Hold Fast To Your Dreams – Episode 04
Hold Fast To Your Dreams
« Previous Post- 1. Hold Fast To Your Dreams – Episode 01
- 2. Hold Fast To Your Dreams – Episode 02
- 3. Hold Fast To Your Dreams – Episode 03
- 4. Hold Fast To Your Dreams – Episode 04
- 5. Hold Fast To Your Dreams – Episode 05
- 6. Hold Fast To Your Dreams – Episode 06
- 7. Hold Fast To Your Dreams – Episode 07
Emily, I’m so happy I could burst! Won’t it be fun, making my wedding dress together? I can’t wait until you’re home again . . .
But Emily hadn’t gone to see her sister walk down the aisle on Dad’s arm.
Pushing back a lock of hair, Emily caught sight of her face in the mirror that was there to help with fitting garments.
Her skin had roughened with outdoor living, the freckles even more pronounced, and circles under her eyes.
She’d been awake since dawn, when a swarm of flies had tormented her sleep, as they did everyone in the tent encampment.
She had run out of the incense sticks that San Li, the Chinese woman with whom Emily had shared the tent previously, had given her. Their exotic scent had deterred the flies.
Emily missed her. Though San Li spoke little English, they’d become friends, having gone through the horror of the earthquake.
It had been San Li’s brother, Cheng Tao, who saved Emily from the house in Pacific Heights, where she’d been staying with the Farringtons. Emily was sad when her brave Chinese friends had been forced to move to the segregated camp.
When the earthquake struck, in those early hours of April 18, the Farringtons were still dancing at the Palace Hotel with the rest of San Francisco society at a reception held in honour of the great tenor, Caruso.
Emily had helped Florence get ready for the occasion. But no sooner had the Farringtons left than James Campbell, the doctor attending the family during their stay, appeared.
“Good evening, Emily. I have a problem. A patient of mine is unable to attend the opera this evening, and his wife refuses to go, so I have two tickets. I’d love to hear Caruso, but I hate to go on my own.”
So Emily had gone to the opera and had danced the night away, swept off her feet like Cinderella.
She tucked the memory away. She hadn’t chosen to remain here in order to marry anyone. Not Will, her childhood sweetheart, who had come to San Francisco to find her, and not James, either. Her world had become bigger and a new, secret dream had taken her over.
How could she make it come true if she didn’t test her wings?
The seeds had been planted during the Farringtons’ stay in New York. Emily had had the afternoon off, and as she walked along the street she’d seen a shop wedged between two buildings.
She peered into the window. The displays of clothing lit up the room, and at the back she could see a lady sitting at a sewing machine, a length of fabric round her chair.
But it was one thing having a dream; quite another knowing how to achieve it.
“Emily, the oil’s running all over the machine!”
“I’ve sewn the sleeve on backwards!” someone cried.
“Stop shouting,” a woman bellowed from the back of the tent.
Eyeing Emily, she whispered loudly to the lady beside her.
“That girl can’t keep order. I know as much as she does. Why should I take orders from her?”
“More tea, my lady?”
“Thank you, Runciman.” Lady Farrington was still unsettled by the butler having to take on the duties of first footman.
After long deliberation with his accountant, Lord Farrington had agreed that dismissals were necessary, along with other cutbacks. This left Runciman to serve tea and wait at table.
Lady Farrington sipped at the delicious lapsang souchong, grateful that some things were as they had always been, after all that they’d endured.
Would she ever get over the ordeal of the earthquake, then living like paupers in that crowded, church hall, not knowing what would happen next?
Their darling Bunny had come to rescue them – though she had been told by her husband that the time had come to call their son Bertrand.
Lady Farrington frowned as she glanced across at him, perched next to his pregnant wife.
“I’m starving!”
“Have another sandwich, my darling,” her husband urged.
“I told Hester to loosen my stays this morning,” Thea said. “I do miss Jenny. My stars, was that a kick?”
“I waited a quarter of an hour for Hester.” Florence pouted. “I shall never forgive Emily for not coming with us. After all we did for her!”
Lady Farrington seized on the servant problem in an attempt to steer the conversation away from pregnancy, hardly a subject for the tea table.
“It is clear Hester cannot attend to all three of us. We must advertise for ladies’ maids.”
Lord Farrington looked at his wife, his face strained.
“It would be best for Hester to continue looking after you all.”
“Papa!” Florence wailed.
“Your father is right, Florence,” Lady Farrington said, knowing she must accept the dreadful truth.
She’d had no idea that their finances had been in such a perilous state, and that Reginald had pinned all hopes on his investment in the California Ocean Shore Railway project.
It had crumbled into the sea on that terrible day.
Though they were practically penniless, it seemed their daughter-in-law had more money than she knew what to do with, and had used it in the most extraordinary ways in their absence.