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

of the perfume I had given her. She got ready incredibly early, which meant that she had to wear a towel as a bib, in case she spilled tea down the front of her dress.

I was a little bit concerned about how it would look if they turned up at a posh hotel in a builder’s lorry but Miriam didn’t care. She’d have walked to the coast with Michael if it meant sharing a weekend alone with him.

As it turned out, the black Ford he had borrowed was both clean, and elegant. Amy came along to wave them off, and we stood together on the lane, whooping and cheering like we were sending a young couple off on their honeymoon.

Amy came back with me and we carried a bag of sandwiches and a crate of ale out to our lads in the wheat fields. Amy received a lot of attention from some of the younger men who wolf whistled and offered to show her the best night of her life as we approached. Amy took it all in her stride, as usual, and offered up her own banter in response. I let it go; the day had an end of term feel about it so we let the lads go a little bit further than we usually would.

Three of the local housewives helped out in the kitchen, making sandwiches and flasks of cold tea for their men, who had been invited to help with the threshing. We didn’t need a lot of adults, but there were a dozen children; girls as well as boys, boosting the ranks. The kids had a rare old time, following the threshing machine around the fields, picking up the discarded stalks and tying them into small bundles for Benny and Bessie to pick up on the big cart. It was more fun than work for them.

At eight, it was all done. I paid the thresher, and he drove his machine out from the top field onto the lane and on to whichever farm had booked him next.

I paid the casual workers their day’s pay, and gave the children a one-penny, packet of sweets each, so that they had some reward for the day’s work after their sixpences had been confiscated.

My own men finished at nine. I thanked them in the yard, and handed out the few leftover bottles of ale. Frank refused to accept his, and walked past me without speaking. The lads dispersed a few minutes later, and I collected the bottles and loaded them into the empty crates. There would be a ha’penny refund on each bottle when they went back to The Old Bull.

Frank came down wearing a change of clothes a few minutes later.

‘You can have a bath if you like, Frank, you’ve had a hard day out there.’ I could smell the stale sweat from across the kitchen.

He sniffed under his armpits, then took off this shirt and washed, stripped to the waist. I picked up Martha and fed her a bottle, I didn’t really care if he spoke or not but I would rather have kept things cordial if possible.

Frank was gone for nine-fifteen. On a normal Saturday, there wouldn’t have been time to get properly drunk, but at harvest, the landlord used to break the law and continue serving until the last man left the pub. The police knew about the arrangement, but did nothing to enforce the statute, choosing instead, to sit in the snug and drink free pints. The landlord was happy to give away a few beers, as the two policemen were on hand, to break up the inevitable fights.

I went to bed at ten, thoroughly exhausted. It had been a long day and I was asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow. I was awakened by the sound of the back-door slamming, then heavy footsteps on the stair. I checked the alarm clock at the side of the bed. It was one fifty-five. I turned over just in time to see the door fly open and the shadowy figure of Frank stagger into my room.

‘Get out, Frank!’ I yelled, instantly awake.

He swayed drunkenly as he stood at the bottom of the bed.

‘I’ve come for my pay,’ he slurred.

‘You’ve already had any wages due, Frank. You were paid early, remember? Now, get out please. Let’s not go through all the nastiness again.’

Frank undid his belt and let his trousers fall to his ankles. ‘I’ll accept payment in kind,’ he said. ‘I want some of what your poncy lawyer had yesterday.’

I eyed up the door, and wondered if I could make it before he could get hold of me, but as soon as I lifted my knees to roll over, he was on me, pulling off the eiderdown with one hand and grabbling hold of my ankle with the other. I kicked out, catching him in the face, his head jerked back, but it didn’t put him off, it just made him angrier. I tried again, feigning right towards the door, but rolling left at the last moment, landing on the floor with a thud. As I got up, he came around the corner of the bed with a sneer on his face.

‘No way out, Alice.’

I picked up the clock and threw it at him, but it missed by a good two feet. He laughed and shuffled forward; his steps constricted by the trousers that were still around his ankles.

‘I’ve waited a long time for this,’ he said. His eyes narrowed, he licked his lips and moved forward again.

I backed off, but found myself pinned against the wall with nowhere to go. As Frank got closer, I used the only weapons I had at my disposal, and clawed him across the face with the nails of my right hand. He held his left hand to his scratched cheek, and hit me with a right hook. The blow hit me on the temple, sending me sprawling across the bed, I shook my head in