her? She’d noticed Minnie fidgeting a couple of times when they were speaking to Rachel’s mother-in-law that afternoon and there was a look of sadness in her eyes that hadn’t been there until the past day or so. She sighed and shook her head, putting it down to Minnie’s loss of her sister. Rachel had hoped she was settling in well with them and in her new job, but it seemed she was still grieving. However, there was little she could do except be kind, gentle and give her time.

      Maggie was a different matter. She had recovered from the death of her parents and the look in her eyes hadn’t been sadness; it was more as if she’d done something, she was uneasy about and didn’t want Rachel to know. Yet she was an honest girl and Rachel knew it couldn’t be very much. Again, she could do little unless Maggie confided in her…

      Mind you, Rachel had her own secrets. She’d told no one that she’d been out to lunch the previous Sunday with William Bailey, the gentleman she’d met at Harpers and been out with a few times to tea and lunch until he let her down. Her friends would think she was mad, because of the way he’d betrayed her with that awful article he’d put his name to in the papers condemning the Women’s Movement, which meant so much to her and to her friends.

      For a long time after she’d discovered his betrayal, Rachel had tried to keep William at arms’ length, but in the end, she’d allowed him to talk to her and then to take her out sometimes for tea or lunch – but she hadn’t told her friends she was meeting him again. She wasn’t sure why, except that she was certain they would think her foolish to trust him after he’d betrayed her so badly. However, he had explained that he hadn’t written the offending article but merely allowed his name to be attached to it, and he had admitted he was wrong.

      ‘I wish I’d spoken to you in the first place – or just refused to have anything to do with the article,’ he’d told Rachel when he’d taken her to tea that first time. ‘I wouldn’t have hurt you for the world – please believe me. I certainly do not consider you a fool. I was advised it was a good angle to get me a seat in parliament but had I realised that it would alienate you, I would have told them to keep their seat.’ He’d smiled at her remorsefully. ‘In fact, I did – I’m standing for a different constituency and they happen to be pro-suffragette…’ His eyes had twinkled at her in the way she’d always liked. ‘Can you find it in your heart to forgive me please?’

      Rachel had found she was laughing. William had a sense of humour she liked, as well as being kind and generous, and she just hadn’t been able to stay angry with him for long. In fact, the more she knew of him, of his good works amongst the poor and his sympathy for the miners, the more she liked him. Besides, there had been a spate of rather foolish attacks on famous paintings and the pier at Great Yarmouth, which she thought foolish and detrimental to the cause.

      Sighing, Rachel thrust thoughts of William to one side. She had other problems that needed her attention. Her mother-in-law wasn’t looking as well as she had and seemed to complain almost the whole time, she and Minnie were with her. Rachel didn’t mind for herself, but she thought her mother-in-law might have made an effort because Minnie was visiting – but she had always been a selfish woman.

      Why didn’t she just leave her to get on with it? Rachel sometimes thought she was a fool to continue to visit her late husband’s mother. She’d begun it after Paul’s death, because she was grieving and it was her last link with the husband she’d lost, but there was nothing between them now – nothing but her sense of duty…

      And then there was that little problem at work. Rachel had been told by two of the department heads that small items had disappeared from stock quite recently.

      ‘A little compact was missing from the cosmetic counter,’ Mrs Rowes had told Rachel when she’d asked her why she was doing a stock take midweek. ‘It had rouge in it and cost three shillings and ninepence. I know it isn’t much, Mrs Craven – but we’ve never lost anything from this department before…’

      The same thing had been reported by Mr Brown, head of the men’s department. ‘A silk tie, Mrs Craven. Worth four shillings and sixpence. Not a huge amount – but still, one does not like petty theft. I would swear that it wasn’t one of my staff…’

      ‘A customer?’ Rachel had asked and he’d frowned.

      ‘My staff are vigilant and I keep an eye on the counters myself – but it may have happened when I was on my break…’

      ‘I suppose these things happen,’ Rachel had told him, ‘but report it to Mrs Harper and do your best to see it doesn’t happen again…’

      ‘One thing…’ Mr Brown had hesitated. ‘I hate to cast aspersions when I’ve no proof – but I saw a girl from one of the other departments in here the day the tie went missing. She was near the silk ties, but I didn’t see her take anything…’

      ‘One