Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner Read Free Book Online

occurred to Julia until she was sitting there licking marmalade off her fingers that Emmy had plans for the sketches that had very little to do with her. But Julia could see it now. She and Emmy were to be parted and it was the brides that would take Emmy from her. Emmy didn’t treasure for a moment the thought of leaving Julia when the time came. The sisters washed and dried the dishes in silence.
    After Julia got ready for bed, Emmy read to her froma volume of fairy tales that was Julia’s favorite, and the girls waited for Mum to come home from work.
    With no sign of their mother by ten o’clock, Emmy tucked Julia into bed. She held the drawings Emmy had given her like a storybook.
    “Do you like their umbrellas?” Julia fanned the brides out on her blanketed lap.
    “I like them very much.”
    “Polka-dot umbrellas are my favorite. I want a red polka-dot umbrella. With a curly black handle that looks like licorice.”
    “That sounds splendid.”
    Julia pointed to one of the brides. She had drawn cartoonlike features onto the blank face, including a toothy smile and curling eyelashes that extended past the bride’s hairline. That particular drawing was Emmy’s second attempt at anything bridal. The skirt resembled a lacy lampshade that someone had stepped on. Julia’s embellishments made it look even more amateurish.
    “If it rains on her wedding day, she’s going to need an umbrella,” Julia said.
    “You’re smart to think ahead like that.”
    “So where will I go when you are working at the bridal shop?”
    This was a detail Emmy had not wanted to ponder, though it had crossed her mind several times since she’d returned to the flat. She reminded herself that Julia was her sister, not her daughter. This was Mum’s complication to work out, not hers. Emmy had a pretty good idea it would not take much persuading for Thea from the flat next door to look after Julia for the few hours Mum and she would be gone every week. Thea, a quiet, unmarried recluse who spent her days taking care of her senile mother,doting on her cat, and reading books about the sea, adored Julia. Emmy would suggest it if Mum hadn’t a better idea.
    “Mum will make sure you are looked after, Jewels. That’s what mums are for.”
    Julia looked at Emmy, an unspoken question in her eyes. Emmy didn’t want to know what that question was, so she did not ask.
    “Why aren’t you coming to bed?” Julia asked a moment later.
    “I want to wait up for Mum and tell her about my new job.”
    “But why do you need a job, Emmy? You’re not a mum. Only mums need jobs.”
    Emmy took the drawings Julia held in her hands and set them on the little table in between the beds. “Mrs. Crofton is going to teach me how to sew, Jewels. And she knows somebody who might be able to help me take my drawings and make real dresses out of them. Real dresses. That’s why. Say your prayers now.” Emmy rose from the bed and turned out the light. Darkness swallowed the room.
    “Don’t close the door all the way,” she said.
    “I won’t. Sweet dreams.”
    Emmy settled onto the sofa with a magazine and waited for Mum but she fell asleep. Hours later in the gray light of dawn, the lock turned and she startled awake. Emmy sat up quickly and Mum, equally startled, half fell against the door frame.
    “Good Lord, Emmy,” Mum said as she caught herself. “You scared me. What are you doing there on the sofa like that?”
    Emmy smelled pipe tobacco on her, even from ten feet away.
    “Where have you been?” Emmy said, knowing how ridiculous it sounded that she was asking that question instead of the other way around, as she had heard other mothers do.
    Mum pushed the door shut and smoothed a curl that had worked free of her white maid’s cap. “It got late last night and it was too dark to walk home. It wouldn’t have been safe.”
    Mum strode into the room and then into the kitchen, clicking on the light above the table. She set her handbag down and pulled