Escape by Moonlight by Mary Nichols

paint her against the backdrop of the ruined keeper’s cottage, not in that dress, but with next to nothing on and her hair wild and tangled. He would make her laugh and then perhaps she might let him kiss her and then … He savoured the idea of making love to her and wondered how she would react.
    He emerged from the park and walked his horse along the riverbank, plodding along lost in contemplation, until he became aware of a fisherman sitting with his line in the water. He pulled up. The man was staring out across the river towards a distant mill, taking no notice of his jerking line. ‘You’ve got a bite,’ he said.
    Startled, the man turned and looked up at him as if waking from a dream. ‘You’ve got a bite,’ Jack repeated, recognising the signalman, though he could not remember his name.
    ‘So I hev.’ The man jerked into life and began reeling in the fish. It was a sizeable one and Jack dismounted and watched while he landed it, took the hook from its mouth and tossed it into his keepnet.
    ‘You’ve a good catch,’ Jack said, looking down at the half-dozen fish that wriggled in the confines of the net. ‘This must be a good spot.’
    ‘So it is.’ This said somewhat sourly.
    ‘You work at Nayton Halt, don’t you?’
    ‘I do.’
    ‘Good job, is it?’
    ‘Good enough for me to take a wife. Miss Storey and me are going to be wed, so you just leave her be and stop fillin’ her head with nonsense.’
    Jack looked at the man with something akin to loathing. For one thing, he was unused to being addressed in that discourteous manner, and for another, he was suddenly faced with an image of Lucy in the arms of this uncouth man, and it sickened him. He could hardly believe she would have consented. But why would she not? They were on the same social level and sooner or later she would be expected to marry. ‘Lucy Storey?’ he queried, pretending not to understand.
    ‘Yes. You know well enough who I mean. She’s my girl, so you keep your sticky fingers off her.’
    ‘I think, Mr Signalman, whatever your name is, you go too far. I will not be threatened. And if you wish to keep your job …’
    Frank knew he had gone a step too far but he would not retract. ‘I see you. I see you last week and I see you ag’in this morning, so I know what’s going on. And you had best not threaten me either because I can take the matter to His Lordship.’
    ‘Oh, this is ridiculous,’ Jack said impatiently. ‘What interest could I possibly have in Lucy Storey? She works on the railway just as you do …’
    ‘Beneath you, is she? Same as me. Well, that’s as maybe, but she won’t be meeting you no more.’
    ‘Do you know,’ Jack said, remounting. ‘I am entirely indifferent. Good day, to you.’
    He rode home, furious with himself for minding so much. As long as they did the jobs they were paid for, what the lower orders did was no concern of his. They could marry and have hordes of children for all he cared. It did not matter one jot to him what Lucy Storey did with her life. But she would have made a splendid model. He pulled up so suddenly the mare reared a little and whinnied. ‘Sorry, old girl,’ he said and walked her on, still musing on Lucy, remembering her bright eyes and ready smile, her look of innocence which belied the invitation in her eyes, a temptation as old as time. Was he going to let that man, any man, dictate to him whom he saw?
    He approached the house from the rear and stopped when he came within sight of it. The sun was shining on its myriad of windows, making them dazzle like so many mirrors against the green of the ivy which clung to its red-brick walls. He remembered when he first arrived, how overawed he had been, how miserable and unsettled, having to learn to speak English when all he wanted was to go back to Dransville and have his mother to himselfagain and be spoilt by his grandmother. Time had dimmed that memory and he hardly ever thought about it now, but today his