Chapter 21

Meanwhile, the other colours for Nell's outfit had arrived. Tom busied himself with Alan while the girls mixed and matched. There was a turquoise skirt which they all liked and a dark blue or light blue jumper. Nell held the skirt against herself while the other two switched the two jumpers back and forth in front of a mirror. Isobel favoured the light blue and Becca the dark blue. Nell was for the light blue but did not want to upset either Isobel or Becca.

"Tom!" she called despairingly.

He came over immediately. "What's the trouble?"

"We can't decide on the light blue or the dark blue jersey."

"Which do you like?" he asked.

"I can't make up my mind. Your mum likes the light blue and Becca the dark."

Tom was in trouble either way. He turned to Alan.

"Would you be prepared to take photos of both and let the jury decide?" he asked.

Alan smiled knowingly. "Of course," he said.

"Chicken!" grinned Becca.

Tom grinned back. "Yup!" he said.

Nell looked at him contritely. "Sorry, Tom, that was unfair of me."

"No it wasn't," he said. "You were being bullied by my mother and my cousin and didn't want to upset either of them."

Isobel felt her heart swell with pride at the deft way Tom had handled the situation. Becca turned away thinking, "He's really got it bad."

Nell just stared at him in stupefaction. He had hit the nail on the head and defused something that could have become stupidly difficult.

"Go and change," Tom said gently.

She nodded and ran. Inside the changing room her emotions got the better of her and tears filled her eyes. "He's so sweet and gentle and thoughtful. I love him. I really, really do."

At that moment Paul Brain and Rita arrived. "Hello," said Paul cheerfully holding out his hand to Tom. "You're the arresting officer, I gather. Paul Brain the younger of the two proprietors. Well done you! And you, I imagine are his mother," he added turning to Isobel.

"No imagination needed, Mr Brain," she smiled.

"And which are you? Becca or Nell?"

"Becca. How do you do Mr Brain?"

"How do you do, Becca? Where's Nell?"

"Changing," she replied. "She'll be back in a moment."

She was. In the pale blue jersey.

"Gosh!" said Paul reverently. "That was worth waiting for. Hello, Nell, I'm Paul Brain. You look stunning."

"Thank you," said Nell and glanced at Tom who was looking at her with undisguised admiration. She saw something else in his eyes. Tenderness?

"Well," went on Paul, "I just want to apologise to you all, particularly Becca, for what's just happened. I won't make any excuses. We ought to have sealed that window and we ought to have realised that Crawshaw was unsuitable for his job."

"Please don't worry, Mr Brain," said Becca. "OK, he was a bit shifty but how were any of you, Alan, Rita or you, to know he'd behave like that?"

"Thank you, Becca. That's very gracious of you."

Becca shrugged. "I don't think any of us liked him very much," she said, "but we never guessed he'd behave like that." She smiled, not disarmingly or politely but genuinely. "Please don't feel guilty."

Paul was impressed. He had never met an eighteen year-old so mature and assured.

"Thank you, Becca," he replied. "I can promise you he won't be working for us any more."

"That's up to you, Mr Brain, but good!"

Paul could have left at that moment but he did not. He was drawn to this girl.

"Rita tells me that when you and Tom aren't winning dancing prizes that you're painters and decorators. You too, Tom?"

"No fear," said Tom with a smile. "Heaven forbid! It's an all girl thing."

"So tell me about it," Paul said to Becca.

Becca shrugged diffidently and Nell chimed in. "Did you hear about the children's home scandal?" she asked.

"How could I not?"

"Well, Becca started the investigation off through her uncle and then got a number of us old girls together to see how we could help the kids that were still there. She came up with this idea of redecorating the place because it was like a tomb. Well that started us thinking and, even though we had no qualifications, we thought we could also help out with the younger kids and give them a bit of the love and affection they'd never had. We also helped out with games once the police had renovated the field at the back into a sports field. Then, when we'd finished redecorating the home, Becca said, 'Why don't we go on and do this for a bit of money?' So we did and we got lots of jobs. We couldn't keep up so Becca suggested that we take on any of the sixteen year-old girls leaving the home who wanted to join us. We're twelve strong now and there's still girls wanting to join."

"Trouble is," interjected Becca, "that we're limited to where we can work because we're stuck with bicycles to get to work. None of us can drive and we can't afford to buy a van. It's a pity because we've been offered several jobs outside our range and the local ones seem to have peaked."

"That's a shame," said Paul. He was about to ask whether their parents could not help but bit off his tongue as he realised they were orphans. Guardians were rarely rich either: just very good people. "At least one of you could learn to drive and then you could look out for a decent second hand van."

Becca smiled ruefully. "We've thought about that," she said. "We could afford the driving lessons but a decent second hand van would cost us two or two hundred and fifty quid. We haven't got that money. Not at the moment anyway."

"But if you got a van it would increase your income and you'd be able to repay a loan in a couple of years or so."

"No, Mr Brain. We're so small that we could not take that risk. If business fell away we'd never be able to repay the loan." She grinned. "Never a borrower or a lender be," she quoted.

Paul smiled. "OK," he said. "That makes sense. Anyway, I'm holding you up. I'll see you before you go."

He walked thoughtfully back upstairs. He went not to his office but to his brother Roger's whose secretary indicated that he was free. He knocked on the door and walked in.