Across the Mersey - Annie Groves [149]
He crossed the small distance separating them and took her in his arms, holding her comfortingly.
‘It is,’ he agreed. ‘Bloody unfair. But that’s life, Grace. You know that. It is unfair. And if you want to be fair to him, then the best thing you can do is to remember him as he wanted you to.’
Grace raised her head to look at him, her eyes widening slightly as her body registered the fact that she was in his arms.
‘Grace.’
He hadn’t intended to kiss her. He hadn’t even thought of doing so, not for one minute, Sebastion assured himself. He had seen her rush into the sluice room, had guessed she was upset and had simply followed her to offer his sympathy.
But now that he was kissing her, Seb realised, he didn’t ever want to stop.
A sound outside the door brought them both back to reality. Seb released her and Grace stepped back from him. They were both breathing unsteadily and Grace knew that her heart was racing – not with shock but with excitement.
‘We shouldn’t have done that,’ she told Seb weakly.
‘No,’ he agreed, ‘but I’m glad that we did.’ Her mother had been in such a bad mood since Jack had run away and they had to collect him from Aunt Jean’s and then take him back to Wales, that Bella just didn’t feel like going round to see her.
Bettina and her mother were carrying on as if the Poles were the saviours of the nation, ever since it had been in the papers about them being such daring fighter pilots, and Bella was sick of listening to them.
Now just because the post hadn’t brought a letter from Jan this morning they were acting like the world had ended and had rushed off to see what they could find out, fearing the worst and that Jan might have been shot down in one of the now almost daily air battles between the Luftwaffe and the RAF. Well, good riddance if he had, Bella thought nastily.
She wished they weren’t having such a hot August. It was really draining her, what with the heat and the air-raid sirens going off night after night, and her having to get out of bed and go down to the shelter until the all clear came. At least today, though, she didn’t have to worry about having to put up with Alan’s temper, seeing as he was playing golf with his father. And yet even though she resented Bettina and her mother, the house felt empty without them there to complain to about how miserable she felt.
It was definitely too hot outside. She might as well go upstairs and lie down comfortably on her bed, as stay out here in the garden, thought Bella.
Less than an hour later Alan woke her up when he came storming upstairs, obviously drunk and in a furious temper.
‘What are you doing back?’ she asked him irritably. ‘I thought you were playing golf.’
‘Trixie’s father was at the golf club, and do you know what?’
Bella gave an exaggerated sigh and got up off the bed. ‘No, and I don’t want to know either,’ she told him as she walked past him.
He caught up with her on the landing, grabbing hold of her arm and pushing her back against the banister rail so hard that it hurt her back.
‘Well, you’re going to know. He said that Trixie’s getting engaged,’ said Alan bitterly. ‘That’s thanks to you, you bitch,’ he raged. ‘It’s because of you that I’ve lost the girl I love. The only girl I’ll ever love.’ He was sobbing now, drunken tears streaming down his face. ‘It’s all your fault. Everything. You’ve ruined my life.’
She’d ruined his life! Her back really hurt and so did her arm where he was still holding it in a painful grip. Bella gave him a baleful look and demanded crossly, ‘Let go of me, Alan. You’re hurting me.’
‘Am I? So what? It’s what you deserve. In fact …’ He was looking at her now in a way that sent an atavistic prickle of warning up under Bella’s skin, lifting the hairs at the back of her neck.
As though in the very second that it flashed through her mind that being trapped between Alan and the banister rail meant she was in a perilous position, the same thought seemed to occur to him, so that when she tried to