Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy Read Free Book Online Page A

form-filling. He needed someone reliable to be in there, dancing, yes, and keeping an eye on things for him.
       I explained how impossible it was for me, or I tried to explain. I even told Keno about Neddy and the kind of man he was. I shouldn't really have told Keno about Neddy.
       When he put the pictures down on the table, he mentioned Neddy.
       I hadn't known there were any pictures being taken, and it was very obviously me, and the positions were very suggestive indeed. It was sickening, looking at them.
       It didn't bear thinking what the board of the school or dear innocent Neddy would make of them.
    "It's blackmail," I said.
    "I don't see it as that," Keno said, shrugging.
    "Give me a week," I said. "You owe me that."
       "Right." Keno was always agreeable. "But you owe me too. For your start in life."
       During the week, of course, wouldn't you know, Neddy asked me to marry him.
       "I can't," I said. "Too much baggage."
       "I don't care about the past," Neddy said.
       "It's not just the past. It's the future," I said.
       And I told him. Everything. Every single thing—like my awful uncle Niall and Geraldine and how boring and tiring the dancing had been. I had left the envelope of pictures on the table and he just threw it into the fire without opening it.
       "I'm sure you are very beautiful in the pictures," he said, "and why shouldn't people pay to look at you?"
       "He'll have more," I said in a despairing kind of voice.
       "Yes, of course he will, but it won't matter."
       "Ah, come on, Neddy, these are nice respectable girls I teach— do you think anyone would let me near them if they saw those pictures?"
       "Well, I was hoping that if you married me you'd come back to Rossmore and teach nearby."
       "But he could still show them," I said. I wondered if Neddy might really be soft in the head.
       "But you could tell them in advance. You could say at the interview you had to pay your way through college by doing various jobs, including exotic dancing," he said.
       "It won't work—we won't get away with it, Neddy."
       "It will work because it's true." He looked at me with his honest blue eyes.
       "I wish things had been different," I said to him.
       "Would you have said yes and married me if it weren't for this little problem?" he asked me.
    "It's a big problem, Neddy." I sounded weary.
    "Would you, Clare?"
       "Well, yes, I would, Neddy. I would have been honored to marry you."
       "Right, then—we'll sort it out," he said.
       And he came with me to Keno's that night. We walked right through the dancers and the punters to the office at the back. To say Keno was surprised is putting it mildly.
       I introduced them formally and then Neddy spoke.
       He told Keno that he sympathized with the situation, and how it must be hard running a business with all the staff problems and everything, but it wasn't fair to take away my dream, as I had always wanted to be a teacher ever since I was a schoolgirl.
       "Clare was a gold star at school," Keno said, more to make conversation, I think, than anything else.
       "I'm not at all surprised," Neddy said, beaming at me proudly. "So, you see, we can't make Clare do anything else except concentrate on her teaching. Neither of us can."
       Keno pulled a big brown envelope from his desk drawer.
       "The pictures?" he said to Neddy.
       "They're very beautiful. Clare showed them to me earlier tonight," he said.
       "She did?" Keno was amazed.
       "Of course, if we are to be married we must have no secrets. I have told Clare about my brother Kit, who has been and still is in prison. You can't keep quiet about things that are part of you. And I know that Clare is very, very grateful for the start you gave her. So that's why we are here."
       "Why exactly are you here?" Keno was totally bewildered.
       "To know if there was any other way we could help you."