Garden of Stars by Rose Alexander

Author:Rose Alexander
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2016-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

17

Portugal, 1936

It is a slow journey by train and pony cart back to my parents’ montado in the Alentejo. I had to work hard to persuade John to let me go; he wasn’t keen at the prospect of a month without me. But I told him that I needed it, needed a break from the city and the endless rounds of dinner dances and cocktail parties that we had recently been attending. John has been promoted again, and is now a senior partner of the firm, earning more money but also taking on much greater responsibility. He is often tired in the evenings, but entertaining and being entertained is part of the job. He himself has decided not to take a holiday this year.

But now it is August, and everyone else seems to have left Porto for a summer on the coast; the Algarve, Almograve or Viana do Castelo, or perhaps to a country estate in the mountains of the Serra da Estrela. And I am going home. John accompanied me to the station, saw me onto the train.

“Is that all you’re taking with you?” He looked in astonishment at my small suitcase.

“I don’t need all my smart clothes on the farm, do I? What use would I have for them? They’ll only get ruined. And anyway – I don’t want my friends to think I’m the grand lady home from the big city, looking down on them all.”

John burst out laughing and held my chin between his thumb and forefinger, bending to kiss me. “Inês, only you would be worried about something like that. Nobody could ever find you condescending. I would have thought that they would have liked to examine your wardrobe, try on your dresses and shoes. Isn’t that what girls enjoy doing?”

Now it was my turn to laugh. “And I would have thought you would have known by now that I am not really that kind of girl…but you’re right that Ana Sofia and Paula would probably have jumped at the chance. But anyway – I’m going to relax and help my mother. The finery can live without me, and I without it, for a month.”

“But I’m not sure that I can.” John put his arms around me and held me tight. “I’ll miss you.” I smelt the familiar smell of his summer suit jacket, a faint hint of moth balls and aftershave, overpowered by cigarette smoke and the fumes of the busy city.

“You’ll be all right,” I said, lifting my face away from the thick, smooth fabric and looking up at him, so tall but so unexpectedly vulnerable. “You’ll be able to go to the Factory House every night if you want, without a tiresome wife to attend to. Think how much more work you’ll get done.”

The guard sounded the whistle and John released me, reluctantly but hurriedly, without responding. Time was running out to get on board. He turned to pick up my suitcase; he had instructed the porter to leave it there, saying that he would carry it onto the train.

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