The Emma Harte 7-Book Collection: A Woman of Substance, Hold the Dream, To Be the Best, Emma’s Secret, Unexpected Blessings, Just Rewards, Breaking the Rules. Barbara Taylor BradfordЧитать онлайн книгу.
at the table opposite Emma. He fished around inside his coat and brought out a small package. ‘And this is for ye, mavourneen,’ he said importantly, placing it on the table in front of her. His gay black eyes regarded her fondly.
Emma stared at the package and then she looked up at Blackie with large eyes. ‘What is it?’ she asked, her voice hushed.
‘Just a little bit o’ nonsense. A birthday present for ye,’ said Blackie. His mouth twitched with pleasure as he observed her growing curiosity mingled with anticipation.
‘But it’s not me birthday till the end of April,’ said Emma. She picked up the package and turned it over in her hands, examining it with mounting interest. She had never received a present like this before. A present wrapped in silver paper and tied with a silver ribbon. Never in her whole life. It looked almost too beautiful to open.
‘Yes, I know when it is,’ Blackie told her. ‘But me Uncle Pat’s sending me to Harrogate, to do a big building job, and I’ll be gone for three weeks or more. I didn’t want to be missing the special occasion of ye birthday. That’s why I brought it for ye today, me bonny mavourneen.’
Emma looked down at the gift in her hands. Her face was flushed and her vivid eyes sparkled with shimmering green light. ‘Can I open it now then?’ she asked, unable to contain her excitement. ‘I don’t have ter wait, do I?’
‘Sure and ye don’t, Emma. Open it this minute,’ said Blackie, enjoying the scene enormously.
Emma untied the silver ribbon and removed the silver paper with the greatest of care. A small black box was revealed, which Emma stared at wide-eyed, her heart fluttering. Slowly she lifted the lid. ‘Oh, Blackie, it’s lovely,’ she gasped, her eyes growing larger. With trembling hands she took out a small brooch designed in the shape of a bow and decorated with bright green stones. She held it up to the light. The cheap little brooch glittered with such radiance in the sunlight its tawdriness was diminished and, in her hands, it seemed to take on a special kind of beauty, and even Blackie was amazed.
‘Look, Mrs Turner,’ Emma shrieked, running to show her. Cook said, ‘Well, aren’t you a lucky lass. That was right kind of Blackie ter remember yer fifteenth birthday.’
‘It’s only glass,’ Blackie said in an apologetic tone. ‘But when I saw it in the shop in Leeds, in one of them grand arcades, I said to meself, “Why, ’tis the colour of Emma’s emerald eyes, sure and it is.” So buy it I did, without another minute’s hesitation.’ Blackie grinned in his engaging way. ‘When I’m a toff, that millionaire I’m planning to be one day, I shall be buying ye a brooch exactly like this one, mavourneen. But it will be made of the real emeralds, I can promise ye that,’ he announced with the utmost confidence.
‘Yer don’t have ter do that,’ Emma exclaimed quickly. ‘This is the most beautiful brooch I’ve ever seen. Why, I shall keep it always. I don’t want no emeralds, Blackie. This is perfect. Thank yer, ever so much.’ She smiled at him radiantly and kissed him on the cheek.
He hugged her to him and said, ‘I am glad ye be liking it, Emma.’
Emma sat down, the smile lingering on her face, and after a few seconds she returned the brooch safely to its box, but she left the lid off, so that she could admire it.
‘Well now, how about a nice cup of tea, lad?’ said Cook, heaving herself up out of the chair with a great deal of huffing and puffing. She straightened her cap, smoothed down her apron, and went on, ‘The kettle’s on t’hob and I’ll have a pot mashed in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.’ As she spoke the cook padded over to the dresser, took down a brown pot and a tea caddy, and began to busy herself at the dresser.
‘Thank ye, Mrs Turner, I don’t mind if I do,’ said Blackie, crossing his great legs and sitting back comfortably in the chair. He gave his full attention to Emma. ‘And what are ye doing here on Sunday, might I be asking?’ he queried, frowning. ‘I thought ye would be having the day off, as ye always do. I was going to stop off at ye dad’s and leave ye the present, after I’d dropped in for a little visit with Mrs Turner here.’
‘The Squire gave a dinner party last night and Mrs Wainright asked me ter work over the weekend, seeing as how there was a right lot of clearing up ter do,’ explained Emma. ‘I won’t be going home till Thursday, but Mrs Wainright’s ever so kind, Blackie, and she’s given me four whole days off. Two ter make up for this weekend, and next Saturday and Sunday as well.’
‘I am glad to be hearing that,’ said Blackie. ‘So, the Squire had a dinner party, did he? I bet it was real posh, Emma, eh? Lots of toffs here, I am thinking.’ Blackie grinned. ‘I’ve no doubt about that, at all, at all. Ah, yes, the money is a wonderful thing to be having.’
Emma nodded solemnly, her eyes glittering. ‘Yer right, Blackie, anybody can be a toff with money.’ She eyed him appraisingly and continued, ‘Yer don’t look so bad yerself. Is that a new suit, then?’
Blackie beamed and sat up straighter, smoothing down his sombre black jacket made of good broadcloth. ‘It is indeed. And a new tie,’ he said, touching the dark blue cravat proudly. He winked. ‘Sure and I’m all in me Sunday best today. Ye don’t think I’d come visiting an ejicated young lady in me working clothes, do ye now?’
Emma smiled and, ignoring this comment, said, ‘Yer should’ve seen Mrs Fairley and Mrs Wainright. They looked ever so beautiful. Like the pictures from the illustrated magazines. Real elegant.’
‘I can just imagine,’ said Blackie. He gazed at Emma affectionately and added, ‘And that’s the way ye’ll be looking one day, me spry young colleen, when ye are the grand lady.’
Emma blushed. ‘Oh, I don’t knows about that,’ she murmured, suddenly bashful. ‘But tell me, what’s happening in Leeds? Tell me some more about Leeds, Blackie. What’ve yer been doing there lately?’
‘Not much news,’ said Blackie cautiously, his eyes wary as he became conscious of that look on her face, that look which always appeared when she mentioned the city. ‘Things are just the same, I am thinking. I have nothing exciting to be telling ye, mavourneen, sure and that’s the God’s truth. And all I’ve been doing, since I last saw ye in March, is work hard. Me and me Uncle Pat, why, we’ve more jobs than we can handle these days. Thanks to the Squire. Sure and it is himself who has helped us to prosper. Giving us the recommendations and all.’ Now unable to conceal his jubilation, he added exuberantly, and without stopping to consider the effect it might have on her, ‘I not be telling ye a lie, Emma, when I say that business is booming in Leeds.’
Emma looked at Blackie intently. She thought: Then I must go there soon, but said, ‘And what’s in it for the Squire? Recommending yer for all this work?’
Blackie threw back his great head and roared with laughter. ‘There be nothing in it for himself,’ he said. ‘Whyever should ye be thinking such a thing, mavourneen?’ Blackie pulled a red kerchief out of his pocket, wiped his eyes, and blew his nose.
‘’Cos I knows the Squire, and he would never do owt for nowt,’ she said pithily, contempt curving her mouth. ‘Talk about hard-faced, yer could straighten nails on his.’
Blackie laughed again and slapped his knee. ‘Emma! Emma! Not everybody’s on the take or on the make,’ he remonstrated gently. ‘Especially a fine gent like the Squire. He recommends us because he is acquainted with our work. He knows we are good bricklayers and builders, me and me Uncle Pat. Sure and he does.’ He paused and said with a degree of certitude, ‘He also recommends us because he likes us, I am thinking.’
‘Oh, aye,’ remarked Emma, dryly, her eyes doubtful. She found this hard to believe.
Blackie leaned forward across the table, and said confidingly, ‘Well, it is more than the liking of us. Ye see, mavourneen, me Uncle Pat saved the Squire’s life three years ago, and himself has been grateful ever since.’
‘Saved the Squire’s life,’ Emma echoed coldly. ‘And how did he do that, then?’