What Tomorrow Brings: a heartbreaking WWI second-chance romance by Anne Douglas

Author:Anne Douglas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canelo
Published: 2022-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

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If only life weren’t so difficult, though, Elinor often sighed to herself. If only there didn’t have to be worries about making love – ‘going all the way’, as folk called it. If only no one need have a baby unless they wanted one. Talk about pie in the sky! No point in wishing for the impossible, was there? Just had to take as much pleasure as you could in kissing and caressing and not expect more until you were married. Which was why Elinor’s thoughts dwelt on marriage as never before.

And they did have some wonderful times together, she and Barry, on her evenings off, or her free Saturday afternoons. Sometimes going to the cinema to see the silent films where they watched Charlie Chaplin or Mary Pickford, and listened to the piano keeping up with the action, while they sat at the back, holding hands and looking forward to exchanging kisses on the way home.

Or, maybe going for walks in the beautiful weather, in the Meadows or by the Water of Leith, hiding themselves under trees if possible, where they might even lie together, though Elinor was cautious at first about that. Barry had laughed and drawn her down to him, saying it was an old Scottish custom for a couples to lie together still in their clothes, now hadn’t she heard of it? No, she hadn’t, she’d laughed, she was sure he was making it up, but she’d lain beside him all the same, and had given herself up to delight in being so close.

Sometimes, though, it was all much more tranquil, just having tea in a little café, Elinor handling the teapot, Barry watching, then walking slowly back to the Primrose, maybe looking over the railings at the gardens, before saying goodbye on their best behaviour, conscious that some eyes somewhere would be upon them.

How Elinor wished days like these would never end, but in late June Barry suggested something new. A visit to his home with Bettina and Georgie on her next free Saturday afternoon.

‘It’s time we had a get together,’ he told Elinor. ‘And you can hear me tinkle the ivories and all.’

‘Barry, that’d be perfect! I’d love to talk to Bettina and Georgie and hear you play the piano. It’s very kind of Bettina to ask me.’

‘Oh, she didn’t ask you,’ he said carelessly. ‘It was my own idea. She’ll be glad to see you, though. Georgie, too.’

‘You’re sure?’ Elinor asked doubtfully.

‘Sure I’m sure. It’s all arranged. You be thinking of what tunes you’d like to hear and I’ll play ’em for you.’

‘June twenty-seventh is the next Saturday I can take. Shall we make it then?’

‘That’ll be fine. I’ll tell Bettina.’

‘She mightn’t be free.’

‘She will be,’ Barry said airily. ‘I’ll call for you same as usual.’

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