said again. ‘’Course I do. I love you, Tom. With all my heart. And I know you love me equally.’
He sighed again, uncertain how he should proceed. Perhaps he should solicit her help. ‘Do you think we should get undressed? I mean, you don’t want to get your dress all creased.’
‘Nor you your suit.’ She uttered a little laugh, belying her nervousness.
He took off his jacket and unfastened his necktie. The collar of his shirt sprung open like a metal spring bent back and suddenly released, which made her laugh. He slipped his braces from his shoulders and undid the buttons on his trousers.
‘Let me help you,’ he said, and gently, carefully unfastened the tiny buttons that started between her shoulders and ended past the small of her back. She slipped the straps down her arms and stood up while she passed the dress over her slender hips and off. She placed it with care over a chair and knelt down gracefully. To her surprise, she felt no embarrassment as she took off the rest of her clothes and lay down again. It seemed the most natural thing in the world.
Meanwhile, he took off his shirt and his underpants and looked into her eyes self-consciously. ‘Oh, Clover,’ he said, sighing inadequately. ‘My love.’
She still had her stockings on. With a pounding heart he kneeled before her and gently slid them down her smooth unblemished legs, garters and all. He thought he would burst with desire at the touch of the warm, inviting flesh of her thighs and the sight of her naked body and skin that looked like cream.
He tossed the stockings aside and lay with her. With heart pounding scandalously, she offered her mouth once more and, as he leaned over her, she felt his leg part her own and she trembled with nervousness.
‘I want to kiss you all over,’ he said.
‘Yes, I want you to.’ Her throat was dry, her voice barely audible.
She tingled as his lips floated over her breasts, barely touching, but she felt her nipples harden nonetheless. She began to ache in the pit of her stomach, an ache of profound longing for him. His hand glided over the smooth skin of her belly and his fingers drew a line from her navel to her crop of soft, dark hair. There, he lingered at the hidden flesh beneath, silky and soft with its powerful, tormenting wetness that told him she wanted him as much as he wanted her. But he resisted the urge to hurry. These moments were worth savouring. He kissed her on the mouth again while his fingers teased her, eliciting little sighs of pleasure that fired him up the more.
As he eased himself onto her she parted her legs.
‘I think you’ll have to guide me in,’ he whispered, half apologetically.
She reached for him between his legs. As he raised himself slightly she held him and was delighted and surprised at what she felt; so lovely and soft and smooth on the outside yet with an inner firmness that was also reassuring. Gently, she pulled him towards her and, as she felt him penetrate at last there was a sharp, incisive pain. She gasped as he pushed deeper into her and he stopped, concerned. Again she drew him into her, just a little at a time till she felt his groin hard against her. Then she held him tight as the pain diminished and the pleasure increased.
The photographs turned out well. Tom brought them to the Jolly Collier on the Monday evening after work. Clover was not due to see him that evening but, after their first lovemaking the previous afternoon, she was glad to see him, just to be sure the magic that had bloomed between them then was still there. Clover didn’t mind him seeing her in her working clothes any more. He’d seen her stark naked so he knew now how God had intended her to look. Whether she wore her shabby working gear or her new best dresses was no longer relevant.
‘They’re lovely photos,’ Clover admitted. ‘Thank you. Have you printed some for yourself?’
‘One of each for my bedroom, one of each to go on top of our piano at home, one of each to go in the studio and one of each to go in the foyer. All framed.’
She laughed happily. ‘I never got round to taking one of you, Tom.’
‘Next time, eh?’ He winked saucily.
‘Do you want to stay for tea?’
‘I’d love to, Clover, but Mother will be expecting me. I’ll finish my pint and go. So I’ll see you tomorrow night.’
She smiled and nodded. ‘Usual time?’
‘Usual time…Hey, I nearly forgot. One of the women from Cook’s drapery store came in today with her daughter. She reckons they’re after an assistant to work in the fabrics department. I said you might be interested.’
‘Cook’s?’ she repeated, her eyes lighting up. ‘That’d be a lovely clean job. I wonder what they pay?’
‘Probably not as much as you get now, and you’d have to work Saturdays, but it would be cleaner. Why don’t you go and find out about it? Ask for a Mr Butters. You never know.’
‘I’ll mention it to Mother later.’
Zillah Bache had made some liver faggots for tea that evening and they smelt divine. They had them with grey peas and boiled potatoes with hot, thick onion gravy, a doorstep of bread-and-butter and a huge jug of beer between them. Talk was about brewing and the inroads Beckitt’s Beers were making into the local hostelries.
‘Elijah’s got another forge signed up today and the Earl’s ironworks have agreed to take a couple of barrels to try, to see if the blokes take to it,’ Jake announced proudly as Clover placed dinners in front of them all. ‘Everything’s on song, Mary Ann. Already we’m selling fifty barrels a week on top of what the Collier takes. Already the money’s rolling in.’
‘And no good squandering it,’ Mary Ann advised seriously. ‘But I don’t reckon much to that new drayman you’ve started, Jacob. I wunt trust him as far as I could throw him. And idle? He’s too idle to scratch hisself.’
‘I know, I’ve been watching him,’ Jake replied defensively. ‘I’ve got somebody else lined up.’
‘Mother…’ Clover muttered tentatively. ‘If the business is doing better now, can I leave the foundry?’
‘And work here in the business with us, you mean?’
‘Not in the business. You always said you didn’t want me working in the licensed trade. Tom says they’re after somebody to work in the fabric department at Cook’s in High Street in the town. I fancy applying for it. It would be clean work.’
‘I see no reason why she shouldn’t, Mary Ann,’ Jake proclaimed before her mother had chance to swallow her bit of faggot and shape her lips. ‘Like I said, we’m on target and making money. What bit Clover’s been contributing is chicken feed now. Let the wench find herself a nice clean job. I certainly wunt like to work in e’er a foundry.’
Clover smiled her best smile and thanked Jake for his consideration. ‘I know it’ll mean working Saturdays but I don’t mind that. At least I’ll be able to buy material and things cheap for dresses…for all of us.’
‘I should get the job fust, afore you start planning what you’m gunna get cheap, our Clover,’ Mary Ann counselled.
‘I think I’ll call in tomorrow. There’s no sense in letting the grass grow under my feet. I’ll
