A Lesser Evil - Lesley Pearse [21]
By the time he moved on top of her to enter her, she wanted it as much as he did. It hurt a little, but not enough to put her off, and she wanted the glorious sensations to go on for ever.
‘It takes a little practice for women to come,’ he murmured lovingly afterwards. ‘Please don’t ever pretend it’s happened to try and please me. We have to work at that together.’
Until he said that Fifi imagined that was as good as it got, but clearly he knew better. ‘How would I know if it happened?’ she whispered back.
‘You’ll know, I promise you,’ he said with a low chuckle.
Fifi woke a little later, to see it was dark outside. They hadn’t drawn the curtains earlier, but as the flat was high on a hill overlooking the centre of Bristol, there was plenty of golden light coming in from street lamps.
She looked at her watch and saw it was eight o’clock, and suddenly she thought of her parents waiting for her at home. She could just imagine her mother’s face tight with irritation that she hadn’t come straight home from work.
Reluctantly she crept out of bed, leaving Dan sleeping peacefully. If she didn’t phone them now and get it over with, she’d never be able to relax tonight.
There was a pay-phone in the hall downstairs. She fumbled for her housecoat which she’d left on the floor, found some change and went barefoot down the stairs.
Patty answered the phone. ‘You’d better have a good excuse for missing dinner, Mum’s savage,’ she warned Fifi.
She was tempted to ring off as Patty called her mother, but there was a mirror by the phone and her reflection gave her more confidence. Her hair, so neat earlier today, was all tousled, but there was a glow to her; she reminded herself her new name was Felicity Reynolds and resolved not to be intimidated.
‘So where are you?’ her mother said, without any preliminaries. ‘I told you to come straight home.’
‘Dan and I got married today, Mum,’ Fifi said. ‘We’ve got a new flat in Kingsdown.’
There was a sharp intake of breath, then silence.
‘You married him?’ her mother said eventually, as if she didn’t believe what she’d heard.
‘Yes, at quarter past two at Quaker Friars. I’m sorry if it’s a shock. But it’s what we wanted.’
‘How could you throw your life away on him?’ her mother exclaimed, her voice rising with agitation. ‘He’ll pull you down to his level.’
‘Don’t speak about Dan like that,’ Fifi said, a flush of anger rising up within her. ‘You don’t know him, but I do, he’s wonderful and I love him.’
‘How could you do this to us?’ her mother asked, her voice cracking. ‘After all you put us through when you were a child! People said I should put you in an institution, but I didn’t, and this is how you repay me for all my patience and care.’
The claim about an institution was something Fifi hadn’t heard before and she wanted to challenge it and find out if it was just an hysterical exaggeration or the truth. But her wedding night wasn’t the time for such things, and a draughty hallway wasn’t the right place either. ‘I couldn’t help how I was as a small child,’ Fifi retorted. ‘Any more than I could help falling in love with Dan.’
‘Rubbish!’ Clara snapped. ‘It’s not love. It’s just animal sex! I know it is. I could see that written all over him.’
It was tempting to say the sex had been pretty good so far, but Fifi was suddenly too upset to make any clever retorts. ‘You don’t know what you are talking about, Mother,’ she said sharply. ‘Please don’t try to make something grubby out of this. I told you I loved Dan months ago. He was the man I wanted to marry, and I’ve done it. I would’ve preferred to have had a blessing from you and Dad, but I can live without it.’
‘You’ve made your bed, now you can lie in it,’ her mother snapped. ‘Don’t come crying to us when he gets in trouble or he deserts you for some common tart more suitable for him. I’m finished with you.’
Fifi could only stare at the receiver as her mother slammed the phone down.
‘Come back to bed, sweetheart.’
Fifi looked up and saw Dan above her on the stairs. He was wearing only his jeans and his deeply tanned,