She was also in love with him; he could tell that from the way she would drop her eyes whenever he caught hers, and would stumble over words when replying to anything he said. He only had to make a move and she would look up at him with worshipping eyes and do whatever he wanted, and he could not deny he was sometimes tempted, and the thought of her asleep in the next room certainly fired him up. But he didn’t want to upset Ivy, and anyway he didn’t go after children. Whatever the law said sixteen was still young. A slum girl grew up early; Adela’s kind took a long time ripening. When she reached her seventeenth birthday he might feel differently. The fact of her virginity was a kind of asset he hoped he would not have to realize but if the worst came to the worst always could, to further capitalize the business.At first there were police posters up everywhere advertising a £50 reward for information leading to the return of Adela Hedleigh to her family.‘I could do with fifty quid myself,’ said Doreen, ‘to finish off my thatch.
