Domestic fiction; Family -- England -- Midlands -- Fiction; Midlands (England) -- Fiction
Trembling with keen triumph, his heart was white as a star as he drove
his kisses nearer.
“My love!” she called, in a low voice, from afar. The low sound seemed
to call to him from far off, under the moon, to him who was unaware. He
stopped, quivered, and listened.
“My love,” came again the low, plaintive call, like a bird unseen in
the night.
He was afraid. His heart quivered and broke. He was stopped.
“Anna,” he said, as if he answered her from a distance, unsure.
“My love.”
And he drew near, and she drew near.
“Anna,” he said, in wonder and the birthpain of love.
“My love,” she said, her voice growing rapturous. And they kissed on
the mouth, in rapture and surprise, long, real kisses. The kiss lasted,
there among the moonlight. He kissed her again, and she kissed him. And
again they were kissing together. Till something happened in him, he
was strange. He wanted her. He wanted her exceedingly. She was
something new. They stood there folded, suspended in the night. And his
whole being quivered with surprise, as from a blow. He wanted her, and
he wanted to tell her so. But the shock was too great to him. He had
never realized before. He trembled with irritation and unusedness, he
did not know what to do. He held her more gently, gently, much more
gently. The conflict was gone by. And he was glad, and breathless, and
almost in tears. But he knew he wanted her. Something fixed in him for
ever. He was hers. And he was very glad and afraid. He did not know
what to do, as they stood there in the open, moonlit field. He looked
through her hair at the moon, which seemed to swim liquid-bright.
She sighed, and seemed to wake up, then she kissed him again. Then she
loosened herself away from him and took his hand. It hurt him when she
drew away from his breast. It hurt him with a chagrin. Why did she draw
away from him? But she held his hand.
“I want to go home,” she said, looking at him in a way he could not
understand.
He held close to her hand. He was dazed and he could not move, he did
not know how to move. She drew him away.
He walked helplessly beside her, holding her hand. She went with bent
head. Suddenly he said, as the simple solution stated itself to him:
“We’ll get married, Anna.”
She was silent.
“We’ll get married, Anna, shall we?”
She stopped in the field again and kissed him, clinging to him
passionately, in a way he could not understand. He could not
understand. But he left it all now, to marriage. That was the solution
now, fixed ahead. He wanted her, he wanted to be married to her, he
wanted to have her altogether, as his own for ever. And he waited,
intent, for the accomplishment. But there was all the while a slight
tension of irritation.
He spoke to his uncle and aunt that night.
“Uncle,” he said, “Anna and me think of getting married.”
“Oh ay!” said Brangwen.
“But how, you have no money?” said the mother.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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