‘Mr Harrison, you were hinting—’
‘Glenda, whatever I was suggesting to you was in the context of stil working for Mrs Rossiter.’
Glenda found that her hands had unclasped themselves and were now gripping her elbows, crossed over her body.
‘I don’t fol ow you—’
‘Mrs Rossiter turned me down,’ Bernie said, ‘but that doesn’t mean I accepted her refusal. I didn’t. I don’t. It makes every bit of sense for me to buy up this agency, making Mrs Rossiter my partner with you remaining as her assistant. I’m not giving up. I’m not a man to give up, especial y when what I want happens to be good for al concerned into the bargain.’
‘So—’
‘So I came here to tel you that your job is safe as long as you want it. That your pay would go up – something of a rarity in these dark days, wouldn’t you say? – and you’d work in proper offices in Eldon Square with enough col eagues to give you a better social working life.’
Glenda let go of her elbows.
‘Couldn’t you say al this in front of Mrs Rossiter?’
Bernie Harrison got to his feet.
‘Not at the moment. She won’t listen to me at the moment. But I think she wil in time – I intend she wil in time. And when she does—’ He stopped and directed another smile right at Glenda, like a spotlight. ‘I want you to remember this conversation.’
‘Very wel , Mr Harrison.’
‘I’l see myself out, then.’
‘No,’ Glenda said, ‘I’l see you out. That way, I can make sure the street door is real y shut.’
Bernie leaned forward. He gave Glenda a wink.
‘
Margaret took the metro back to Tynemouth from Monument station. She had walked from her meeting to Monument through the Central Arcade because she always liked, for professional as wel as sentimental reasons, to pause by J. G. Windows to check out the sheet music, and the instruments. The instruments never failed to excite her, never had, since that first day she and Richie had gone in as teenagers and had stood in front of the guitar that he longed for, and couldn’t afford, and he’d said daft teenage things like, ‘One day, I’l be able to afford al the guitars I want,’
and she’d said, ‘Course you wil ,’ because when you’re fifteen the promise of the future has as much reality as the present. Then there’d been a time when Richie had had his own section there, his own bin of sheet music, his racks of records, then tapes, then CDs. Even now, some of the assistants stil knew her, even if now they knew her more because of her local clients than because of Richie. Going into J. G. Windows always gave Margaret a visceral jolt, as if reminding her of the fundamental reason that she did what she did instead of working, as she had for so many years, for a solicitor whose clients al lived within ten miles of his practice.
On her way out of the instrument department, she passed a tal , cylindrical glass display case. It was a case she had passed hundreds of times before but which was noticeable on this occasion because a mother and daughter were having an argument in front of it. The case was ful of flutes, displayed upright, on perspex stands, and in the centre was a pink Yamaha flute with a price ticket attached to it which read ‘?469’.
‘Then I won’t frigging play at al !’ The daughter was shouting.
Margaret looked at the mother. She did not appear to be the kind of mother to give in, or to be embarrassed by the ranting going on beside her.
‘There’s that new Trevor James,’ the mother said, ‘Three hundred and ninety-nine pounds. Or the Buffet at three hundred and forty-nine pounds.
I’m not going above four hundred.’
The daughter col apsed against the display case. She said aggrievedly, ‘I want a pink one.’
‘Why?’ Margaret said.
Neither mother nor daughter seemed at al disconcerted at the intervention. The daughter squirmed slightly.
‘I like pink—’
‘How old are you?’
‘Twelve.’
‘What grade?’
The daughter said nothing.
The mother said, ‘Answer the lady, Lorraine.’
‘Four,’ Lorraine said sulkily.
‘I’ve been in the music business,’ Margaret said, ‘for three times as long as you’ve been alive. And I can tel you that the Buffet is good value and al you need for grade four.’
‘There,’ the mother said.
‘It’s a lovely instrument, the flute,’ Margaret said. ‘You should be proud to play it. Not everyone can. You need a good sound, not a colour. It isn’t a
