Daughter of Mine by Anne Bennett Page A

free, and she began to run as she’d never run before, up Temple Row and across the churchyard to the hotel, expecting any minute to hear footsteps pounding behind her or clawing hands reaching for her.
    She almost sobbed with relief as she reached the door of the hotel, and as most of the buttons had been ripped from her coat she wrapped it tightly round her before opening the door. Even so, Ron, the night porter, looked at her strangely as she made for the stairs. ‘You all right?’
    ‘Aye, I’m fine,’ Lizzie said. But she was far from fine. She was trembling all over and she wanted to be by herself in her bedroom and safe.
    She was quiet, for both Pat and Betty were fast asleep, and she didn’t even put the light on. She was glad no one was up to see her take off the torn blouse, which she threw to the back of the wardrobe. She was in no mood for Tressa coming in enthusing about the night; she knew she’d see her in the morning, and so she turned over and tried to sleep.
    Tressa was disappointed to find her cousin in the land of nod. She’d wanted to relive the night again, confide in Lizzie that her virginity was gone and forever and how wonderful the experience was. She was tempted to wake her up, but Lizzie slept deeply when she did go off—and what if, in trying to waken hercousin, she also roused Pat and Betty. She reckoned they’d string her up if she did that again. They’d been very stiff with her after last time.
    So she lay on the bed and went through it in her mind and fell asleep with a smile on her face and dreamed of making love to Mike over and over again.
    Tressa felt very delicate when she woke somewhere around mid-morning, but Lizzie didn’t look too hot either, she noticed. In fact, she looked dreadful. Tressa gasped when she saw the score marks on the back of Lizzie’s neck as she pulled her nightdress over her head.
    ‘Who did that to your neck?’
    ‘Who do you think?’
    ‘It was never Steve?’
    ‘Oh yes it was,’ Lizzie said grimly, ‘after I told him it was over,’ and she went on to describe exactly what had happened. ‘He frightened the living daylights out of me,’ she said. ‘And yet nothing really happened and I didn’t wait around to see if it would. But now…oh, I don’t know, I think it was partly my fault.’
    ‘How in God’s name did you work that out?’
    ‘Maybe I told him clumsily,’ Lizzie said. ‘You know, maybe I should have led up to it more, not just told him like that, straight out.’
    ‘He still shouldn’t have done that to your neck.’
    ‘He didn’t do it on purpose,’ Lizzie said. ‘He was holding on to me, holding my coat at the neck, and when I pulled away quickly his nails sort of caught me.’
    ‘Even so…’
    ‘Tressa, he wasn’t himself and he was so dreadfully hurt. I felt a heel. I should never have let it go on so long.’
    Tressa could see the guilt settling around her cousin. She knew her well and was aware how that guilt would eat away at her. ‘Come on, Lizzie,’ she said. ‘Put this behind you now.’
    ‘I’m sorry, Tressa,’ Lizzie replied. ‘How did it go with you and Mike?’
    ‘Do you want to know, after your night ended so badly?’
    ‘Course I do,’ Lizzie said. ‘I’m not that smallminded.’
    ‘Well I’ll tell you in the bathroom.’
    ‘Bathroom?’
    ‘Aye,’ Tressa said. ‘I’m going to run you a hot bath. It will do you the world of good.’
    ‘Tressa, I’m feeling a bit groggy.’
    ‘Then a hot foamy bath is just the thing,’ Tressa declared, and went on with a smile, ‘come on, and while you are soaping yourself, I’ll tell you about my night of passion.’
    Lizzie forced a smile from her reluctant lips and began collecting her toiletries together.
    The girls were tired when they returned to their room that night. It was Valentine’s Day and there had been a special menu, so the place had been bursting at the seams and they’d been run off their feet, for they’d been on the go