Edwina laughed. 'His face! When he realised what you were going to do, and that he couldn't do a thing to prevent you, he looked as though he'd collapse from mortification.'
'I merely put him where he belonged. And I haven't enjoyed myself so much for months!'
'Get yourselves drinks,' Edwina suggested. 'I'd better go and help Patsy with lunch. You will stay, won't you, Paul?'
Before he could answer she left the room, and he turned to Nell, sitting silently on a small chair beside the fire.
'Was there any need to humiliate him like that?' she asked, her voice taut with anger. 'I know he's abominable, and he was trying to threaten me, but can you imagine what he'll feel, to have one of the swells of Edgbaston toss him into a load of horse manure, as though he's got no dignity?'
'Nell!' He was utterly taken aback, dismayed by what she said. 'He was threatening you!'
She stood up and faced him, her eyes bright with unshed tears. 'I'd dealt with him! He couldn't have hurt me, whatever he thought! Any threat to his position, his reputation, would be enough to stop him.'
'I wanted to protect you!'
'Tom will never forget the shame of what you did! Just because Tom comes from Ladywood you think he's beneath you, and you can treat him like muck, toss him into it! For all your fine words, and the hours you spend in the clinic, you don't really care about us, do you? It salves your conscience, that's all! Makes you feel good for all the money you've inherited, not had to work for!'
'You don't know anything about my money! And I do more good with my work than that pompous little bore does with his pious preaching! Are you suddenly finding you're in love with him after all?'
'Of course I'm not! You just wouldn't have done it to one of your own kind, to Andrew, for example!'
'That, my dear Nell, is precisely where you're wrong!' he snapped, by now as angry as she was. 'I chucked Andrew into a pile of muck years ago, when I found him and Victoria – ' He stopped abruptly, took a deep breath and then turned away. 'I apologise, Nell. Do you wish me to apologise to your friend?'
'He is not my friend! I detest him! I never want to see him again in my life!'
'Then why are we fighting?'
'I'm not fighting! It's just that – there's no need to be so contemptuous of Tom just because he's poor!'
'If that's what you think of me it's no wonder you've refused to marry me all this time!'
She turned away, and stood with her back towards him, her hands clenched hard together.
'How could I marry you when you would despise me as much as you do Tom? I'm just a girl from a slum, not at all fit for the wife of a smart doctor! You'd better go and find someone more like Victoria, someone your mother would approve of!'
'Victoria was a slut!' he snapped. 'Within months she'd have been in someone else's bed, probably Andrew's!'
'He does seem to succeed with your women!'
'What?'
'Nothing.' She was aghast as what she'd said. 'You'd better go.' Suddenly she found his hands on her shoulders, biting into the soft flesh so fiercely that she cried out in pain. 'Paul, let me go! You're hurting!'
He relaxed his grip, but only to turn her round so that she was forced to face him. 'I didn't mean to hurt, but you're not going, Nell, until we've sorted some things out! What's Andrew to you?'
She was suddenly weary, longing only for him to leave her. 'Nothing! And if he is, you've no right to protest. You don't own me.'
'If I thought – Nell, if he's hurt you I'll break every bone in his body!'
'Well, at least you'd be able to set them for him!'
For a second his grip relaxed, and then he pulled her to him. As she was held, imprisoned, against his chest, she could feel him shaking. For a moment she was alarmed, and then the laughter he'd been trying to suppress escaped him.
'Nell! Oh, Nell, what are you doing to me? I can't even be angry with you for long, before you make me laugh!'
'I'm not doing anything except trying to get away, you big bully!'
'You have the oddest effect on me! I thought I'd become a sober, upright citizen before I met you! Instead I sneak in disguise into fleapit music halls to watch you dance – '
'What do you mean?' she demanded, but he ignored her.
'And then I not only knock poor Andrew down because I'm jealous of him, I assault your latest suitor and hurl him out into the street. Why are we quarrelling?'
'I'm not! I wish you'd go away!'
Suddenly he was serious. 'Do you, Nell? I know I've been inept, making the crassest attempts at proposals I've ever heard of, because I was terrified of losing you, but if you really want me to stop asking you to marry me then I'll go.'
He released her and moved a few steps away from her. Nell closed her eyes tightly and bent her head, fighting to remain calm. She didn't know why she'd flown out at him like that. She didn't care what happened to Tom. He'd deserved it, and yet she'd felt sorry for him.
'Well?' Paul asked softly, and Nell shook her head.
The soft click of the door closing made her raise her head abruptly. She was alone in the room. Suddenly she knew she'd never again see Paul, and a torrent of desolation swamped her. The next moment she was tearing open the door and flinging herself down the steps into the street.
'Paul! Wait!'
He was sitting in his motor, the engine already running. Nell scrambled up beside him, her words tumbling out incoherently.
'Paul, you can't! I'm not suitable! I'm not your sort! Your mother wouldn't want me, she wants someone like Victoria! I'm just a girl from a slum, I'm not fit to marry you, and – and Andrew, when we were on tour, I – I – but I can't marry you, but if you want me, there's no need! Oh hell, Paul, I love you so much!'
'Then I think we'd better go somewhere quiet where we can sort it all out, don't you? I'm kidnapping you, Nell.'
She looked round. She hadn't been aware they'd been moving, but already they had reached Richmond Hill Road. Paul turned in through the narrow gateway and drew up outside his house. She permitted him to help her down and meekly followed him into the house and along the hall to his library.
'Would you prefer to come to me without marriage?' he asked.
She nodded. 'It's the only way.'
'Are you married already?'
'No! Of course I'm not!'
'Then there's no reason why you should deprive me of getting married, and having legitimate children.'
'But I'm just – ' she began, but he put his fingers on her lips.
'I don't care who or what you are, Nell. I never did want Victoria, and I don't care a damn what my mother wants. Nor do I care if you let Andrew make love to you.'
'You don't?' She twisted her head away from his hand and managed to speak. 'But – '
'I do wish you'd find something else to say!
'You said you'd break every bone in his body!'
'If he hurt you. Did he? Were you willing?'
'Of course I wasn't! It was only once. I'd drunk too much, I was half asleep and I didn't know it was – I thought it was – ' she stopped, and blushed furiously.
'Are you awake now?'
'Of course I am!'
'Then perhaps we could continue this discussion somewhere more comfortable, such as upstairs?'
Nell's eyes widened. 'But it's Sunday morning!'
'Do you object to the time of day or the actual day?' She giggled. 'We'll be late for lunch, but I'm sure Edwina will understand. And afterwards I think you'd better marry me as quickly as possible to stop this madness.' When she opened her mouth to protest he silenced her by the most effective method available to him, then swept her into his arms and carried her swiftly upstairs. 'I love you, Nell,' he murmured as he set her gently down on the bed. 'I have since I first saw you, and I need you, sweetheart. I'm incomplete without you. But unless you agree to marry me as soon as possible I'm leaving you now. I won't have you on any other terms.'
It was more than she could bear, the appeal in his eyes.
He saw her answer and pulled her close again.
'I'll have to marry you now, won't I,' she whispered some time later, 'you're a respectable doctor, aren't you?'
###
THE END
Marina Oliver has written over 75 novels, all are available as ebooks.
For the latest information please see Marina's web site:
http://www.marina-oliver.net.
More Midlands sagas by Marina:
The Cobweb Cage
Life is grim in the Staffordshire colliery town for Marigold Smith and her sisters, and when she has the chance to go into service in Oxford, she welcomes it.
There she meets and falls in love with the wealthy Richard Endersby, but their happiness is destroyed when the Great War separates them. Her family's problems force Marigold into making heartrending choices, but she fights to help them survive and to keep her hope alive.
*
The Golden Road
Josie Shaw rejects marriage as a way of rescuing her and her mother from the debts left by her stepfather. It's the 1930s and she wants a career. She persuades her step-brother Leo to employ her in his Birmingham jewellery factory, and is also introduced to the world of motor rallies and the Monte Carlo dream.
Her world collapses when she is falsely accused of theft, and she struggles to overcome poverty to provide for her sick mother and herself.
*
A Stratford Jewel
In 1926 the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon burnt down, barely five weeks before the start of the annual Festival. Rosa Greenwood and her sister Celia are devastated. They had small roles in the Festival, hoping it would lead to acting careers.
While helping to remove priceless treasures from the theatre Library Rosa meets Max Higham, an American architect in Europe studying theatre design. He stays to help when the Festival plays are performed in the converted Picture House, which becomes the Temporary Theatre for six years while a new design for a replacement Memorial Theatre is sought, and then built.
Rosa is wary of her growing attraction to Max yet reluctant to marry Adam Thorn, a lifelong friend and distant cousin. There is no future with Max, who kissed her and left her to return to Virginia and the girl his family expected him to marry.
Celia is encouraged by the actor Gilbert Meadows to run away to London and audition, and begs the help of her friend Agnes.
Furious, her father forbids Rosa to contemplate more acting, while Jack, her older brother who is a changed person since he fought in the war, spends his days driving waggons for the family carrier business. Can any of them achieve their hearts' desires?
*
Can Dreams Come True?
Kate wins a scholarship to a prestigious Edgbaston school and meets wealthy people. Robert offers her a ride in his motor car, and to take her flying. Kate's heroine is Amy Johnson and she is ecstatic.
Her parents object and Alf attacks Robert. She is expelled, and with no job Kate's prospects grow worse when Alf is killed and Hattie becomes unstable.
Kate struggles to support them, but more disasters strike. Will her dream of flying ever come true?
***
The Glowing Hours Page 37