‘Parties!’ said Violet ecstatically. ‘Oh, Justin, will you invite me?’
‘You’ll be the hostess,’ said Justin. His tone was light-hearted but there was a gleam in his dark eyes and Violet looked at the carpet. After a slightly awkward pause, Justin produced a newspaper from his pocket. ‘I say, you wouldn’t come with me to have a look at a few houses, would you?’ he asked, aiming his question at a midpoint between the two girls. ‘My father promised me a couple of hundred pounds to set myself up “like a gentleman” – those were his very words – as soon as I got a job in a law firm. Even he is going to be impressed by five hundred pounds a year. Wait . . . till . . . he . . . hears!’ Justin spaced his words emphatically and gave a whistle.
‘I’m sorry, Justin, I have some letters to write,’ said Daisy.
‘Violet, will you come and help me in my quest?’ Justin was saying. ‘Oh, dear, dear Violet, take pity on a poor fellow. How can I inspect kitchens and . . . what is it that this advertisement says?’ He inspected the newspaper. ‘Oh yes, “the usual offices”. How can I inspect “the usual offices” without a knowledgeable person by my side?’
Daisy heaved a sigh when they had gone out. Somehow she felt rather lonely. Poppy and Rose would be having a wonderful time at the jazz-club lunch – she could just imagine the fun and the jokes. Violet and Justin – well, that would be fun too. She wondered whether to go to the studios, but she had told Sir Guy that she would not come today as it was going to be Poppy’s last day in London. She would miss Poppy and Rose, she thought, and Violet had so many friends in London. The phone rang continually and the mantelpiece was covered with invitation cards.
In any case, the atmosphere at the studio had changed. She was now extremely sorry that she had mentioned to Sir Guy that Harry had asked her out to lunch. Her godfather had been quite shocked, in his old-fashioned way, and told her that her father would be most upset if she were allowed to go out with the young men who worked at the studio. ‘Nice lads,’ he had said dismissively, ‘but not what your father would want for you.’ And he had added that when she had her season the following year she would have plenty of young men running after her. ‘I’m responsible to your father for you, you know.’
Daisy suspected that he had spoken to his workers because they had all been rather stiff with her the next day. Fred, in particular, had hardly looked at her since, though he had been very friendly and helpful to Rose, teaching her how to letter title cards when Daisy had brought her there for a morning.
And then she heard the front door open. For a moment she thought that Justin and Violet had returned, but there was no sound of voices, just a few light footsteps in the hallway, and then the door to the morning room opened and Elaine came in. Her face lit up when she saw Daisy and she immediately shed her coat on to a chair and came over and sat on the armchair opposite. She said nothing, but looked affectionately at her.
‘That was a short lunch,’ said Daisy after a minute.
‘Was it?’ Elaine had a bewildered, slightly delirious air about her. ‘Well, I rushed back. I hoped you would be here. I need to talk to you. I hoped I would find you by yourself. I must talk to you.’ The short sentences poured out from her almost in a series of gasps. Daisy smiled invitingly. She had begun to guess what had happened.
‘Jack has asked me to marry him,’ said Elaine in almost a whisper.
Daisy got up and kissed her, giving a warm hug before she returned to her own chair. ‘Now that’s a surprise,’ she teased. ‘What kept him so long?’
Elaine smiled a little. ‘He has been mentioning it,’ she admitted, ‘but I’ve always put him off. You see, I couldn’t – I couldn’t agree to marry him without telling him the truth.’
Daisy’s smile died away. She sat up very straight. She was not sure that she wanted Jack to know the truth about her parentage.
‘And then today, after lunch, I finally got up courage. We went for a walk in Green Park. It was cold, but very nice.’ She smiled to herself. ‘We were walking along, arm in arm, and he just said, “I don’t know what I’ll do unless you promise to marry me!” and then I told him the truth about myself and about you. And do you know what he said?’
Daisy shook her head. No words were needed.
‘He said that he wanted you to come back to India with us. You’ll be a bridesmaid at our wedding and you will live with us until you get married yourself. Oh darling, you would have the most wonderful time. India is the most beautiful place and you’ll find it’s full of handsome young men. You will have a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful time. It will be so lovely for me to have you with me at last. And Jack is so fond of you too. He says that you are the most sensible of all the girls. Oh, and darling, you will have everything that you want. Between Jack’s salary and my money and the money that my husband left me – well, this sounds a little vulgar, but we will be extremely rich. You can have everything that your heart desires – your own little car, clothes, furs, whatever you want. There’s just one thing though. Jack wants me, and you, to go back with him next week instead of waiting until the end of the month. But don’t worry, he’s promised to escort us to Paris for a few days’ shopping before we go.’
Chapter Twenty-Six
Daisy was already coming down the stairs for dinner by the time that Justin, Violet, Poppy and Rose all came through the hall door in an exuberant cluster. She was glad to see them. She had asked for a little time to think matters over and the thought of Elaine waiting in the morning room made her thankful to see the noisy crowd.
‘We’ve had the most wonderful day,’ shouted Poppy when she saw Daisy. ‘We heard King Oliver and his Creole Band. They were playing a tune called “London Café Blues”. It was sen-sa-tion-al!’ Poppy looked as if she would fly with excitement. She grabbed Rose’s hands and danced around the hall.
‘Sensational! You don’t know the meaning of the word, young Poppy!’ Justin tried to make his voice sound superior and elder-brotherly, but his eyes were blazing with triumph.
‘Shh,’ said Violet, but she too couldn’t suppress her excitement. She dragged him into the morning room, putting her hand over his mouth to stop him speaking. Poppy and Daisy exchanged knowing smiles and followed them, Rose sliding in behind.
Elaine looked up from her happy dream when they came in. ‘Has Daisy told you my news?’ she asked with a smile. ‘I’m getting married to Jack when we return to India.’
‘Oh, Elaine, that’s wonderful!’ Violet went across and kissed her. Poppy glanced enquiringly at Daisy, but said nothing.
‘India!’ shrieked Rose. ‘Oh, Elaine, I do feel that I would make the most wonderful bridesmaid. I would strew roses before your feet, like they did at the wedding of Lady Diana Cooper. Oh, do, pray consider my application for the post. I know all about India. I must have read Mr Kipling’s novel Kim about forty times at least. I know pages of it off by heart.’
‘We’d have to think about that, see what your father says.’ Elaine was taken aback. Her eyes went to Daisy.
‘That means no, of course,’ said Rose sadly. ‘Oh well, I shall wend my weary way to my bedroom, shed a tear, wash my hands and come down to dinner my usual composed and radiant self. But I do hope you will be very happy, Elaine, and that my misery will never cast a blight over your marriage.’
‘Wait a minute.’ Justin put an arm around Rose’s thin shoulders. ‘We all wish you well, Elaine,’ he said formally. ‘Jack is a lucky fellow. Is he coming here tonight? We want to congratulate him.’
Elaine dimpled and smiled radiantly. ‘He did say that he would come for dinner. And bring some champagne. I’m expecting him any minute now.’
‘Champagne,’ said Rose thoughtfully. ‘Well, that might “minister to a mind diseased and pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow”. Shakespeare,’ she added, looking a little more cheerful.
‘We’ve got some news too,’ broke in Justin. ‘Wait till you hear this, Rose. You might be a bridesmaid after all – without stirring out of Beec
h Grove Manor.’ He put his other arm around Violet, drawing her close to him, and looked around triumphantly. ‘Violet and I are getting married,’ he said.
‘Oh, my dears!’ Elaine was startled out of her preoccupation, but she was drowned out by the joyful exclamations of Violet’s sisters.
‘Oh, Justin, pray, pray tell me all about it,’ begged Rose. ‘This is what I lack as a novelist – real life experience, and Violet is no good at telling these things. Tell me how you proposed.’
‘Well,’ said Justin, facing her solemnly, ‘the important thing with these affairs is to get the right setting, don’t you think, Rose?’
‘A jug of wine and thou beside me singing in the wilderness,’ said Rose dreamily.
‘Actually, it was in the pantry,’ said Justin apologetically. ‘Or was it the scullery? Well, we were looking over this house for me to live in when I get my huge salary of five hundred pounds, and I thought that Violet looked so beautiful in every one of the rooms that I didn’t care what the furniture looked like or anything, I was just determined to take it. And then we got to the pantry and she looked like an angel in that terrible little dark room so I just couldn’t help myself – I told that awful woman who kept dogging our footsteps that I would rent the house and I sent her off for some papers. And there we were in that awful pantry, and I suddenly knew that I could not bear that dreadful little house without Violet in it, so I proposed. What do you think of that, Rose?’
‘Well,’ said Rose, ‘it may not be terribly romantic, but I do appreciate your honesty in telling me all this, Justin. If you had consulted me beforehand I would have given you a few tips. A violet by a mossy stone . . .’
‘Not too many mossy stones in London,’ said Poppy, entering into the fun.
‘Let’s all go down to Beech Grove Manor tomorrow,’ said Justin with the air of one struck by a good idea. ‘I shall approach your father and humbly ask permission to pay addresses to his eldest daughter – after I have impressed him with my new-found wealth, of course; and then Violet and I will wander out into the beech woods, find a mossy stone, and . . .’ Justin interrupted his speech as a sharp ring came from the front door. ‘Ah, the man with the champagne,’ he said as Poppy ran to open the door and Jack came in, followed by the cab driver carrying a box.
‘Come in, sir, come in,’ said Justin to Jack, with the air of the man of the house, at the same time relieving the cab driver of his load. ‘Come into the morning room; we’re all a bit delayed tonight. Exciting events, pressure of business. First of all, may I offer you, on behalf of the family, our sincerest congratulations and best wishes to you both for your happiness, and secondly, perhaps you might like me to give this box to Bateman. I’m sure that he can handle it.’
Jack smiled and shook hands with the four girls, his eyes lingering longest on Daisy. She returned his smile warmly. He was very nice, she thought. He and Elaine would, she was certain, be very happy together.
‘Let’s all put on the dresses that we wore for your birthday party,’ she said to Violet with a sudden inspiration. After all, she thought, the discovery of the dresses was the start to everything. ‘You’re happy, Vi?’ she asked when they got into the hall.
‘Deliriously,’ said Violet. ‘I feel as though I’ve had the champagne already. I have that floating and fizzy feeling.’
‘Will you be able to live on five hundred a year?’ asked Poppy.
‘I think so,’ said Violet dreamily. ‘Anyway, I have expectations. Tell her, Daisy.’
So Daisy went through the story of the man from Hollywood who had liked her profile and would visit London next autumn and wanted to meet her. Violet smiled and looked like an angel and surreptitiously admired her profile in a looking glass on the landing.
‘You’ll be like Lady Diana Cooper in The Miracle, won’t she, Daisy?’ asked Poppy generously. ‘All London will flock to see you.’
Violet smiled and, rather unusually for her, kissed them both. ‘We’ll plan the bridesmaids’ dresses tomorrow,’ she said, ‘but now I must get ready. I’m exhausted. What a day!’
‘You seem a bit quiet, Daise,’ said Poppy when they reached their bedroom. ‘Oh, isn’t it so lovely to have someone light a fire and bring up hot water every day at just the right time! Is something the matter?’ she asked, looking closely at her sister when she didn’t answer.
Just then there was a knock at the door and Maud came in to do Poppy’s hair. Daisy managed her own these days – that bob was just so easy to comb.
‘I’ll tell you later on,’ she said to Poppy and waited until her sister was ready before going down. She felt shy about confronting Jack and Elaine on her own. Did he really want her to make a home with them? What would Poppy think when she heard about the small car for Daisy’s use?
The dinner was probably the most relaxed and the most enjoyable that they had ever had in the pretty house. Elaine was dreamily peaceful, like someone who had reached a safe harbour, thought Daisy; Violet was radiant with happiness, Justin outrageously witty, Rose matching him quote for quote, and Poppy less in the clouds than Daisy had ever seen her. She and Baz had made out a two-year plan, she informed Daisy in a whisper; they were full of ideas for setting up this jazz club. Morgan had driven them to see the house that his grandfather had bequeathed to Baz and by a piece of luck the caretaker was there and had shown them all over it.
‘It even has a cellar – we thought that would be good for the club,’ she told Daisy. ‘Morgan agreed with us about getting rid of the kitchen and all those pantries and things – just turn it into one big room and then the morning room on the ground floor can be a cloakroom. We’ll get Vi to help with the decorating – she has a good eye for colours. We thought we might buy some cheap materials in Petticoat Lane or places like that and—’
‘Now how about a toast to true love,’ suggested Jack, rising to his feet. Already he had assumed the air of the master of the house, giving a whispered command to Bateman to substitute lemonade for champagne in Rose’s glass after she had downed the champagne in three large gulps. He would suit Elaine very well, thought Daisy. She was someone who found it hard to make up her mind about anything and Jack would be the perfect husband – affectionate, loving, but decisive and organized.
‘I can’t wait to introduce my wife at those formal dinners out in India,’ he said when the toast had been drunk, looking proudly at Elaine. ‘These Maharajahs have a wonderful sense of style and of occasion. You eat off gold plates—’
‘Gold!’ exclaimed Rose. ‘Oh, Elaine, how lucky you are to marry a man who is invited to eat from gold plates!’
‘You could always take a large handbag and slip one in,’ suggested Justin, but he didn’t look envious. He and Violet were having fun talking about their house and planning to put swathes of cheap, artificial silk over the gloomy pictures that lined the walls. It was the jolliest dinner they had had since they came to London. There was no strain and everyone seemed very happy.
‘Now what’s on your mind?’ asked Poppy as soon as they reached their bedroom. Jack and Justin had gone off together, Violet was talking to Elaine downstairs in the drawing room, and Rose was so sleepy after the champagne that she could hardly keep her eyes open.
‘Elaine has told Jack all about me,’ said Daisy. She tried to say it lightly, but she still felt a sense of betrayal. It had been her secret as well as Elaine’s. She met Poppy’s eyes and saw that she understood, so gave a little shrug. It wasn’t that important, she supposed. However, an answer had to be given to Elaine by the following morning. It should have been given that evening really.
‘Poppy,’ she said. ‘Elaine and Jack want me to come to India with them – to live with them. She says that they will have pots of money – she didn’t quite put it like that – but she promised me anything that I wanted: clothes, everything – even a small car.’
Poppy was very still, very silent, her amber-coloured eyes very wide.
‘But it will be your decision,’ she said even
tually.
‘That’s right,’ said Daisy. ‘It will be my decision.’
And, she thought, it should be an easy decision. On the one hand was life in a freezing cold, poverty-stricken house where money seemed to be limited to penny stamps, grudgingly dealt out one by one; where food was monotonous; where she was, she admitted to herself, the least appreciated of four neglected girls.
On the other hand was India: warm and welcoming, a land of sun and luxury where the mangos grew ripe, soft and ready to be picked, and people dined off gold plates; a place where she would have every luxury that she could imagine, even a little car – she pictured it red – which she would use to dash from party to party at high speed. India, where uniformed young gentlemen would fight over her favours, ready to escort her to balls and dances. India, where she would watch polo matches and saunter in lush green enclosures with the winners – a luxurious home where the bath water was always hot and a servant always available to give her whatever she wanted at that moment; a home, moreover, where she would be the most beloved child, instead of knowing, deep down, that she was the least loved. And now she knew why.
The contrast with the life that she had led for most of her childhood was stark. A cold, damp house. No money, no clothes, no prospects. Her needs, her desires, her interests of no importance to any adult in the house. A life led in close proximity to three other girls, her nature always urging her to consider her sisters, to worry about them, to try to do something for them. How could she go back there, knowing she didn’t really belong? Poppy was the only one who knew the truth, but things would never be the same. She felt like an intruder.
The decision, she thought, certainly should be an easy one.
She looked across at Poppy and then hesitated.
‘I’m not sure,’ she said eventually.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The next few days seemed dreary after all the excitement. Poppy was caught up in the world of jazz and as Morgan was insistent that she should not go to lunchtime concerts without another girl with her, Rose went out with her each morning. Violet and Justin were also out every day, shopping for Justin’s little house and planning their future. Sir Guy and his workers were absent from their London studios, shooting some sea scenes in Dover, so Daisy was very much alone.
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