Chapter 3

Back at the department store, Joanna and Hannah had managed to find most of what was on the lists. The only things missing were kitchen machinery. Joanna wanted George to be there for that; she knew he was wealthy and used to getting the best of the best - the apartment, for instance, must have cost millions - but she had no idea what level of kitchen aids he wanted. Besides, Hannah was at dropping point with fatigue. Joanna called a coffee break in the store cafe and, over gigantic cappuccinos that seemed to revive the young Australian considerably, they finally got to talk. "I don't like that he has lost so much weight," Joanna said without any preamble, "and neither do you. I saw your brief shock in the airport."

"Yes," Hannah agreed. "It seems excessive. I guess it all has to do with Helen. He's forgotten to look after himself. His letters also lost their usual sparkle - only I was too preoccupied to notice and never gave him anything back," she added bitterly.

By gentle prodding, Joanna got her to tell the whole story. She even admitted to not telling George about meeting Greg because she felt it was like cheating. "I know that sounds absurd, but when I was a little girl I wanted to be married to him!"

"Not as absurd as you think," Joanna said. "George has that effect on some very young girls. I know Catherine is completely taken by him too."

Hannah smiled. "Yes, I worked that out in the airport. I could totally understand what was going on in her heart. It is not easy. But at least she is safe. He loves her and he will never hurt her."

"I know that," Joanna said. "He is no paedophile. It's not him that loves little girls in inappropriate ways - it's the little girls that love him. And they get over it."

"You know, I'm not so sure about that!" Hannah admitted - much to her own surprise. She had only known this woman for, what, 6-7 hours or so. And she was now telling her things she hadn't even told her mother. "Not sure at all."

"Well, you should get a chance to find out over the next year," Joanna said. "Don't rush into anything. People make mistakes if they enter a new relationship too soon after one breaks up." The advice was sound. And it was not only for the young nurse's sake; if Hannah did rush into George's arms on the rebound and then found out it was a mistake, it would crush him too.

She didn't say that of course, but somehow Hannah was thinking along similar lines. "Well, that cuts both ways. George is recovering from something far more serious than I am."

Before Joanna could respond to that, her cell phone rang. It was George; he and Catherine had arrived at the shop and wanted to know where to meet them. "At kitchen appliances on the 3rd floor," Joanna replied. "Expect to be bankrupted!" she added cheerfully.

George chuckled and ended the call. A few minutes later they met up; George and Catherine had brought an extra trolley. Joanna's initial hunch had been right - the selection process had the Oscar Wilde touch. 'I have the simplest of tastes - I am always satisfied with the best' was George's motto too, so they ended up with a seriously wonderful collection of kitchen appliances. "I would have no idea how to use that damned thing," Hannah laughed when a very advanced piece of machinery went into the trolley.

"Oh, I'll come and teach you," Joanna said wistfully. "I've always wanted one of those."

George's and Hannah's eyes met. They exchanged a significant glance. Catherine spotted it and after a second smiled knowingly too. "Help me distract your mother for a tic," George whispered and Catherine, quick on the uptake, dragged him and her mother over to look at something while Hannah put an identical machine in another trolley.

With three full trolleys Joanna didn't discover the plot, but when they got back Dave did. He was loudly complaining about 'too much guff' when they carried the haul up to the apartment. "Oh, you're such a cave-man Dave," his wife said. "You'd be fine with a heavy club and a roasting spit. Some of us like a more refined approach to cooking."

"That may be," he retorted. "But I bet you don't even know what you've bought!"

"We do too!" she replied. "It's just you who can't tell one thing from another."

"You're not wrong there," he said sarcastically. "To my uninstructed cave-man eyes, these two boxes look identical!"

Joanna stopped dead in her tracks, staring at her co-shoppers. Hannah and Catherine avoided her eyes but giggled. George met her gaze calmly with a tiny smile on his lips.

Joanna blinked first. "Oh George, you shouldn't have!" she exclaimed.

"What? Miss a chance like that?" he asked. "It is easier to find a present for the proverbial middle-aged gold fish that has everything than finding one for you. You expressed a wish - well, you got it. Hannah, Colin and I would like to thank you for all your help."

A defeated but happy Joanna supervised the unpacking of the kitchen stuff.

Dave's crowing rights were not over. "Did you buy a funnel and a pint-measure jug?" he asked - much too innocently - coming back to the kitchen a little while later.

When met with blank faces, he continued "I understand why a subtropical girl might want a nice warm waterbed to get through a cold London winter with said city's notoriously badly heated dwellings, but the trick to a water bed is, well, water. A lot of water. Except it doesn't come with the bed when you buy it. You have to put it in to the mattress. Thus the funnel..."

"OK, OK, OK," George said. "I get you. A garden hose would have been a good idea. We might get one tomorrow if we can find an open garden centre."

"Sure," Dave chuckled, "but then there will be no bed tonight..." - and he went back to Hannah's room to assemble more furniture.

"Sorry about that," George said to no-one in particular.

"Oh, don't worry," Joanna said. "The bedding has to be washed like all the other new stuff, so you have to sleep at our place tonight anyway. Speaking of which, the first load of washing will finish in a mo'. When that's in the drier, we head home. This poor girl needs food and a bed and she needs it soon."

Hannah was in no position to argue. She, in fact, fell asleep in the car while driving to Joanna and Dave's house. When she woke up next morning in an unfamiliar but pleasant room (Catherine's, to be precise) she had no recollection of getting there or getting undressed and put to bed. Attempts at finding out how it had happened were met with friendly vagueness. She had slept in the same panties she had travelled in, but the tee-shirt was different so someone had removed hers - in addition to her shoes, socks, jeans, jumper, necklace - and bra - before tucking her in. Not that it worried her, but she felt a slight regret not having 'been there', as it were, the first time George saw and felt her boobs. If it was indeed him.