Chapter 26

Wednesday 19th to Tuesday 25th April 1972

The thing about being suspended on a Wednesday late morning is that everyone else is at work. I was alone. Like Connie, I wanted to get out of the flat, but where to go? Not to a pub. Drink was not the answer. In any case being alone in a pub would merely be emphasising how alone I was.

I did what came naturally. I packed a bag and a couple of novels, and drove into the hills towards Bakewell, finding a hotel near Monsall Head, and finding they had a room overlooking the Dale and Viaduct, I booked in for one night. I sat in the bar and drank three pints of their bitter, before returning to my room, where I read half a novel and then thought things over. I went to the dining room and had a palatable dinner, then I went to bed.

Next day I checked out, loaded my car and leaving it in their car park, went for a long hike. After more rain and high winds than anyone wanted or needed in the first half of the month, that week the sun shone from a cloudless sky. Perfect and pleasantly warm. I did a circular hike of eight miles, and had a sandwich at the hotel before driving home...

Did I feel better for it? Yes. Did it affect my attitude to Connie, yes. I had blown the whole thing out of proportion, though her lack of faith in me worried me. Now it didn’t seem like a relationship breaker any more.

I arrived home at five o’clock to find Penny in the living room, and no sign of Connie. Penny looked apprehensive.

“Can we talk?” she asked. “Please?”

“Of course,” I said, sitting down. “You start.”

“I’ve come to beg you not to finish with Connie. She’s distraught. She came to see me after school. We talked and then she came back here, but you didn’t come home. Honestly Graham, she’s out of her mind with worry.”

“Did she say what she’d done?” I asked.

“Yes, and she’s well aware how horrible it was of her. I think it was the shock of you arriving mid-morning and telling her you’d been accused of molesting a teenager. You know her picture of men’s characters is pretty poor: she told you what men did to her. I think she just felt it was her time in London all over again. I think she was afraid that while you were very good to her, deep down you might just be a predatory male like all the rest. I know we went through all that in January last year, but she’s still got a lot of damage to sort out even after all this time. Graham, it was the damage talking.”

She sat forward while she spoke and remained on the edge of the seat when she finished, she was clasping and unclasping her hands as I remembered she used to do when she was anxious.

“Where is she now?” I asked.

“At mine. She came and stayed the night.”

“The thing is,” I said, “this is a serious complaint, and if it’s upheld I will lose my job and I’ll be blacklisted. I stand to lose everything – this flat, my car, everything. I won’t be able to practise law. There’s even a likelihood of the police being involved.”

“But she said you’ve got recordings,” she said with animation.

“Yes, as long as they’re accepted.”

“Oh.”

“But that’s not the point, this was a matter of my livelihood, reputation and everything I have, and she was not on my side. Her first response was not to stand by me.”

“Yes, I see that now. But as I said–”

“Yes, she has a history with men. By the way, those recordings will be admissible. It won’t go beyond the hearing.”

“Oh, I hope so!” she said. “So where–”

“Tell her to come home. You can say we’ll talk some more. We’ll get over it.”

“Oh, that’s a relief. Thank you so much. I don’t know what we’d have done if you’d sent her away.” She came over to me and planted a long and sensuous kiss on my lips.

“Careful, Penny!” I said when I got my breath back. “If you’re not careful you’ll bring out my inner predatory male!”

“Perhaps that might be a good idea?” she laughed. “Connie goes on about how wonderful a lover you are, and I never really got the chance to try you out properly.”

“You could always ask her to lend me to you,” I grinned – I hoped lustfully.

“Fat chance of that!” she exclaimed with a pout. “She’s so bloody possessive where you’re concerned.”

“I imagine Martin might have something to say about it as well.”

“You’ve got a point there.”

She was on her feet, and pulled me up to see her out. At the flat door she put her arms round my neck, pressed her curves against me from neck to ankles and gave me another long and erotic kiss. I was getting to like it, my erection proved it and she knew it. Bad idea – good feeling. Mind you she’d obviously picked up a number of interesting moves since going with Martin.

“Go and rape Martin, young woman. I’m spoken for.”

“Aww!” she laughed, giving my bulging trousers a caressing rub, and left.

As I wandered back to the living room, I wondered about Penny. She had certainly loosened up remarkably since we were going out together. She seemed very free with her embraces and her kisses. Was she hoping... ? No! She wouldn’t do that to Connie, and if she tried it I wouldn’t let her. Connie was my girl, and I hoped she’d stay that way. I also hoped she’d have a little more faith in me.

I was waiting in the hall when she came through the flat door. She saw me and stopped in the entrance. I held my arms out and she dived for me. There was a sob, a long and open-mouthed kiss and a hug that seemed to go on for ever. It was perfect, right, fitting. Then we went to the living room and sat together on the sofa.

“Graham–”

“Hush!. You said everything you needed to say. I need to say I over-reacted. Penny made it clear to me that after your experiences with men it would have been surprising if you had reacted any other way.”

“But Graham, we’ve been together now for well over a year. You have never changed in any way in your behaviour. It just came out, and I knew I was totally wrong as soon as I said it, but it was too late, once out of my mouth it couldn’t be unsaid.”

“I think it will take longer than just a year to heal those wounds in your life. So shall we start again?”

She nodded and came into my arms.

“There is one thing,” I said. “Will you come with me to the hearing? I’ll come and collect you from Keele. You’ll need to clear it with the university. Tell them you are giving evidence in an enquiry.”

“Yes, of course. Will I be giving evidence?”

“I don’t know, but it might help.”

I was surprised that we got back to normal so quickly. Mind you, the three hours we spent in bed after that little conversation certainly helped. As we lay exhausted, I told her about Penny, and she laughed.

“Yes, she told me when she came back. Got you quite excited, she said.”

“She was asking about a threesome.” I said with a straight face.

Her expression was priceless. She opened and closed her mouth but no sound came out.

“No she didn’t!” I said with a grin. “What she said was, you keep on and on about my prowess in bed, and she never got a chance to try me out properly. She wasn’t serious.”

“I bet she was!” Connie replied. “Though she wouldn’t have gone through with it.” A pause. A giggle. “Perhaps.” Another giggle. “I hope!”

“So you wouldn’t mind if she gave me a test drive – assuming Martin was agreeable.”

“Humph! He won’t be! Of course, according to her, he’s no slouch in bed either. Hmm! That’s a thought.” She gave me a wicked look. “Foursome? Swap?”

Now it was my turn to look askance.

“OK,” she said with a peaceful smile, “enough jokes. You don’t want that and neither to I.”

I nodded. “You’re right. That sort of game messes up relationships. I want to commit to you totally.”

“And I to you, my darling,” she said, covering my mouth with a torrid kiss, which led to a reaction, and renewed stroking, and my fingers in her, and her hand round my cock, and some excited sounds and then a joining, and then some action until with cries we came again.

“There’s no room for anyone else,” she said idly, tracing my now deflating cock and licking her fingers lasciviously. I stroked her pussy and sucked my own fingers with a lustful look, and we both laughed till the tears came.

“By the way,” I asked her, “what happened to banana man? You know, her previous fiancé?”

“Oh, she said he didn’t last beyond that night at the restaurant. Too much for him.” She laughed. “Penny said she was surprised she didn’t even miss him – she had too much on her mind. Mother was devastated and blamed you.”

We looked at each other and then dissolved into laughter. Who else would her mother blame?

For the rest of the week, we enjoyed a local holiday. Nowadays I think they call it a ‘staycation’. We went hiking, we had the obligatory whole day shopping in town, we did the art gallery and the museum, and we ate out every night.

On Sunday morning, the Feast of St George, Patron of England, I got a phone call.

“Graham, it’s Patrick. What’s going on? I’ve got two rather irate companies wondering why you’ve left them in the lurch with no explanation.”

“Hello Patrick. You’ve not heard anything from Mr Walsh?”

“What’s with the ‘Mr Walsh’, Graham?”

“Mr Walsh suspended me last Wednesday pending a full enquiry. I was told to leave immediately. I sent him a memo, copied to you, pointing out the outstanding business with WJT, and Furvottigen, and the urgency, but received no reply.”

“Sorry, Graham. Did I hear you aright? He suspended you? You’d better explain.”

“You know we had a girl working here on work experience? Caroline Gresty?”

“Yes. Nice girl.”

“Not so nice. She delivered the post and collected at day’s end. We’d pass the time of day. It was fine at first, then she began to be a little flirty, and it got more earthy day by day. If you remember she finished the weekend before you went to London, and on that day she came into my office with a very tight top and very short skirt. Very short.”

“Yes,” he said with a laugh, “I remember the skirts. Who could forget them?”

“She offered herself to me. She locked the door, took off her top, and dropped the skirt, leaving her in her knickers and nothing else. I told her to get dressed, but she tried to get me interested in having sex with her. She’s not eighteen yet for God’s sake! I told her I was engaged to be married and I wasn’t interested, flattered as I was by her attention. I then told her sharply to dress and go. She took off her knickers, it was a thong, and threw it on my desk, ‘to remember her by’, dressed and left. She was not happy.

“On Wednesday Mr Walsh summoned me and told me that she had made a complaint against me to the effect that I had manhandled her and attempted to rape her, and when she resisted I took off her knickers as a souvenir.

“Mr Walsh did not ask me if it were true, simply suspended me, citing the fact that I had three women in the practice with whom I was having perverted sex parties. I challenged him to say that outside in front of witnesses, but he told me to leave immediately. As I said, I informed him of that outstanding work which needed urgent attention, but he did not respond.”

“I have to ask, Graham. Is there any truth in any of this?”

“With the girl? No. With the coven of three women? Partly. When my ex-fiancée Penny broke our engagement I was shattered, as you might remember. Zena lent a sympathetic ear, and that was the only part of her anatomy she lent me: we have always been platonic friends. I did then have a relationship with Colette for a while, which helped me get over Penny. Apart from that, we meet weekly to play contract bridge. They will corroborate that. That’s the extent of the debauchery.”

He laughed. “I could see Colette ‘helping’ you over your loss! Any man would love her ‘help’!”

“Since I met Connie,” I continued, “and since we have become engaged, everything except the Bridge, and giving Zena a lift to and from work, has ceased, and Colette will corroborate that. I mean, Patrick, you know Colette! If I was cheating on Connie with Colette I think Caroline’s story would have been laughed out of hand, perhaps even by Mr Walsh! No, on second thoughts, not Kieran!”

Patrick laughed, then was more serious. “But it’s her word against yours.”

The statement was true.

“That works both ways. It depends on whether I’m innocent until proven guilty, but I’ll tell you this, I have proof of a sort that the girl is lying, but after how Mr Walsh treated me, I’m not saying what it is. He was crowing that this might get me sacked. He’s always wanted me out. I’m wondering if he’s part of a conspiracy and I’m not happy about it.”

“As you wish,” he said. “I’ll get a meeting sorted for as soon as possible this week. We can’t lose WJT, and it’ll take weeks for someone else to get up to speed on that. I think I can hold them. Furvottigen are more patient. Will we need Zena and Colette at the inquiry?”

“Yes, I think so. And I’m bringing Connie.”

“As you wish, I’ll inform you when the meeting will take place.”

I took Connie back to Keele later that day and stayed overnight. I had to return on Monday to be at home when the phone call came. Connie was going to ring each lunchtime to find out if it had been arranged.

I did not have to wait long. The meeting was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, at two. I collected Connie on Monday evening.

The meeting was held in the largest ‘committee room’, which had a large table that could seat twelve. Connie and I, Colette and Zena (complete with portable cassette recorder) were already seated along one side of the table. Ann Fox, one of the secretaries, was next to Zena, and was to minute the meeting.

David and Patrick entered and sat at each end of the table. I wondered who would chair the meeting, I had no preference as long as it was not Kieran Walsh. They were followed by Kieran and a man I did not know. I looked for Caroline, but she was not there.

As the man sat down, there was a muted exclamation from him and from Connie.

“Mr Gresty!”

“Connie!”

“You know each other?” asked David.

“Yes,” said Gresty, “My wife and I are friends of the Roasburies, Connie’s parents.”