Together in Another Place Read Online Free PDF Page A

world.
    ‘I
didn’t want you getting into trouble over it!’ she now said in a fearful voice
as the full meaning of what Simon had told her became clear. In two days he
would be gone and they would be lost to each other, unable to communicate. She
pulled on his arm and then clutched it fiercely and possessively. ‘Come, we
must catch up. Mother and Pa will be wondering…’
    ‘That
we want to be alone together.’ He gave her a soft teasing smile.
    ‘Yes,
there’s that,’ she couldn’t keep from smiling either.
    ‘Now,
don’t be rough with my present…’
    ‘As
you command…’
    ‘No,
as I ask of you…beg of you if you want.’
    ‘I
certainly don’t want that of you…to beg! Now…as you can see, it’s not damaged.’
    She
made a point of showing him the necklace and the pendant with its piece of
quartz still perfectly intact.
    Harriette
broke free of his gentle hold upon her and walked away.
    ‘Wait!
Wait…lievert!’ He saw her hunch her shoulders as if in acknowledgement of the
endearment he had spoken out and she stopped. ‘Don’t be cross with me…’
    ‘I’m
not that! I’m frightened for you! There’s a difference!’
    ‘I
know…’ he said softly, chastened by her rebuke. ‘I wouldn’t have missed that
moment with you the other night for anything in the world. It meant everything
to me…everything.’
    ‘Not
enough that you got yourself into trouble over it. You’ll be leaving me, here.’
    Her
voice trembled as she said it and now Harriette flung her arms about his neck
and embraced him, unashamedly.
    ‘See
how it is for me, now?’ she kissed.
    ‘’Lievert…’
    ‘What
am I to do?’
    ‘Keep
what I made, for only you, safe. Keep it close to your skin…my hands made
it…they’re the only touch…’
    ‘I
will still have of you…when you are gone.’
    She
said it between kisses, oblivious to the scene she was making. After a moment
Simon eased from her embrace and held Harriette’s hands possessively as they
stood facing each other.
    ‘I…I
spoke out of turn,’ he confessed now. ‘I was happy…so happy to have given the
necklace to you and to see you wear it…that you wanted it. I forgot who I was
dealing with when the German stopped me. I stood up for myself against the
people that run this place. I resisted, when I should have conceded…’
    ‘No,
Simon, never do that! Don’t change,’ she asserted. ‘Be the man I see…the man
I’m learning about and beginning to love.’
    Harriette
saw once again the cheeky grin crease his face; she saw Simon doff his cap to
her before he gave an elaborate bow.
    ‘Madam
has her ways…her lovely ways of singing and dancing. I loved you from the
moment I first saw you…’
    His
elaborate avowal of how it had been for him was interrupted.
    ‘What’s
keeping you?’ Ma called out.
    ‘Isn’t
it obvious?’ Simon said under his breath. The way he’d said it made Harriette
laugh. ‘Do that again, on the stage. It changes everything…whenever I hear it.’
    ‘I’ll
keep it just for you…’
    ‘Every
day…every minute…’
    ‘Yes…yes,’
she whispered and sought to hold his hand once more. ‘I don’t know how…but
we’ve found each other.’
    ‘We’re
in another place….’
    ‘Yes.’
She stopped them walking on to close the space between them and her parents. ‘I
have something to tell you…call it my confession. I…I haven’t been asked to
sing again. While you were at your work…I went to the camp theatre. I was told
that there’s no news on the next concert…that should concern me.’
    ‘I’m…I’m
sorry for you,’ he says and there is a sense that it is true. ‘We may leave together…live
on in some other way…’
    Harriette
heard a deeply felt wish being expressed and knew that she clung to that hope
too.
    ‘It
may turn out to be that way…’
    ‘And…you
won’t be alone…’
    ‘No,’
she looked at him fondly and soon realised the contrast in their circumstances.
    ‘I
hope