Homecoming Girls Read Online Free

before. Many times! Now I’m going somewhere quite different.’
    There had been much discussion about their travelarrangements. Jewel was set on going to San Francisco, but which way they should travel posed a dilemma: by sea from Liverpool to San Francisco, which was a very long journey, or overland from New York?
    ‘Overland,’ Clara pleaded. ‘But first to Dreumel’s Creek. I might never go again, and I would like to see as much of the country as possible. And I do so want to meet Caitlin and Kitty. I’ve heard so much about them. Besides,’ she added, ‘if we go all the way by sea we will be with the same group of people for weeks!’
    ‘And they might be terribly boring,’ Jewel butted in. ‘I quite agree. Across country will be so much more exciting.’
    ‘Then you must promise to be very circumspect.’ Wilhelm chewed on his thumb. ‘You must not become involved with anyone, but keep to your own company at all times and always do things together, not alone. We will write to Ted and Kitty Allen to expect you.’
    ‘And Dolly and Larkin,’ Georgiana interjected. ‘They’ll want to see you, and they can tell you about Edward’s early days in America.’
    ‘We promise we’ll be careful, Uncle Wilhelm,’ Clara said, and Jewel nodded in agreement. ‘Please don’t worry about us.’
    A week before they were due to depart, Jewel and Clara started to say their separate goodbyes to friends, for they didn’t know how long they would be away. Their tickets for the return journey were left open. But they went together one evening to say farewell to Dan and Thomas and their parents.
    ‘I remember the first time I ever came to the toyshop, Aunt Ruby,’ Jewel said. ‘Mama brought me and there was a smell of toffee and lots of lovely toys in the window.’
    Ruby, an exuberant, plump and pretty woman with grey streaks in her dark hair, had been a lifelong friend of Clara’s mother. Both born in extreme poverty, they now had quite different lifestyles, Ruby being the wife of a prosperous tradesman and Grace an equal partner in her marriage toMartin and in their philanthropic work, but they had remained firm friends.
    ‘You’re so brave,’ Ruby said. ‘I couldn’t possibly travel away from home like that.’ She cast a glance at her husband, Daniel, who was sitting by the fire.
    He looked up at the two young women. ‘Especially not to America, she couldn’t.’ His voice was rather sour, Jewel thought, but then he was sometimes rather grumpy in her presence, and offhand when he spoke to her. It seemed to be only she who had this effect on him, as Clara said he was always friendly towards her, but she accepted that some people regarded her as foreign because of her looks.
    Dan barely spoke to either of them, but Thomas, so like his mother, was full of enthusiasm. ‘Golly, to think of you going to America, Clara! We’ll miss you; both of you,’ he added. ‘Though we’re used to you going off on your travels, Jewel.’
    ‘But it won’t be ’same without you,’ Ruby agreed. ‘And Elizabeth a married woman now. Everything’s changing now that you’re all grown up.’ Her eyes filled with tears. Ruby cried and laughed easily in equal measure. ‘What a silly I am! I’m happy that you’re doing something so exciting, yet sad that you’re going away.’
    ‘Oh, Ma!’ Thomas laughed. ‘They’ll be back before you realize they’re gone, and they’ll be just ’same as they are now. Won’t you, Clara?’
    ‘Of course,’ Clara said consolingly, patting Ruby’s shoulder. ‘Of course we will!’
    Jewel gave a slight smile in Ruby’s direction and then glanced at Dan. ‘I don’t know,’ she said huskily. ‘I don’t honestly know.’ She gave a little shrug. ‘Who can tell?’

CHAPTER THREE
     
    Dan sat in the chair opposite his father after Jewel and Clara had left. He bit on his fingernails and stared into the fire.
    ‘Go on then,’ his father said at last. ‘Spit it out. Summat’s