Faith by Lesley Pearse Read Free Book Online Page B

charcoal-grey suit, white shirt and blue striped tie. He might be tubby and balding, but he had a distinguished appearance. ‘Now, how about a kiss for an old man?’ he asked, pulling a comic face.
    She laughed and went over to him to kiss his cheek, but he put his arms around her and his mouth came down on hers, all wet and sloppy. Laura wriggled away, unsure if that was what he intended to do, or if it was an accident.
    ‘I always wanted a daughter,’ he said, sitting down on the bed. ‘Now I’ve got three. What a lucky man I am.’
    At that she felt ashamed she was so suspicious of him. ‘We are lucky, too, that Mum found you,’ she said a little awkwardly. ‘You’ve been very good to us.’
    ‘The pleasure is all mine,’ he said, reaching out and taking her hand. ‘And you are growing into a very pretty girl. I expect before long boys will be calling round wanting to take you out.’
    ‘I never meet any boys,’ she said, giggling with embarrassment.
    ‘Well, maybe we have to think of a club you could join to meet some,’ he said, drawing her closer to the bed. ‘I think there’s a youth club just along the road; I’ve seen young people gathering outside the church hall on a Thursday night. I could go along there and inquire for you.’
    ‘I’d be too scared to go to a club where I didn’t know anyone,’ she said and sat down beside him.
    ‘Everyone feels that way at first,’ he said. ‘I keep telling your mum we need to find some way of introducing you to people so you can make friends. What about joining the Girl Guides?’
    ‘I’m too old for that now,’ Laura said with a sigh. ‘I really wanted to join them back in Shepherds Bush but we couldn’t afford the uniform.’
    ‘You aren’t too old,’ he said, releasing her hand and putting his arm around her shoulder. ‘I’ve seen girls of sixteen and seventeen at the parades on Sundays. They go camping in the summer and on all kinds of other trips. I’m sure the women who run it appreciate having slightly older girls to help with the younger ones.’
    Laura liked the idea of that. ‘I suppose I could go once and see how it is. But won’t the girls all be very posh?’
    ‘No posher than you,’ he said with a little chuckle. ‘You go to a good school, you live in a nice house. You are on the same level, or even higher, than all of them.’
    ‘Am I?’ she asked in some surprise.
    ‘Of course you are,’ he said firmly. ‘You must stop thinking you are somehow inferior. You’re bright and pretty, as good as anyone else.’
    He hugged her then and for once she didn’t move away because it felt good to be praised by him. ‘That’s better,’ he said. ‘Everyone needs a cuddle now and then.’
    Suddenly his hand moved on to her breast. Like the kiss earlier it could have been a mistake, because he withdrew his hand immediately and said it was time he went as her mother would be wondering where he was.
    After he’d gone Laura felt confused. Everything Vincent had said suggested he was just being kind and fatherly – her own dad wouldn’t have cared tuppence whether she had any friends or not, and he certainly had never praised her. Maybe it was because of that she was so suspicious of Vincent, and perhaps she just had a dirty mind.
    In the weeks that followed her birthday her feelings about Vincent see-sawed between being sure he just wanted to be a real father and feeling he had other motives in being nice to her. He did take her along to the Girl Guides where she received a warm welcome, and the following day he took her off to buy her a complete uniform. He was really pleased that she made a new friend the very first night, a girl called Patsy who lived just further down the road, and he said she could have Patsy round any time she liked.
    But he would keep touching and hugging her. She didn’t like the way he patted her bottom, or the way he came into her room to kiss her goodnight. She would argue with herself that he