The Price of Love

by Rosie Harris

  She was almost relieved that she had to go to work on Saturday and that she was extremely busy on the switchboard so that the time flew past.

  Although the rest of them dressed up in their best to go to church on Easter Sunday morning, to Lucy’s surprise her mother didn’t wear her red dress.

  ‘No one will see what I have on under my big coat. I want to keep that dress and your hat to wear later, because that’s going to be such a special occasion, and I want to look my very best then,’ she reminded Lucy as she fastened on her wide-brimmed black hat and picked up her bag and gloves ready to leave.

  After church, Lucy offered to clear up after their meal and told her dad he’d better go and spruce himself up while Sam went to fetch the car.

  ‘No need to go showing off by bringing it right here to the door, we can walk to the garage,’ Bill Collins protested.

  ‘No, Mam wants to find it waiting for her when she walks out of the front door,’ Sam insisted. ‘Letting the whole street see it arrive and then being driven off in it is half the treat for her.’ He grinned.

  ‘Well, I’ll walk along to the garage with you, Sam,’ Bill muttered, following Sam out into the hallway and picking up his flat cap and reaching for his coat that was hanging there.

  ‘Oh no, Dad, you can’t go out dressed like that,’ Lucy intervened quickly. ‘For a start, you are not going to wear that cap. It’s a smart trilby-and-no-muffler day,’ she added laughing.

  Sam took advantage of the interruption to disappear and with a sigh of resignation Mr Collins went to find his trilby as Lucy had requested.

  Five minutes later, Lucy felt really proud of them both as they stood in the living room, waiting for the car to arrive. She opened the front door the moment Sam pulled up outside but one or two of the neighbours were already on their doorsteps curious to see what was going on.

  Before Mr and Mrs Collins could get into the car, Patsy appeared. There was a look of astonishment on her face as she spoke to Sam and asked him what was happening.

  ‘I’m taking my mam and dad for a spin and then somewhere for afternoon tea,’ he said, grinning.

  ‘You planned all this and yet you never said a word to me about it?’ Patsy pouted, tossing her hair back from her face. ‘Did Mr Carter say you could use the car?’

  ‘Of course he did; I wouldn’t be outside my house with it otherwise, now would I?’

  Patsy waited until Mr and Mrs Collins were settled in the back seat and then looked enquiringly at Lucy.

  ‘I suppose you are going with them as well, are you?’ she asked.

  ‘No,’ Lucy shook her head, ‘Sam wants it to be a special treat for Mam and Dad.’

  Patsy beamed, her pretty face suddenly lighting up. ‘Then I shall come as well, Sam. I can sit in front beside you.’

  ‘Sorry, Patsy, but that’s not possible. Mr Carter said I could only take Mam and Dad.’

  ‘That’s not fair.’ Patsy scowled. ‘What am I supposed to do all afternoon? I was expecting you to take me out.’

  ‘I’ll be back before five and we’ll go out this evening,’ Sam told her as he turned on the engine.

  ‘No, that’s not good enough.’ Patsy shook her head, her mouth set in a tight line. She clung on to the car door as Sam engaged gear and began to pull away.

  ‘Come on, Patsy, don’t spoil things for them. It’s not Sam’s fault that you can’t go as well; he had to promise Mr Carter he would only take my mam and dad,’ Lucy told her, taking her arm and pulling her away.

  ‘Mr Carter probably meant that he didn’t want you riding around in one of his cars pretending to be Lady Muck,’ Patsy told her, shaking free of Lucy’s restraining hand.

  Lucy couldn’t think of a suitable answer as Patsy stalked off home in high dudgeon. She felt sorry for Sam, though, because she knew that Patsy was very angry and would have quite a lot to say to him when he came home.

  Knowing that there was nothing she could do about it and that Robert would be arriving almost any minute, she went back indoors to get ready to go out.

  Robert had promised to take her across to New Brighton because the fun fair was open over Easter and he knew how much she loved going on the rides with him, but suddenly her heart wasn’t in it. She even wondered if he would prefer to stay home since they had the house to themselves, something that rarely happened.

  Robert arrived long before she was ready and he was shivering as he came indoors. ‘It’s chilly out; there’s a keen wind and it will be bitterly cold going over on the boat,’ he told her.

  ‘The kettle’s boiling, would you like a cup of tea first, to warm you up?’ Lucy asked.

  ‘That sounds like a great idea,’ he agreed, as he rubbed his cold nose against her cheek after kissing her.

  As they settled down on the sofa to drink their tea Lucy said, ‘We don’t have to go out this afternoon, you know; not if you’d rather stay here.’

  He looked at her quizzically. ‘What do you want to do? I planned the trip over to New Brighton because I know how much you enjoy the rides.’

  ‘We have got the house to ourselves,’ Lucy murmured. ‘Sam isn’t planning to be back until five o’clock and that’s almost four hours away.’

  ‘Mmm,’ Robert murmured, putting his cup down on the table and pulling Lucy into his arms, his mouth covering hers. His lips travelled down her neck and back up again and he nibbled gently on the lobes of her ears. ‘Perhaps we should change our plans and take advantage of that and stay here; we can always go over to New Brighton next weekend,’ he whispered.

  Cocooned in the warmth and quiet of the house, Lucy acquiesced and relaxed in Robert’s arms. She loved him with all her heart and was always eager for his kisses and embraces but usually these were very constrained because they had so little privacy.

  Now, knowing that there would be no interruptions, Lucy nestled up closer to Robert and made no protests when he slipped his hands inside her clothing and became far more intimate than he had ever dared to be before.

  She was carried away by Robert’s ardour. Her own feelings were in turmoil; she had never before felt such desire or need. She wanted the strange and slightly shocking sensations that sent shivers of anticipation through her entire body to go on for ever.

  When he gently eased her from the sofa and lowered her on to the rug in front of the glowing fire, she made no resistance. As he undid the buttons on her blouse and, peeling it away from her shoulders, began to kiss and fondle her breasts, she stiffened for a brief moment then gave a quivering sigh followed by a little cry of delight as his mouth took possession of first one and then the other.

  Eagerly she started to unbutton the front of his shirt. As her hands touched his bare chest she drew in a sharp breath and then pulled him closer to her own naked body, closing her eyes as their flesh melded together and she felt the intense heat from his body enveloping her.

  Robert raised himself on one elbow and looked down at her quizzically, almost as if asking for permission to go on. At that moment Lucy knew she could deny him nothing and smiled in anticipation of what was to follow.

  After that they were so intertwined that it was as if they were one. Every throb of their pulse, every breath they took and every movement they made seemed to be in unison. They lost all sense of time or place as their passion, which had been restrained for so long, completely engulfed them.

  The loud hammering on the front door followed by a pounding on the window startled both of them and brought them back to reality with an unnerving jolt.

  They stared at each other in alarm, then Lucy pulled away from Robert, fighting back a feeling of shame at having been caught in such a compromising situation.

  Their moment of sheer bliss had been completely shattered and, for a few seconds, neither of them seemed to know what to say or do. Lucy pushed her hair back from her flushed face and tried to think who it could be hammering on the door.

  ‘Surely Sam hasn’t brought my mam and dad back from their ride already,’
she gulped, her brown eyes wide with distress as she looked at Robert.

  ‘It’s far too soon for them to be coming home,’ Robert agreed. He looked at the clock on the mantelpiece. ‘They’ve only been gone just over an hour. Anyway, the door isn’t locked, so they could have opened it. It must be someone else.’

  ‘What are we going to do? Perhaps we should stay quiet and pretend we’re not here.’

  ‘No, we’d better not do that in case it is important. You stay there; I’ll go and see who it is.’

  He reached for his clothes, pulling on his trousers and shirt and fastening them as quickly as he could.

  There was another loud hammering on the door and Lucy hurriedly put on her own clothes and tried to smooth down her tousled hair as she heard Robert call out, ‘All right, I’m coming; there’s no need to bash the door in.’

  With shaking hands she tried to straighten the crumpled rug and pick up the cushion that was lying on the floor and put it back on to the sofa.

  She walked over to the fireplace and stared at her reflection in the over mantle as she smoothed her hair, wondering if anyone could tell from her appearance what had just happened in the last hour or so.

  She looked perfectly normal, she told herself as she heard Robert returning.

  Her feeling of bravado was immediately forgotten when she saw that he was accompanied by a policeman; she could only stare at them in silence, afraid to ask why he was there.

  Chapter Six

  ‘Are you Lucy Collins?’ the policeman asked, removing his helmet and placing it on the table before taking out his notebook.

  ‘Yes!’ Lucy said in a trembling voice, her colour rising. What on earth was a policeman doing calling on them? she wondered. They’d never had a policeman at the door in the whole of her life. He was so big and burly that he seemed to fill the room.

  She felt a frisson of fear rising inside her, making her heart thud faster. Surely she and Robert couldn’t be prosecuted for what they had been doing, she thought anxiously.

  The policeman consulted his notebook again and then cleared his throat hesitantly. ‘I’m afraid I have some bad news for you, miss,’ he said awkwardly. ‘The motor vehicle that your brother was driving has been involved in a serious accident—’

  ‘Accident?’ Lucy’s voice was shrill with fear. ‘What sort of an accident? My mam and dad are in the car with him; he was taking them to Southport as a treat …’ Her voice faded away and she looked helplessly at Robert who immediately moved across the room and put his arm around her protectively.

  ‘Yes, Miss Collins. The accident took place at Blundell Ince, a small village about halfway between here and Southport,’ he paused and consulted his notebook. ‘It seems a horse strayed on to the main road and when the driver took evasive action to try and avoid it, the animal reared up and collided with the vehicle and the driver lost control of the steering. Two of the wheels skidded off the tarmacked road and into a deep ditch, causing the vehicle to overturn. The driver and passengers were all trapped inside the vehicle.’

  Lucy gasped.

  ‘Are they badly hurt?’ Robert asked.

  ‘The driver was taken to hospital with severe injuries; I’m afraid I don’t yet have the details of exactly what they were.’

  ‘What about the two passengers who were in the car?’ Robert persisted, his arm tightening around Lucy, who was white faced and trembling as they listened to the policeman’s report.

  The officer’s mouth tightened as he studied his notebook. ‘I’m afraid, sir, that both the passengers in the back of the vehicle died at the scene of the accident.’

  Robert frowned. ‘Are you quite sure about that?’

  ‘It was a very deep ditch and there was considerable impact when the car plunged into it—’

  ‘It’s not true,’ Lucy interrupted. ‘Sam was taking Mam and Dad for a day out, so he wouldn’t let something like that happen to them.’

  ‘I’m sorry to have to bring you such distressing news, miss, but I’m afraid it is true and you will need to go along to the hospital mortuary to identify the bodies,’ he added, looking not at Lucy but at Robert.

  ‘How soon do we have to do that?’ Robert asked, glancing uneasily at Lucy.

  ‘Right away, if you can. It’s best to get it over with as quickly as possible,’ he advised.

  ‘Yes, I understand,’ Robert said stiffly.

  ‘Now, is there anything else I can tell you?’ the officer asked as he tucked his notebook back into his top pocket and picked his helmet up from the table ready to leave.

  ‘No, I don’t think so.’ Robert looked enquiringly at Lucy but she shook her head and gave a small shiver as she clutched at his arm as if for reassurance.

  After the police officer had left, Robert patted her shoulder and then gently pushed her into an armchair. ‘Sit down and I’ll make a cup of tea before we go,’ he told her.

  She offered no resistance but did as Robert asked; she was still sitting there, staring into space as if completely mesmerised, when he brought in the tea.

  Neither of them spoke; Robert had no idea what to say, he still couldn’t believe that such a terrible thing had happened and he wasn’t too sure that Lucy had taken in everything the policeman had said.

  To his surprise, when she had finished drinking her tea, Lucy put the empty cup on the table and said in a quiet, determined voice, ‘I’d better be going to the hospital to identify the bodies, hadn’t I? Are you coming with me?’

  ‘Of course I am.’ He stood up and picked up her cup and his own and carried them through to the kitchen.

  ‘Leave them on the side,’ Lucy called out. ‘I can see to them when we get back. The policeman did say to go along there as soon as possible.’

  Without waiting for him to reply Lucy went out into the hall and took down her everyday grey coat and hat from the hallstand and put them on before Robert could help her.

  Outside there was sunshine and clear skies. ‘Good job we didn’t go over to New Brighton, although it would have been a lovely day to walk along the shore,’ Lucy commented as they walked towards the nearest tram stop.

  Startled, Robert looked sideways at her. She was speaking in such a normal voice that he was slightly taken aback. The look of stunned disbelief had gone from her face. She wasn’t smiling but she was holding her head high and stepping out as if enjoying their walk in the March sunshine.

  He didn’t know what to say. He felt he ought to warn her about what lay ahead but he couldn’t find the right words. It was going to be a tremendous ordeal and he wondered if she would be able to cope with it. They would also have to visit Sam afterwards and he wasn’t sure if Sam knew about what had happened to his parents when the car overturned or not; or how he would take the news if they were the ones who had to tell him.

  To Robert’s amazement Lucy remained icily calm when they were shown into the mortuary. He expected her to cringe away when the green sheet was pulled back from the body on the first trolley to reveal her father.

  Instead, with a small sigh she bent and pressed her lips to the waxen figure before nodding and confirming in a low, firm voice that this was her father, forty-five-year-old Bill Collins.

  Without wavering, she repeated the process when they uncovered the body of her mother, ‘Margaret Collins, forty years old,’ she stated after implanting a light kiss on her mother’s forehead.

  ‘If you’re ready, then we’ll go and visit Sam,’ she murmured turning to Robert.

  Sam was in a small side ward with only three other beds in it. Lucy hesitated as the sister started to lead them towards the one in the corner of the room that had the curtains drawn around it and Robert quickly took hold of her hand and squeezed it.

  As the sister drew one of the curtains aside they found a nurse was setting up a drip and they had to wait until she had finished.

  One of Sam’s arms was heavily bandaged and the wrist of his other arm was in splints and supported above his head. One of his legs was e
ncased in a plaster cast from ankle to thigh and there was a metal cage over it to keep the bedclothes from pressing down on it. His face was badly lacerated and both his eyes were surrounded by dark bruising. Lucy could see that his mouth and lips were very swollen and she wondered if he had lost any of his teeth.

  His eyes flickered open as they approached but although Lucy spoke his name he simply stared vacantly into space and moaned as though he was in pain.

  ‘He doesn’t even know me,’ Lucy whispered in a shocked voice as she stood helplessly at the bedside staring down at him.

  ‘Your brother is heavily sedated at the moment, Miss Collins,’ the sister told her.

  As the tears began to trickle down Lucy’s cheeks Robert put his arm around her shoulders and gently drew her away from the bed.

  ‘I would suggest that you go home and come back tomorrow or the next day and hopefully by then you will find he not only recognises you, but is also able to speak to you,’ the sister advised.

  ‘Does he know what happened and that our parents are both dead?’ Lucy whispered, her voice trembling.

  ‘No.’ The sister shook her head firmly. ‘He was unconscious when he was brought in.’

  ‘Who is going to break the news to Sam?’ Lucy asked, her voice full of concern. ‘He’s going to be so terribly upset,’ she added with a deep, shuddering sigh.

  ‘It would be best not to tell him about what happened until he is much stronger,’ the sister said firmly. ‘Next time you come we will discuss the matter; perhaps it would be better to leave it until he is on the road to recovery himself.’

  ‘He is going to be all right, isn’t he?’ Lucy gulped.

  The sister hesitated for a second. ‘Your brother is young and healthy and if he was quite fit and strong before the accident then he should make good progress given time and patience.’

  ‘Will he make a complete recovery?’ Lucy repeated, emphasising the word complete.

  Again the sister hesitated. ‘He will need a great deal of nursing care for some considerable time after he is discharged from here,’ she said evasively.