The Bright One (54 page)

‘Quite sure! There'll be warmth and colour from the curtains, the covers, the pictures on the wall. As much as ever we want.'

‘If you say so,' Graham conceded. ‘You're the expert!'

‘I'm glad you say so,' Breda replied. ‘You won't know this room when I've finished with it! And tomorrow I have to let Miss Opal know whether I'm going to make similar transformations in houses all over Hebghyll; perhaps even beyond.'

‘Oh Breda!' Graham stopped in the act of scraping old paint from the window frame, and turned and faced her. ‘Breda, I thought we'd decided all that!'

‘
You
decided. I didn't.' She kept her voice calm.

‘And I suppose you'd take the baby with you into all these houses you're thinking about?'

‘I dare say that might be possible,' Breda said pleasantly. ‘I hadn't thought so far ahead.'

‘Then you should! Be serious about this, Breda!'

‘I am. Quite serious. But I prefer to take one step at a time. If Miss Opal's idea takes off, it will do so quickly. Spring and early summer are the times everyone looks at their rooms and sees them as shabby, needing a change. If it doesn't take off, then she'll abandon it and that will be the end of the matter.'

‘And if it does? I reckon Opal doesn't back many losers. If it does, where will you be then?'

‘I don't know,' Breda confessed.‘'Tis all to try for. But I've told you, and I mean it, love, I'll do whatever's best for the baby, both before it's born and after. All I want is a chance to start – just see how far I can take it.'

Graham looked at her. She stood in a room which was a shambles. Her face was dirty and there was a scrap of green wallpaper sticking to her hair. She was pink with exertion and her eyes were pleading. He had never loved her more.

‘Oh my darling, I can refuse you nothing!' he said. ‘Tell Miss Opal you'll give it a try. But don't make her any promises you can't keep.'

‘Oh Graham!' She flung herself into his arms. ‘Oh Graham, I do love you!'

The next morning she made an appointment to see Miss Opal as soon as possible after she arrived.

‘Well,' Opal said. ‘What did you decide?'

Breda told her. ‘I realize it might not suit you,' she admitted. ‘You see, I can't promise here and now to stay on after the baby's born. I shall have to see how things work out.'

‘Of course you will!'

‘And I wouldn't want to start something, and then leave you in the lurch.'

Opal looked long and hard at Breda. To be truthful, she didn't need this new venture, didn't she have enough with two stores? But there was something in her which wanted to take it on perhaps just because it
was
new, and a gamble, and there was something about this young woman who sat opposite her which made her feel that, between them, they could make it work. So it's my decision, she thought.

‘Well,' she said, ‘I can see the difficulties. But you don't win if you don't enter, so we'll do it! I have people to see now, but we'll talk later in the day, go into more detail.'

Breda stared at Miss Opal open mouthed. She couldn't believe it, nor could she find any words.

‘We'll wish each other luck!' Opal said.

Breda pulled herself together, realized she had been given a signal to leave, and got up. ‘Thank you, Miss Opal! Oh, thank you very much indeed. I can't tell you . . . '

‘Tell me later,' Opal said.

The next person Opal saw was George Soames. She told him about her conversation with Breda.

‘It's a risk,' he said. ‘But when did you
not
take risks, Opal?'

‘I know it is,' she admitted. ‘I just think it might come off. And I hate to see talent going to waste. So what have you to tell me, George?'

‘Not a great deal,' George said. ‘Leslie Bennett has given in his notice. He came to ask me about promotion, and when he saw it wasn't forthcoming, he decided to leave. I grabbed at it, I can tell you! He'll probably change his mind, though, and ask for his job back.'

‘But you'll not give it to him, I hope?'

‘Definitely not. Though I'm not sure how we'll manage in the short term if you're taking Breda.'

‘Ah!' Miss Opal said. ‘Then I think I can help you there. I think I have only to say the word and Jim Sutcliffe would jump at the chance of coming to Hebghyll. He said something of the kind to me the other day. His wife, it seems, has always wanted to live here.'

‘It wouldn't be as big a job as Leasfield,' George Soames said.

‘I'd pay him the same. And the job would be what he made it. There's plenty of scope.'

‘What about Leasfield?'

‘He has a good deputy, waiting to step into his shoes. We'll be all right.'

‘Well, that's that then,' George said. ‘I wish everything could be settled so easily.'

Opal sent for Breda in the middle of the afternoon. This time the talk was all of how they would set up the new venture.

‘You can cut your teeth on Mrs Alderton, the woman who gave me the idea,' Opal said. ‘I'll offer her a special rate for being the first customer, and for your part I want you to do a really first-class job.'

‘Oh, I will, Miss Opal!' Breda said eagerly. ‘I can hardly wait to begin.'

‘You'll have to wait a wee while, until we get fabric samples, paint charts and so on. Unless, of course, you can find most of what you want right here in the store – or perhaps in the Leasfield store.'

‘I'll know better when I've seen the rooms she wants doing,' Breda said.

‘Well, she lives right here in Hebghyll,' Opal said. ‘And I reckon the first occasion or two I'll go with you. I'd like to see how you go about it. After that, you're on your own.'

‘I'll be glad of your advice,' Breda said.

‘Oh, I'm not coming along to advise,' Opal said. ‘More to learn, to pick up the commercial side of it. The artistic bit is all yours. I've been thinking I shall advertise, use your name. “Mrs Breda Prince, Interior Design Consultant”. How does that sound?'

‘Wonderful!' Breda was ecstatic. She couldn't believe it was happening to her.

‘The only thing is, you look too young,' Miss Opal said. ‘But time will remedy that, won't it?'

Graham, when told, did his best to show enthusiasm. ‘Design Consultant!' he said. ‘You'll be passing me on your way up!'

‘I'll never do that,' Breda said. ‘You're Deputy Manager of the whole store.'

That was to change, and in a manner which no-one could foresee, or would have chosen. On a day towards the end of May, George Soames left the store, went home and ate his evening meal, and immediately afterwards collapsed with a heart attack.

Mary Soames acted quickly. Within twenty minutes George was in Hebghyll Hospital and Opal was speeding from Leasfield to be with her sister. Together, they sat by his bed all night, and in the morning knew that at least he would not die. When they knew that, Opal took her sister home, then went herself to the store.

The first person she sent for was Graham. ‘You will have to take over,' she told him.

‘I'll do my best, Miss Opal,' Graham said. He was white with shock.

‘I know you will. You've been here since the start of Opal's of Hebghyll. You know how I like things done. And you've had the best of teachers in Mr Soames. We must do everything well for his sake. I don't want him to worry about a thing.'

‘I'll do all I can,' Graham said. ‘Everyone will. Mr Soames is very highly thought of. It will be a great shock.'

‘I don't know how long this will last,' Opal said. She couldn't keep the worry out of her voice. There had been times in the night when she'd thought her brother-in-law would die. ‘Come to me if there's anything I can do,' she said to Graham. ‘And I'll be here as often as I can to begin with.'

In fact, George Soames's absence from the store was to be permanent.

‘If you take this easy, then you could live a long time yet,' the doctor said to him. ‘If you don't . . . ' He shrugged.

George gave in with good grace. If the truth were known, he would be glad to live a quieter life.

‘And you'll do yery well,' he said to Graham. ‘I have every faith in you! You're a bit young to be Manager of the whole store, but I'm sure you'll do it.'

‘Of course he will!' Mary Soames said.

Opal refused to consider promoting Graham to George Soames's job permanently until she was quite certain that George was ready to let go.

‘It's quite possible,' she said to Mary, ‘that when he feels better – and he
is
getting better, we can all see that – he'll want to come back. It wouldn't be fair either to him or to young Graham if I made a move too soon.'

‘If it's anything to do with me he won't come back at all, so please don't encourage him,' Mary said. ‘Oh, I know he's loved his job. He's lived for it all these years and it'll be a wrench to leave it. All the same, I think he will.'

‘Well, just don't push him,' Opal cautioned. ‘Let him decide in his own time.'

In the end, and in spite of advice from all directions, it was George who made his own decision. It was true he felt better every day – well, most days – but he knew he was no longer the man he had been. He thought of the hustle and bustle of the store at sale time, he remembered it in the Christmas season, and knew that it was beyond him. And as that knowledge grew so his desire to be in the store, in the thick of things, waned.

One day in July Opal called to see him, as she frequently did, keeping him in touch with what was going on. She found him sitting in his beautiful garden and he told her what he had decided.

‘Why not take a little longer to think it over?' she suggested.

‘I've done all that,' George said. ‘I'm quite certain, Opal. I've enjoyed every minute of the years with you, but now it's time to lead a different life. Read all the books I've never had time for; sit in the garden. I shall enjoy it all, and I shall enjoy spending more time with Mary.'

‘Well, if you're sure . . . '

He took her hand in his. Such capable hands she had: square palms, long fingers. ‘I'm quite sure, love.'

‘So the job of General Manager is yours,' Opal said to Graham next day. ‘That is if you still want it, having had a taste of what it's like these last few weeks.'

‘Oh I do! I do indeed,' Graham said. ‘I just wish it could have come to me in happier circumstances.'

‘I think George is happy to leave it,' Opal said. ‘And remember this, you're not to do things just because it's how George always did them. You must follow your own bent, have the courage of your own convictions. George frequently followed his way rather than mine, and he was right to do so.'

Breda, though sad about George Soames, whom she had always liked and always would, was delighted for Graham.

‘It's wonderful!' she said. ‘And I know you'll be a success. In fact, Miss Opal wouldn't have offered you the job if she hadn't thought so too. The only thing is, my darling, don't work too hard.'

‘You're a fine one to talk,' Graham said. ‘Six months pregnant and still hard at it.' There was no anger in his words. Seeing how fit and well Breda was, how happy, he had become used to the situation. He trusted her to give it up when the right time came.

‘I enjoy it so much,' Breda said. ‘Every day is different.'

There was no shortage of clients – ‘Let's call them clients, not customers,' Miss Opal had suggested. Mrs Alderton had been delighted by Breda's transformation of her drawing room and had immediately recommended her to two friends, but the woman Breda was to see this afternoon had telephoned in response to the announcement in the newspaper.

Breda received her in the alcove which had been chosen for the purpose, on the first floor. Opal had thought that an alcove was more suitable than an enclosed office. ‘Let people get used to seeing you at work,' she said. It was furnished with two comfortable armchairs, a low table, swatches of fabrics, colour charts – and fresh flowers. The first meeting was always in the store, but it was no more than a preliminary.

‘I think I've got the picture,' Breda said when they had talked for a while. ‘The next thing is, I'd like to visit you in your home.'

Mrs Stevens hesitated. ‘Is that necessary? I mean . . . I thought . . . '

‘It really is,' Breda said. ‘I can do a much better job for you that way. Is there some reason why not?'

‘Not really. Only it's so awful, I wouldn't like you to think any of it was my taste. My late aunt lived there and I inherited the lot.'

Breda smiled. ‘That's a wonderful starting point. Between us we can do so much. And, of course, this consultation and the first one in your own home are entirely free. Only if and when you decide to go ahead do you begin to pay. We'll discuss that then.'

‘It sounds fair enough,' Mrs Stevens said. ‘Could it be next week?'

Breda consulted her diary. ‘Yes, Wednesday afternoon. I'll bring some of the patterns and charts we've looked at, but I'll also bring others as well. Don't be surprised if I suggest something totally different once I've seen the room.'

She needed also to be able to see the house,
and
the view from the window. If the view was good she would work with it, incorporate it in her design; if it was bad then she would do all she could to minimize it. Also, in addition to recommending decorations, chair covers, curtains and so on, she would often suggest ornaments, china or glassware, a picture. Most of what she suggested would be obtainable in the store, but if it was not she would do her best to get it elsewhere. It was all part of the service.