A New Dream Maggie Ford (fantasy books to read .TXT) 📖

were being careful, not only for the sake of propriety but because a pregnancy could interfere with business.

James had tried to lecture her just after Christmas when she and Simon had stayed downstairs together instead of sharing the festival with her family.

‘You are a silly ass you know, Sis! No one other than a raging idiot shits on their own doorstep.’

As Julia drew in a shocked breath, he grinned. ‘Sorry about that, but it’s the truth. I mean, did you really expect Mother to throw her arms about you? It’s best to keep what you do outside the home well out of sight. As I said, you’re an ass, Julia, and you only have yourself to blame if Mother hardly speaks to you.’

‘I’ve done a lot for her,’ Julia reminded him. ‘I’ve done a lot for you all.’

‘I know, but that doesn’t give you licence to run roughshod over our mother’s feelings. Yes she’s old-fashioned and these are modern times but you should spare a little thought for her, Julia.’

Julia had wanted to say that her life was her own, but instead she merely turned away, counting James as another finger in the pie denying her happiness.

Simon told her not to worry about it. ‘We’ll be husband and wife by the end of summer,’ he said, drawing her to him when she expressed her anger at her family. ‘We might be able to make it September, if that’s OK with you, darling, just before the Christmas rush starts to get going.’

It sounded a good plan but in her disappointed state Julia somehow couldn’t see it happening as easily as they hoped. At least by April, with the date of their wedding come and gone, and with it much of her disappointment, she was already organizing an important fashion show in her showroom.

Ginny had given up her job to work full time with Julia and was as excited as a puppy with two tails. Almost seventeen she was growing into a beauty and always drew rapt attention from the women customers. Julia had hired another young model to help out at times but Ginny was the one they looked for. Husbands and fiancés accompanying their ladies obviously enjoyed seeing her too, and Julia was proud of her sister.

The dock strike was now over and a specially ordered consignment of beautiful Oriental-type materials was at her disposal. Julia was designing a whole host of the new styles, among them a Turkish trouser suit and an Oriental pyjama suit for house parties. Another evening garment was a sleeveless, straight-sided, Eastern-style embroidered silk tunic with a stand-up collar meeting edge to edge. There was also an evening cloak in black velvet embroidered with coloured silks and pearls inspired by an Egyptian drawing she had found. She liked one design especially, a beautiful evening dress with an Egyptian girdle, the ends of which hung down to trail upon the ground.

She planned to redesign the harem skirt. This time round she hoped it would be a wow, though it had not been popular before the war. But then that was before Tutankhamen had appeared on the scene! There was also a new innovation all her own, a straight-sided Egyptian-style dress in gold chiffon with a scooped neck embroidered with colourful zigzag emblems based on the Egyptian styles seen on paintings on the walls of Tutankhamun’s tomb. Even the modern evening bandeaux currently being worn just above the brow would match the designs of those seen on the wall paintings of the tomb. It would mean a lot of work if her garments were to be ready to meet the July deadline Julia had set for herself, but any later would lose her the summer trade and that would be a disaster.

Betty, as ever, was a treasure, toiling well into the evenings and chivvying along the two young machinists. Simon had been busy ordering all the Egyptian jewellery he could find and had negotiated a price for printing and distributing leaflets for the coming exhibition. He was already receiving whole loads of encouraging responses. Julia just hoped everything would be ready in time.

And at least all this work had managed to dull those earlier pangs of disappointment about having to postpone the wedding. It no longer mattered because by September she and Simon would finally be married.

Eighteen

The fashion show had been a roaring success. Since then Julia had given two more and orders had begun to flood in. Her exclusive but élite fashion showroom would soon become the talk of the town. She’d had to add two more sewing machines in one corner of the stockroom near the cutting area and take on two more machinists.

It was mid-August. The wedding had had to be rescheduled for October owing to pressure of work and Julia’s stomach felt as if small creatures were constantly playing tag inside it, lest this new date too fell through. If it did there would be no further opportunity this year with the Christmas season once again upon them. It was amazing where the time went.

She had already designed her own wedding outfit – a white wild silk dress with long sleeves, a low waist and a hem falling to just below knee length, worn with a lace, pearl and orange blossom encrusted Juliet cap that covered her whole head, its veil falling about her shoulders to trail the ground. She would wear white silk stockings and white silk Cuban-heeled, court-style shoes with a slim bar across the instep. The style was very English; the craze for all things Egyptian was slowly diminishing. As bridesmaids her sisters would wear beige silk dresses with knee-length hemlines and their headdresses would be bandeaux of pink flowers to match their posies. Her own bouquet would of course be fashionably long and trailing.

But the October date wasn’t to be. A show in September brought more orders flooding in and once again their wedding had to be postponed. This time they did not dare to set another date.

‘I’m