Gypsy Wedding (21 page)

‘What? Grab? Nope, you’ve lost me.’

‘It’s the way we get courted.’

‘Grabbing – doesn’t sound like much fun to me.’

‘When a lad fancies you he grabs you and runs off with you. Takes you away somewhere private and kisses you.’

‘What if you don’t fancy him? What if you don’t want to be kissed?’

‘He’ll kiss you anyway. If you fight he might hurt you so it’s best to give in.’

‘You’re kidding. But ain’t that against the law? If a bloke did that to me I’d have him for assault. It’s got to be sexual harassment at the very least.’

‘It’s our way, Kelly.’

‘A bloody awful way, if you ask me.’

‘Well, I didn’t.’ Vicky’s eyes blazed with a flash of anger. Just because the gypsy way wasn’t Kelly’s way didn’t mean it was wrong. And who was Kelly to criticise? She was hardly Little Miss Perfect herself, not judging by the way she’d slept around.

‘Sorry,’ said Kelly, realising she’d strayed into dodgy territory. ‘Anyway, it still doesn’t explain how come you’ve never really kissed Liam.’

‘Because he never had to grab me.’

‘You mean you just gave in without a fight.’

‘Not really. Liam and I have known each other all our lives, we’re next-door neighbours. It was sort of a done deal that we’d wind up marrying.’

‘An arranged marriage?’ Kelly was horrified – this was getting worse and worse.

‘No, not really but neither of us was looking for anyone else. When he asked me to marry him I just said yes.’

‘But didn’t you kiss him then?’

‘Yes, but it wasn’t like when Jordan kissed me. It was lovely, but …’ Vicky felt her face flaring. Kelly might be happy to tell the world every detail of her private life but Vicky found it appallingly embarrassing to go into any sort of detail.

‘Like you said, no tongues with Liam,’ said Kelly baldly.

Vicky blushed even deeper scarlet and shook her head.

‘You do know that the way Jordan kissed you is the norm, don’t you? It’s how boys kiss you when they really fancy you.’

Vicky nodded. ‘I’m not completely dim. I do know about the facts of life.’

Kelly raised an eyebrow. ‘Yeah, it sounds like it. If I may remind you,
you’ve
just been asking
me
about kissing.’

‘So I don’t know everything, but I’ve read books.’

Kelly’s forehead wrinkled. ‘What? How-to guides?’

‘No, Mills & Boon.’

Kelly giggled. ‘What are you like?’

‘Only they’re novels and the authors make up stuff. So I don’t know whether the sexy bits are accurate. They always seem a bit over the top. You can’t really feel like that, can you?’

‘Maybe. How do they describe the heroines when they’ve been kissed senseless by the hero? Do they feel what you felt?

Vicky nodded.

‘So there you go. At least you know you’re normal.’

‘Normal for a pikey?’

‘Normal for a girl.’

‘But I’m not normal like you, am I? I mean, I reckon I’m about the only girl in college who’s still a virgin, I’ve only had one proper kiss, and I’m going to be married in a few months to a bloke who’s never kissed me. Well not …’

‘With tongues,’ Kelly added helpfully.

‘No, not like that.’ Vicky sounded glum.

‘It’s not that bad.’

‘Maybe.’

‘And you love Liam.’

Vicky nodded.

‘Then get him to kiss you properly. For fuck’s sake, Vicky, the sky won’t fall in if he does and then at least you’ll know how it feels with him, rather than with Jordan.’

Vicky nodded. Kelly had a point. And apart from anything else, Vicky knew that she had to find a way of banishing the memory of snogging Jordan because what had just happened with him had shaken her to her roots, and getting a proper kiss from Liam seemed the only way to get rid of the guilt.

On the way back home in her dad’s car, Vicky wondered how she could engineer a situation to get Liam to kiss her like Jordan had done.

‘You’re very quiet,’ said her dad, glancing across at her.

‘Am I?’

‘Something wrong?’

‘No,’ she lied. Nothing at all was wrong, apart from getting beaten up and kissing Jordan.

Her father drove into the trailer park and as the car drew to a halt the familiarity and sense of security of being home almost overwhelmed her. Here she was safe from all the people who didn’t understand and who didn’t
want
to understand her life. Chloe certainly fell into that category and she thought that sometimes even Kelly did. Her way of life wasn’t wrong, it was just different, but sometimes the way Kelly spoke about her wedding made it seem sinful. She hadn’t been pushed into it; she’d got engaged to Liam out of her own free will – hadn’t she? And at least she was going to go up the aisle a virgin and wearing white with a clear conscience, which was more than could be said for most of the non-traveller girls whose wearing of white was a complete farce.

Besides, one thing that had been brought home to her today was how much some gorgios hated travellers. And the idea that she could ever have any sort of business where she depended on trade from non-travellers was just pie in the sky. Eliza Doolittle might be able to dream of owning a shop but she never could. The likes of Chloe would make sure everyone knew where she came from, and it wouldn’t matter how good her designs were or how talented she was with a needle, she’d be boycotted by all and sundry.

As she got out of the car she spotted her mother and Liam’s mother, Bridget, chatting by the washing line at the back of their trailer.

‘Hello, darlin’,’ her mother called across to her as she unpegged a sheet. ‘Me and Biddy here were discussing your wedding.’

‘I was asking how the dress is coming along,’ said Liam’s mum.

‘I’ve got another fitting next weekend.’

‘I bet it’s lovely.’

‘I like it,’ admitted Vicky.

‘Of course you do. To be sure, it’s every girl’s dream to have a wonderful dress on her big day. And you make sure the dressmaker doesn’t make it too tight. Your wedding day is a long day, isn’t it just, Mary-Rose? You want to be as comfortable as you can be, even with a big heavy dress on. You don’t want to have bruises and sore places when Liam gets you out of it.’

Oh my God
, thought Vicky.
How can these two discuss their own two children going to bed with each other? How tacky is that!

‘Don’t you look so shocked, missy,’ said Mary-Rose. ‘It’s only a few months till you’ll be in your marriage bed with Liam. You’d better get used to the idea.’

‘And given how close it’s getting I don’t know why you’re still bothering with being educated,’ grumbled Bridget. ‘Your mother needs a hand with this wedding, given that Shania’s is going to happen right after. It’s not fair that you’re not around. What’s the point of this course? It’s just a waste of time, if you ask me. Liam won’t want you working. Just think the shame he’d feel if you felt you couldn’t rely on him to provide for you. Couldn’t you make dresses perfectly well before?’

Not that old argument again.
What a shit day this is turning out to be
, thought Vicky. First getting thumped by Chloe, then getting it in the neck from Kelly about that kiss and now being given a dressing down by Bridget about being educated. Well, thank God Biddy and Mary-Rose didn’t have a clue about what had gone on at college. It didn’t bear thinking about what Bridget and her mother would have had to say about that.

Guilt washed over her for the umpteenth time that day. Suddenly she needed to see Liam. She had to get Jordan out of her head. She didn’t love him; she loved Liam.

‘I’ve got to go and see Liam about something,’ she told the two women as she sped away. She ran across the trailer park to Liam’s shed, over in the far corner. The door was ajar when she got there so she peeped round. He was working on another door, chiselling out the space for the locking mechanism. Every now and again he’d put down the mallet and chisel and measure his progress then he’d chip away some more, being a perfectionist, taking his time.

He chewed his lip as he eyed up the brass handle and lock and the hole he was carving out of the side of the door. Vicky thought about kissing that lip; how it would taste, how it would feel. Would it be very different from Jordan?

No! She wasn’t going to think about Jordan. She was going to get him out of her mind. If she could scrub her brain to erase the memory she would.

Liam was so busy concentrating on his work he didn’t see his fiancée watching him, so Vicky was able to observe the way he moved, the way his muscles rippled beneath his shirt, the curve of his buttocks when he bent over the workbench and the way his hands caressed the wood. She’d seen him often enough working in just a pair of shorts in the summer to know what he’d look like undressed – well, mostly undressed.

She began to wonder what he would look like completely naked and realised that the thought was almost as stirring as Jordan’s kiss. Was it a sin, she wondered, to want to be married and to find out about sex? To find out about sex with the man she was betrothed to? And for the first time in her life she looked at Liam as something completely other than her friend. This was her marriage partner, this was the man she was going to sleep with for the rest of her life, the man she was going to undress in front of in just a few months’ time. She realised with a shock that even the thought of Liam seeing her naked made her feel quite embarrassed. Wait till she told Kelly that!

Maybe she moved but Liam suddenly spun round. Her train of thought was broken.

‘Jeez, but you gave me a shock,’ he said.

‘Sorry, babe. I was just watching you work. I love to do that.’

‘It’s nothing special, just a door fitting.’

‘The way you make it, makes it seem special.’

‘Don’t be daft, it’s just carpentry.’

‘It’s a skill, like dressmaking.’

‘I thought all you girls could sew.’

For some reason Vicky felt cut that he didn’t recognise that she had a real talent. ‘Don’t be daft,’ she said, trying to make light of his comment. ‘Mammy couldn’t sew on a button if her life depended on it and I don’t think Shania could even thread a needle.’

‘Of course they could.’

‘Like Billy and Jon-Boy would know how to make a proper joint or put a chair together?’

‘Of course not, they’d need to be taught.’

‘Exactly. But it takes more than just knowing the basics. You care about what you do, like I care about my dresses.’

‘I suppose. Still,’ Liam added, ‘you won’t have to worry about that soon. Come June you can put that all behind you.’

‘Maybe I don’t want to.’

‘Don’t be silly,’ said Liam, missing the point. ‘It isn’t as if you have to make Shania’s wedding dress or anything. Just think, no more having to get up a the crack to traipse off to college. Won’t that be nice?’

Vicky forced a smile. ‘Lovely.’

‘Come here and give me a hug,’ said Liam.

Vicky walked across the shed and allowed herself to be enveloped by Liam. She hid her face in his shoulder, not wanting him to see how fed up she felt. Why couldn’t he see how important her dressmaking was? How would he feel if she went around saying that what he did was nothing special and that all he did was cut wood or bash nails in with a hammer? Wouldn’t he be hurt? Surely, if he loved her, he’d pick up on her feelings.

Like Jordan had.

Liam unwrapped his arms from around her body. ‘I’ve got something to show you,’ he said. ‘I thought about waiting till our wedding night but … well, I want you to see it now.

Vicky pushed down a filthy thought that had popped into her head. Of course he wasn’t going to show her anything like
that
!

‘Come with me and I’ll show you.’

Intrigued, Vicky followed her fiancé. He led her over to his trailer.

‘Close your eyes,’ he instructed her.

‘What’s all this about?’ Vicky said with a giggle, her earlier smutty thought bouncing back into her mind.

‘Shut your eyes and you’ll find out.’

Vicky did as she was told. She heard the creak of the door as he opened it and then she felt Liam take her hand. With faltering steps she followed him as he guided her up the step and into his home. She could tell from the way they turned right that he was leading her towards the back of the caravan, where the bedroom that they would one day share was.

‘You can open your eyes now.’

And in front of her was a bed, a beautiful bed made of deep, rich red, cherry wood. The headboard was carved with a design of birds and butterflies surrounding a big heart in the middle with their initials intertwined in the centre. Each of the bedposts was carved with wreaths of flowers winding up them and there were more butterflies and birds on the footboard. The carving was so careful and intricate that Vicky could actually identify the different species.

‘Oh my God, Liam, it’s beautiful.’

‘I made it for you.’

‘For us, Liam, for us.’