Page 2 of A Shop Girl’s Christmas (Pennington’s Department Store #3)
Two
City of Bath – November 1911
Cornelia Culford strode into her brother’s dining room, hurriedly pulling on a pair of kid leather gloves and her hat ever so slightly askew. ‘Why on earth did you allow me to sleep for so long? Did Esther take the children to school again? Oh, Lawrence, really. I am perfectly capable of tending to my children, working and ensuring I help around the house. Esther is looking ever more tired. She should be—’
‘She thinks you are marve—’
‘Esther is with child. How do you think it makes me feel when—’
‘If you’ll let me say something…’ Her brother arched an eyebrow above the edges of his broadsheet newspaper.
Cornelia slumped, her nerves stretched and her heart racing from having to dress and prepare herself for work at Pennington’s department store in half the usual time. Damn her soon-to-be ex-husband and his latest letter that had kept her tossing and turning through the night.
He thinks to take the children? Over my dead body. All I was he killed and now I am reborn. He will never again put me down with his razor-sharp tongue. Never slap or curse me. And he will never, ever have the children.
‘Cornelia? Are you even listening to me?’
She blinked from her thoughts and fought to keep the distress from her face. ‘Sorry. What did you say?’
‘I said, Esther asked that I let you sleep and commandeered the task of taking the children to school. All before I’d barely opened my eyes this morning. You know how she is around Alfred and Francis.’ He smiled. ‘How she is around all children.’
Cornelia sighed. ‘She’s been a wonder ever since the boys and I came to live with you. I’ve no idea how or when I’ll be able to return your generosity. A newly married couple, with a soon-to-be divorced sister and her abandoned sons living with them is hardly recipe for a lustful honeymoon period.’
‘Lustful? Do you mind?’ He laughed. ‘It’s barely past eight-thirty in the morning.’
‘Eight-thirty?’ Cornelia gasped. ‘I must go.’ She glanced at the table and pinched a slice of buttered toast from Lawrence’s plate. ‘Life feels such a struggle at the moment. To lose my job as well…’ She bit into the toast and then, realising she’d smeared butter on the thumb of her glove, groaned and tossed the toast onto his plate. ‘Now look what I’ve done.’
‘Cornelia…’ Lawrence put his paper to the side and gently curled his fingers around her arm. ‘Just listen to me for one minute, will you?’
‘Lawrence, please, I need to go.’ Her carefully erected facade of strength and positivity wavered under her brother’s love. She had to be stronger than this.
‘Not before I’ve said what I have to say.’
The concern in his tone pushed at her conscience and Cornelia nodded.
‘Esther and I are worried about this ideal life you think you need to create for Alfred and Francis. You’re tired, quite possibly playacting and most certainly afraid. You do not need—’
‘Afraid?’ Humiliation burned hot at Cornelia’s cheeks. ‘Don’t be absurd. I’m determined, strong and wholly more capable than either you or David give me credit for.’
‘Do not compare me to that waste-of-space, cheating husband of yours. I may be a lot of things, but I am not a philanderer, a deceiver or a man who will ever walk out on his children.’
She closed her eyes. ‘I’m sorry. Of course, you’re nothing like David. You are the antithesis of him, in fact.’ She glanced at the clock above the dining room mantel. ‘Let us talk about this later. I really must go.’
‘Pennington’s are unlikely to sack you if you are a few minutes late. Your divorce hearing is in less than two weeks. I want to be sure you’re ready for this.’
Cornelia swallowed at the reality of having to face David in court. The fear of what he might say, to what the lawyers might subject her, made her ever so slightly sick. ‘Of course, I’m ready,’ she lied. ‘The sooner David is out of my life, the better.’
‘That’s just it. I’m worried you think once – if – your divorce is granted, you will be able to begin making your own plans. Whereas the truth is, David might want to stay in contact with the children. Which means he’ll be in contact with you. You must prepare yourself for that. For the boys’ sake, if not for your own.’
Cornelia looked towards the window, away from her brother’s penetrating gaze. How was she to tell Lawrence that David intended to fight for full custody of the children? He would retaliate in anger and, for all her brother’s love for her, one wrong step and he could unwittingly ruin her chances of keeping the children. ‘David’s interest in the children is little more than a way to hurt me. It wouldn’t surprise me, when we are at the hearing, if he’s wants nothing to do with them.’
‘Don’t you think his solicitor would have advised him to show willing paternal contact in front of the judge?’
Angered, Cornelia faced him. ‘Why are you saying these things to me? Can’t you just be supportive?’
‘I am being supportive.’ His jaw tightened. ‘And I’ll do everything I can to keep David from making your lives any more miserable than he already has. But that doesn’t mean I’ll let you believe it won’t be incredibly tough in that courtroom.’
Denial caught like barbed wire in Cornelia’s throat, preventing a sharp retort. ‘I need to go. We will speak more this evening.’
She swept from the room and into the hallway, quickly buttoning her coat before she made for the door.
As she hurried along the street, Cornelia’s mind filled with David and his soon-to-be fiancée, Sophie Hughes. His long-term fancy woman might well be the daughter of Baron Hughes of Middleton Park, but as she’d been conducting an affair with Cornelia’s very much married husband for over three years, Miss Hughes was nothing short of a harlot rather than an heiress.
Cornelia sucked in a breath against the cold November air. Rain had fallen for most of the previous day and, with dawn, came a cold frost and a decline in temperature. With five weeks until Christmas, she hoped the bitter morning wasn’t setting the scene for the rest of winter.
So far, she’d hidden the stigma of her divorce from her colleagues at Pennington’s, keeping any potential friendships at bay. No matter her loneliness, her usual trust in people had been shaken, but Cornelia would not allow her distance to last forever. She had nothing to be ashamed of.
Situated on Bath’s premier shopping street, Pennington’s department store had become her focus the moment she’d discovered Esther, Lawrence’s lovely wife, worked there. Having made the decision to petition for divorce, Cornelia’s main concern had become building a new life for herself and her children. The famous department store was now her answer to making that happen.
Pennington’s had given her hope of a better future; provided an opportunity to become her own person, away from the constraints of her failed marriage and preventing the horrible prospect of returning to Culford Manor. Although her ancestral home was magnificent and the envy of half the county, the house was filled with ghosts of past hurts and trials that neither she nor Lawrence had any care to revisit.
If she was to return, begging for room and board, Harriet, their younger sister and current lady of the house, would positively gloat over Cornelia’s need. The woman wanted little more than to become a living embodiment of their tyrannical, social-climbing monster of a mother.
As the memory of her mother’s passing pressed down on her, Cornelia lifted her chin. Living and working in Bath was her way of orchestrating a new and happier life. Her sons were surrounded by more love and care than they’d ever been with their often-absent father. Not to mention witnessing the physical violence she endured at David’s hands.
Their relocation from Oxfordshire to Bath had been paramount in providing the time she needed to get them on their feet.
She would not fail in her endeavours for new-found freedom.
Pennington’s rose above the adjacent stores either side of it on Milsom Street and Cornelia buried her worries, forcing her mind to her work. She rushed through the doors held open by two uniformed attendants, quickly flashing a smile of thanks at the handsomely dressed men before hurrying to her post in the jewellery department.