The Tangling of the Web Read Online Free PDF Page B

vigorously attacking the furniture. Facing the wall, she would then splutter, ‘Don’t you bother yourself about the facts of life. All you need to know is that every man from the age of thirteen dreams night and day about nothing else.’ Treating Josie to a half-turn, she would quickly expand, ‘And missy, now you have been brought up staunch Protestant since you came here last year, it is your solemn Christian duty to make sure their dreams never come true.’
    These warnings she did try to adhere to, but as Roy was showering her with presents of fabulous nylons, chocolate and chewing gum, Josie had a dilemma. What beautiful and precious gift could she bestow on him? As per usual she was hard up, and in addition to that, war-ravaged Britain was putting all her productive efforts into creating ammunitions to annihilate the Germans and very little effort was going into the manufacture of quality gifts for the likes of Roy.
    Slowly she realised that it was a losing battle for her to keep her virginity – or that was what she tried to convince herself once she had made up her mind. As both Roy and she were now so sexually frustrated, what would be wrong with surrendering the most precious of gifts? After all, Roy was her life’s true love and there would never be another man in her life after him.
    However, in her mind there still lingered the nagging warnings that she thought meant that you should never get so infatuated with any man that you would forget to keep yourself pure! But do they? she argued. These warnings, she concluded, were always couched in a language she didn’t fully understand. Ambiguity was always there, so did she need to give them a second thought?

    All her life she would remember Roy and herself climbing up Arthur’s Seat as twilight shrouded them. It was one of those times in the middle of winter that was called a Buchan warm spell, when you were duped into believing spring had come early. Usually a three-day warm spell would arrive at the beginning of December, but here was another one in February. Holding Josie’s hand firmly in his, Roy climbed up from the shore of the loch towards the ruin of St Anthony’s Chapel. Once he was satisfied they were alone and hidden from view, he took off his overcoat and threw it down on the ground. It didn’t seem to matter to them that night in February 1945 that the moon was casting fleeting, ghostly, ominous shadows around the broken walls of the chapel and over them. All that concerned and consumed them was their impatient and ardent love-making.

    Six weeks later they were again up on the historic hill and they made love just as passionately as before but now with added tenderness. Afterwards, he gently stroked her face and whispered, ‘Oh, my little angel, you will have to be brave.’
    She nodded. ‘I know, but I didn’t think you had guessed.’
    Sitting up abruptly, he challenged, ‘But how could you know? It’s top secret that my platoon is being sent off to the front tomorrow.’
    Without warning, Josie began thumping Roy on the chest. ‘No. No,’ she pleaded. ‘I won’t let you go. Oh Roy, you’re needed here. We are to be married.’
    ‘And we will be,’ he reassured her, ‘just as soon as I get back.’
    ‘No! We need to marry before you go tomorrow,’ Josie protested.
    ‘Why? You know I will come back for you.’
    ‘But what will I do if you take too long?’
    Roy looked into her face and he could see the panic in her eyes. ‘Are you saying … ?’
    She nodded as sobs racked her.
    ‘But it’s only six weeks since we started … well, you know, what we’ve …’
    ‘Maybe so,’ shrieked Josie. ‘But I know I’m away with the goalie because I’ve … missed. Three weeks late I am and spewing up every morning.’
    ‘Oh God, what am I going to do? If I don’t turn up tomorrow I could be shot for desertion.’
    ‘And if you don’t do right by me you’ll be kicked to death by my stepfather, Paddy.’
    ‘Look, little