The New Woman Read Online Free Page B

long time. We stayed together, though. In the end we had a deeper understanding, because we’d shared despair.
    A burst of raindrops spattered onto the skylight. I could just make out his cable knit sweater and a pair of jeans, shadows in the milky light, hanging over the footboard of the bed. These were the clothes he’d been wearing the day before he left, when we took the path across Gareth’s farm. We wandered side by side in the familiar landscape, close together, our hands sometimes touching. The fields were dotted with cotton-reel bales. We were leaning on the handrail of the footbridge, watching the slow passage of the stream, when Luke did something most unexpected.
    ‘I love you,’ he said, nudging his forehead against mine. ‘Thank you.’
    Love wasn’t something we mentioned often. There didn’t seem to be any need. Luke and I were a pair—we fitted. I don’t think either of us felt quite complete without the other. Why go on about it? Only teenagers and film stars talk about lerve.
    ‘You’re very welcome,’ I said, smoothing his hair. I liked the way it lay over his ears, blue-black and tinged with silver, like a bird’s wing. ‘I’ve no idea what I’m being thanked for, but I definitely deserve it.’
    Something had changed. The world had grown dark. The rain intensified in a sudden roar, louder than machine-gun fire, and the stream was a mud-brown torrent. Luke was in the water. It was sweeping him away. I grabbed an old tyre from the mud and tried to throw it to him, but he didn’t reach for it. I screamed at him to swim, swim, but he didn’t. His dark eyes looked straight past me as water poured down his face. He seemed to see something beyond. The next moment I’d been sucked in too. I was drowning. I was shouting for Luke, but he was gone.
    Panic woke me, thank God. The blanket was bundled around my face. I threw it off, yelling because I’d lost Luke in the river. Casino was on his feet, bottlebrush-tailed.
    ‘Horrible, horrible,’ I gasped, reaching out to touch his warm fur. ‘Horrible dream.’
    For some minutes I felt breathless, winded by the gallop of my heartbeat. Then the old cat began to lick himself, and eventuallyhe lay down again. His calm was comforting. Above my head, the square patch of sky had lightened to a pale grey. Luke would be up by now. Perhaps he was already heading into the office, to face five hundred emails.
    ‘Pop downstairs and make me a nice pot of tea, will you, Casino?’ I asked, but the little tabby just curled a paw across his face. I stroked his head. ‘Too early for you? Yes, well. It is bloody early. It’s—hang on, is that a car?’
    Casino and I both pricked up our ears at the crunch of wheels on gravel. I rolled out of bed, pulling on my dressing-gown as I peered out into the rain-streaked morning. Who on earth would turn up at this ungodly hour? I imagined the police, with bad news and solemn faces. I expected to see a panda car parked in our drive.
    A moment later I’d charged downstairs and thrown open the front door with a shout of welcome. Luke was walking towards me through the rain, his trench coat over one arm.
    ‘You’re soaked,’ I scolded.
    He looked down at himself. He was wearing suit trousers and his black corduroy jacket. His hair was plastered to his head, and droplets trickled under his collar. He seemed lost, but that wasn’t unusual for him. It was one of the things that had struck me about him on the night we met; that, and the strong feeling that I’d known him all my life.
    I put my arms around his neck and kissed him on the mouth. ‘Wet or dry, I am very, very glad to see you! So you changed your mind about going into work? Well, what a lovely surprise! You’d better have a hot shower.’ I led him inside and shut the door on the rain. ‘Coffee or tea?’
    Casino had heard all the commotion. He lolloped down the spiral staircase, made a beeline for Luke and arched against his legs. He was meant to be the