The Angel in the Corner - Monica Dickens [62]
When the train at last panted to a standstill in Glasgow Central, Virginia stumbled out of it, stiff-legged and numb with weariness. She saw a policeman standing near the ticket barrier. He was waiting for her, of course. The trouble was beginning.
‘Joe.’ She pulled at his arm. ‘Helen’s found out somehow. I told you she would. Look at that policeman. Oh, please do something. What shall we do?’
‘That dick’s not after you. Don’t start imagining things. Pick up your feet, you’re half asleep. Come on, and we’ll see if we can find a bed in this town.’
*
Joe rode back on a lurching Glasgow tram to the back street hotel where he had left Virginia. Well, this was marriage. Coming home to a woman, and knowing that she would be there. Would she nag at him, as other men’s wives did, because he had been so long away? It wasn’t his fault that he had had to chase all over the town after Anderson. He had done his best. No one could say that he had not tried.
Why prepare excuses? Virginia was not the nagging kind. He thought of her waiting for him in the small square room, which was all bed and dark wallpaper. He smiled, looking about him at the other men riding home on the tram. They were Glasgow men, stunted, grey-skinned, oppressed. None of them was going back to a young wife with a skin like petals, who could have married anybody, but who wanted him. No doubt they were content with their broad-beamed scolds. They could never imagine the triumph of stealing a woman from the enemy, of taking her out of her soft life, and making her live your way.
He walked through the pungent hall of the hotel, and up the worn stair carpet without smelling or seeing anything. He could not remember ever being so excited about a girl. He would have to watch himself. She was a virgin. He had sometimes joked with her about her name. Rather a feeble joke, but it had pulled him out of his anger at her stubborn determination to stay that way.
Virginia was lying in the high Victorian bed, asleep. She seemed to be half undressed. The strap of her slip had slid down her bare shoulder, and her thick dark hair was spread like a stain on the pillow. Joe shut the door quietly, his eagerness dissolved for a moment into tenderness. God, let him be good to her! Let him not ever be fool enough to chuck all this away. What he had here seemed now like everything he had ever wanted. He went softly to the bed, but Virginia sensed him in the room, woke, and sat up, holding the bedclothes in front of her.
‘Hullo, darling,’ she said. It was the first time she had been sure enough of him to call him that. ‘You’re very late. I waited and waited, but I couldn’t keep awake. I think I’ve slept for hours. I’m starving. What happened to you?’
‘I had a bit of trouble running Anderson down.’ He sat on the bed and pulled down the sheet. He could not take his eyes off her.
‘Is it all right about the job?’
‘It’s a bit vague at the moment. Things have to be worked out. Don’t bother now. I’ll tell you in the morning.’
‘Aren’t you hungry, Joe? Don’t you want to go out and get dinner? I’ll get dressed.’ Her voice was quick and breathless, and her eyes had darkened.
‘Don’t get dressed,’ he said. ‘You fool, don’t you know you’re on your honeymoon?’ He pushed her back on to the pillow, and found that she was warm and eager and readily excited. Her clouded eyes searched his face, and he knew that his desire was written fiercely there.
‘Joe,’ she whispered. ‘Don’t be angry, but I’m afraid.’
‘Don’t be,’ he said. ‘It’s all right. You’re lovely, Jin. Come to me. This is what you were made for. Come to me. I’ll show you.… I’ll show you what it can be like.’
He had always said that he had no use for girls who did not know their way around. Now