The Crown JEWELS
Ruby Taylor, what have you been up to? You look like the wreck of the Hesperus.’
Pearl’s voice as I emerged from the beer cellar was teasing and, for one glorious moment, I thought her mood had lifted. Then her gaze slid to Andy, coming up the steps behind me, and her expression changed.
‘Nothing,’ I said firmly, hoping to put a lid on things. Before our arrival at The Crown that morning, we hadn’t seen one another in six years, not since returning home at the end of the war. Yet here she was back in the old routine.
‘Really?’ Pearl said, squinting at my attire. ‘Because from where I’m standing, you look – how to put this delicately? – romantically dishevelled.’
She slid a puff sleeve back onto my shoulder and I hastily tucked my blouse back into my seersucker skirt. Andy’s crêpe-soled brothel creepers had a lot to answer for. He would never have been able to sneak up and tickle me without his silent footwear.
‘Hardly romantic,’ I scoffed.
