Twenty-Four
The Stormy Petrels Summer 2001
The name ‘petrel’ is said to be a diminutive of Peter: when feeding the bird flits and hovers just above the water, often with feet pattering on the surface, appearing to ‘walk on water’ as St Peter did in the Bible story.
Field Guide to the BIRDS OF BRITAIN
Evan Hughes stood in the middle of the fashion floor of Harte’s department store in London’s Knightsbridge. It was seven o’clock in the morning and nothing stirred. All was silent at this hour. By eight the cleaners would be moving around this vast space, and by nine a few of the dedicated sales staff would be arriving to prepare for the store doors opening at ten. Now, though, she was totally alone.
She loved this store and this floor in particular. It was her domain. And hers alone. Last week she had been made head of fashion, a very big promotion which had thrilled her.
As Evan moved slowly across the floor, making for the new haute couture fashion displays, she couldn’t help thinking about the first day she had walked into Harte’s. January 2001. Eight months ago now. She had been very lucky that day. Quite by chance she had met the man of her dreams and had found the job of her dreams. She had never thought her dreams would come true that day. But they had.
Pausing for a moment, Evan glanced around, her light grey-blue eyes devouring everything: the fashion displays under bright lights, the elegance of the whole floor – such an important one in this prestigious department store, considered the greatest in the world.
Harte’s of Knightsbridge had been founded by one of the most famous merchant princes ever known: Emma Harte. She had been dead now for thirty years and the store was run by Emma’s granddaughter, Paula O’Neill. Paula, an elegant woman in her mid-fifties, had inherited her grandmother’s great skills and brilliance as a retailer, and her two daughters Tessa and Linnet were following in her footsteps. Both of them worked at the store; Tessa was in charge of the first three floors which sold cosmetics, perfumes, leisurewear, lingerie and active sports clothes. Linnet, Tessa’s half-sister, was in charge of the fashion floors and also worked with Paula on public relations.
It was Linnet O’Neill who had hired Evan to be one of her assistants, and for the first few months she had helped Linnet to put together a retrospective of fashion which had been a huge success and pulled many new customers into the store.
As a reward for all of her hard work and dedication, Linnet had given her this promotion … and Evan was in her element.
Evan stood in front of the couture fashion displays which had been finished late last night, looking at them for a few minutes. They were great, she decided. The display staff had done a good job with the clothes she had selected.
Turning away, she walked down the floor, making for her office. Tall, slender and dark-haired, she was good-looking, elegant. Back at her desk she glanced at the photograph of Gideon Harte … the man of her dreams. She had fallen in love with him, and he with her, that first day when he had bumped into her in the corridor. She had been looking for the management offices, and he had led her there, all the while firing questions at her. And it was Gideon who had told his cousin Linnet about her; Linnet had subsequently interviewed her and given her a job.
Sitting back in her chair, Evan thought about the past eight months, and all that had happened.
She had never expected to find a second family in England. Only a year ago the only family she knew were her mother and father, and her two adopted sisters who lived in Connecticut. But all that had changed because of her grandmother, Glynnis Hughes. On her deathbed her grandmother had told her to go to England to find Emma Harte, saying that Emma was the key to her future. And Evan had done exactly that, only to discover Emma was dead. But she had fallen in love with the store, and decided to get a job there.
And now here she was, working at Harte’s, involved with Gideon, planning a future with him, and struggling to adapt herself to a whole new family. Because she herself was actually a Harte. It was Paula who had discovered that Evan was another great-granddaughter of Emma Harte’s, because Evan’s grandmother Glynnis had given birth to a son fathered by one of Emma’s sons. And that child was Evan’s father.
They had welcomed her, treated her kindly, with enormous understanding, but at times things had been difficult for Evan. So many things to unravel, so much to accept, so many people to get to know. Sometimes it seemed endless to her, and problematical. She worried a lot, dwelled on all this for hours.
Most troubling of all was the knowledge she had about her father’s biological father … facts she had been afraid to relay to him. Would her father Owen Hughes welcome the information? Would he really want to know that the man who had brought him up was not his father after all? She didn’t know, and she continued to wrestle with these questions.
Evan
