"I was not fooling," he said. "I do love you, Norma. Don't ask me how any of this happened. I couldn't help myself. I wouldn't hurt you for anything in the world. I wouldn't, please, believe me."
She didn't answer him. He took her into his arms and his lips kissed her mouth and he tasted her tears and he put his hand on the back of her head and held her face against the pocket of his shoulder. She wept, silently, uncomprehendingly, and when she finally subsided, he kissed her again and then he moved away from her.
He was filled with apologies and she wished that he wouldn't. Her experiences with him were so wonderful, so beautiful, she didn't want to hear anything like apologies.
"Do you really love me?" she said, finally.
The note of childishness in her question made him laugh.
He squeezed her and then he kissed her mouth and he lingered at it for a long time. When he spoke to her, his words were a mere whisper against her lips.
"Yes, my darling," he said. "I do love you. I love you so much. And, I never want to lose you. Not ever."
She pushed him away and then she sat straight up.
"Then you won't put me in jail no matter what, will you?"
He laughed at her again. "No, my dear," he said. "I won't ever put you in jail, no matter what."
"I'm glad," she said.
He held her and then he began kissing her again and she was able to enjoy his kisses and enjoy being in his arms.
"I'm not like what you think," she said. "I mean, I never did that with anybody else. I didn't. No matter what you think."
He kissed her again and the warmth in his kiss made her shiver. She was kissing him, too, sliding her tongue into his mouth and teasing his lips with her own passionate responses.
"I know you haven't done that with anyone else," he said. "I can tell."
"How can you tell?" she demanded. "There wasn't any blood."
"Tight as you were," he said, "it had to be the first time."
"You don't think that I am awful, do you?" she asked.
"I love you," he said, simply. "Nothing else much matters. Now, you'd better get back to your room in the big house and I'll get out of here."
"I wish you could take me with you," she said. "I wish that awful bad. I don't want to go back to the house."
He talked calmly and sensibly with her and when he left her, eventually, she was quite willing to go back to her bed and get some sleep. She walked in the night, looking up at the lights in Lily's room and she decided that she would have to say something to Lily about leaving her lights on all night. She smiled in the darkness as she realized that she was not paying the electric bill and it was none of her business what Lily did with her lights.
She crept into the quiet house and when she slid between the sheets of her bed she resolved that she was going to stay awake and think about Adam Wright and the things that she had done with him. She wanted to remember again and again the way he told her that he loved her.
She was sure that she enjoyed hearing those words most of all.
She wondered, too, if she was a bad girl now. The dreams that she could barely remember now were something new with her, and the things that she did with Adam were brand new.
She wondered what he would do or say if he knew that she was not yet sixteen. Would he keep right on loving her, or would he drop her like a hot potato? She was still thinking about these things when she fell sound asleep.
It seemed to her that she had barely blinked her eyes and it was morning and brilliant sunshine was in the room with her. She sat up and lit a cigarette and then she smelled the rich fragrances of bacon and coffee and she jumped out of bed and put on a robe. She went out into the hallway and she met Lily on her way downstairs, too.
Norma smiled at her baby sister and noticed that Lily looked a bit tired and slightly peaked but Norma didn't say anything to her about leaving her lights on all night. She remembered, at the last moment, that Lily might ask how she found out about the lights and she would be in trouble right away.
The others were already at the table and when Norma looked at Lennie she felt a sense of embarrassment. It disturbed her to have to accept the knowledge that Lennie was a thief. She had been very fond of Lennie, Carol and the twins. She hated to think of them in prison. She liked each and every one of them.
She helped Lennie and the boys load the truck with books and the other things that she and Carol had evaluated and she felt a bit forlorn and deserted when Lily climbed into the truck to go with Lennie and the twins. It disturbed her very much because Lily was really determined to go along with the boys and Lennie.
She actually seemed to be very happy about it.
CHAPTER SIX
Norma helped Carol with the work in the kitchen and she tried to think up things to say to the lovely young brunette, but, knowing what was going to happen to Carol and the others made her awkward when it came to small talk.
Carol did not seem to be particularly interested in talking about things, either. The day was warm and sunny and when their work in the kitchen was done, Carol suggested that they have one more cup of coffee on the terrace so that they could enjoy the sunshine and have a brief respite before they resumed their work in the library.
That idea delighted Norma because she would have some free time in which she could think about Adam Wright and how much she liked him and how many hours it would be until he met her again in the carriage house. She was eager to see him again and he had said that he would come to meet her again at the same time, the same place and Norma found herself counting the hours and the minutes until it would be time to see him again.
But, the day dragged horribly and she was very much relieved when Lennie and the twins and Lily all came home for lunch. Lennie announced that they had concluded their business deals quickly and they could now give their attention to other matters.
They all settled in the kitchen and Lily and the boys kept giggling and smiling at each other and it seemed to Norma that Lily and the twins had become much better acquainted than she had supposed. Lennie sat at the table, a cigarette in his fingers and he was watching her move around and do her work and that made Norma nervous, despite her seeing that he liked her very much. Carol was smiling happily and she finally told Norma to sit down and begin eating with the others.
Norma obeyed her and she actually enjoyed the sandwiches that she and Carol had fixed. She drank two full glasses of milk and, by the time the others left the table and went off to the living room, she was just too drowsy and too lazy to help Carol clean up.
"Why don't you go into the living room, too," Carol suggested, with a big, affectionate smile. "You can take a nap on the couch and then we can resume with our work when you wake up."
Norma was about to refuse, to insist that she would be able to help just a bit but Carol insisted that she take a nap and she even helped Norma into the living room. She settled her on the couch and she turned to caution the others who were sitting around in chairs.
"Now you keep quiet, all of you," Carol said. "Norma is worn out and she is going to take a nap. I think that we have been working her too hard, so we will let her rest."
"Sure," Lennie said. "We have work to do anyway…
"That's right," Carol said. "Go ahead and do it."
Norma stretched out on the couch and she noticed that Lily was sitting close to her and she was amazed by her little sister's beauty and her visible happiness. She wanted to talk to Lily, to tell her how lovely she was, but she simply couldn't do it. She fell asleep instead.