‘My mother, I couldn’t leave her.’
‘Could someone sit with her, just for the one evening?’
Maria’s mind was racing. Maybe if she got her mother to bed, Dora or Bella could sit in the house until she came back. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I’ll get word to you if I can work something out.’
A little later she said to Bella, ‘D’you think me awful?’
‘No. Why on earth should I?’
‘You know, going out enjoying myself with Mammy how she is, and as for Daddy…‘
Bella liked young Greg Hopkins, had always liked him, and far better than Barney McPhearson for all the great turnout Maria said he’d made of himself.
‘What difference will it make to either of your parents whether you go out or stay in?’
‘It’s just that I feel guilty.’
‘You think things will improve for your mammy if you are miserable?’
Maria smiled. ‘Of course not.’
‘Well then,’ Bella said. ‘You go with an easy conscience and remember Greg will only have a few days before he is back in the battlefields. I’ll be there if your mammy should need anything.’
Maria had never enjoyed herself so much. The film was wonderful, and when she cried, Greg’s arm had gone around her gently in comfort, as he passed her his snow-white hanky. She’d leant against him and sighed. How good it would be, she thought, to have someone special just for herself, someone to lighten the load a little.
Greg’s heart was singing as the two alighted from the bus in The Square. He’d held Maria’s hand in the cinema at first and she took it again as they walked home, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. At the door, Greg kissed her tenderly on the lips.
‘Will you see me tomorrow?’
‘Oh, I don’t know.’
‘Please. We can take a walk out if the weather is kind to us.’
Maria looked into Greg’s clear, brown eyes and knew that she wanted to see him again and yet still she said, ‘No, not in the daytime. Bella and Dora are kind enough to mind Mammy in the evening so that we can have time together. I will not take advantage of that kindness, and before we do anything else tomorrow, I must see my father.’
Greg didn’t argue further, both because he knew Maria had a point and because she had a way of talking, a certain tone that would brook no argument. But the next evening he turned up in his father’s rattly old tip-up truck he’d had the loan of and so they travelled to Derry in style and Maria took Greg’s hand as they went into the hospital.
Sam liked Greg. He knew too how Sarah had felt about him, the hopes she’d had for him and Maria. Greg sat beside him and told Sam about the lighter side of army life and the high jinks they got up to, and Sam laughed till the tears ran down his weathered cheeks. Then he discussed the true war situation with Greg and found his regard for the man growing.
Sam knew he’d be no help to Maria the way he was, and he saw plainly the way Greg thought about the girl. It was portrayed in his eyes. Of course, Maria was young yet, but so much had happened to her in her brief life that her youth mattered less than getting support for her. Greg Hopkins came from a decent respectable family, whom, he knew, would rally round Maria, particularly if she was the one he wanted. Pity the lad had enlisted really.
And as they left the hospital that night, Greg too wished he’d never left Moville and then he’d be around to help Maria, but nothing could be done about that now. They just had to make the most of the time they had.
‘Care for a drink before we go back?’ he asked.
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Maria said. ‘I’ve never been in a public house in my life.’
‘That’s because you’ve been born and bred in Moville,’ Greg said. ‘In other parts of the country, the cities in particular, it is a respectable enough place for women to go to.’ Maria still looked doubtful and Greg tucked her arm in his. ‘Trust your Uncle Greg in this,’ he said, and Maria laughed as he ushered her through the door.
Mindful of Maria’s age, Greg brought her just an orange and for himself a Guinness. As they sat at a small table Maria glanced around self-consciously and saw that there were other girls and women in the pub. She began to relax.
Greg hadn’t wanted to press Maria yet, but when she had excused herself for a few minutes at the hospital, Sam had asked him bluntly how he felt about his daughter. When he admitted he loved her to distraction, Sam had advised him to tell her.
‘I know that Maria is barely out of childhood,’ he said. ‘Had things been different, then I would not be advocating this at all, but in the situation she finds herself, her needs have changed. It would ease my mind if you and your family were there for her if she needed you.’
Greg had quite understood Sam’s reasoning, but he guessed Maria didn’t know how he felt about her. How would she know? He saw that she was indeed surprised when he suddenly said, ‘This is a conversation I didn’t intend to have yet, Maria—not for a few years, when you were older.’
Maria was intrigued. ‘What are you talking about, Greg?’
‘Can’t you guess?’ Greg reached across the table and caught up her hand. ‘I love you, Maria, and have done for years. I didn’t speak of it because you were set for a glittering future in Dublin.’
‘Would you have just let me go then?’
‘No,’ Greg said. ‘You’d already given me the name and address of the hostel where you would be staying in one of your letters. I intended going to see you a time or two, when I had leave, so that we had a chance to get to know each other. That can never be now, so I will ask you today. Maria, will you be my girl?’
Maria was taken aback and she stared at Greg open-mouthed for a minute or two.
‘Are you shocked?’ Greg asked. ‘Repulsed?’
‘Shocked, yes,’ Maria admitted. ‘But never repulsed. It’s just I’ve never thought of you that way, Greg.’
‘Could you?’
Maria regarded the man before her, his wide-open face, with eyes now full of trepidation, and a generous mouth. She imagined what it would be like to kiss those lips properly, to be held lovingly in Greg’s arms, and at these thoughts a delicious shiver ran all through her. Greg felt it through the fingers he held and still he waited. ‘I think I could, Greg,’ Maria said at last. ‘Yes, I really think I could.’
Greg leant across the table and gave Maria a gentle kiss on the lips. ‘You’ve made me the happiest man in the world at this minute, and on my next leave maybe we can get engaged?’
‘Aye,’ said Maria. It wasn’t how she’d imagined her future, but then none of it was how she’d imagined.
‘I love you so much, Maria,’ Greg said. ‘There aren’t enough words to tell you.’
Oh, how wonderful it felt, Maria thought, to be loved like that. She laid one of her hands on Greg’s arm and the heat of desire for this beautiful girl filled his body. He knew, however, she’d be pure and innocent so any courtship would have to proceed slowly. He’d had a few dalliances with women since he joined the army; most girls seemed to like men in uniform. None of them had meant anything, including the clingy Nancy Dempsey, who tried to stick to him like a limpet, even after he told her it was over.
Well, there was to be no more of that, he told himself. He would be true now to Maria.
As he left Maria at the door that night, Greg kissed her chastely and tentatively, then, as she responded to him, more passionately. Maria felt as if she was drowning in pleasure. The yearning urges in her body she didn’t fully