Softly Grow the Poppies Read Online Free PDF Page B

waiter who automatically hurried over and took Harry’s order for tea and . . . ‘Should you like cake, or perhaps . . .’ turning to Rose who shook her head. She held Alice’s hand and murmured to her and gradually Alice managed a tearful smile.
    ‘You have both been so kind but my heart feels as though it is breaking. I knew Charlie was to go but I did not imagine it would be so . . . so cruel. Not even a farewell . . . a kiss . . . oh, dear, please don’t let me start again,’ for she was on the verge of more tears.
    ‘Alice, we were all saddened by the departure of not only Charlie but all the soldiers who are to fight.’ Then she remembered what Harry Summers had said to her about the British Expeditionary Force and the men who had died at Mons only a few days ago. ‘But we have certainly put the cat among the pigeons here.’ She grinned mischievously and Harry fell more under her spell than ever. ‘The old dears are having a lovely time wondering what the dickens a woman dressed as I am is doing in their precious tea room. I suppose I look like some wandering gypsy. We have quite made their day so why don’t we smile and pretend we are nothing out of the ordinary. Let us think of the day when Charlie comes home with all the other soldiers and you and he can be married. Will you promise that I shall be a bridesmaid? But don’t dress me in pink. I look awful in pink.’
    Harry watched her as she made Alice smile and even chuckle. He reflected on the distinct probability that this – meaning not only all the soldiers coming home but a wedding between Charlie and Alice – would never happen. Arthur Weatherly, Alice’s father, wanted more for his only daughter than the second son of a land-rich, cash-poor, family-proud gentleman, whose father had gambled and wenched away his wealth over the past twenty years. The estate Charlie’s father had inherited was falling about his ears and only one son, Harry, was doing his best to keep it all together. Cow sheds needed rebuilding and land draining, not to mention the slow deterioration of the lovely and gracious family home, Summer Place, and there was no money to do it. Arthur Weatherly was not a man to pour money into the hand of the man who had caused such a decline. He would look elsewhere for a suitable husband for his daughter. Harry remembered the struggle he himself had had raising money to buy Charlie a commission, parting reluctantly with some land to do so. They lived on the rents of the tenant farmers with Harry doing his best to manage the estate in his father’s place, a thankless task he discovered, and it certainly ruled out any chance of finding himself a woman willing to live on the pittance that came in. One day it would all be his and unless he or Charlie married an heiress, how were they to maintain it?
    Alice was sipping her tea, her long, silky hair slipping from the ribbon that did its best to hold it in place. She was dishevelled from Charlie’s ardent embrace but she had stopped crying and Harry surreptitiously watched Rose who was totally unaware of the stir they had caused. Typically, she did not care. She drank her tea and discussed with Alice how she was to get back to Weatherly House.
    ‘I can take you in the gig but you must promise to come to Beechworth tomorrow and drink chocolate with me. Dolly makes the best chocolate in the world.’
    ‘Dolly?’
    ‘Yes, she runs my house for me.’ She laughed. ‘You see, I am not at all domesticated and cannot manage without her. I love her as though she were my mother.’
    Alice smiled wanly. ‘My mama passed away.’
    ‘As did mine.’
    ‘Papa might not let me. He will be furious that I have seen Charlie.’
    ‘Does he not like Charlie then?’ looking suddenly at Harry, for surely they should not be discussing his brother with him sitting there quietly drinking tea.
    ‘Don’t worry, Miss Beechworth.’ Harry smiled broadly. ‘I know exactly what Mr Weatherly thinks of