The Wild Seed Read Online Free

right.’ Fon rose to her feet. ‘Get up soon, mind, I’ll have breakfast on the table in ten minutes.’
    Catherine sighed with relief as her mother left her alone. Fon was too sharp for her own good. What would she think if she knew her daughter had lost her virginity to the man who had once been betrothed to her sister? Catherine bit her lip. Her mother would think she was second best, an echo of the past for Boyo, and was she?
    She pictured Boyo’s face as he made love to her. There was passion, oh, yes, there was passion, flaring like a white-hot flame between them, but there was more, much more, she need never question that.
    Downstairs, the appetizing smell of bacon filled the kitchen. Catherine kissed her father’s unshaven cheek and sat next to him at the table.
    ‘So you were out courting last night, darlin’ girl?’ Jamie leaned forward, his big arms brown beneath the rolled up shirtsleeves. Catherine looked at her mother who avoided her gaze.
    ‘Yes, Dad, and he is very respectable and no, he won’t take advantage of me; I’m a big girl now, mind.’
    ‘That’s what your dad is afraid of,’ Fon said drily. She placed a plate before her husband and Jamie took up his knife and fork.
    ‘These eggs look good, the new mash I’m giving the hens must be suiting them.’
    Catherine sighed with relief, Jamie was not going to pursue the subject of her ‘courting’ as he called it. She looked down at her own plate, the bacon still sizzled hot from the pan and the eggs were done to perfection.
    ‘You girls coming into town with me today?’ Jamie asked, cutting into a slice of curling bacon.
    ‘Got work to do here, love,’ Fon said easily. ‘You go and take Catherine, buy her some pretty ribbons or something.’
    ‘Well?’ Jamie pulled at his daughter’s hair. ‘Going to keep your old dad company are you?’
    ‘I suppose I’d better, there’s no telling what trouble you’ll get into on your own.’
    ‘I don’t know what you mean.’ Jamie leaned back in his chair pretending to be indignant but there was laughter in his eyes.
    ‘You know what I mean. If I don’t come with you you’ll have all the women of Swansea aflutter with your Irish blarney.’
    Fon smiled, ‘He’d better behave himself if he knows what’s good for him, I’m not the sort of woman to put up with any nonsense, mind.’
    ‘Sure an’ did I not speak only of going into town for supplies? No mention was made of roaming the bars and chasing women.’ Jamie rose to his feet. ‘I’ll be ready in about half an hour, if you are coming along to protect your dad, you’d best hurry up.’
    Jamie left the kitchen and Fon began to gather the crockery together. ‘It will do you good, both of you,’ she said. ‘You don’t see enough of each other these days.’
    ‘But Mam, I work on the farm most days, I’m as good as a son any day, ask Dad.’
    ‘I know that,’ Fon took the tablecloth in both hands and carried it to the back door, shaking the crumbs onto the yard outside, ‘but Jamie’s down the fields and you’re in the hen-house or milking the beasts; you’re not exactly together , are you?’
    She put the cloth away in the dresser drawer and turned to face her daughter. ‘Dad’s done the milking and I’ve fed the hens and there’s labourers enough for the lambing so make the most of it.’
    ‘Mam, this isn’t a conspiracy, is it?’ Catherine was suddenly suspicious. Fon avoided her gaze.
    ‘I don’t know what you are talking about. I want you to keep Dad company, that’s all, he hasn’t quite been himself lately.’
    ‘Mam, he’s not sick, is he?’
    ‘Hush girl, all this fuss just because your dad wants you to go to town with him, what next?’ Fon did not look at her and Catherine was suddenly afraid.
    ‘You would tell me, Mam, if something was wrong, I mean?’
    ‘Aye, I would tell you, if there was something to tell. Now get off out, will you and leave me to have some peace.’
    Half an hour