The Lock-Keeper's Son

by Nancy Carson

Because she seemed to be enjoying it so much, he felt it was his duty to linger there. Before long he sensed a flood of extra wetness on his tongue, a sweeter taste, and he was desperate to enter her, to plunge into her warm softness and feel her sweet flesh surrounding him. He writhed up over her, till his face was level with hers. Her head was to one side, her face contorted with the rapture of orgasm, but she looked no less beautiful because of it, and all the more desirable.

  As he slid inside her, she gasped and began moving vigorously beneath him, gripping the cheeks of his backside to draw him closer, more firmly into her. Her sighs turned to cries, and he in turn was soon aware of that familiar tingling deep inside, which had eluded him for so long. Its glow intensified, and he groaned at the exquisite sensation radiating from the depths of his groin through his entire body, even to the tips of his toes. Too soon spent, he nuzzled his face into the curve of her neck with a deep sigh of contentment, while she ran her fingers lovingly through his hair.

  They remained still for some minutes, resting, unspeaking, wallowing in the intimacy of the moment. Eventually, Aurelia spoke.

  ‘Well, that confirms it.’

  ‘What?’ he muttered into the pillow.

  ‘That I love you. Oh, I’m so happy with you, Algie.’

  Reluctantly he withdrew from her and lay on his side facing her, his hand resting on her belly, which was moist with perspiration where their bodies had cleaved together.

  ‘You don’t regret it then?’ he asked.

  ‘Regret it? Oh, Algie …’ She sounded disappointed that he should even consider such a thing.

  ‘But I spent inside you.’

  ‘I know you did, but I don’t regret it. It was beautiful. I hope you don’t regret it either.’

  ‘Me? Why should I regret it?’

  ‘Because of all the implications.’

  ‘I’m aware of all that, Aurelia.’

  ‘As long as you don’t think I want it to stop here …’

  He held her tight and kissed her. ‘If I thought that, I’d also think you were a very shallow, selfish person, without any real feelings.’

  ‘Which I am not,’ she affirmed.

  ‘But it’s all happened very quickly between us, you must agree.’

  ‘Because I need love just as much as you do, Algie. We’re two of a kind, you and me, I think. I can tell you get maudlin without a bit of love and tenderness. I’m no different at all …’ She caught his smile by the firelight and snuggled up to him. ‘Anyway, I’ve had plenty of time to think about it.’

  ‘So have I, my love.’

  She lifted her face to him and smiled into his eyes. ‘You called me “my love” … Do you think you might love me just a little bit, Algie?’

  ‘I wouldn’t be a bit surprised … Despite all my former resolve to avoid it …’

  Chapter 25

  ‘If you don’t want to be seen leaving with me,’ Algie said, sympathetic to the fears Aurelia had already expressed, ‘then wait for me at the tram stop up by Top Church.’

  She assented wistfully as she peered through the window onto the grey morning.

  ‘Just while I settle the bill. And I’ll find out if the room’s free later. You still want to come here later if we can, don’t you?’

  ‘You know I do.’ She kissed him on the cheek, put on her hat, and was ready. ‘I’ll leave now then. See you at the tram stop in a few minutes.’

  The fire had gone out in the grate. All that remained was a pile of ashes, and it was cold in that room after the heat of the night. Algie mused over their night of love. He shook his head in disbelief that it had actually occurred at all … Aurelia, the most beautiful of women, had been his and would be again. She was certainly a healing salve for the heartache he’d been suffering over Marigold. He looked down on the bed they had made love in, slept in, wrapped in each other’s arms, and tried to imagine her there again. But any image escaped him. Suffice it to know that she had been there, and so had he.

  He went downstairs and found Mr Powell.

  ‘The lady I was with,’ Algie began in a low voice as he handed over the money to settle up. ‘She, er … she wasn’t my wife.’

  Mr Powell was unmoved by this unexpected declaration. It was really none of his business, but he regarded Algie with a curious gaze. ‘It didn’t take much working out, lad, if I’m honest.’

  ‘The truth is,’ Algie went on, a little taken aback by Mr Powell’s revelation, ‘we need a place to go to do our courting. The weather being what it is, neither of us fancy walking out, and secluded spots down country lanes are just a bit too chilly. I, er … I wonder if I could make an arrangement with you for us to use that room again other nights. Not to stay the whole night necessarily, mind you, just to use for a couple of hours or so.’

  Mr Powell offered him his change.

  ‘No, keep the change, Mr Powell …’ Algie believed it might curry some sympathy and understanding.

  ‘I get respectable business folk stopping here in the week, Mr Stokes, and I don’t particularly want my emporium turned into a bawdy house.’

  ‘Oh, I appreciate that, Mr Powell … Look, I realise that what I’m asking might not appeal to your sense of what’s right and proper, nor to any of your other guests if they knew, but if you could turn a blind eye …’

  ‘Turn a blind eye?’

  ‘I mean, me and my lady friend would be very discreet, Mr Powell. I mean, we could come and go separate, like. Nobody need ever know, barring you.’

  ‘Oh, not to mention my missus and the chambermaid … They ain’t daft, you know.’

  ‘I never meant to suggest that they were. But business is business, Mr Powell, surely?’

  ‘Oh, aye, Mr Stokes, business is business.’

  ‘I could book up the room now for tonight, tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday, if you like.’

  ‘But you wouldn’t necessarily be stopping over them nights, if I understand you correct, eh?’

  ‘Just a few hours. Say from seven till ten, or thereabouts. We would be out by ten if it suited you.’

  Mr Powell pondered the situation. If this chap Stokes wanted to use the room every night for the next four nights he needn’t have the sheets changed, so he’d save on that. If, after ten at night, on the other hand, somebody else wanted accommodation, he could oblige and make money on the room twice over, although the sheets and pillowcases would have to be changed then. But in the event he could certainly afford it.

  ‘What you get up to in your own private lives – and in private, Mr Stokes – is up to you and none o’ my business. And business being business, as you so astutely pointed out, I think I might be able to accommodate you. But I know nothing of your private life, nor that of your lady friend. I don’t know either of you from Adam, do you understand? As far as I’m concerned you’re bona fide married guests.’

  Algie smiled with relief. ‘Thank you, Mr Powell. It means a—’

  ‘But I do insist that you exercise the utmost discretion, Mr Stokes. If there’s so much as a whiff—’

  ‘Course we will. You can rely on it.’

  ‘Just so long as it’s understood. I don’t want my hotel getting a reputation as a bawdy house, like I say. O’ course, I don’t say as nobody else before you has ever done what you’ve done, and used the place as a love nest. Maybe they have. I don’t know and neither do I want to know. But I do have a reputation to consider.’

  ‘I’m just as mindful of our own reputations, Mr Powell,’ Algie assured him. ‘You can rest assured we shall do all we can to protect them, which will only help to protect yours.’

  ‘Then we shall see you tonight?’

  He nodded. ‘We’ll be back. If you let me keep the key to the room, you might not even see us.’ Mr Powell nodded his consent. ‘Thanks again, Mr Powell.’

  Back at the tram stop he told Aurelia the news. She smiled contentedly when she knew they would be back again later.

  ‘A month we bin stuck here in this ice,’ Seth Bingha
m ruefully reminded his family as they sat huddled around the small table in the cabin of the Sultan that same Sunday. ‘A month today. Christ in heaven knows when we shall be able to move on.’

  ‘You’d think the icebreakers could do more,’ Hannah remarked.

  ‘They’ve bin doin’ their best, Hannah. The canal companies am losing revenue hand over fist. It’s in their interest to break up the ice, but no sooner they do and it all freezes over again. And what can yer expect? I’ve never knowed such an ’ard winter.’

  The family were dining on rabbit stew, which had had to serve them for three days. Hannah had made it two days earlier from a rabbit another bargee had sold them for sixpence after he’d caught half a dozen. When you couldn’t earn you had to do something to eke out a copper or two. Catching rabbits and selling them at least fed the family and brought in a little beer money as well. Well, Seth identified with that bargee’s plight. His own family needed food and he could just about afford the sixpence, which he handed over willingly.

  ‘If we can’t work afore this week’s out, then we’ll be starving, ’cause there’s no more money,’ Seth went on. ‘I’ll either have to look for work in Rugby or Daventry to see us through … or charity.’

  ‘I can look for work, Dad,’ Marigold said. ‘I can earn a bit to help see us through.’

  ‘Where’m you gunna earn money round here, eh? Willoughby Wharf is the arsehole of nowhere. Look out the window. What do you see? Nothing but flat fields for miles around, nothing but a church in sight. Where you gunna find work?’

  Marigold shrugged. ‘I dunno till I look. There’s the Navigation Inn by the bridge. Maybe they could do with some help.’

  ‘The Navigation depends on the cut for its livelihood. They’ll be suffering like the rest of us.’

  ‘What about the Rose in Willoughby village?’

  ‘The Rose is bound to be suffering an’ all.’

  ‘Then I could walk to Rugby or Daventry and see what there is there.’

  ‘D’you feel well enough?’ her mother enquired. ‘D’you want to be walking miles in this weather in your condition?’

  ‘I feel well enough, Mother. I ain’t feeling so queasy in a morning lately, neither. Besides, we all need to do our bit … and I’m used to walking a long way.’

  ‘I could look for work as well, Seth,’ Hannah said. ‘And our Rose. We won’t starve.’

  Seth smiled sadly. ‘No, I want you here, Hannah …’

  ‘But it would only be till the ice melted, Seth. So what money have we got left?’

  ‘What we had has all but gone. The poor hoss has to be fed and stabled, and that costs money an’ all. I already owe money for that, and it’ll have to be paid.’

  ‘Maybe there’s work for you at Braunston, Dad?’ Marigold suggested.

  ‘I already aksed,’ Seth said. ‘There’s nothing. There’s nothing anyroad while the cuts am all froze up and nobody can shift nothin’.’

  ‘Well, at least we shall keep warm,’ Hannah said, ‘Even if it means burning some of this coal we’re freighting.’

  Algie arrived back at the Eagle Hotel shortly after seven. He and Aurelia had arranged that he would get there first and be ready to welcome her when she arrived on the next tram, it being imperative from her standpoint that they were not seen together.

  When she tapped on the door of their room to announce her arrival, he opened it wearing not a stitch.

  She giggled and hurriedly shut the door behind her, turning the key in the lock. ‘Lord above, Algie, you’re stark naked! What if somebody saw you?’

  He grinned triumphantly. ‘Who cares? I warmed up your side of the bed for you.’

  ‘How do you know which side I prefer?’ she teased, taking off her hat.

  ‘I don’t.’ He dived back under the covers to await her. ‘You spent most of last night and this morning in the middle.’

  She threw her scarf at him playfully. ‘Such bawdy talk, Algie Stokes. I would never have believed it of you.’ She sat on the side of the bed, bent her head and kissed him.

  ‘How’s little Benjie?’

  ‘Benjie’s fine.’

  ‘And his nanny?’

  ‘Oh, she’s being very attentive to my son.’

  ‘Are you going to get undressed?’

  ‘It crossed my mind.’

  ‘But she doesn’t suspect anything, you staying out all last night and leaving the house tonight?’

  ‘What could she suspect? Anyway, who cares if she suspects anything?’

  She took off her clothes with no hint of shyness and he watched her with longing, his pulse racing again. At once she slipped into bed beside him, pressed herself against him and shivered.

  ‘Oh, you’re so lovely and warm, Algie. Hold me tight.’

  They kissed with passion, instantly bringing to the boil their mutual desire that had remained simmering since they parted that morning. He soon discovered that she wanted him as much as he wanted her, and rolled onto her, entering her immediately with a soft, vocal sigh. Her hands gripped his buttocks, forcing him into her and, with sobbing whimpers of pleasure, they settled into a steady rhythm. Their lovemaking was prolonged and ecstatic, and they were both perspiring when they later rested in each other’s arms.

  While they lay entwined, Algie pondered the first time he ever laid eyes on Aurelia; the impact she’d had on him. How he’d fallen head over heels for her exquisite beauty and warm, easy-going nature. Never in a month of Sundays had he believed they would become lovers. Yet here she was, lying beside him, snuggling up to him contentedly having enjoyed the ultimate intimacy two people can share.

  How long could this thing go on? It could hardly last forever. She had a husband, a child, and all the domestic and moral baggage that went with them. When that wretch of a husband returned from his business trip they would be unable to meet. The thought of Benjamin Sampson lying beside her in bed, touching her, having his way, was anathema to him, even though he was aware she did not relish intimacy with him in any case.

  ‘Do you still sleep with your husband?’ he asked.

  ‘Does it make a difference, Algie?’

  ‘To me it does. I hate to think of you and him …’

  ‘Then try not to think about it,’ she said kindly, understanding his resentment.

  ‘I can’t help but think about it.’

  She hugged him sympathetically. ‘I can understand how you feel, my darling. I would feel the same about you and your wife if you were married. But remember, I don’t love him. I love you …’ She touched his lips gently with the tips of her fingers. ‘Only you, Algie … Remember that.’

  ‘All the same …’

  ‘It really doesn’t occur very often,’ she said honestly. ‘I don’t encourage him ever, but I’m hardly in a position to shut him out altogether. I am his wife. I have a duty … In any case, I don’t want to arouse any suspicion … Especially not now …’

  ‘Have you ever thought about leaving him?’

  ‘What’s the point? Where would I go? It’s too big a gamble … My son, you see … What would happen to him?’

  ‘Bring him with you.’

  She sighed and snuggled up to him more tightly. ‘Bring?’ she repeated, and the word and its meaning hung in the air. ‘You’re even more of a romantic than I first took you for, Algie, my love. I presume you’re implying that we could set up home together and live in sin?’

  ‘Eventually … If we go that far … If there’s no other way.’

  ‘You’d sacrifice everything for me? No, don’t answer that. I wouldn’t let you commit yourself to that, although it’s a very appealing thought. No, Benjie and I would be too big a burden. Let’s just enjoy what we have whenever we can, and not think too deeply about such things. Let time and nature take their courses. Otherwise we’ll make ourselves miserable. I want to be happy when I’m with you, Algie. You’re my escape, the light in my darkness.’

  He smiled up at the ceiling. ‘Maybe I’ve got a tendenc
y to run away with myself.’

  ‘As well as elope with me,’ she said wistfully. ‘Don’t think I don’t appreciate it.’

  Outside a tram passed, its steam engine huffing busily, its iron wheels clanking over the joins in the rails. At the same time, the clock of St Thomas’s church at the top of the hill struck the hour. Algie counted the strikes. Nine o’ clock.

  ‘What I want to know,’ he said, shifting onto his side and propping his head up on his wrist, ‘is whether you and Clarence Froggatt ever—’

  ‘What does Clarence have to do with us?’

  He kneaded one of her breasts playfully, enjoying the smooth, yielding sponginess, the sheer silkiness of her skin. ‘He’s seeing Harriet Meese. You know? The girl I brought to your house?’

  ‘Fancy …’ There was genuine surprise in her voice. ‘Well, she seems a very nice, respectable girl. I’m sure she’d be very good for him.’

  ‘He was courting my sister before that … He told me in confidence once the things they got up to. Nothing that surprised me, though, I can tell you, knowing my sister. He told me he’d had other girls besides.’

  ‘How very indiscreet of him.’

  ‘One of them at least was a virgin, he told me … I wondered if it was you.’

  ‘It hardly matters anymore whether it was me or not.’

  ‘But if it was you, and on your wedding night your brand new husband realised you were second hand goods …’

  ‘Oh, Algie …’ She chuckled at his artlessness. ‘Why would he have to wait till his wedding night? If the marriage is already arranged and within comfortable striking distance …’

  ‘Isn’t it customary for a girl to wait till she’s married?’

  ‘Discretionary, I would’ve said. Although girls have much more to lose … You know, Algie, girls are just as anxious as boys are to taste love, however much it’s forbidden before they marry.’

  ‘That’s what I mean. And if you tasted it with Clarence Froggatt you would’ve been only seventeen. Eighteen at most. A bit young.’

  ‘You make it sound as if I was still in short skirts … Well, I wasn’t … And in any case, Algie, I’d never admit to any such thing, even if I were guilty of it … Anyway, what about you and that girl Marigold you were so keen on?’