London Transports Read Online Free

different. It’s the same for everyone, there are rules, you’re a fool to break them. Didn’t he pay for it either, this guy?”
    “No. I told you he doesn’t know.”
    “Aren’t you noble,” said Hell scornfully. “Aren’t you a real Lady Galahad. Just visiting London for a day or two, darling, just going to see a few friends, see you soon. Love you, darling. Is that it?”
    “We don’t go in for so many darlings as that in Dublin,” said May.
    “You don’t go in for much common sense either. What will you gain, what will he gain, what will anyone gain? You come home penniless, a bit lonely. He doesn’t know what the hell you’ve been doing, he isn’t extrasensitive and loving and grateful because he doesn’t have anything to be grateful about as far as he’s concerned.”
    “I couldn’t tell him. I couldn’t. I couldn’t ask him for £200 and say what it was for. That wasn’t in the bargain, that was never part of the deal.”
    May was almost tearful, mainly from jealousy she thought. She couldn’t bear Hell’s Charlie to come in, while her Andy was going home to his wife because there would be nobody to cook him something exciting and go to bed with him in his little manager’s flat.
    “When you go back, tell him. That’s my advice,” said Hell. “Tell him you didn’t want to worry him, you did it all on your own because the responsibility was yours since you didn’t take the Pill. That’s unless you think he’d have wanted it?”
    “No, he wouldn’t have wanted it.”
    “Well then, that’s what you do. Don’t ask him for the money straight out, just let him know you’re broke. He’ll react some way then. It’s silly not to tell them at all. My sister did that with her bloke back in Melbourne. She never told him at all, and she got upset because he didn’t know the sacrifice she had made, and every time she bought a drink or paid for a cinema ticket she got resentful of him. All for no reason, because he didn’t bloody know.”
    “I might,” said May, but she knew she wouldn’t.
    Charlie came in. He was great fun, very fond of Hell, wanting to be sure she was okay, and no problems. He brought a bottle of wine which they shared, and he told them funny stories about what had happened at the office. He was in advertising. He arranged to meet Hell for lunch next day and joked his way out of the room.
    “He’s a lovely man,” said May.
    “Old Charlie’s smashing,” agreed Hell. He had gone back home to entertain his wife and six dinner guests. His wife was a marvellous hostess apparently. They were always having dinner parties.
    “Do you think he’ll ever leave her?” asked May.
    “He’d be out of his brains if he did,” said Hell cheerfully.
    May was thoughtful. Maybe everyone would be out of their brains if they left good, comfortable, happy home setups for whatever the other woman imagined she could offer. She wished she could be as happy as Hell.
    “Tell me about your fellow,” Hell said kindly.
    May did, the whole long tale. It was great to have somebody to listen, somebody who didn’t say she was on a collision course, somebody who didn’t purse up lips like Celia, someone who said, “Go on, what did you do then?”
    “He sounds like a great guy.” said Hell, and May smiled happily.
    They exchanged addresses, and Hell promised that if ever she came to Ireland she wouldn’t ring up the hotel and say, “Can I talk to May, the girl I had the abortion with last winter?” and they finished Charlie’s wine, and went to sleep.
    The beds were stripped early next morning when the final examination had been done, and both were pronounced perfect and ready to leave. May wondered fancifully how many strange life stories the room must have seen.
    “Do people come here for other reasons apart from…er, terminations?” she asked the disapproving Irish nurse.
    “Oh certainly they do, you couldn’t work here otherwise,” said the nurse. “It would be like a