The Strange Story of Linda Lee by Dennis Wheatley Read Free Book Online

and got me the way he wanted.
    ‘I began to fight again, but not very vigorously. For a long time I’d been curious to know what it really felt like, and now I was faced with the choice of finding out or walking home to the worst leathering I had ever had. By then he had partly entered me. Next moment he thrust hard, and I screamed with pain. The pain went on to the very end. I hated every second of it. And afterwards he hadn’t even the decency to try to comfort me. He never spoke a word to me all the way home. For couple of weeks I was absolutely petrified by the thought that he might have put me in the family way. But, thank God, I was at least spared that. So there you are. That was my first experience of sex with a man.
    ‘You say your “first”,’ Rowley commented. ‘Does that mean that you’ve had others?’
    ‘Yes, but not until a few months before I left home. That first time had been so awful that, for a long time afterwards, I never let myself get into a situation where I might be taken advantage of again.
    ‘Jim and another fellow picked up me and the girl I was with one night in the cinema. He was a fine, strapping fellow with dark, curly hair and a ready laugh. Afterwards he and his pal took us for coffee and cakes to a café. He asked me to go to the pictures again with him the following week, and I agreed. He saw me home and we had a petting party in the barn before I went in. During the month that followed we had three other meetings, and each time things became a bit warmer. Then one night he asked me to let him. I wasn’t afraid of Jim, because he was so gentle. And by then I was getting pretty steamed up, so I was in half a mind to; but I was scared that he’d put me in the family way.
    ‘He got over that hurdle by telling me that his married sister used the Pill, and he’d get some from her for me. He did, then on our next evening together we made love properly. It was utterly different from the first time. In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed it. So after that we did it regularly every time I could get an evening off.’
    Rowley nodded. ‘I imagine he was frightfully upset when you told him that you meant to run away to London.’
    ‘I didn’t, although I felt terribly bad about it. I was afraid that if I did, he would persuade me not to.’
    When Rowley had refilled their glasses, he said with a smile, ‘When we first met, I told you that I had no intention of trying to seduce you, and I meant it. I also told you that I was still virile and had a girl with whomI spent a night now and again. A month after you came to live here I stopped going to see her. The reason was that I’d fallen head over heels in love with you.’
    Linda started to say something, but he held up his hand to check her. ‘Please let me finish. You said last night that you couldn’t live on me for ever. I replied that you could, and you can. Half a loaf is far better than no bread, and I’d be utterly miserable if you left me. So, if you are against the suggestion I’m going to make, we’ll simply forget that we have ever had this conversation.
    ‘I know only too well that a man like myself can’t possibly be physically attractive to a girl like you; so I’m going to be quite unscrupulous and attempt to off-set my age by dangling temptations before you.
    ‘It is impossible for me to ask you to marry me, as long as Celia is alive. But, apart from the legal tie, I want you in all other respects to become my wife. You’d have a handsome allowance to buy lovely clothes, and could wear my mother’s jewels whenever you wished. I normally spend several months of the year abroad. In September I always go to Venice and stay at Cipriani’s. It is one of the most comfortable hotels in Europe, and you would love its beautiul swimming pool. We’d go to the South of France in January, and Paris in the spring. I’d take you to Greece, the Rhine and Spain. There is so much to see in these places, and I’d love to show them