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Back Sisters of Gold Save as PDF
Chapters (64)
  1. Cover
  2. Title page
  3. Dedication page
  4. A Week’s Work in Birmingham
  5. I
  6. One
  7. Two
  8. Three
  9. Four
  10. Five
  11. Six
  12. Seven
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Ten
  16. Eleven
  17. Twelve
  18. Thirteen
  19. Fourteen
  20. Fifteen
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-One
  27. Twenty-Two
  28. Twenty-Three
  29. Twenty-Four
  30. II
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. Twenty-Seven
  34. Twenty-Eight
  35. Twenty-Nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-One
  38. Thirty-Two
  39. Thirty-Three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. Thirty-Eight
  45. Thirty-Nine
  46. III
  47. Forty
  48. Forty-One
  49. Forty-Two
  50. Forty-Three
  51. Forty-Four
  52. Forty-Five
  53. Forty-Six
  54. Forty-Seven
  55. Forty-Eight
  56. Forty-Nine
  57. Fifty
  58. Fifty-One
  59. Fifty-Two
  60. Fifty-Three
  61. Acknowledgements
  62. Further Reading
  63. About the Author
  64. By the Same Author

Then the image of Philip Tallis came to the forefront of her mind, those large, gentle hands, his eyes, amused, caressing, the feel of him holding her and the loving words he had uttered. A melting feeling of longing filled her.

‘Oh, for goodness’ sake,’ she said to herself. ‘All this fuss about a little walk!’

Thirty-Seven

Thirty-Seven

She put on the raspberry-coloured skirt, stroking the soft fabric almost in disbelief that she had something so lovely. The cream blouse went with it beautifully and a dark blue cardigan. She stood longer than usual in front of the glass, doing her hair.

I’m being so vain! she thought, bending to look in the little tilted mirror on the chest of drawers. Her grey eyes looked solemnly back at her. She wound her hair up, saw her strongly boned face, thick, waving hair piled in a becoming style and happy eyes looking back at her, and knew, though she tried to suppress it, that she was beautiful. It was as if now, aged nineteen, she had flowered suddenly and fully into womanhood. She looked strong, curvaceous, graceful, and this was exciting and alarming in equal measure. She smiled at her reflection, imagining that Philip Tallis was on the receiving end of that smile. Her eyes shone, and her face lit up with such joy that she felt panic-stricken by her own appearance.

Maybe I should stop all this vanity, take this skirt off and put on my usual Sunday dress, she thought. The dress was of a demure grey with a band of cotton lace at the neck. This inner struggle was ended by her realization that it was so cold out that whatever she wore would be largely covered by her coat.

‘My, my,’ Uncle Eb said, looking up from his porridge as she came down. He too seemed to be seeing her almost for the first time. ‘You off to church, wench?’

Annie had evidently left before he came down.

‘Er, no – not this time,’ Margaret said, taking a small portion of porridge and hoping she might force a bit of it down in her nervous state. ‘I’m going out for a little walk with Daisy, and er . . .’ She trailed off, blushing.

She could almost feel Uncle Eb’s ear pricking up. ‘And . . . ?’

‘Well – Mr Tallis. He invited me as he realized that so far I have seen very little of the town.’

‘Ah – did he now?’ Eb was smiling knowingly. ‘And just by the way – it’s a city, is Brummagem. First to be called a city without a cathedral and all that church big-wiggery,’ he announced. ‘How about that?’

‘Yes,’ Margaret smiled. ‘Mother told us that.’ As Congregationalists, they had been pleased at this break with the Anglican Church which usually decided such things.