The Lady in the red dress

A young girl in a white dress with a black paper doll pattern on it looked down from the branch of an oak tree. She was sitting very carefully on the branch as she didn’t want to get her dress dirty. Mummy would be cross and besides she didn’t want to alert anyone to her presence up in the tree.

Down below her mother’s cocktail party was taking place. She knew she was supposed to be in bed  but she wasn’t tired and she was mesmerised by the lady in the red dress.

This lady was her aunt. She was beautiful, extremely stylish and superbly elegant. She was laughing, her head thrown back and her perfect white teeth showing. The curls in her hair were waving in the light summer breeze. The cause of her laughter was a man.

Margaret didn’t know this man, but she instinctively knew that she didn’t trust him.  He looked suave, the proverbial tall, dark and handsome , expensively dressed. She had also been watching him as well as her Aunt and although she was only nine she somehow knew there was something suspicious about him.

He had been moving around the guests and mostly talking to the women there and then he had spotted her aunt who just happened to be standing alone. He had immediately moved over to her and fallen on his knees very dramatically and seemed to Margaret to be admiring her aunt’s beauty. Her aunt hadn’t appeared embarrassed but had beguilingly held out her champagne flute to him and he was refilling it with the bottle of champagne he had in his hand.

Margaret loved her aunt with a passion. She was her mother’s sister and sometimes she thought she loved her more than her mother. She looked down from the tree and there right below her was the man. His face was right up to her Aunt’s , quite threateningly she thought. Carefully she moved down a branch or two to hear what he was saying. “I need you to get away from this rubbish, come up to London, so we can do what we’ve planned”. As her aunt tried to turn her head, his hand came up as quick as lightening, holding her head in place. “Well?” Looking up her aunt saw her watching them, Margaret saw the fear in her eyes, but her voice belied that. With her usual cheerfulness calling out,“Margaret what are you doing up there, come down and join us. There’s some orange juice here for you”.

Margaret felt she had no option so she climbed down as carefully as she could and found herself looking up at the man. He was holding out the orange juice to her which she took thanking him and then instinctively moved closer to her aunt. Just then her mother spotted her and immediately came over and asked her why she was still out here and not in bed.

“Oh Adele”, said her aunt,”the child just wants to have some fun”. “Yes Tess maybe, but it is way past her bed time. Off you go now Margaret”. Her mother marched off. Her aunt hugged her saying, “It will be school holidays soon so you can come and stay with me and we can do all our favourite things together”.

The man who was watching both Margaret and her aunt with that sardonic look that good looking men often seem to have on their faces, saw the child’s face light up with pure undisguised delight and saw her hug her aunt mouthing, “ thankyou” and then run off to catch up with her mother.

Tess’s face changed and became slightly guarded though she looked up at the man with misty eyes saying,“No Tony we can’t start this again, it’s over. I’ve moved on since..well, you know what happened, what we did”. Tony looked at her for what seemed like an eternity and then he turned her face to his and kissed her long and hard on the mouth and walked away.

Margaret, who hadn’t yet gone inside, as her mother had stopped to talk to someone, saw this exchange between her aunt and the man and although she was only young , she knew with a child’s instinctiveness that her Aunt was unhappy.

The weekend following the party, Margaret and her father went into their nearest city, Lincoln, as her father had some business to do with the Dean of the Cathedral. It was a drive of about 10 kilometres. They parked the car in the usual place near the Castle and hand in hand walked into the great Cathedral. “I’m meeting a friend in the coffee shop, do you want to come with me or have an explore and then come to us?”. “ I’ll explore and then come to the coffee shop,please Daddy”, Margaret said, squeezing his big warm hand with her little cold one. “Of course my darling, see you soon, don’t be too long” and her father strode off.

She was making her way back to the coffee shop when glancing in at one of the side chapels she saw “The Man”. However, he was not alone, he was with a lady who was certainly not Aunt Tess and he was kissing her. To Margaret’s innocent eyes every kiss seemed shocking, but seeing it in one of the Cathedral’s chapels was even worse. She was so stunned by the scene that she stood rooted to the spot though something inside her was telling her to move off quickly. The lady had her back to her but Tony was facing her. His eyes were closed, but he must have felt a presence for he opened them and saw her, the look on his face told Margaret that he was definitely not happy to see her there.

Arriving at the coffee shop, she stopped and took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. She didn’t want her father asking any awkward questions. Her eyes spotted him almost immediately. She ran over, sinking into the seat next to him. He was still in conversation with his friend, so she was glad not to have to talk straight away. She needed to digest what she had seen.

The school holidays arrived and on the Friday evening of the first week she heard her mother on the telephone. She knew immediately to whom she was talking. It was her Aunt. Her mother’s voice always had this slightly pinched edge to it whenever she was talking to her sister.

The upshot of the call was that she was to go to London to stay with Aunt Tess. She felt a frisson of excitement when she knew this was the plan for she adored her Aunt and loved London.

Margaret loved the train trip to London. It always seemed so exciting to be going to the capital. A friend of her father’s was on the same train, so she was sitting with him. Luckily he hid himself behind his newspaper all the way, so she could amuse herself. She had her new mobile phone, book and some sandwiches. Soon enough they were arriving at Kings Cross station.

Her aunt was waiting at the barrier, swooping her up in a massive hug before guiding her into a waiting taxi. Margaret never had to think of what to say to Tess who was always full of chit chat and seemed to know all the latest gossip.

Settling herself into her usual bedroom, Margaret quickly unpacked her things, drinking in the ambience of this beautiful room, and loving hearing the traffic noise outside.

Then she heard Aunt Tess call her, “Margaret come down for tea and look who has come to join us”. She leapt down the stairs, two at a time, presuming that it would be her aunt’s great friend Irene, who ,also was a lot of fun. As she entered the family room with enthusiasm, she came to an abrupt halt. The guest was not Irene. It was Tony.

“Well look who we have here, little Margie” , he said in that condescending way adults have on talking to children. Margaret felt her mouth had gone so dry she couldn’t speak. Being polite, she knew she had to say something. She managed to squeak out an “Hello”. She sidled over to Tess who put an arm around her, whispering in her ear, “Tony has a surprise to tell us about, but lets sit down to tea first.”

Tea went by in a bit of a blur, Margaret forcing herself to eat. “So, darling, what is this surprise you have for us girls, something good, I hope”. Tony leant back in his chair. “Well, the weather is going to be fine tomorrow so what about a drive into the country?” There is this house that I need to look at for one of my clients which happens to be near Hever Castle. I hear that someone is keen on Anne Boleyn”. With that remark, he looked straight at Margaret, a look that made her feel incredibly uncomfortable. “That sounds like a perfect day out, doesn’t it Margaret?” She nodded, adding, so that she didn’t seem ungrateful, “I have always wanted to go to Hever”. Tony left soon after that conversation in order “To do business for tomorrow”, according to him. Her aunt saw him out, leaving Margaret to clear away the tea things .

Tess was a very, very long time coming downstairs