salon.”
“You mean it?” said Daisy.
“I’ll do the business end, but I don’t want to have to serve ladies.”
“No, you won’t,” said Daisy eagerly. “Oh, I’m so glad we’re friends again. Miss Friendly will be thrilled. We’ll have the most successful dress salon in London.”
¦
At that moment, Miss Friendly had just left a lawyer’s office in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. She stood on the pavement dazed. She had just been informed that her Aunt Harriet, her mother’s sister, who had vowed to have nothing to do with her father ever again because of his drinking and gambling, had died and had left her a house in Sussex, jewellery and ten thousand pounds.
Miss Friendly felt bewildered and alone. She wished she could talk to Rose and Daisy. Then she remembered Phil Marshall, who worked for the captain. She had met him at a dinner the year before and he had seemed such an easy-going, sensible man.
She hailed a hack and directed the cabbie to the captain’s Chelsea address. Phil stared down at the little figure of the seamstress on the doorstep. He was practising a haughty air for the day when he hoped to take over Becket’s duties.
“It is I, Miss Friendly,” she said timidly.
Phil suddenly smiled. “I didn’t recognize you at first. Come in. You look worried. Is everything all right?” He led the way into the front parlour.
“Everything is very much all right,” said Miss Friendly, “but I need some advice.”
“We’ll have a glass of sherry and you can tell me all about it,” said Phil. He poked the fire into a blaze and then fetched a sherry decanter and two glasses. “Sit by the fire,” he said. “What’s happened?”
Miss Friendly took a nervous sip of sherry and told him about her inheritance.
“You have no more worries,” said Phil. “You move into your aunt’s house and you’ll never have to work again.”
“It’s just that I have this rather terrifying idea. Daisy – Miss Levine – once suggested that Becket, Miss Levine and myself should set up a dress salon. I have a talent for designing and making clothes. Then Becket said he did not like the idea and I am too timid to take on such an undertaking myself.”
Phil sat deep in thought. He was a changed man from the poverty-stricken wreck the captain had rescued. He had thick white hair and a rosy face and kept his figure trim with frequent walks. He admired Miss Friendly. He thought she was all that a lady should be: genteel and shy.
Then he began to wonder and not for the first time if Becket would ever leave the captain. There were times when Phil felt superfluous. He did a certain amount of housekeeping, but there was a woman who came round to do the rough work and it was Becket who answered the door to callers and who drove the captain.
“What we should do,” he began and Miss Friendly gave him a shy smile, liking the sound of that precious little word ‘we’. “What we should do is make an appointment with those lawyers and put your proposition to them. You could sell your aunt’s house, and with the money buy premises in London. Then you would need to employ, say, two seamstresses to begin with. You’ll need a classy name.”
Miss Friendly took a sudden gulp of sherry. “It could be an English name,” she said in a rush. “Like Marshall and Friendly.”
“You mean I could be a partner?”
“You could, couldn’t you, Mr Marshall?”
“I don’t really have any money, just a little bit of savings.”
“But I have. I would need a manager.”
“Bless me!” Phil grinned. “This is so sudden.”
“I’ve thought about it a lot,” said Miss Friendly. “It would be a great deal of initial expense because we would need to have an opening fashion show.”
“Tell you what,” said Phil, “give me the name of those lawyers and I’ll make an appointment.”
¦
Seagulls wheeled and screamed overheard as the duchess and her party boarded the
The duchess retired to a cabin as soon as they were on hoard. Daisy and Rose stood at the rail and watched the white cliffs of Dover until a screaming gale and a bucketing sea drove them back to the shelter of the lounge. Daisy’s head ached because the wind had torn at her large round motoring hat, which was secured by two large hatpins, and had nearly dragged it off her head.
Becket and Harry had disappeared somewhere. Daisy looked at Rose uneasily. “I’ve never been in foreign parts before. What are they like, them Frenchies?”
“Very like us.”
“Have you been to France before?”
“Yes, I went to Deauville once with my parents. Although I must admit all we really met were other English families.”
Daisy lowered her voice. “They eat frogs.”
“I am sure that’s just a story, Daisy.”
“I mean, we’ve been at war with them.”
“That was a long time ago. I believe French ladies are the epitome of chic.”
The ferry lurched up one wave and down the next. “I’m going to be sick,” moaned Daisy.
“Then we’ll need to go out to the rail. Let’s get on the leeward side,” said Rose. “That is, if there is one.”
Rose held Daisy at the rail as her companion was violently ill. Black smoke swirled down from the funnel, enveloping them in a sort of soot-laden fog. Rose tried to persuade Daisy to go back inside, but she held grimly on to the rail, staring down dismally at the heaving grey-green breakers.
Harry appeared behind Rose. “Trouble?”
“Yes, Daisy is seasick.”
“She needs brandy. Daisy, for heaven’s sake, get out of this gale. I’ll fetch you a brandy.”
At that moment, the ferry crashed down into the trough of a wave and a great stream of spray dashed into their faces and their feet were soaked because the decks were beginning to run with water.
Rose had always considered herself a new woman, courageous and independent, but she had to admit weakly that it was pleasant to let Harry take over. He fetched brandy for Daisy and then went off, and in a very short time had ordered two cabins for them and had the duchess’s footmen bring part of their luggage so that they could change.
All Daisy wanted to do was fall on the bunk and go to sleep, but to Rose’s relief, Benton, the lady’s maid, arrived and took over. Daisy was put into dry clothes and her forehead was bathed with cologne. Then Rose went to her cabin next door and allowed herself to be changed into dry clothes as well. Benton went off to complain to the duchess that two extra ladies to look after was too much and the duchess said sleepily she would hire a lady’s maid for them when they got to Paris.
Daisy fell asleep and awoke just as the
She hurriedly put the bottle away as Rose knocked at the door. “Come along, Daisy. The servants will see to the luggage.”
Beautiful words, thought Daisy, thinking of her impoverished upbringing in the East End. Had she ever dreamed that one day she would have ducal servants to look after her?
But as she left the cabin, she found to her horror that she could barely see.
¦
“Where’s Daisy?” asked Harry, holding out a hand to help Rose alight from the gangplank. “Oh, there she is. What’s up with the girl?”
Daisy was stumbling down the gangplank, weaving from side to side, gazing blindly about her.
The ship gave a huge lurch and Daisy went straight over the gangplank and into the water.
