Geraldine held her hands out to touch the blanket – it felt like velvet against her fingers. The baby doll was beautifully dressed and she knew it would look wonderful as a main feature in her shop window. Geraldine was mentally dressing the window display as she prepared to do business. She’d have preferred to remain a calm cool businesswoman. Too late now – the words of praise had been wrenched unthinkingly from her at first sight of an article she was sure would become her star Christmas seller.
“I’m proud of the work my artists do. I work only with the best.” Ivy bowed her head regally. She had the sensation of standing outside herself. She couldn’t believe the load of pompous blather coming out of her own mouth.
“I –” the woman started to say when the bell over the door jangled commandingly.
Ivy wanted to curse. She needed to get this woman to agree to take some of these dolls, even one. She needed the order so she could mention to others that this prestigious shop carried her dolls.
“Geraldine, I’m in despair!” The tall blonde woman striding towards the manager’s counter paid no attention to anyone else who might be in the shop. “I desperately need your help!” The woman almost pushed Ivy out of her way. It was done politely but, nonetheless, Ivy was definitely given the push.
Ivy didn’t mind. She was making a study of the habits of the rich. Several of the mannerisms she’d observed in others she’d adopted for herself. This woman’s complete faith in her own pre-eminence was breathtaking.
“The Barton-Wallaces have had a granddaughter!” the woman exclaimed.
“Oh, how delightful!” Geraldine Harrington knew her lines.
“The gift I had my housekeeper pick up was for a boy, of course.”
“After all those boys how could you know?” Geraldine Harrington was wondering how much money she could make from this new child.
“You marvellous woman!” Evelyn Moriarty clapped her hands in childish pleasure. “It’s as if you knew in advance. I have always maintained that you, Geraldine, are a magician!” The woman pounced on the baby doll still on the counter.
“I’m so sorry, Mrs Moriarty, but I’m afraid Lady Barrington telephoned in to reserve that doll. I believe Lady Barrington wishes it for a gift.” Geraldine Harrington knew her customers well. She had to if she wanted to maintain her lifestyle.
“Nonsense! Bettina, as you well know, will have forgotton all about this doll by now. She can always choose something else if need be. The doll is mine. First come, first served. Isn’t that how business works?” Evelyn Moriarty had no intention of letting anyone else get their hands on this doll. It was perfection.
“Lady Barrington will be very disappointed.” Geraldine Harrington had felt safe mentioning the fluff-head Lady Barrington – she was the vaguest person she had ever known. She prepared to gift-wrap a doll that wasn’t part of her stock.
“I’m so sorry, my dear,” Evelyn Moriarty said to Ivy. Now that she’d got her own way she could afford to be gracious. “I hope I haven’t snatched that doll away from you? But, as you can tell, this is an emergency.”
“Such a superior doll!” Ivy sighed sadly. She watched out of the corner of her eye as the very first Baby Bundle was wrapped to sell. Ivy didn’t care that they hadn’t sealed the deal yet. She’d made her first sale. She had to bite back her screams of excitement.
“Have we met before, my dear?” Evelyn Moriarty looked closely at Ivy now. “I feel I know you.” Evelyn examined Ivy from her fashionably tousled black curls, covered by the merest whisper of a millinary creation, down to the beige boots on her feet. The young woman was beautiful and attired in the height of fashion. “If I had time I’d demand you join me for coffee. I want to know where you purchased that divine jacket.”
Ivy had asked Mr Solomon to create a jacket using the remnants of the white sheets and her own handmade bobbin lace. The finished article was a masterpiece. The little matching hat was Ivy’s own work.
“I’m sure I saw that jacket or something very similar on the catwalk of a Parisian designer. I had no idea that style was even available yet in Dublin. Well done for stealing a march on the rest of us, my dear!” Evelyn waited for the woman to tell her the name of her designer but she simply smiled. It was most frustrating but she was pushed for time. “I’m sure we’ve met before. My son may have introduced us – you must know him.” Evelyn’s laugh tinkled out. “Burton Moriarty – I’m afraid my son seems to know every beautiful young lady in the city.”
“That will be three guineas, Mrs Moriarty.” Geraldine Harrington placed the beautifully wrapped parcel on top of her shop counter. “Did you wish to take it with you or have a member of staff pick it up?”
“I’ll write you a cheque and take it with me.” Evelyn Moriarty opened her handbag and prepared to pay the outrageous sum mentioned without blinking. “I don’t want you to be tempted to hand it over to Lady Barrington.”
Geraldine Harrington watched one of her best customers waft out of the shop. Then she turned to Ivy.
“I’m so sorry about that,” she said.
“That is quite all right.” Ivy smiled sickly. She needed to put her head between her knees. Not only had she just met her aunt for the first time in her life but the bloody doll was worth a fortune. The woman had, all unknowingly, done Ivy an enormous favour. She’d never have dreamed of asking such an outlandish price for a feckin’ doll. She rapidly revised her asking price.
“Why don’t we discuss business over a cup of tea?” Geraldine wanted to make some gesture of apology. “I can send out for tea or make it myself at my own small kitchen in the back. We can sit and decide on numbers. Do you have a maximum number of dolls that may be ordered?” Geraldine Harrington knew she and her fellow independent traders could sell every doll this woman had over the Christmas period.
“We need to discuss your profit margin before we go much further.” Ivy smiled. “We’ll do that while the kettle boils, shall we?” She wondered if the woman kept smelling salts in the back.
“Ivy, I have a name for you!” Conn stopped his bike abruptly when he saw Ivy walking down Grafton Street swinging a case.
“What name’s that, Conn?” Every atom of Ivy’s body was concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. She needed to get somewhere private and have a nervous breakdown.
“I’ve got the name of the man who can order your eviction.”
“Conn, give us a lift home on your crossbar, will yeh?”
“I’m going to have to get a saddle put on me crossbar one of these days.” Conn was aware of the masculine gazes Ivy was attracting even if she wasn’t. “Especially if I keep picking you up when you’re wearing some fancy outfit.”
“Me lucky outfit, Conn.” With Conn’s help Ivy heaved herself onto the crossbar. She leant back against him as they set off. “Oh God, Conn! I’ve just closed me first big business deal and I want to throw up.”
“Don’t throw up on me, Ivy.” Conn looked down to make sure he didn’t need to pull over.
“Get me home, Conn,” Ivy whispered. “Quick.”
“Jem!” Conn shouted from the tunnel. The sound carried out all around the lane. “Jem Ryan!”
“What’s up?” Jem watched Conn spin out of the tunnel like a bat out of hell. “Jaysus, be careful, will yeh? Yeh might have hurt Ivy.”
“Jem, I did it!” Ivy went boneless and would have fallen to the ground if Conn hadn’t been expecting it and caught her.
“What the hell’s going on?” Jem demanded of Conn.
“I don’t know,” Conn said. “I picked Ivy up on Grafton Street. She wasn’t herself. She asked me to get her home quick and that’s what I did.”
“What’s wrong with Ivy?” John Lawless was sitting in his wheelchair inside the open doors of the livery. Clare was standing at his shoulder.
“Who is answering the phones?” Jem snapped. The livery phone couldn’t be left unattended. Clare and John had taken a course at the GPO because he’d had to get an actual switc
hboard installed to deal with the number of calls the business was receiving. A lot of the calls were enquiries and needed to be handled professionally.
“Jimmy Johnson has it,” John said. “The lad can handle it with us all here. Clare trained him well, Jem, not to worry.”
“Oh God!” Ivy hadn’t really fainted but she’d been out of it for a while. “I did it!” She pushed away from Conn and began dancing around the street. She grabbed Jem and danced him around with her. “I did it! I did it! Jaysus, Jem, I did it!” Ivy laughed like a lunatic.
“Ivy.” John Lawless tried to push himself to his feet. He still wasn’t used to having no power in his legs. “Do you mean it? You really did it?”
“I did it, John! You should have seen me. I impressed the hell out of myself.” Ivy continued to spin in place.
“Clare, love, will you make Ivy a pot of tea?” John knew what Ivy was talking about. “Conn, my Dora is over at Ivy’s place – run and get her, will you? Jem, we need to have the lads get chairs, a few bales of hay and that old table of yours out here. It seems we need to celebrate.”
John Lawless managed the livery. He might be sitting in a chair for the moment but everyone jumped to obey his orders.
“Tell Dora to bring one of the Baby Bundles with her, will you?” Ivy shouted after Conn. “Clare, Ann Marie and your ma were going to the new house today. They have more measuring to do or something. Give them a call, will yeh?”
“Give me your jacket, Ivy.” Jem waited until the lads had carried out the beat-up old table he was using in the office at the moment.
Ivy seemed to be in a daze. Jem turned her around and held the collar of the jacket while she slipped her arms free. He threw the jacket over her empty case which was sitting upright on the cobbles. He’d learned his lesson well. Ivy would talk better with a cup of tea in her hand.
“Here, Ivy,” Jem grabbed one of the chairs his lads were carrying out to the yard. “Sit down.” He didn’t like the look of her, she seemed in shock.
“Jem . . .” Ivy couldn’t say any more. She fell into the chair he held, put her head down onto her knees and concentrated on simply breathing.
Jem stood guard rubbing Ivy’s back gently. He watched while the young lads he was training up ran back and forth, setting up an impromptu picnic area in front of the livery. “Come on.” He gently nudged Ivy upright. He carried the chair she’d been sitting on over to the table. When she was settled he turned his attention to getting everything set up.
“Right, Ivy Murphy!” Jem said when everyone was in place, gathered around the wobbly table standing on the cobbles of the lane. “You’re sitting down in my private courtyard, a cup of tea in your hand,” he joked. “Now tell me what the heck is going on. Poor Conn is still green from having you nearly faint on him.”
“This is the first of me business ventures.” Ivy took the wool package from Dora’s hands. She checked the table was clean before putting the package down. She opened the incredibly soft, pale-peach, baby blanket to reveal the baby doll. “I’ve just sold thirty of these little darlings to that toff toy shop on Grafton Street.” Ivy could hardly speak. She couldn’t breathe.
“Thirty, Ivy?” John couldn’t believe it. He and his family had been making the blankets and woollen garments and dressing these dolls for months. They were doing the work for nothing, having decided as a family and at Ivy’s suggestion to take a cut of the profit.
“John, Clare, Dora,” Ivy closed her eyes against the tears that wanted to pour from her eyes, “the woman in the shop in Grafton Street placed an order with me for thirty of our Baby Bundle Dolls, then . . .” Ivy’s breath began to hitch in her chest again.
“Ivy?” John paled. God, had they lost money?
“Wait! Wait, give me a minute.” Ivy sucked in a deep breath. “It’s better than I ever dreamed. I’d prepared meself mentally. I thought the woman would try to talk me down on the price I wanted, maybe buy six of the dolls if we were lucky. She nearly ripped me arm off taking the very first price I mentioned. Then she asked me not to sell the dolls to the big department shops. I let her think McBirneys and Cleary’s were interested. I’d planned to visit those shops later this week. This woman has independent toyshop owner contacts in Cork, Galway, Sligo and Belfast. For a percentage of the sale price she’s going to contact them. John, I sold every feckin’ doll we have!”
“What, all hundred and four of them!” John could feel the colour drain from his face. He wanted to know how much his family had made from their intense months of work but he could see Ivy still hadn’t recovered.
“No wonder you couldn’t listen to what I had to tell you!” Conn said softly.
“I’m sorry, Conn.” Ivy heard the hurt in his voice. She waved her hands in the air and took some more deep breaths. “I’d just walked out of the shop when you caught up with me. I don’t know how I was still standing to be honest. I wanted to fall down onto Grafton Street and put me head between me knees.”
“Anyway, I got the name you need.” Conn puffed out his chest. It hadn’t been easy. “It’s some chap called Burton Moriarty. The man who told me about him says he’s not much. The chap prefers to spend his time playing rather then working.”
Burton Moriary! Ivy was reeling from one more shock. Her mother’s family owned the house Ivy lived in. Wasn’t that a kick in the pants! Ivy wondered if her mother had known. It didn’t matter. If Ivy played her cards right, her home was safe. She’d keep this information close to her chest but she’d use it if she had to.
“Is that the same Burton Moriarty who just became engaged to marry Betanne Morgan, one of the Morgan twins?” Ann Marie’s voice came from behind Ivy.
Ivy almost reeled where she sat. How many more shocks could she be expected to deal with today? Betanne Morgan one of her best suppliers if she but knew it. She turned to see Ann Marie standing with Baby James in her arms. Sadie was standing at her side.
“You can trust Ann Marie to know all the gossip about the quality.” Sadie grinned. “Who’s going to tell me what’s going on? My Clare was a bit abrupt when she telephoned.”
“Tell her, John.” Ivy tried to calm her wildly jumping pulse. She took several deep, deep breaths while John pulled a blushing Sadie onto his knees. Ivy desperately wanted some time alone to think of all the information she needed to process. That, however, would have to wait.
“Tell me what?” Sadie was trying to pretend she wasn’t mortified. John loved to pull her onto his knees in his wheelchair.
“We got our first order, love.” John nodded towards the baby doll lying in full view on the table.
“How much did you get for them, Ivy? I told yeh yeh’d never be able to pay us Lawlesss family as much as five bob for each doll. I never made as much as a shilling for each of those baby outfits I sold Maggie Wilson. How much did you settle for, Ivy?”
“Our boss – that one over there – the pale green one trying not to pass out,” John nodded in Ivy’s direction, “hasn’t told us yet.”
“Ivy, this is stunning.” Ann Marie picked up the doll from the table. “Is this the big project you’ve all been working on?”
“Yes!” Ivy grinned like a fool. “We’re celebrating because I’ve just taken our first order. I’ve sold every doll we have! Even the ones we haven’t got dressed yet.” Ivy beamed at Sadie sitting on John’s lap. “The Lawless family will receive twelve shillings per doll, Sadie. The bloody dolls are worth a small fortune.”
“I said she was an angel, didn’t I?” Sadie collapsed against John’s chest. Her brain couldn’t handle that amount of money.
“A bloody miracle-worker, love.” John hid his tearstreaked face in Sadie’s neck. “We’re in the money, Sadie.” John had already done the maths. If they saved the bulk of this money he’d be able to offer his girls a much better life than he’d ever imagined. He felt kind of faint himself to tell the truth.
“So, Miss Murphy,” Jem grinned, “would I be right in thinking you require the use of on
e of my premium carriages for your delivery service?”
“I’ll let you know my requirements at a future date, my good man!” Ivy said in her posh voice. She had to pull herself together. She could think about all the information she’d gathered today, later, when she was alone in her bed.
The group began to drink the cups of tea sitting unnoticed on the table. Ivy removed the doll from the table, putting it carefully on a vacant chair. She didn’t want to tempt faith. The Lawless family were in shock. John just stared at Ivy, unable to form a single question about this change in their fortunes. The women were making enough noise for everyone as gasps, laughs, ideas and schemes poured forth.
Conn was waiting for Ivy to question him further about his findings but nothing happened. He shrugged, sipping his lukewarm tea. Now wasn’t the time he supposed. He had the information when Ivy was ready to hear it.
“I’m confused, Ivy,” Ann Marie said when the excited exclamations and expressions of delight died down. “Did you intend to sell these dolls from your pram? Is that why you needed a street trader’s licence?”
“Not exactly.” Ivy said. “I was trying to increase my options. I want to be free to try many different things.” She was having difficulty even thinking never mind speaking, at the moment. “I’d originally thought to sell hand-knit goods in the street but when my application for a street traders licence was refused I had to rethink my business plan.”
Through Streets Broad and Narrow (Ivy Rose Series Book 1) Page 37