Summer Pudding by Susan Scarlett

Author:Susan Scarlett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dean Street Press
Published: 2022-07-25T00:00:00+00:00

“Is there only one town in these parts?” Janet asked Donald.

Donald slowed his car for some cows to be driven through a gate.

“To us there is. It’s our market town.” He smiled. “You think it a one-horse little place, I expect, but in Worsingfold we think it a metropolis, and a bit alarming.”

“Alarming!”

He turned to her, his eyes twinkling.

“We look on it as a den of vice. It’s got a dance-hall! You want to watch your step in a place that goes in for things like that.”

Janet leant back in her seat; she felt easy and relaxed. She forgot that she and Donald were ever at cross purposes. He was speaking in a gentle, laughing way which fitted in with the purr of the car, and the white dust of the road, and the passing hedges starred with early dog-roses.

“Does Worsingfold go and dance there?”

Donald grinned.

“We like people to think we do; makes us feel rather dogs, you know. If anybody comes on leave it’s taken for granted they’ll go there. We dig our elbows into their ribs and we wink and we say, ‘You’ll be goin’ into town dancin’, shouldn’t wonder!’ We don’t say that because we necessarily think they’ll be doing anything of the sort, but we’re paying their manhood a compliment. They may have left Worsingfold mere boys, but now they’re in the Army or the Navy or the Air Force they’re men.”

There was a wealth of understanding and sympathy for the village point of view in his tone, and as well an allying of himself with it. Janet felt her town background.

“I’ve always lived in London, and in a suburban district at that. I don’t understand country people; it’s a pity, I’d like to.”

“You will, they’re easy. If you listen and watch you’ll soon pick up our ways and thoughts. We’re a bit careful to begin with when we meet London folk. We know you for a lot of wasteful people, who eat out of tins, and throw half of everything away, and we know you’re clever and know a lot of what’s going on behind the scenes. You might have met the Prime Minister, and like as not you’ve got friends in the ministries. I’ve not mixed with the village much lately, I’ve been too busy, but I’d take a bet that your family have been the cause of a lot of head wagging.”

“Not if they expect waste, or tins. Mother hates both.”

Donald laughed.

“Very suspicious in a Londoner; we probably think she’s a German. Excepting that young Sheila runs true to form, that may have saved your bacon.” He sounded his horn to move a woman with a perambulator off the crown of the road. “Anna, my wife, belonged to the Women’s Institute, and she used to say they treated her as if she had been grown in a greenhouse, to be admired, but never planted in the back garden.”

Janet felt it was unusual for him to talk of Anna, and perhaps good for him.

“Iris is always talking about her.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.