The Unexpected Occurrence of Thaddeus Hobble by Gareth Wiles Page B

together in. There was no escaping that now.
    â€˜I would not wish any harm to come to you,’ I whispered softly to her, leaning closer in to her soft and bountiful lips. ‘I am sorry that I struck you, but you were acting out of turn.’ I touched her cut cheek and she winced. ‘I love you, Agatha.’ My hand instinctively came to rest on her breast, the same one I had looked at earlier whilst she slept. It was my first proper touch of it, and I did not move my hand from its initial resting place at first. It felt rougher than it looked, and less firm than I had expected. I kissed her and felt her try to pull back, but there was no space to pull back into. She was now shivering. ‘Are you cold?’ I asked her, undoing the buttons on my shirt with my spare hand as the other remained on her breast. When my shirt was fully open, I took my hand away from her to remove it, thinking at first to lay it down upon her body. But, had I done that her body would then be hidden from view. I did not want that at all and, as I looked down at her looking up at my exposed chest, I felt she did not want that either.
    * * *
    It had been near nine months now, and Agatha was heavily pregnant. I was doing my best to keep her comfortable down in the cellar, and in some ways it was quite homely down there. The damp smell had not ceased, and I couldn’t stay down there myself for too long at a time. Agatha had always had somewhat of a sickly chest, and I suppose the conditions in the cellar did not help this. But, there she had to remain; it had gone on too long now to just undo and go back to the way things had been. I still kept her hands bound, replacing the irritating rope with chain. She no longer complained about her hands, she just sort of lay there in a daze on the bed I had brought down for us. She no longer pulled away when I came to her either, because she knew she could not get away. It was no use resisting me, and in a way I felt we were making progress. We had certainly grown closer, and I knew this was in some part due to the fact I was the only person she saw now. She relied on me for everything, and did her best not to upset me anymore. I had been rather difficult, shall we say, during the first few weeks of her being down there, but I had mellowed with time and she had accepted her situation. However, the added factor of pregnancy had created an altogether greater level of challenge to our prolonged affair.
    When we first realised she was pregnant, Agatha’s first reaction was an uncontrollable hysteria. This was quickly replaced with an overriding desire that we be wed in the local chapel. I agreed at first, but I could never let go of that fear she would either try to harm herself again or worse – accuse me of some ill treatment towards her. I could not cope with such lies, especially as I above all others knew what actual ill treatment entailed. What I had done for Agatha was love and affection, not some kind of cruel torture. Gradually, as the months unfolded, I believe she began to agree with me. She certainly gave up on the idea of leaving here. Now, here I was ready to deliver our baby into the world and become a father myself. I would not repeat the mistakes of the past. I had had time to think about all the things that had happened to me in the past whilst I was recovering from the fire, and I could see that a lot of mistakes had been made by those around me. Luckily I was educated enough to realise I could break the cycle of abuse by acting differently. My child was soon to be born into the world, and I would be the perfect father. Agatha, too, could possibly rise up from her stupor once she saw me with our child and come to accept everything. As soon as I could be sure of her true acceptance, she would join child and me upstairs in the house again.
    Miss Coombs was never mentioned now, and her body had never been found. At first, I had a few visits from various folks in the village