Edward said he was going travelling. Harriet lay back and hitched her skirt up so the sun could get to her legs. ‘Ma says I shouldn’t sunbathe because my freckles’ll all join up into one dark red-brown blob, but I love the sun... Where are you travelling to then?’
‘I don’t know yet.’
‘I haven’t cut my hair, you will note, it’s now much longer and the front is growing again. You know Pa has been made Chief Justice Simpson now? He swans around, very puffed up, he’s so proud of himself.’
Edward kept his distance from her at the far end of the punt, watching as she trailed her hand in the water. She filled him in on all the family news. ‘The Van der Burges have gone on a world cruise, then they come back and go home, thank the Lord. They really were becoming part of the fixtures and fittings... BB consumed most of Pa’s stock of brandy and never replenished it, which infuriated him.’
The sun was getting hotter and hotter, and Edward closed his eyes, the cool, slight breeze off the river was delicious.
Harriet pointed to an ice-cream seller on the bank. ‘Oh, have you any money on you? Come on, paddle over, I’d love a cornet.’
They paddled with their hands and Edward handed her sixpence. She waded into the water, and with wet dress and sandals she marched up on to the bank, coming back carrying two dripping cornets. She climbed back into the punt and Edward pushed off from the bank.
They fell into silence again as they drifted on down the river. A few punters passed them, shouting as they poled on.
‘I am being made to go to Switzerland, did I write and tell you that? Finish me off, and then I return to be paraded around town for my “coming-out”... Crikey, I loathe them all, I really do.’
Edward sat up and tossed the cornet end to the ducks. He leaned on his elbow, smiling at her. ‘What do you want to do, Harry? Really do with your life?’
She finished her cornet, not giving a crumb to the ducks. She had ice cream all round her mouth, which she wiped off with the back of her hand, and licked the trace from her lips. ‘You wouldn’t like it if I told you.’
He tapped her foot and told her to go on, he wanted to know. She bent forward and took one sandal off, laid it on the seat beside her then did the same with the other one. He leaned forward and tapped her bare foot, asked her again to tell him what she was going to do with herself, what she wanted out of her life.
‘Okay, I would like... One, for you to take me into a big, white, soft bed, really thick and squashy, one that you sink into... I would like then to have four sons, all of them as tall as you, all of them a criss-cross of our looks, two with reddish hair, two with your black, black hair, but all with your dark eyes... Then I would like to live with you and our sons on a big farm, like abroad somewhere, maybe South America, somewhere where there is hot sun, wild animals roaming, a few horses, my own stables, a cook, because I hate cooking...’
She was lying stretched out, legs bare, eyes closed and her hand trailing along in the water, causing miniature whirlpools to form and disappear. ‘What about you, Edward, any of that take your fancy at all?’
He shaded his eyes and looked at the river bank because he couldn’t think of anything to say. He had a lump in his throat, and he swallowed hard. The punt banged into the bank, and Harriet reached up to a hanging branch of a willow tree to hold the boat beneath it. He could see the glint of the sun on the thin gold bangle she wore.
‘Course, you don’t have to reply, make any decision immediately...’ She tossed her head back and laughed, her hair flying around her, and fell back into the punt, legs in the air. She continued to laugh as he moved along the punt on all fours, leaned over her and looked down into her freckled face. ‘You, Harry, are as mad as a hatter.’
She wrapped her arms around him and looked up into his face.
‘You will never have anyone love you as I do, they will all be older, experienced and boring, but you can have me untouched by any other human hand...’
He kissed her nose, but remained hovering just above her, looking down into her upturned face. ‘What if I don’t want you? What if I have other plans for my life that do not involve a lunatic?’
The big, blue eyes filled with tears, brimming over, and she whispered, very low, ‘You will break my heart.’
Edward moved back and sat on the seat. He rubbed his head. ‘Harry, I have to go away to find some work. I have no money, nothing to offer you, and added to that you are still a kid with romantic notions you’ve got out of some magazine.’
She threw water at him and drenched his shirt. ‘Bollocks, I am not a kid, as you put it, I am sixteen years old, you are just making excuses. I’ll wait, I’ll wait for two years, but I won’t wait any longer... Ma will have a fit, Pa will have a heart attack, especially if he’s laying out all the cash for my coming-out, but...’ She looked at him, she wasn’t joking, she said it softly, so earnestly, it was touching. ‘I’ll wait for you, Edward.’
She toyed with the branch, and the willow shuddered above her head. Then she let it go and sat up, looking at him very seriously, very straight-faced. ‘Only, you’ll have to give me something, something so that I know you’ll come for me, I don’t want letters, just your word...’
Edward pushed at the bank to make the punt move, but it remained stuck by the willow. ‘I can’t give it to you, push from your end, come on, Harry, push it away.’
He leaned out and pushed, the punt turned and he fell towards her, landing with his head in her lap, between her legs. He lifted his hands and held her tightly, pressing his face against her, and she folded her arms around him and bent to kiss the back of his head, then wriggled until her body was beneath his, and he let her. Knowing he was mad, knowing he must be out of his mind, he remained lying on top of her.
The punt drifted off down the river, and they lay wrapped in each other’s arms. Content to hold him close, Harriet lay quiet, made no move. Slowly, gently, he pushed her skirt back until he could feel the edge of her knickers, grasped them and began to ease them down. She kissed his head, his hair, with soft, sweet kisses. ‘What should I do? Tell me.’
His voice was husky, she could feel his breath on her face as he said, ‘Nothing, nothing...’ and she rested her head against his, so happy she wanted to cry. She had dreamed of this moment, dreamed it so many times she felt she needed to pinch herself to prove that this time it was really happening...
She knew he had undone his trousers, she could feel him now... he pressed her legs apart, and as if he were afraid to look at her, he turned his head away as he gently eased himself into her... At last he kissed her lips, and found them as rounded and soft as her thighs, her breasts, and his kiss hardened as he moved inside her, gripped her tightly, thrusting himself into her until the boat rocked in the water... She moaned, and he looked at her face, in anguish that he had hurt her... but she smiled, her face so filled with love he felt himself wanting to weep.
He was so caring, pulling up her knickers, straightening her skirt, and she did up each fly button on his trousers. They lay close and he promised that he would come back for her, gave his solemn oath that he would be back and give her four sons.
‘I don’t want a girl, Edward, not a girl, they are such pests.’
He laughed and cuddled her, said she was the only girl he wanted, and she was right, four sons would be perfect.
They bumped into an empty, drifting punt and retrieved the pole. Edward poled the boat back towards the bridge, towards the town. ‘Harry, you must never tell anyone what we’ve done today, your father would come after me with a shotgun.’
She wagged her finger at him and said he had better keep his promise then. He helped her jump on to the bank, and as he was tying up the punt, he heard a sports car careering across the bridge.