i f6c06dd9cf3fe221 by Unknown (100 books to read in a lifetime .txt) 📗

hair, he held her, and she dung to him in the paroxysm of her weeping.

Sarah leant against the kitchen table, listening in amazement to the endearments dropping from his lips;

her hands, gripping each other, were pressed into her chest. She stared at them, her eyes fixed with anxiety and fear, praying, "Don't let her do it.... Oh, Mary, Mother of God, don't let her do it!"

THE BELT

Rodney opened the gate which led from the lane, and walked up between the frost-painted shrubs of the lower garden and across the glassy lawn of the upper to the house. How different it all looked after only ten weeks 1 Different, but as formal; absence could do nothing to soften its formality, either inside or out. The difference lay, he thought, in his seeing it after a complete break; for nine years he had merely felt it, without seeing it.

Mary opened the door to him: "Why, sir, we weren't expecting you. The mistress is in Newcastle; she went right after lunch, and she won't be back till teatime."

"That's all right, Mary. I'll have a bath and something to eat in the meantime.... How are you?"

"Oh, fine, sir."

Mary watched him as he walked up the stairs. Coo! he didn't arf look funny without his beard . bare like But the khaki suited him all right. Well, that would mean another one for dinner tonight. But cook wouldn't mind; fair daft about him, she was . be dashing upstairs as soon as she knew, seeing her ladyship wasn't in. I wonder if she'll be pleased 1 The thought brought an inward smirk. See, what did I tell you! she said to herself, as cook hurried up the stairs as fast as her lack of breath allowed.

Rodney called "Come in!" to the knock on his door.

"Hallo, cook, it's good to see you!" he said.

"Oh, sir, and it's good to see you.... I am glad you're home for Christmas, sir."

"So am I, cook, and I'm as hungry as a hunter. Can you do anything about it?"

U7

"I'll soon fix that.... Do you like the life, sir?" she asked.

"Oh, it's all right, cook; you get a bit bored at times, you know; nothing much to do . likely to be more next year! "

She nodded. Yes, when we went over the water there would be more, not arf there would. But she would see he had a good Christmas, for her part, anyway; might be his last, you never could tell. He wouldn't like it when he knew there was a high falutin dinner tonight, with that band of conchies! What else were they, with all their palavering and reading parties, when poor lads were roughing it in the trenches and being knocked off like flies? "Well, I'm glad you're home, sir," she said.

"And I'll have a meal ready as soon as you are; say half an hour?"

"Fine!" He grinned engagingly at her.

"I've missed your cooking."

"Go on, sir!" she said, smiling back at him. Ah, it was nice to have him home; he was human, he was. "I'll get Mary to light a fire, this room's like ice," she said.

"Thanks, cook."

"Look, sir, there's a good fire in the mistress's room. Why don't you dress in there after your bath, sir, till this warms up?"

"All right, cook; don't you worry, I'll pick the warmest spot. Trust me."

Mrs. Summers went out, leaving him strangely comforted with the new sensation of being fussed over.

As he lay in his bath, luxuriating in the pine-scented warmth, he wondered what he would do with his seven days. Seven days with nothing to do! No bodies to examine, no feet to inspect. He'd see old Peter and Peggy a lot, that'd be good, and do a few shows in Newcastle with Stella? No, he didn't think so. What was the good of putting on a front when things stood as they did; he had made his last and final effort a long time ago. What time does to one! he thought; it seems impossible to believe she can hurt me no more and that she hasn't an atom of power over me. I've been a fool all my life where she's concerned, but now I'm free. What had really brought ia8 it about? he asked himself. Kate? No, I was waking up long before Kate entered my mind. I suppose I saw her shallowness and devilry, for she is a devil.

Oh, God, what it was to feel free of all desire of her 1 He lashed the water with his feet for a moment; then became still, thinking of Kate.

But was he tree? Wasn't he chained to Kate with stronger chains than ever Stella had welded? Yes, he supposed he was.

But with what a difference 1 He thought back to last Christmas Eve, when he had given up fighting and held Kate in his arms, for the one and only time. He had known then that, had the mother not been there and they could have talked, she would have been his. She was his; he was convinced of that;

as irrevocably as if they had been joined together by that damned, fear-inspiring priest. He had wanted her more than he had ever wanted Stella, the ache for her had persisted from the night he had taken her for the drive two years ago. But he also felt tor her something he had never felt for Stella; a certain protectiveness, coupled with a deep admiration for the fight she had made to emancipate herself from the fifteen streets . he had wanted only Stella's body, her mind had irritated him.

When he had left Kate, on the sound of Tim Hannigan's steps in the back-yard, he already knew what