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Back Sisters of Gold
Chapters (64)
  1. Cover
  2. Title page
  3. Dedication page
  4. A Week’s Work in Birmingham
  5. I
  6. One
  7. Two
  8. Three
  9. Four
  10. Five
  11. Six
  12. Seven
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Ten
  16. Eleven
  17. Twelve
  18. Thirteen
  19. Fourteen
  20. Fifteen
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-One
  27. Twenty-Two
  28. Twenty-Three
  29. Twenty-Four
  30. II
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. Twenty-Seven
  34. Twenty-Eight
  35. Twenty-Nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-One
  38. Thirty-Two
  39. Thirty-Three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. Thirty-Eight
  45. Thirty-Nine
  46. III
  47. Forty
  48. Forty-One
  49. Forty-Two
  50. Forty-Three
  51. Forty-Four
  52. Forty-Five
  53. Forty-Six
  54. Forty-Seven
  55. Forty-Eight
  56. Forty-Nine
  57. Fifty
  58. Fifty-One
  59. Fifty-Two
  60. Fifty-Three
  61. Acknowledgements
  62. Further Reading
  63. About the Author
  64. By the Same Author

She put her hands over her face, so that the slowing of the train, the stirring of the other passengers and their reaching to find their belongings was all lost to her. She had no idea whether they could hear her and Charles’s conversation, but it seemed not to matter. It was as if there was no one but him; he was sliding through her thoughts, possessing her as he had before, and she longed with all her soul somehow to make things right.

‘Margaret – my dear . . .’ He sounded distraught. ‘Please, say you forgive me – for whatever I have done.’

She removed her hands from her face, wiping her eyes, about to say, How can I forgive you, if you say you do not know what you have done? But as she surfaced, hands limp in her lap, she realized that the train was sliding to a halt. Charles, his eyes boring into hers, grasped one of her hands, pressing it so tightly that she flinched.

The train jerked, brakes screeching, to a standstill, and a voice outside called, ‘Banbury!’

‘Oh!’ she said, thrown into panic. ‘We’re here, look. We must get off!’ She looked round, trying to gather their things. The mother and two children were already stepping out into the corridor.

But he gripped her hand harder. The look in his eyes had changed. There was something cold and forcing, which chilled its way through her. They needed to move, to get off the train . . .

‘No,’ he said, in a soft, smooth voice which was quite unlike the chill look in his eyes. ‘Not here.’ He tightened his grip another fraction on her hand. She let out a small sound of pain and he relaxed the hold again slightly. ‘Now, don’t go making a silly lot of noise. Just be sensible. We are going to go a little further, that’s all. There’s someone I want you to meet.’

Forty-Seven

Forty-Seven

‘Why didn’t you tell me you wanted to visit your grandmother in the first place?’ She was furious after the panic-stricken moment of him gripping her hand, forcing her.

‘Because . . .’ He loosed the pressure on her hand as the train eased into motion again, a few newcomers in the compartment. A mischievous smile spread over Charles’s face. ‘You would never have agreed to come – and I wanted you to, very much.’

She glared at him. ‘But why tell me untruths, Charles?’ she hissed at him. ‘D’you know – I may not be living among people who you would class as Christian, but they are more straightforward in truthfulness than you are!’