Chapter 1: A shock meeting

It was an ordinary day, in an ordinary small English Market town. I had been to the Bank, to pay in a cheque. I was leaving and intending to cross the market square when not looking I bumped into this lady. I apologised and went to move on, when she caught my arm. Oh shit, I thought, she was going to make a fuss about this, when I realised that she had called me by my name.

"David! It is David, isn't it?" I looked at her, quite an attractive woman, I would put in her mid forties, very slim and about 5 foot 2 in height. There was something familiar about her, but for the life of me I couldn't place her.

"Yes. I am David but do I know you?"

"Well it's more than twenty years. It's Ann." The mists cleared and of course it was, how could I ever have not known who it was! This was my ex sister in law! She had been married to my brother, Rob until she was discovered to be cheating on him. Divorce followed quickly.

"Bloody hell!" Perhaps not the most intelligent of comments to make, but that was what came out of my mouth without thought.

"Oh! That sounds as if you aren't pleased to see me." I waffled then.

"No, no, I mean yes, I am pleased to see you, it was a bit of a shock that's all." She smiled.

"What are you doing here?"

"I live here. Have done for fifteen years. Very surprised to see you though. I could ask the same question. What are you doing here?" She shrugged her shoulders.

"Well actually, I live here too. Not as long as you though. Just five years. How's Rob these days?"

Hell! Now that's a question with a very short answer.

"Didn't you know? He died about four years ago." I had never liked giving people bad news, and over the years had found the best way was to tell it, rather than meander around and try to and sweeten the pill. Her face changed to sadness. Not grief, just the sadness that anyone would exhibit upon hearing that someone had lost a relative.

"Oh. I am sorry to hear that. Your Mother must have been very upset. How did it happen?"

"He had an aneurism of the aorta. He died in his sleep." She shook her head.

"Sad end for such a vigorous man." I am certain that she used vigorous as an euphemism. Rob was a randy so and so, and if Ann had not been caught cheating first then a pound to a penny Rob would almost certainly have been caught himself.

"Sad end for a randy bugger," I said, "always thought he would go out with a woman underneath him." Ann laughed.

"Yes that could have been the case most certainly, but more than likely the woman wouldn't have been me." She looked at me with interest.

"So you knew about his playing around? That explains a lot."

"Explains what? Exactly." She didn't answer, but looked at her watch.

"Have you got time for a coffee?"

"No problem. Let's go into Witherspoons." I pointed in the direction of the Pub, just down a side street off the market square.

"That's fine."

Ann found a seat in a quiet corner whilst I ordered the coffee. I joined her. She started a different conversation.

"How's your wife, it's Janice isn't it?"

"Ah! We split fifteen years ago. Divorced I'm afraid." She nodded her head.

"I am not surprised." I laughed cynically at this.

"Neither were my parents, nor my friends. Why is it that everybody seems to have known from the outset, and not let me in on the secret."

"David! You were so terribly set on doing the decent thing, that nothing anyone could have said would have stopped you. She only got pregnant so that you would marry her. Obviously thinking that your Father would fund a luxurious life for her."

"She was wrong in that. Dad was not going to subsidise any of his kids. He thought they should work for it, the same as he did." I didn't want this conversation so went back to the cryptic comment earlier.

"Anyway, what explains what?"

"Sorry?"

"You said earlier that my knowing how Rob behaved explained a lot."

"Oh yes, I did, didn't I? Well, when it all happened your family were horrible to me, especially your mum. Understandable, I suppose. But you weren't. In fact you were very nice to me. Now, I think that you did that because you knew that Rob would have been playing away, and the guilt could not be fairly dumped on my shoulders."

"Close. Actually I didn't know for certain that Rob was messing about, but from his behaviour just before you married I realised that he would never have been faithful to you."

"So why didn't you say anything to me? I might have reconsidered marrying him."

"It would have seemed like jealousy. Most of the family knew I fancied you rotten." Now there was a statement that would stop any conversation, but Ann took it in her stride.

"Oh, I knew that." Now I blushed. She laughed delightedly at my hot face.

"David, of course I knew. Remember the dancing lessons I gave you?" How could I not remember. I was a callow youth of seventeen, still in education, unused to girls of my age, and certainly unused to the gorgeous older woman my brother seemed to have snared for himself. Ann was all of nineteen at that time. Doesn't seem much, but at that time there was an enormous difference between a seventeen year old and a nineteen year old woman. I was acutely embarrassed during those dancing lessons, as I carried a permanent erection caused by dancing so close to her. She knew and whilst not saying anything teased me mercilessly by taking every opportunity to move her body across the lump I carried, and smiling secretly all the time. She never said anything to my brother though, as he, being older and bigger than me would have thumped me without question.