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woman would make up her own mind; the slightest wrong word would put her on her guard, drive her away. David Baron forgotten, Letty’s main concern, her pleasure, was to see this customer, so certain of her rights, persuade herself into buying. Letty saw the signs, saw the woman take a deep breath, her neck lengthen, her head tilt. A decision had been made.
    ‘Very well. Four shillings! It’s still too much.’
    Letty resisted the temptation to proffer: ‘A bargain, madam.’ She had heard so many traders say that. But the sale had been made; she’d not cheapen herself further.
    ‘Thank you, madam,’ she said sedately, taking the purchase and wrapping it as nicely as a piece of newspaper allowed. Only when the money was in the cash register and the customers departed with their find, did she remember David Baron again.
    He was regarding her, not with sympathy but with a look of honest appreciation, though he, a stranger, had no call to patronise her, she thought, her pride faintly pricked.
    ‘You handle customers very well,’ he said frankly, but her chin had gone up.
    ‘It’s me … my dad’s shop. I do know what I’m doing. I suppose you know what you’re doing in your dad’s shop.’
    ‘That’s true,’ he conceded seriously, but there was light dancing in his eyes as hers regarded him defiantly.
    No, she decided, he wasn’t at all good-looking. His nose was definitely too long and his face too narrow. But his eyes were brown and his lashes thick. And his mouth … oh, luv, his mouth! Generous and wide, with lips that curved upward at the corners.
    ‘Well then!’ she challenged, trying to stop the strange thumping inside her chest. She was startled by his light laugh, realising instantly that it wasn’t directed at her.
    ‘I wonder who Alice is?’ he chuckled. ‘Madam’s poor little skivvy, I don’t doubt, paying out of her paltry wages for breaking madam’s precious ornament! I don’t suppose her bit of money would allow for anything more expensive,but by the look of madam , she’ll exact more from that poor girl than you asked for it!’
    She’d never heard him say so much in one go, and it revealed a nature sympathetic and understanding beneath the whimsy that made her laugh with him, suddenly at ease.
    David was smiling at her. ‘I called,’ he said, ‘to ask if you might care to take a stroll with me this afternoon? It is a lovely day.’
    Letty did not hesitate. ‘Oh, I would like that!’ she burst out.

Chapter Three
    It was a wonderful Sunday dinner. The small piece of beef stretched to accommodate David, a few less vegetables on each plate, Yorkshire pudding cut in smaller portions, gravy thinned down a fraction to go further, and Dad at his most affable, talking shop to David.
    Lucy, magnanimous for once, agreed to the four of them going off to Victoria Park for the afternoon but made it plain that once there, she and Jack would leave the other two to their own company.
    The journey there felt totally different from all the other visits when conversations with Letty’s friends were yelled over the tram’s clatter, its whine fluctuating when it slowed or accelerated. With David sitting beside her on the slatted seat, protecting her from the vehicle’s more erratic jolts, there seemed no need for conversation.
    Letty and her friends would spend all afternoon in the park, passing and repassing the boys with sly glances, pretending not to notice their reaction, tossing their heads at each cheeky remark and sending back as good as they got. Being with a boy was never the same.
    She’d once let Billy Beans take her. It hadn’t been half so much fun. But today with David at her side, a man, shefelt strangely and wonderfully cherished and protected by the way he guided her, one hand gently beneath her elbow. She was shy about putting her arm through his as yet. Perhaps next time, if he asked to take her out again. She prayed fervently that he would.
    She also prayed Lucy and Jack