The Hat Shop on the Corner Read Free Page B

Harrington had delivered to the shop earlier on. She was careful not to smudge them with her buttery fingers but even a very quick perusal seemed to indicate that he and his clients were offering a good price for the property that Madeleine Matthews had been wise enough to buy outright. It was a tempting offer and she could understand her mother’s readiness to negotiate with them. The small business she had started was now worth quite a large sum.
    Ellie was too tired tonight to read the minutiae of the contract but she promised herself that tomorrow she would read it properly, for the proposed sale of the business would ensure a far greater inheritance from her mother’s estate than she had ever imagined.
    All night she tossed and turned, her sleep disturbed both by the exciting prospect of having a large sum of money at her disposal and by guilt about selling the hat shop, the business her mother had worked so hard to build up. Her mind was in utter turmoil as she imagined the shop finally closed down.
    ‘Oh, it’s a miracle. I am so pleased! I can’t believe it!’ confessed Maureen Cassidy the next day as she tried on the dusky pink chapeau with the slight upturn and the silk peony roses with their paler pink and cream petals lolling against the crown. ‘Oh, I do love the way you’ve used the cream ribbon and petals to show off the pink!’
    ‘It’s a beautiful hat, Mum,’ complimented Lucy, the bride-to-be. ‘It’s exactly what you wanted and the shape suits your face perfectly. The colour is just right for your outfit.’
    Relieved at seeing such a satisfied customer, Ellie began to relax.
    ‘You saved the day, Miss Matthews. Thank you. I know your mother would be very proud of you, very proud,’ gushed her client, taking out her credit card as Ellie gently placed the hat in a pale blue hatbox, easing a light layer of tissue over it for protection.
    ‘I’m glad you like it,’ she said, smiling.
    ‘My other daughter, Jenny, is getting married early next year,’ confided Maureen Cassidy, ‘and of course there will have to be something totally different for that wedding!’
    ‘Another new hat,’ joked Lucy, throwing her eyes to heaven.
    Ellie was about to say that completing this commission had been a one-off and that the shop was likely to be sold in a few months’ time, but instead found herself biting her tongue and saying nothing.
    ‘I see the little black cat is back,’ murmured Mrs Cassidy.
    ‘The cat?’
    ‘Yes, your mother always used to say that cat brought her luck. Used to come and go as it pleased.’
    ‘Mum, you are so superstitious,’ joked her daughter.
    Ellie said nothing as she stared at the cat, which had somehow manoeuvred itself into a snug corner near the window.
    ‘I am eternally grateful to you, Ellie dear, and I see you have the same wonderful talent as your mother!’
    Ellie blushed as the Cassidys said their goodbyes. She wished Lucy well with the wedding, and was filled with a strange sense of satisfaction and yearning as she watched mother and daughter walk away arm in arm, the pale blue hatbox swinging between them.
    She was about to put the latch on the door and close up when her best friend, Fergus, appeared.
    ‘I called to the apartment and when there was no reply I guessed you might be here,’ he said, hugging her to his skinny frame. ‘You OK, El?’
    ‘Yeah, just a bit emotional. I’ve been clearing up and cleaning out. Sold a hat to one of my mother’s customers for her daughter’s wedding on Saturday.’
    ‘Hey, that’s great!’
    ‘Yeah, I suppose, but it made me think of Mum.’
    ‘You poor old thing,’ he said, holding her close. Ellie was comforted by his warm embrace and thoughtfulness. Fergus Delaney and herself had been close ever since they met up at Irish college when they were both thirteen years old. Over the years Fergus had always been a shoulder to cry on, a sounding board for mad ideas and the best friend a girl could have. The