Eddie’s hands stroked her bare brown legs and gasped as she wriggled herself into a more comfortable position.
Then he gasped again as he realised that beneath the short black skirt she was naked.
If this is a hallucination, thought Eddie wonderingly, I don’t care. Just don’t let it stop; whatever’s happening here, don ‘t let it stop.
Much later, when the first car drove past and gave them a jaunty toot, Pru buried her smile in the front of his shirt and said, ‘I hope that wasn’t someone who recognised your Jag.’
‘I don’t care.’ Eddie couldn’t stop grinning. ‘I hope it was. I want everyone to know I’ve just been seduced in my car.’
‘By a shameless hussy,’ Pru said happily. ‘I’m sorry if I frightened you half to death. I just had to do it.’
‘Thank God you did. Oh, Pm, I do love you.’ Eddie gave her a hug. ‘I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. I just never dreamt you’d be interested in me. I still can’t believe this is really happening.’ He shook his head, marvelling at the fact that it had. Then, gently pinching one of Pru’s thighs, he said, ‘And speaking of hussies, when on earth did you stop wearing knickers?’
She went pink.
‘In Oxford. I took them off in the car outside the Randolph.’
‘Good grief.’
‘I got the idea from that paperback of Dulcie’s,’ Pru confessed. ‘The one that bossy old woman nicked from me outside Elmlea nursing home.’
‘Let’s hope she doesn’t try it out too. She could give the male residents heart failure.’
Eddie stroked Pru’s ears, smoothing back her glossy dark hair.
‘What?’ The urge to flinch was strong, but she resisted it. Why was he looking at them in that way?
‘Nothing. I like your hair like that. You’ve got beautiful ears.’
Pru smiled. She knew she could tell him about the surgery; he wouldn’t laugh. But there was no need now. Another day. Reluctantly she looked at her watch.
‘I could stay here for ever, but we really should get back.’ Eddie didn’t want to.
‘Why?’
‘Houses to clean,’ she reminded him lightly. ‘Sinks to scour, floors to scrub.’
He didn’t want Pru doing that either. She shouldn’t have to. She deserved so much better.
‘Give it up,’ he said flatly.
‘Oh right, great idea, why didn’t I think of that?’ Pru laughed at the expression on his face. ‘Why pay rent when you can live in a cardboard box?’
‘Come and live with me.’
‘Eddie!’
‘I mean it. Please, don’t laugh, I’m serious. I want you to live with me.’ The words came tumbling out. He had been so unhappy for so long and Pru was everything he’d ever dreamed of.
‘I want you to marry me. Oh, Pm, you’d make me the happiest man on earth. Of course, I know I’m not much of a catch ...’
He really did mean it. Pru’s eyes filled with tears. Frantically Eddie kissed them away. ‘God, don’t cry! I don’t want to make you cry. I love you—’
Pru wiped her wet cheeks on his shirt. How on earth could this kind, wonderful, adorable man think he wasn’t much of a catch?
‘—and if you really couldn’t bear to 1-live with Arthur,’ this time Eddie stumbled on the words; this was the ultimate sacrifice, ‘well, I understand. I’m sure we could find him a good home.’
She stared at him, astounded.
‘Why couldn’t I bear to live with Arthur?’
‘You know ... the allergy thing ...’
Pru struggled to keep a straight face.
‘I’m not allergic to Arthur. I just didn’t want him leering at us from the back seat while we were ... well, otherwise engaged. I thought we could do without an audience.’
It took a while to get themselves respectable again. Finally they were ready to leave.
‘I’ll drive,’ said Eddie.
‘That’s silly. What if you get stopped?’
He flicked open his wallet and showed her his licence. ‘You had it all this time.’ Pru’s eyes widened. ‘You cheat!’ Eddie kissed her as he reached for the car keys. ‘I know. But it did the trick.’
Chapter 46
As she plunged her reddened hands into the washing-up water, fishing for the last elusive teaspoon, Dulcie marvelled at the idea that only a month ago she had actually possessed nails capable of wearing polish. Twelve hours a day in Rufus’s kitchen had changed her hands beyond all recognition and the rest of her had taken a bit of a battering too.
With no time for any more sunbeds, facials or mud treatments, Dulcie was feeling pale and decidedly uninteresting. Her hair, badly in need of a cut, flopped into her eyes. Finding the teaspoon at last, she held it up and studied her reflection in it.
I look like Liam Gallagher, she thought miserably, on a bad day.
