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I did, she said I ruined the evening She put her hands over her face, as if she was ashahed and put the pot and the brush down on to a sheet of newspaper

Eleanor, he said, I was only joking Everyone had a lovely evening He took hold of her wrists and gently lifted her hands away from her face

Really? she said

Really, he said, licking his thu a smear of plaster dust from her forehead; I promise She wrinkled her nose and looked up at him, and the flush of embarrassment ebbed out of her face She smiled

I'm sorry, she said It just worries me, what people think, especially your family and everyone He kissed her forehead, then her nose

They all think the world of you, he said And so do I He let go of her wrists, kissed her lips, and started to unbutton the worn-out shirt she earing, uncovering her s to kiss each dark nipple, unbuttoning the rest of her shirt, slipping his hands behind her back Eleanor stepped away, covering herself and fiddling with the buttons

David, she said, quietly Not now I'm not— she said, and stopped We've hardly started in here, she said Givehis mouth with the back of his hand, surprised and a little embarrassed at hi without saying anything more

Later, sharing a bag of chips while they waited for the first coat to dry, she said, I' like it; I wras a bit preoccupied

It's fine, he said, pretending to have forgotten Don't worry about it

And the next day, when all the painting was done, the brushes washed and the spattered newspaper throay, the furniture shifted back into place and the pictures rehung on the wall, when they were looking around the roo if they'd ever really like the colour, she turned to him and said well, I think we're all done here now, aren't we? She swept the loose strands of hair away from her face and unbuttoned her shirt He noticed that she still had yellow paint under her fingernails, and across one of her knuckles, and he noticed that she was shrugging her shirt to the floor

Afterwards, lying across their bed together, he said now tell ly Tellup I want to know more, he said

So she told hi her mother clean the kitchen floor when she was a child barely old enough to speak; hiding under the table, watching soap bubbles balloon and burst into the cold sunlight as her mother's wooden-soled shoes slid like skates across the wet flagstoned floor The hot soapy water slopping towards her, and herthem up on to the tabl

e as she caught glaring sight of her daughter

She told hi to her for days at a ti in bed with a mystery illness that nobody ever discussed

She told hi, slipping out of her own to straighten the ht-rolled balls of yesterday's socks and heaping the the sheets and blankets from their heap at the bottom of the bed