“You know we sold more of your clothes last week than wool or materials?”
Sarah looked up. “Did we?”
“We did,” Lucy said. “Peter says we should think of opening a clothes shop, but I told him he was mad, that we’re busy enough without taking on another business.”
“You’re right,” Sarah said. “Could you imagine the work involved in that? Definitely not! Things are perfect just as they are. The staff are all paid well and you’re making a nice profit, which is only as it should be.”
Lucy gently tapped her pen on the desk. “Businessmen have a different way of looking at things. I reckon that if you start to get greedy – have your finger in too many pies – then that’s when things start to go wrong. There’s no point in fixing something that isn’t broken.”
They finished the order, then, just as Lucy was going to phone it through, she stopped and looked at Sarah. “Who are you going to London with? You said you were taking a friend.”
“Jane,” Sarah said. “You know her – it’s the small dark-haired girl from the house in Victoria Street. You know we’re staying at David’s house? I wrote to him to check it was still okay and he said it was fine and that he was looking forward to being our tour guide.”
“Yes, he’ll be a great host to show you around London. I like David a lot, and I’m pleased that you’re still friends with him.” She tucked a stray curl behind her ear. “You know that Harriet has been seeing a new fellow for the last month or so?”
“I wasn’t sure,” Sarah said. “She said she’d been at the cinema with somebody called Kevin recently, but she didn’t elaborate.”
They didn’t speak for a few moments.
“I think she’s got over David, you know,” Lucy finally said. “So you can tell her you’re going to London. You gave her every opportunity to see if she had a chance with him – you wouldn’t need to feel awkward about anything.”
“I was going to tell her this week.” Sarah looked out towards the window. “I don’t think there will be any awkwardness when I explain that Jane is coming with me and that David also has a girlfriend down in London.”
“Oh! You didn’t mention that before.”
“Didn’t I?” Sarah said. “I must have forgotten.”
* * *
When the train pulled in at King’s Cross on the Saturday afternoon, David was there to meet the girls.
“You didn’t tell me he was so good-looking and such a trendy dresser,” Jane giggled as they walked along the station concourse.
Sarah just laughed and reminded Jane that he already had a girlfriend. The girls’ attention was taken up by the fashions many of the people were wearing – their eyes were particularly drawn to the much shorter skirts the women were wearing compared to the ones seen in Newcastle.
Sarah was delighted when she saw lots of girls wearing the style of dresses that she was selling in Harrison’s although she had to admit that the abstract patterns she saw were more adventurous than the ones she had used. The girls nudged each other every time they saw a particularly outrageous outfit like a shift dress with triangular holes around the waistline, or strange spaceman-type outfits. Sarah was particularly taken by the accessories like polka-dot scarves – which she knew she could make in five minute – and the baker-boy style hats. Everything she saw gave her ideas for stuff they could sell in the shop.
They went down to the underground and David guided them through a series of different Tubes and stations until they arrived at the nearest station to his house, and then he flagged down a taxi to take them on the final leg.
Sarah was quite overwhelmed by the noise and speed of the Tube and the bustling crowds and thought she would never manage to get around London on her own. It was lucky for her that Lucy Harrison’s shop was in Newcastle, because she felt she would never have survived in anywhere bigger.
The two-bedroom, basement apartment was surprisingly bright and spacious, and decorated with an artistic eye. Sarah and Jane walked around the ornate sitting-room and dining-room in amazed silence, and were equally impressed when they went up several steps to the open-plan, white fitted kitchen.
“Nothing to do with me,” David said, waving away compliments about the art deco furniture, the pale walls and the flamboyant gilt mirrors and dining chairs. “Nick, my uncle, sorted it all out for me. It’s rented from a friend of his. He owns several houses in this road, and he brought in an interior-design company to do them all in one fell swoop.”
He was equally modest about the beautiful spacious bathroom, with its own separate shower, and the two neat bedrooms. The beds in both rooms – David’s own double room and the twin guestroom – had green and gold counterpanes and bolsters, and teak cabinets on either side which held gold-stemmed lamps.
“I have to say I’m pleased with it,” David said. “I definitely landed on my feet. I’ve even got a lady who comes in on a Friday to make sure it’s decent for the weekend if I’ve got friends around.”
Sarah wondered if he brought his girlfriend here, and assumed he would. People in English cities seemed to do whatever they liked. She thought back to the cottage she and Con had been planning to live in, and the times she had to almost fight him off. Back in Ireland couples would have been the talk of the place if it was discovered they were in a house on their own, and it would be presumed they were “getting up to no good”. In England everything seemed different. People were more open about sex and relationships, and Lucy had recently told her that Peter now stayed the odd weekend. Strangely enough, she hadn’t been a bit shocked. They were both mature people and Peter had been married before and Sarah had a child, and it wasn’t as if they were Catholics. It was too soon for them to get married but that didn’t mean they didn’t want to be close to each other. Sarah supposed that times were changing generally and, at the end of the day, people were entitled to do what they wanted.
The girls had brought wine and chocolates and a couple of Stottie Cakes – a speciality bread from Newcastle – which Sarah knew David loved.
He laughed as he opened the bag to see the flat, round loaves with the familiar indent in the middle. “Aw, thanks! We’ll have them later with ham and tomatoes, or maybe in the morning with bacon and eggs.” Then he opened a bottle of wine he had in the fridge and they sat chatting about the journey down and the people they had met.
Sarah listened to the way he modestly explained everything or made light of it, and when Jane went to use the bathroom she held her glass out to him.
“Congratulations, David,” she said. “You certainly made a good move coming here.”
“I can’t complain,” he said, smiling at her. “In six months it’s gone far better than I could have imagined.” He took a drink from his glass. “The only negative thing is not being able to see the people you’re used to so often.”
“Knowing you, I bet you’ve made lots of new friends.”
“Ah, yeah. There’s plenty of nice people in London – the same as anywhere else.”
They went out to an Italian restaurant for their first night and David waved away their offers of paying the bill. “We have nearly a week ahead of us,” he told them, “so you can catch the bill another night.”
Sarah had never eaten Italian food before and was pleasantly surprised by the spaghetti and meat and tomato sauce and both girls said how much they enjoyed the sweet red Italian wine. She wondered whether David’s girlfriend was going to join them at some point, but there was no mention of her. They went back to the flat and watched television and then later David brought out a pile of LPs and single records to let the girls choose which music they wanted to put on the record player. They started off with Jane’s choice of Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman”, then Sarah chose The Supremes’ “Baby Love”, then David picked a Moody Blues hit. They took turns throughout the night while the girls sipped on wine and were entertained by David pretending to be a DJ, commenting on each record he put on the turntable.
“What a re
ally nice guy,” Jane said, when they were lying in bed. “I wonder if we’re going to meet his girlfriend?”
“I’m sure we will at some point,” Sarah said. She paused. “David and I are going to go to ten o’clock Mass in the morning, if you don’t mind staying on your own?”
“Not at all,” Jane said, “I’m very happy to have a long lie.”
“We’ll have breakfast when we come back, and then David said he’s taking us around the sights in the afternoon.”
Jane leaned out of bed and switched her lamp off. “Sounds good to me.”
* * *
Sarah enjoyed the ten-minute walk with David to and from his local church. He asked her all about her fashion-design course and listened intently as she told him about all the projects she had done and about her end-of-term results.
“I’d be surprised if you didn’t come top of the class,” he teased. “A little swot like you!”
She laughed and gave him a friendly push.
“No, seriously,” he said, “I’m very proud of you. You’re an extremely talented woman and you’ve worked harder than anyone I know and you deserve all the success you get.
“That’s very kind of you,” Sarah said, feeling a warm glow at all his praise.
She then listened as David brought her up to date with the world of books, explaining about the different authors and publishers that he met and all the book fairs and events he attended.
On Sunday afternoon they saw Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London and later on they took the Tube to Carnaby Street, where they went into a pub and had a roast beef lunch with Yorkshire puddings. Afterwards they walked around the shops and Sarah was surprised that the Carnaby Street shopping area was actually only a few buildings long, when she imagined it to be about a mile.
The shops themselves didn’t disappoint and she found herself almost giddy with excitement as she examined the T-shirt dresses, floppy hats and coloured tights. All wonderful things she could easily make and sell in Harrison’s.
At one point, David came across her as she stood outside a shop taking notes on all the things they had on display in the window.
David laughed at her. “Trust you! You can’t even come away on holiday without turning it into a work thing.” He put his hand on her shoulder. “We can come back on Friday and take photographs of the shop windows if that would save you all the writing.”
“That,” Sarah said seriously, “is a brilliant idea. I could take them home and show Lucy.”
* * *
On Monday David had to go into work, so the girls had a lazy day around the apartment, taking a couple of hours in the afternoon to look at the shops in Chelsea and buy newspapers and magazines.
It was Tuesday before Sarah was introduced to Camilla Jones, David’s girlfriend. He had the day off work, so they went back into London to see Covent Garden and meet up with Camilla for lunch in one of the little restaurants in the area.
Sarah didn’t know what to expect, but she was pleasantly surprised with the curvy, bubbly dark-haired girl who gave her and Jane a run-down on all the things they should try to see on their visit. She told them she worked as a photographer on one of the newspapers in Fleet Street.
“I’ve been told she’s one of the best, with a great future ahead of her,” David said, putting his arm around her.
“I’ve still a lot to learn,” Camilla said, “but I’m enjoying it.”
“Apart from the dogs . . .” David winked at them.
“Oh, don’t remind me!” Camilla said, going into a fit of giggles.
David went on to explain that Camilla had been sent to cover a pedigree dog show in the Olympia Exhibition Centre.
“It’s a huge place where they hold things like the Ideal Homes Exhibition,” Camilla said. “They’ve always got something interesting on in it.”
“That’s actually where our fashion show is on Friday afternoon,” Sarah suddenly realised.
“It’s easy to get to,” David said. “It’s out in Kensington. I’m off, so I’ll go out there with you and meet up with you afterwards.”
“I might actually come too,” Camilla said. “I’ll see if I can juggle my appointments around.”
Sarah thought. “You might have to ring about tickets – when I bought them they said they didn’t have many left.”
David put out his hand. “Don’t give her the chance to brag,” he said, laughing. “She loves to tell you how she only has to wave her Press Pass at the door and they let her in anywhere for nothing.”
Camilla gave David a friendly punch and then she started tickling him, which made Sarah feel awkward and look away.
“Get back to the dogs before we get put out of this restaurant,” David said, standing up to straighten his tie and jumper.
Camilla started into her story again and spent about ten minutes relating a catalogue of catastrophes with the dogs.
“Anyway, I eventually got the winners of the obedience category and their owners all into position for the photograph, when one of the dogs got stung by a wasp and it suddenly went mad howling and snapping at the other dogs. The owners all got involved and in the end two of the men ended up rolling around the ring in the sawdust fighting with each other!”
“Oh, no!” Jane said, covering her hands with her mouth.
“And then I went to help grab one of the escaping dogs,” Camilla said, wiping away a tear of laughter, “when the little bugger turned on me and bit me in the leg.”
“Was it sore?” Sarah asked.
“Bad enough – I needed a tetanus injection. But to cap it all, when I got back to the office, all the reporter wanted to know was whether I’d got the photo or not.”
As they strolled around the Embankment, both Camilla and David kept the girls entertained with information about the area or more funny stories or jokes.
“They’re well-suited, aren’t they?” Jane said, as they walked behind the couple into a Wimpy Bar.
“Yes,” Sarah said, “they really are.” She wondered now if David felt embarrassed at having pursued her so openly back in Newcastle. He probably felt a sense of relief, she thought, that things had turned out the way they had. He probably felt glad that he’d been turned down, as it meant he had met someone more exciting and more suited to him, like Camilla.
* * *
David worked Wednesday and Thursday so he could have Friday off. The girls stayed around Chelsea again on the Wednesday and then, having got braver about the Tubes, decided to go into London on Thursday on their own to meet up with Jane’s old friend and do some more shopping.
They spent time at each of the stations negotiating the complicated Tube maps and then deliberating which line and then platform they should head for. Sarah felt a great sense of achievement when they came out of the station in Oxford Circus to find the girl waiting for them at the exact point they had planned.
Jane’s friend, Millie, took the girls first to Biba. Sarah’s heart quickened when she saw the familiar black and gold logo outside the shop that she had seen in magazines and in her course notes. When she went inside, she was surprised how dark it was and it took a few seconds for it to dawn on her that the store had blacked-out windows which gave more atmosphere to the art-nouveau interior. Sarah’s eyes were immediately drawn to the décor and the decadent furniture scattered with random items like feather boas and hats in all shapes and sizes. Every so often, she took her little notebook out and scribbled down any details she feared she might forget, so she could tell Lucy and use them in the shop.
The girls wandered around looking at all the amazing designs in unusual shades of blackish mulberry, blueberry, rusts and plums – and found themselves picking things up and taking them to the changing room to try them on. Sarah went over to study the Biba make-up and ended up buying eye-shadow palettes and lipsticks for herself, Lucy and the other girls back at the house.
They moved on to Mary Quant’s Bazaar, which they noticed was pricier, but Sarah fell in love with lots
of the designs and within half an hour she had bought stretchy long black boots, a white PVC coat with a navy and white flowery lining, and a pretty Empire high-waisted dress in small-flower-printed lawn, which came about two inches above her knee. Jane was braver and bought a black belted skirt which was a good four inches above her knee and a purple skinny-rib jumper.
They were just ready to leave when Sarah spotted a black sleeveless straight dress which had white daisies with black buttons going all the way down the front. “That is just amazing!” she said, running over to the clothes-rail. “I won’t be a minute,” she told the other two girls. “I’ve just got to try it on – I know it will look perfect with my boots and coat.” Five minutes later she came out with another black bag with the famous white daisy logo on.
In a shop further along the girls all bought earrings: Sarah’s had a black plastic cube dangling from a smaller black cube and Jane bought a pair with mauve droplets ending up in a big circle. Millie bought large black plastic hoops with a smaller white circle in the centre.
When Sarah told Jane she had bought Biba make-up for Anna, Elizabeth and Vivienne, she said, “They’ll kill me if I don’t bring something back for them too!” She rushed back to the basket of jewellery and chose two long, colourful necklaces for each of the girls.
* * *
On Friday after a long lie-in, David made them a fried breakfast of bacon and sausages and eggs and then the girls went to get ready.
“Well, would you look at the style!” he said when they came back into the sitting-room – Sarah in her Mary Quant dress and Jane in her short skirt and purple skinny-rib top.
“I don’t know what the Newcastle people are going to make of you two when you walk down Grey Street wearing those short skirts!” He shook his head. “Poor Miss Harrison will take a heart attack and drop dead when she sees you!”
Sarah Love Page 37