The Most Precious Thing Read Online Free PDF

he looks grand in that dark suit and white shirt. He was so handsome, so perfect, she loved him so much. He had to ask her to be his lass one day, he just had to.
     
    ‘I don’t need to ask what you’ve been up to, do I?’ Alec’s voice held amusement chiefly, but when he added, ‘Mam’s going to have your hide for this, Lil, you know that, don’t you?’ the benign expression on Lillian’s face changed to one of fuddled alarm.
     
    ‘You won’t tell, Alec?’ Lillian managed to pull herself up and stood swaying slightly, one hand held out in supplication to her brother. ‘Please, please, Alec, say you won’t.’
     
    ‘What about all this?’ He gestured towards the stained tablecloth and the gin bottle, his gaze moving over Carrie’s flushed face as he did so. She was still staring at him, and when he read the look in the deep blue eyes he found himself smiling slightly. So that was the way of it, was it? She was sweet on him. He looked harder at the young girl and found he liked what he saw. Some time in the last weeks and months his sister’s little friend had become all grown up. Why hadn’t he noticed that before? She was going to be a beauty if he wasn’t mistaken, with that russet hair and wonderful creamy skin.
     
    ‘I’ll . . . I’ll get out the spare tablecloth an’ put this in to soak. If you say you spilt something on it, Mam won’t go for you, you know she won’t. Please? ’
     
    Lillian stumbled towards her brother, tripped on the rug and would have gone head first into the range but for his hands shooting out and steadying her. She began to cry maudlin tears. Alec shook his head impatiently. ‘All right, all right, cut the blubbering but I shall want payment for this, mind. I’ve a good few socks ready for darning and a couple of shirts minus buttons, and you know what Mam’s like when it comes to mending. Once in a blue moon if we’re lucky.’
     
    ‘I’ll do it tomorrow, I promise,’ Lillian gabbled emphatically. ‘Aw, thanks, man. Thanks, Alec.’
     
    ‘Get yourself to bed before you break your neck.’ He pushed her towards the door. ‘I’ll see to the cloth before I walk Carrie back, all right?’ And then he picked up Lillian’s mug, held it to his nose and sniffed. ‘By, Lil, this is Gran’s brew, isn’t it? You’ve started at the deep end sure enough,’ but his eyes were on Carrie as he spoke and he was smiling.
     
    She smiled back, nodding at Lillian as her friend said a subdued goodnight and disappeared, and then watching Alec as he stripped the cloth off the table and took it through to the scullery. He returned a moment later, fetched a new cloth from the dresser and spread it over the oilcloth. ‘There.’ He grinned down at her and she felt her heart thudding frantically. ‘Good as new.’
     
    She had wanted to say she’d help him but the old shyness was rendering her dumb. Pull yourself together, say something intelligent, she told herself frantically. Show him you’re not a bairn but as good as all those lasses who set their caps at him. ‘I . . . I’m sorry about the cloth. You’ - she was going to say you made me jump but changed it to - ‘startled me,’ thinking it sounded better.
     
    ‘Did I?’ His smile widened, showing white teeth, and she was close enough to see he had a tiny chip on one of the front ones.
     
    Somehow it made him more human, more approachable, and she found herself saying, ‘Thank you for not giving us away to your mam.’
     
    ‘My pleasure.’
     
    Carrie hadn’t moved, mainly because she didn’t trust her legs to hold her. She had picked up the bottle and the two mugs while Alec changed the cloth, and now she proffered them to him. ‘Here. I don’t know what you want to do with the bottle.’
     
    He took it from her and shook it, his eyes tight on her face. ‘Not much left.’ He pulled out the chair next to hers. ‘How about we finish it off before I walk you home?’
     
    Walk her home. Alec Sutton