Read Online No Wings to Fly by Jess Foley - Free Book Online Page A

– some leper, or something.’
    ‘Look,’ she said, and took a step away, ‘I’ve got to go, really I have.’
    ‘Oh, no – don’t.’ His voice held a pleading tone. ‘Not like this. I’ve done something to offend you. You must tell me what it is. Please. We were getting on so well, and then – then you suddenly changed towards me. I thought we were becoming friends.’
    She gave a little shake of her head. ‘We can’t be.’
    ‘No?’ He frowned his puzzlement. ‘Why is that? Have you discovered my secret past?’
    ‘Your secret past?’ She raised her eyes to him now.
    ‘I’m joking, Lily. That’s all.’ He gave a little groan. ‘I’m out of my depth here.’
    ‘No,’ she said, ‘it is I who am out of my depth.’
    His frown was back. ‘Are you? How? In what way?’
    She was silent for a second, then she said, ‘I’m a general maid, a maid-of-all-work, and I can’t see my situation changing dramatically. No matter how much I might wish it to.’
    ‘Don’t say that,’ he said. ‘Things could change for you. You could be a teacher one day, the way you want to be.’
    ‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘This is the real world. No one’s going to wave some magic wand. But that’s not the point. Joel – I have to think of what might happen . . .’ She came to a halt, unsure how to go on.
    ‘What might happen?’ he said.
    ‘Yes, with you and me. You said you like me and –’
    ‘Oh, I do. You know I do.’
    ‘Yes,’ she breathed, and gave a melancholy little smile. ‘And it made me so glad to know that.’
    ‘I thought you liked me too,’ he said.
    She made no response, and he added, ‘I thought you did.’
    Looking down at the dusty road, she murmured, ‘You must know I do.’
    He smiled. ‘Then what is the problem?’
    She hesitated, searching for words. ‘It doesn’t matter – if we like one another,’ she said. ‘Don’t you see, it can’t do any good. Just the contrary, in fact. I make my living, such as it is, in domestic service. I’m just a maidservant.’
    ‘No!’ he said with a note of passion in his whisper. ‘You’re not just a maidservant. You’re a clever, intelligent girl. I think you’re absolutely splendid – and you could be the best teacher a child ever had.’
    His words gladdened her heart, and for a moment or two she basked in their warmth. Then, putting on a comicallittle voice, in a heavy country accent, she said, ‘O’ course, you’ve got to know as I’ve been well brought up, sir. To be a good girl, I mean.’ She ended the words with a little laugh that rang hollow in the afternoon.
    Joel did not join in. Gravely he said, ‘I know very well you’re a good girl, Lily Clair, and I’ve never thought otherwise, not for one single moment.’ He paused. ‘I like you, Lily, so much.’ His tone was softly earnest. ‘And you know I mean that seriously.’
    She was silent for a second, then she said, ‘But I’m still a maid, Joel, and you’re still the son of a wealthy man, a man with a position. And such a man has great hopes and plans for his son. And I’m sure he’s taught you accordingly, and taught you well. Your mother, too. She has her own aspirations for you, and I daresay hers are not dissimilar to your father’s. They want you to be happy and successful, and I’m sure that that entails making a good marriage, doesn’t it?’ Following a little silence she gave a nod. ‘Of course it does. I’m quite sure that in their schemes they don’t see you getting serious about some little general maid.’
    ‘They want me to be happy, you’re right there,’ he said. ‘And why shouldn’t we be friends?’
    ‘Don’t you see? There’s no future in a friendship for you and me. We move in different circles.’
    ‘Times are changing, Lily.’
    ‘Yes, no doubt they are. But they won’t change quickly enough to affect us.’ She gave a sigh, eyes fixed on the ground. ‘I must go.’
    ‘Lily,’ he said, ‘don’t end it like