It all began with a straw hat. A large, broad-brimmed
hat, dyed in an elusive mixture of colours to produce a
distinctive shade of pale gold, it was presented to
Emily Pearson by her long-time friend and employer Mabel
Arkwright, milliner and modiste, whose establishment
under the name of The Bandbox was situated in a discreet
corner of the West End of London. And it was to her
employer - known to her clientele as Madam Arkwright -
that Emily owed not only the gift of The Golden Straw,
as it had been named, but eventually the business
itself, for her friend had more and more come to rely
upon her as time went by. After Mabel Arkwright's death,
Emily, exhausted by the extra work that had fallen upon
her shoulders and exasperated by Dr Steve Montane, her
late employer's young and plain-spoken physician, took
herself off to the South of France to stay at an hotel
previously and warmly recommended by Mrs Arkwright. It
was now 1880, and many fashionable guests were staying
at the hotel in Nice, among them Paul Anderson Steerman.
It was from the balcony of his room that he first
noticed The Golden Straw, worn by Emily as she arrived
from England.But although it was the hat that first held
his attention, his admiring gaze quickly turned to Emily
herself, and throughout the time of his stay he paid her
unceasing attention. But Paul Anderson Steerman was not
all he seemed to be, and he was to bring nothing but
disgrace and tragedy to Emily, for the traumatic months
following her return to England were but a prelude to a
series of events that would influence the destiny not
only of her children but her grandchildren too, as the
new century dawned, the First World War came and went
and still she was alive to reflect on all that had
resulted from the gift of the hat. |
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