Chapter 25

The following days were hectic at work. Everything in sales was put to one side as we negotiated the lease and the terms of the new building. It was hard going; the leasing company wanted an arm and a leg, but weren't getting any offers from any other prospective tenants as a result. We were offering them a hand and perhaps a wrist, rather than an arm and leg, but they were playing hard to get. All four of us, Geoff, Judy, Jenny and I were constantly involved with it, while trying to keep all the other jobs going to time. We were in early and home late.

Ann realised this and invited, nay ordered me to go there for dinner each night. On Wednesday she told me to invite Jenny for the Thursday.

Greta and Jan were overjoyed when Jenny entered with me, though Ann's expression was guarded, while her welcome was genuine enough. Stefan was unaffected it seems, but not hostile.

Jenny immediately went to the kitchen with Ann, and I began to follow but was firmly told by Jenny that I was not welcome. Ann looked uneasy at that, after my last exclusion I assumed, but saw my smiling face and relaxed, as did I in the company of my children as they came and went around me. Before long I could hear the women nattering nineteen to the dozen like old friends. After the meal they also did the washing up and again shooed me out of the room.

There was the moment when Ann looked wistful as Jenny and I left early to get some sleep. Jenny was enthusiastic about Ann.

"I remember how pretty she was at the ball but she's gorgeous! So welcoming! We got on like a house on fire."

"I noticed," I said. "I'm glad. Makes life so much easier."

"She's asked if we can look after the children on Saturday."

"All day?"

"Yes. Greta's got a party in the evening, but we can pick her up after it, if she wants us to. She may pick up a boy and prefer to make her own way home!"

"No way!" I expostulated. "She's too young for that."

"Nonsense," Jenny said patiently, "She's a good girl, and she's seventeen for goodness' sake!"

"Good girls get seduced."

"Allan she needs to live her own life. She's got good morals. Trust her!"

"OK," I grumbled, "we babysit on Saturday. What's Ann doing?"

There was a pause.

"She's going to spend the day with Derek," ventured Jenny. "Apparently he's on the verge of a breakdown."

I was angry. Perhaps even enraged. I kept very quiet, but she could see my knuckles on the steering wheel.

"Allan, she feels an obligation to him. She believes he's not behind your attack. If she believed the opposite she wouldn't go near him."

"I can't understand how she can believe that. The evidence is massive. Is she blind?"

"No Allan, she's compassionate."

There was a pause, during which we ascended the stairs to the flat, got a couple of drinks and sat down.

Jenny then floored me.

"Allan, are you sure you're angry with Ann because of Derek's guilt? Could it be jealousy? Do you think you may be in love with her after all?"

"No way!" I replied hotly.

"You find her sexually attractive?"

"Well yes, she's a beautiful woman."

"And just your type!"

"I don't know what 'my type' is. Anyway can we change the subject?"

And that ended it. We went to bed, made love simply and slept.

The following evening, Friday, Geoff, and I agreed we needed a break from work for the weekend. Jenny said she was going back to her flat. She needed to tidy up and do some washing. Then she was going out with friends. I went to the house.

After the meal, and this time I was allowed to wash up, the children disappeared and we sat together in the living room.

"I suppose you want to get this building acquisition out of the way before we set times to talk?" she asked.

"Yes. It's taking most of our waking moments."

"Jenny tell you about tomorrow?"

I gritted my teeth, "Yes."

"I need to tell you something. I know you'll tell me I'm a free woman, etc., etc., but I want to tell you this. When I last saw him we ended up in bed, but he couldn't do it. I would have let him; I felt he needed it, but tomorrow I may hug him, cuddle him, kiss him, but I will not have sex with him, any sort of sex. Hell, Allan, I'll be explicit – no manual, no oral, no penetration on either side.

"He is on the edge of total breakdown. His business has collapsed, people don't want to know him; he's got no orders. He's lost me and he's rattling round in that big house. I don't care what he's done or not done; he needs support to get through this. If he's guilty, he'll get his punishment later, for now I'm concerned with saving his life."

It was a mouthful. It took some digesting. I couldn't see the logic in what she was doing, but she was going to do it anyway. I didn't know whether I believed her about the sex aspect, but strangely her protestations made her actions less aggravating; more acceptable somehow. It remained that she was still belittling the seriousness of Derek's attempt on my life.

"Ann, you do what you believe to be right. You don't need to justify what you do to me."

"But Allan, don't you see? That's exactly what I must do. I divorced you in error. I was misled but I did it. If I hadn't we would still be married. You would have come home. I feel cheated even though it's my own fault. I still feel married to you. I want to be married to you. It's just unfortunate that I have this other man who needs me at the moment."

"OK," I said. "I have this other woman who needs me."

She looked startled for a moment as if she had never considered it.

"Exactly," she asserted, somewhat faintly.

That was the end of it. I had to go, so made my rounds of the children, kissed Ann who moved her head so I kissed her lips and who put her arms round me and hugged me hard. I must confess to being a bit wooden at that point, and she felt it. Her shoulders slumped, she smiled sadly and made me promise to come early the next day.

I got back to the flat, half expecting Jenny to turn up after her night out, but by eleven there was no sign of her. So I phoned her mobile. She answered. It was very quiet wherever she was, no sounds of talking or laughter or music. I commented and she rather hesitantly told me she was at her flat. She felt very tired and wanted a long rest.

We arranged that I would pick her up about eight, so we could get to the house relatively early as Ann wished. She rang off quite suddenly. I rang back immediately.

"We got cut off," I explained. "just want to say I love you, and good night."

"Oh, yes," she answered, rather abstractedly. "Love you too, see you in the morning."

Everything went smoothly next day. Ann disappeared off to her murderous lover. After breakfast, Jenny and Greta went off shopping in Altrincham, while the lads and I went ten-pin bowling. We all returned to the house at four and ate together, before Greta got herself ready for the party in Stretford.

When she came downstairs, Jenny and I both gasped. She looked ten years older. She was wearing a crop-top shirt, showing her navel and her beautifully curved waist and entrancing belly button, mercifully unpierced. There was a bra under there; I could see the outline of the straps. There was a pleated mini-skirt which came about a third way down her thighs, but the outfit was finished by a pair of sensible shoes with medium heels.

Her make-up was obvious but not over the top, mascara, eye-shadow, blusher, bright lipstick and gloss. Her hair was up, showing her achingly long, sweet and sinuous neck - she got that from her mother, of that there was no doubt. She was a vision of loveliness. Jenny applauded, while I wondered how she would avoid being raped. It must have shown in my face for Greta came over to me and hugged me.

"All the girls wear this sort of kit Daddy," she whispered in my ear. "I can look after myself at the party. I don't have a boyfriend and I'm not ready for that anyway. Danny's parents are supervising, ok?"

I was shocked at her openness. I saw Jenny grinning at me, and I wondered if there had been collusion while they were out.

"Daddy can Jenny pick me up tonight? About midnight?"

"Allan," said Jenny, "How about if I take her to the flat and we sleep there? It's only a short step from the party. Better than coming all the way back here."

I agreed, and was relieved Greta wanted a lift. It put my mind at ease. I could sleep in the house; there was a spare bedroom. Ann would be using the main bedroom.

The doorbell rang and one of her girlfriends stood there, with her mother's car in the background, ready to pick Greta up. The girl was wearing similar clothes, but clearly no bra and a skirt so short that when she walked away her thong gently flashed me with every step. I wondered which knickers my own daughter was wearing. Greta looked at her retreating figure and hugged me. "I'm more decent under here," she whispered.

I think she enjoyed teasing me, and reassuring me, after all I missed her early teen years, when most of her principles would have been laid down and most of the fights resolved with her mother.

We played scrabble with the lads, and I settled them down.

As I kissed Stefan goodnight he asked, "Is Jenny coming to say goodnight?" I told him I was sure she would and he smiled. A breakthrough!

On request she went upstairs and said goodnight, kissing each of the boys. Lucky lads, I thought.

Quarter of an hour later I checked and they were both dead to the world.

I sat down next to Jenny and she snuggled up to me. As we listened to some quiet music we caressed each other until I began to explore under her sweater.

"The boys?" she asked.

"No chance," I answered with a smile. "They'd sleep through an earthquake once they're off."

And so we made love naked on the sofa in the living room. It was gentle and sustained, and her orgasm was all the more intense for the slowness with which I built her to it with gentle fingers and the need for quiet. Then I entered her and stroked slowly for an age, as she, not having come down completely from her first, endured two more orgasms until I could hold out no longer and by keeping my own strokes measured, climaxed all the more powerfully inside her.

The afterglow was relaxed as always, though there was something different about it. She seemed lost in her own thoughts. I felt she was not quite with me and wondered what it was, but something prevented me from asking her for her thoughts. Just after eleven, she got up and dressed, and I did the same. It was time for her to go for Greta. We hugged and kissed at length, she stared at me, as if wondering about something, and then she went.

At eleven thirty the phone rang. It was Ann.

"I know it's a big favour," she tentatively asked, "but could you both hold the fort until tomorrow morning? I'm worried about Derek; he's talking suicide and I think he means it."

"OK" I said, thinking I'm sure a good fucking will talk him out of it.

"In any case, Jenny is picking up Greta and they're sleeping at my flat. See you in the morning."

She disconnected and I fumed while I mopped the sofa of our combined emissions and went to bed. I was angry. Nothing made any sense. The world was becoming surreal. My thoughts ran riot.

Ann says she is not going to sleep with him. Then she sleeps with him. No sex? I don't think so! Why doesn't she simply leave me alone? Why keep telling me she feels married to me, then go off with the man she must know tried to kill me?

Unless of course there is more to their relationship than she's telling me. She was having an affair all those months and I, dumb fool, never noticed. She must find him irresistible to be doing this. I obviously never could compete. Is it just the children that are bringing her back here?