The Way Ahead Read Online Free PDF

to insist.
    ‘Where are we?’ echoed Tim, Commando officer with a number of barbaric raids to his credit (or discredit from the point of view of those on the receiving end). ‘Well, Pussy Willow—’
    ‘Objection,’ said Felicity.
    ‘Well, Puss,’ said Tim, ‘we’re still on a road, but I’ve no idea where it’s taking us. There aren’t any signposts, and I’m only an occasional visitor to Dorset.’
    ‘What a case,’ said Felicity. ‘I’m married to a chump who doesn’t know where we are.’ Dark glasses, as ever, covered her scarred eyes, but her complexion was healthy, her body vibrant, her spirits buoyant. As Tim’s wife, she always thought of him as the man who had dived into her slough of despond, pulled her out and convinced her that her blinded eyes didn’t mean a life of no hope and no fun. ‘Listen, useless, you at least know the way back to the cottage, don’t you?’
    ‘Believe, Mrs Adams, I’ll make as good a guess as I can,’ said Tim.
    ‘I’ve heard that good guesses can be bad news for a girl,’ said Felicity. ‘On a par with running out of petrol on a lonely road.’
    ‘Don’t worry, Dobbin will get us back,’ said Tim, enjoying the slow wandering around lanes where hedgerows were bursting with growth. ‘As soon as I turn him round, he’ll make straight for home.’
    ‘He’s called Humpy, not Dobbin,’ said Felicity. ‘By the way, I want to ask you something, but first tell me what you think of Giles and Emily.’
    ‘Love ’em both,’ said Tim, ‘and not just because they’re Rosie’s.’
    ‘I’m besotted with Giles,’ said Felicity, ‘and I daresay I will be with Emily too when she’s older.’ On a slightly flippant note, she added, ‘Even if I’ve never seen either of them.’
    ‘Point taken,’ said Tim, and lightly patted her knee. ‘Rosie says you’re a marvel with Giles.’
    ‘Oh, we toddle up to the chickens together, and feed them together,’ said Felicity. ‘Giles looks, I listen, he sees them pecking and I hear them clucking.’
    ‘That’s fair,’ said Tim, and glanced at her. In profile, her good looks were clearly defined, her expression containing nothing of self-pity. He wondered if any other person could have fought blindness as well as she had. Her jolly, breezy self had taken a terrible hiding, but had refused to be broken. ‘What’s on your mind, Puss, what was it you wanted to ask me?’
    ‘Oh, I’d just like to know if you think I could cope with children of our own,’ she said matter-of-factly.
    ‘Come again?’ said Tim, sitting up.
    ‘I’d like to hear you say I could and then do something about it,’ she said, placing her hand on his left thigh and applying a caress.
    ‘Message received and understood,’ said Tim. ‘Let me think.’ He reflected. As a lively young ATS subaltern, Felicity had seemed just one step up from a jolly-hockey-sticks type, the kind who ended up as a games mistress at a girls’ school. Bugger that, he’d thought at the time, am I going to let her spend her life running about with a whistle on a playing field? Not if I can help it, and not while I’m sure she can do me the world of good as my legal bedmate. Well, that had come to pass, but children when she was as blind as a bat? ‘Felicity, you’re serious, you want children, and you want them now?’ he said.
    ‘Allowing for the fact I can’t have them tomorrow,’ said Felicity, ‘yes, I’d like us to start a family, and to begin now, while you’re here on leave.’
    ‘I did think that if we decided to have children, we’d wait until after the war,’ he said cautiously. They had always practised birth control.
    ‘I know, but must we wait?’ asked Felicity. ‘Need we, if you think I could cope? I’d have Rosie’s help.’
    ‘If you’re sure of your feelings, I’d bet on you being able to manage,’ said Tim. ‘As long as you did have Rosie’s help.’
    ‘I will have,’ said Felicity. ‘And you know now Matt’s