“I very much hope that’s the case.” Adalfi smiled as Evelyn turned to follow Jos from the restaurant.
The walk from the restaurant to Courtney and Clara’s flat on Clifford Street was no more than ten minutes. When Evelyn saw the sign which told her they were on Savile Row, she could not help a flutter of excitement.
“Savile Row!” she exclaimed.
Jos looked at her curiously. “Yes, it is.”
“It’s famous. I read about Dr. Livingstone lying in state in the headquarters of the Royal Geographical Society here. And Sheridan lived here somewhere. And of course, there’s all the tailors.” Evelyn looked about her, gratified that the first shopfront she laid eyes on was a very upmarket gentleman’s tailor.
Jos was smiling at her, her eyes dancing. “I forget how new and special this all is to you, Evie. It’s wonderful. I don’t know that I’ve ever really known anyone get excited walking along a street before.”
Evelyn was a little embarassed, though Jos’s tone did not suggest any notion of ridicule. “I’m sorry, it’s not even that it’s new, it’s just there are places that seem almost mythical. You know, you read about them in books or newspapers but don’t expect to see them. And it’s not even the great buildings like Westminster Abbey or Buckingham Palace. You know they’re real, they’re the places the tourists go to see. But a street, a simple street, where so many important people have walked, going about the day-to-day business that makes up our history…they’re the places you don’t think to ask to see, the places no one takes you to when they say you’re going sightseeing. But in some ways they’re more special. Now I’m just one of those people who have walked along Savile Row too. It feels important.” Evelyn looked to Jos for a response.
“I suppose when you grow up in London, you just accept those things. But I can understand why it would be exciting for you. And I think it’s wonderful that you’re excited about it.”
“You don’t think it makes me rather naive and silly?” It was the first time Evelyn had voiced a question that played on her mind time and time again since she had come to London.
Jos stopped in the street and turned to face Evelyn properly. She looked into her eyes earnestly. “Evie, you are one of the least silly women I’ve ever encountered. You are far from naive. You might be innocent in the ways of this corrupt urban world, but you’re not naive. You’re bright and observant and perceptive. And everything you experience here only makes you more complex and fascinating.”
Jos caught her breath as the last word slipped from her lips. Evelyn noticed this, and the sudden tensioning of Jos’s whole frame. She blinked and looked back at Jos, feeling more naive than ever as she found herself entirely unequippped to deal with Jos’s compliment, clearly not one she had meant to voice there and then.
“You think I’m fascinating?” she said finally, in a quiet voice, barely daring to ask the question.
Jos took a deep breath. “Yes, Evie, I do. Now, I don’t know how aware you are of, well, of me and of how I—”
Evelyn knew Jos was about to attempt to tell her of her sensual inclinations. She did not need to be told. She had to be brave, to help Jos and to make it possible for either of them to take any further steps. “It’s all right. I know. I mean, I didn’t know it was something that even existed before I came to London and I don’t have the right words. But I know.” She said the words hurriedly, almost scared to breathe in between them, in case she came to a complete stop. “And I think you’re fascinating too.”
Immediately she looked away, down at the stones of the pavement. She could not bear to look for Jos’s reaction, even though Jos had confessed her feelings first.
Suddenly, Jos’s warm, strong fingers were underneath her chin, lifting her face gently, until they were once again looking in each other’s eyes. Jos held her gaze for a long time and Evelyn felt the allure of seeing deeper into Jos’s soul. She opened herself to Jos, let her read her hopes and fears in her expression.
Eventually, Jos nodded softly. “Now that we’ve established that, what do you say we go to a party?”
She smiled and the tension between them dissolved. “I think that sounds like the cat’s pyjamas.” Evelyn grinned.
Jos rolled her eyes and offered her arm to Evelyn. Evelyn wrapped her hand around the crook of Jos’s elbow and they walked towards Courtney and Clara’s flat.
Chapter Fourteen
Clifford Street was a collection of grand red-brick Victorian villas. Many of them had shops or offices at street level and the upper levels were well-appointed flats. Clara and Courtney, who had no shortage of family money between them, lived in the upper two floors of a house about halfway along the street. Jos led Evelyn to the door, her heart and mind too full to know exactly how she was feeling in those moments. Simply to have Evelyn by her side, on her arm, and to know she had not misjudged the situation, that there was real potential between them, made her want to sing with joy. This feeling was so very different to her usual tired acknowledgement that a cynical society girl had a crush on her.
Evelyn had grown quiet since their mutual confession, but it was not an uncomfortable or awkward silence.
“This is a beautiful street,” Evelyn said. “It’s so funny, in London, even a street that’s not famous can be more spectacular than the whole of West Coombe.”
Jos smiled. It was only natural that Evelyn would compare every
