Such Sweet Sorrow Read Free Page B

going to be out there all night?’
    ‘No, Papa.’
    ‘Time you were in bed, girl.’
    ‘Evening, Mr Ronconi,’ William called out.
    A loud sniff was followed by the door slamming.
    ‘We’ll talk tomorrow.’ Tina kissed him one last time before turning and feeling her way up the steps.
    ‘I do love you, I really do,’ he repeated despondently as she closed the door softly behind her.
    ‘How come Angelo signed up for the Guards with you and Will?’ Diana Powell asked Tony Ronconi as he checked the locks on the back door of the café. ‘I thought they were advertising for men between the ages of twenty and thirty-five?’
    ‘They are, but they decided to make an exception in Angelo’s case.’
    ‘Exception! He’s only seventeen. He lied about his age, didn’t he?’
    ‘Lie is a strong word.’
    ‘Does your father know?’
    ‘No, but he will when I get home.’
    ‘And if he won’t let Angelo go?’
    ‘Papa’s no fool. He knows Angelo will have to go some time, and better he goes with me and Will to look after him than later by himself.’
    ‘I’m not sure you two can look after yourselves, let alone Angelo.’
    ‘We’ll be fine.’ He walked behind the counter and opened the door that led to the kitchen. ‘I’ve locked the back door, Angelo. I’ll lock the front on my way out.’
    ‘Your turn to sleep here tomorrow,’ Angelo shouted above the clatter of pans.
    ‘As if I could forget it. Just make sure you’re up by five to serve the early-shift tram crews.’
    ‘Have I missed yet?’
    ‘There’s always a first time.’ Tony followed Diana behind the curtain he’d hung in front of the door to comply with blackout regulations. ‘Don’t open the door for a moment,’ he ordered, tussling with the folds of cloth in an attempt to reach her.
    ‘I have to get home, work tomorrow.’ She slipped through his restraining arms and darted out into the rain.
    He closed the door behind him, turning the key in the lock before posting it back through the letterbox. His pulse was pounding, and his hands were damp from more than the rain. Although he would have walked barefoot over hot coals rather than admit it to his brother, or William, or Glan Richards, who assumed from the stories he’d spun of his exploits with women that he was far more experienced than he actually was, he was terrified at the thought of going to war and getting killed without ever having known what it was to sleep with a woman. And as he’d been ‘courting’ William’s sister, Diana, since the summer, she was the obvious choice. Even if she exacted marriage as her price for bestowing the privilege.
    The more he considered the idea of marriage, the more attractive it became. Diana was uncommonly, head-turningly pretty, in a brown, curly-haired, dark-eyed way that wasn’t unlike the Italian ideal of beauty. She had a sweet nature and, unlike his sisters, an even temperament. He could quite happily spend the rest of his life with her, especially if it meant being able to sleep with her before he went away.
    ‘You wouldn’t be able to run away from me if we were married,’ he blurted out suddenly, as he caught up with her under the railway bridge that marked the beginning of the Graig hill.
    ‘Married!’
    ‘Why not?’ he broke in quickly. ‘We’ve being going out for a while.’ He put his arm around her waist. ‘I’d like to stake a claim in case some other man decides to snap you up while I’m away.’
    ‘I haven’t even thought about it. I don’t know what to say.’
    ‘Try yes. We can get a ring, apply for a special licence, and marry before I go, or we could get engaged now and married when I get embarkation leave. The recruiting officer promised us that we’d have a break after our six weeks’ training.’
    ‘Do you want to marry me, or do you just want a wife before you go away?’ she asked perceptively. It was the most tactful, if obtuse way she could think of phrasing a difficult