âBut mind and keep it tasteful. And donât go spending a lot of money,â he added.
âOh, thank you,â said Rona. âCould I get some money for ribbons, and that sort of thing?â
A little reluctantly, Angus agreed.
Rona started happily making plans. Oh, she would keep it simple, but colourful, she decided.
She raided Aunt Lizzieâs collection of pictures of the young Queen, and bought as many yards of red, white and blue ribbon as she could afford.
She spent an evening tracing the outline of a crown on to paper, then laboriously cut it out in cardboard and covered the cardboard with gold paper sheâd bought from the stationer. With the aid of a school compass sheâd long put away in a cupboard, she made star shapes, cut out the stars and covered them too in gold.
The Queenâs picture was pasted on to a piece of card and edged with gold braid Rona had begged from Aunt Lizzieâs workbox.
But it needed something extra, she thought, as she started to decorate the window.
âIt looks grand,â said Callum loyally.
But Rona was not satisfied. âIt needs, I donât knowâsomething specialâI mean a link to us, to the bakerâs,â she said, wishing that Father had agreed to produce shortbread in Coronation tins.
âYou should enter for the competition,â said one customer, as she watched Rona crawling about the window. âYou get the forms at the town hall, and the Provostâs judging.â
Rona looked thoughtful, and in her lunch hour she went along to the town hall and completed the form. She would tell Father later.
On the way back, she gazed into some of the window displays. The ironmonger had scrubbing brushes and shiny metal pails surrounding a picture of the young Queen.
âI doubt sheâll need to scrub her own floors,â thought Rona with a grin.
The stationerâs had display of books about the Royal family, postcards and photographs. Nearly everyone had ribbons and bunting and Royal pictures.
The window Rona liked best was the toy shop across the way. A toy train chugged across the back of the window and at each side stood wooden soldiers painted in red, white and blue. At the front of the window were three teddy bears, wearing red white and blue bows, with their paws raised in salute.
The bakerâs window looked bright, thought Rona, but somehow there was nothing special that would catch the eye of the judges. âFather,â she said, âdo you think I could have some shortbread biscuits and ice them?â
He looked doubtful. Then, âJust a few,â he said. âThisâll be for your window?â
âYes, please.â
Angus didnât say anything elseâhe was secretly quite proud of Rona ever since one or two customers had commented on the window.
Rona spent a long time after work getting the icing to just the right consistency, and setting out the piping tubes she wanted to use.
She thought for a bit what message she should choose.
Loyal Greetings
âthat would take a great deal of effort, and quite a few biscuits. She would have liked to have written,
Long live the Queen
, or
Elizabeth II
, but she discarded these ideas.
Finally she got out one of the silver bases that were used for wedding and birthday cakes so that she could fix the biscuits on to the base. Finally, she decided to keep it simple.
She piped the letters laboriously, trying to keep her hand steady as sheâd watched her father when he was decorating a cake.
She waited till the icing had dried, then secured the biscuits to the base and placed it carefully in front of the window.
It was simple, she thought, and effective and it said what everyone thought about the Coronation and the new Queen.
Well, now, she thought, she had done her bestâshe would just have to wait for the judgesâ decision.
Quite a few people stopped to admire the window.
âYour lassieâs done a good
Maggie Brendan
Barbara O'Connor
Jan Washburn
Terri Blackstock
Norah Simone
Barry Kemp
G.P. Taylor
Alan Cumyn
Linda Barnes
Lisa Jackson