Caroline Anderson - Knave of Hearts

‘Hello, Maggie, nice to see you again,’ Jake was saying, and pulled up two chairs. ‘Is there a reason for the overcrowding?’ he asked mildly, his eyes twinkling.

Maggie laughed, her soft pansy-blue eyes filled with happiness.

‘We happen to like it,’ her companion said with a wicked grin, and stuck out his hand. ‘Ben Bradshaw, A and E.’

‘Jake Hunter … I’m covering for Jo Harding—sorry, Carter. I’ve known her a long time; it’ll take me a while to get used to the change. Jo and Annie and I go back—oh, eleven years?’

Annie nodded. ‘Something like that.’ She eyed Maggie and Ben suspiciously, but she had no intention of asking what she wanted to ask in public. The last time she’d seen Maggie, she’d been breaking her heart because Ben was getting married—in fact, he should have done so last Saturday, so why was Maggie sitting so close to him now that she was getting pressure sores?

Then she saw the ring.

‘Catching flies?’ Jake murmured, but she ignored him.

‘Would someone care to tell me what’s going on?’ she asked.

Maggie tried to hide her smile. ‘Fancy coming to a wedding on Saturday week?’

‘But I thought …’

The smile broke out regardless. ‘So did I, but I was wrong.’

Annie shook her head. ‘Would you run that by me again?’ she said plaintively.

Maggie laughed delightedly. ‘You know I overheard Ben and Jan planning a wedding?’

‘Yes?’

‘Jan’s his stepsister. She got married on Saturday.’

‘But not to Ben?’

Maggie shook her head.

‘So the ship’s rat’s not a rat at all?’

‘Ship’s rat?’ Ben said indignantly.

Anne blushed. ‘Sorry, just a figure of speech—Jo’s, actually.’

Jake laughed. ‘I’m not sure I quite understand what’s going on, but do I take it that congratulations are in order?’

Ben chuckled. ‘Yes, thank God. I never want to go through a time like that again. It took me five minutes to fall for her, and then another five weeks to persuade her to marry me—that’s when I could finally get her to listen.’

Jake gave a wry snort of amusement. ‘Is that all? You want to try courting Annie—after eleven years she still won’t marry me, even though she knows how wonderfully easy I am to live with,’ he said mournfully.

‘You jest!’ Anne retorted.

Maggie was wide-eyed. ‘You lived with him?’ she said incredulously.

‘Not precisely,’ Anne mumbled.

‘Yes, you did—precisely. You just wouldn’t marry me.’

She glared at Jake, and he shrugged and smiled.

Ben shook his head. ‘Must be something wrong with your technique, old man.’

‘After all the practice he got in? No chance,’ Anne said drily, and then blushed furiously at the others’ laughter.

She was rescued by the sudden bleeping of her pager.

‘Saved by the bell,’ Jake said with another chuckle, and, with a mumbled excuse, she fled.

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