The Journey by Josephine Cox

Author:Josephine Cox
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

Eleven

You’re thirty-nine years of age and you still have the body of a young girl.” Having climbed into bed, Barney leaned on his elbow and watched his wife undress. It wasn’t often she undressed in front of him; for some reason she preferred the light out, and whenever he came upon her naked, she would blush and hide, and scamper into bed. “You need never be ashamed of your body,” he told her now. “You should be proud.” His voice dropped to the softest whisper. “You’re very beautiful, Joanne. You always were.”

Having finished brushing her hair, she slithered into bed beside him. “I’m not beautiful,” she protested, though with a smile. “You only think that, because you love me … like I think you’re handsome, because I love you.”

Tenderly he placed a finger over her lips. “No,” then with his other hand he stroked a stray lock of hair from her eyes. “You really are a lovely-looking woman, my darling. You may not see it, but I do, and so does every other man who looks on you.”

“Stop it, Barney.” She went rosy with pleasure. “What will you say when I’m old and toothless, and bent like a willow tree?”

His answer was to take her in his arms and hold her as close as any man could hold the one he loved. “None of that would matter,” he answered honestly, “because you will always be beautiful to me.”

In the halo of moonlight shining in through the window, she could see in his eyes the depth of his love for her, and she was deeply moved. “I love you so much,” she said, her voice breaking. “I love our children and I love the life we lead, but it would not be the same without you.”

He could feel the tension in her body, and he was shocked. “Hey!” Listing himself up, he looked into her sad face and was afraid—not for himself, but for her. “You mustn’t talk like that. We have each other and, God willing, we’ll have each other for many years to come.”

“Do you promise?” she whispered. “Do you promise never to leave me?”

Barney saw the tears rising in her pretty eyes, and was deeply moved when one plump, watery tear spilled over her cheek. “I can’t promise,” he answered, wiping away the tear with the tip of his thumb.

“Why not?”

“You know why not,” he chided gently. “We none of us can see what the future holds.”

She tightened her grip on him. “You have to promise me, Barney.”

“What’s wrong?” Kissing her on the mouth, he wondered why she should ask him such a thing. “Why do you insist, when you know a promise of that kind is impossible?” Fear squeezed his heart. Had she heard him in a coughing fit? Did she know how ill he had been feeling of late? Had Lucy told her about that day in the field, when she found him gasping for breath? And now Joanne was asking him to make a promise of this kind.

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