Dolly's Mixture by Dorothy Scannell Read Free Book Online Page B

of the lovely brass knobs on the bed’.
    Then my friend Ade came to the rescue. ‘I’ll buy your double bed for my spare room, it’s in such lovely condition and I do know it’s come from a clean home.’ After a fierce argument – for when Chas and I no longer wanted anything we never sold the article – Ade accepted our nuptial couch with gratitude. Her twin sons, Derek and Donald, came to collect it. Ade marshalled them like an old warrior: ‘Mind the paint, watch the banisters, boys.’ So tough with them she always seemed, and how they worshipped their mum. Ade’s boys were something special. I knew they’d get good wives eventually; with Ade about they dared not do anything else.
    Because she had so few relations herself, she would listen for hours to my stories of the past and wanted to know every detail of the lives of my nine brothers and sisters. Amy was the one who captured Ade’s imagination. Amy was the one Ade wanted to meet. This was a bit difficult, for I could hardly let Ade know that Amy thought Ade was ‘common’. Then one day Amy phoned. She was ecstatic. She was to be a royal lady-in-waiting in a medieval tableau. ‘Oh Dolly,’ she enthused, ‘you must see my lovely wimple!’ I told her Ade would be with me on the day she wanted to come. ‘That’s fine, Dolly;’ a now excited Amy had forgotten my friend’s common touch. ‘I expect Ade will be interested to see my wimple, it’s all my own work.’
    I told Ade she was to see Amy’s wimple, adding that I was sure Ade had never seen a wimple like it, or anyone so happy to possess such a lovely one. Ade was a bit quiet at first and then she said, ‘I know people like us don’t like to talk about such things, but what exactly – what thing is your sister’s wimple?’ Poor Ade, I shouldn’t have teased her, but she roared with laughter and said, ‘Well, Dolly, with you I learn a new thing every day.’
    Amy came, complete with magnificent wimple, and also a frock she’d made for Susan. This frock was a work of art, the embroidery exquisite. Ade, who understood needlework, was so impressed that Amy immediately took her to her heart and we had an afternoon and evening of rollicking fun. Amy made and embroidered a Hungarian blouse for Ade and this was ever Ade’s most precious possession.
    Amy let her hair down and while I was getting tea I could hear her telling Ade of her ‘adventures’ at our eldest niece’s wedding. It was a truly beautiful choral wedding, with an extra-special rendering of the hymns and psalms by the bridegroom’s family who came from Wales, that land of music and song. My family, the Cheggies, were there too, of course; even if not at full strength, we made up quite a contingent with our many offspring. Amy and I always became merry on quite a small amount of alcohol, but Chas was working that day so I was responsible for my children and I was forced to recognise my limitations. Amy’s family, on the other hand, were grown up and, in any case, her teetotaller husband James, was there to take charge of things in an emergency -not that Amy expected to imbibe overmuch. Both Amy and James had signed the pledge when they were young and belonged to a church but, unlike James who was unbending and would never break an undertaking, Amy had convinced herself that her youth and noble intentions had been taken advantage of and that she had signed under duress.
    Suffice it to say that, by the time we had left the reception, James was on the silent side, Amy uninhibited and extremely jocular. On such a sweltering hot day Amy asked the chauffeur of our hired conveyance – it was a landau – if we could have the top down. He joined in the fun and we progressed in a ‘driving down the course’ manner. We were all dressed in the right garb for this Ascot excursion: Mother wore grey,