Chapter 4

Richard did think. Fornication wasn't a problem. After all neither he nor Rachel had been a virgin when they married. But then Sharon was still officially married. It was clear that she would never get back with her husband but... He wondered whether there was some Romany rule about separation meaning divorce.

He looked it up on the Internet and found there wasn't. Divorce was admitted in Romany society but involved the husband expelling the woman or her leaving him. On the other hand, she could no doubt invoke British divorce law and the two year separation rule.

All the same, he did not relish the thought of an aggressive husband or ex-husband breathing down his neck. What were the chances of that though? Almost nil. He was being wet.

Despite all the rational arguments against Sharon's proposition he had to admit that even when Rachel was alive he had had lustful feelings towards Sharon. So why her and not any of the women of his own social background that he had been offered over the last six months?

That was easy. Sharon did not have an agenda and, if he had taken up with any of the women on offer, there would have immediately been talk. As it was, Sharon could continue to clean for him and just stay a bit longer. No-one had visited him while she was cleaning and there was no reason that anyone would. It would be a private arrangement. And that would solve the husband problem too, minor though it was.

So, he would have a sexual relationship with Sharon. But, he thought to himself, if it starts to get the least bit iffy it's over.

Sharon also did some thinking. She drove out into the lane and pulled in to the gateway to the next field, switched off the engine and, hanging on to the steering wheel, shook.

She was only doing what Rachel had asked her to do, wasn't she? Rachel had been right. If someone didn't grip Richard he'd go on grieving, waste his life and probably die prematurely. And she agreed with Rachel. He was worth more than that. He was an intelligent, nice man with the capacity to give. He needed to be sorted out.

But had she gone about it the right way? Offering him sex was quite a step. She reckoned that he and Rachel had had an active and rewarding sex life. There were lots of little hugs and kisses and intimate touchings when Rachel was alive. There were also those looks between them.

Sharon wasn't sure about all this. Her experience of sex, even with her husband, had been pretty much smash and grab and she'd never really known love except from her father and her memories of him were slim as he had been killed in a car accident when she was nine.