The Back of Beyond by Doris Davidson

was set in front of him. ‘I have been doing some thinking, Alistair,’ he began, ‘and don’t go jumping in bull-headed until I have finished what I have to say. Unhappiness is not a good companion, nor is it conducive to full attention to whatever work is in hand, and that applies to me as well as to you. I have been puzzling over what to give you as a wedding gift …’
    â€˜There’s no need for you to give us anything!’ Alistair butted in.
    â€˜There is perhaps no need, but it is something I want to do. When a young couple are setting up house, it is expected that relatives and friends will give bed linen, kitchen utensils, anything which would be of use in a home, but it is different in your case. You will be living in a hotel, with everything you need readily available to you, and so I have been looking for something, an antique perhaps, I was not sure what but I was sure that I would know it was right when I came across it. Sadly, I have seen nothing.’
    â€˜It doesn’t matter, Manny,’ Alistair muttered as the old man took a sip of tea. ‘We don’t need …’
    â€˜Let me finish,’ his employer scolded. ‘On the way back, it came to me – a gift without parallel! Return tickets to London for your parents and sister.’
    Alistair shook his head angrily. ‘No, I can’t let you do that, Manny.’
    â€˜You are flinging my gift back in my face, hmm? I believe it to be the best I could possibly have thought of, and the milk has been spilt …’ He smiled at the young man’s bewilderment. ‘The tickets are already bought and the seats reserved. You see, hmm? Consider, also, how your Gwen would feel if none of your family comes to your wedding. She will not want a groom standing miserably by her side wishing that his mother was there. Furthermore, so that she will not feel left out, she can come to the shop and choose a necklace or something of the kind which will be my gift to her.’
    Despite his advanced age, Alistair could no longer hold back the tears, but they were tears of happiness, of gratitude, of love for this old man who had been like a father to him since the very day they met.
    The twenty-eighth day of September 1932 dawned as bright and warm as a day in the middle of July, and there was pandemonium in the Crocker household as four adults made themselves ready for the big occasion – Rosie Jenkins having decided that it would be nice to invite the grooms’ landlady and her husband as guests. Alistair would have loved to ask Manny, too, but he could see that it would cause difficulties, because Dougal couldn’t invite all the people who worked with him. With only one bathroom – there was a dividing wall between it and the lavatory, thankfully – Len said he’d do his ablutions in the scullery, as long as nobody came in and saw him washing his ‘naughty bits’.
    Ivy joked that she wouldn’t mind who saw her ‘naughty bits’, which made them all laugh, although it gave Alistair cause to worry. He knew nothing of a woman’s ‘naughty bits’ and maybe Gwen wasn’t as innocent as he thought. Hadn’t Marge told Dougal ages ago that her sister had been let down by some bloke when she was younger? But she’d have told him, wouldn’t she? She wasn’t the kind to hide anything as serious as that. She was bound to know he would find out … on their wedding night. Tonight.
    Ready first and waiting, a tight bundle of nerves, for Dougal to tie a satisfactory knot in his tie, Alistair’s thoughts strayed to the previous evening, when they had met their families at King’s Cross – the better-off Finnies had been quite happy to spend money on fares to see their son being married. The reunions had been very emotional after such a long separation, hugs and kisses (unusual for Scots) exchanged tearfully on the platform, and