A Christmas Promise (15 page)

Sally had taken little Alice to nursery before going shopping, and Barney had left for school half an hour ago, giving Olive some rare time to spend on herself. Sitting on the stool at her dressing table, she removed the pins from her hair. Then, starting at the nape of her neck, she began to comb the tight coils into cascading curls about her shoulders and felt a thrill of delight at the lustrous shine the wonderful shampoo had given her hair. She wished she could wear it like this all the time, but she knew that wasn’t practical for her hectic routine. And the style would certainly give Nancy something to crow about if she went out looking like this.

Inhaling the heady floral fragrance as her dark curls fell about her face, Olive thought the style reminded her of the film star Rita Hayworth. She laughed out loud: her imagination was doing a wonderful job of deception because she looked nothing like Rita Hayworth, but the effect of the flowing curls was very feminine. Securing the sides with pins to keep the hair away from her face, Olive created a higher volume at the front by pulling the pins forward to form a slight bouffant and, pursing her lips, she indulged in rare display of vanity. Then, with a sigh, she took out the pins. What looked good on an actress at the pictures was not right for serving tea to bombed-out victims, as part of London’s WVS. So, taking the long tube of dark fabric that she had stuffed with some off-cuts of material, Olive was just about to roll her shoulder-length hair around the ‘stuffed sausage’, to form an elegant but practical chignon around her head, when there was a knock at the front door. Putting down the comb on the dresser, she quickly went to answer the door.

‘Are you talking to yourself, Sergeant?’ Nancy Black asked as she passed Archie like a woman who should have been somewhere else five minutes ago.

‘I’ve got something on my mind,’ Archie, standing on Olive’s step, gave a wry smile, knowing his comment would be an itch that Nancy could not scratch.

‘Anything I can do to help?’ Nancy called in an unusually helpful tone, slowing her pace. However, Archie knew the last person he would discuss his private life with was Nancy Black.

‘Oh, it’s nothing for you to worry about, Nancy. Good day to you.’ Archie nodded, wondering now how long it would be before Nancy was knocking on Olive’s door to enquire if she knew anything that might be ‘bothering’ the local bobby.

However he tried to word it, Archie knew that he had to apologise to Olive. And no matter how cautious or gentle his explanation, he was going to come out of this looking like a right twerp – and so he should! He had never felt as foolish in all his life as he had when Agnes told him about the origins of the pendant. He had been so quick to judge. How could he have been so stupid? He wouldn’t be surprised if Olive never spoke to him ever again.

No matter how tactful his justification to Olive, it would still sound like an accusation of deliberately handling stolen goods. And there lay his dilemma. He tried to ignore it, and in doing so he had avoided facing Olive. The threat to their friendship had been huge. He would have to approach the subject with her sometime – and the worry had almost torn him apart.

Last night he’d agonised, he’d walked the floor, and he could not sleep for thinking about Olive and the wrong that he had done her. He hadn’t even given her the chance to give her part of the story and absolve herself. He needed to see her now and confess his suspicions. He needed to tell her how sorry he was and how much he really loved her … Archie had stopped pacing. There! He had finally admitted it to himself.

He loved Olive with every beat of his heart. He knew it now and, if he was honest, he had known it all along. From the very moment he had set eyes on her all those years ago, he had a regard for her that had unsettled him at times. It wasn’t right to feel that way when you had a wife and a young son to care for. He had spent so many years trying to ignore his feelings that he was afraid to admit them – even to himself – until now.

It had taken a charity shop pendant and six weeks of lost friendship; fleeting ‘hellos’ and stilted, albeit polite, conversation, but only in the presence of others, to make him realise that his life was worthless without Olive in it.

He missed their comfortable conversations at the table when she was getting breakfast ready, and even her gentle rebuke when he tried to give her a hand. He missed her no-nonsense but heartfelt advice, and above all he missed that sparkle in her eyes when she voiced her hopes and dreams of the future, which he had always felt a part of – until Tilly’s birthday.

Archie hadn’t slept a wink last night as his mind turned the problem over and over. But no matter how much he tossed and turned and troubled, he could not find the answer. And, as he knocked on Olive’s front door now, he still couldn’t find it.

Sighing, Olive suspected her caller would be Nancy, trying to wangle an egg for her husband’s breakfast when he got in from his night shift and, seeing as she was in such a good mood, she would give Nancy the other spare egg, knowing she didn’t have the heart to eat it after wasting one last night.

‘Can I come in, Olive?’

‘Oh, hello, Archie,’ Olive said. Her hand flew to her cascading curls and, self-consciously, she tried to smooth them down, wishing she had pinned her hair up immediately. She was surprised to see Archie standing on the step, not only because he usually came around the back way and, after a little knock he would let himself in, but because he hadn’t called in such a long time.

He looked and sounding very sombre indeed, she noticed, and hoped he hadn’t come on official business to give her some bad news. Her thoughts immediately went to Tilly. Stepping back, she allowed Archie to enter the hallway.

‘Is there something wrong, Archie?’ Olive asked, feeling a shiver of apprehension. ‘Is it bad news?’ Maybe he was ill? Olive felt her heart thud against her ribcage. It would be awful if there was anything wrong with Archie after all he had been through. She followed as he led the way into the front room, which had not been used this morning.

‘It’s freezing in here, shall we go into the kitchen?’ Olive asked. ‘The oven has been on and …’ She paused and could see by his grim expression that it didn’t matter if it was hot or cold, and she could feel her mouth dry. She feared Archie had something very grave to tell her and even though the atmosphere between them was strained – and had been since Tilly’s twenty-first birthday – if she wasn’t mistaken, Olive didn’t think she was going to like what she was about to hear.

At first, she had put their rift down to the pressure of work on both sides, and as the air raids had increased slightly of late she knew it couldn’t be easy for Archie to find time to sit and relax, having spent alternating night going between his police duties and fire-watching.

‘No, this won’t take long, Olive.’ Archie’s usually handsome face was ashen now. ‘I’ll say what I’ve come to say and then I’ll leave you in peace to think about the wrong I have done you.’

Olive’s brows furrowed and she looked at Archie; really looked at him. He looked as if he was wiped out and she felt guilty for asking him to take Agnes to the farm, although he had volunteered, saying he had to deliver files to a place not far from the farm. He worked so hard.

She worried he might be overdoing the duties he had to perform daily and then realised that many women weren’t as lucky as she was and hadn’t seen their men for years.
Their men
. Olive felt the heat creep to her cheeks at such an audacious thought and brought her thoughts back to a more grounded level. Archie wasn’t a shirker, she knew, he was a man of honour and integrity. He was an upstanding member of the community, who—

‘Olive, I have done you the most terrible injustice,’ Archie said, staring out of the window, his back to her now, ‘and I want to put it right.’ He didn’t turn around as he continued, ‘I made a mistake – but that is no excuse, I know.’ Now he did turn towards her and he said quietly, ‘I should have come to you directly and talked about it instead of letting it fester and come between us.’ He was examining the palm of his hand now, as if expecting to find something extraordinary. ‘I tried to push the suspicion to the back of my mind – but it wouldn’t go away … it was totally out of character, for you and for me.’

Olive could feel the tension building in the room and if she had a knife to hand she was sure she could have cut the atmosphere with it. She and Archie had never said a wrong word to each other – ever! They hadn’t even disagreed. And even though they hadn’t spoken much for the last weeks she knew that if she was ever in trouble or needed help he would be the first person to come to her aid. Wouldn’t he?

‘I don’t know what you mean, Archie.’ She took a step towards him but he put up his hand to stop her, and she felt a freezing shiver run down her spine. ‘Archie, has something happened?’

‘Sit down, Olive, there is something I have to say to you and I would prefer it if you were sitting down.’ That way, if she wanted to throw something at him, he would have time to get to the door! But this was no matter for frivolity, he thought solemnly.

Slowly, Olive sat on the sofa, not taking her eyes from Archie, who was now leaning on the mantelpiece and staring into the empty, cheerless fireplace.

‘If you don’t tell me soon I will burst with curiosity.’ Olive made an attempt at humour to dissipate the dense atmosphere. She couldn’t bear it for much longer. Why didn’t he just say what he had to say and get it over with? If she had done something wrong, she wanted to know about it now!

‘If you thought someone you regarded as your best friend had done something behind your back,’ Archie said, remembering he had made enquiries about Olive to see where she originally came from, then discovered she had been orphaned at sixteen, married at eighteen and widowed before she was twenty-one, ‘in their own best interests, of course, to help them …’ He stopped for a moment, to gather his thoughts, and then he went on, ‘What if the thing they did was something you never thought they were capable of … What would you do?’

‘I would be so upset, Archie.’ She realised he must have heard about her meeting a man in a hotel last year. Maybe she should explain that she was doing it for Tilly. But even to her own ears it would sound wrong. Meeting a rich man in a hotel. Having afternoon drinks – not that she had drank anything alcoholic but she could see how it would be misconstrued – Archie wouldn’t be happy about her deception, no matter what the reason … especially about the reason!

Even Sally, who had respected Olive’s wishes and kept silent, thought she had made a big mistake and had treated her daughter like a child, when Tilly was clearly a grown woman quite able to make her own decisions without the interference of her mother and the father of her former sweetheart! She understood Archie’s annoyance completely; he always did take Tilly’s side, although not usually against her own meddlesome mother. ‘I would try to understand their reason for doing such a thing, though, Archie. Nobody does something out of character without a really good reason.’ And her good reason was that she didn’t want her daughter hurt, or widowed at an early age like she was.

‘Of course you would understand, Olive.’ Archie’s eyes widened as he looked at her. ‘You would understand because that is the type of woman you are – you give people the benefit of the doubt, you don’t judge, you hold your own council until you have all the facts! You are the most understanding woman I have ever met.’

‘I don’t know about that, Archie.’ Olive felt like a fraud now. He believed she was above any wrongdoing. ‘I was just trying to do the right thing, Archie,’ Olive tried to explain, but it seemed he hadn’t understood a word.

‘I know, Olive, you always do the right thing. You are the most honest person I know!’

‘I’m not a saint, Archie—’ but Olive’s words of protest were cut short when he shocked her to the core by sitting down beside her, taking her in his arms and holding her close.

Olive felt the roughness of his jacket against her cheek. It felt safe and comforting, and she knew he had forgiven her; if ever she needed him, Archie would be there for her. Inhaling the fresh, clean smell of his newly washed shirt, Olive wondered if Archie could feel the guilty hammering of her heart against his chest, as his closeness awakened something she hadn’t felt for years and years. Surely at almost forty years of age she was too long in the tooth to be having fanciful notions now.

‘My God,’ Archie groaned as he buried his face in her neck, ‘you are the most beautiful woman …’

‘Oh, Archie,’ Olive gasped, hardly able to breathe now as her heart swelled with emotion. She knew that the nearness of this wonderful man, the kindest person she had ever met, was an intoxicating sensation. She embraced him as she might cling to an oak tree in a lashing gale. If she let him go now she was lost. This is all she ever wanted, all she ever dreamed about.

They had danced around each other for a long time; he had been getting over his wife’s death and Olive had been too worried what the neighbours were thinking. But all that was behind them now, she thought, as he pulled her closer. His hands, so gentle yet so strong, edged her further back, gently eased her onto the sofa, and all the time his eyes, liquid with desire, were drowning in hers. Neither of them could pull their gaze from the other.

‘Oh, Olive, I have missed you so much,’ Archie groaned as his confident hands produced a low moan from Olive.

She didn’t care that it was not yet nine thirty in the morning, she didn’t care that Nancy Black might knock at any moment, she didn’t care that the fire wasn’t lit as her fevered flesh craved his touch. She wanted – no, needed – to feel his skin on hers.

Archie could feel his self-control weaken as other parts of his body strengthened and grew. He had needed Olive so much for so long now that he couldn’t recall a day when he hadn’t loved her. No matter how much he tried, he could not diminish the wild beating of his heart. Gently easing her back against the cushions, he lowered his head and her lips eagerly accepted his ardent kisses. Immediately, they were both lost in a turbulent frenzy of swirling passion.