‘You always say that,’ she complained, jabbing him with a finger, ‘yet you always manage to lose somehow.’
‘I won this week, didn’t I?’ he said, peevishly.
‘That’s what you told me, anyway.’
‘Don’t you believe me?’
‘I’m not sure that I do.’
Anger stirred. ‘Where else would I have got so much money from?’ he said. ‘You should be grateful, Polly. It enabled me to leave my job and move in here with you. Isn’t that what you wanted?’
‘Yes, Bill. Of course.’
‘Then why are you pestering me like this?’
‘I just wanted to know where the money came from,’ she said, putting a conciliatory hand on his arm. ‘Please don’t go out again. I know that you feel lucky, but I’d hate you to throw away what you’ve already earned at the card table. That would be terrible.’
‘I only play to win more,’ he insisted, getting up and reaching for his clothes. ‘This is my chance, don’t you see? I can play for higher stakes.’
‘Not tonight.’
‘I must. I have this feeling inside me.’
Her voice hardened. ‘How much have you given to her?’ she asked, coldly. ‘I don’t want you wasting any of our money on your wife.’
‘That’s a matter between me and Maud.’
‘No, it isn’t, Bill.’
‘I have responsibilities.’
‘I’m your only responsibility now,’ she said, climbing out of bed to confront him in the half-dark. ‘Have you forgotten what you promised? You swore that I was the only person who mattered in your life.’
‘You are, Poll.’
‘Then prove it.’
‘Leave me be,’ he said, fumbling for his trousers.
‘Prove it.’
‘I’ve already done that.’
‘Not to my satisfaction.’
‘What more do you want of me?’ he demanded, rounding on her. ‘Because of you, I walked out on my wife and children, I gave up my job and I started a whole new life. I tried my best to make you happy.’
‘Then take me away from here.’
‘I will — in due course.’
‘Why the delay?’ she challenged. ‘What are you hiding from?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Then why this talk about it not being safe to leave here?’
He pulled on his trousers. ‘We’ll talk about this in the morning,’ he said, evasively. ‘I have other things on my mind now.’
She glared at him. ‘Are you lying to me, Bill?’
‘No!’
‘There’s something you’re not telling me.’
‘You’ve been told everything you need to know, Poll.’
‘I’m your woman. There should be no secrets between us.’
‘There are none,’ he said, irritably. ‘Now stand out of my way and let me get dressed. I have to go out.’
Polly Roach had played the submissive lover for too long now. She decided that it was time to assert herself. When she got involved with William Ings, she had seen him as her passport out of the squalor and degradation that she had endured for so many years. He represented a last chance for her to escape from the Devil’s Acre and its attendant miseries. The thought that he might be deceiving her in some way made her simmer with fury. As he tried to do up the buttons on his shirt, she took him by the shoulders.
‘Stay here with me,’ she ordered.
‘No, Polly. I’m going out.’
‘I won’t let you. Your place is beside me.’
‘Don’t you want me to make more money, you silly woman?’
‘Not that way, Bill. It’s too dangerous.’
‘Take your hands off me,’ he warned.
‘Only if you promise to stay here tonight.’
‘Don’t make me lose my temper.’
‘I have a temper as well,’ she snarled, digging her nails into his flesh. ‘I fight for what’s mine. I’m not going to let you sit at a card table and lose money that could be spent on me. I’ve been in this jungle far too long, Bill. I want to live somewhere respectable.’
‘Get off me!’ he yelled.
‘No!’
‘Get off!’