The Baker's Daughter by Anne Forsyth Page A

‘But mind and keep it tasteful. And don’t go spending a lot of money,’ he added.
    â€˜Oh, thank you,’ said Rona. ‘Could I get some money for ribbons, and that sort of thing?’
    A little reluctantly, Angus agreed.
    Rona started happily making plans. Oh, she would keep it simple, but colourful, she decided.
    She raided Aunt Lizzie’s 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 she’d bought from the stationer. With the aid of a school compass she’d long put away in a cupboard, she made star shapes, cut out the stars and covered them too in gold.
    The Queen’s picture was pasted on to a piece of card and edged with gold braid Rona had begged from Aunt Lizzie’s workbox.
    But it needed something extra, she thought, as she started to decorate the window.
    â€˜It looks grand,’ said Callum loyally.
    But Rona was not satisfied. ‘It needs, I don’t know—something special—I mean a link to us, to the baker’s,’ she said, wishing that Father had agreed to produce shortbread in Coronation tins.
    â€˜You should enter for the competition,’ said one customer, as she watched Rona crawling about the window. ‘You get the forms at the town hall, and the Provost’s judging.’
    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.
    â€˜I doubt she’ll need to scrub her own floors,’ thought Rona with a grin.
    The stationer’s 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 baker’s window looked bright, thought Rona, but somehow there was nothing special that would catch the eye of the judges. ‘Father,’ she said, ‘do you think I could have some shortbread biscuits and ice them?’
    He looked doubtful. Then, ‘Just a few,’ he said. ‘This’ll be for your window?’
    â€˜Yes, please.’
    Angus didn’t say anything else—he 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
—that 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 she’d 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 best—she would just have to wait for the judges’ decision.
    Quite a few people stopped to admire the window.
    â€˜Your lassie’s done a good