“You and Andy are weird, Eve,” grumbled Maria. “He fiddles about with old bones and you spend all your time drawing crabs. And for a bit of light relief you both do crossword puzzles!”
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Eve Sherman grinned. “Professor McAdams has a deadline for his book on crabs and I have to finish the artwork in time. And Andy loves fossils, what can I say?”
“Fossils are so boring.”
At seventeen, her sister Maria couldn’t understand the attraction of a starfish fossil millions of years old, or the thrill of unearthing an ichthyosaur tooth.
“He’s mad about his work,” said Eve lightly. “And as Mum says, a man who enjoys his job is a happy man.”
Andy Farmer was a Doctor of Paleontology and the youngest director ever appointed as Director of the county Natural History Museum. He was also the first boyfriend Eve had ever brought home who stood up when her mother came into the room and Mrs. Sherman had been charmed by his good manners.
Eve had noticed the warm twinkle in his brown eyes the first time she knocked on the door of his office and asked if the museum happened to have a specimen of an Ectophylla alba from South America.
“Now what would a nice girl like you want with a white bat?” he asked, swinging around on his chair. “They’re vicious little blighters.”
“I’m a scientific illustrator,” she explained, “I’m working with Professor McAdam on his book on the inhabitants of the Amazon jungle. He suggested I ask you because the only specimen he has is missing a bit of its wing and I’d like to copy something perfect.”
“Let’s take a look.” He tapped on his keyboard and brought up lists of specimens kept in the storeroom.
“I’m not sure what we have in the way of South American bats,” he muttered, scrolling down. “Aha, Ectophylla alba, white bat. You’re in luck.”
“Oh, good.”
He led her to a cavernous store room where he pulled out a drawer revealing a small white-furred bat with a sweet expression if you didn’t mind the sharp little teeth.
“I’m afraid you won’t be able to remove this,” he apologized. “But you could come in and work here, if that would do?”
“Of course.”
So Eve had made daily visits to the museum store room with her sketch pad and Andy dropped in to chat, often bringing a cup of coffee.
On the first morning he opened the door as she was filling in a So Du Ko puzzle.
“Aha! We share a guilty pleasure, I see.”
She flushed. “I started this on the bus and I just have to finish the darn thing,” she confessed.
He peered over her shoulder, his breath warm on her neck, and pointed. “You’ve got 6 twice in this block.”
“Oh darn it! I do that every time.”
But she’d found a soul mate and a fellow puzzler. They started having lunch together in the museum café and by the end of the week, when the drawing of the white bat was complete, they continued to see each other.
Most Saturdays they drove out to the Higham Cliffs, where Andy spent hours scraping the chalk for tiny ammonites and Eve sat in the shade, painting ladybirds for the Professor’s chapter on Insects. .
And their Sunday routine never varied.
Armed with the weekend paper, Andy picked her up early and drove out to the woods on the edge of town. They found a spot, spread a picnic rug and shared bits of the paper to read, leaving the best till last. The crossword puzzle.
They had a friendly competition to see who’d be the first to work out the clues.
“Seven across… ‘Baby girl, very healthy, 2,3 and 4 letters,” murmured Eve.
“In the pink, must be!” Andy triumphantly penciled it in. “Now three down…’Seasonal list of Asian food, six and four, and the second letter will be P.”
“Spring roll,” said Eve immediately. “Now, how about this: ‘Foresee six coming in to eat, six letters.”
“Six coming in.. that’s a V1 in there somewhere,” said Andy.
“To eat, that could be dine… divine!” squealed Eve.
“Oh, the girl’s good,” grinned Andy, lying back on the rug. “Come here, the divine Miss Eve, and give me a kiss.”
They finished the puzzle a long time later. But they always finished it.
Professor McAdam’s book had taken ten months but finally Eve’s work was complete and she was temporarily at a loose end.
“The next book is all about orchids,” she said, “I’m looking forward to painting flowers for a change. But the author won’t be ready for me for another month.”
“Why not take a proper break?” asked her mother. “You’ve always wanted to visit Spain”
“It wouldn’t be any fun without Andy.”
Mrs Sherman paused. “You’ve been going with that lad for what – eight months? Are you two serious? Not that I’m prying,” she added hastily.
“Serious? Well, I am. But I think Andy’s quite happy just drifting along the way we are at the moment.”
Her mother was dubious. “He’s a lovely boy, but maybe he needs a push in the right direction.”
Eve knew what her mother meant. Andy was everything she wanted in a man but he gave no sign of wanting to take things further.
Although once, he’d cleared his throat and run his hand through his thick blonde mane and said, “Eve, do you think you’d ever - ? Ahh, forget it. Silly idea.”
“Would I ever what?” she’d asked.
“Nothing. Never mind.”
A few Sundays later they were comfortably sharing their newspaper under a tree when shivered and Eve looked up.
“Maybe we should go home early, that black cloud looks horribly like rain.”
“No worries. We’ve an hour yet, I reckon.”
Andy was already deep in the Arts section and Eve turned the first page of the News as a small sheet of paper fluttered out.
“Oh, look!” she exclaimed. “An extra crossword!”
“Let’s see,” he said, stretching for it. “’For Crossword Lovers: Clues with a difference.’ Maybe it’s an advertisement of some kind. Okay, where’s your pencil?”
Eve fished around in her bag and handed it to him.
“One down: A finger might be needed to make this firm, 3,2 and 4.”
“ Hmmm… Tie the knot.”
“You’re quick,” he said admiringly. “How about this one: ‘Man of the soil, six letters.”
“Easy,” she said. “Farmer. Couldn’t help getting that one, could I, Dr Farmer?”
“Must have been meant for you,” he smiled. “Okay, what’s this? Four across: ‘Even the nuns couldn’t solve this musical problem.’ Five letters.”
“A musical nun?” he wondered. “Who was that singing nun from the Sound of Music?”
“I know- the one that became the children’s governess,” said Eve. “Maria!”
“You’ve got a good memory,” he said. “Well, if this is advertising something, I can’t think what it can be. Okay, what’s this one…nine down: This circle is the hardest, seven and four.”
“Circle…ring… diamond ring!” she said triumphantly. “Come on, Andy, you’re so slow today!”
“Sorry,” he said. “I’m not firing on all cylinders yet.”
“Well, seven across, ‘First of her kind, in both directions. Three letters,” she murmured. “Both directions. That’s usually a palindrome – oh! Eve, of course! Gosh, that’s such a coincidence – your name, my sister’s name- and now mine. This is strange, isn’t it?”
“Not really,” said Andy in an odd voice. “Carry on. See if you can get eight down. ‘After cake and champagne comes sweetness and light, nine letters..”
“Haven’t a clue,” she said. “Sugar something?”
“Honeymoon!” Andy penciled it, grinning.
“Ah, champagne and wedding cake… I get it,” she said.
“Now try eight down. ‘Begging the question. Two, six and four letters.”
“Heavens.” She shook her head. “I give up.”
“No, try it. What do you do with your knees when you beg for something?”
“What? Oh- on bended knee! Clever! But come on, I’ve done all the work, it’s your turn next,” she said lightly.
Just then a deafening clap of thunder overhead followed by huge drops of rain pelting down drove all thoughts of the crossword from her mind. Hastily they gathered the paper and the picnic things and dashed for the car.
Half an hour later they were considerably warmer and drier, and drinking hot chocolate on Eve’s sofa, their feet towards the heater.
“Oh darn, look
what’s happened to the paper. I haven’t even looked at it,” she said, picking up the crumpled, sodden pages. “And the ink’s run on this crossword we were doing. I can’t read a single clue so now we’ll never know what it was all about.”
Andy made a strangled noise, spluttering hot chocolate all over his sweater. “Rotten cheap printer,” he mumbled..
‘Are you all right?” she asked anxiously. “D’you think you’re catching a cold?”
“No,” he coughed. “But we only had one clue left. The most important one. I can remember it.”
Eve stared at him. “You can? What was it?”
“Er…generic proposal. 4,3 5, 2. The first word starts with a W. And the last word ends with an e.”
“Oh… a general suggestion?” She considered. “ ‘Lets all party on?’ “
“No, silly, the first word starts with W.”
“Mmm. Oh of course, will you marry me!”
“You got it. At last!”
“So were they advertising something to do with weddings? Diamond rings? It’s a bit too subtle, if you ask me.”
“Eve!” Andy banged his head on the arm of the sofa in mock despair. “Will you marry me?”
“Yes, I know, I got that one already…. Ohhhh.”
She stared at him for a nano- second then threw her arms around him.
“Affirmative,” she whispered. “Three letters.”.