THE WAR BRIDE CLUB (16 page)

      The doorknob rattled. “Madeline, open up right now!”

      
Speak of the devil.
 

      She rose and pulled the chair away. Roy burst through. He ran one hand wildly through his hair, the other hanging limp at his side as if he didn’t know what to do with it.
 

      “
Mother
had to run and tell on me, did she?”

      She sat back on the bed. His face showed every inch of his anger.
 

      “I had to come up from the field, Madeline. You better have a good reason for disobeying…”

      “Disobeying? For goodness sake, Roy, she’s supposed to be my mother-in-law, not my master!”

      He glared at her. “All she asks of you is a few chores.”

      Madeline laughed. Out loud. If she didn’t laugh she would have started balling her eyes out, and showing Roy she was anything but strong wasn’t going to help her cause.
 

      “I work
hours
every day, Roy.
Hours
. That’s hardly helping out around the house.”

      “While you’re a guest in this house…”

      She stood, eye to eye with him. Far braver than she felt. Braver than she’d ever known she could be.
 

      “I am
not
a guest, Roy. You married me and brought me here. I should not have to feel grateful, it should be my right. Isn’t a husband expected to provide a home for his wife?”

      His throat pulsed with anger. She could even see a tick in his eye, face burning red.
 

      “So when
are
we going to move to our own place? Because I’m sure as heck not going to put up with this any longer.”

      “Or what?” he spat.

      “Or I shame your entire family by filing for divorce and going home,” she told him.
 

      “You wouldn’t.”

      She didn’t miss the hesitation in his voice. The way his throat stuttered.
 

      “One message home and I’m on the next ship out of here.”

      They stared at one another. Madeline knew she only had another few minutes before she couldn’t pretend any longer. But she was determined to stay strong for as long as she could.
 

      “I would have to take a job in town if we left here. You don’t expect me to just leave my parents, do you? Who would help them here?”

      She glared at him.
 

      “One month, Roy. Otherwise I’m gone.”

Madeline lay in bed. Still. Too frightened to move.
 

      Tonight, she’d walked into the kitchen, her back straight, and reached into the fridge. She’d taken a block of cheese, plunged a knife into it to retrieve a few slices, before returning it and helping herself to a slice of bread. Then she’d turned on her heel and retreated to her bedroom.
 

      They’d all been watching her. Their eyes had been like the devil on her skin, following her every move. But no one spoke. They rarely ever did at the dinner table.
 

      It was so unlike her own home that it made Madeline feel sick. She could imagine her family now, Harrold laughing and entertaining his daughters, her mother trying to purse her lips and swat at him, but giving in to his jokes in the end. His grandchildren would be huddled around him as he told them a story, in the lounge beside the fire. Crowded on the floor as he rocked in his chair.
 

      Madeline let the door fall away from her fingers with a bang, and she sat down to eat her cheese and bread. They would have made a mental note of what she’d taken, to write on the chit they kept, to record how much it was costing them to keep the newly married couple.
 

      But she knew better. She’d never taken what wasn’t hers. And the work she did here every day accounted for a whole lot more than the food and board they gave her in exchange.
 

      
But she had a plan
. Tomorrow, she was going to start walking into town. Someone passing would give her a ride. The other farmers seemed kind enough. Not fond of Roy’s parents, but no different than the farmers her father had dealt with at his butcher shop. They were no doubt nice people who would be hard pressed to drive past a young woman and not offer her a seat in their car or cart.
 

      Madeline swallowed her final mouthful as Roy swung open the door.
 

      “This is ridiculous,” he bellowed.
 

      She smiled sweetly at him. “You’re right. This hell hole
is
ridiculous.”

      The words didn’t come easily to her, but she forced them.
 

      “Madeline, you are being unreasonable.”

      She liked that he was so agitated. Part of her hated him. Had come to loathe him already. In four weeks, she’d started to despise him. For lying to her about his home, for allowing his family to treat her as they did.
For everything.
 

      But most of all for deceiving her, for telling her he loved her, and bringing her here.
 

      “I’ll have a word with them. Ask them to go a bit easier on you.”

      She watched his face – at the premature lines that had embedded themselves in his forehead, at the dark tinge around his eyes.
 

      A flicker ignited within her, but she stomped it out.
 

      She couldn’t feel sorry for him, but she almost did. The brave man she’d met in London had disappeared, sucked back under the thumb of his mother. No longer important.

      But she sensed his vulnerability. Could tell that, unlike back in England, she needed to stand up for herself, assert her rights.
 

      Roy sat on the bed beside her, his head dropped into his hands.
 

      “We can’t afford to move out,” he told her.
 

      She nodded. Touched her fingers to his hand.
 

      “I’m going to get a job.”

      His head lifted. “You’re what?”

      “A job. I’m more than capable.”

      “They won’t let you. Don’t be ridiculous!”

      “Who, Roy. Who won’t let me?” She knew exactly who he meant, but she needed him to say it.
 

      “It would shame my family. Everyone in town would think we couldn’t make enough money from the land to feed one more mouth.”

      She smiled. “More so than if I left you?”

      His face was tortured.
 

      “I’m going to get a job, and so are you. Or they can pay you what you’re worth. Either way, we
will
find a house of our own.’

      Roy stood up and left the room. She didn’t call him back.
 

      Slowly she undressed, stepping into her nightgown, and lay beneath the covers. Tears stung her eyes and fled her lashes as if they fell from a waterfall. She hiccupped softly, swallowing what she could, not wanting to be heard.
 

      A footstep sounded nearby. Madeline turned her head and cried silently into her pillow.
 

      She was going to look for a job, but what she hadn’t told Roy was that she wouldn’t be able to hold anything for long.
 

      If her suspicions were correct, she was pregnant already.

      She touched her belly and the tears began to fall harder.
 

      All her life she’d wanted to be a mother. Now she was stuck over here, as good as alone, and suddenly a mother was the last thing in the world she wanted to be.

      
She wanted to go home
.
 

      When Roy came to her tonight, slipped beneath the sheets in their bed, she intended on refusing him. Every night until they moved out, she would refuse him the one thing he wanted from her.
 

      He was going to be like an angry bear with a stuck thorn, but she didn’t care.
 

      It was either her rules or a ship back to London. The decision was his.
 

      Home was like a mirage, disappearing into the distance of her memories. It called her, pulled her like a magnetic current, but it was slipping from her grasp. Fast. And that scared her more than anything.
 

CHAPTER ELEVEN

JUNE couldn’t believe it. Every time she looked around, every time she stepped foot inside a room, she couldn’t believe it was hers.
Theirs
. Built with her husband’s own hands, with the land gifted to them by his family.
 

      A knock echoed at the door.
 

      June fiddled one last time with the stem of a flower, pushing it further into the bunch, then wiped her hands on her apron.

      “Come in!”

      She loved the sound of her voice ringing out clear down the hallway. Her family home had been modest. Lovely, but not large. This house was big enough to accommodate an entire brood of children.
 

      “June, what are you doing?”

      Patricia appeared.
 

      “Just fiddling with things,” she said.
 

      Her new sister laughed and waved her hand at the window. “Haven’t you noticed what a nice day it is?”

      Of course she had. “I just want to get the house right. Nice for Eddie.”

      That elicited an even louder laugh. “He built the darn house, and he’s got you in it, so come on. You could have it looking like a dump and he’d still smile when he arrived home.”

      June blushed. She couldn’t help it. Eddie was like her own personal ray of sunshine. Every time he looked at her, touched her, laughed with her, it made her feel alive.
Happy
. So incredibly happy.
 

      “So do you want to come?”

      “Where?” she asked.

      Patricia followed her into the kitchen.
 

      “No time for a
cuppa
, ‘luv” Patricia said in her best British impersonation. ”Mother’s taking us both into town for lunch.”

      June laughed. She was so lucky to have a nice sister-in-law, not to mention a mother-in-law who was determined to march her about in an attempt to show her off. “What’s the occasion? Have I missed a birthday? Eddie never mentioned anything this morning…”

      “We don’t need an occasion, silly.” Patricia laughed, pulling the kettle from her hand and marching her back down the hall and toward the stairs. “We just want to show you around. Make sure everyone in town knows who you are.”

      June felt her face flush. “Me? Oh, I don’t know. Really, I think I’d…”

      Patricia gave her a firm push on the rear end.
 

      “Put something nice on. You’ve got fifteen minutes.”

      “Fifteen, but…”

      “Get a wriggle on, girl.”

      She took one look at Patricia, hands on her hips, and went up the stairs. Maybe it would be nice to go out, to have a look around and be pampered by her new family. But she didn’t like to be made a fuss of, certainly not the center of attention.
 

      Although it would mean she could post her letters and try to find the other girls.
 

      And maybe they could drop in and see Eddie at work.
 

      That made her move. Any excuse to see her husband.
 

The sun beat down on June’s skin and made her smile all over again. It was hard not to. She’d worried about not fitting in here, of being so homesick that she’d be miserable, but it couldn’t have been further from the truth.
 

      Patricia had her arm slung firmly in hers as they sauntered down the street. June was glad she’d come. Being out in town for the day was nicer than she’d expected.
 

      “So where are we going for lunch?” she asked.
 

      “Mother wants to take you to The Ridges,” Patricia told her.
 

      Sounded fancy.
Far too fancy for her.
 

      “Aren’t we meeting Eddie?” she asked.
 

      Patricia swatted at her. “Don’t you get sick of seeing him all the time? I mean really, he’s nice and all, but you don’t have to pretend you’re
that
crazy about him.”

      June stopped dead. They thought she was pretending?
 

      Her sister-in-law must have seen the look on her face.
 

      “Kidding, June. Kidding.” Patricia held her hands up like a criminal who’d just surrendered. “Geez, you Brits take things so seriously.”