Free Next Door to Romance by Margaret Malcolm

not just because she wanted to be with Mark but because, just for a little while at least, she'd get the illusion of escape. 'I'd like to very much, Mr Saville. But do you mind if we stop at the next telephone kiosk—it's about half a mile along the road—just so that I can let my parents know I'll be delayed?'
    What could he do but agree, although he wasn't too pleased. It was one thing to spend half an hour together, quite another to have it recorded in the local annals. He wondered what she'd say—wondered so much, in fact, that he accompanied her to the kiosk so that he could hear. He was relieved at her discretion— and rather surprised.
    'Oh, Daddy,' she said with a confidence that suggested she was on good terms with her parents, 'I've been offered the opportunity of a drive for half an hour or so—and I would like to accept it. So don't worry that I won't be back just yet, will you? All right? 'Bye, darling.'
    So that was that! All perfectly casual and matter-of-fact. Of course, in all probability, when she got home she'd tell them who she'd been with, but so what? What he'd half feared was that there'd be a coyness about the way she told her people—even a few self-conscious giggles. Some girls were like that when one paid them even the slightest attention, and he didn't want Lisa to be.
    He was silent for a few moments after she got back into the car, and then said suddenly.
    'You've got really charming manners, haven't you?'
    'Have I?' She seemed surprised. 'Why do you say that?'
    'Oh, taking the trouble to let your people know you'll be a bit late,' he explained. 'These days, it's unusual to find either sex giving consideration to the feelings of other people!' He gave her a quick glance. 'Or isn't it like that in the country?'
    'Oh yes—with some people,' she told him. 'Because, after all, it doesn't really make much difference whether people live in town or the country. They're still what they are by nature—nice or nasty—wherever they live.'
    Once again she'd surprised him, this time by her penetration. She was perfectly right, of course. Take the old man, for instance. He wouldn't be different whether he lived in a palace or a hovel, or anywhere from the Tropics to the Poles! He'd be out for himself, first, last, and all the time. So, for that matter, would Evadne be. She was, he'd begun to realize lately, very much her father's daughter. Like him, out for herself all the time and not in the least influenced by surroundings. Suddenly, like Lisa, he wanted to escape. He put his foot down on the accelerator, and the miles flashed by—
    Suddenly Lisa gave an exclamation.
    'Why, Mr Saville, there's the sea! We're almost at Beachy Head and—' she glanced down at her watch— 'we've been almost half an hour already! Please, we must go back!'
    'Very, very soon,' he promised. 'But I would like to stop and just watch the sea, the two of us! It's at one and the same time the most soothing and the most exhilarating thing I know of—particularly when you're sharing it with the right person I! think it could blow all your cobwebs away—and mine as well, I hope,' he added almost under his breath.
    Lisa gave in. After all, her mother and father were sensible people. They would realize how quickly time goes in a car, and she'd heard, or thought she'd heard, a wistful note in Mark's voice. It surprised her that a man so apparently sure of himself could yet need the same sort of relief and refreshment from everyday life that she did and that he'd not been afraid to let her know it seemed to her to draw them closer together.
    Mark parked the car as near to the edge of the cliffs as possible. Then, as they got out, he held out his hand to Lisa and together they raced up the rough grassy slope to the very edge of the steep white cliffs. The sun was warm as, breathlessly, they threw themselves down to enjoy the scene. But, as always, there was a breeze coming off the sea. It was heaven! Neither of them spoke because,