The Londoners by Margaret Pemberton

angle. Her shoes had been high and peep-toed; her stockings silk; her nails scarlet.
    Jack Robson, who had long since abandoned hope of making any headway with Christina, had given a wolf-whistle when he had seen her walking across the grass towards the church and Mavis had spent
a large part of the subsequent evening flirting shamelessly with him.
    ‘I’ve told her she’s asking for trouble,’ Carrie had said to Kate when there had been a lull in the dancing and they had managed to have a few quiet words together.
‘Ted may be long-suffering, but he’s not so long-suffering that he’ll put up with her playing away from home.’
    ‘Mavis wouldn’t do anything so silly,’ Kate had said, deeply shocked, adding uncertainly as she caught a sudden glimpse of Mavis and Jack laughing uproariously together,
‘would she?’
    ‘Course I wouldn’t,’ Mavis had said five minutes later when she had breezed into their orbit and Carrie had grabbed her by the arm and again asked her what the hell she thought
she was doing. ‘It’s only a bit of fun. If Ted doesn’t mind, I don’t see why you should.’
    Carrie had looked across to where Ted was talking to Danny, his youngest child asleep in his arms. He certainly didn’t look overly concerned, but then he was such a self-contained man that
even if he were, she doubted if he would allow it to show. ‘Never assume,’ she had said, suddenly seriously worried about the problems her elder sister was making for herself.
‘Ted isn’t a fool. And quiet types are the worst, when roused.’
    ‘Roused over what, for Christ’s sake?’ Mavis had said, her carefully pencilled eyebrows flying high. ‘We’ve only been ’aving a laugh and a joke together. It
isn’t a crime, is it?’
    ‘It isn’t sense,’ Carrie had retorted grimly. ‘Jack Robson isn’t a bloke you can lead on and then dump.’
    Mavis had rolled her eyes to heaven. ‘Just listen at her!’ she’d said, presumably speaking to the Almighty. ‘Four hours married and she’s an expert on men!’
Returning her attention to Carrie, she had placed her hands on her hips and said with exaggerated patience, ‘Listen, Carrie. When I want your advice I’ll ask for it. Until then, do us
both a favour an’ keep it to yourself.’
    Knowing there was no way she could recount this conversation to Miss Pierce, Kate said adroitly, ‘I’m not sure I would describe Mavis as delightful but she is . . .
lively.’
    Miss Pierce smiled indulgently and glanced at her wristwatch. ‘Time to be getting back to work,’ she said regretfully. As they pushed their chairs away from the table and rose to
their feet, she said hesitantly, ‘Do you think your friend would allow you to bring some of the wedding photographs into the office? I would so like to see them, especially a photograph of
the little bridesmaid and a photograph of Bonzo wearing his bow.’
    ‘I’m sure she would,’ Kate said, picking up her clutch bag. For the first time it occurred to her that the older woman was lonely and as she made her way back to her office she
wondered if there was a way in which she could introduce Miss Pierce to Miss Godfrey.
    ‘Did you have a nice lunchbreak?’ Mr Muff, the General Sales Manager asked her as she returned to her desk in the little room adjoining his. ‘You should bring a packed lunch
and take it into Greenwich Park. It’s far pleasanter picnicking in the park than it is eating in the staff canteen.’
    Kate liked Mr Muff. He was even older than Miss Pierce, and his manner towards her was kindly and avuncular. Right from the first he had made things easy for her. ‘Voigt?’ he had
said musingly when she had told him her name. ‘Voigt? I think that’s perhaps originally a Tyneside name. Very nice people the Tynesiders. All heart.’
    Kate hadn’t disabused him and nothing more, by anyone at Harvey’s, had ever been said about her name. He had made things equally easy where her work was concerned.