A Change OF SCENE

Having misjudged each other, Daisy and Lucinda were in for yet more surprises

- Matthew Batham

THE STORY SO FAR 1927. Old school friends Daisy and Lucinda reunite when Lucinda visits Daisy's Norfolk cottage. Though once close, their lives are now very different. Daisy runs a village tea shop, while Lucinda seems the epitome of London sophistication. Longing for a change, the pair impulsively swap lives - Lucinda stays in Norfolk, Daisy heads to Lucinda's London flat. But Daisy finds Lucinda's life far from glamorous. Her London home is shabby, and Lucinda has secretly been working in a pub to support her writing ambitions, having been cut off by her rich parents. Daisy also realises that Lucinda's handsome neighbour, Charlie, has a crush on Lucinda. Meanwhile, in Norfolk, a man in the tea shop introduces himself to Lucinda as Henry Nugent. He says Daisy was kind to his late father. After a visit from Daisy's landlord, Laurence Tucker, she also discovers Daisy is in debt. She owes rent and risks losing everything.

This was Daisy’s second visit to the Crown and Goose public house with Charlie in as many days, and she had to admit, she was rather fond of both the establishment and Charlie’s company.

The pub, tucked away in a backstreet, was devoid of any loutish behaviour, and a good proportion of its customers were female. Conversation hummed rather than being punctuated with yells and raucous banter, and much of that conversation appeared to be of an intellectual nature. Charlie had explained that the seemingly unassuming drinking hole had become a popular haunt for the literati of northwest London.

It made a pleasant change to sit and have a drink without being glared at by a row of red-faced, grumpy men, as was usually the case in the village pub Daisy sometimes visited if she had company. She pushed thoughts of her Norfolk life out of her mind. She had come to London to escape that world, although she knew all her problems would be waiting for her when she returned.