The Travelling Man by Marie Joseph Read Free Book Online Page A

carried her through into the back room, or had she gone readily, allowing herself to be led? It had been a long time since the woman in Liverpool, and Annie was all soft willingness, clinging to him as he laid her down on the small truckle bed.
    Her cry of pain as he took her should have brought him to his senses, but by then his senses were aflame with the searing triumph of possessing her. Of knowing he was the first man ever to have touched her.
    ‘It’s all right. All right, love.’ He couldn’t stop his hands from shaking as he buttoned her into a clean blouse from the stack of freshly ironed clothes on the small chest of drawers. Even then he was cursing himself for being a fool, for using young Annie when tomorrow he would be away from this place, away from this house where the walls ran damp. But most of all away from the mine where the sky was so far away a man could forget it was even there.
    When he went through into the living-room she came and knelt down by his chair, her face upturned to his.
    ‘Will we be married?’
    Laurie had to close his eyes to hide his expression. He drew her close, tangling his fingers in the soft weight of her hair. Of all the bloody stupid things he’d done in his life, and he’d done many, making love to this young innocent lass beat the lot. If he hadn’t decided a long time ago that remorse was a wasted emotion, he’d be having a good wallow in it now. Why did he always act first and think second? Starting from the day he’d insisted on leaving school, when his father would willingly have seen him through college. Why had he turned his back on the academic career that could have been his?
    ‘Laurie?’ She was waiting, gazing at him, her eyes limpid with the trust she had in him. ‘Will we be married soon?’
    If she didn’t get up from where she was kneeling the boys would be in from school. Or her father would walk in.
    Laurie spoke quickly: ‘Of course we’ll be married, love. But first I have to go away.’
    ‘You can’t! Not now. Not after …’ She looked away, too shy, he guessed, to meet his eyes.
    ‘Listen, love.’ Keeping one eye on the door Laurie gently raised her up, guiding her towards one of the stand-chairs round the table. Pushing the work-basket towards her before going back to his place by the fire. ‘I’m never going down that mine shaft again. It’s how I imagine hell will be, but worse, because down there is hell on earth.’ He sat forward, feeling better now that he’d got her sitting away from him, even though her face was as white as bleached cotton.
    ‘But what we … what we just did?’ Her voice faltered. ‘That means we belong. Only night women an’ …’
    ‘Mrs Greenhalgh?’ he prompted, hoping to get a smile out of her.
    ‘You can’t leave me now,’ she said, hysteria thick in her throat. ‘What if …?’ Terror stared from her eyes, choked her voice.
    ‘What if you have a baby?’ Laurie said it straight out. It was the first thing they all said, the girls like Annie, the inexperienced, the first-timers. From where he sat he willed her to take a hold of herself. ‘You won’t have a baby,’ he told her firmly. ‘I made sure of that.’
    She had no idea what he meant but it was what she wanted to hear so she believed him. The terror faded from her eyes.
    ‘If you got me into trouble, our dad would kill me first then you next.’ She came over to him, lifted his hand and gently kissed it.
    ‘Your dad will come in and catch you if you don’t look sharp.’ His mind was working overtime. The quivering girl must be calmed down. Fast. ‘I’ll come back. I promise.’
    ‘When?’ She was clinging to him like a bloody limpet.
    ‘A year from now. Less than a year. On your birthday. Exactly to the day I came here. I’ll save every penny, then I’ll come back for you.’
    ‘And we’ll be married?’
    ‘We’ll be married, sweetheart.’
    He tried to put her from him, but she wasn’t ready.
    ‘Let’s say it