22 Britannia Road by Amanda Hodgkinson Read Free Book Online

the bar of soap all over her head, fingernails catching against her scalp, suds dripping into her eyes, the smell of the soap so sweet and clean and renewing she is tempted to slip the whole thing into her mouth and let the suds rinse her inside as well as out.
    ‘Are you all right?’ calls Janusz, and she hears him knock on the door. The soap pops out of her hand and falls somewhere under the sink. She searches for it, water running down her face, eyes tight shut.
    ‘Yes, yes. I’ll be finished soon.’
    ‘Only you’ve been running the taps for a long time.’
    ‘Sorry.’ Silvana fishes the soap out from behind the pipes. She grabs a towel and wipes her face dry, turns the tap off and listens to the sound of Janusz padding away across the landing. She takes off her clothes and climbs into the warm water, ducking her head under, her limbs bumping against the bath.
    Will Janusz want to know what happened to her during the war? Will he want to know how she ended up living in a forest? And what about him? Will he have secrets too? She won’t ask him.
    He has already explained to her how he arrived in Britain in 1940, though the way he told it, in short, brief sentences, like a speech he has used many times, left her none the wiser as to exactly how he did it. He’s explained about his soldiering, described the country he has brought her to, the cherry orchards in the south, the purple flush of the moors in the north. He hasn’t asked her a single question about herself or the boy yet. It’s better that way. She looks down, running her hands over her breasts and down towards her hollow belly, where they come to rest, cupped together. What a pitiful body to offer him. Will Janusz still find her attractive after all these years?
    Janusz is about to knock on the bathroom door again when Silvana finally emerges. She looks clean and scrubbed. Her cheeks glow pink, but there is something sad and small about her, like a wet cat, as though the bath water has shrunk her. He takes her arm and leads her into the bedroom. This is the moment he has dreamed of and feared. Their first night together.
    In the main bedroom are two single beds. Silvana climbs into one and Janusz draws the covers up over her. He sits beside her, perched on the edge of the bed, and watches her fiddle with the ribbons on the front of her nightgown.
    ‘Do you like it?’ he asks. ‘The house? It’s a miracle, isn’t it? Us, being together again? You’ll like England. It’s a beautiful country.’
    He looks down and notices her left hand. She wears no wedding ring.
    ‘I lost it,’ says Silvana. She doesn’t say any more than that.
    ‘I’ll get you another one,’ he tells her, feeling generous and good. He has to explain to her how things are in Britain. ‘A married woman needs a wedding ring. People look at women’s hands here. They look to see who you are.’
    He reaches out to touch Silvana’s hair and feels her flinch slightly.
    ‘I’m sorry I don’t have news of the family,’ she says. ‘I wish I had something to tell you.’
    ‘It doesn’t matter. I keep writing, you know. Every time a different address, just in case somebody knows something. I think I’ve written to everybody in our hometown. I sent letters to your parents too.’
    ‘My parents? Did they reply?’
    ‘No. But the Red Cross officer told me it can take years for letters to get through. I’ve not given up hope. And look. Here you are.’ He takes her hand. ‘Are you glad I found you? After all these years I wasn’t sure … I have to ask. I didn’t know if you had met somebody else …’
    Silvana shakes her head vehemently and he regrets asking the question.
    ‘I had Aurek.’
    There is a silence between them. Finally it is Silvana who breaks it.
    ‘And you?’
    ‘Me? No. Nobody.’
    With that one sentence he feels as if he has crossed over a deep ravine, leaving Hélène and the past far behind him. There was nobody . And here he is in the present, where