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Chapter 23
Amelia-Rose was now sitting totally still in Ralph's small caravan. Tears welled up in her eyes.
"I can't cope with this," she sniffed. "I just don't know what to do or say ... You don't talk like this to all the girls who come in your caravan, do you?"
Ralph looked appalled. "Of course not," he said.
"What about Kate?"
"Forget about Kate! What about you? How do you feel about me?"
"I don't know," said Amelia-Rose, dabbing at the corner of her eye with her handkerchief, "but what you said was so beautiful. "Yesterday, I would have felt guilty even to look at another man because I still felt bound in my old relationship. But since then, I've had a 45 minute affair and now here you are protesting undying love to me. Can you blame me for feeling confused?"
She hesitated horrified as she realized the word she had just used.
"Love - should I have used that word? What you just said was all very well but what were you really saying? Were you saying ' I love you' or were you saying that there's a bedroom at the end of this caravan and you still have some energy left after Kate's visit?"
Ralph leaned forward at her.
"You wouldn't be using the word 'love' if you didn't feel it too," he said. "Tell me honestly. Do you feel it too? I can't believe that feelings as strong as mine could be one-sided - they are just too elemental."
Amelia-Rose smiled, uncertainly. His honesty deserved no less in return.
"When I first saw you I got butterflies in my stomach. They grew when I saw how you played and my eyes kept following you around the bar wherever you went. Now I'm here today and feeling dreadfully at home. In fact, I feel too much at home. It's going to be very hard to leave but leave I must. I've been hurt too much recently. My safe cottage and safe life mean a lot to me. I won't easily give them up. I've only just discovering a new life and I need time to get my bearings."
Ralph picked up a camera that was lying close to him, drew it to his eye, focused and clicked the shutter.
"You look so beautiful when you're sad," he said, appreciatively.
"Do I look sad?"
"You looked as if you just hated what you were saying."
"Perhaps I did but I meant it and now it's time for me to go."
"Before you stand up, said Ralph, "can we just agree one thing. "
"What's that?"
"Will you allow me one kiss before you go - I promise it will only be one kiss - even if you beg me for more." He smiled.
"You really are a bold chappy," smiled Amelia-Rose .
She thought for a moment, gazing through the window at the field outside.
"OK. One kiss - but that's all - and only because I have a yen to know what it feels like too."
Ralph looked relieved, as if at the end of a negotiation he especially didn't want to lose.
"I'll meet you at the end of the table then," he said.
"Shall we do it now?" Amelia-Rose looked at him trying to look nonchalant to cover up the pounding of her heart and the clammy feelings in her hands.
"If we don't do it soon, I'm going to self combust," admitted Ralph tensely.
They stood up and a single pace across the caravan brought them face-to-face. Ralph cupped her face in his hands and gently drew her lips to his.
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