Swansea Summer by Catrin Collier Read Free Book Online

after the wedding arrange a quiet talk with him, put her proposition and persuade him to see the advantages for him if he went along with the decisions she’d made – for both of them.
    That shouldn’t be too difficult; most men came round to her way of thinking after she’d exercised her charm on them. It hadn’t worked on John the last time she had tried, but that was understandable. She’d made the mistake of taking him for granted when they’d lived together. An hour alone, a few reminders of the more pleasurable aspects of married life and he’d drop his antagonism towards her. She was staking her future on it.
    ‘The ring …’
    Martin held up the box he’d put beside his plate.
    ‘I should …’
    ‘Sit down and eat your breakfast.’ Brian pushed Jack back on to his chair and returned to the stove where he was preparing a fry-up for himself, the Clays, Sam – and Adam – if he ever emerged from the outside toilet where he’d been camped for the last half-hour. He lifted the lid on the frying pan and sniffed theatrically. ‘This black pudding smells heavenly. I’ve spent the last month dreaming about this. London food tastes like wet cardboard. Looks like it too, especially in the hostel.’ Chopping tomatoes and mushrooms, he added them to the pan.
    ‘Hair of the dog.’ Sam walked in from his room carrying an open bottle of beer.
    ‘How can you even think about it at this time in the morning?’ Wrinkling his nose in disgust, Jack reached for the teapot.
    ‘Bridegroom’s nervous.’
    ‘Anyone would think he’s going to the guillotine not the Register Office.’ Brian cracked half a dozen eggs into a bowl.
    ‘From what I know about women he might be.’ Ashen-faced, hands shaking, Adam walked in from the passage.
    ‘You don’t look too good.’ Martin handed him a towel as he washed his hands at the sink.
    ‘I think some joker spiked my beer last night.’
    ‘No. Really!’ Jack exclaimed.
    ‘And covered me with scent and lipstick.’
    ‘Ah, that would be Lifebuoy Lettie.’ Jack lifted a plate of bread Brian had cut and began buttering the slices as if he were being paid piecework rates to finish the task.
    ‘Lifebuoy Lettie – she stinks – she’s ancient -’ Adam’s face went from grey to puce.
    ‘You didn’t seem to think so last night.’ Jack stared intently at the butter he was softening by scraping.
    ‘Once she gave you the nod, there was no keeping you away from her.’ Brian added pepper, salt, milk and butter to the eggs.
    ‘It wasn’t a pretty sight,’ Sam elaborated. ‘I’ve never seen a man maul a woman around so much, or in so many’ – he paused as if he were searching for the right word – ‘private places in public before. I was just about to arrest the pair of you for indecency when stop tap was called and she took you down the cellar.’
    ‘You let me go!’
    ‘It wasn’t a question of “letting you”. There was no keeping you away from her.’
    ‘What did I do with her in the cellar?’
    ‘How should we know? We’re not Peeping Toms.’ Jack turned a straight face to Adam.
    ‘You must have known I was out of my skull.’
    ‘You turned vicious when we suggested it,’ Sam complained.
    ‘You should have taken me home.’
    ‘Vicious is an understatement. Ferocious might be a better word. Today’s my big day, I wanted to stay in one piece.’ Jack offered Adam a slice of bread and butter.
    ‘It was love at first sight – well, perhaps not first, you had seen her before.’ Brian tipped the eggs into a saucepan.
    ‘Lust after many sights.’ Sam held out his bottle of beer. ‘It’s warm and flat but wet. Want a swig?’
    Stomach heaving, Adam brushed aside the bread and butter and beer, and rushed to the front door.
    ‘Be back in time for the wedding.’ Brian closed the door after him.
    ‘Bring the milk in, Brian,’ Sam asked.
    ‘What did your last slave die of?’
    ‘The beating I gave him for being mouthy.’ Sam reached for