Across the Mersey. Annie Groves

a fluff of Yardley face powder, and she had dabbed plenty of Ma Griffe scent on her wrists and her handkerchief before leaving home.

      No one seeing both her and Grace in the Gown Salon five minutes ago would ever have guessed that they were cousins. Grace looked so drab and plain in her white blouse and black skirt, and with her hair tied back and only the merest hint of lipstick. Bella knew her cousin would be the perfect foil for her own beauty on Saturday night. There was nothing like a plain friend to make a girl look even better and so encourage her chap to recognise how lucky he was. Bella looked down at her left hand, her smile widening. She could see Alan’s ring on her finger already. In fact she had as good as picked it out from the rings on display in the window of Wallasey’s most exclusive jewellers. Not one but three bright shiny diamonds of a satisfyingly impressive size.

      Mrs Alan Parker!

      ‘Mr and Mrs Edwin Firth request the pleasure of your company at the Marriage of their Daughter Miss Isabella Firth with Mr Alan Parker.’

      Bella exhaled happily. Alan was everything she wanted in a husband. His father was an important and very well-to-do local businessman; his mother was the chairwoman of all the most important Wallasey women’s committees. They had no daughter of their own so naturally, she, their daughter-in-law, would be adored and spoiled. Alan’s parents would buy them a smart detached house not far from their own, and she would live the life of a new young wife whose husband had the time and the money to indulge her every whim.

      She was so glad now that she had held back last year when the son of the most well-to-do man where they had lived before moving to Kingsway had started dropping hints that he wanted to propose to her. David had been all very well in his way, but his family’s position could not compare with that of Alan’s.

      Not that it had all been plain sailing exactly. There had been the small matter of the girl Alan had already been seeing when they had first met – an ‘accidentally on purpose’ bumping into him as she left the tennis court – but Bella had soon seen off Trixie Mayhew, who had gone all pale-faced and quiet when Bella had taken her to one side to confide in her that she felt Trixie ought to know that Alan had told her how attracted he was to her but that he felt he couldn’t ask her out because he was already seeing Trixie. Naturally Bella had known that Trixie was the kind of girl who wouldn’t want to stand in the way of the man she loved’s longing for someone else. And of course when Alan had turned to her for comfort when Trixie had told him that she didn’t want to see him any more, and had refused to say why, Bella had been more than ready to give him that comfort.

      Bella knew that it would shock girls like Trixie and her cousin Grace to learn how determined she was to make sure that Alan proposed to her. But that, of course, was why girls like them ended up with the husbands they did, whilst girls like her got the pick of the crop. And now if she had judged the situation correctly, and she was sure that she had, Alan had taken the hints she had been dropping and was about to propose. And not before time! She had been beginning to get a bit impatient. After all, they had spent the whole summer as a couple, and she had made it clear what she wanted and expected, losing no opportunity to make him aware of how fortunate he was to have a girl like her and what a perfect wife she would be.

      Now her goal was in sight. Surely the reason Alan had telephoned her at work so unexpectedly to ask her to meet him could mean only one thing? He wanted her to choose her ring before Saturday so that he could ‘surprise’ her with it at the dance. She had pretended to appear casual on the phone, suggesting that he meet her outside Lewis’s instead of letting him pick her up from her office. After all, she didn’t want him thinking that she was desperate!

      Daintily Bella sauntered out into the street. She was late, of course, but not so late that Alan would have grown irritated, and so it caught her off guard not to find Alan waiting for her as they had arranged.

      Her smile changed abruptly to a small tight frown. She looked briefly down Ranelagh Street. It was unthinkable that Alan should have stood her up or gone off in a huff. She was a girl who was worth waiting for, and she had been at pains to make sure that Alan knew that, just as she had been at pains to make sure that he realised how many other young men wished they were in his shoes.

      Alan was the kind of man who needed to know that his peers envied him, and Bella had been more than willing to assist him in this vanity.

      The sound of a car horn followed by Alan calling out her name caught her attention, her eyes widening slightly as she saw him waving to her from the driving seat of a brand-new cream MG Roadster, its hood down.

      ‘I say, Bella, hurry up, will you?’ he called out impatiently. ‘I’ve already driven past here twice.’

      The drivers of the other cars in the street were all turning to look and, by no means averse to this attention, Bella made a pretty show of looking bashful, whilst at the same time ensuring that everyone was aware of how elegant and smartly turned out she was as she hurried towards the car.

      ‘Goodness, Alan, fancy calling out to me like that in the street. Everyone was looking at me,’ she told him as she got into the car and closed the door.

      ‘What do you think of her?’ he demanded excitedly, ignoring her comment.

      What Bella thought was that she was irritated and put out to discover that his reason for wanting to meet her was because he wanted to show off his new car, and not because he wanted to take her to choose an engagement ring, but she was far too wise to say so. Men needed to be indulged at times, and this was definitely one of those. And besides, being sweet and nice now, and encouraging his obvious good mood, would pay off later when she pressed home the point that it would be both convenient and expected of them to announce their engagement on Saturday.

      ‘A real beauty, isn’t she?’ he enthused, oblivious to what Bella was thinking. ‘Dad gave me the keys this morning. Said he’d been going to keep her as a surprise for my birthday, but he’d decided I might as well enjoy her now whilst the weather’s so good. She’s got the sweetest-sounding engine you’ve ever heard.’

      ‘A new car for your birthday – your father is very generous, Alan.’

      ‘The old man can afford it,’ he told her with a careless shrug, a gesture that made him look exactly like his father. Both the Parker men were of average height and solidly built with light brown hair, pale blue eyes and ruddy complexions.

      The draught from the motion of the car was already tugging at her hat. Bella frowned and looked pointedly at Alan, waiting for him to comment on how pretty she looked before she was obliged to remove it. When he didn’t, she turned stiffly away from him to remove her hatpins and place her hat on her knee.

      ‘I’ve had a word with Grace. Just to remind her about the dance on Saturday, and that she’s partnering your cousin.’

      ‘Seb? Oh yes. He’s such a dull fellow. He actually went off to spend the afternoon in the library. Lord knows why. It’s a bit of a bore having him hanging around all the time, but the old man is pretty keen on making a bit of a fuss of him, seeing as his father has done so well for himself. Of course, he isn’t my first cousin or anything. It’s his stepmother who’s Dad’s cousin but Dad reckons the connection is worth hanging on to.’

      Bella shook her head. She wasn’t particularly interested in Seb Atkins, who looked at her sometimes in a way that she didn’t like one little bit. Men were supposed to admire and adore her, not look at her as though she bored and irritated them.

      ‘I dare say there won’t be many more Tennis Club dances if it does come to war,’ Alan told her.

      ‘All the more reason for us to make the most of this one then, with a special celebration of our own,’ Bella told him softly, putting her hand over his as he reached for the gear shift.

      ‘Thought we’d take this pretty little baby for a bit of a spin, go try out her paces,’ Alan told her, annoyingly ignoring the opportunity she had just given him to suggest that they take advantage of the dance to announce their engagement.

      ‘A spin? I’ve already told my mother that you’ll be coming home with me