A Lesser Evil - Lesley Pearse [70]
‘It’s you making me hot,’ he said suggestively, looking at her cleavage.
Fifi blushed. Since she became pregnant her breasts had got bigger, and her dress had a low neck. ‘If you’re well enough to think dirty thoughts you’re on the mend,’ she said, then went on to tell him about all the people who had asked after him.
Later they heard a distant rumble of thunder and noticed how dark the sky had become.
‘You’d better go before it starts to rain,’ Dan said. ‘I reckon we’re in for a big storm.’
Fifi did leave before visiting time was over when she saw the first spots of rain. But by the time she was halfway to the tube station the rain had turned heavy and her thin dress was soaked. When she got out at Kennington it was a deluge. She stood for a moment in the entrance to the station, watching the rain bouncing off the pavements and turning the gutters into gushing streams. There was no light in the sky at all, and it was all too obvious by the rumbling thunder that this was far more than a brief summer shower, so she had no choice but to run for home.
The streets were completely deserted, cars slowing down to a crawl in the driving rain, and the pavements were slippery after the long dry spell. She was soaked to the skin and out of breath when she turned the corner into Dale Street and suddenly she slid on something and fell flat on her face.
She banged one knee very hard, and jarred her hand and arm as she tried to break her fall. The shock made her cry out. She felt someone grab her arm to help her up, but her wet hair was all over her face and she didn’t know who it was until she heard his voice.
‘You shouldn’t be running like a mad thing in your condition,’ he said. ‘A drop of rain won’t ’urt you.’
It was Alfie Muckle. As she brushed her hair back off her face she saw he was leering at her and she realized that her thin dress was stuck to her body and he’d probably seen right up to her knickers when she fell.
She backed away from him instinctively.
‘Well, that’s nice,’ he said, his pale blue eyes travelling up and down her body. ‘Not a word of thanks that I helped you up!’
‘I didn’t mean to be rude,’ she said quickly. ‘I’m a bit shaken up, that’s all. Thank you.’
‘You’ll be all alone with the old man up the ’ospital,’ he said, moving closer and putting his hand on her elbow. ‘Come over to my place and I’ll fix your leg up.’
From anyone else that offer would have touched her, for when she looked down she saw blood streaming from her knee. But coming from him it sounded menacing. ‘I’ll be fine,’ she said, moving away from him. ‘Thank you anyway.’
She hobbled the rest of the way home, aware he was still standing under the shelter of the corner-shop blind watching her.
Once indoors, her wet clothes stripped off and in her dressing-gown, Fifi found herself shivering with shock. Her right knee was badly grazed, as was the palm of her hand. All at once everything – Dan’s injuries, the visit to her mother, her fall, being touched by Alfie and the prospect of a night alone – blew up in her mind to astronomic proportions and she felt vulnerable and fearful.
A loud clap of thunder, quickly followed by a flash of lightning, made her feel even more nervy, for she’d always been frightened by thunderstorms. She pulled the curtains shut and switched on a lamp and the television, but at each further clap of thunder she shook, and she could barely hear the television for the drumming of rain on the roof and windows.
Cold, shaken and frightened, she went to bed. But the thunder seemed even louder there, and as darkness fell outside, each flash of lightning lit up the room. She burrowed under the covers and even put Dan’s pillow over her head, but she could still hear the storm and she became more and more scared.
As a child she had been terrified of storms, to the extent that sometimes her mother thought she was about to take a fit. She felt herself going that way again, for she was rigid with fear and struggling to breathe. She felt as if she was marooned in a high tower with the storm