This time there was no interruption, no unwelcome voice. I turned my back to let Lucy change into her ivory nightgown once more. We lay down together in the narrow bunk.
“Just leave the night light on,” she said. I reached up to turn the dial and settled down next to her again. “At last,” she murmured.
Through her nightgown her back strained against my bare chest. I slipped a hand inside to caress the cool skin of her naked breast. She moved slightly, relishing the sensation, as it seemed to me. She took my hand and guided it to her sex. It felt warm, and a little damp.
My fingers probed her softly. “Don’t stop,” she urged. There was a sharp intake of breath.
We made love to the rhythm of the wheels. We were not the first to do it, nor would we be the last. The pleasure was ours, all the same, and the closeness, and the climax that merged with the swing and the swerve of the carriage on the tracks beneath us. The train sped on, into the unknown.
I was never going back.