‘I find the work fulfilling. I hope I am giving something back for the good life that I have had. And, yes, I am still paying penance; still trying to make amends for the mortal sin of ignoring David Sutherland’s cries for help and watching him drown. I know as far as the law is concerned it was an accident, but in my heart I know it was the hate I felt for the man that stopped me from trying to save him. Working with the nuns is helping me to forgive him for what he did to Goldie. And you never know, one day I may even be able to forgive myself.
I have sent a letter and a Christmas gift to Nancy. I think of her often and I am counting the days until I see her, and both of you, next summer.
Wishing you and your family a happy and peaceful Christmas. God bless you.
Your grateful friend, Maeve.”
Bess felt a lump in her throat and she put the letter back in its envelope. Laying it on Frank’s desk for him to read later, she left the office and went out to see how her husband and daughter were getting on with dressing the Christmas tree.
The spruce that graced the marble hall was not as tall as the giant firs of Lord and Lady Foxden’s time, before the war, but it was every bit as beautiful.
Trying to find decorations similar to those that had adorned the Foxden family’s Christmas tree, Bess had scoured the shops in Rugby without success. She had almost given up when she spotted a bay window down a side street called Barrow Lane, off Market Street. Approaching the shop, Bess peered through its dusty window and almost cheered. Lined up in front of her, as if they were on parade, were rows of brightly painted Grenadier Guards in red uniforms with black bearskins on their heads and tiny black boots on their wooden feet. They stood in front of two shallow oblong boxes. One was called ‘The Changing of The Guard,’ the other simply ‘Victorian Characters.’
She had never noticed the shop before. A sign hung on rusty hinges above the door. ‘The Old Curiosity Shop.’ Bess laughed, went in, and was stopped in her tracks. The interior of the shop was packed to the rafters with every curio imaginable. Tarnished silver candle sticks, bone-handled sets of silver cutlery and dozens of cruet sets. One wall had been given over to fire guards, brass coal scuttles and copper oil lamps. Further along, tall plant stands, squat china flower pots and crockery of all colours, shapes and sizes was stacked precariously.
Looking behind her, Bess wrinkled her nose. Stuffed animals and birds eyed her. Among them a tiger baring long dagger-like yellow teeth and a brown bear with huge leathery paws and black claws. Bess turned quickly back to the window and asked for the box of soldiers and the Victorian Characters.
The elderly shop assistant leaned into the window and cautiously lifted the soldiers off the lid of the box, returning them carefully to their original homes in the raffia base, before replacing the lid. He did the same with the Victorian characters. ‘These are not new,’ he said, ‘but they’re as good as. They are all perfect, none are chipped.’
‘They are exactly what I want,’ Bess assured him and turning, caught her breath. ‘I would also like the gold angel in the corner of the window.’
The shop assistant put Bess’s items in a delivery box and tied string around it, so it was easy for her to carry. Delighted with her purchases, Bess paid considerably less than she had expected for such a beautiful collection and left the shop.
From Market Street she walked to Church Street, where she had left the car, put her treasures safely on the back seat and drove home.
Bess got back to the hotel to find the Christmas tree, stable in a large bucket of soil, tied to the banister of the stairs. Seeing the decorations, Nancy squealed with joy. Frank blew out his cheeks and made a funny face. ‘It’ll be worth it when it’s finished,’ Bess assured him, taking the other bits and bobs she’d bought through to the office: stocking fillers, wrapping paper and ribbons.
Decorating the tree brought back wonderful memories of the Christmases Bess had spent with the Land Girls on Foxden Acres during the war. She giggled remembering how Polly and Laura had felled one of Lord Foxden’s biggest fir trees. Bringing it back in a trailer on the back of the tractor, they had almost collided with Annabel Hadleigh - a family friend of the Foxdens, and an honorary Land Girl at every opportunity.
Annabel had come up from Kent with food and gifts for the growing number of evacuees staying at Foxden Hall. She helped to decorate the tree, and put prettily wrapped gifts under it, not once asking where the tree had come from.
That was a few days before Annabel and Bess’s brother Tom were secretly married. Bess looked up at the clock. Her brother, sister-in-law, and niece Charlotte would be at her mother’s cottage now. She couldn’t wait to see them.
Ena and Henry were driving up from London on Christmas Eve and staying until New Year. Margot, Bill, and baby Natalie, who was thriving after her premature birth, had to divide their time between the Dudley family and the Burrells, so were coming from Coventry on Christmas Day morning and going back on Boxing Day. And Claire… Claire, Mitch and Aimee would be in Canada this Christmas.
Deep in thought, Bess heard Jack calling her name. ‘Mrs Donnelly? Mrs Donnelly?’
‘Sorry, Jack, I--’
‘Mrs Mitchell,’ he said, shoving the telephone across the desk at Bess, and then letting go of it as if it was on fire, ‘from Canada.’
‘Claire? I was just thinking about you.’
‘Hello, Bess. We’re on our way home. Can’t stop, we’re about to board the aeroplane. I’ll telephone again when we land.’
‘I’m so pleased. How’s Aimee? Is Mitch--?’ The telephone started to crackle and Bess only heard the words see and Christmas. ‘Claire? Claire?’ The phone went dead. Bess handed the receiver back to Jack. ‘Claire’s coming home,’ she said, laughing. And, hugging the receptionist she said, again, ‘Claire is coming home.’
Bess ran across the marble hall to Frank and Nancy. ‘Guess what?’ She said, ‘Claire has just telephoned. They’re about to board a plane for England.’ She crouched down in front of Nancy. ‘Your friend Aimee will be here for Christmas.’
Nancy’s face lit up. ‘Then we had better get this fairy on top of the tree,’ Frank said. Taking it out of the box, he followed Nancy to where, three-quarters of the way up, on the bend of the sweeping staircase, he had tied the tree to the banister.
Frank gave Nancy the gold fairy and, picking her up, leant over the banister. Bess held her breath. In Frank’s strong arms Nancy reached out and placed the fairy on the topmost branch of the spruce.
Bess picked up the empty boxes that the decorations had come in and Frank and Nancy joined her to admire the tree.
‘You made a good job of putting the fairy on top, Nancy,’ Frank said.
‘She’s an angel,’ Nancy replied, wearing her serious face. ‘Her name is Goldie.’
Frank looked at Bess and winked. Bess returned the wink and bending down to Nancy said, ‘I think Goldie is a perfect name for an angel.’
THE END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Madalyn Morgan has been an actress for more than thirty years working in Repertory theatre, the West End, film and television. She is a radio presenter and journalist, writing articles for newspapers and magazines.
Madalyn was brought up in Lutterworth, at the Fox Inn. The pub was a great place for an aspiring actress and writer to live, as there were so many different characters to study and accents to learn. At twenty-four Madalyn gave up a successful hairdressing salon and wig-hire business for a place at E15 Drama College, and a career as an actress.
In 2000, with fewer parts available for older actresses, Madalyn taught herself to touch type, completed a two-year correspondence course with The Writer’s Bureau, and started writing. After living in London for thirty-six years, she has returned to her home town of Lutterworth, swapping two window boxes and a mortgage, for a garden and the freedom to write.
Proud to be an Indie Author, Madalyn has successfully published four novels in The Dudley Sisters Saga. Foxden Acres, Applause, Chin
a Blue, and The 9:45 To Bletchley. Set in WW2, the novels tell the wartime stories of Bess, Margot, Claire, and Ena Dudley. Foxden Hotel is the fifth book in the series, but not the last.
FUTURE BOOKS
Madalyn is currently making plot notes for the next novel. It doesn’t have a working title yet because Foxden Hotel was going to be the last in the Dudley Sisters Saga. It was going to have a happy ending with every member of the Dudley family together at the Foxden Hotel celebrating Christmas. However, that was not to be. I wrote three endings, but not one of them rang true. They each felt contrived, forced, and unnatural.
Because you have reached the end of Foxden Hotel, you know that Bess is waiting for her sisters to come home for Christmas. Ena is coming up from London, Margot from Coventry - and Claire, after a distressing time with her husband Mitch who is suffering from shellshock, is flying home for Christmas from Canada. No spoilers, but there is much more for Claire and Mitch to go through. And, with the cold war round the corner, there is more to come from Ena and her husband Henry, who both work for MI5.
Outline of earlier books in the Dudley Sisters Saga.
FOXDEN ACRES: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00BCX59LE/
Foxden Acres, the first book in the saga, begins on the eve of 1939 when twenty-year-old Bess Dudley, the daughter of a Foxden groom, bumps into James Foxden the heir to Foxden Estate. Bess, a scholarship girl, lodges at Mrs McAllister’s boarding house in London while studying to be a teacher.
With offers of a teaching job in London and Foxden, Bess opts for Foxden, to be near James. However, when she is told that James is betrothed to the socially acceptable Annabel Hadleigh, Bess accepts the teaching post in London.
When war breaks out and London’s schoolchildren are evacuated, Bess returns to Foxden to organise a team of Land Girls, and turn the Foxden Estate into arable land. James, having joined the RAF, is training to be a bomber pilot at nearby Bitteswell Aerodrome.
German bombs fall on London and Mrs McAllister’s house is blitzed to rubble. South Leicestershire is scarred too, when an RAF plane carrying Polish airmen crash lands in a Foxden field. Traditional social barriers come crashing down when Flying Officer James Foxden, falls in love with Bess, but is it too late? During the time Bess has been back at Foxden she has grown to like and respect Annabel Hadleigh. How can Bess be with James knowing it would break her friend’s heart? Besides, Bess has a shameful secret that she has vowed to keep from James at any cost.
APPLAUSE: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00J7Y5LCW/
Applause is the second book in the saga. In the early years of World War Two, Margot (Margaret) Dudley works her way up from usherette to leading lady in a West End show. Driven by blind ambition Margot becomes immersed in the heady world of nightclubs, drink, drugs and fascist thugs – all set against a background of the London Blitz.
To achieve her dream, Margot risks losing everything she holds dear.
CHINA BLUE: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00XD85NQW/
China Blue, the third book, is Claire Dudley’s story. At the beginning of World War II Claire joins the WAAF. She excels in languages and is recruited by the Special Operations Executive to work in Occupied France. Against SOE rules, Claire falls in love. The affair has to be kept secret. Even after her lover falls into the hands of the Gestapo, Claire cannot tell anyone they are more than comrades.
As the war reaches its climax, Claire fears she will never again see the man she loves.
THE 9:45 TO BLETCHLEY: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01GEVW3Z8/
The 9:45 To Bletchley is the fourth book in the Dudley Sisters Saga. In the midst of the Second World War, and charged with taking vital surveillance equipment via the 9:45 train, Ena Dudley makes regular trips to Bletchley Park, until on one occasion she is robbed. When those she cares about are accused of being involved, she investigates, not knowing whom she can trust.
While trying to clear her name, Ena falls in love.
Foxden Hotel (The Dudley Sisters Saga Book 5) Page 26
