“Of course you did! A girl like you couldn’t help knowing. My God, I wish I’d known you ten years ago. I wasn’t married then.”
“You oughtn’t to talk like that.”
“Why not? It’s true. Amy’s as cold as ice—not a real woman at all. And she’s as jealous as the devil. I’ve always wondered why she let anyone like you come into the house at all. It’s a miracle she hasn’t spotted us yet.”
“It’d be all up with me being here if she did,” said Elsie shrewdly.
“If you go, I swear I’ll go with you,” said Doctor Woolley, but he said it without conviction, and Elsie knew it. “Can’t do without you, little one, at any price, now. But you’ve got to be even sweeter than you’ve been to me yet.”
Elsie shivered a little, excited and disturbed, and in part genuinely shocked.
“When will you, Elsie?”
His breath on her neck was hot and hurried.
She jumped off his knee. “Oh, look, it’s getting on for half-past six! You’ll have to be off.”
“Come back! You haven’t told me what I want to know yet.” He grabbed at her dress.