Much to Sam’s annoyance, Katie wasn’t the only one waiting for him outside the house three-quarters of an hour after she left the basement. Judy was standing alongside her, both of them dressed in sweaters and pedal-pushers with their hair in ponytails as if they were going to the beach instead of an outing he’d hoped would turn into a date. Feeling a fool in his suit, shirt and tie, he thought things couldn’t get any worse until Katie spotted Adam walking up St. Helen’s Road, from the direction of the Bay View pub. Stepping in front of him, she blocked his path. ‘Hello, Adam.’
Adam glanced warily from her to Judy to Sam, before nodding an acknowledgement.
‘We’re going for an ice cream. Why don’t you join us?’ Katie invited.
‘I don’t make a habit of going where I’m not wanted,’ Adam growled.
‘If we hadn’t wanted you to come with us I wouldn’t have asked you.’ She looked at Sam. ‘This quarrel between you boys is stupid.’
‘You don’t know the first thing about it,’ Adam refuted.
‘Katie’s right.’ Judy came to her friend’s defence. ‘We were all having fun before it started. And now you aren’t talking to one another. Come on, Adam, can’t you put whatever happened down to you boys having one drink too many?’
‘You think that’s all there is to it?’ he asked angrily.
‘I know better than anyone that Brian can be a clown after he’s had a few drinks, but from what I can gather none of you behaved like saints at Jack’s stag party or afterwards at the Pier,’ Judy said pointedly.
‘She’s right, Adam. We all behaved like idiots. What say you we shake and make up?’ Sam held out his hand.
Adam hesitated for the barest fraction of a second before taking Sam’s hand and shaking it.
‘Ice creams on me.’ Sam led the way into the parlour. ‘Katie, Judy, what flavour would you like?’
‘Strawberry, please.’ Katie delved into her handbag for her purse. ‘But I’ll pay for my own.’ She handed him a shilling.
‘I’ll have chocolate.’ Judy found a couple of sixpences in her pocket and handed them over.
‘Right, independent misses. Find a table for five.’
‘Why five?’ Adam followed Sam to the counter.
‘We’re meeting Jack after hospital visiting.’
‘I thought perhaps you and Katie or Judy …’
‘Katie and I aren’t anything,’ Sam said sourly. ‘I only wish we were. And as far as I know, Judy’s only separated from Brian by distance.’ He cornered an assistant. ‘One strawberry ice, one chocolate … What are you having, Adam?’
Lily glanced at her watch. ‘It’s almost eight o’clock. Katie and Mrs Lannon will be wondering where I am.’
‘Not your uncle?’ Joe settled back in the driving seat, linked his hands behind his head and studied the view.
‘He’s on afternoons, so he won’t be home until eleven.’
‘You could telephone,’ he suggested.
‘I have things to do.’
‘Like washing your hair.’
Lily looked at him and realised he was teasing. They had parked on the cliff edge of the car park between Mumbles and Limeslade. Behind them was the big Apple Kiosk where Joe had bought them a scratch meal of crisps, lemonade and Tiffin chocolate bars; although to his annoyance she had insisted on paying for her share. In front was a breathtaking vista of sky, sea and, in the distance, the Devonshire coast.
‘Nothing could be more important than watching this sunset,’ he said appreciatively. ‘Have you ever seen such jewelled colours? They could have been mixed on the palette of a Renaissance painter. And that gigantic, colossal sun! Its dying embers look as though they’re about to ignite the sea. I think that’s how it will appear at the end of the world.’
‘And when is that going to be?’ she enquired drily.
Turning, he gazed into her eyes. ‘Never, because this one moment is ours for ever.’
She looked back out to sea. Below them faint cries and snatches of conversation drifted upwards from teenagers playing the halfpenny shove machines in the Pier’s amusement arcade. Above them gulls circled, screeching before they swooped down to the sea in their relentless hunt for food.
‘It is a perfect sunset, Joe. But it is also just like a hundred others.’
‘How can you be so prosaic? It’s unique because it is the first we’ve seen from here together.’ He moved one of his arms, resting it on the back of her seat behind her head.
She sat forward, preventing him from putting his arm over her shoulders. ‘And in Robin’s sports car. Shouldn’t you be getting it back to him?’
‘Not until morning. I arranged to pick him up and drive him to college. He’s at a party tonight.’
‘Weren’t you invited?’
‘I wasn’t fit company for anyone.’
‘Except me,’ she observed wryly.
‘Not many people are as understanding or forgiving as you.’
‘I really do have to go, Joe.’ She dropped her empty crisp packet into the paper bag that held the remains of her Tiffin bar.
‘Because Martin’s class finishes at nine and he’ll be home at half past?’
‘Martin sat his finals last week so his evening classes have finished.’ She suddenly realised the significance of what he’d said. ‘You know the time of Martin’s classes?’
‘Only because Robin and I occasionally pick his sister and Emily up from their evening classes,’ he lied.
‘I thought they were at art college.’
‘They are.’
‘And they study in the evening?’
‘Some girl thing or other,’ he muttered dismissively in an attempt to hide just how closely he watched Martin’s movements – and hers. ‘So.’ He finally moved his arm from behind her head. ‘You want to go home.’
‘Yes, please.’
‘Straight home?’
‘Straight home,’ she repeated firmly.
‘I haven’t thanked you properly for listening to me. Let me buy you dinner. The upstairs dining room in the Mermaid serve a steak and kidney pie that tastes like home cooking should and never does, and an ice cream gateaux that melts on the tongue like a slice of heaven.’
‘Not tonight, thank you,’ she refused politely.
‘Soon.’
‘I don’t think so. It would be too much like old times.’
‘They were good times – or didn’t you think so?’
‘They were old times, Joe. Now I’m with …’
‘Martin. I know. Tell him I’m grateful for allowing me to borrow you. Thanks to you, I now have a plan of action and the determination to confront Richard Thomas.’
‘Don’t do it before your finals.’
‘Why?’ He gunned the ignition.
‘Because it’s not worth risking upsetting yourself. It could affect your exams.’
‘They’ll be over in two weeks.’
‘That’s such a short time, it gives you all the more reason to wait.’
‘You’re right, as always.’ He smiled at her. ‘You know it is criminal to leave that sunset …’
‘Drive,’ she ordered, tying her scarf over her hair again. ‘Are you going to tell Mr Griffiths about Richard Thomas?’
He pushed the car into reverse gear and backed out of the parking spot. ‘I’ll think about it. I know it will hurt him but I’ve never kept any secrets from him before and I see no reason to start now. And it’s not as though it will cause any more friction between him and my mother. The situation couldn’t be worse.’ Changing into first gear, he drove towards the main road.
‘I’m sorry.’
‘So am I.’ Turning right at the main road, he headed back towards Mumbles. ‘But no one can colour the whole world rosy.’
‘It would be nice if we could.’
‘I won’t forgive you for making me leave that sunset.’
‘There’ll be others.’
‘For us?’ he asked seriously.
‘No, Joe.’
‘You can’t blame a fellow for trying.’
As Jack left the ward, a nurse entered it. On impulse, he looked back as she pushed through the swing doors. Helen was still sitting in the chair where he’d left her, tears running unchecked down her cheeks. The door swung shut in his face. It would be so easy to push it open, run over to her, scoop her into his arms and …
‘Mr Clay.’ The sister tapped his shoulder.
‘I’m leaving.’ He fought the urge to tell her to go to hell for Helen’s sake.
‘Doctor would like a word. You can wait in here.’ She ushered him into a tiny office dominated by an enormous desk.
Angered by the assumption that no one’s time was as important as that of the hospital staff, he moved a pile of papers, perched on the edge of the desk and resigned himself to watching the clock. After twenty minutes the sister returned with a middle-aged man in a white coat. Closing the door, she leaned against it as if trying to block his escape.
Without acknowledging his presence, the doctor elbowed past and settled behind the desk. Still ignoring him, he lifted out the files in the in-tray and scanned them.
‘You’re, Mr …’
‘Jack Clay.’
‘Mrs Helen Clay’s husband,’ Jack interrupted, incensed that the sister had spoken for him.
‘Ah, yes, Mrs Clay.’ Taking care to avoid direct eye contact, the doctor muttered, ‘She’s had a serious operation. Very serious indeed.’
‘I know.’
‘It’s not only the stitches on the outside that you can see. There are many, many more on the inside.’ He spoke slowly as though Jack were a child capable of understanding only the simplest of concepts. ‘She’ll need rest and care – a lot of care. Regular meals, early nights …’
‘She’ll get it.’
‘And no hanky-panky, eh.’
‘Hanky-panky?’ Jack repeated in bewilderment.
‘No marital relations for at least six weeks,’ the sister elaborated.
‘Not until she receives the all clear from us in the outpatients’ clinic.’ The doctor returned to his papers.
‘Given your age and men’s natural predisposition, it would be a wise precaution for you and your wife to sleep in separate bedrooms for a month or two,’ the sister advised bluntly.
Jack looked pointedly at the sister’s left hand. ‘You are not married.’
‘I am a nurse and I am speaking medically. If you force yourself on your wife you will damage her.’
‘I don’t need to be told how to care for my wife.’ Jack’s temper, along with his voice rose precariously.
‘We are giving you sound medical advice. Ignore it …’
‘And I don’t need you to lecture me on the obvious.’ He realised he was shouting, but he was too incensed to calm down. ‘I would never do anything to hurt Helen …’
‘You say that now but you may feel differently when you get her home.’
‘She will receive the best possible care I can give her until Sunday.’
‘And after Sunday?’ the sister enquired.
‘My father-in-law will take over.’
‘You are leaving your wife?’
‘I’ve been called up to do my National Service.’
A hubbub of voices echoed in from the corridor. Someone banged on the door. The sister barged into Jack as she tried to make room to manoeuvre it open. Before she pulled the door back six inches, Jack saw Helen lying on the floor surrounded by nurses. Grabbing the door, he slammed it into the sister and rushed out. Pushing two of the nurses aside, he knelt beside her and took her head gently into his lap. She was pale – so pale that he held his breath and stroked her face gently. Then he saw the flutter of a pulse at her neck and began to breathe again. ‘You are going to be fine, sweetheart,’ he insisted, wanting to believe it. ‘Just fine …’
‘I can’t understand where Jack’s got to.’ Katie trailed her spoon around the inside of her empty ice cream dish before pushing it into the centre of the table.
‘Perhaps they gave him an extra half-hour with Helen.’ Sam stacked her bowl inside his.
‘If they’re letting her out on Friday, it’s more like they’re giving him instructions on how to look after her,’ Adam suggested. ‘My father and I had to sit through a half-hour lecture from the ward sister before they let my mother out after her appendix operation and even then they sent a battery of nurses in and out of the house at all hours of the day and night to make sure we’d understood their instructions and weren’t doing anything we shouldn’t.’
‘That’s probably it,’ Judy agreed.
‘As there’s no sign of him, how about I get us all a coffee?’ Sam offered.
‘My shout.’ Adam left his chair. ‘Give us a hand, Judy.’
‘I’ll be over when you’re served.’
‘Do you girls like having men dance attendance on you?’ Sam gibed, as Adam went to the counter alone.
‘No,’ Judy snapped.
‘Seems like it to me.’
‘We weren’t the ones who suggested a walk and an ice cream.’ Katie reminded him.
Sam smiled in an attempt to diffuse their irritation. ‘You didn’t have to. Your charms did it for you.’ His smile broadened as Katie scowled. ‘Even now, when you’re trying to look angry, you’re irresistible.’
‘I can see it’s time I helped Adam with the coffees.’ Judy left her chair.
‘Perhaps, like Judy, you prefer Adam to me,’ Sam suggested to Katie.
‘Unlike you he does know how to take no for an answer.’
‘And that’s an advantage?’ Taking the dirty dishes, he stacked them on an empty table behind them.
‘Definitely, as far as I’m concerned.’
‘You really don’t like men, do you?’
‘I’m not interested in going out with one.’
‘At the moment.’
‘Ever.’ She left her chair and waved to Jack as he walked in. He saw her and made his way to their table.
‘You look as though you’ve lost a shilling and found a penny.’ Sam pulled out a chair for him. ‘Everything all right with Helen?’
‘No.’
‘She’s not worse …’
‘I’m not sure. I don’t think so,’ he reassured Katie, ‘but she can’t stop crying and the bloody …’
‘Any more of that language and I’ll call the police,’ the manager threatened.
‘Sorry,’ Jack apologised as he sat down. ‘The doctor and the sister wanted a word with me about looking after her when she was discharged …’
‘Told you.’ Adam set two coffees on the table and stood back to make room for Judy who was carrying two more. ‘Coffee?’ he asked Jack.
Jack shook his head as he lit a cigarette.
‘They might throw you out, especially after that language,’ Sam warned.
‘All right.’ Jack nodded to Adam, totally forgetting that Martin had mentioned he’d quarrelled with him, Brian and Sam, in his concern for Helen.
‘You were telling us that you were talking to the doctor,’ Katie prompted.
‘I explained that I’d only be taking care of Helen until Sunday because I’d received my call-up for National Service. I think she must have overheard me on her way to the bathroom, because she fainted in the corridor.’
‘You’re sure she only fainted?’ Judy asked.
‘I don’t know. She was very pale but she was definitely breathing. The …’ He eyed the manager who was watching him and moderated his language. ‘They threw me out. I tried to stay, but the sister called a couple of porters. I tried arguing with them but it became ugly and I decided a fight wouldn’t help Helen.’
‘Did they say you could telephone?’ Katie pushed her coffee in front of him.
‘Tomorrow morning. She’s my wife and I’m not even allowed to ask how she is.’ He pulled heavily on his cigarette.
‘Look on the bright side,’ Sam commiserated, ‘she’ll be out on Friday.’
‘If she’s recovered.’
‘If it was just a faint, it’s not serious. My mother kept passing out all the time for the first month after her operation.’ Adam returned with more coffee and, realising Katie was the only one who didn’t have a cup in front of her, handed it over.
‘You’ll have a couple of days together, Jack,’ Katie consoled him.
‘And at least a week’s leave after your training,’ Sam handed him the ashtray. ‘Maybe more if they send you overseas.’
‘And then I won’t see her for two years.’
‘That might not happen. Look at Adam.’
‘Look at Adam what?’ Adam bristled, anticipating another insult.
‘You spent the whole of your National Service in this country,’ Sam reminded him.
‘I was the exception rather than the rule.’
‘I’m not sure Jack wanted to hear that.’ Sam looked at Jack who was so deeply sunk in misery that he’d stopped listening to them.
‘I know Helen.’ Katie laid her hand over her brother’s. ‘She’ll bounce back from this, you’ll see.’
‘The operation, or me being away for two years?’ Jack enquired acidly.
‘Both.’
‘I hope you’re right.’ Jack ground his cigarette butt to dust in the ashtray.
‘I am, you’ll see.’ Katie tried to sound optimistic but she didn’t really believe it. John was in Swansea, and working in Lewis Lewis’s she’d be able to see him, albeit from a distance. But even now when they still worked together, seeing wasn’t enough for her, and she didn’t know how she was going to cope without being able to talk to him – even about inconsequential work matters on a daily basis. If she were suddenly to discover he was going away, possibly even abroad for two years and there was no likelihood of seeing him during all that time, she simply wouldn’t want to go on.
‘You’re leaving this car in the street?’ Lily asked Joe in surprise as he parked outside his house.
‘You want me to put it in the living room?’ He looked quizzically at her. ‘Even if I could get it through the door, it wouldn’t fit in the hall …’
‘Don’t be silly, you know I meant the garage.’
‘There isn’t room for two and my father’s car will be there.’
‘Then you’d better put the top up in case it rains.’
‘I intended to.’
‘Thanks for the drive.’ She opened the door.
‘You’re going, just like that.’
‘You want me to give you notice?’
‘Just the chance to say thank you.’
‘You’ve already said it.’
‘I can say it again. Look …’ Momentarily lost for words, he stared into her eyes. They glowed luminous in the twilight. Magnificent, beautiful eyes that had first attracted him to her. No matter how many times he looked into them, they held a fascination that seemed to encompass her entire personality. He loved her wholly, deeply and profoundly to the half-agonising point where he felt himself defined by his feelings for her. She was the first thing he thought of in the morning and the last image his mind clung to before sleep overtook him at night. She stole into his day and night dreams. How could she not realise that every breath he took, every plan he made, was for her?
‘Look?’ she reiterated expectantly.
He searched for the right words. ‘I know we’re only friends but can we do this again?’
‘The next time you want to talk to someone, you know where to find me.’
‘Not just talk. Go for a drive, a walk …’
‘Perhaps,’ she murmured distractedly. ‘There’s Martin.’ Opening the door, she ran up the street to meet him.
A knot of jealousy tightened and twisted in Joe’s stomach, flooding his mouth with bile as he watched Lily greet Martin. He didn’t want to look at them but couldn’t stop himself. She was smiling. Was it his imagination, or was there more warmth in her face now than there had been all evening?
Slowly, gradually, her smile grew strained as Martin looked from her to the car. Instead of the hug he’d braced himself for, Martin turned his back on her and headed in his direction. ‘Just can’t leave her alone, can you, Joe!’
Lily grabbed the arm of Martin’s torn and oil-stained denim jacket as he lunged forward. ‘There’s nothing between Joe and me any more. We’re just friends …’
‘Friends!’ Martin spat out the word as if it were a profanity.
‘Friends,’ she repeated quietly, still clinging to his arm.
He looked at her for an instant, then at Joe. Clenching his hands into fists, he turned on his heel and ran down the steps to his basement.
‘I’m sorry, Lily.’
‘It’s all right, Joe, he just lost his temper. I’ll talk him round.’
‘If it will help I’ll go with you.’
She shook her head. ‘It wouldn’t, but thank you for the offer.’ Leaving him in the car, she walked up the path to her front door.
‘You’re late, Lily.’ Mrs Lannon emerged from the kitchen as Lily hung her coat and hat on the stand. ‘Your tea is in the oven; although heaven only knows what state it will be in after all this time. Burned to a crisp, I don’t doubt.’
‘I’ve eaten, Mrs Lannon, but thank you for the thought.’
‘Well, I must say it would be more thoughtful of you if you told me when you’re going to be out in future. And for how long. It will save me the trouble of making meals you can’t be bothered to eat, and all the worry that Katie and I …’
‘Katie’s in?’
‘She went down to Joe’s ice cream parlour with Judy and Sam. I think they’re going to meet her brother after visiting.’
Lily was sure that Katie hadn’t told Mrs Lannon every detail of her planned movements but she said nothing beyond a vague, ‘I see.’
‘Don’t you want anything? A cup of tea at least? I know what you young girls are like. Dashing about here, there and everywhere, filling yourself with all sorts of rubbish, never taking time to sit at a table and eat a proper meal.’
‘I don’t want anything, thank you, Mrs Lannon.’ Lily was conscious she was clipping her words. She had to try harder – learn patience like Katie. Mrs Lannon’s constant carping and prying never set her friend on edge the way it did her.
‘You haven’t said where you’ve been.’ Mrs Lannon crossed her arms and waited to hear.
‘A friend was in trouble and needed someone to talk to.’
‘Would that be a girlfriend?’
‘Just a friend, Mrs Lannon.’
‘You’re not thinking of going downstairs at this time of night,’ she warned disapprovingly, as Lily opened the basement door.
‘It’s not that late and I need to see Martin.’
‘He’s alone down there, you know. I just heard the door bang.’
‘It could have been Sam or Jack.’
‘They’re still out with Katie. Besides, I saw Martin walk down the steps.’
Lily realised that if Mrs Lannon had seen Martin walking down the steps she must have been standing in the front parlour window and that meant she must also have seen her and Joe arrive in Robin’s car and Martin shouting at Joe. ‘I won’t be long.’
‘Your uncle won’t like you being alone in that flat with your young man,’ Mrs Lannon called after her. ‘It’s not right for a girl your age to be with a boy that close to his bedroom …’
‘Uncle Roy would understand.’
‘There’ll be gossip.’
Lily finally bit back, ‘Not if you don’t tell anyone.’
‘Leave the door open …’
Suspecting that Mrs Lannon wanted the door left open so she could eavesdrop, Lily drowned out the rest of her directive by banging on the door that connected to the basement. When it didn’t open, she tried the handle. It didn’t surprise her to find it unlocked because the boys never bothered to pull the bolt on the inside. Stepping into the passage she shouted, ‘Martin,’ but there was no reply.
She glanced into the kitchen. The light was on, but it was empty. The door in front of her was Sam’s bedroom, the door to her right at the end of the passage the bedroom Jack and Martin shared; both were in darkness. Closing the door and thrusting the bolt home to stop Mrs Lannon from following her, she walked down to Martin’s door and knocked gingerly on the glass pane before noticing that the back door was open.
The light was on in the garage at the bottom of the garden. As her uncle had never owned or taken any interest in cars, he had practically given it over to the boys. Jack used it to store and work on his motorbike and Martin as a workshop where he cleaned and repaired the car components his boss allowed him to bring home.
Martin glanced up as she opened the door, then quite deliberately looked down at the makeshift workbench he had cobbled together from an old table and a couple of tin trays. Usually he bathed and changed out of his work clothes as soon as he came home, but he was still wearing his stained denim jacket, jeans and old, worn shirt.
She stepped inside and closed the door lest Mrs Lannon was watching from the kitchen window. ‘If I’d known you were that jealous of Joe, I would never have gone for a drive with him.’
‘You’re free to go wherever you please, with anyone you want to be with.’
‘There’s no one I’d prefer to be with rather than you.’ It was the closest she’d ever come to admitting that she cared for him but he continued to polish the rust from a piece of metal as if his future depended on the shine he put on it. ‘Martin, please, say something.’
‘What is there to say?’ He finally looked at her.
‘I bumped into Joe after work …’
‘And not for the first time,’ he broke in angrily. ‘I’ve seen you together before. Talking and holding hands in the Kardomah.’
‘I’ve had the occasional coffee with Joe in the Kardomah,’ she acknowledged, ‘but I never held his hand. Not after I broke our engagement.’
‘No?’ he challenged. ‘Think back a couple of weeks.’
‘I didn’t hold his hand,’ she protested.
‘And he’s walked you home from work. I’ve seen you coming up the street together.’
‘You make it sound as if Joe and I planned our meetings.’
‘Don’t you?’ He glared at her, daring her to say otherwise.
‘No!’ she exclaimed vehemently. ‘And if seeing me in the Kardomah with Joe bothered you, why didn’t you say something at the time?’
‘Because I was waiting for you to tell me that you’d gone there with him.’
‘If I didn’t, it was because I didn’t think it worth mentioning.’
‘You go to the Kardomah with your fiancé and didn’t think it worth mentioning to your boyfriend.’
‘Ex-fiancé, and if you don’t want me to see him again I won’t.’
‘Why, Lily? He has it all, fancy car …’
‘It’s his friend’s.’
‘But he has enough money to buy one just like it if the mood takes him. Just as he has prospects and a trust fund to give you everything I can’t.’
‘We’ve been through this, Martin,’ she reminded him hotly. ‘It’s you I’m going out with, not Joe.’
‘Were going out with.’
‘You’re finishing with me?’ Her throat went dry. She leaned against the wall.
‘You’ll ruin your jacket.’
‘Then I’ll have to clean it,’ she snapped.
‘Knowing what Jack’s like when he’s working on his bike, it could be covered with oil.’
‘For heaven’s sake stop fussing about my clothes.’
‘People like you shouldn’t come near grease monkeys like me. Here.’ Ignoring her outburst he wiped down an old stool with a rag, covered it with his handkerchief and handed it to her. As she took it, their fingers touched. He jerked back as if he’d been scalded.
‘Do you think so little of me that you’d believe I’d go out with Joe when I’m going out with you?’ she asked as she sat down.
‘It doesn’t matter what I think about you any more, does it.’
‘It does to me,’ she said impatiently. ‘I can’t understand why you think I want to get back with Joe.’
‘It’s obvious.’
‘Not to me. Joe’s a friend. He came to me tonight with a problem …’
‘What kind of a problem?’
‘His problem and it has nothing whatsoever to do with me, or you. He wanted to talk …’
‘And there was no one else he could talk to.’
‘He probably would have gone to Helen if he could have, but she’s in hospital.’
‘He has a father, his posh university friends …’
‘But he came to me,’ she countered. ‘I’m sorry if that upsets you, Martin. He offered to come here to try to explain …’
‘I bet he did.’ He finally set down the piece he’d been working on. ‘It’s the end of a long day, Lily. I’ve been working since seven this morning and I haven’t had tea.’
She watched as he tidied away the sandpaper and dusted his bench. One of them had to say it. All she had to lose was her pride and that was a small price to pay if it meant holding on to him. As he walked to the door to turn off the light, she steeled herself for rejection and whispered, ‘I love you.’
He paused, without turning to look at her.
‘It’s you I love, not Joe,’ she repeated, leaving no room for misunderstanding.
He finally switched off the light, plunging the garage into darkness.
‘Did you hear me?’ She followed him outside.
‘Yes.’ He swung the bolt across the door.
‘And?’
‘I don’t know how you can. I’ve a foul temper. I hit people …’
‘Not people, only Adam and he deserved it.’
Still refusing to look at her, he busied himself with the padlock on the door. Petrified that he was about to rebuff her, she gazed up at the stars. It was a clear, cloudless night. Millions upon millions of dazzling diamond pinpricks of light shone around a perfect crescent moon. Dizzy with apprehension – and wonder – she almost lost her balance.
Catching her, Martin pulled her back against his chest, wrapped his hands round her waist and brushed his lips across the top of her head. ‘I don’t understand how you can love someone like me.’
‘Neither do I after the way you just behaved.’ She turned and kissed him and, as his lips met hers and the length of his body pressed against hers, all doubts and uncertainties dissipated. He might not have repeated her words but his embrace gave her all the reassurance she needed.
‘Are you absolutely sure?’ He looked into her eyes as he finally released her.
‘Absolutely. You?’
‘I love you so much it hurts.’
The kitchen window banged open above them. ‘I can see you, Lily Sullivan. Come in this house this instant, or I’ll tell your uncle what you’ve been up to.’
‘We’re not doing anything illegal, Mrs Lannon, so I doubt he’ll arrest us,’ Martin called back.
‘Your behaviour is disgraceful …’
‘Would you rather I kissed her behind the shed where you couldn’t see?’
‘Martin Clay …’
Neither Lily nor Martin heard another word. Lost in the moonlight, they kissed again, clinging to one another as if they’d just invented love.