Chapter 28

Wednesday 10th May to Saturday 2nd September 1972

On her Wednesday phone call, Connie was distressed.

“Dad has ordered me to break off my engagement to you. Apparently Mr Gresty has been in touch and Dad now holds you responsible for the severance between them. He won’t believe you were innocent and reckons Gresty was paid off, and like all lawyers you’ve got away with it.”

“I’m sorry, my darling,” I said. “So what are you going to do?”

“You need to ask? I told him I would do no such thing,” she said in some agitation, “and he said he would cut me off financially if I refused to finish the engagement. He won’t pay anything towards the flat here or my living expenses next year. But I won’t give in, Graham. You come first. If I have to, I’ll give up getting my degree.”

I realised we did not need Geoffrey’s money any more, thanks to my new position in the practice.

“Connie,” I said severely, “you’ll do no such thing. After my promotion we can easily afford for you to keep the flat on next year and to pay all your living expenses. You carry on. Bugger him!”

I could hear her sobbing over the phone. “Oh Graham, what have I done to deserve you? I love you so much!”

“Come on, Connie, don’t cry! We can do this easily. Just concentrate on your revision. I’ll see you on Friday.”

“OK,” she sniffed. “You’re so good to me.”

I went to bed that night deeply resentful of the actions of her father, whom originally I’d thought was on our side. It set me thinking and before falling asleep I had an idea. When I awoke the next morning, the idea was still fresh and appealed even more. I looked forward to sharing it with Connie and getting her response.

So on Friday I arrived early and was waiting for her when she arrived. She hugged me looking a little frazzled.

“Desmond!” she said. “Won’t take no for an answer. I told him I was not interested and he launched into a speech. I think my father had coached him! I told him your news and he was so stupid as to say you were lying! I mean, how could such a lie be sustained anyway?”

I kissed her, and then kissed her again. At last she relaxed.

“You make everything right,” she said as she hugged me, her head on my shoulder.

“Let’s sit down,” I said. “I’ve had an idea I want to run by you – see if you agree.”

She sat down, and I sat next to her, turning towards her. She was all attention.

“I’ve had enough of all these sabotage efforts from your parents,” I began.

“So have I,” she agreed. “So?”

“I thought we might bring our wedding forward as early as possible.” I sat and watched her.

Her face showed it all. The idea percolated through, her brow furrowed and then the sun came out in her huge smile. Her eyes twinkled and she looked at me in admiration.

“What d’you think?” I asked.

“I don’t need to think. It’s a great idea. How soon can we do it?”

“We can do it right away,” I said mischievously, “but the marriage will take a little longer.”

She laughed and stood up.

“Well?” she asked. “How soon can we get married?”

As she asked she began to strip, shedding her clothes one by one, blouse, skirt, bra, knickers, stockings, suspender belt. She ran her hands over her sides and up to her breasts, which she pushed together before standing with legs apart and running one hand down her stomach and cupping her sex, which she began to rub, looking at her sultry best.

I stood and began to undress. “I thought end of August or early September,” I said as I completed the manoeuvre by pushing down my briefs.

“Oh, yes!” she sighed, gazing at me, her glance roving from my feet where the briefs had fallen, slowly over my body. As her eyes fastened on my erect cock and then continued to appraise my stomach and chest, she licked her lips lasciviously and looked into my eyes smouldering with desire. I groaned, and she smiled with satisfaction.

“Yes,” she said. “That’ll give me time to get organised, but now stud, take me and roger me stupid!”

“Hey, less of the stupid!” I quipped.

“You know exactly what I mean,” she growled. “Now do me.”

She ran to the bedroom, her bottom swaying as she went. She leapt onto the bed, lay on her back and spread her legs as wide as she could. Her sex gaped and it was obvious she was ready. I made to eat her, but she exhaled in annoyance.

“What part of ‘do me’ and ‘roger me’ don’t you understand? Get that fucker into me and shag me senseless!”

She lifted her legs over her body holding her thighs. Her vagina was open in an enticing ‘O’. I crawled up her and she grabbed my rigid tool and lined it up. In I went, her velvet, slick, dark channel offering little resistance but a soft caress.

She rested her legs on my shoulders, and grabbed her tits, mauling them, and tweaking the nipples as she gasped and groaned. I supported myself on my straight arms and gave her the pummelling for which she was begging me. My balls slapped her bottom cheeks over and over, sensitising them. One of her hands snaked down and strummed her clit as her cries and shrieks demonstrated her immediate climax.

The feeling of a firm soft vagina rippling with an orgasm is exquisite, and in my case got me off. I froze deep inside her, stock still as I felt my cock spurting my seed into her, my balls resting on her perineum which twitched delightfully in response to my gift.

She dropped her legs and pulled me down on top of her, pressing me onto her satiated body, her eyelids heavy with repletion.

Still within her, we kissed gently.

“You’ve no idea how wonderful it is to be taken hard and violently like that, by someone who loves you for ever.”

“Even after your London experience?”

“Especially because of London, it’s an immense difference. I love it from you.”

My cock slipped out of her and I rolled off her to the side and we hugged.

“Are we really going to get married this summer?”

“We really are if you really want to.”

“Oh, yes, I really want to. Really!”

She did well in her exams and was on course for a first class degree the following year. This time neither of her parents was anywhere to be found as the term ended, but once she was back home, Penny, Martin, the ‘girls’ and my family were eager to congratulate her and to celebrate her success.

We announced our intention and of course all the females became a thoroughly efficient and energetic team for wedding preparations. We males were abandoned, which seemed to mean we were to keep out of the way unless needed in some ancillary rôle.

By the end of July, both Connie and Penny were on summer holidays and my mother completed a formidable trio always free to prepare. I was relieved to be sidelined as I settled into my new rôle at work. There were regular partners’ meetings and a deal more administrative work which the other two were delighted to pass onto me! I also retained the reputation as ‘fixer’ in complex transactions, mergers and takeovers.

At the partners’ meeting I let things get to AOB.

“Patrick, David, I’m getting married to Connie this summer. Of course you’re both invited to the wedding.”

They two of them were wreathed in smiles.

“Congratulations Graham,” said Patrick, shaking me by the hand.

“Couldn’t happen to a better couple,” said David continuing the shaking where Patrick left off.

“I’m thinking of a Friday, possibly in September, so I need to give you notice of that. Are you OK with Friday? David?”

“September? As long as I can get home by seven,” he said with a laugh.

Patrick looked thoughtful. “Who else were you thinking of inviting?”

“We haven’t finalised the guest list yet, but it will definitely be Colette, Zena and Harriet, probably John, my erstwhile clerk, and possibly more.”

“Well,” David said, “if you’re having it on Friday, shall we close the office, give everyone the day off with pay?”

“Good idea,” Patrick concurred. “that way everyone gets to celebrate whether they get invited to the wedding or not.”

“That’s a brilliant idea,” I said. “So any Friday in September would be clear – I’ve looked in the diary.”

Connie and I made the decision that we would choose the venue for the wedding meal and evening disco, and found a hotel with a reputation for superb food near the Parish Church where we were now both ringers.

The hotel had every Friday in September free, at that time most people still married on Saturdays. The Vicar also said there were no other weddings on the first and eighth of September, and so Friday the first of September was booked.

At this point I must beg your indulgence having come this far. The actual ceremony was the victory over all the setbacks, diversions and suffering that I and others had to undergo. It was the putting right of a good deal of wrong, and, I have to say, it was the best thing I ever did. So I’m going to dwell on that ceremony a little, celebrated so many years ago.

On Friday 1st September the sun shone all day. No really, it did! A miracle for the North West. Not really, this damp part of the world gets some share of wonderful weather.

My best man was my younger brother Jack. He and I, along with Penny, Jane and Kitty, Connie’s Bridesmaids, waited in the porch as the bells rang out inviting all and sundry to the service. The ringers were giving their services free of course, and rang a very pretty touch of Grandsire Doubles as we waited.

Her car arrived and Connie emerged from it and took the arm of Derek who would escort her to me in the porch. There are two things to note here.

The most obvious is that Lucy and Geoffrey Roasburie were not at the wedding. They had not been excluded by anyone but themselves. The invitation had been sent, but they did not reply. So Derek took the place of Father of the Bride.

The second is that Connie had decided with that firm jutting of the chin that brooked no refusal, that she would not be ‘given away’: she was no one’s property. As she said, she had been treated as the property of a number of men who abused her, and she would never be property again.

“And anyway,” she added to me, “if anyone deserves to bring me to the altar, it’s you.”

It brought a lump to my throat. So we were to walk up the aisle together, with Derek and Ingrid (as ‘mother of the bride’) next and best man and bridesmaids after them.

The dress was white. “I hope it’s not too hypocritical,” she grinned afterwards, “but it symbolises for me that I desire with all my heart to come to you as a virgin and my regret that I’m not. Also it’s my first and only wedding.”

The dress was also modest, though it was very shaped to her delightful hour-glass shape which could not be hidden, nor would anyone want it to be. It fastened round her neck and was full length. She also had a veil which was over her face as she came up the path. This was a nod at David Reich, who was Jewish.

The bells silenced, the organ played “All people that on earth do dwell” and it was good to hear everyone singing. When we reached the altar steps the vicar explained the significance of my raising the veil as referring to the story of Jacob in the Torah (I asked him to use the term Torah for David’s sake) who was tricked by Jacobs’s putative father in law Laban into marrying his less pretty older daughter, Leah, when Jacob really wanted to marry the younger pretty one, Rachel. The vicar went on to say that all turned out well, since Jacob married Rachel as well, but that was why the groom lifts the veil – to check it’s the right woman he’s marrying!

He then added something I had not said, but Penny had told him.

“I believe the older sister in this our story today, did go out with Graham, but is now spoken for! I think Graham will be well pleased with the vision he receives as he now lifts the veil.”

I lifted the veil up and over, and he was right, she was unspeakably beautiful. It was probably the makeup expertly applied, in this case by Penny, but Connie had never looked so pretty as she did then when I raised the veil.

The ceremony progressed according to the rites of the Church of England, the only surprise for me was that when repeating the vows after the vicar, she added “obey” which he had omitted, causing him to lose his place and raise an eyebrow, as well as a grin. Again, later she said it was an act of faith that I would always treat her as an equal and we would decide things together. She said I deserved it.

We left the church to Widor’s Toccata, which was not as common a recessional as it is today.

We had invited family and close friends to the wedding ‘breakfast’, and a large number of other folk to the evening disco and buffet supper, so it was doubly gratifying to see many of the evening guests at the actual wedding.

Once in the wedding car we kissed ‘properly’, by which I mean using tongues, which would have been out of place in the ceremony, where our kiss was still thorough, but more suitable before the children present at the service.

I worried a little that her parents’ absence would cast a shadow, but she was not in the slightest bothered and all day her face was lit by a beatific smile. Again she explained that they had repudiated her and not just once, and she had lived without them long enough that their absence had no emotional effect at all. “Their loss,” was her only comment.

Derek took the rôle of Father of the Bride for the speeches. By common consent the absence of Connie’s parents was not mentioned though in thanking everyone for coming, especially his aunts and uncles, it was glaringly obvious who was not present or referred to. The rest of his speech was short and loving, telling a few humorous anecdotes about Connie’s childhood and teenage years, praising his sister for always being herself and for coming through her trials in London with so much balance and strength. Then he toasted us.