Packards

by Patricia Burns

  This was all patently true, so even though Winifred did not want her daughter to be running off to the store practically the first moment she was home, she could not refuse.

  ‘Perhaps I shall accompany you,’ she said.

  Amelie tried not to let the dismay show on her face. That was the very last thing she wanted. It was essential that she spoke to her grandfather alone.

  ‘That would be lovely,’ she lied.

  ‘Well – maybe another day. We shall all be meeting at the family dinner, after all,’ Winifred said.

  Amelie carefully let out a sigh of relief, and offered to make any purchases her mother might need.

  Ten minutes later, she set off, escorted only by the footman walking a discreet half-step behind her. She marched at a brisk pace along the streets, her steps matching the determination in her heart. She had to get her grandfather on her side, or she was lost. She knew that what she wanted to do was unconventional, and that her mother would be utterly opposed to it, but then again she was her grandfather’s favourite, which must count for quite a lot. Added to that was the practical point that she really did have something to offer the store. Three months in Chicago had shown her that London stores, even her own wonderful Packards, were very out of date. She had lots of ideas that would put them well ahead of all their rivals.

  By the time she got to Oxford Street, her cheeks were glowing from her fast walk. She slowed down then, looking critically at the display windows as she passed, until she came to a halt outside Packards. The windows were the first thing on her list of innovations. Three months ago, Amelie would have thought that they looked perfect, but after viewing the ones on State Street, she knew better. Like every other London department store, Packards crowded each window with as many goods as possible, each clearly labelled with a neat price ticket. Amelie gazed critically at an array of silver-mounted glassware. There was a dazzling selection. Row upon row of preserve jars, celery glasses, ice pails, decanters, jugs, vases, flower bowls, salt cellars, butter dishes, pickle bottles, sugar basins . . . all of the most beautiful cut or engraved glass, of every imaginable pattern from the ornate to the restrained, all sparkling and gleaming. Whatever your taste, there was something there to appeal, if you could see it. That was the problem. There was just too much. In America, they had very different ways of setting out the goods.

  For the umpteenth time, Amelie wondered how her grandfather would take to the idea. In the past, he had always been ready to try something new. That was one of the reasons he had managed to build a huge store from one tiny shop in fewer than thirty years, why he had gone on expanding and competing successfully with the other great names in London shopping. But Thomas Packard was seventy-four now, and even he was becoming a little set in his ways. What she needed, Amelie knew, was something that would catch his imagination. Nothing as sweeping as changing the whole way they displayed their goods. That would come later. First, she had to present something small-scale but clever. The trouble was, she was not entirely clear as to what it should be.

  She turned from the glassware and walked to the main entrance and in through the tall revolving doors to stop in the spacious red marble vestibule. The deep familiar thrill of it coursed through her. The most exciting place in the world. Packards.

  The store had been built in the 1870s, before the days of electric lighting, so its main feature was a huge central dome of glass that let light into the middle of the building. Under this dome, a magnificent marble staircase curved upwards from floor to floor, leading the shopper ever onwards to more and more departments. The whole place had an air of inviting opulence. ‘Come in,’ the shop seemed to say. ‘Look about you, feast your eyes, enjoy . . . and perhaps you might care to buy something?’

  Amelie surrendered willingly. She made her way through Fancy Stationery to Grocery to Ladies’ Gloves and Umbrellas, unable to resist a pretty notebook with a marbled paper cover and a pair of crocheted lace gloves. Her quick eyes noted that no customer was kept waiting, that floorwalkers discreetly directed proceedings, that shopmen and girls were polite and efficient. On up the stairs, through Jewellery and Drapery and Infants’ Cots, through China and Glass and Ladies’ Underwear. Everything you might need in life, from a pound of cheese to a Persian carpet, from a baby’s layette to a mourning ring, could be got at Packards. The profusion and variety was infinite.

  Floorwalkers, men who had known her from infancy, treated her like visiting royalty. Amelie knew most of them by name.

  ‘Good morning, Mr Ames. Business looks very brisk in here. How are the new patent bootstretchers selling?’

  ‘Mr Patterson – how is your back? It seems rather quiet in Books this morning.’

  All of them addressed her as Miss Packard. The fact that her mother had married an Amberley carried no weight here. At the store, all Thomas Packard’s descendants were Packards.

  Up again and into Toys. Her department, as she liked to think of it, for she had suggested it to her grandfather. One day, when about six years old, she had been processing through the store with her hand in his, looking at the marvels it held and listening to him talking to the staff and pointing things out to her. They had stopped for rather a long time in the linen section of Drapery and she had begun to get bored. Sheets and tablecloths and bolts of plain white fabric were not very exciting for a small child. She knew better than to try to distract her grandfather when he was speaking to a buyer, so she stood fidgeting from foot to foot and wishing for something to play with. Then it had come to her, the realisation that her darling grandpa’s wonderful store was actually lacking in something. The moment he had finished, she tugged urgently at his hand.

  ‘Grandpa – why haven’t you any toys? All the things here are for grown-ups, except for the cots and prams.’

  The grandfather had stared at her for a moment, frowning. She had been afraid, thinking she had said something to offend him. But then he had burst out laughing and picked her up in his strong arms.

  ‘By George, the child’s a genius! Browning –’ he called to the man he had just been speaking to, who came hurrying anxiously over. ‘Browning, do you know what this little girl of mine has just done? She’s invented a whole new department. Toys! Why didn’t I think of it? We’ll have it open in time for Christmas.’

  True to his word, he had put the new project in hand, and she had been the one to open the toy department, cutting the pink ribbon with a pair of silver scissors and making the first purchase, a beautiful Noah’s Ark. Her brother Edward had been beside himself with jealousy, she remembered, and had given her a Chinese burn that had hurt for days afterwards.

  Now, she wandered happily round. A couple, grandparents at a guess, were choosing a box of wooden bricks. A boy of about ten and his uncle were debating the relative merits of box and lozenge-shaped kites. A small girl with her mother was looking with round-eyed longing at a wheeled horse and brightly painted dairy cart complete with chum, can and filler.

  ‘Don’t you want to come and look at the dolls?’ the mother asked.

  But the child stayed stubbornly gazing at the sturdy little horse with its flowing mane and tail and real leather harness.

  ‘No.’

  She put out a finger and stroked the creature’s curved neck. Amelie recognised the depth of the child’s desire. She wanted in just the same way. The difference was that she wanted the whole store.

  She watched as an elderly shopman asked if he might be of assistance. The mother gave the little girl’s arm a sharp tug.

  ‘No thank you. We’re just looking.’

  She dragged the reluctant child away, but the girl still looked back, fixing the toy with a fierce stare, as if willing it not to be sold to anyone else. Amelie silently wished her luck. Maybe she had a fond grandfather whom she could appeal to, one who would buy it for her birthday.

  On the fourth floor the bulky goods that people did not buy very often were situated. Amelie wandered through Carpets and admired the new selection of Turki
sh kelims in the company of the buyer. Basking pleasantly by now in the feeling of belonging, she could believe that her ambition was easily within reach. After all, what could be more natural than that she should take her place in the management of the store?

  In Furniture, she came upon a very good reason why not. Her brother Edward. He was a commanding figure, six feet tall and very dark, his impeccably tailored jacket covering the muscled shoulders of a fearless rugger player. Many of Amelie’s friends had declared him to be deliciously handsome. To Amelie he was simply her deadly childhood rival, the big brother who would go to any lengths to prove himself the best. He was not going to like the idea of her taking any of the power that he stood to inherit at Packards.

  Edward did not notice her standing by the walnut bedroom suites, for he was taking the floorwalker to task. Sales were down and the floorwalker was to blame. The unfortunate man was red in the face with humiliation, for the whole department could hear what was being said, from the senior salesman to the brown-aproned delivery men. Amelie could see two youthful shopmen drinking in the whole scene, their expressions a mixture of horror and delight that would have been comical had the situation not been so painful. Indignation boiled inside her. Edward had no right to give the man a public dressing-down like this. He should have called him into his office, not exposed him to the sniggers of his underlings.

  Without stopping to think, she snapped into action. Walking forward with a big delighted smile on her face, she interrupted Edward’s flow.

  ‘Edward! How delightful to see you again. I was just coming to visit you in your office, and here you are.’

  ‘Melly – what a surprise.’

  Edward switched from dissatisfied boss to affable brother with admirable ease. He kissed Amelie on the cheek. ‘I hadn’t expected to see you here so soon.’

  ‘Just try to keep me away!’ Amelie returned the kiss, then smiled at the floorwalker. ‘And good morning to you, Mr Green. Forgive me for interrupting. It’s very naughty of me, I know, but I haven’t seen my brother for three months.’

  Mr Green could only make an assenting noise in his throat. He was looking at her as if she were an angel come down from heaven to save him.

  Amelie smiled beguilingly up at Edward. ‘Now, it was very bad of you not to come and welcome me home, you know. Perry travelled all the way to Southampton to meet me off the boat.’

  ‘Good for Perry,’ Edward said. They both knew that Perry had nothing better to do with his time. ‘Now, Mel, I’m delighted to see you, but I am rather busy at the moment. Why don’t you trot off and visit Grandfather?’

  ‘But it was Grandfather whom I wanted to talk to you about,’ Amelie said, wondering as she did so just what she was going to say when challenged. She made a quick movement with her eyes towards Mr Green and back, trying to indicate that this was a private family concern.

  ‘I’m sure it will wait till later,’ Edward said.

  ‘Not really,’ Amelie insisted. She put on a tone of great reasonableness. ‘But if you wish I shall wait here until you have finished speaking to Mr Green. It will be interesting to learn just what is going on in Furniture.’

  She planted herself ready to listen to every word of the exchange. She was fairly sure that Edward would not want her witnessing what he said, and almost definitely sure that he would not want to wrangle further with her in front of company employees. She was right.

  ‘Very well,’ he agreed. He looked at the unfortunate floorwalker. ‘I shall return to continue our conversation.’

  Mr Green swallowed and nodded. Amelie threaded her arm through her brother’s, and was immediately aware of his anger beneath the suave front he maintained. Determined not to be cowed having got this far, she smiled at everyone and swept out of the department with him.

  They stopped on the landing leading to one of the echoing service staircases. Edward extricated his arm and turned to face her.

  ‘Well? It had better be really important, Amelie. I do have work to do, you know, and I do not appreciate being dragged away from important matters by some silly whim of yours.’

  ‘It isn’t a silly whim. And aren’t you the littlest bit pleased to see me?’

  Edward’s mouth hardened with barely controlled irritation. ‘Save the pretty little girl air for Grandfather, it doesn’t wash with me. What was it you wanted to say?’

  Amelie thought as she went along.

  ‘Well, as I said, it’s about Grandfather. You work with him every day, Edward, so you know better than any of us how he is. Do you think it’s all getting too much for him? He’s not a young man any longer, but he’s so stubborn, and I’m sure he wouldn’t admit to not being able to cope like he used to.’

  It should have worked. She knew that Edward wanted their grandfather to retire. It was his dearest wish, though he had never openly admitted it to anyone.

  ‘So that’s it, is it? That’s what could not wait until later?’ Clearly Edward was not taken in.

  ‘But I had to speak to you before I went to see Grandfather,’ Amelie maintained.

  ‘Why? So that you could single-handedly persuade him to retire? I think not. You were just trying to interfere, weren’t you? You’ve not been home twenty-four hours and already you’re waltzing in here throwing your weight around.’

  Amelie held his eyes, but inside a quake of fear started. Edward’s anger was not to be taken lightly. She tried to temporise.

  ‘Oh, come on, Edward, I had to do it. That poor man. You were humiliating him in front of his whole staff.’

  ‘That was none of your business. You know nothing of the circumstances.’

  A thousand fights from childhood onwards should have taught her to keep control, but instead Amelie snapped.

  ‘I do know that you shouldn’t dress him down like that in public! You were enjoying it, weren’t you? You liked seeing him squirm. You’re revolting!’

  Edward gave her a look of contempt. ‘And you are a silly little girl who knows nothing of how business is conducted.’

  ‘I know that it’s not right to expose people to ridicule!’ Amelie shouted.

  Edward shook his head, an unpleasant smile on his handsome face. ‘Neither is it wise to butt in where it is not your place to do so. You realise, I hope, that had you been sensible enough to wait until I had finished, Green would only have suffered a dressing-down, which would have had the desired effect of making him pull his socks up. As it is, I may find that I have to dismiss him.’

  Amelie was horrified. ‘Edward, you can’t! You don’t mean it.’

  ‘Oh but I do mean it. Now that you have undermined my authority, it may be my only possible course of action.’

  Appalled, Amelie stared at him. She knew her brother was quite capable of carrying out the threat. Mr Green would be thrown out, and it would be all her fault.

  ‘But that’s a terrible thing to do. He might not get another position. He’ll starve, and all his family with him.’

  ‘Sentiment, my dear sister. The man’s private life is of no concern to me. All that matters is that he is a good servant of Packards. If he is not, then he has to go.’

  ‘I don’t think Grandfather would approve if I told him,’ Amelie warned.

  Was she imagining things, or did a flicker of wariness cross Edward’s face? If it did, then it was soon gone.

  ‘Sentiment again, Mel. You might think of Grandfather as the kind old man who doted on you when you were a golden-haired little girl, but the reality of it is that he’s as tough as old boots. He would never have built the business up in the first place if he were not. I shouldn’t go bothering him with the woes of the staff if I were you.’

  Amelie definitely did not want to start her campaign for a place in the store by involving her grandfather in a squabble with Edward, especially over a member of staff. But still she felt horribly responsible for Mr Green’s fate. She was sure he would think that having a strip torn off him in public was nothing to being dismissed.

 
‘And I shouldn’t go sacking people out of hand if I were you, you’re not in charge yet,’ she retorted.

  Edward merely gave a smile of quiet confidence. ‘No, but I shall be,’ he stated.

  Before she could stop herself, Amelie said, ‘That’s what you think, but you’re not the only one, you know. There’s Perry and me as well.’

  Edward laughed. ‘Perry’s an idiot and you’re a female. Now run along, Melly, there’s a good girl. Some of us do have work to do.’ And he strolled off in the direction of the furniture department.

  Amelie was left fuming.

  ‘Stupid, stupid, stupid,’ she said out loud, thumping the wall with her fist.

  She had lost that round, and what was more she had lost it on behalf of Mr Green. The only way she could think of to save him was to go to her grandfather, but she would have to approach him carefully, far more carefully than the way in which she had tackled Edward. In fact, she had to think and plan everything more slowly if she were to achieve her aims. The last thing she had wanted to do this morning was to have a row with Edward the moment she saw him. She had meant to be very sweet and friendly, and keep on the right side of him for as long as possible. She had certainly not intended to let out the fact that she had her sights set on a place at the store.

  She took several deep breaths, and recalled that Edward had not appeared to take her seriously when she had said that she and Perry had equal rights to Packards. So maybe she had not put him on his guard. The churning anger and frustration subsided a little as she began to think clearly again. If she was going to see Grandfather, then she must be amusing and winsome. That was her one big advantage over Edward. He always rubbed the old man up the wrong way, whereas she knew just how to get him round her little finger. There were some advantages to being a girl.

  She made her way to the ladies’ rest room, checked her appearance, pinned up a few stray hairs, smiled at herself in the glass. Yes, she looked fine. Grandfather would think so, anyway. To calm herself further, she went for a walk round Sports and Games. A freckle-faced shopman, obviously new to the store since he did not recognise her, asked if he might be of assistance.