Lisa Logan by Marie Joseph

Author:Marie Joseph [Joseph, Marie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Chick-Lit, Fiction, Love Stories, Man-Woman Relationships, Relationships, Romance, Women's Fiction
ISBN: 9781448107834
Google: jgKFel7bYQoC
Amazon: B006MZEK76
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2012-01-30T00:00:00+00:00

Eight

FOUR YEARS AFTER the ending of the war Richard Carr had his fiftieth birthday, and it was at about this time that Lisa accepted a truth she had been unwilling to face.

In spite of her growing success she was a very lonely woman.

With the end of clothes rationing her career had expanded in every fresh line she took up, in spite of the post-war depression. The simple patterns and designs, so much the Lisa Logan hallmark, appealed to women starved of colour and imaginative lines. She used mainly her favourite Monet colours of lilac and soft pinks, giving her work an easily recognizable stamp of individuality.

Millie Schofield came in daily, even at weekends, giving Richard what Lisa supposed most men secretly wanted: two women catering for his every whim. It was, Lisa supposed, a ménage à trois, in the non-sexual sense, a situation she was forced to tolerate if she wanted to make money and yet more money. So the three of them lived in an uneasy truce.

Irene had been accepted at a Teachers’ Training College in Yorkshire, and her earnestness moved Lisa almost to tears. She was still plump, but her golden hair and milkmaid complexion gave her, Lisa knew, a ripe attraction appealing to older men, especially those who still hankered after their mothers.

Peter, at eight, grew daily more like his grandfather, Angus Logan. Tall, thin, with hair as bright as a copper warming pan, he gave no trouble, either to his parents or to his teachers at the local school. Millie could stuff him with food to her heart’s content without adding to his lean frame.

‘That lad’s got hollow legs,’ Richard said one evening, puffing contentedly at his pipe. He smiled at Lisa as she sat on the floor beside his chair surrounded by drawings, sheets of figures and samples of materials.

‘It’s time we opened another shop.’ Tucking a strand of hair behind an ear Lisa looked straight at him. ‘Now that we sell as much dress material as curtain yardage, we’re very short of space.’ She sat back on her heels. ‘Richard, I’ve seen an empty shop in Nelson Street, and just round the corner on some waste land there’s a small warehouse. That’s empty too.’

Before he could speak she held up a finger. ‘No, don’t say anything. Hear me out first. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and that little warehouse wouldn’t take much converting to a factory. I’d start with, say, a dozen sewing machines and two lay-out tables, and there’s room at one end for a partitioned-off office for the administrative side.’

The expression on Richard’s face brought a note of pleading into her voice. ‘Richard! Listen! Please! The overheads would be negligible. Now the war is over hem-lines are coming down, skirts getting fuller. Women are going crazy for the New Look. They’re longing to spend money on clothes after years of austerity and square shoulders.’ She held out a sketch. ‘See! That’s the way they want to look. Nipped-in waists and the feel of material floating round their legs.

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