Run to Him Read Online Free Page B

were dripping into his consciousness one at a time, and for the first time in his life, they were seeping through. Fionnuala was right. She was about to become someone, a decent person. People were already looking up to her and she was only seventeen. He wanted that too. The neighbours would never throw a party in the street for him. Callum realized this, with a sinking heart. He looked at Fionnuala and knew his life was about to change.
    ‘I have said to you that I promise – and I will keep that promise, Fionnuala. Ye see them stars, in the sky, they are my witness and I say this, that I will stop the thieving, on one condition, if ye let me have a kiss, right now.’
    Fionnuala had stopped talking. She looked down at the new suitcase in her hand and didn’t know what to say. She was only sure of one thing: she didn’t want to say no.
    Callum took a step towards her. Putting both his hands on her shoulders, he pulled her towards him and kissed her on the lips. It was a short peck to begin with, but then, after he had pulled away, with his cheeky smile and gleaming eyes, and announced, ‘Well that was nice,’ he kissed her again, slowly and for a much longer time.
    Fionnuala had no idea how long they stood there for. It was only the sound of old Mr Keating, stepping into the outhouse, just over the back yard wall from where they were standing, that brought her to her senses.
    Fionnuala wobbled backwards for a moment, as if she were in shock and Callum reached out and took hold of her hand. He felt as if he had changed from boy to man, in just a few moments.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ he whispered in her ear.
    ‘Sorry for what?’ she asked, looking back at him.
    ‘For taking your honour,’ he said.
    He had no idea why Fionnuala began to laugh.
    ‘You are a case, Callum O’Prey,’ she said, before she slipped away in through her back gate.
    Callum stood and watched her go, unable to move, and as the gate closed behind her, Callum looked up to the sky and a thousand stars winked back at him.
    *
    They had seen each other as often as was possible over the next few months, always in secret. Callum had been taken on the night shift at the English Electric factory and sometimes Fionnuala worked nights too, which suited them well. She slept at the nurses’ home when she was in class or on her shift, and only returned back home on days off.
    Men weren’t allowed in the nurses’ home, and if they rang the bell they had to wait outside on the steps, until the nurse they were calling for stepped outside. Fionnuala had heard stories of nurses entertaining in the common room and more risqué tales of boyfriends being slipped into beds, but that was not for her.
    ‘Sneak him upstairs,’ her friend Helen had said, after Callum had delivered her to the door of the nurses’ home for the third or fourth time.
    ‘I have no intention of inviting Callum into my room, or my bed, until there is an engagement ring on my finger, Helen. I know it’s the Sixties, but I’m not stupid altogether.’
    Fionnuala did wish they had a little more freedom to be alone together, though. As it was, they took walks along the shore and trips out on the rowing boats on Sefton Park lake.
    It was on one sunny day, whilst Callum rowed Fionnuala across the lake, that he declared his love for her and she, fully aware it was something of which her parents would never approve, told him she loved him back.
    The truth was, she did want to love him back, and not just in words alone.
    ‘I never thought anyone would turn me around the way you have,’ Callum said.
    Fionnuala let her hand trail in the water, as the ducks swam close to the boat, pecking towards her hand for bread she had brought.
    ‘Are you happy, though?’ Fionnuala asked. ‘Do you not feel better for working in the factory and living an honest life?’
    ‘I do, aye, but that’s because I have you now. If I was still on my own, I’m not sure I would be able to resist the temptation. After