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

she was all right or had perhaps been taken ill.
    At last she came back in, wearing an enveloping white garment, her lovely hair brushed loose and hanging down her shoulders. Sam’s heart leaped at the sight of her, seeing the rounded shape of her soft breasts pushing at the white stuff of her nightdress. Full of desire he went to her at once, to take her in his arms again, and found that she was trembling, and seemed close to tears.
    ‘Helen, my lovely?’
    Again, she pulled back.
    ‘Hadn’t you better get ready, Sam?’
    ‘Ready for what? I am ready, love—’ he managed to put his arms around her – ‘I’ve been ready for you for months and months . . .’
    Her face was buried in his chest. It was queer, and frustrating.
    ‘Come on, love,’ Sam said coaxingly, though he was getting more and more het up. ‘I just want to be with you – for a bit of lovemaking. That’s what married people do, you know that, don’t you?’
    She nodded and a tiny voice said, ‘Yes’ into his shirt.
    ‘Let me look at you,’ he said. Reluctantly she drew back and raised her face. The room was quite dark by now, lit by a single candle, and he could only just make out her features.
    ‘What’s the matter, dear?’ He kept his voice very patient.
    ‘I don’t know what it is. Lovemaking, I mean.’ She looked up then, like a little girl, ashamed. ‘I don’t know what we do.’
    Her being so innocent like that made him want her all the more.
    ‘Never mind,’ he said. ‘We’ll find out somehow, together, won’t we?’ He looked lovingly into her eyes and said, ‘I want to see you, Helen. See how lovely you are.’
    ‘What d’you mean?’ She sounded frightened.
    He managed to talk her sweetly into lying down on the bed with him and once he started touching her round, soft body, she began to loosen up a bit and he did see her at last because, gently pulling her shift up high, she let him complete the marital act. She didn’t put up any protest, but watched him, wide-eyed, and when he’d finished she made a little sound, of pleasure, he thought and hoped, and clasped her legs round him.
    ‘Oh, Samuel,’ she said, and he felt her breath on his ear. He was happier then. She’d get used to it, of course she would. It was always more difficult for a woman, he understood, and at least he didn’t seem to have given her any pain.
    Married life started with them living with Mrs Gregory. It was bad from the word go. Anything in the bedroom department felt impossible in her house, and it was difficult enough on their own: Helen just about tolerated the physical side of things. There was very little privacy, especially with the child about. Helen was far too patient with her, in Sam’s view. After all, Emma was nothing to her really. But if the child came knocking on the door, Helen would say, ‘I’ll just let her in, just for a few minutes, poor little thing.’ And bang would go their time together. He quickly began to think she did it on purpose to avoid him touching her. But he couldn’t stop wanting it, and wanting her. He’d waited long enough and he was a passionate man.
    As soon as he could, after a couple of months, he found a house. He had a decent wage now and he thought, We’ll get out of Coventry, right away from Mrs G and all that stifling set-up. So they took out the rent on a place in Kenilworth. Helen was a bit upset at first as she’d never lived away from home. But she loved the village and the old castle and cleaner air, and she was such a kind girl that she soon made friends. She took a little job in the grocer’s shop and got to know people that way. And they settled. They didn’t find a great deal to say to one another, but they both worked hard, and got on with it.
    That autumn, after they moved into the house, they realized there was a baby on the way. Helen was poorly to begin with and went to the doctor.
    ‘Dr Small says you shouldn’t have relations of an “intimate” kind during the