A Crack in the Glass (Telling Tales Book 1) by Charles Owen

Author:Charles Owen
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Charles B. Owen
Published: 2015-07-13T04:30:00+00:00

ORANGE HAT

The morning post clattered into the letter box. Ralph left his chair, collected the envelopes and opened them. The effect these letters made could hardly have been more remarkable. For the next half an hour accusations, protestations and recriminations blazed back and forth across the breakfast table. The bank statement lay between them, a reproachful red stain against the white tablecloth, and near it a small pile of unpaid bills. Anna's makeshift defences had blown away in the storm. She was almost in tears. Ralph softened a little.

‘I have told you again and again, my darling,’ he said, ‘we cannot afford the money you are spending. Martin will soon be going to day school and there is this house to pay for. We have got to watch every penny. This extravagance must stop and must stop now.’

‘Brute,’ Anna muttered. ‘All this fuss over a few measly hats.’

Ralph’s heavy eyebrows contracted. ‘Hats are your vice and you know it,’ he said. ‘Your father warned me the day I married you. “Watch out for Anna's hat-trick,” he told me, “or she will ruin you.” Heaven knows what your hats have cost us these last four years. There are hats bulging from every cupboard and drawer. Pink hats, blue hats, silk and straw hats, large and small hats, fur hats. Sometimes I think that this house is nothing more than a huge hatbox.’

Anna was silent. How pretty she looks, he thought, her blue eyes downcast, her face with a high colour sheltering among an abundance of corn-coloured hair. Ralph turned once more to the bills for the strength he needed. ‘This must be the last of these bills,’ he went on. ‘I see that Mrs Thankerton's is the worst as usual. Now you must promise to keep away from that shop, and the others, until you have learnt to control yourself.’ For good measure, he added, ‘And you had better stay clear of the Drews. Rosemary Drew is almost as bad as you are. You two egg each other on. How that fool Brian can afford to indulge her, I don't know.’

It was true. Ever since they had left school together, Rosemary and Anna had vied with each other in their choice of clothes. In this battle, hats, it was mutually conceded, were the most potent weapons. Shortly after Anna's marriage, Rosemary had married Brian Drew. Brian had courted Anna quite seriously at one time and the two were still close friends. The fierce but friendly rivalry between the girls continued much as before. It simply became sharper and more expensive.

‘Rosemary knows nothing about hats,’ said Anna.

Ralph stood up. With a sweep of his arm he gathered hat, umbrella and the morning paper. His other arm went round Anna and he kissed her. ‘So you are going to reform, my sweet. Promise?’

Anna nodded dismally.

‘No lapses,’ he went on, ‘no last chances, no excuses. I'm serious.’

Anna shook her head.

‘You know I don't like the role of the heavy-handed husband, but I will play it if I have to.

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