Chapter 20

"WHAT!?!?" exploded the partly dressed Elizabeth after hearing that Pat would be joining her and Andrew for dinner that evening. "But it's our first proper meal of our honeymoon..." she protested.

"So? If it pleases me to have a guest for dinner, then a guest for dinner we shall have. Do you understand?" her newly acquired husband informed her.

"You know, Andrew, you've really changed recently. A few weeks ago you'd not have talked to me like this..."

Smiling, Andrew looked at his wife as he pondered on his reply. Cocking his head to one side, he finally said, "I guess I have. I think it's what my father's been telling me. Some of what he says is total crap, of course, but lots of it is remarkably sensible. But I'm sure that since your old man and mine think so much alike, you'll have had the same sort of lecture from him as I got from mine..."

Elizabeth nodded. "Yes, I probably have," she sighed before adding silently to herself, "And you don't know the half of it..."

"So, do you like the more assertive me?" Andrew asked her bluntly.

Stumped for a moment, Elizabeth considered her answer carefully. "Well, I like some of it... but I'm not impressed by how you look at that stewardess bitch!"

Again her husband smiled. "Tough, then, dearest. You'll just have to learn your place in life and accept that my word is law in our household!"

Now it was Elizabeth's turn to laugh for, while she enjoyed being humiliated and ordered about, to her it was an exciting game but a game that she reserved the right to end at any point she chose. "Listen, I'm a child of my generation, Andrew, not my mother's and if you think I'm going to live my life following every one of your whims while you stand up there on your god given pedestal, you have another thing coming."

Andrew then surprised her by nodding his head in understanding. "I see - and if you don't like how I treat you, you'll leave me?"

"Of course," she answered dubiously, wondering just why he was taking this so well.

"And if you leave me, I'll divorce you. You father won't take you back - you'll be a disgrace in his old fashioned, upper crust eyes. You have expensive tastes, Elizabeth, and no saleable skills. How would you live in the style that you have become accustomed to?"

"The courts would make you pay, Andrew. They'd give me half of what you own!"

Clutching his sides, Andrew almost broke down with hilarity. "That's only for the poor or badly connected. Since my family is rich, well connected and has good lawyers, you'd get hardly anything."

Elizabeth thought this over and, while she didn't want to live like Mabel or Master Sam, it might be better than the alternative of staying with the 'new' Andrew who seemed to be emerging like some sort of nightmarish butterfly from his previously kind and considerate cocoon.

"Still thinking that it might be worth it?" Andrew continued as if reading her mind. "Remember your Aunt Agnes?"

"The one in that private loony bin?" Elizabeth asked tentatively.

"The very same. You don't think she's really mad, do you?"

"I'd always assumed..."

"Naw. She just wouldn't do what your Uncle Arthur wanted so, eventually, he had her committed. It was only supposed to be until she repented and agreed to behave as he required but your Aunt was a strong willed woman and it took almost a year before she changed her mind... and, by then, your uncle had found himself someone else. He didn't want to take his wife back so..."

"He finds it easier just to pay to have her held in there," finished off Elizabeth with a shudder. "Poor Aunt Agnes. Knowing that she's never going to get out of there..."

"And, if you're not careful, you'll be joining her..." Andrew hinted darkly. "Now, put that thin, white evening gown on."

"But Andrew, I've got black underwear on - they'll show through - I'll look like some cheap tart..." Noticing that her husband was looking less than pleased and was tapping his foot impatiently, she instantly backtracked and, taking the dress from the wardrobe she demurely said, "Yes, Andrew..."

The evening-suited head waiter welcomed Andrew and Elizabeth at the door to the gourmet restaurant and lead then to a window table where Pat was already waiting. The two women looked each other up and down like a pair of alley cats just looking for an excuse to start a fight. "Nice dress," Pat complemented Elizabeth. "Nice undies too..."

Taking her seat, Elizabeth looked at the other woman's classically cut jacket and trouser suit worn without a blouse underneath. "Nice outfit," she countered with a smile. "How on earth did you manage to afford it on your wages?"

"Now girls," interrupted Andrew as he slid smoothly into the chair between the two rivals. "I'm sure there'll be time for some friendly general chit-chat later. For the moment, just look at your menus and decide what you'd like to eat..."

After the meal was over, Andrew signed the bill before leading 'his' women towards the exit, a hand resting on the bum of each and helping to propel her along. He was revelling in the jealous looks that many of the men in the room were giving him, as they clearly wondered how he could get two such good looking young female companions while they were stuck with their ugly, overweight wives.

As the trio passed the head waiter's desk, Andrew leaned towards Pat and told her to undo the single button that held her jacket closed.

"Pardon?"

"You heard him, Pat," smirked Elizabeth. "Undo the button!"

"I... I don't think I want to..." replied the dubious brunette.

With a quick movement of his hand, Andrew pulled a fifty pound note out of his jacket pocket, held it in front of Pat's eyes for a second before slipping it into one of the pockets in the woman's jacket. Smiling a rather uncertain smile, Pat considered what to do. Fifty pounds was fifty pounds, after all - a lot of money for simply undoing one button. And it wasn't as if he'd told her to remove the jacket - her breasts would still be mostly covered apart from if someone was stood at her side like Andrew was and, even if they weren't, so what? She regularly sun bathed topless on several beaches during her lay-overs, allowing all to look at her if they wished and none of them had ever offered her fifty quid for the privilege. Having talked herself into it, Pat undid the button and allowed the two halves of her jacket to separate and while this didn't put her breasts instantly on public display, it did mean that she had to be careful how she walked and turned since it was now blatantly obvious to any observer what her condition beneath her jacket was.

Chuckling louder now, Elizabeth looked at the other woman walking opposite her before commenting, "Cheap slut, aren't you?"

Suddenly Elizabeth stopped laughing as she felt a draught blowing up the back of her legs and it was then that she realised that Andrew had pulled up the rear of her dress before starting to tuck the material into the top of her panties thus leaving most of her bum, knickers and suspender belt on display to anyone walking behind the trio. Sensing that something was occurring, Pat peered over her shoulder and began to chortle as she saw what Andrew was up to - however, she quickly turned her head back to the front when she realised that her very act of looking had moved her jacket by several inches and she was showing rather more tanned tit to the world than she really wanted to! But this didn't stop her from taunting Elizabeth as she asked, "So, if I'm just cheap, what are you considering that you're letting him do that to you for nothing?"

"Nothing?" laughed Elizabeth back. "I got this!" she exclaimed holding up her left hand and showing off her gold wedding band.

Scowling, Pat shut up and Andrew lead the pair of bickering beauties towards the elevator...

After letting the two girls into his suite, Andrew made certain that he shut and bolted the door from the inside before settling himself down in the most comfortable chair in the room. Looking at the twinkling lights of the city spread out below her, Pat stood entranced before the floor to ceiling plate glass window. "Magnificent view!" she eventually breathed, "And I always wondered what the penthouse suites were like here..."

Seeing a chance to score a few brownie points while Pat was otherwise engaged, Elizabeth asked her husband if he'd care for a drink.

"Scotch," he replied. Then, as Elizabeth turned and headed towards the well stocked bar against the far wall, he went on, "and don't forget to offer our guest one too."

Muttering under her breath, Elizabeth continued on her way as Pat asked her for a gin and tonic. Making sure that she served Andrew first, Elizabeth then went on to give Pat her drink, but this was hardly done in good grace.

Sipping his whisky and appreciating its peaty flavour, Andrew looked the women up and down. "Warm, isn't it?" he ventured.

Both girls looked at each other a little perplexed before agreeing that indeed, it was.

"In that case," Andrew went on, "I think you should both take something off. Elizabeth, you go first - let's have that dress removed..."