Chapter Twenty-Five
CHAPTER
TWENTY - FIVE
Violet and Felicity ate toast together the following morning, Felicity wearing a very exotic peignoir left behind by Violet’s glamorous godmother.
‘Are you all right, Violet?’ asked Felicity. ‘Did you not sleep well? It’s my fault, disturbing you last night.’
Violet smiled. ‘You didn’t disturb me. It was lovely to have your company.’ When Felicity continued to look sympathetically at her she felt obliged to carry on. ‘I just feel a bit jaded after Christmas, I think. A couple of days off and I don’t want to go back to work. But I have to, so I’d better get going.’
‘I’ll wash up if you like. I’ve got all day to fill.’
‘That would be very kind.’
As Violet hurried along the pavement, she realised she’d have to tell Felicity about Henry sooner or later. But she’d need to do it when she had time to explain. Yes, she felt she was in love; but no, while she was working for him she didn’t think she could go out with him even if he invited her. It would be so awkward.
By the time she’d walked the short distance through the mostly empty streets to the shop, she had convinced herself she’d have to leave immediately. But as she let herself in with her key, she realised that not only would she miss Henry, she’d miss her work. And she was just getting to know some of the other people who worked in the shop better, too.
Down in her basement she rushed around making everything look as tidy as possible before Henry arrived. Then she put the kettle on in the small scullery with its gas burner and little sink. There was another, better equipped one on the ground floor so she mostly had the use of this to herself. She had a little brown teapot and a tin of tea as well as a tin with her favourite biscuits in it.
Now, she made sure both mugs were sparkling clean and hoped Henry would appear soon. He’d said he’d arrive early. It was already nearly nine.
Because she was standing at the bottom of the stairs, listening, she heard the shop bell go. It could have been an early customer but no, it was Henry.
She heard him greet his team, which took some time because he’d been away so long. Eventually, to Violet’s huge relief, Sylvia, the most senior of the staff, said, ‘You haven’t met our newest member of staff, Violet. She works in the basement. I’ll call her up.’
‘No need,’ said Henry lightly. ‘I’ll pop down and introduce myself.’
Violet hastily fled and arranged herself behind a large table covered in the files she had yet to find homes for. Suddenly, they seemed terribly disorganised, although she knew, more or less, what was in each one. She heard him clatter down the stairs.
There was a moment’s silence as they contemplated each other. Violet felt so embarrassed she wanted to die while Henry seemed faintly amused.
‘So you’re the famous Violet,’ he said. ‘Sylvia has told me how well you’re getting on.’
The whistle on the kettle sounded. ‘Would you like some tea?’ Violet was aware she sounded a little breathless.
‘Were you going to have some yourself?’
‘Yes. I always make a cup first thing.’
‘Then I’d love some. I’d really like to see what you’ve been up to.’
She made him tea, offered him biscuits, which he accepted, and all the while she planned what to say to him about her work.
‘I don’t know if you remember what this room was like, but when I first arrived, everywhere was heaped with random papers. No one knew what to do with me, so they sent me down here and I started sorting. I didn’t know what else to do.’
‘I am so sorry!’ said Henry. ‘That’s my fault entirely. You should never have been put in such an impossible situation.’
‘Oh, I wasn’t complaining!’ said Violet hurriedly. ‘Once I was here and started, I enjoyed it. I love old papers and maps and things. But I don’t know if that was what you intended when my godmother made you employ me.’
He laughed. ‘Athene is a forceful woman. When she first suggested you I didn’t have a specific job for you in mind.’
‘So why did you let her bully you into taking me on?’
He also found this amusing. ‘You have met Athene, haven’t you? You do know how persuasive your godmother can be?’
‘Yes – but—’
‘Actually I was very glad because she told me all about you. I knew about the utter chaos and realised you could be the very one to disentangle it. I inherited this shop and everything in it from my father; I knew it desperately needed sorting out. It’s not very dry down here and papers could have been damaged.’
‘I’ve noticed. Although I don’t think anything has been too badly affected yet.’
‘I didn’t have staff I could spare from upstairs, or indeed staff who’d want to deal with this. So you came as a godsend.’ He smiled. Violet’s stomach turned over.
‘Would you like to see what I’ve done?’
‘Actually, I’d like you to find suitable filing cabinets and for it all to be filed so we know what we have. As I said, a lot of it has been here since my father’s time.’
‘I’m amazed the damp hadn’t got to it.’ Suddenly Violet was irritated. She’d worked really hard on sorting out the papers, which mostly consisted of plans and maps of old buildings. Henry obviously didn’t intend to do anything with them except get them out of the way.
‘We’ve been lucky.’ He sighed. ‘I’ve been so wrapped up in my book.’
‘Your book?’
‘I’m writing about a palace which has been rumoured to have existed beside the Thames. Unfortunately, there’s no hard evidence that it was actually there. Some people – not me! – even think it may have just been a grand vanity project that was never realised. Hard to write a book when you only know half the story. I’ve set it aside for the time being.’
‘Why did you get interested?’
‘My father was given a whole mass of papers years and years ago. He mentioned the palace to me in passing and I didn’t forget. Then I decided to investigate, write about it.’ He became animated. ‘I’ve extracted most of the relevant stuff, I think, but I never managed to go through everything.’ He frowned suddenly. ‘What’s the matter? Are you bored? Unhappy here?’
‘Not at all. But – should I stop what I’ve been doing? Stop working on the papers? I am happy here. It’s near to home, I like the people and I like old documents. But I don’t want to spend my time doing work that isn’t really necessary.’
‘It is necessary!’ said Henry quickly. ‘In among that lot may be evidence that would prove the existence of my lost palace.’
Violet bit her lip. ‘How could you lose a palace? It seems the height of carelessness.’
He smiled properly, understanding her tenuous reference to a famous play. ‘I know. It should never have happened. Now, I’m going upstairs. I’d like to gather everyone together and give a little speech at about eleven. Will that be convenient?’
Violet got to work. Although she now felt secure in her job, she was worried that later, when everyone was together, some sort of nervous tic would make her blurt out that she and Henry had spent Christmas together. She didn’t feel she knew any of her colleagues well enough to confide in individually, let alone tell the whole staff. That snippet of information would be so unexpected it was bound to cause gossip. While there was nothing in it to be ashamed of, really and truly, it would make her the centre of attention for a while and she didn’t like that.
At a few minutes past eleven, Violet ran up the stairs and saw that everyone was gathered in a rough circle round Henry. Violet noticed there were glasses and bottles of sherry on trays. It was an office party, it seemed.
‘First of all, thank you for all coming back to work so soon after Christmas.’ Henry seemed perfectly comfortable with everyone looking at him. ‘I think things will be quiet and taking holidays would have been acceptable.’
‘I hate Christmas,’ said a man who Violet was fairly sure lived on his own. ‘I go and visit my sister and she makes me feel I have to do all the washing up. It’s a relief to say I had to work today.’
Everyone laughed.
‘Well, shortly,’ Henry went on, ‘I’m going to suggest you all have a couple of glasses of sherry or wine and then I’m sending you all home. We will be open as usual tomorrow, of course.’
Sylvia and Henry took charge of the drinks and soon Violet found herself holding a glass and chatting to a woman who was a bit older than she was. She was fairly confident she was called Margaret.
‘How was your Christmas?’ Violet asked her.
Margaret sucked her teeth. ‘I really don’t like Christmas. Because I’m single, I’m passed around among the relations so I’m “not on my own”. Actually I’d be quite happy on my own. I could listen to the wireless and eat what I want. Instead everyone feels sorry for me because I’m not married.’ She paused. ‘Do people pity you because you’re on the shelf?’
Violet laughed awkwardly. ‘Well, no one has ever actually said that …’
‘What are you? Late twenties?’
‘I’m thirty.’
‘There you are. Past it.’ Margaret smiled. ‘Although you might get a widower with children who need looking after. Or a divorcee. But could you trust one?’
‘Well, I’m not planning to get married—’
‘Very wise. Nothing but unpaid drudgery, if you ask me,’ said Margaret.
Henry came up at that moment. ‘Are you sharing your Christmas horror stories? I happen to know Violet spent most of hers up to her elbows in cold washing-up water while the dirty plates just kept on coming.’ He stopped abruptly.
Violet took a big sip of her drink, forgetting it was sherry and not wine. It made her choke a bit. When she came to, Margaret was still regarding her sternly. ‘I didn’t know you two knew each other.’
‘We didn’t!’ said Violet hurriedly. ‘We met a couple of days ago, at Christmas. It turns out that Henry is an old friend of my father’s.’
Margaret looked beadily at them both. Being a confirmed spinster had possibly made her extra aware of possible romances. Violet fervently hoped that, having admitted to being thirty, she would be considered too old for such shenanigans. Although Henry was possibly fifteen years older than she was. Would he be considered too old too?
‘What a strange coincidence!’ said Margaret. ‘I hope it wasn’t awkward for you, Violet.’
‘Well, I didn’t know Henry was my boss,’ Violet said hurriedly. She finished her sherry by now and it had gone to her head rather. ‘So it was fine!’
‘She was a bit surprised when I told her,’ said Henry, who, annoyingly, seemed completely devoid of embarrassment. ‘But she and her friend had flagged me down asking for a lift from the station, so I suspect the news didn’t bother her at all.’
‘Hitchhiking?’ Margaret seemed equally appalled and intrigued by this idea.
‘We’d missed the last taxi and we both had very heavy cases and it’s a long walk from the station to my old house.’
‘Which is …?’
‘Stoneyhayes, near Salisbury,’ said Violet, aware that she’d given away far more information than she’d intended.
‘Can I refill your glasses?’ asked Henry. ‘And do please circulate. This office party is ending at twelve thirty sharp.’
As Violet drank another glass of sherry, she wished someone had thought to provide food. She hadn’t had much breakfast and the sherry was quite strong. She looked around at her colleagues. Margaret had turned slightly pink but that could have been because of Henry’s revelations and have nothing to do with the sherry.
She decided to go home. She said goodbye to Sylvia but ignored Henry, who was in deep conversation with a couple of the older men. She needed to get away.
She hadn’t got far down the street before she heard someone running after her. She turned to see Henry, panting slightly. ‘Don’t go! I was hoping to take you out to lunch!’
Violet shook her head. ‘Apart from the fact that the sherry has gone to my head, I think it would create far too much gossip if we were seen going out to lunch just now. Think what Margaret would say.’
He frowned. ‘I don’t much care what Margaret would say, to be frank, but I see that you do, and I’d hate to make you uncomfortable.’
‘I don’t want people gossiping about me. There was quite a lot of gossip when my father came into his inheritance, and I found it very unnerving.’
‘Very well. I’ll try not to embarrass you. But I don’t promise not to ask you out again.’
Violet found herself smiling. ‘And I don’t promise to say no.’