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
“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.”
“I must say it’s very strange,” agreed Mrs Brown, as the clear sound of a ball being hit by a club greeted her housekeeper’s remarks. “He seemed to be turning his lawn into a putting green yesterday and he’s got some plus-fours hanging on the line.”
Paddington, who until that moment had been busily engaged in finishing up the last of the toast and marmalade before Mrs Bird removed it from the table, suddenly gave vent to a loud choking noise. “Mr Curry’s plus-fours are hanging on the line!” he exclaimed when he had recovered himself.
He peered through the window with interest, but Mr Curry’s clothes line seemed very little different from any other day of the week. In fact, apart from a tea towel and jerseys the only unusual item was a pair of very odd-looking trousers which hung limp and bedraggled in the still morning air.
“Those are plus-fours,” explained Mrs Brown. “They’re special trousers people used to wear when they played golf. You don’t often see them nowadays.”
Mrs Brown looked just as puzzled as her housekeeper as she considered Mr Curry’s strange behaviour. Apart from having a reputation for meanness, the Browns’ neighbour was also noted for his bad temper and unsportsmanlike attitude generally. The idea of his taking up any sort of game was hard to picture and when it was an expensive
