The Wind in the East: Sensational historical romance by Pamela Pope

Author:Pamela Pope [Pope, Pamela]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lume Books
Published: 2017-08-30T04:00:00+00:00

12

By the third week in July Poppy was beginning to think about Ned coming home.

She was surprised how much she missed him, far more than she had done the two previous years while he was away on the Shetland voyage, and she thought about him a lot. This time she was actually counting the days to his return, and part of the reason stemmed from Ned’s last night at home.

Having said that she loved him that night she had let him make love to her with more willingness than she had ever done, no longer merely enduring it but trying to take part, and it had amazed her when new, exciting feelings had coursed through her body. Not that she had been able to let him know. She had been too embarrassed. But when he came home she was going to show him that she no longer dreaded the marriage bed. He deserved a wife who shared in everything with him, in joy, in sorrow, in pain, but most of all in love, and she wouldn’t disappoint him any more.

She would never have guessed when she agreed to marry him that he would become so dear. Liking had turned to love without her noticing the change. Little things pleased her more than she would have thought possible, such as walking arm in arm with him to the Bethel on a Sunday, watching him put Nancy in the perambulator or playing on the floor with Daniel. She loved him for his patience with Steven, and for his support when Aunt Jessie was difficult, even though he didn’t always agree that Poppy was right. He was a man who put loyalty to his wife above everything.

She appreciated, too, the way he credited her with more than average intelligence. She had shown Ned she was capable of using her brains and he knew it was not enough for her to slip into the role of wife and mother with nothing else to interest her. He had paid her the compliment of explaining the complexities of the share system when he was working out how much to pay his crews, and she had learnt to do some book-keeping at home.

‘Old Walter Smith’s getting too old for the job,’ Ned said. ‘You’re as good at it as he is, Poppy, love. Reckon as how I picked myself a wife in a million.’

Not everyone agreed that a fisherman’s wife should take such an active interest in money matters, but Poppy didn’t care. Aunt Lizzie and Aunt Jessie both disapproved. No doubt they talked of it when they were together because their arguments were much the same when they accused her of getting too big for her boots.

‘It ain’t right for a wife to know so much about her husband’s business,’ Aunt Jessie complained. ‘Besides, there’s more than enough work in the house to keep you busy.’

‘You ought to be satisfied looking after three children,’ said Aunt Lizzie. ‘It ain’t right you poking yer nose into Ned’s books.

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