Snowy pretended to consider, then spoke slowly. ‘Ask me where I was? Well, I suppose she did, in a way.’ He grinned down at Tess, his blue eyes dancing, his mouth curving into a smile. ‘She called you a snake in the grass, my dear! What about that, eh?’

‘Really? And what, pray, did she call you?’

Snowy chuckled. ‘If I were to repeat what she called me you wouldn’t understand half the words she used and your ears would burn for a fortnight. I was quite shocked; she was on her way to attend the eleven o’clock service too. Ah, look, they’ve opened the gangway, which means we can board. Come along, because this is probably the nearest you’ll get to a holiday until the shop is able to do without you for the odd day.’ He took her basket, pretended to stagger beneath its weight, and then began to ascend the gangway.

Tess turned to stare at him. ‘But I shall get every Sunday off, and the river trips go on a Sunday. In fact once June arrives we can catch the ferry to Woodside and have a lovely day in the country and a cream tea with straw-berries,’ she pointed out. ‘And some of the farmhouses give you a Sunday roast for a few bob.’

Snowy looked down at her, slowly shaking his head and thinking how cute she looked when her pearly little teeth gripped her lower lip and her eyes looked so trustingly up into his. ‘No, little goose, I’d bet money on the fact that you won’t be able to have Sundays off. You’ll be cleaning cages, refilling water pots, and mixing poultry meal for chickens. You’ll be chopping and cooking dog meat so you have something to sell on Monday, exercising the puppies, cleaning the window glass . . .’

‘I won’t, I won’t!’ Tess squeaked, clearly horrified. ‘I’ll – I’ll get up very early and do all the important work and then I’ll pay a responsible schoolboy or -girl to do things like filling water pots. Gran will supervise and Albert will come in and check if I ask him – oh, you’re having me on! I hate you, Snowy White. I think Marilyn’s had a jolly narrow escape. I take it she has escaped?’

They had reached the head of the gangway and Snowy jerked his thumb towards the bows. ‘Go and grab a seat in the front,’ he advised her. ‘As for escaping, you make me sound like the Loch Ness monster.’

‘So you are, just like it,’ Tess said merrily. ‘But stop fooling and tell me just what Marilyn said.’

‘Oh, nothing much. She said only a rotter would have agreed to cancel an existing date in order to go out with an old flame . . .’

‘And I quite agree that you are a rotter.’ Tess said, plonking herself down on a white-painted seat in the bows and indicating that Snowy should take the place next to her. ‘Well, if this is to be my last treat for ages I mean to make the most of it. Pass me the basket; there’s a bag of mint humbugs right at the top which we can suck as we go along, admiring the beauties of the countryside.’ She fished the sweets out of the basket, popped one into Snowy’s mouth and took one herself. ‘And now let’s forget Marilyn and all other unpleasant things and enjoy ourselves,’ she said thankfully. ‘Ah, they’re casting off! Isn’t it exciting? When Gran was young she used to get the ferry to Dublin and spend a week with relatives; I’d like to do that one day, but first Gran and I must get the business properly established.’ She wrapped her arms round herself and beamed at Snowy. ‘I’m going to be a pet shop millionaire,’ she announced. ‘So hang on to your hat, Snowy White, if you’re going to share our success!’