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Behind Lucianna’s back Janey quickly and very firmly shook her head in her husband’s direction, warning him not to make any comment.
‘Lucianna going shopping…I don’t believe it,’ David commented to Janey later, when they were on their own. ‘She’s really got it badly for this John.’
‘She’s a woman, David,’ Janey reminded him gently. ‘And she’s just beginning to discover the pleasure of what being a woman means, of taking pride in herself and her femininity.’
‘But she’s always been such a tomboy…’
‘Because that was what all of you expected her to be,’ Janey told him firmly. ‘But she isn’t a teenager any more, she’s a woman now, and a very, very attractive one…’
‘Luce?’
‘Luce,’ Janey confirmed, shaking her head in faint exasperation at the brotherly disbelief in his voice and adding spiritedly and, so far as David was concerned, very cryptically, ‘And if you don’t believe me then ask Jake…’
‘Jake…? What…?’
Shaking her head again, Janey gave him an enigmatic smile.
Men. Why was it that even the nicest of them could be so obtuse at times?
‘Jake’s been on the phone,’ Janey announced as Lucianna walked into the kitchen the following morning. ‘He’s got to go away for a few days—something about some business matters needing attention. He said to tell you that he’ll be back by the end of the week.’
Jake was away. Lucianna’s heart gave an unexpectedly intense flurry of small thuds which she told herself quickly were no doubt due to relief that she would be relieved of his odious and demanding presence for a small oasis of time.
She suddenly found herself wondering whether these business matters Jake so unexpectedly had to attend to might involve the presence of a female travelling companion, a someone with whom Jake might share whatever private time these business matters might allow him, a someone who might enjoy being taken shopping and dressed up in those same, so silky, frivolous bits of nonsense which had kept manifesting themselves throughout her troubled dreams last night.
Not that she cared. No, of course she didn’t. Why should she? Jake could buy underwear for as many other females as he chose—it was nothing to her! Nothing at all.
Janey frowned as Lucianna pushed away her cereal virtually untouched. Perhaps David was right after all and Lucianna did genuinely love John. Janey sincerely hoped not—for several reasons!
‘I’d better go upstairs and get changed. I’ve got some shopping to do this morning,’ Lucianna told her sister-in-law, abruptly coming to the decision she had been tussling with.
It was an easy enough task for Lucianna to drive to the shopping complex and find the shop Jake had pointed out to her the previous day. What proved far harder was actually making herself open the shop door and go inside.
In the end it was the friendly and slightly concerned smile of the girl behind the counter inside the shop, who had already glanced in her direction several times, that finally gave Lucianna the impetus to push open the door and go in.
‘It is hard to choose, isn’t it?’ the girl commented as Lucianna glanced uncertainly around, thoroughly bewildered not just by the multiplicity of styles and colours in which the underwear was displayed but also by the confusing language in which it was described. ‘Would you like some help?’ the salesgirl continued.
Lucianna took a deep breath, nodding. Since she was the only customer in the shop she didn’t exactly feel comfortable fibbing that she was simply browsing.
‘Are you looking for something for yourself?’ the salesgirl queried, and when Lucianna nodded again she enquired further, ‘Is it for a special occasion or to go under a specific outfit? For instance, we recommend either a string or these to go under trousers,’ she explained, taking in Lucianna’s jeans-clad figure with a brief but professional glance and pointing to a nearby display.
The ‘string’, as she described
it, made Lucianna gnaw worriedly at her bottom lip. She could just imagine Jake’s reaction to the idea of her wearing such a delicate feminine wisp of underwear.
‘It’s far more practical and hard-wearing than it looks,’ the salesgirl informed her, taking it off its hanger and proving her point by stretching the skimpy white lace garment.
‘I wear them myself, and they’re great under even the tightest jeans or anything where you don’t want to show any knicker line. My boyfriend thinks they’re rather neat as well,’ she added with a conspiratorial grin.
‘We do sell these as well, of course,’ she added, her voice and expression thoroughly professional once more as she replaced the string with its fellows and removed the other pair of knickers she had pointed out to Lucianna.
‘Big knickers, we call them,’ she explained wryly, ‘and of course they do give an equally neat outline, but we do tend to find that they don’t sell quite as well as the strings. Men don’t like them,’ she told Lucianna, before turning away and waving her hand around the shop floor. ‘Of course, if you’re after something a little bit more frivolous, something that’s more flirty than functional, we do several mix-and-match ranges that include everything from silk or satin teddies right through to balconette bras, French knickers…’
Lucianna took another deep, steadying breath and, before she could lose her nerve, blurted out, ‘Er…actually, I was wondering…Do you sell suspender belts?’
To her relief the girl didn’t betray by so much as a flicker of an eyelash that she found anything unusual in her request.
‘Oh, yes, they’re over here,’ she told Lucianna, indicating and walking towards another display.
