‘Not so humiliating as wearing the same evening gown to three different parties in a row,’ muttered the first young lady. Emily ignored her, but Sophie noticed a flush of crimson appearing on her cheeks.
An uncomfortable silence fell, until at last the first young lady removed the hat and cast it carelessly down on the counter. ‘I’ll leave this one, thank you,’ she said airily to Sophie. Then she turned to Phyllis. ‘Do make your mind up. Are you going to buy that, or not? We’ll be late for luncheon if you don’t hurry.’
Phyllis hurriedly removed the hat and handed it back with an apologetic smile, and the whole party set out for luncheon in the Marble Court Restaurant, rather to Sophie’s relief. She might be grateful to have her job at Sinclair’s, but she could think of better ways to spend her birthday than dealing with bickering debutantes, she thought ruefully, as she tidied the hats away.
‘Letter for you, Miss Taylor!’
A porter approached the counter, giving her a cheeky wink as he handed her not one, but two envelopes.
‘Young gentleman friend, eh? Sending you a few sweet nothings?’ he teased, grinning as he went on his way.
Sophie ignored him and glanced down at the envelopes. The sight of the familiar, rather untidy handwriting at once made her spirits lift. She slipped behind the counter, and tore the envelope open, revealing a card with a birthday greeting on the front, surrounded by a pretty wreath of poppies and daisies and some swooping swallows. Inside was scribbled a cryptic message:
Sophie grinned to herself. She knew exactly who the birthday card was from. During their adventure, Sophie and her friends had had to decipher some mysterious coded messages, and ever since then, Lil had thought it was great fun to write the others notes in code. Sophie frowned and picked up a pencil, trying to work out this one, determined not to let Lil get the better of her. After a few unsuccessful tries, she cracked it: the secret was to read every other letter, starting with the first – and when she came to the end, to start again with the letters she had missed.
A birthday tea! The day that had stretched ahead of her just like any other suddenly seemed bright and festive. She felt altogether more cheerful as she glanced down at the second envelope – perhaps Billy had sent her a birthday greeting too?
But the second envelope did not look in the least like something Billy might have sent. The envelope was thick ivory paper, the address written in violet ink in an elegant but unfamiliar hand:
How curious! It was addressed to both her and Lil. She frowned for a moment, trying to think who on earth could possibly be writing a note to both of them. But there was no time to wonder – another customer was hurrying towards her. Hastily, she stuffed both envelopes into the pocket of her frock. ‘May I help you, madam?’ she asked.
Several hours later, Sophie pushed open the door of Lyons Corner House, breathing in the lovely aroma of hot buttered toast and coffee. It had been a very long day, and now her feet ached and her back hurt, but she was certainly not too tired to relish the prospect of a birthday celebration. Going out to tea was a rare treat; she and Lil would occasionally come here when they had a shilling or two to spare. It was one of the few places in London that welcomed young girls like themselves, alone, and it always gave her a satisfying feeling of freedom and independence.
She caught sight of Lil at once, sitting at their usual table in the corner. Lil was conspicuous whenever she went, being both unusually tall and unusually beautiful. Even dressed as she was this afternoon, in a simple summer frock and a straw hat with a ribbon round it, her glorious mass of rich dark hair, chocolate brown eyes and magnificent figure made her look more like a goddess than an ordinary girl. Sophie had long since got used to Lil’s remarkable appearance – but what did immediately take her by surprise was that Lil was not alone. Sitting beside her, both looking rather as though they had been starched and ironed especially for the occasion, were Joe and Billy.
‘Hullo Sophie!’ said Billy as she approached. ‘Happy birthday!’
Lil was almost bouncing out of her seat with excitement. ‘I say, isn’t this jolly? Are you surprised? Do sit down – we’ve already ordered some iced buns. I hope you don’t mind – I do think there’s something awfully birthday-ish about iced buns, don’t you?’
Even Joe was grinning at her, in spite of looking a little self-conscious to have found himself in a tea shop. Billy and Joe had each brought her a birthday card, and Lil had a present for her too – a handkerchief with embroidered corners. By the time the tea had been poured and the iced buns and sandwiches arrived, she felt quite a different person from the weary shop girl who had walked through the door.
It was the first time in two weeks that they had all been together, and they had lots to say for themselves. Billy was eager to tell them the latest about working in Mr Sinclair’s office.
‘Of course, I’m only the office boy, so I’m jolly unimportant really,’ he explained, as he shovelled a third spoon of sugar into his tea. ‘But there’s no danger of being bored, I can tell you! There’s always something going on – you should see some of the people who come to see the Captain!’
‘Lots of ladies, I bet,’ said Joe, with a grin.
‘Yes and not just any ladies, either – actresses, opera singers, dancers,’ Billy said, his eyes wide. ‘If they’re someone important, he has them sign a window pane in his office. He has a special long stick with a diamond at the end of it, so they can write their names on the glass!’ he explained, clearly most impressed by this. ‘It’s fearfully busy, but I’m learning a lot. Miss Atwood is showing me all the ropes. Then I have to take evening classes three times a week – typing and shorthand and bookkeeping.’
‘You must hear all sorts of interesting things,’ said Lil, her eyes sparkling, much more intrigued by Mr Sinclair’s glamorous visitors than she was in typing or bookkeeping. ‘All the gossip and scandal! Mr Sinclair’s deep, dark secrets.’
Billy grinned. ‘Well, I don’t know about that,’ he said. ‘I think he keeps his secrets to himself. But I’ll tell you what – I do know all about the plans for the summer fête.’
The Sinclair’s summer fête was a great source of excitement amongst the staff at present. Mr Sinclair was renowned for taking good care of his workers, and he had determined that just as London’s high society had their summer entertainments – their trips to Ascot and Cowes and the Henley Regatta – so too should his staff. He had charged the new store manager, Mr Betteredge, with planning a day of festivities for them, to reward them for their hard work during the year so far. Mr Betteredge was a cheerful gentleman, who was about as different from the previous store manager, the duplicitous Mr Cooper, as it was possible to be. Mr Cooper, of course, had turned out to be secretly in league with the Baron: he was the one who had stolen the clockwork sparrow, and might have done far worse had they not discovered what he was up to. But even disregarding all that, Sophie could not imagine that he would ever have jumped at the chance to plan a jolly day out for the Sinclair’s staff.
They were all looking forward to the following Sunday, when they were being taken for an afternoon of tea and boating by the river. There would even be a boat race for staff teams, which the young salesmen, grooms and porters were taking very seriously indeed. Sophie knew that Billy’s uncle, Sid Parker, who was the Head Doorman, would be captaining one of the boats, and Joe would be rowing as one of his crew, whilst Billy himself was immensely proud to have been chosen as the cox, whose job it was to shout out instructions to the rowers. There was already much