Across the Mersey - Annie Groves [33]
‘Aww, come on, Trixie,’ Alan protested.
Trixie! He had called her Trixie. Furiously Bella tried to push him away, her determination to force him to marry her forgotten in the heat of her outrage, but he was refusing to let go of her.
‘I’m not Trixie,’ she told him
He gave her an ugly look. ‘No, you aren’t, more’s the pity. If it wasn’t for you she’d be with me and—’
‘Here, I say, what the devil do you think you’re doing, Parker? Let go of my sister.’
For once in her life Bella didn’t have to manufacture her reaction. She’d been so furious with Alan that she’d forgotten all about Charlie, who was now approaching them with Mr Baxter, the President of the Tennis Club, in tow. Mr Baxter had a very stern expression indeed on his face.
Henry Baxter was in his fifties, a bachelor, and the Chief Clerk to the local council. He had rather a soft spot for Bella, being completely taken in by the flatteringly admiring manner she adopted towards him.
Bella immediately played up to the situation, sobbing some crocodile tears on Charlie’s shoulder whilst Henry Baxter took a firm grip on Alan’s arm and refused to let him go.
‘Please don’t be cross with Alan, Charlie,’ she begged her brother dramatically. ‘It’s my fault. We’ve been talking about getting engaged for so long that when Alan suggested that we come outside, I thought it was because he wanted to surprise me with an engagement ring.’
Bella could hear Alan’s enraged denial, but Charlie stepped in smartly, announcing, ‘Well, if you’re engaged … although I have to say that this isn’t the kind of behaviour a chap expects from his brother-in-law-to-be, Parker, and I dare say my father will have some pretty sharp words to say to you. It looks to me as though you’ve terrified the life out of poor Bella.’
‘I feel so ashamed,’ Bella wept. ‘What will people think? Oh, Mr Baxter …’
‘There, there, my dear,’ Henry Baxter comforted Bella. ‘Don’t know what you thought you were about, Parker, bringing Miss Firth out here instead of formally announcing your engagement inside, like any decent well-brought-up young man would.’
Alan swore. ‘I’m not getting engaged to her,’ he began, hiccuping, and then turned away to be sick on the grass, before adding, ‘and no one can make me.’
‘’Fraid you’ve no choice now, old chap,’ Charlie told Alan. ‘I dare say my father will have a thing or two to say about the way you’ve behaved towards my sister, and it won’t stop there, not now. Not the done thing at all to trifle with the affections of an innocent girl, especially when there’s about to be a war on.’
‘I shall be speaking to your parents about your behaviour tonight, Parker,’ Henry Baxter told Alan sternly. ‘We do not tolerate this sort of thing here at the Tennis Club.’
‘Oh, Alan,’ Bella gave her new fiancé a reproachful look, ‘I’m so disappointed. I thought tonight was going to be so special and romantic, and now you’ve gone and spoiled it all. Still, at least we’re engaged.
‘Do you think we should make an announcement, Mr Baxter?’ Bella appealed to the President. ‘Only I’d hate people to think badly of Alan. I’m sure he didn’t mean to … to … well, I know he would have made things official tonight if he’d had time to get me a ring as we’d planned.’
‘An excellent idea, my dear. Parker, you are a very fortunate young man to have such a loyal and beautiful fiancée – far more so than you deserve. But your father will still be hearing from me,’ Baxter added grimly.
‘Bitch. Bitch.’ Alan swore at Bella the minute the President was out of sight. ‘As for me marrying