She took a deep breath, unleashing all the agony inside. ‘Don’t you see, Tom, we need to talk it through. It’s all wrong, you know that. What happened is still eating away at you, and until we can talk about it, there’s no hope for us.’

‘Shut your mouth, damn you!’

Angered by his reaction, she yelled back, ‘Look at tonight! I thought you were at work, and all the time you were at the bloody alehouse, not caring a bugger about me or the bairn. So don’t talk to me about who I can and can’t see. You have your mates, don’t you? You enjoy being with them, and it doesn’t matter to you whether I approve or not. Well, it doesn’t matter to me what you think of Fanny Higgins because I intend seeing her whenever I please.’

Staring him in the eye, she said quietly, ‘Do you understand what I’m saying, Tom? I’ve had enough. Either we live together as a family, the three of us, or we call it a day and go our separate ways. Which is it to—’

Tom slapped her face hard. ‘Don’t ever question my authority again,’ he said, incensed. ‘Now get out of my sight.’

Silenced but determined, she stared at him for what seemed an age; when the blood trickled from her nose, she wiped it with the back of her hand, and all the while her sad, brown eyes looked unflinchingly into his. After a while, she lowered her gaze. ‘The pity of it all is,’ she murmured softly, ‘you’ll never know the love I have for you.’

She would have turned away then, but when he asked quietly, ‘Why did you do it, Bridget?’ all her resolve melted.

‘It was a mad, bad thing,’ she whispered, her brown eyes pleading. ‘I promise you, Tom. It meant nothing.’

It was a time for confessions. ‘I had a woman here when you were at Nelly’s house, did you know that?’

‘Yes, I knew.’

‘So Nelly told you after all.’

Bridget shook her head. ‘She didn’t have to. A woman has a way of knowing.’ She raised her hand to wipe away the blood again. To her surprise, Tom reached up and put his hand over hers. With the other hand he tenderly wiped away the crimson trail. Softly, he slid the towel from her body. Gasping with delight, he stroked her shoulders, the silky, warm breasts, licking at the drop of milk that rose like a tear on her nipple.

Ripples of joy coursed through her. This was the way it used to be, she thought, she and Tom together as man and wife.

Yielding beneath his touch, she let him take her into his arms and carry her upstairs, laughing when he almost lost his balance. In the bedroom, he laid her gently on the bed and gazed on her nakedness. Then he threw off his clothes and lay beside her.

They touched and fondled, and raised each other to the heights of pleasure. When the pleasure turned to passion, and the passion could not be contained, he spread her body beneath him and, with a soft, pained cry, he positioned his erect member and tenderly entered her, pushing into her like a man starved.