Life Class Read Online Free PDF Page A

that at the time – and he got a job in the ironworks. Labourer, but he was making good money. And then I lost the baby. The horrible thing is I was quite relieved.’
    ‘Because you knew it was a mistake? The marriage?’
    ‘Yes, I knew. Soon as he come out of the army. He was like a bloody sergeant major. Least little thing, his shirts weren’t ironed right, I used to get belted.’
    ‘You could have left him.’
    ‘You get cowed, you can’t do anything. Always being told what an ugly, useless slut you are. And then I fell pregnant again and he totally changed. He even stopped drinking. Only I lost that one too, and he got it into his head I’d done summat to get rid of it. Me auntie used to help women out, you know, and I think he thought she’d told me what to do. I told him I never did anything, but he didn’t believe me and that’s when it got really bad. I ended up in casualty twice. The second time me auntie says, “Don’t be such a bloody fool, our Teresa, he’s gunna kill you.” So I ran away again, this time to London. She lent me the money for the fare – every little bit she had put by, it cleaned her out – but it didn’t last five minutes here. I hadn’t anybody I could turn to. Then I got onwith this artist and he says why don’t you try modelling? The lasses at home, you know, they’d laugh their heads off, me being a model. I used to get called Chinkyeyes and Flatface at school.’
    ‘But he followed you?’
    ‘Yes, I don’t know how he found me but he did. He needs me. Always did, that was the problem. You know, he’d be effing and blinding one minute and the next he’d be sat on the floor with his head in me lap.’
    ‘My heart bleeds.’
    ‘That’s what me auntie said.’
    ‘And now he’s back?’
    ‘Yes, but he’ll drift off again.’ She nodded towards the far end of the room. ‘I think the waiters are wanting to be off.’
    Paul looked over his shoulder, realized they were indeed the only two people left in the restaurant, and raised his hand for the bill.
    Pushing open the door of the restaurant, he was surprised to see the world going on as usual. ‘Shall I get a cab?’
    ‘No, let’s walk, shall we? It’s not raining.’
    That was a relief. He had just about enough money left to pay for a cab, but it would have been a worry.
    She took his arm and they set off. It was exciting just to be walking down a street with her, to match his strides to hers, to feel her hand nestling in the crook of his elbow. He asked who she was modelling for at the moment.
    ‘Saracen. I’m supposed to sit for him tomorrow, but I don’t know if I can.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Jack. He might follow me.’
    ‘Won’t he just get fed up and go away? You say he drifts off again after a while.’
    ‘Yes, but there’s generally a pretty big explosion first, and I can’t afford to lose work.’
    ‘Has he hit you? I mean, since you left him?’
    She lifted her face to his and he saw the light of the street lampsin her eyes. ‘Yes. Once. I’d been out and he was waiting for me when I got back.’
    If Paul had been settled in life, if he’d even been successful as a student, she couldn’t have moved him as deeply as she did at that moment, but he had nothing to dilute this, no busy humming core of purposeful activity to protect him. He was mesmerized by her. That flat northern accent, so familiar to him, coming out of that scandalous painted mouth. But it wasn’t just her looks. In spite of her bitterness, her evident cynicism about men and their motives, he sensed a capacity for passion in her greater than anything he’d so far experienced.
    The swish of her skirt both soothed and disturbed him. He hardly knew what they talked about. As the streets became greyer and meaner and the air began to smell of smoke and oil, she fell silent, looking down at her feet swishing in and out under the hem of her skirt. He touched her arm to get her attention. ‘Whereabouts do you live?’
    ‘Just