Heartbreak at Harpers , livre ebook

HEARTBREAK AT HARPERS


ROSIE CLARKE
CONTENTS



Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33


More from Rosie Clarke

About the Author

Also by Rosie Clarke

Sixpence Stories

About Boldwood Books
PROLOGUE

‘What do you think of this, Beth?’ Sally Harper placed some photographs and a few lines of explanatory script on the desk in her office at Harpers Emporium. ‘I was asked by Tatler magazine to provide them with some copy for a feature they want to do on Harpers – do you think they will like these?’
Sally had made a collection of photographs of the various windows Harpers had presented through the years since they had first opened in 1911, right through the war until today, which was a Thursday at the end of February 1926. She’d dug out some pictures of members of her staff, some of whom had not returned from the war, together with images of some rather special items that were currently on sale in the prestigious London store.
‘Look at this one of me when I was first employed here,’ Beth Burrows remarked with a laugh as she picked it up. The picture had faded over the years, but she could still see the high-necked dress she’d worn for her first day at work; she’d worked in the office at first before becoming a supervisor in the hats and bags department. ‘I had forgotten these were taken…’
‘Yes, so had I until I found them in Ben’s desk,’ Sally said. ‘I shan’t be including these very early ones, but I thought you would like to see them. I doubt the magazine will use more than half a dozen and they will probably feature the windows to highlight the changing times since Harpers opened.’
‘Yes, I imagine that is what they will be more interested in,’ Beth agreed. She sipped her coffee, looking fondly at her friend, who was wearing a soft, low-waisted dress in a dark blue with a neat white collar. ‘Fashions have certainly changed a lot!’
‘Haven’t they?’ Sally said and laughed as she held up a faded black and white picture of herself. ‘Not quite what appears in their fashion pages these days.’
‘No, I should say not. What did you do to get the Tatler interested?’
‘Nothing really,’ Sally laughed at the disbelief on Beth’s face. ‘Ben took me to a reception at the Savoy some months ago, before last Christmas. It was to honour some war heroes and I got talking to a young man. He was very interested in Harpers, because he’d been told that I more or less kept it going throughout the war. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but then he came to the office and asked to see me. He said he was doing a series of articles for the magazine about the way life had changed in Britain since the war – the roaring twenties and all that – and he’d been told that I’d kept most of my female staff on when the men returned home. He was intrigued and wanted to know more. What I thought about women’s role in business and society and a whole lot of other stuff.’
‘What does Ben think about it?’ Beth asked. ‘Or have you not been able to ask him?’
‘It was a few days before he left for America when I was approached. He thought it should be good publicity for the store and I suppose it will.’
Beth nodded. ‘I read the Tatler and they are pretty fair in their reporting, but be careful what you tell them, Sally. I wouldn’t let them have any personal stuff if I were you.’
‘That is what Ben said,’ Sally smiled but looked thoughtful. ‘During the war, there was a picture of me in one of the papers – and that’s how my mother found me…’ Sally sighed because for so many years she hadn’t even known her mother was alive. Brought up in a convent, an illegitimate child, apparently abandoned by her mother at birth, she had not known the true story. Her mother had been forced to give her up at the time, but when she tried to reclaim her, the nuns would not tell her where Sally was because they did not consider her a fit mother.
‘Yes, I know.’ Beth nodded. ‘She looks very well these days and your stepfather, too. I think the years since she came to live near to you have treated them well, Sally.’
‘How is your father-in-law and Vera?’ Sally asked. Fred Burrows had married for the second time to a widow he’d met a few years back, something that had surprised them all at the time.
‘Well, I think,’ Beth replied. ‘I see them most days – but often only for a few minutes. The children go there after school sometimes if I am here – or out with a friend.’
Beth came in to Harpers two mornings a week for her meetings with Sally and did her walk about the store; it was her role to take note of anything untoward and report it and also to give her opinions on what might be changed to improve sales or conditions. It was just an interesting thing to do and her viewpoint was important to Sally, who liked to talk things over. Ben oversaw the store in general, making decisions about renovations, new departments, expansions, and he did the buying for a few departments. He was actually on a buying trip at the moment. He’d gone to America to try to source some new suppliers but was expected home in a couple of weeks or so. Sally still did the buying for certain departments and kept a general eye on the store, though, these days, they had several buyers as well as the store manager and all the department supervisors as well as a larger office staff. Harpers was a thriving concern and very different to the way it had been during the war.
‘Well, I shall keep my information all very much on the business side,’ Sally said decisively. ‘It can’t hurt to remind people of the way it was – even though I think some of the younger ones are doing their best to forget.’ The papers were always reporting some wild party or kick-up that the ‘Bright Young Things’ had been involved in; treasure hunts were the rage and often involved a group of intoxicated young men and women driving round town looking for things on the treasure list. They didn’t much care whose property they appropriated, including policemen’s helmets and even chimney pots.
Beth nodded. ‘I shall look forward to the issue featuring Harpers. You will let me know when it is coming out?’
‘Yes, of course,’ Sally said as Beth prepared to leave. ‘I was wondering if you could come in full-time for a week next month, Beth. We will be doing the stocktaking in the fashion departments before our spring sale and the supervisor there is new – not quite on top of things yet. If you wouldn’t mind giving her a hand?’
‘Oh, I’d love to,’ Beth told her at once. ‘The boys can go to Dad and Vera for their tea and I enjoy anything like that, as you know.’
‘Good.’ Sally stood up and collected her bits and pieces. ‘I’ll talk to you soon – and thanks for your advice. I know it is good, as always.’
‘We’ve been friends a long time,’ Beth said as they touched hands for a moment. ‘Nearly fifteen years since we first met—’ She laughed. ‘Oh, that makes me feel old.’
‘Well, you’re not – you’re in the prime of life,’ Sally retorted, eyes sparkling. ‘We are both very lucky, Beth. We have good husbands and children and friends. I don’t see Mick O’Sullivan and Andrea much these days since they went over to Ireland to live – and I do miss Maggie, when she doesn’t come up to town, but you and I – we go on forever.’ Mick had been a good friend of Sally’s for many years. He’d married one of Harpers’ supervisors, and after Andrea’s son left school, they all went over to his home in Ireland to live.
‘Let’s hope so,’ Beth said and laughed. ‘I’d best get on. Don’t forget you are bringing the children to tea on Saturday and they’re all going to watch a football match with Jack first.’
‘I am not sure Jenny will go to the match,’ Sally said, ‘but she can stay and help with getting their tea if she wants.’
‘I bet she decides to go to the match.’ Beth quipped as she left and Sally nodded as the door closed behind her. Her daughter Jenny had not yet reached her teens but was a rather opinionated young girl of nearly twelve. She liked to have her own way and was sometimes mutinous with her mother, though Ben had only to look at her to have her grinning and wanting to please him.
Sally smiled to herself. Her son, Peter, was a loving boy, two years younger than his sister, but easy-going and gentle – unless fighting with Jenny. She wouldn’t change either of them or her life.
Clearing her thoughts of home and family, Sally reached for the latest account sheets. She liked to keep her eye on them each week, to watch out for dips or surges in takings so she could understand the position the store was in financially. She didn’t check the accounts; they had office staff for that and an accountant at the end of the year, but she watched the sales figures and, of late, they had been showing a definite downturn.
The accounts had gone up steadily for the first few years after the war and Harpers had done very well. The whole country had been buzzing after the end of hostilities; the age, one of prosperity. It was also the era of the Flapper, of cocktail parties and a feeling of throwing caution to the wind. The Jazz Age had the young women showing their legs, driving cars and throwing off the inhibitions of their parents. It was a good time to be alive.
However, lately, Sally had noticed a drop in Harpers’ sales and she cast her eye over the latest figures to see if there was an obvious pattern. Yes, this week was slightly down on last week, so the trend was continuing. She frowned slightly. As yet, it was nothing to worry her – and, as she’d said to Beth, the years at Harpers had been good for t