Chapter 3

Nineteen Years later - Sunday July 15- Morning

Elizabeth Carter married Andrew Lawley and they had five children. By this time, after nineteen years of marriage, Andrew was seventy years old and Elizabeth forty. Catherine, the eldest child was eighteen, twins William and Mary Ann (called Polly) were sixteen, Helen was eleven and Benjamin four.

Elizabeth was sitting at the kitchen table, glasses perched on the end of nose, contemplating a mass of paper on the table. She looked up as the door opened and Catherine came in, still in her dressing gown. Elizabeth looked critically at her.

"You look like death warmed up", she said. "Coffee? Asprin?"

"Thanks, Mum", Catherine muttered, "You really cheer a girl up. Coffee, yes. Shall I make it?"

Elizabeth was puzzled. Catherine was never grumpy.

"Nope." she said, "Sit and rest. I'm bored and confused with this anyway." She got up and Catherine looked listlessly at the paper.

"Dad's party?" she enquired.

"Yep. Hope it's not a mistake. He did say he wanted a family 'do' for his seventieth, but I've already got over a hundred people we can't leave out. Want to help?" Catherine sat down at the table and put her head in her hands. Elizabeth sat opposite, worried now. There were tears in Catherine's eyes.

"Want to tell, sweetheart? Man trouble?" Catherine had been out on a date last night, so it seemed likely. The girl smiled.

"Man trouble! Thanks for not saying 'Boy trouble'" She sighed and stiffened, squaring her shoulders and reaching for her coffee. After a sip, she looked at her mother and said, "No, not 'Man trouble', not really. And I absolutely don't want to tell - it's all too - well, embarrassing. But, the awful truth must come out." She hesitated.

"The confessional screen is up. Confess your sins and do your penance like a man. Well, like my daughter anyway."

Catherine still hesitated.

"Tell all," Elizabeth prompted, "If you leave bits out, I shall do my own interpolation based on worst case assumptions."

Catherine reached out to hold hands. "Thanks Mum. It's just that I feel such an idiot. And I didn't slept at all last night. I feel lousy."

She drew in breath. "Well. I've being seeing a - man."

She tested the word and seemed to feel right. Not a boy, so she was a woman.

"He's David Jeffes and he's nineteen, two years ahead of me at college. He's doing engineering and I met him on a student committee and, well, it all seemed to happen a bit fast. I've only known him for - " she calculated. "- one month and six days."

Catherine brooded, her face softening as she relived the last weeks. Elizabeth began to feel hopeful. No bones broken, she thought and began to guess what the problem might be.

"I never told you about him." she accused herself, "I'm not sure why. I was sort of hugging him to myself. It was - it is - magic. Oh! Mum. I didn't know!"

Sounds serious thought Elizabeth. "Well, sweetheart, literature's full of the effects of love - you might interpolate. But, it's got to be experienced for yourself, I suppose. Onward!"

"He's got a room in college. He's from Leighton Buzzard."

She giggled. "Cue for a limerick! Well, we've been going back to his room, for coffee and - just to talk - well, it started that way. Then, it just happened, bingo! He was kissing me and we couldn't keep our hands off each other." She hugged herself. "It was bliss."

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. No only could she read thoughts, but a raised eyebrow was often enough to project her thoughts too.

"No! I didn't want to make love, not all the way. We were, sort of saving it and it was pretty good anyway, just..." She trailed off, embarrassed.

"Fingers and tongues!" Elizabeth said, "Well I knew about that. Exciting, but hard on discipline and hell on the tongue."

"Mum!" Catherine was startled, if not actually shocked, "You are crude. What do you mean, you knew about it?" Panic in her voice.

"Well, crude if you like. It's the work I do makes me that way." She grinned at her daughter. "But fun. And, sweetheart, I can tell when you have hot pants when I sort the laundry."

Catherine really was shocked now and she blushed. Elizabeth got up and squatted beside Catherine so she could hug her.

"Better me than Susan Riches. You should see the state of my knickers sometimes. I'm not going to let Mrs R. see those. Go on, C, you might as well get to the awful bit now"

"It was all my fault, I suppose. I never did anything about - you know. Because there was time to do it later. And last night, I undressed for him, completely. It was the first time we'd been naked together. I trusted him, you see, because - well I trusted him. And it was all right. It wasn't his fault. We did - fingers and tongues - and it was the best ever. And then we both went to sleep. And when we woke up, it all went wrong - a mess. We were both half asleep, I think and I'd been dreaming - I can't remember what - but something so erotic - Oh. My body seemed to take over and his too."

She closed her eyes and shuddered. "It was like being an animal. I couldn't think and I just wanted to - mate. It hurt like hell and I was screaming, trying to stop him and trying to get him in at the same time and it wouldn't go in properly and then he came, shouting and still trying to get it in and the pain was awful and I was crying and then we fell off the bed and he was angry and - we knelt there snarling at each other, rubbing our hurt bits. Then I started laughing - hysteria I suppose. Then David rolled over and started laughing and we couldn't stop. He just kept saying 'It's no laughing matter' and that seemed funny."

Catherine rubbed her tummy. "I'm still sore with laughing, as well as bruised elbows and damaged privates. It got a bit better after that. We stopped snarling and got dressed. I think David was truly shocked - been brought up politely, you know, not like me. Once the shock wore off, he was kind and we just sat there in silence for a bit. I worked out that I wasn't safe at all, in fact I must have been right there."

"You and a few million others who got caught that way. Hmm. Are you and David still friends?"

"Oh I think so. I said about being caught and we talked and talked and talked. He even proposed."

Good Heavens, thought Elizabeth, are there still such old fashioned people about?