The Price of Love (6 page)

‘I want to make your wedding day the talk of Priory Terrace,’ she went on, her eyes shining. ‘I can see you now in your wedding dress, holding your father’s arm as you walk up the aisle to where Robert is waiting, and our Sam standing there beside Robert in a smart new suit.’

‘And Patsy as my bridesmaid,’ Lucy reminded her.

‘Mmm! Well, I hope she behaves herself and doesn’t start flirting with all the men like she usually does.’

‘Mam! You know it’s just her way because all the men think she is so pretty.’

‘Rubbish! You are going to be the one looking beautiful. Anyway,’ her mother said briskly, ‘all this chatter’s not helping me to decide what I am going to wear when Sam takes us out. I suppose I could wear the red dress that I wore on Christmas Day, but I’m not sure which hat and coat to wear with it.’

‘Your winter coat, of course,’ Lucy told her. ‘It’s still March and the wind can be quite cutting.’

‘Not if we are inside the car, surely,’ her mother protested, her face creasing into a frown. ‘It’s not like standing around waiting for a tram, now is it?’

They discussed it at length and finally agreed that her three-quarter-length coat with a fur collar would be ideal even though it was dark blue and her dress was red.

‘Oh dear, and my hat is black,’ Margaret Collins sighed. ‘That won’t look right, will it?’

‘In that case, why don’t you wear my dark red one and it will go with your dress?’

‘You mean that little one with the tiny brim that looks like a pudding basin?’

‘It’s called a cloche hat and they are the very latest fashion, Mam. It will look far better than wearing a black one and, anyway, the brim on your black one is so big that you will probably knock your hat off trying to get into the car.’

Reluctantly, her mother agreed to try it on and then seemed genuinely amazed at how well it looked. The face-framing hat flattered her and the colour suited her extremely well, making her look younger than she was.

‘Don’t let on to your dad or Sam what I am planning to wear, I want to give them a surprise,’ Margaret Collins said smiling conspiratorially as she took off Lucy’s hat and smoothed down her hair which was now slightly disturbed.

Her mother talked so much about the forthcoming outing, wondering where Sam was taking them and worrying about what the weather would be like, that Lucy began to feel that she would be glad when it was all over.

‘Very well, I’ll keep what you’re wearing a secret,’ Lucy promised as she took the hat from her. ‘Now, can we go and have our meal? I’m meeting Robert at two o’clock.’

She was almost relieved that she had to go to work on Saturday and that she was extremely busy on the switchboard so that the time flew past.

Although the rest of them dressed up in their best to go to church on Easter Sunday morning, to Lucy’s surprise her mother didn’t wear her red dress.

‘No one will see what I have on under my big coat. I want to keep that dress and your hat to wear later, because that’s going to be such a special occasion, and I want to look my very best then,’ she reminded Lucy as she fastened on her wide-brimmed black hat and picked up her bag and gloves ready to leave.

After church, Lucy offered to clear up after their meal and told her dad he’d better go and spruce himself up while Sam went to fetch the car.

‘No need to go showing off by bringing it right here to the door, we can walk to the garage,’ Bill Collins protested.

‘No, Mam wants to find it waiting for her when she walks out of the front door,’ Sam insisted. ‘Letting the whole street see it arrive and then being driven off in it is half the treat for her.’ He grinned.

‘Well, I’ll walk along to the garage with you, Sam,’ Bill muttered, following Sam out into the hallway and picking up his flat cap and reaching for his coat that was hanging there.

‘Oh no, Dad, you can’t go out dressed like that,’ Lucy intervened quickly. ‘For a start, you are not going to wear that cap. It’s a smart trilby-and-no-muffler day,’ she added laughing.

Sam took advantage of the interruption to disappear and with a sigh of resignation Mr Collins went to find his trilby as Lucy had requested.

Five minutes later, Lucy felt really proud of them both as they stood in the living room, waiting for the car to arrive. She opened the front door the moment Sam pulled up outside but one or two of the neighbours were already on their doorsteps curious to see what was going on.

Before Mr and Mrs Collins could get into the car, Patsy appeared. There was a look of astonishment on her face as she spoke to Sam and asked him what was happening.

‘I’m taking my mam and dad for a spin and then somewhere for afternoon tea,’ he said, grinning.

‘You planned all this and yet you never said a word to me about it?’ Patsy pouted, tossing her hair back from her face. ‘Did Mr Carter say you could use the car?’

‘Of course he did; I wouldn’t be outside my house with it otherwise, now would I?’

Patsy waited until Mr and Mrs Collins were settled in the back seat and then looked enquiringly at Lucy.

‘I suppose you are going with them as well, are you?’ she asked.

‘No,’ Lucy shook her head, ‘Sam wants it to be a special treat for Mam and Dad.’

Patsy beamed, her pretty face suddenly lighting up. ‘Then I shall come as well, Sam. I can sit in front beside you.’

‘Sorry, Patsy, but that’s not possible. Mr Carter said I could only take Mam and Dad.’

‘That’s not fair.’ Patsy scowled. ‘What am I supposed to do all afternoon? I was expecting you to take me out.’

‘I’ll be back before five and we’ll go out this evening,’ Sam told her as he turned on the engine.

‘No, that’s not good enough.’ Patsy shook her head, her mouth set in a tight line. She clung on to the car door as Sam engaged gear and began to pull away.

‘Come on, Patsy, don’t spoil things for them. It’s not Sam’s fault that you can’t go as well; he had to promise Mr Carter he would only take my mam and dad,’ Lucy told her, taking her arm and pulling her away.

‘Mr Carter probably meant that he didn’t want you riding around in one of his cars pretending to be Lady Muck,’ Patsy told her, shaking free of Lucy’s restraining hand.

Lucy couldn’t think of a suitable answer as Patsy stalked off home in high dudgeon. She felt sorry for Sam, though, because she knew that Patsy was very angry and would have quite a lot to say to him when he came home.

Knowing that there was nothing she could do about it and that Robert would be arriving almost any minute, she went back indoors to get ready to go out.

Robert had promised to take her across to New Brighton because the fun fair was open over Easter and he knew how much she loved going on the rides with him, but suddenly her heart wasn’t in it. She even wondered if he would prefer to stay home since they had the house to themselves, something that rarely happened.

Robert arrived long before she was ready and he was shivering as he came indoors. ‘It’s chilly out; there’s a keen wind and it will be bitterly cold going over on the boat,’ he told her.

‘The kettle’s boiling, would you like a cup of tea first, to warm you up?’ Lucy asked.

‘That sounds like a great idea,’ he agreed, as he rubbed his cold nose against her cheek after kissing her.

As they settled down on the sofa to drink their tea Lucy said, ‘We don’t have to go out this afternoon, you know; not if you’d rather stay here.’

He looked at her quizzically. ‘What do you want to do? I planned the trip over to New Brighton because I know how much you enjoy the rides.’

‘We have got the house to ourselves,’ Lucy murmured. ‘Sam isn’t planning to be back until five o’clock and that’s almost four hours away.’

‘Mmm,’ Robert murmured, putting his cup down on the table and pulling Lucy into his arms, his mouth covering hers. His lips travelled down her neck and back up again and he nibbled gently on the lobes of her ears. ‘Perhaps we should change our plans and take advantage of that and stay here; we can always go over to New Brighton next weekend,’ he whispered.

Cocooned in the warmth and quiet of the house, Lucy acquiesced and relaxed in Robert’s arms. She loved him with all her heart and was always eager for his kisses and embraces but usually these were very constrained because they had so little privacy.

Now, knowing that there would be no interruptions, Lucy nestled up closer to Robert and made no protests when he slipped his hands inside her clothing and became far more intimate than he had ever dared to be before.

She was carried away by Robert’s ardour. Her own feelings were in turmoil; she had never before felt such desire or need. She wanted the strange and slightly shocking sensations that sent shivers of anticipation through her entire body to go on for ever.

When he gently eased her from the sofa and lowered her on to the rug in front of the glowing fire, she made no resistance. As he undid the buttons on her blouse and, peeling it away from her shoulders, began to kiss and fondle her breasts, she stiffened for a brief moment then gave a quivering sigh followed by a little cry of delight as his mouth took possession of first one and then the other.

Eagerly she started to unbutton the front of his shirt. As her hands touched his bare chest she drew in a sharp breath and then pulled him closer to her own naked body, closing her eyes as their flesh melded together and she felt the intense heat from his body enveloping her.

Robert raised himself on one elbow and looked down at her quizzically, almost as if asking for permission to go on. At that moment Lucy knew she could deny him nothing and smiled in anticipation of what was to follow.

After that they were so intertwined that it was as if they were one. Every throb of their pulse, every breath they took and every movement they made seemed to be in unison. They lost all sense of time or place as their passion, which had been restrained for so long, completely engulfed them.

The loud hammering on the front door followed by a pounding on the window startled both of them and brought them back to reality with an unnerving jolt.

They stared at each other in alarm, then Lucy pulled away from Robert, fighting back a feeling of shame at having been caught in such a compromising situation.

Their moment of sheer bliss had been completely shattered and, for a few seconds, neither of them seemed to know what to say or do. Lucy pushed her hair back from her flushed face and tried to think who it could be hammering on the door.

‘Surely Sam hasn’t brought my mam and dad back from their ride already,’ she gulped, her brown eyes wide with distress as she looked at Robert.

‘It’s far too soon for them to be coming home,’ Robert agreed. He looked at the clock on the mantelpiece. ‘They’ve only been gone just over an hour. Anyway, the door isn’t locked, so they could have opened it. It must be someone else.’

‘What are we going to do? Perhaps we should stay quiet and pretend we’re not here.’

‘No, we’d better not do that in case it is important. You stay there; I’ll go and see who it is.’

He reached for his clothes, pulling on his trousers and shirt and fastening them as quickly as he could.

There was another loud hammering on the door and Lucy hurriedly put on her own clothes and tried to smooth down her tousled hair as she heard Robert call out, ‘All right, I’m coming; there’s no need to bash the door in.’

With shaking hands she tried to straighten the crumpled rug and pick up the cushion that was lying on the floor and put it back on to the sofa.

She walked over to the fireplace and stared at her reflection in the over mantle as she smoothed her hair, wondering if anyone could tell from her appearance what had just happened in the last hour or so.

She looked perfectly normal, she told herself as she heard Robert returning.

Her feeling of bravado was immediately forgotten when she saw that he was accompanied by a policeman; she could only stare at them in silence, afraid to ask why he was there.

‘Are you Lucy Collins?’ the policeman asked, removing his helmet and placing it on the table before taking out his notebook.

‘Yes!’ Lucy said in a trembling voice, her colour rising. What on earth was a policeman doing calling on them? she wondered. They’d never had a policeman at the door in the whole of her life. He was so big and burly that he seemed to fill the room.

She felt a frisson of fear rising inside her, making her heart thud faster. Surely she and Robert couldn’t be prosecuted for what they had been doing, she thought anxiously.

The policeman consulted his notebook again and then cleared his throat hesitantly. ‘I’m afraid I have some bad news for you, miss,’ he said awkwardly. ‘The motor vehicle that your brother was driving has been involved in a serious accident—’

‘Accident?’ Lucy’s voice was shrill with fear. ‘What sort of an accident? My mam and dad are in the car with him; he was taking them to Southport as a treat …’ Her voice faded away and she looked helplessly at Robert who immediately moved across the room and put his arm around her protectively.

‘Yes, Miss Collins. The accident took place at Blundell Ince, a small village about halfway between here and Southport,’ he paused and consulted his notebook. ‘It seems a horse strayed on to the main road and when the driver took evasive action to try and avoid it, the animal reared up and collided with the vehicle and the driver lost control of the steering. Two of the wheels skidded off the tarmacked road and into a deep ditch, causing the vehicle to overturn. The driver and passengers were all trapped inside the vehicle.’

Lucy gasped.

‘Are they badly hurt?’ Robert asked.

‘The driver was taken to hospital with severe injuries; I’m afraid I don’t yet have the details of exactly what they were.’

‘What about the two passengers who were in the car?’ Robert persisted, his arm tightening around Lucy, who was white faced and trembling as they listened to the policeman’s report.

The officer’s mouth tightened as he studied his notebook. ‘I’m afraid, sir, that both the passengers in the back of the vehicle died at the scene of the accident.’

Robert frowned. ‘Are you quite sure about that?’