The Way Ahead by Mary Jane Staples Read Free Book Online Page A

good reason for needing a hankie?’
    ‘Yes, there is,’ said Polly. ‘You’re the one man I’ve been aching to see, but the last one I expected. How did you manage it, have you been given home leave? If so, for how long, and why didn’t you let us know you were coming?’
    ‘How many questions is that?’ asked Boots.
    ‘Never mind how many, you can roll them all into one,’ said Polly. ‘Just tell me – oh, ye gods, what are you doing?’
    Boots had opened up her jacket and placed a hand on her blouse, where a firmly defined curve was a tribute to her well-preserved figure.
    ‘I’m delighted to find you all present and correct, Mrs Adams,’ he said.
    ‘Boots, you old warhorse, if you’re delighted, I’m delirious,’ she said. ‘You’re here, you’re home.’ There he was, his familiar smile all for her, his years sitting so easily on him. His face was tanned, his impaired left eye a little more deeply grey than the right. Close to him, Polly experienced that which he so often aroused in her, the incredible feeling of being young again. She had fallen in love with him years ago, on the day she first met him in Sammy’s grotty Army surplus shop, and had never been able to cure herself of her intense attachment to him. ‘Speak to me.’
    ‘First,’ said Boots, ‘I arrived in Southampton from Gibraltar this morning, where I was able to catch a train and finish up at Wareham. I phoned you from there, hoping you’d be able to come and pick me up. No answer. Well, according to our cherubs, it seems you were on your way back from Dulwich, but I simply thought you were out in the village with them. So I convinced an old bloke with an ancient taxi that he’d do the Army a favour if he’d drive me here.’
    ‘I think the old rattler passed us a little while ago,’ said Polly.
    ‘Well, it helped me to beat you to the door by about ten minutes,’ said Boots.
    ‘So it was you who picked the letters up from the mat,’ said Polly. ‘Boots, I want to hear how long you’re going to be with us, how much leave you’ve got, why you were in Gibraltar, and yes, what you think of the twins after a year away from them.’
    ‘I’m still in wonder that those two treasures should be ours, Polly,’ said Boots.
    ‘Darling, is that how you feel about them?’ said Polly. ‘So do I. Sometimes I simply can’t believe they belong to us. What happened to make us so privileged?’
    ‘A little extra togetherness on a certain night,’ said Boots and kissed her again. Polly, melting, asked herself if it was absurd that, when they were both nearing the frightful age of fifty, they should be as heady as young lovers. If it was absurd, if it is, then I like absurdity. ‘As to answers to your other questions ,’ said Boots, ‘it’s a long story. Is there any chance first of a cup of tea?’
    Polly laughed out of sheer happiness.
    ‘Tea,’ she said, ‘tea. Is there anything you and your mother, and the rest of your family, like more than a teapot?’
    ‘In my case, several things,’ said Boots, ‘including watching you put your stockings on.’
    ‘At my age, that’s a pleasure to you, you old ratbag?’ said Polly.
    ‘You can believe me,’ said Boots. ‘Which reminds me, there are six pairs of fully-fashioned stockings for you in my valise, with the compliments of an American major.’
    ‘How can I thank him?’ asked Polly.
    ‘We’ll invite him for a weekend sometime after Hitler’s dead and buried,’ said Boots. ‘Meanwhile, I’d still like a cup of home-brewed tea.’
    ‘Dear man, you can have anything I’m able to give you,’ said Polly. ‘Only ask and you shall receive.’
    ‘Then put the kettle on while I talk to Gemma and James again,’ said Boots. ‘But not until this evening, when they’re in bed, will I tell you what’s brought me home.’
    ‘Why not?’ asked Polly, getting up.
    ‘Just one answer to that, Polly,’ said Boots. ‘Not in front of the children.’
    ‘Is it grim,