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costume that was, however, quite old-fashioned. Her hair, which was fair, was pulled back into a tight bun on the back of her head and large rimless spectacles were perched on the end of that knife of a nose.
    Despite the daunting floor manager, Annabelle was actually secretly pleased to be in this particular department.
    At least she had nice things to look at here. It would have been awful to have been stuck in household wares or somewhere boring like that.
    Her eyes flicked appreciatively over the display stands and came to rest on a young mousy-haired girl who was busily dusting the tops of the glass counters as if her very life depended on it. The girl offered her a nervous smile but Annabelle stuck her nose in the air and turned her attention back to what Miss Williams was saying, wondering how such a dowdy-looking girl had ever got to work in such a glamorous department. They really must be short of staff!
    And then a customer emerged from the lift, and forgetting all about Annabelle, Miss Williams almost pounced on the woman with a smile so wide that her plain face was quite transformed, trilling, ‘Hello, madam, how may we help you?’
    Crikey, she could be quite attractive if she’d take a bit of trouble with herself, Annabelle thought as she crossed to examine a pretty lace bra that had caught her eye. It was on a stand quite close to the counter that the mousy-haired girl was dusting and now she looked at Annabelle and said shyly, ‘Hello, I’m Dotty.’
    ‘Annabelle Smythe,’ Annabelle introduced herself imperiously and Dotty was completely bowled over by her. The girl was so beautiful that she might have been a model out of one of the magazines she was so fond of. In fact, Dotty wondered if perhaps she was a model come to model some of the lingerie.
    ‘Worked here for long, have you?’ Annabelle asked now. She was bored already.
    ‘Not very long,’ Dotty admitted. ‘But it’s quite nice here.’
    ‘Hmm, well I could certainly think of better ways of spending my time,’ Annabelle said petulantly. By now, Miss Williams had passed the customer over to a senior member of the sales staff and was bearing down on Annabelle again.
    ‘Right then, Miss Smythe. Let me show you around so that you are properly acquainted with where everything is when the time comes for you to serve the customers. Over here we keep the knickers, ranging from cotton to pure silk, and over there are the brassières. Later on I shall show you the correct way to measure a customer for those. You would be shocked at how many women don’t wear the correct size. And over here . . .’ Her voice droned on as Annabelle reluctantly followed her about. It looked set to be a very long day.
     
    At last it was time for the morning break. To Annabelle, who was usually still in bed at this time, the morning had passed interminably slowly. As she entered the lift, Dotty followed her in, but Annabelle didn’t bother to speak. She just wanted to go home. And when she did she would tell her father how unreasonable he was being. She was even prepared for him to cut her allowance if it meant not having to come back to this place again. There had only been four customers who had actually bought anything all morning, although the foot traffic through the lingerie department had been quite heavy. But that didn’t mean that Miss Williams had allowed her to stand idly about. The blasted woman had had her in the stock room for the last hour unpacking the underwear that had been delivered to the store the day before, and after the break she had informed Annabelle that she must transfer it all to the correct places on the shop floor.
    ‘Do you think you will like working here?’ Dotty plucked up the courage to ask when the lift started to rise.
    Annabelle glared at her as if she had taken leave of her senses. ‘How could anyone like working?’
    Dotty gulped and wished that she had kept her mouth shut, and the rest of the ride to the top floor was