Free The Wardrobe by Judy Nunn

we are impressed with the quality of the piece, we must point out that this is not the style we would require from a lady journalist should such a position become available in those sections of The Times that are favoured by our female readers. ’
    She thumped the letter down on the table, rattling her cup and saucer. ‘How insulting is that! They’re saying don’t bother applying ever again! They’re offended that the article was written by a woman!’
    ‘It’s a bit of a compliment in a way, don’t you think?’
    ‘A compliment?’ She looked at him in blank amazement. ‘How on earth could a comment like that be conceived as a compliment?’
    ‘They said they were impressed by the quality of the piece – that must mean something.’ Daniel was doing his very best to mollify her. ‘Golly, Elizabeth, if they hadn’t known you were a woman, they might well have offered you a job.’
    ‘Oh.’ Elizabeth’s tirade came to an abrupt halt. ‘You’re right. They might have, mightn’t they?’
    ‘Bound to, I’d say.’
    ‘Good heavens above.’ She smiled. ‘I hadn’t thought of that.’
    ‘Do you mind if I order my tea now?’ He was pleased that his attempt at mollification had met with such success.
    But it wasn’t until a week later, and exactly two months from the day they’d met, that Daniel’s major breakthrough occurred.
    ‘Want to come to the Hippodrome next Saturday?’ he asked casually as they sat near the teashop’s open doors, which afforded the slightest of breezes on what was a surprisingly hot midsummer day. ‘An army chum of mine can’t use a couple of tickets he bought – pity to waste them.’
    He’d purchased the tickets himself that very morning in the hope of escalating their relationship. It was all part of his plan.
    ‘Oh, I’m sorry –’
    Elizabeth didn’t appear to find his offer suspect, but the answer was obviously about to be ‘no’, so he dived in with an enthusiastic sales pitch.
    ‘It’s the new revue that’s on tour, the one the critics have been raving about. We’d get to see it before it opens in the West End. Brilliant stuff, they say.’
    ‘I know all about the revue, Danny,’ she said with a smile. ‘I work for a newspaper, remember?’
    ‘So why don’t you want to come?’
    ‘I do want to come. I’d love to. But I can’t.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Because I’ve promised I’ll have dinner with my parents next Saturday.’
    ‘You could make that the following weekend, couldn’t you?’ He knew she saw her parents regularly, but her visits didn’t appear to follow any pattern.
    ‘Not really.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Because next Saturday’s my birthday, that’s why not. Now stop badgering.’
    ‘Your birthday? That’s even better. We’ll go to the Hippodrome for your birthday, what do you say?’
    ‘I say no, Danny. I am not going to the Hippodrome, I am going to have dinner with my parents. I haven’t seen them for a whole three weeks, and I promised.’
    ‘Oh,’ he said sulkily, ‘what a pity. I’d have liked to be with you on your birthday.’
    She smiled, aware that his childlike petulance was aimed to amuse. ‘Well, you can’t, can you,’ she said briskly. ‘Not unless you swap a West End revue for dinner with Mummy and Daddy, and I hardly think –’
    ‘What a good idea.’ Manna from heaven, he thought. This was a definite step in the right direction. ‘I’ll come to dinner. I’d like to meet your parents.’
    ‘Don’t be ridiculous. What about the Hippodrome?’
    ‘My friend can give the tickets to someone else. Don’t worry, they won’t go to waste.’
    How on earth had that happened, Elizabeth wondered, but she didn’t question his motives. It was typical of Danny’s impetuosity. And also of his immaturity, she thought, both of which could be rather endearing. She rang her parents and told them there’d be an extra guest for dinner.
     
    ‘She’s bringing a young man with her,’ Marjorie