Chapter 9

Why did Andrew jump from suspicious disinterest with Abigail to telling her things he had not shared outside of his friends in Edinburgh? Andrew recognised a lot of himself in her. Plus fundamentally she was a nice person. But reflecting on it later, one of the reasons, however subconscious, was he thought his relationship with Helena and Navya would change. Navya because he would step back from her, and Helena because he expected her to step back from him. Helena wanted a boyfriend, something that she wasn’t going to get with Andrew. But Andrew was also lonely at Cambridge, in the sense of needing a confidante and he had found someone in the same situation. Heading back to London he remembered thinking was he now firmly stuck in the ‘friends zone’? The kiss at the train station suggested otherwise. But whatever the reason, Andrew had enjoyed the day with Abigail.

Sunday was a relaxing, do nothing day, exercising, swimming, Andrew made a couple of calls and wrote a few letters and then spent the late afternoon and early evening burning through three rolls of film. He played with shadows, glare off the water, things like that. August evening sunshine in London seeing what he could stumble across to film. Of the 108 shots he took that night Andrew was pleased with roughly half of them, and thought he had a really good picture with two or three. What he did do was use random passers-by as models within his shots. Not in the sense of stopping them and getting them to pose. The way the light played off the water, perhaps reflected off a building as well, it didn’t just change the scene, it also changed the way the ‘model’ was photographed. He could see balance issues with the light even as he was taking the shots. But it was sufficiently technical and geeky to appeal to him, while also being creative and artistic which always challenged him.

Monday morning saw Andrew at London Bridge station before 7.00 for the reverse commute to Sevenoaks, a quintessential commuter town in North Kent. On the train Vestie explained what they were doing that week. It was an inspection visit to check on security at the site and around the individual buildings. There had been no issues reported but Fort Halstead was one of the more sensitive Defence Laboratories, and therefore was regularly inspected. He also explained that Andrew was being used to stretch manpower. With so many people away in Germany and on another big job Lester had decided to use him as Vestie’s assistant allowing another qualified officer to be assigned to other tasks. Fort Halstead was about as secret a facility as Andrew could visit. There was an additional level of security clearance, Top Secret, for which you had to go through a process called Positive Vetting, and you needed that level of clearance to work at any of the nuclear or chemical warfare facilities. These facilities and the convoys between them took up a significant amount of resources. Using Andrew to help Vestie, basically as his secretary and driver, meant that other objectives could be met.

Now if they had been going to the Army Chaplains School (yes there was such a place) Andrew might have been pissed off at this arrangement but given that they were going to Fort Halstead he shut up and sharpened his pencil. Fort Halstead was home to the Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment and, as the name rather gave away, was responsible for explosives research for the British Military. Andrew was excited about being there and hoped that the reality of the week there matched his expectations.

For the most part the week-long inspection was interesting rather than fascinating. There must have been over 100 buildings scattered over a site that was part university campus and part garrison. There was a permanent MoD Police presence at the site, so a significant portion of the inspection was a review of their procedures. Andrew was the silent note taker and bag carrier during these parts of the inspection. In a lot of ways it was a tease being close to so many people that would have been very interesting to sit and talk to, but they kept away from the scientists. They were back in another LandRover for most of a day, looking at the physical security of the site. Andrew wasn’t sure who the place was meant to be secure from. So he asked.

“Jock, these guys do a lot of work on the IRA bombs, particularly the ones that don’t explode. They all end up here where they review the design and analyse the explosives. There is at least one helicopter arriving here from Aldergrove every week. And you know that item that we found a couple of weeks ago? This is where they will be working to defeat it. Because if we can then the Reds can too.”

That was him told. The week was a lot of interviews, checklists and walking and driving around. Vestie seemed happy about the security at the site but it wasn’t as if Andrew got to see everything. So the week was tantalising and frustrating yet interesting none the less. And this was one of more than 150 locations that the MoD Police were responsible for. They must have been stretched pretty thin to be using him on the review. And there was not one computer in use with the security force. There were lots of computers and terminals within the labs but they were not within their remit. At the end of the week it had almost been boring. They took the train back to London Bridge station and then the Tube across London to Headquarters. They did not have many files to return but it worked out well for Andrew. The train in from Heathrow came through Earl’s Court and he had confirmed with Suzanne flight times and it worked out reasonably well. He only waited for two trains before he saw her get off the third. As with Navya at Easter they immediately got back on the Tube and got off at Green Park in the centre of town. Finally away from the throng of people Andrew gave Suzanne a big hug and kiss.

“Four tube stops I have been wanting to do that.”

She laughed.

“Thanks for meeting me. Why did you meet me out there?”

“That is where my office is, so that was perfect.”

“I thought you were working at the Ministry of Defence?”

“I am. They have offices everywhere. The one I am based out of is at Earl’s Court. Anyway, how was the flight?”

“Fun yet boring. Full of businessmen returning to London at the end of the week. I got more than a few looks that’s for sure.”

“Well you do look delicious.”

“Yes Andrew, that was the look I was going for, delicious. Men!”

“Come on, let’s head upstairs to the Jubilee, it is only two stops.”

20 minutes later her bright chat had faded and she was quietly nervous as they headed up to Freya and Jim’s flat.

“Relax. They are nice people and you will be fine.”

Jim and Freya could not have been nicer. They recognised that Suzanne was nervous, bordering on uncomfortable, and went out of their way to make her feel at home and to get her to relax. Slowly it worked. Freya started talking about the wedding which is always a subject that is of interest to women.

“So I presume Andrew has told you that he is going to walk me down the aisle?”

“Yes he did.”

“So you will be sitting in the front pew of the church waiting for Andrew to sit beside you after he has given me away. What a terrible phrase. It sounds like I am being discarded. Anyway. My only living relative is a second cousin of my mothers who will also be in the front row with you. She and her husband are coming over for the wedding. We have exchanged Christmas cards for more than 35 years but this is the first time I will have ever met her. So she will know no one else at the wedding. It will just be you two couples in the reserved front row on my side. Jim?”

“I only have one reserved row as well. Moira is Freya’s maid of honour so it will be Lars, together with my late wife’s brother, his wife and two children. Neither of us have a large extended family. The final person will be Jean Wylie, my best man’s wife.”

Freya continued.

“At the reception there will be not be a formal receiving line. Jim and I will greet everybody but neither Andrew nor the best man will have to be in it. There is also not going to be a raised top table or anything like that. What we will have is a family table. So our family members from the two front pews will sit with us. We sort of have to do it that way as they will know so few other people. You and Andrew will host the table on one side of us and Norman and Jean will host the table on the other.”

Norman and Jean were Lord and Lady Wylie. Lord Wylie was Jim’s best man.

“Do you mind me asking who will be at our table?”

“Of course not. Leslie and Julian have accepted and will be at the table.”

Andrew didn’t think Freya needed to go on, he could see Suzanne’s shoulders relax when she heard this.

“Mhairi and Neil will be at the table as well. That reminds me. Jim, you must find out whether Mhairi is remaining Connelly or has changed to Clark. We are still finalising the last two couples. You get on well with the Rifkinds don’t you Andrew?”

“I do. Edith was very kind and helpful at your party at Hogmanay.”

“Excellent. So does that take care of most of your concerns?”

Freya really was trying to calm Suzanne.

“It does actually. It was all the little details that were bothering me. With Leslie and Julian there especially at the church as we enter, I will be fine. I am now excited about it. What Andrew doesn’t realise is that we are going dress shopping tomorrow.”

They all laughed and although Andrew’s was more of a groan. The four of them went out to dinner at the usual Italian trattoria round the corner, where the owner flirted outrageously with Suzanne to everyone’s amusement, including her own. Andrew was pleased that the evening had been such a success. The one thing that had cropped up during the evening which he had not realised until then was that Jim and Lord Wylie were going to be wearing the kilt. Given that it was two Scots getting married in the Scottish kirk in London, and the groom and best man were wearing the kilt it was pretty clear that Andrew would need to either hire or buy one. Once they were through in his room Suzanne seemed to really relax. She flopped down on the bed and looked up at him.

“Come and lie with me, I would like to talk to you. For a start I am not going dress shopping with you this weekend. I talked to Freya to understand what her dress looks like. The truth is I want a woman with me and have a fun day of trying on lots of different dresses. I want the dress to be nice and elegant, not too severe, but I also don’t want to upstage Freya. If Leslie is not free then I know Mum and Vanessa will come with me. So you are off the hook there. What we should do though is measure you and I will go to Haymarket to MacPhersons and order a kilt for you. You will need to come up for a final fitting but they will need time to make or alter one for you. Are you going to hire or buy?”

“I hadn’t realised until tonight that I would be wearing the kilt. Do you think I should buy one?”

“You are going to be at lots of weddings in your life, and you seem like the obvious choice to be Julian’s best man, so it will be worn a lot. You bought the dinner jacket for all the events at Cambridge. It seems like you should do the same thing here. Get a good one now and get lots of use out of it. My father has had the same kilt for more than 20 years.”

“Okay, I will play mannequin in the morning and thank you for thinking about all this.”

“It is not a problem.”

She stopped and smiled at him before carrying on.

“They really do treat you like family, don’t they? I have Aunts and Uncles that are not that nice to me. Does Moira get jealous, do you see her a lot?”

“I asked her that at Christmas but she is fine with it. There are two guest rooms here so when she has stayed she has her own room. She has been here but it was the weekend I was in Hamburg so I never saw her. She has as large a role at the wedding as I do so I don’t think there is any animosity there either. All I can say is that she is Daddy’s little girl, they have been on their own for more than 10 years, but she also has his sharp mind and independent spirit. She and Lars already live together and from what I have heard she is seriously considering moving to Iceland with him. I steer clear of all that.”

“Oh yes, Hamburg. Thank you for reminding me. You told me about your trip to the sex shop but then somehow managed to distract me. I can’t quite remember how.”

They both laughed.

“But you never got round to telling me about the rest of the night. You said you were out for four hours and the sex shop was the first 30 minutes. What else did you get up to?”

“We went to a strip club for most of the time, but we ended up watching a live sex show at the end of the night.”

“You watched people having sex?”

“Yes, and it was boring. She was bored, he was bored, although both of them were groaning away feigning ecstasy; the place was disgusting, the beer tasted like river water and the whole thing was about as erotic as changing a flat tire on the car.”

“Really?”

“Yes. It really was insert dick A into pussy B and mindlessly hump for 20 minutes before pulling out and coming on her tits. She might have been groaning and moaning but I swear she stifled a yawn.”

“So it didn’t turn you on?”

“Not in the slightest. It was sad.”

“What about the strip club?”

“It was better. The women were prettier and to make any money they had to be able to interact with the guys in the club. Actually now that I think about it there was one couple there. She went for more dances than he did.”

“Dances?”

“Yeah, I was clueless when I first got there. So you can sit and watch the girls take their clothes off, drink beer and that can be your whole night. But the girls come round the club trying to entice you to go for a private dance. This costs more money but it is up close and personal. They bump and grind, rub up against you and shake their tits in your face. You have to keep your hands on the arms of the chair. But that is how they make their money. So the four of us spent three hours there and I had three dances.”

“But you said the woman went for dances with the strippers as well?”

“Yes she did. I saw it with my own eyes. The dancers would sit with the couple and several times I saw the stripper laughing with the woman as she went for a dance. They were both having fun. Well the stripper was probably faking it but it was relaxed and happy. It wasn’t like the guy was forcing the woman. In fact I saw her call some of the dancers over. You know what I am like, I like to people watch and seeing this woman acting like a man at the club was fascinating.”

“Wow.”

At this point clothes were coming off in a hurry. In deference to Freya’s sheets Andrew wrapped up but quickly Suzanne was mounted on him, hands pressed against his chest riding him hard. Andrew used his long reach to grasp her arse and together they rode hard for the finish. He was back to complicated maths in an effort to hold on and as soon as Suzanne started shaking Andrew grunted and filled the condom with repeated squirts. He had to grab a pillow for Suzanne as she moaned loudly through her own orgasm. It was like they were trying to not get caught at their parents’ house or something. He dealt with the condom before getting back into bed. Suzanne climbed back up onto him.