by Nancy Revell
‘Daddy!’
They both looked down to see Hope staring up at them, her hand grasping Jack’s trouser leg as she started to tug it.
‘Come here, my gorgeous little girl—’ Jack let go of Gloria and reached down. ‘My, my, someone’s grown up since I saw her last.’ He picked Hope up again and kissed her little button nose, causing her to scrunch up her eyes and giggle. ‘Two years. Two whole years.’
Gloria heard sadness and a shred of bitterness.
‘Daddy,’ Hope said again, as though practising a new word. A word she had only ever spoken into the receiver of a black Bakelite phone.
‘Aye … Daddy.’ Jack suddenly felt his throat constrict with emotion.
Hope’s face creased into a smile and she touched his face with one hand.
Gloria felt the tears welling up.
‘I’ll tell yer what—’ Jack looked at Gloria and then back at his daughter ‘—why don’t I read yer a bedtime story, eh?’
Gloria looked at Hope and pulled a happy face, mouthing the word ‘story’.
‘Story!’ Hope clapped her hands together.
A wide smile spread across Jack’s face and he took a step towards Gloria, to the woman he had never stopped loving since they had been childhood sweethearts – since Miriam had forced them apart for the first time when they were still young – and kissed her again. Nothing, he vowed silently, would ever part them again. Nothing.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever felt this happy in my entire life,’ he said, his eyes glistening with the sting of tears.
‘Nor me,’ Gloria said, as she kissed him back.
Gloria watched as Jack read Hope her favourite bedtime story, Beatrix Potter’s ‘The Tale of Two Bad Mice.’ It had become her favourite after they’d been forced to spend the last air raid with a rather frantic mouse scurrying around in Mr Brown’s Anderson Shelter.
Looking at Jack, Gloria saw the physical changes the past two years had brought – his hair was now more grey than black and his face looked tired and weather-beaten, but physically he seemed strong, certainly more muscular than when she had seen him last on that awful day when Miriam’s blackmail had led to his banishment and they’d been forced to say a rushed farewell in the porch of St Peter’s Church.
Gloria looked at Hope. Her dark lashes were lowering as she tried desperately to stay awake. Jack’s voice was soft as he relayed the mice’s tales of mischief in the doll’s house, knowing that the lilting rhythm of words would soon send his daughter into a deep slumber.
Sensing her eyes on him, Jack glanced back at Gloria and winked before turning another page of the hardbacked book. Gloria noticed how full of life he seemed. There was not a trace of the confusion he had been left with after coming out of a coma weeks after nearly drowning on his way back from America. After he’d come round, he’d lost his memory, as well his physical strength – looking at him now, it was clear he had regained both. He was the Jack of old. And if Jack said it was all right that he was here, then she believed him.
Hearing the familiar sound of her daughter’s gentle snoring, Gloria stood up, careful not to make a sound. Jack followed, putting the story book down on the stool by Hope’s cot and tiptoeing out of the room.
As soon as they were out in the hallway, Jack pulled her close and they kissed – this time for longer, and without interruption.
‘God, I’ve missed you,’ Jack murmured.
‘Please – tell me yer here to stay? For good?’ she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
‘I’m here to stay,’ Jack reassured her. ‘For good.’ Gloria kissed him again, curious to know more, but not wanting to talk. They had spoken on the phone so much since Jack’s exile, she suddenly felt tired of words. She only wanted the feel of his mouth on hers and his body pressed against her own.
Sensing her passion, Jack looked at Gloria. ‘I’ve waited two years for this moment,’ he said, his breathing becoming heavy. ‘I don’t want to wait another minute.’
‘Me neither,’ Gloria said.
And with that she took his hand and led him into the bedroom.
THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING
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First published in Great Britain by Arrow Books in 2020
Copyright © Nancy Revell 2020
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Cover photography by Colin Thomas. Background Mirror Pix.
ISBN: 978-1-473-57282-9
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