Unknown by Unknown

recognised the diminutive figure of Susan hurrying to catch her up.
    ‘Hullo, there! I wondered if I would be able to attract your attention,’ she said breathlessly. ‘I saw you coming out of the market but I was on the other side of the road and there was so much traffic and people milling around I just got across in time to miss you!’
    Anna looked round for Martha.
    ‘She isn't with me,’ Susan informed her. ‘It’s my morning off and she’s having a lesson from the tennis coach before it gets too hot to play. Her mother will be in the hotel all day so I thought I would seize the opportunity to buy a pair of shoes. But where to go? Every second shop seems to sell shoes.’
    ‘I can tell you where to go,' Anna agreed ‘depending on what you are looking for.’
    ‘Oh, something smart with a highish heel. I’m small, you see, and I feel demoralised in flatties except on the beach.’ She paused. ‘I say, you wouldn’t come with me, would you? I know you must be busy, shopping and all that, but I would appreciate your advice. Then perhaps we could have a coffee or something before we went back to the daily grind.’
    ‘I mustn’t be too long,’ Anna said, ‘but I’ll come with you if you like. There’s a very good shop quite near here—quite reasonable, too.’
    ‘Oh, don’t worry about the price,’ Susan said airily. ‘I get frequent presents from my employer because I do her duty for her rather well.’
    Anna led the way across the street in silence.
    ‘Pity I don’t take her size in shoes,’ Susan chattered on. ‘I do very well with dresses, though, because I can shorten them to suit me. She buys the most expensive clothes, mostly in Paris and New York.’
    ‘Do you go to America with her?’ Anna found herself asking.
    ‘Not very often,’ Susan said. ‘She goes home then and takes Martha with her, but I’ve half a notion she plans to stay here for a while. It would be easy enough for her to hop on a jet at Lamaca and be in London or Paris or even New York in next to no time. The thing is—she would expect me to stay here, too, and I don’t know that I would want to do that. I like to travel. That’s really why I took the job in the first place and I’m not sure that a villa in the mountains would be my cup of tea.’
    She paused for breath and Anna seized the opportunity to change the subject.
    ‘We can go in here and see what they have to offer,’ she suggested, indicating the open door of the nearest shoe shop. ‘I think you’ll get what you want.’
    ‘Oh, yes, thank you!’ Susan dived into the shop ahead of her. ‘Can you translate for me?’
    ‘You’re quite safe with your English,’ Anna assured her. ‘You don’t really need me to come in with you.’
    ‘But please do, all the same! I like to have a second opinion.’
    It was almost an hour before they emerged, leaving the floor strewn with rejected shoes, but Susan had made a decision in the end and the assistant saw them off the premises with a pleasant smile.
    ‘Let’s have that coffee,’ Susan suggested. ‘We’ve still got time. Can we go somewhere with lots of atmosphere, not just to a fashionable coffee-shop?’
    ‘There’s one round the next corner,’ Anna said, ‘but I must be on my way home by eleven o’clock. Some of the things I’ve bought will be needed for the buffet.’
    ‘It’ll do you good to put your feet up for ten minutes,’ Susan grinned, tripping behind her into the taverna with her fancy carrier-bag swinging from her arm. ‘I just love those shoes, by the way. Thank you for sparing the time to come with me.’
    Anna ordered two cups of coffee and a honey cake for Susan who sat munching it thoughtfully as she gazed out of the window at the passing crowd.
    ‘I’m still worried about staying on,’ she said, at last. ‘I like the job and I suppose I would have difficulty finding another one quite so lucrative if I went back to England but it can’t last much longer than a year.