Paddington Goes To Town

It had seemed very good value at the time and as far as he could make out it would be difficult to think of a situation which was more of an emergency than his present one.

His brief appearance at the window didn’t go entirely unnoticed, but fortunately the only person who saw him was Judy, and by the time she’d passed the message on to Jonathan he’d disappeared again.

“Perhaps it was a mirage,” said Jonathan hopefully.

“It wasn’t,” said Judy. “It was Paddington’s hat.”

“Paddington!” echoed Deirdre, catching the end of Judy’s reply. “Don’t mention that name to me.”

“Look!” she announced dramatically, holding up her wedding finger for what seemed to her audience like the hundredth time. “A curtain ring! A brass curtain ring!”

“I thought it would be better than nothing,” said the best man, hastily cupping his hands under Deirdre’s in case the object of her wrath fell off. “I was hoping you might have big fingers.”

Deirdre gave the best man a withering glare and then turned her attention back to the unfortunate Harold. “Don’t just stand there,” she exclaimed. “Do something!”

“Look here,” broke in Mr Brown. “I still don’t see why you’re blaming Paddington.”

“My room’s on the fifth floor,” said Mr Price, briefly. “And there are only two keys. Paddington had the other one.”

“Fancy asking a bear to be an usher,” said Deirdre, scornfully. “You might have known something would happen. I shall never be able to show my face in the shop again. Practically all our best customers are here.”

The new Mrs Price broke off as quite clearly above her words there came the sound of a siren, at first in the distance, and then gradually getting closer and closer.

The vicar glanced nervously out of his vestry window. Quite a crowd seemed to have collected outside the church and even as he watched, a large, red fire engine, its siren sounding furiously, screamed to a halt and several men in blue uniform jumped off, their hatchets at the ready.

“That’s all I need,” said Deirdre bitterly, as the vicar excused himself and hurried off to investigate the matter. “A fire! That’ll round off the day nicely!” The room fell silent as Mr Price’s bride, having exhausted the topic of the things she would like to do, embarked on a long list of the things she wasn’t going to do under any circumstances until she got her wedding ring back; including signing the register, having her photograph taken and going on her honeymoon.

It was just as she reached the last item, and Mr Price’s face had fallen to its longest ever, that the door burst open and the vicar hurried back into the room closely followed by a man in a fireman’s uniform, and behind him, Paddington himself.

“There you are, Paddington,” said Mrs Brown thankfully. “Where have you been?”

“Having a bit of a sticky time of it, if you ask me, ma’am,” began the fireman, “what with one thing and another.”

“My ring!” broke in Deirdre, catching sight of a shiny object in Paddington’s outstretched paw.

“I’m afraid it got stuck round a bend, Mrs Price,” explained Paddington.

“Stuck round a bend?” repeated Deirdre disbelievingly. “How on earth did that happen?”

Paddington took hold of the ring in his other paw in order to demonstrate exactly what had gone wrong. “I’m not sure,” he admitted truthfully. “I just slipped it on for safety and when I tried to take it off again…”

The fireman gave a groan. “Don’t say you’ve done it again!” he exclaimed. “I only just got it off.”

“Bears!” groaned Deirdre. “I’m not meant to get married.”

“What I can’t understand,” said Mr Price, “is why you put it on your paw in the first place, Mr Brown.”

“You said you were going to give Mrs Brown a ring,” said Paddington unhappily. “I thought I’d save you the bother.”

“I said I was going to give Mrs Brown a ring?” repeated Harold, hardly able to believe his ears.

“I think you did,” said Mrs Brown. “Paddington probably didn’t realise you meant a ring on the telephone.”

“Quite a natural mistake,” said Mrs Bird in the silence which followed. “Anyone might have made it in the circumstances.”

“Never mind,” said the fireman. “What goes on must come off – especially the second time.

“I tell you what,” he continued, sizing up the situation as he got to work on Paddington’s paw with a pair of pliers, “if the happy couple would like to sign the register while I do this, I’ll get my crew to form a guard of honour outside the church.”

“A guard of honour!” exclaimed Deirdre.

“With axes,” said the fireman.

The new Mrs Price began to look slightly better pleased.”Well, I don’t know really…” she simpered, patting her hair.

“It’s a bit irregular,” whispered the fireman in Paddington’s ear, “and we don’t normally do it for people outside the service, but we’ve a big recruiting drive on at the moment and it’ll be good publicity. Besides, it’ll help calm things down a bit.”

“Thank you very much,” said Paddington gratefully. “I shall ask for you if ever I have a real fire.”

“It’ll make a lovely photograph,” said Harold persuasively, taking Deirdre’s hand and leading her across the room. “And it’ll be something to show the girls back in the shop.”

“If the ring won’t come off, perhaps I could come on the honeymoon with you, Mrs Price,” said Paddington hopefully. “I’ve never been on one of those before.”

Deirdre’s back stiffened as she bent down to sign the register.

“I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” said the fireman hastily, as he removed the ring at long last and handed it to Mr Price for safe keeping.

“Tell you what, though,” he added, seeing a look of disappointment cross Paddington’s face. “As you can’t go on the honeymoon perhaps we’ll give you a lift to the wedding breakfast on our way back to the station instead.

“After all,” he continued, looking meaningly at Mrs Price, “if this young bear hadn’t had the good sense to call us when he did he might still be wearing the ring and then where would you be?”

And to that remark not even Deirdre could find an answer.

“Gosh!” said Jonathan, as the Browns made their way back up the aisle. “Fancy riding on the back of a fire engine!”

“I don’t suppose there are many bears who can say they’ve done that,” agreed Judy.

Paddington nodded. A lot of things seemed about to happen all at once, and he wasn’t quite sure which he was looking forward to most. Apart from the promised ride he’d never heard of anyone having their breakfast in the afternoon before, let alone a wedding one, but it sounded a very good way of rounding things off.

“If you and Mrs Price ever want to get married again,” he announced, as Harold led Deirdre out of the church and paused for the photographers beneath an archway of raised fire axes, “I’ll do some more ’ushing for you if you like.”

Deirdre shuddered. “Never again,” she said, taking a firm grip on Harold’s arm. “Once is quite enough.”

Mr Price nodded his agreement. “It’s as I said in the beginning,” he remarked, from beneath a shower of confetti, “young Mr Brown has a habit of bringing people closer together in the end, and this time it’s for good!”

Chapter Two PADDINGTON HITS OUT (#u18dfbba0-3423-5c6c-8af4-a47b0ea808db)

“I KNOW IT’S none of my business,” said Mrs Bird, pausing for a moment as she cleared the breakfast table, “but do you think Mr Curry’s suddenly come into some money?” She nodded towards the next-door garden. “He’s out there practising with his golf clubs again this morning. That’s the third time this week.”