AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I pull up outside Little Cottage. The rain is lashing down now and I’m just grateful to be home in one piece.
‘I’ll make you some warm milk,’ I cajole Dominic. ‘Then we can cuddle up by the fire and talk about this. I don’t want you to worry about it.’
Hesitantly, he opens the car door and steps out into the rain. ‘I must think about this,’ he says. ‘I must think what is the best thing to do.’
I let us into the cottage as I say, ‘there’s nothing to do.’ Archie comes running down the stairs and twines himself around our feet, purring happily.
Turning, I wrap my arms around my lover. ‘We just carry on as we are, being in love, making plans for our wedding.’
‘In the village, I would talk to the elders about my fears. Here, I have no one.’
‘You have me. And Mike. Should I get Mike? Do you feel that you can talk to him?’
‘No. He is a Western man. He will say the same things as you do. I must think about this alone. I will sit in the garden.’
‘You can’t sit in the garden. It’s pouring down out there. You’ll catch your death. Please come to bed.’
He shakes his head. ‘I must be alone to think.’
‘No,’ I beg. ‘Think with me. We’ll think together. Don’t go out in the rain, Dominic.’
But he goes upstairs and a moment later comes down in his shuka.
‘Dominic, you can’t go out like that, in this!’ I gesture to the rain pouring in rivulets down the windows. ‘Have a bath. A nice warm bath. That will help you to relax.’
‘Go to bed, Janie,’ he says. ‘I will be in soon.’
‘You’re frightening me, Dominic. This is just one of my friends being spiteful. We can do without her. We can do without everyone. The only person I can’t live without is you.’
‘Maybe you would be better without me. They all seem to think so.’
‘I don’t. I don’t think that. All that matters is what we want.’
‘Go to bed,’ Dominic says. ‘I will be in soon.’
I watch him go out into the night, the freezing rain, in nothing but a cotton tunic. Archie, giving a reluctant backwards glance to the warmth of the kitchen, follows him outside. Even the cat is going to get soaked through.
Dominic closes the door softly behind them and, out of the rain-streaked window, I see him walk up the sodden garden, the thin cotton of his shuka darkening with water as he goes. In the far corner, there’s a bench under the arching branches of a tree – possibly a willow – and I see Dominic settle himself there. Archie hops up beside him and I hope that the tree is providing them both with a bit of shelter. They could have taken an umbrella, I think. Or a coat.
‘Bloody men,’ I mutter. ‘They’re all more trouble than they’re worth.’
But I don’t mean it. I don’t mean it at all.
Chapter Seventy-Seven
I sit on the sofa and watch some rubbish on television, even though I should go to bed. I’ve got work in the morning and will be fit for nothing at this rate.
At two o’clock in the morning, I wake up and find that I’m slumped down in among the cushions. One of my legs is numb and both of my arms. I struggle to sit upright and then I try to massage some life into my limbs. The heating has gone off and the log burner has smouldered away, so the cottage is chilly. Pulling the throw around me, I pad out to the kitchen and peer through the window. The rain is still pouring down and Dominic is still sitting in the garden. I can just make out the red of his tunic through the torrent.
I sigh to myself and pour a cup of milk and ping it in the microwave. Then I go into the utility room and pull on my wellies and big jacket. Finding the umbrella amid the detritus, I head outside, putting it up as I do. The rain patters on the fabric. Dominic looks up as I approach.
I crouch down in front of him. Smiling, I say, ‘You must have done enough thinking by now.’
He returns my smile and says, ‘Yes. You are right.’
‘You’ll come inside now?’
He nods.
‘I’ve just warmed some milk for you.’
Archie, curled up, paws tucked tightly under the front of his body, looks thoroughly relieved that his nocturnal outdoor ordeal is over.
Dominic stands and stretches. When I touch his arm, his skin is frozen like ice.
‘You’ll be lucky if you don’t catch a cold,’ I tell him.
He says nothing.
‘Feeling better?’
‘Yes. I know what I must do.’
‘Want to share?’
Dominic shakes his head. Then, ‘You must know that I love you, Just Janie,’ he says. ‘Aanyor pii. With all of my heart, for all time.’
