Her voice was high, scared. The depth of feeling for him in it made him want to cry out at the injustice of it all. He went to her and knelt before her. Framing her face in his big hands, he tried to reason with her.

‘I love you, girl. God help me, I worship you. But you don’t understand what I’m trying to say! If anyone ever found out about us, you can’t even begin to guess what trouble it would cause. I’m scared. Not for me, for you! You!’

Kerry tried to pull her face from his hands and he held her hard, digging his fingers into the white flesh.

‘Listen to me. You think that love conquers all. Well, it don’t. When me and you were living hand to mouth, you’d hate me, and if we had children, eventually you’d hate them too. We can’t ever believe, either of us, that this is forever, because it’s not, it can’t be.’

Kerry began to cry then, her eyes filling with tears, blurring his face as she stared at him. Her whole body ached with the want of him, and the harshness of what had happened to them. He held her close, smelling her perfume, her hair. The gentleness of his touch was her undoing, and she cried bitter tears. Hard sobs that made her shudder, and soaked his shirt

‘I should never have let it go so far, girl. I was wrong. But believe me when I say I love you, all of you, and I’d do anything at all so we could be together always. But, Kerry, there’s just no way. I’ve lain awake night after night, trying to think of a solution to our problems, and there ain’t one.

‘I’m going back to the States. I know a guy who can give me a job, I’ll go and you’ll forget all about me.’

‘No ... I won’t, I’ll never forget you. I’ll follow you ...’

Her voice was thick with tears. She knew she was babbling and couldn’t stop herself.

‘We’ll find a way, I know we will.’

He held her away from him and looked into her face. Shaking his head, he said: ‘I’m gonna leave you, baby, but I’m leaving my heart right here. You gotta accept that, Kerry. This ain’t about what we want, it’s about what we can and can’t have, and we can’t have our love. Not now, not ever. Maybe one day, who knows? Maybe one day it’ll be different. But not in our lifetime, you can be sure about that.’

‘But I love you so much, so much!’

He smiled, grateful for her undying love, even though he knew he should never have sought it.