Dreams Can Come True (28 page)

“Pour me another drink, would yer, Johnny, while I go and choose from me vast array of clothing.”

She giggled at her joke as she made her way unsteadily.

So that was what it was like to be made love to with a passion. Maggie lay quietly in Johnny’s arms, listening to his even breathing. Had he lied when he’d said he wouldn’t have his way with her? Had he plied her with that wine, so that she’d be panting for his love? And she had been, hadn’t she? She had gloried in the admiration from his eyes, when he’d seen her in the silky robe, its plunging neckline showing him a great amount of her rounded breasts. She’d burnt as his fingers touched hers briefly, as he handed her the goblet. They had moved over to the sofa on the pretext of being more comfortable, but as they’d sat sipping their drinks, both knew there would be no need for a bolster in the bed. Johnny had made the first move, taking her glass away and placing it back with his on the tray. He had moved closer, putting his arm around her waist and drawing her tenderly to him. Then had come those little kisses, placed lovingly on her neck, then forehead. Each one caused a tingling sensation, desire flaring in her down below. Her nipples had hardened quickly under her nightdress as Johnny had firmly put his mouth on hers, then probed it open with his tongue. She had felt his hands move gently underneath her, to pick her up and carry her through to the bed. Gone was the tenseness of their situation, gone was the pretence of getting to know each other first.

There was not a squeak of protest; Maggie had just lain pliant in Johnny’s strong, muscled arms. Their bodies then took over, like a raging thirst in the desert that must be quenched before the person can then stagger on. They had given into a sensuous abandonment. Maggie had been tearing at her nightie before Johnny had taken his trousers off.

It had surprised them both, this intensity; this almost craven desire. It wasn’t until they were sated did they wonder where the hunger for each other had come from. But both knew then it had been an irrevocable plunge into the waters of unknown.

“I cannot believe it, Muirnan,” Johnny whispered sleepily, as Maggie lay later in his arms. “ To think that you’re here beside me after all those lonely years. It’s a wishful dream come true.”

The sound of a hotel waking caused Maggie to stir next morning.; rattling sounds, murmured voices, someone clanking about in the room adjacent to hers. From the street below came the noise of the city, horses clip-clopped and footsteps scurried. Another day was beginning for them.

She raised her head from the pillow then sank back with a moan as the pain of a terrible hangover clutched her forehead as if caught in a vice. She moved her leg a little to see if Johnny was still there beside her as the memories of the night before came immediately rushing in. She contemplated her next move as she found the space beside her empty. He must have been gone for quite some time as the sheet that he had lain on was no longer warm. There was a chill in the air and she shivered. She felt for her robe or nightdress, remembering as she did so that the fire in the bedroom would have gone out by now.

“The top of the morning to yer, Maggie.”

Johnny appeared, carrying a small white cup, his voice sounding happy as he stood by her bed.

“Oh don’t shout, Johnny,” Maggie gasped, covering her nakedness quickly. “Me head feels as if someone’s hit me with a hammer and me mouth has turned to acid drops. I just want to lie here and never get up again. What have yer got there in that cup? Not more wine I hope. Don’t even think I’ll touch an alcoholic drink again. I might even go and sign the pledge!”

“This will put yer right, Maggie. Water with a dash of pepper. An old cure for a hangover given to me by a Polish shipmate. They drink a lot of vodka, yer know, in their country, so I’m sure he knew what he was talking about. The maid has been in and lit a good fire in the sitting room. She’s sending up someone with our breakfast and, while you’re drinking this, I’m going to draw you a nice hot bath.”

He placed the cup on the small bedside table then bent to kiss her cheek. He raised her chin so that she would look at him.

“You don’t regret what we did last night, do yer?”

For a moment she saw a flash of fear, as she met his steady stare. She smiled weakly, then caught his hand to her.

“I regret nothing about our time together, except this pounding in me head.”

Johnny smiled and she sensed his relief at her answer. Had her answer been any different it would have wounded him to the core. He left her with instructions to gulp down all the drink at once as it didn’t taste very pleasant. Then he set about his task of running a bath tub full of water, taking delight in doing so as he poured some of her perfume in.

“Well, Johnny, that tip from yer Polish friend certainly worked,” remarked Maggie, as she walked in from the bedroom, newly bathed, attractively dressed in yellow, her shining hair firmly caught back in a chignon. There had been a moment when she had wanted to throw the mixture back up again and had dashed quickly to the bathroom, but her wobbly stomach had soon settled down as she slowly completed her toilette.

“Good, I’m glad, Maggie. Perhaps you would like some breakfast now. I’ve had mine while it was hot, I hope yer don’t mind.”

She looked under the silver lid of the dish which held a few congealed sausages, a bacon rasher and a hard, pale-looking egg.

“Uh, I don’t think I could eat any of that stuff, Johnny. I’ll make do with some apple from the fruit bowl. I’m still rather full from yesterday’s meal.”

“I thought perhaps we could take a walk along Ranelagh Street. Have a look in Lewis’s, then maybe stop fer lunch in a restaurant? I’m in desperate need of a few bits of clothing so as not to show you up in your finery.”

“You’ve only just eaten breakfast, you greedy hog, but what’s wrong with what yer wearing? You’re looking very handsome to me, though perhaps yer could do with a different jacket. That one doesn’t match your trousers, does it? A fawn maybe or a lighter brown, but certainly not navy. It just doesn’t go at all.”

Johnny laughed and caught her hand in his. He pressed it to his lips slowly with a look of something akin to adoration. Her heart lurched as she saw it. Jack had never looked at her in this way.

“I suppose I’ll have to get used to you helping me choose me clothing. Oh, Maggie, will that ever happen? Could we make a life together? Is it possible that we could be together for the rest of our days?”

Maggie chose her words carefully before she answered him.

“I would like us to be together, Johnny, I’m sure of it. I’ve been very lonely since Jack abandoned me again. I know I’ve got me family, Hannah, Eddie and me little grandson and the businesses of course, but yer showed me last night the strength of your love. You said yerself that it was a dream come true fer us to be together, but I remember the scandal when Jack appeared, after I’d convinced everyone that I was a widow. I don’t know if I can weather another round of gossiping and yer have to admit that you were one of the one’s to point a finger too.”

Johnny grabbed her fiercely into his arms, his voice trembling with emotion.

“Don’t yer think I was cut to the quick when I learnt of your masquerading? When I found you again, heard that Jack had died on the fighting circuit, I was over the moon with happiness. At last, I thought. I could give you an old-fashioned courtship, then me world crashed around me when I found that Jack was still alive.”

“It wasn’t my fault, Johnny. It was Alice, his mother. Couldn’t bear the thought of the family being laughed at when Jack ran off with Kitty May.”

“Kitty May? No, yer don’t have to live the pain again by telling me, Maggie. Come over here with me.”

He took her to the window of the sitting room and asked her to look across the rooftops to the River Mersey. It lay glittering there in the distance, beyond church spires, housing, offices, newly-built structures vying with the old. Rows of docks and warehouses lined the banks of the wide estuary, cluttered with the masts of schooners, brigantines, barques and the funnels of heavy steam ships. It was the busiest port in all the world from what Maggie could see.

“Over there’s the river on which I’ve spent most of my working life, sailing up and down. It’s bin in me blood, the Mersey river, since I sailed out of Liverpool on a slave ship in 1843 under cover of taking emigrants to the America’s, as it was after William Wilberforce introduced his Bill to abolish slavery. It was the only ship to take me on as I was an Irish Mick. I saw the depths that man will sink to in the degradation of other human beings. Not only the treatment of emigrants, but the slaves we then brought back with us to sell. I won’t sicken yer with the sights I saw, Maggie, just to say that I couldn’t wait to get off the ship and go back to me homeland. That’s why I took command of a vessel that only delivered cattle. I couldn’t bear the sight of people crowded like animals in steerage, to line the pockets of their fellow man. As yer know that venture ended when the Dee started really silting up, so I coasted along the Mediterranean for few years, visiting ports with cargo and bringing fruit, the oil of olives and wine back with me. Then yer know the rest, don’t yer? I have a part share in the Irish Maiden, which is making us quite a good living, bringing passengers from Dublin across the Irish Sea. I’ve been lucky. Apart from being exposed to a few violent storms and nearly losing me life off Blackwater bank, the sea and this river have been good to me. But I’m willing to give it all up to be with the woman I love.”

Maggie felt choked with tears after Johnny had finished telling his story. Would he really do that just for her? His certainly seemed a powerful love. Was she as willing to give up everything that she’d worked so long and hard for and turn her back on it all for him? The property company, the voucher trade and the loan business. Would running off together really fill the emptiness that she had recently begun to feel?

“I know it will be difficult,” Johnny rushed on, seeing Maggie hesitate as she thought of all she’d be leaving behind.

“I know it won’t be easy living in sin as they call it, or handing over the reins to Eddie or whoever you’d have in mind. But we could build a new life, just the two of us, where no one knows us. We’ll go back to Ireland and start afresh somewhere. I have some savings and there’s me mother’s house I could raise money on. I’d like to get a ship’s chandlers maybe, that perhaps we could run ourselves…”

He heard his voice pleading and became angry. With her, or with himself, he wasn’t sure.

Maggie left the lee of his arm and walked calmly towards the bedroom.

“I’ll just get me coat, shall I and we’ll go on that walk you were proposing before?”

She sat on the bed for a moment, composing herself, worrying about his reaction over her hesitancy. What was she supposed to do? Commit herself now on the strength of him declaring his everlasting love for her? Hadn’t Jack come out with a similar declaration, when he’d come back from America?

Johnny came quietly into the bedroom and sat beside her. He tilted her face towards him so that he could look into her eyes.

“Are yer playing games with me, Maggie? Is this how you behave in business? Like a game of chess maybe, where you think about every detail before you make your move? Why did you agree to spend this week with me, if yer didn’t think I’d declare me love for you?”

“No, Johnny, you’ve got it wrong,” she replied hotly and shook his hand away. “You don’t know anything about me. You’ve talked about yerself and told me what you’ll be giving up if we run away together. That I can hand me business over just like that and walk off into the sunset. I agreed to spend the week with yer, because… because I am attracted to yer and I must admit that, all those years ago, you were my childish dream. I was prepared to see if I could love yer. Last night yer brought it home to me that we could be good together, but I tried so hard with me marriage, believed everything Jack told me when I took him back.”

“It sounds as if I should be listening to you then,” Johnny said gently. “I’ll ring fer a pot of coffee, then you can put me straight.”

She told him of their trip back to Killala, of the Fenians attack, her husband losing his mind because of it and her desperate entreaty to God.

“We actually passed your mother’s cottage on the day that Jack started to remember. We met a farmer, who told me he had seen yer and the man who lived next door had bought her furniture from you.”

“Maggie. Do yer think we could leave me mother out of this?” The pain of his loss was still unbearable. “ Could we save the discussion of me mother to another day?”

“Of course, Johnny, I’m sorry. I loved yer mother too, yer know.”

She kissed his cheek, then held his hand while she told him why it was hard for her to commit to him.

“I believed everything Jack had to say to me and in the end they were all lies.”

“Then you’ll just have to trust me, Maggie,” he said abruptly.

He rose to his feet then pulled her up gently to him.

“I’ve still some days to convince you so.”

It was Friday morning and Olive was cleaning the floor tiles inside the porch of Selwyn Lodge. Nearly time for a cuppa with Joan in the kitchen. It was warm for the time of the year and she looked with satisfaction upon her work, thinking that within a few minutes the tiles would be dry.