The Docklands Girls by June Tate

Author:June Tate [June Tate ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780749020569
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Published: 2016-08-23T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

Whilst Hildy was sorting out her problems in London, Cora was enjoying life. She was working still in the same dress shop and earning good money. The bonuses she’d earned boosted her weekly wage. She and the manageress were getting along very well; she was making friends and slowly building a social life. But most important of all, Joe Keating had stopped calling at her flat.

Cora had become friendly with Simon Pritchard, the young man who lived on the same floor as she did. He was tall, athletic and good-looking. They used to meet coming in and out of the apartment building and eventually started going out together. He’d not been called up to fight due to a perforated eardrum, an injury he’d sustained playing rugby at school. Instead, he joined the Metropolitan Police Service as a constable. He was charming, great fun to be with and their friendship blossomed. Sometimes he’d meet her after work and Cora would be teased by her boss.

‘Your police escort is waiting for you, Cora,’ Linda would say. ‘Just be sure he doesn’t have a Black Maria round the corner!’

Cora just laughed, thinking of the time in Southampton when she and Belle were arrested for soliciting and been driven off in one of them. But she was also aware that she did have a police record for that one occasion. Something she pushed to the back of her mind when she was with her boyfriend.

She was enjoying being courted by this upstanding young man. He treated her affectionately, but with respect and although his kisses were full of passion, he never let his physical longings get out of hand. Cora loved that. For so long she’d been paid to pleasure such longings, now she was being cosseted for a change. But as the weeks passed, she longed for more. She wanted to be held in Simon’s arms, to be made love to and it was driving her crazy because she didn’t want to spoil the image he had of her. Then one evening, she told him how she felt.

They had been to the cinema to see Brief Encounter with Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard. A tale of unrequited love between a married woman and another man. It was a poignant story and Simon teased Cora as they left the cinema with her mopping away tears.

They returned to their building and went to her flat for a nightcap. As she poured them a drink, they discussed the film.

‘I think it was a shame that they had to part,’ Cora remarked.

Simon looked shocked. ‘But she was a married woman!’

‘I know and you’re right, of course, but sometimes when you can’t have what you long for, it can be hard to live with.’ She sat beside him on the settee, putting their drinks down on a table.

He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. ‘Now what on earth could you want and not have that would make you feel that bad?’

There was a benevolence in his tone as if he were talking to a child and she didn’t feel anything like a child.

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