The Sweeping Saga Collection: Poppy’s Dilemma, The Dressmaker’s Daughter, The Factory Girl. Nancy Carson

      ‘Pronounce the h, Poppy.’

      ‘Sorry, Robert. House.’

      ‘Now … mouse.’

      ‘Mouse,’ she said, looking very serious.

      ‘Mouth …’ He looked at her lips again. He was fascinated by the way they moved so deliciously as she pronounced the words.

      ‘Your mouth, Poppy …’

      She looked up at him and saw the flame of ardour in his eyes. ‘What about my mouth?’

      ‘You have such a lovely mouth. I’m sorry, but I want to kiss you. Would you be terribly offended?’

      ‘No, why should I be?’ she answered with neither hesitation nor inhibition, and felt her heart instantly beating faster at the unexpected enticement.

      She leaned towards him and pursed her lips and he could have kicked himself for not having asked before. Her lips were cool and slightly moist, like petals unfurling from the bud. He was all at once aware of her chastity and her sexuality, existing together symbiotically.

      ‘That was nice,’ she said with wide-eyed sincerity. ‘Hey, you don’t half kiss nice.’

      ‘Then I’ll kiss you again … But why not close your eyes this time?’

      ‘I will, if you’ll close yours as well. You didn’t then, so it’s no good telling me to, if you don’t.’

      ‘I was merely looking to see if you had closed your eyes.’

      ‘I’ll close ’em then.’

      Their lips met again. Poppy peeped to see whether he had closed his eyes and found him peeping at her once more.

      ‘See?’ she complained, breaking off with a girlish giggle. ‘You’re watching me.’

      He laughed self-consciously. ‘I was just checking.’

      ‘No checking, Robert. If you want me to kiss you and keep my eyes closed, you have to trust me. Don’t keep peeping.’

      ‘I won’t peep again. On my honour.’

      ‘Right …’

      They kissed once more, and neither dared to open their eyes any more to see if the other’s were shut. The kiss lingered, each savouring the sensation, and she felt his arm come around her and give her an attentive, affectionate hug, which she enjoyed a great deal.

      ‘I like it when you do that,’ she said.

      ‘Then why don’t you sit on my lap?’ he suggested. ‘I’ll be able to kiss you more easily and hold you properly, rather than us stretching over.’

      Compliantly, she got off her chair and slid into his lap with an appealing saucy smile. She curled up in his arms like a kitten and submitted willingly to his kisses, which she found mesmerising. She stayed like that for half an hour, though it seemed significantly less, enjoying his warm affection, wringing as much innocent pleasure out of it as she was able. Poppy felt herself tingling in the most surprising places. She was peeved at being robbed of the intensifying pleasure when he stopped and said that maybe they should get on with more work.

      ‘Oh, sod the work,’ she carped.

      ‘No, Poppy.’ It was the most difficult thing in the world to say no right then, to deny himself, let alone Poppy, this intimacy he’d secretly yearned for. ‘Lord knows what might happen if we lose control of ourselves.’

      ‘What can happen that neither of us don’t want to happen?’ she asked, baffled at this shattering and unaccountable self-denial of his. ‘Don’t you want me?’

      ‘Oh, yes,’ he said and there was no mistaking the truth of it. ‘I want you.’

      ‘So, am I your girl now?’

      He laughed ruefully. ‘Just a few short weeks ago you told me you weren’t prepared to devote yourself to anybody.’

      ‘But you never asked me to be your girl, Robert. I would have been, gladly … If you’d asked.’

      He emitted a profound sigh. ‘I’m afraid it’s not as cut and dried as that.’

      ‘But you like me, don’t you? You must do. You asked to kiss me.’

      ‘Poppy …’ He looked down into the folds of her skirt as she sat in his lap, her warm weight a pleasure. ‘I do like you. I like you much more than I care to admit. But there are other considerations. I don’t just want to take advantage of you.’

      ‘You wouldn’t be.’

      ‘Yes, I would, and it wouldn’t be fair … Oh, Poppy … I could so easily—’

      ‘So easily what?’ she interrupted emotionally, tears filling her eyes. ‘Take advantage of me, you mean?’

      He shook his head. ‘No, not take advantage. Didn’t I just say that’s the last thing I want to do? No – I mean, I could so easily fall in love with you.’

      ‘Then why don’t you?’ she answered with her young girl’s logic. ‘I’d fall in love with you, then you could take advantage of me all you liked. I’d want you to.’

      He groaned inwardly. Here, unexpectedly before him, was the promise of heavenly bliss with this girl, and he must surrender it, ignore it as if it wasn’t there. ‘I don’t think you understand, Poppy.’

      ‘Oh, I think I do,’ said she, as the light of realisation hit her. She got up from his lap and slumped down in the chair she had occupied before. ‘You’re a clever engineer, a real swell, and invited out to slap-up dinners, you say, whereas I’m just a common navvy’s daughter who could never be anything but that.’

      ‘No, Poppy.’

      ‘Oh, yes, Robert,’ she sighed. ‘I admit I’ve harboured feelings for you ever since I met you, but I’m daft, aren’t I, to have thought I could ever be anything other than a navvy’s wench?’

      ‘You can be whatever you want to be, Poppy,’ he said sincerely.

      ‘But not your girl …’

      He did not answer.

      She took a rag out of the pocket of her skirt and wiped her tears. ‘Unless I suddenly become a lady, eh? I stand no chance unless I suddenly become a lady with airs and graces, and can look down my nose at everybody beneath me. Well, I’ll never be like that, Robert. I could never be. It ain’t in me. You have to take me as I am or not at all.’

      ‘I would rather take you as you are, Poppy, believe me …’ He hated to see tears in her eyes. She was hurt and he was responsible. He was sorry and all he wanted right then was to hold her, to comfort her.

      She stood up, agitated. ‘No, there’s too much of a gap between you and me. Everywhere you went you’d be ashamed of me. Oh, I understand your difficulty, Robert, but I could never be content neither, thinking I was never good enough for you.’

      ‘You must never belittle yourself, Poppy.’ He stood up and moved towards her, compelled to put his hands to her slender waist. ‘I think you’re the kindest, most sensitive, prettiest soul I’ve ever met.’ His tone was a taut thread of emotion. ‘I can’t get you out of my mind. That’s the trouble. And it’s driving me mad, Poppy. What am I to do?’

      She rested her head against his shoulder as if all the troubles of the world had come to roost on hers. Her eyes were still watery at this unexpected admission of love that had exploded between them all of a sudden, like gelignite going off.

      ‘I don’t know,’ she answered. ‘But why should there be such a big to-do about it? I don’t get it. If two people like each other enough …’

      ‘Dear God …’ he said quietly,