It was late the following afternoon when they finally had a quiet spell that Flora was able to assemble everyone in the kitchen so she could have a word with them, and her solemn face immediately began to make them feel nervous.
‘Is something wrong, dearie?’ Hattie asked nervously.
Flora shook her head. ‘No, not wrong exactly, but I do need to talk to you …’ She looked around at their anxious faces and went on, ‘The thing is, as I’m sure you’re all probably aware, I miss my family terribly and so … Well, the long and the short of it is I’ve decided to go home.’
‘Oh, I see,’ Hattie said dully. She had come to look upon Flora almost as a daughter and she admired her tremendously. How many other young women her age had managed to achieve what she had, after all? And of course, she would miss working at the café so much but …
‘Why I wanted to talk to you all was to tell you what I intend to do with the house and the business,’ Flora went on, knowing that she had their full attention. Then turning to Jia Li she told her, ‘I really don’t want to sell the house, it’s all bought and paid for now and I was saving again to buy the café instead of renting it off Dora, so I thought, how would you and Bai feel about buying the café if I signed the house over to you?’
‘What?’ Jia Li looked shocked. ‘But you worked so hard to do all this.’ She spread her hands to add emphasis to what she was saying. ‘And me and Bai not have money to pay for it all.’
‘No, no you misunderstood me,’ Flora told her patiently. ‘I’m not asking you to buy it straight away. What I thought was you could take the business over and once you’ve managed to save enough to buy the café, you could then pay me a little at a time what the house cost. But not until you’re comfortable and making a profit, of course. It wouldn’t matter if it took a year or two. I have no doubt that you’ll be able to pay for the café too in no time with what we’re taking in there now. All I’ll need to do is have it signed over into your names. And you, Hattie, I was wondering if perhaps you’d like to come and move into the rooms above the café? You’ve said that you think it’s only a matter of time before Ernie and Tilly get wed so if he carried on paying the rent on your house for now they’d have a home to move into.’
They all stared at her for a moment open-mouthed but then Jia Li objected, ‘But that not fair. You work so hard to build business up!’
‘And so did you,’ Flora pointed out. ‘All I need is enough to buy my fare home then I can get another job in London.’
Jia Li’s lip trembled. ‘But I miss you if you go,’ she said in a tearful voice and Flora put her arm about the girl’s shoulders.
‘And I’ll miss you too. All of you, but I’m not really happy here and I miss my family so much.’
‘For what it’s worth I think it’s a grand idea,’ Hattie said, already picturing herself in the comfy rooms above the café. ‘And it’d be nice not to have to turn out in all weathers to come to work. But are you quite sure this is what you want, dearie?’
Flora nodded. ‘Quite sure. So if you speak to Bai, Jai Li, and if you’re all happy with the idea, I’ll set the wheels in motion. I can speak to Dora for a start, but I don’t see a problem there. So long as she gets her rent regularly she won’t mind who pays it and I can get the papers drawn up to change the names on the deeds of the house tomorrow then it’ll be yours all legal and above board and you can pay me back when you can.’
‘I not know what to say,’ Jia li said chokily. ‘You give us a whole new future but we miss you so much.’
‘I’ll miss you too,’ Flora told her and turning about she quickly busied herself at the stove before she broke down completely.
Over the next few days Flora had everything transferred into Jia Li and Bai’s name. She also sent a note to Dora asking her to pop in when she could. Dora breezed in a few days later, done up to the nines, in a waft of perfume that almost took Flora’s breath away. Her face was heavily made-up and she had a little hat perched at a jaunty angle on her bleached blonde hair.
‘So you wanted to see me? What’s the emergency?’ she asked, settling into a chair and lighting a cigarette as she glanced around at the café approvingly. She was the first to admit that when she had owned it, it had been sadly neglected but with all her hard work Flora had transformed it into a business to be proud of.
‘There’s no emergency as such but I wanted to tell you what my plans are.’ Flora quickly told her what she intended and when she had finished, Dora narrowed her eyes and peered at her. ‘An’ are you quite sure this is what you want? After all the hard work you’ve put into the place.’
Flora nodded decisively. ‘Yes, I am, but I think I can promise things will go on just the same as they are now. Jia Li is very efficient and more than capable of doing everything that I do. She and Colleen have been running the place with me since the beginning and I could never have done it without them, so after all her hard work it would be wrong to put her out of her home and a job, so this is for the best all round.’
‘Well, I ain’t got a problem with it if you ain’t,’ Dora said in her usual forthright way. ‘So I’ll wish you all the best o’ luck for the future, love. I must admit when you first come to me tellin’ me what you wanted to do I had reservations. You were so young I didn’t think you’d last a month but you proved me wrong. When are you thinkin’ o’ leavin?’
‘I haven’t got that far yet,’ Flora admitted with a rueful grin. ‘I’ve been too busy running around trying to sort out everything for Jia Li, but as soon as I know I’ll let you know.’
‘You do that, I’d like to come an’ say goodbye.’ Dora leaned forward then and in a rare affectionate moment planted a kiss on Flora’s cheek. ‘You’re a plucky kid,’ she said thickly and snatching up her gloves she swept out of the café like royalty with her head in the air, leaving Flora to swallow the huge lump in her throat. It was only now that she had decided to leave them that she was realising just how much they had all come to mean to her.
A week later Flora booked a passage on a ship back to London for early in July and suddenly it was all real. She really was going home. She had written to tell her mother and could hardly wait to see her family now. And, as always when she had momentous news or needed to get something off her chest, she also wrote another letter to Jamie.
My dearest Jamie,
So my passage to England is booked! I set sail on the 4th of July and I very much hope that you will want to see me when I am home. Perhaps in person I can explain to you why I behaved in the way I did. My dearest hope is that one day you might find it in your heart to forgive me and give me a second chance.
Your loving Flora xxx
And then with a heavy heart she added the letter to the others that had never been sent. Even now she couldn’t quite pluck up the courage to post it.
‘Before you go anywhere we need to go shoppin’ for some new clothes for you,’ Hattie told her one day. ‘You can’t go aboard a ship in them you’re wearin’. They’ll think you’re the cleaner, my girl.’
‘I suppose I could do with a few new ones,’ Flora admitted doubtfully, looking down at the faded skirt and blouse she was wearing. Since opening the café clothes hadn’t been high on her list of priorities. She’d always reasoned that she never went anywhere to wear them anyway. But now she supposed it wouldn’t do to turn up at home looking like some down and out.
And so a few days later, after leaving the café in the capable hands of Jia Li, Hattie and Flora hit the shops. Flora had gone prepared to buy just a few basic necessities but Hattie had other ideas and dragged her from one shop to another.
‘I don’t need anything else,’ Flora protested eventually. ‘I’m loaded down with bags already.’ But although she was protesting, she’d been really enjoying herself. She wasn’t used to spoiling herself and had forgotten what good fun it could be.
Hattie sniffed. ‘Hmm, I dare say we’ve got most of what you need but we’ll go and have a cup o’ tea and a bite to eat now, my treat. Then I can check what we’ve bought and see what else you might need.’
As Flora had quickly discovered, Hattie could be as stubborn as a mule when she wanted to be, so she meekly followed her into a small restaurant where they ordered sandwiches, a selection of small cakes and a pot of tea.
While they were eating, Hattie rifled through the bags and smiled with satisfaction. ‘I reckon a nice new pair of shoes an’ a new coat and you’ll be able to hold your own against the gentry now,’ she chuckled. ‘But don’t think we’re done yet. I’m taking you to the hairdresser’s then for a good trim. How long’s it been anyway since you had a decent haircut?’
‘I can’t remember. Probably about two years or so,’ Flora admitted hesitantly.
Shortly after they were off again and Flora began to wonder where Hattie got all her energy from. She was really quite remarkable for a woman her age and showed no sign of tiring whatsoever. At the hairdressers Flora was placed in a chair while the young woman who was about to cut her hair eyed her thoughtfully through the mirror.
‘Slightly shorter styles are getting very popular, you know,’ she told Flora as she fingered her silky tresses. ‘And I think it would really suit you. How about I trim it up to your shoulders? You could always have it cut shorter next time if you like it but for now it would still be long enough for you to put it up if you wanted to.’
‘I’m not sure …’ Flora said hesitantly but Hattie was right behind her nodding vigorously.
‘Go on, what have you got to lose, you’re only young once,’ she urged persuasively. ‘And it’ll soon grow back if you don’t like it.’
Flora took a great gulp and nodded. ‘Go on then.’
She sat nervously watching the young hairdresser snipping away as her hair fell in sheets to the floor until she could bear to look no longer and closed her eyes.
‘All right, you can look now,’ the girl said eventually and Flora cautiously opened her eyes to peep in the mirror. She gasped with surprise when she saw her reflection and a smile spread across her face. Her hair felt bouncy and light and she actually loved her new look.
‘It looks wonderful,’ Hattie said approvingly. ‘There’s no point having lovely thick hair like yours and tying it back all the while so no one can see it.’
Flora turned her head this way and that, feeling like a new woman, and then quickly paid the hairdresser and gave her a generous tip.
‘They’ll not recognise you when we get you home,’ Hattie teased on the way back. ‘Especially when we’ve got you into some of these new togs.’
She was quite right. When Flora entered the café laden down with bags and sporting her brand-new hairdo both Jia Li and Hilda gasped.
‘Why, you look just like one o’ them fashion models in a magazine.’ Hilda declared doing a full turn around Flora and making the girl blush to the roots of her hair.
As her hand rose self-consciously to stroke her hair she told them, ‘It was Hattie’s idea.’
‘And a very good idea it was too,’ Hilda crowed. ‘If she can make me look like that I’ll let her take me shoppin’ an’ all.’
‘Huh! I ain’t no good at miracles,’ Hattie snorted, which earned her a gentle whack with a tea towel.
During their next quiet few minutes Flora tipped all her new clothes out onto the table for them all to look at and they couldn’t help but be impressed.
‘It’s about time you treated yourself,’ Hilda said as she held a fine lawn blouse up to inspect the stitching. But then the bell above the café door tinkled and Flora hastily stuffed all the new clothes back into the bags and dumped them on the stairs leading to her rooms until later. The shopping spree was over and for now at least it was back to business as usual.