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"I like you, too," she said; so he moved his chair next to hers and kissed her.
She kissed him back with enthusiasm.
He had done this before. He had kissed several girls in the back row of the Majestic cinema in Cwm Street. They always opened their mouths straightaway, and he did the same now.
Mildred pushed him away gently. "Not so fast," she said. "Do this. " And she kissed him with her mouth closed, her lips brushing his cheek and his eyelids and
his neck, and then his lips. It was strange but he liked it. She said: "Do the same to me. " He followed her instructions. "Now do this," she said, and he felt the tip of her tongue on his lips, touching them as lightly as possible. Once again he copied her. Then she showed him yet another way to kiss, nibbling his neck and his earlobes. He felt he could do this forever.
When they paused for breath she stroked his cheek and said: "You're a quick learner. "
"You're lovely," he said.
He kissed her again and squeezed her breast. She let him do it for a while, but when he started to breathe heavily she took his hand away. "Don't get too worked up," she said. "They'll be back any minute. "
A moment later he heard the front door. "Oh, dammo," he said.
"Be patient," she whispered.
"Patient?" he said. "I'm going to France tomorrow. "
"Well, it ain't tomorrow yet, is it?"
Billy was still wondering what she meant when Ethel and Tommy came into the room.
They ate their supper and finished the beer. Ethel told them the story of Jayne McCulley, and how Lady Maud had been carried out of the charity office by a policeman. She made it sound like a comedy, but Billy was bursting with pride for his sister and the way she stood up for the rights of poor women. And she was the manager of a newspaper and the friend of Lady Maud! He was determined that one day he, too, would be a champion for ordinary people. It was what he admired about his father. Da was narrow-minded and stubborn, but all his life he had fought for the workingman.
Darkness fell and Ethel announced it was bedtime. She used cushions to improvise beds on the kitchen floor for Billy and Tommy. They all retired.
Billy lay awake, wondering what Mildred had meant by It ain't tomorrow yet. Perhaps she was just promising to kiss him again in the morning, when he left to catch the train to Southampton. But she had seemed to imply more. Could it really be that she wanted to see him again tonight?
The thought of going to her room inflamed him so much that he could not sleep. She would be wearing a nightdress, and under the sheets her body would be warm to the touch, he thought. He imagined her face on the pillow, and envied the pillowcase because it was touching her cheek.
When Tommy's breathing seemed regular, Billy slipped out of his sheets.
"Where are you going?" said Tommy, not as fast asleep as Billy had thought.
"Toilet," Billy whispered. "All that beer. "
Tommy grunted and turned over.
In his underwear, Billy crept up the stairs. There were three doors off the landing. He hesitated. What if he had misinterpreted Mildred? She might scream at the sight of him. How embarrassing that would be.
No, he thought; she's not the screaming type.
He opened the first door he came to. There was a faint light from the street, and he could see a narrow bed with the blond heads of two little girls on the pillow. He closed the door softly. He felt like a burglar.
He tried the next door. In this room, a candle was burning, and it took him a moment to adjust to its unsteady light. He saw a bigger bed, with one head on the pillow. Mildred's face was toward him, but he could not see whether her eyes were open. He waited for her protest, but no sound came.
He stepped inside and closed the door behind him.
He whispered hesitantly: "Mildred?"
In a clear voice she said: "About bloody time, Billy. Get into bed, quick. "
He slipped between the sheets and put his arms around her. She was not wearing the nightdress he had expected. In fact, he realized with a thrilling shock, she was naked.
Suddenly he felt nervous. He said: "I've never. . . "
