Free Rosemary Aitken by Flowers for Miss Pengelly Page A

blush.
    ‘Nice to see you, Lettie. I’ll look out for you next week.’ And she was gone.
    ‘Well!’ Lettie muttered. ‘I’ll be blowed. She’s a dark horse that one, and no mistake.’ She turned to Bert. ‘Imagine Effie with a man like that! He couldn’t be a cousin, or something, I suppose?’
    Bert laughed. ‘Don’t be so daft! Do you mean to say you don’t know who it was? It’s that constable I saw her with the other day. I told you I’d seen them walking down the street, gazing at each other like a pair of fools. Mind, I’m not surprised he fell for her – a pretty girl like that.’
    ‘Pretty is as pretty does,’ she muttered with a sniff. ‘Don’t know what Mrs Thatchell would have to say, I’m sure.’
    Bert pulled her round to face him. ‘I do believe you’re jealous, Lettie Pearson!’ he exclaimed. ‘Not enough for you to be Bert Symons’ favourite girl?’ He attempted to kiss her on the nose, but she resisted.
    ‘Don’t be daft, what are you playing at!’ She pulled away from him. ‘I’ve half a mind to leave you here and go back home again!’
    ‘And miss the chance to go and see the film with me next week?’ he grinned. ‘I can’t believe you mean it. Prettiest girl for miles and you’d walk out on me?’
    She hesitated. The pictures? And Valentino was on another week. ‘You really think I’m pretty?’
    He hugged her to him. ‘Course I do. Don’t they have no mirrors up there where you work? Prettier’n a picture. I’ve told you that before.’ This time he did manage to land a little kiss.
    She stepped away and slipped her arm through his. ‘In that case I forgive you.’ She didn’t say for what and Bert did not ask her – which was fortunate, because she wasn’t sure herself. ‘Let’s go down to Devil’s Rock if that’s what we’re going to do.’
    This was her beau, she told herself. A proper beau who took her to the picture-house. Effie might be pretty, but Bert liked Lettie best. And one day he had prospects of a business of his own, with a little flat above the shop and everything. Lucky Lettie! Really, she didn’t envy Effie in the least.
    Bert’s voice broke teasingly into her reverie. ‘Now then, Lettie, what are you frowning at? Can’t have that, can we? A penny for your thoughts?’
    This time, when he kissed her, she met him with her lips.

Part Two
April to July 1912

One
    Alex’s meetings with Effie had become a settled thing. He waited for her on the outskirts of the town every second Thursday of the month. When it was not actually raining they still went for walks, though they tended to avoid Mount Misery for fear of meeting Lettie and her beau again. (It could have happened too, Effie told him earnestly, because Lettie’s household sometimes varied her half-day.)
    When it was wet – or even hailing, as it had been once – he and Effie found a sheltered place to sit (usually the covered bandstand in the park) and simply chatted till it was time for her to go. He had suggested going to see the ‘flicks’, as people were calling the modern moving-picture shows – there was a brand-new picture-drome in town that had a matinee – but she was too afraid of being seen.
    ‘If Mrs Mitchell happened to come by – and she might do, ’cause she cleans for other people in the town – she’d report me to Mrs Thatchell sure as eggs. Besides, it’s a terrible lot of money, isn’t it? Twopence each and nothing to show for it afterwards!’
    He would have paid much more than fourpence for the privilege of sitting close beside her in the flickering warm dark, but he didn’t tell her that. He tried another tack and lured her to a country tea-shop for an hour – thinking that a pot of tea and toast would be a treat – but she’d still been so nervous about being spotted with a man (and news of that reaching her uncle, this time!) that it was no treat at all and he hadn’t bothered to suggest it since.
    But it did not really matter to Alex