Read Online Where Earth Meets Sky by Annie Murray - Free Book Online Page A

child was a sweet enough little thing, but Helen had to take her turn in minding her and from Sam’s point of view she was yet another obstacle to his getting anywhere near Helen. Today, though, Emma was round playing at a neighbour’s house and his chance had come!
    Mrs Gregory said with a meaningful look, ‘I won’t be long, you know. You might polish the brasses while I’m gone, if you’re short of summat to do.’ And she set out into the slushy Coventry street in her old brown hat and coat, her sinewy figure bent against the wind.
    ‘Well, there’s a miracle, anyway,’ Sam said, shuffling closer along the settle towards Helen.
    ‘Sam! You’re awful. She’ll get drenched out there, and Mrs Nightingale’s been taken bad again.’
    Helen turned to him, her creamy face dotted with toffee-coloured freckles, tawny eyes twinkling reproachfully while she tried not to look pleased that they were alone. Sam could think of nothing but his urgent desire to hold her.
    ‘I want to kiss you, love,’ he said, taking her hand. ‘I’ve been sitting here bursting to kiss you all afternoon!’
    ‘Oh, Sam!’ she said again, as if he was a naughty schoolboy.
    He felt like anything but a schoolboy. His feelings were much more manly than that! To give her a few token moments to pretend she was resisting him, he caught the end of a thick strand of her hair. She had washed it and was drying it by the fire. To the touch, it was deliciously thick and heavy.
    ‘Caramels and cream, that’s you,’ he said. He tilted his head and lightly kissed the shadowy part of her neck beneath her ear. ‘All sweet. That’s my girl.’
    She giggled and her face lit up. Helen was nineteen then, Sam twenty. She was so pretty and everyone liked her, though she was quiet and shy. It all felt right to Sam: Helen was the wife he was looking for, because he needed a wife. It was the right thing. He was going to be a successful and respectable professional man and such men had wives and lived in one of the new, nicely-kept-up villas at the edge of town.
    And he thought he was in love. What else could these overpowering feelings mean? It was like an itch on him all the time, that powerful longing to know what it would be like to lie with her, to have her, even though he was scarcely sure what that meant. He could see why men said women were a torment. He’d sit beside her and they’d be talking, yet all the time, all he could think about was the way her frock pushed out, tightly covering her chest, a tantalizing swell that gave him an almost overwhelming hunger to reach out and touch.
    He took Helen in his arms, seeing her smiling eyes turn solemn, and he had his kiss that day. Once a few months of little walks to the park and snatched kisses had passed, he asked her to marry him. He was at such a pitch by then, something had to shift. He had to lie with her and make her his or he was going to go mad. He knew he was a good prospect, with his apprenticeship. He wasn’t sure that Mrs Gregory had taken to him, not fondly , but she had no good reason to object to him.
    Their wedding night was the first time he saw her naked, though she didn’t want him to.
    After a nice mutton dinner in an old inn a few miles away, they went up to the old oak-beamed room which was their private haven at last. God knew, Sam didn’t know what he expected exactly, but that night was a bitter disappointment. Almost as soon as they got through the door he went to take her in his arms, but she pushed him off, frowning.
    ‘Just let me get ready, Sam!’
    Stung, he stood watching her go to the door, saw her slip a little on the uneven floor and say, ‘Oh, damn it!’ as she disappeared out to the bathroom across the passage. He wanted her to want him. He told himself she was shy, and waited, taking his boots off and unbuttoning his shirt, hearing the splash of water, and Helen clearing her throat, then a long silence. He sat on the edge of the bed, beginning to wonder if