Giving all these women the chance to work in a safe, uplifting environment was special, and as the demand for women’s tailoring grew, so would the opportunities for the women leaving design school.

It was a big undertaking running her own business for the first time, but Amelia also had the comfort of knowing that she had her Uncle Jaunty for support in the shop next door, if she needed him.

Amelia pulled her attention back to her design and smiled as she realized she’d drawn Byron as her model. She touched her finger to Byron’s face, represented in the drawing, and as she did the voices of the ancestors got louder. The background noise had been quiet since they returned from the New Forest, so this was a surprise. She tried to discern and differentiate the words, but they were too muffled.

The sound of the room door opening made Amelia look up. It was Daisy.

“Hey, how are things upstairs?’ Amelia asked.

“Fine. I just finished an appointment. Can I have a word with you?”

“Is there something wrong?”

In the week since they had been back, Amelia had noticed that Daisy had been quieter than normal. She was a larger-than-life character and generally lived loud, and so it was apparent something must be on her mind.

“I wondered if I could come and see you and Byron, talk to you about something.”

This was strange.

“Of course. It’s Saturday tomorrow. How about you come over in the afternoon. I can show you the work we’ve done to the house and have a cup of tea and a chat.”

“I’d like that.”

Daisy closed her eyes quickly and swayed, grabbing the edge of the desk for support.

Amelia got up quickly and put her arm around Daisy. As she did the voices of her ancestors got exponentially louder, but more garbled. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just tired. I’ll be okay,” Daisy said.

“You’ve been working too hard recently. You looked after this place all by yourself when I was away. Why don’t you take the afternoon off? Go home and rest. I’ll take care of everything here.”

“Are you sure?” Daisy said.

“Yes. On you go and relax. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Thanks, Amelia.”

Once Daisy had gone, she sat down at her desk and rubbed her forehead. The noise of the ancestors was driving her crazy. Why had they gotten louder when she touched Daisy?

She picked up her pencil and tried to get back to the design she was working on. As time passed, the voices quietened down a lot, until they were hardly audible.

What would Daisy want to see them about? It was all very strange.

When she looked back to her design pad she had doodled the head of a woman and a circle with a geometric daisy wheel symbol underneath.

Strange.

* * *