Across the Mersey by Annie Groves

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 beboth 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 for tea,’ Bella protested, not liking this change to her carefully arranged plan, which had involved discussing their engagement in front of her parents as though it were already a fact.
    Bella had learned as a child that the best way to get round her father’s ever-ready veto of anything that involved him spending any money was to simply behave as though the issue had already been discussed and agreed. She had never ever asked, ‘Please may I have ballet lessons?’ but had stated instead, ‘When I start my ballet lessons …’ It wasa trick she had borrowed from her mother and it worked.
    Since so far Alan had been oblivious to her hints about their getting engaged, she had changed her tactics and begun to talk about their engagement as though it were an accepted fact and the question not so much ‘if’ as ‘when’.
    As a soon-to-be-engaged couple it was natural and wise that they both spent time with one another’s family. Irritatingly, Alan’s parents had not yet extended their invitations beyond casual visits to their home to a proper formal tea party, as Bella felt they should have done, a mistake for which they would pay once she was married to Alan. However, her own parents, especially her mother, were much more up to the mark, and Mummy had been briefed that Bella