Read Online Forbidden Liaison: They lived and loved for the here and now by Patricia I. Smith - Free Book Online

would sit and watch his mother darning by the fire. She always sewed whilst waiting for the bread to rise. The bowl of dough would sit on the hearth at her feet, slowly rising under a fresh, clean cloth while the sound of the chiming clocks filtered up from the shop below. Even today a chiming clock filled his stomach with a knot of nostalgia, and the only other smell that lingered in his nostrils was not just the smell of fresh baked bread, but the smell of a woman. He now felt homesick.
    ‘Are you married?’ A bold question for him to ask. But then he saw the gold band on the third finger of her left hand. ‘Yes, I see you are,’ he added.
    ‘My husband’s away fighting. I’ve not heard from him in three years. In fact you could have met him on some battlefield somewhere,’ Izzy said defiantly.
    Heinrich couldn’t work out if her defiance was masking nervousness, or whether she did actually blame him personally for her husband being away. 
    ‘I doubt it,’ he replied. ‘Unless your husband is Russian.’
    ‘Touché.’
    ‘Bitte?’
    ‘No matter.’
    She must be lonely too, Heinrich thought. Unless. Unless she already has a lover. It struck him like one of those hurled rocks. Perhaps she has a German lover.
    ‘What are you doing down here?’ he asked in a tone that wouldn’t alienate her.
    ‘There’s nowhere else to go. Walking my dog on a restricted beach is the highlight of my day,’ she replied, sounding bored and fed-up.
    ‘Do you work?
    ‘I have to work, you know that,’ she said, a certain bitterness ringing the words.
    ‘What sort of work do you do?’
    ‘Land word,’ was all she was prepared to say.
    ‘Do you like it?’
    ‘Are you interrogating me?’  
    Heinrich smiled again, she was beginning to amuse him. ‘No,’ he replied, ‘just interested.’
    ‘I love it,’ Izzy then replied.
    Heinrich laughed. ‘No you don’t.’
    ‘Am I that transparent?’
    ‘Have you children?’ he asked, ignoring her question. And, yes, he thought he could see through to the core of her being.
    ‘Have you?’ she returned the question.
    Heinrich suppressed the urge to reach into his breast pocket and pull out the photograph of his daughters; instead he opened his great-coat to take out his cigarettes.
    ‘Would you like a cigarette?’ he asked, holding out the packet to her.
    Izzy hesitated at first as it would be a sign she was giving in to their power: collaborating with the enemy: associating with a hostile force. But she hadn’t been able to afford cigarettes for months. The only smoke she’d had recently was the one Aunt Margaret had given her.
    ‘And what would you expect in return?’ she asked.
    Heinrich shrugged. ‘Nothing,’ he said as he opened the packet. ‘Only that you don’t spit at me if we happen to meet again.’
    Izzy smiled as she took a cigarette from the packet to put it between her lips, her long white fingers holding it in place. Heinrich stepped closer, his hands cupping the flame from his lighter. As he stepped towards her the smell of him invaded Izzy’s nostrils. It was a masculine sort of smell: gun oil and tobacco. It began to excite her, and as she drew in the smoke her eyes momentarily rested on the Iron Cross before it disappeared from view as Heinrich pulled his great-coat together. She already knew, by the runes on his collar, that he was an ordinary soldier: an infantryman. A gust of wind suddenly blew Izzy’s hair against Heinrich’s nose. He was standing that close. A faint fragrance kissed his sense of smell: it was the scent of roses. Heinrich breathed in deeply trying to harness the smell: keep it forever. If he never set eyes on the woman again, her smell would be something to remember her by.
    Izzy stepped away. They were still looking at each other. His eyes searching hers. For what? But the thought of the woman being his enemy began to bother him. He could easily overpower her and take what he wanted, but there would be no pleasure in that.