A Country Girl

‘I’ll give you a lift home in the gig, Kate. I should hate anything to happen to our leading lady for want of seeing her home safe. It’s a rough part of Brierley Hill you have to walk through, and there’s no lamps to speak of.’

‘That’s very kind of you, Mr Osborne,’ Kate replied. ‘But you needn’t trouble yourself. I’ll come to no harm. I normally walk part of the way with Harriet and Priss Meese.’

‘Listen, it’s no trouble. I’d rather I took you than not.’

She smiled sweetly. ‘Thank you.’

‘Just give us the nod when you’re ready.’

She was about to return to the company of Harriet and Priss, who had moved towards the door to make their exit, when Clarence Froggatt approached her.

‘Kate, would you allow me to walk you home?’

‘Stone me if there isn’t a sudden outbreak of gallantry hereabouts,’ she exclaimed dryly. ‘I’ve just accepted Mr Osborne’s offer to drop me off in his gig. Save my legs, it will.’

‘Oh,’ Clarence said, disappointment manifest in his eyes. ‘That’s very thoughtful of him. I can offer you nothing as grand as a gig. Merely Shanks’s pony. Another time, maybe?’

‘Who knows?’ Kate smiled sweetly. ‘In the meantime, Clarence, my friend Harriet Meese might appreciate your company if you’re going her way. She could do with an escort.’

‘But won’t her sister be with her?’

‘Two for the price of one, eh? Maybe your luck’s in, Clarence …’

That same evening in June, Algie Stokes had returned home from work to the news that Marigold had called, and that the Binghams would be moored up in the basin at the Bottle and Glass. Before even he had his tea, he hurried to their narrowboats, full of excitement, to cast his eyes over her lovely face again and to arrange to see her later.

He was enchanted, and it showed. Marigold, too, was suddenly on top of the world after all the nagging doubts she’d harboured; doubts which she now recognised were stupid and unreasonable. Algie still loved her, and she felt uplifted, relieved, ecstatic. It was obvious he did, else he would not be so happy and so keen to see her. She made an effort to look her best for him when he returned after he’d eaten and, when she smiled, affection oozed from her clear blue eyes.

‘You look nice,’ Algie remarked as she stepped off the gunwale of the narrowboat to be with him.

‘Do I?’ she said, needing his reassurance.

‘You look nice enough to eat.’

‘I want to look nice for you, Algie.’

‘Well, you do,’ he confirmed.

‘It’s lucky the weather’s been so fair, don’t you think?… And I’m glad to see your poorly lip’s mended.’

He grinned waggishly, aware of what she meant. ‘Yes, it’s very serviceable now, I reckon.’

They headed, with an unspoken accord, in the direction of the secluded dell close to Dadford’s Bridge. There, they might have expected to find at least one more courting couple, but again they were alone and sat down on the grass, hidden from the rest of the world in their own private little hollow, surrounded and hidden by gorse bushes and the steep, grassy knoll behind them. Algie took off his jacket, rolled it up and laid it on the ground behind them.

‘Rest your head on my coat, eh?’

She did as she was bid and smiled up at him adoringly. He lay beside her, his head propped up on his arm, looking at her lovely face.

‘I’ve missed you such a lot, Algie,’ she whispered softly. ‘I was thinking about you nearly all the time I was away.’

Touched by her openness, he bent his head and kissed her gently on the lips. ‘I missed you as well, my little flower.’

‘We kept getting loads up to Cheshire and back. It seemed as if I was never going to see you again.’

‘Well, you’re here now.’

‘Have you really missed me?’ she asked earnestly, delaying receipt of another kiss.

‘Yes … I really have.’

‘And you ain’t snuck off to see Harriet?’

‘No, never,’ he protested sincerely. ‘I promised I wouldn’t, and I haven’t. She doesn’t mean anything to me anymore. She doesn’t interest me. I thought you understood that.’

She lifted her face to his and her kiss was an apology for making the suggestion. ‘I just have to be sure, Algie. You must’ve guessed by now that I can be a bit jealous … Besides,’ she added wistfully, ‘I was away so long …’

‘You don’t have to be jealous, Marigold,’ he said with evident concern for her feelings. ‘There’s nothing to be jealous about. I told you I’d wait for you. And I have. I’ll always wait for you. I promise.’

She smiled, her anxiety dispelled. ‘Kiss me again, Algie. Long and gentle this time. A butterfly kiss. I always think of your gentle kisses as “butterfly kisses”.’

He obliged her, lingering, tenderly savouring her sweet lips.

‘I’ve been dying to come down here with you again, Algie.’

‘Honest?’

‘Honest.’ She snuggled up to him contentedly, her head resting on his shoulder, relishing his arms around her.

A certain rigidity inside his trousers, unruly as ever, was insisting on more adequate accommodation, and he shifted his position to relieve the discomfort. He thrust his knee tentatively between hers, and she allowed it. Her long skirt was a frustrating barrier between them, but still he could feel the tantalising warmth of her thighs caressing his. He kissed her again, more ardently this time. His tongue probed her mouth while he held her small backside and pressed himself against her.

‘I want you, Marigold,’ he sighed heavily. ‘I want to go all the way with you.’

‘So it seems, by the feel of that thing against me belly,’ she replied, feigning disregard, even though she enjoyed the sensation and her heart was pounding like a drum because of it.

‘I suppose you don’t want to?’

‘Why do we have to talk about it, Algie? It spoils it all, talking about it.’

‘Would it spoil it if I were to tell you I love you?’ he asked.

‘It’s easy to say as much just to get your way,’ she said challengingly. ‘You have to mean it.’

‘I do mean it. I missed you like hell while you was away. I was thinking about you all the time.’ She melted in his arms at this admission, and he hugged her. ‘If only I’d known where to find you …’ He lifted her chin and planted another kiss on her lips. ‘I’d have been there, believe me. Like a shot from a gun.’

‘I think I’ll always love you, you know, Algie,’ she said dreamily. ‘I thought about it a lot while we was up and down the cut.’

He took that as an invitation to undo the buttons of her blouse.

‘What are you doing?’ she said, feigning surprise, but with no indignation.