Free The Quality of Love by Rosie Harris

kiss.
    â€˜Don’t let me down,’ he warned again as he released her.
    Before she could say anything he’d gone, leaving her trembling with a mixture of excitement and anticipation. What on earth was she going to tell her parents, she wondered? Gwyn meant so much to her that she couldn’t take the risk of losing him even though it meant defying her parents and going behind their back.
    She could think of nothing else for the next few days. Sometimes she felt that time was standing still and she’d never see Gwyn ever again. At other times it seemed to be racing by and she still hadn’t plucked up the courage to tell her parents that she was going away for a few days.
    She kept going over and over all the things Gwyn had said and wondering if she’d got them right. Had he really meant it when he’d said that he couldn’t live without her and had suggested they should elope?
    Now he was suggesting spending a few days together. Did that mean he’d changed his mind about them being married? Or was he testing her to see if she really cared enough? Did he assume that if she was prepared to take the risk of spending a few nights away with him, then she would be willing to spend the rest of her life with him as his wife?
    She felt more and more confused; she wondered if he was thinking along those lines or whether he was merely out to seduce her. She realised that if she did go away with him as he suggested, then he would be expecting her to sleep with him, not hold him at arm’s length as she’d done up until now.
    There was so much more to his invitation than merely confronting her parents and asking their permission, she thought worriedly. She hated the idea of having to concoct some sort of story and tell them she would be with agirlfriend, and she still had no idea how she would go about doing that. All she knew was that she must make it clear to them that it was important to her and yet her mind seemed to go blank when she tried to think of what she must say to convince them of that.
    Gwyn was asking an awful lot of her, she mused. If her father ever found out he’d probably turn her out and disown her; yet if she didn’t go along with Gwyn’s suggestion then that really would end things and she would lose him completely, she had no doubts about that.
    If only Rita was still living nearby then she could have asked her advice but Rita and her family had moved to Newport and there was no one else she could confide in.
    Not for the first time she regretted not having got to know some of the other girls at university. She had been so obsessed with Gwyn, because he was the very first boyfriend she’d ever had, that she’d wanted to be with him and no one else, so she had deliberately avoided them all.

Chapter Seven
    Sarah spent hours agonising over when it would be the best time to confront her parents before fate came to her rescue.
    A couple of days before the August bank holiday her mother twisted her ankle rather badly and found it painful to walk. Lloyd was extremely concerned. Sarah did all she could to help and her father was full of praise for the way she was waiting on her mother and doing the housework and shopping.
    â€˜I’m afraid it means we won’t be going out anywhere over the holiday, cariad,’ he warned Sarah, ‘but perhaps we can go out somewhere special later on.’
    â€˜Well, when Mam’s ankle is better then perhaps I could go and stay with my friend; she asked me at the end of term if I’d go and stay with her for a few days, but I told her I would have to ask you first,’ Sarah gabbled.
    â€˜Friend? What friend is this?’
    â€˜One of the girls I know at university. We go to the same lectures, because we’re studying the same subjects.’
    He stared at her challengingly. ‘This is the first time you’ve mentioned this friend. Whyhaven’t you brought her home to meet us?’ he