Unspoken: A story of secrets, love and revenge T. Belshaw (good books to read for beginners txt) 📖

‘Alice. I’m so sorry, I should have been stronger. This should never have happened. I take full responsibility for it.’

I shook my head. ‘Don’t spoil it please, Godfrey.’

‘The thing is, Alice. In my job, we’re supposed to act a bit like doctors. We’re not allowed to have intimate relationships with our clients. It seldom works out well, when it happens. I feel bad about this, I seem to have led you on, and I really didn’t mean to. I enjoy your company, you make me feel young again, but I was determined to leave it at that. You’re a young woman with your whole life ahead of you. I’m a middle-aged, married man, there could never be a future for us.’

‘I know that, Godfrey,’ I said. ‘I’m not looking for a happy ever after. I wanted a bit of fun after what’s happened to me over the last year. I wanted romance, I wanted… I don’t know… excitement… a bit of Hollywood… You gave it to me, it’s something I’ll never forget.’

Godfrey took a step towards me and held me tight. ‘You are such a beautiful, person, Alice, inside as well as out. I really hope life gets better for you. You deserve every bit of happiness that’s coming to you.’

I grinned. ‘Well then. That means I deserved this. Please don’t feel guilty about it, Godfrey, I want to enjoy the memory, and if I thought you were unhappy about what just happened, then it wouldn’t be the same. It was perfect, the best moment of my life.’ I pressed my lips onto his and let them linger for a moment, then pulled away, my eyes misty with a film of happy tears.

I walked Godfrey out to his car, and after checking we weren’t being overlooked, I kissed him again.

‘Thank you, my gangster lawyer. You made this moll, the happiest woman on earth today.’

He tipped his hat to me and smiled.

‘I’ll never forget you either. Goodbye, dear Alice.’

I watched him drive away, then walked, light of foot, back into the house. I put the document that Godfrey had left behind, in the safe, then, singing Night and Day, I danced a few steps across the carpet, looked up, heavenwards, then grinning like the Cheshire cat, I walked breezily into the kitchen.

Even the knowledge that Frank had seen us couldn’t dampen my mood for the rest of that day. He was leaving to find his ship in Liverpool after the bank holiday and I sincerely hoped he’d never come back. I decided to call on Amy over the long weekend. If she didn’t come to see me, first. I wasn’t going to tell her about what had just happened, but knowing Amy, she’d smell something was in the air. She always did.

Chapter 74

August 1938

As if I’d sent a telepathic message, Amy stepped into my kitchen, still wearing her work clothes. She accepted the offer of a dance around the flagstones with Martha, then she sat down at the kitchen table and took hold of the mug of tea I’d just poured for myself.

‘Thanks for this, I’m parched.’

‘You’re welcome,’ I said, and got up to make another one.

‘So, what’s new?’ she asked, looking me straight in the eye.

‘Not much,’ I said, trying to avoid her hypnotising stare.

‘You can’t fool me; I can tell by your eyes that you’ve been having fun without me. Come on now, out with it.’

‘I haven’t done anything.’ I laughed nervously and tried to change the subject. ‘The wheat harvest is cut and stacked, the thresher comes tomorrow, and we start on the corn nex—’

‘I don’t care about the bloody harvest. What’s been going on? I arrived home from work, to a report that your gangster lawyer’s car was seen driving up the lane this lunchtime. Now, what have you got to say for yourself?’

‘Oh that,’ I said, hopefully making it sound like a trivial matter. ‘He came this morning to pick up the government tax cheque…’ I hesitated, why did I always hesitate like that? It’s a dead giveaway. ‘He wasn’t here too long.’

Her eyes lit up. ‘Too long for what?’

My own eyes darted everywhere to try to avoid hers. ‘Nothing, we had a dance, and—’

‘You danced! You danced, and yet you say that nothing happened. Did you kiss again? What song did you dance to? ah,’ she looked across the room to where the gramophone usually sat, ‘WHERE did you dance? Please don’t tell me it was upstairs… No, forget that, please tell me that is was upstairs.’

‘You’ve seen my bedroom, there isn’t enough room to swing a cat,’ I replied.

‘The front room then?’ She got to her feet and rushed to the door. She threw it open and stepped inside, examining the room for clues.

I followed her in, my eyes searching for any bit of giveaway clothing that we might have left behind in our rush to get dressed. Thankfully, there was nothing.

The gramophone was on the table with the record storage box. Night and Day was still on the turntable. Amy wound it up and put the needle onto the record. She turned around and studied me again.

‘So, Charlie Chan visits the scene of the crime. Tell me, Number One Son, what clues do you see?’ Amy loved the Charlie Chan detective movies. She had seen them all.

‘There are no clues to find because nothing happened,’ I said defensively, too defensively, it seemed.

‘Well, you danced a slow dance, so come on, show me how you danced. How did he hold you?’ Amy held out her arms to me.

I blew out my cheeks and let the air out slowly. I held one of her hands and stupidly put the other on her waist.

‘I see, this is much more adventurous than a normal dance hold, isn’t it?’

I immediately moved my hand to her back. ‘No, I got it wrong, it was like this. Proper dancing.’

Amy drew me towards her so that our breasts were touching.

‘And did you pull