Chapter 11

It became apparent towards the turn of the year that Joanna was developing nesting instincts bringing several young men home for the weekend over the next few months. Although Emma and Jerry said nothing to her and quite liked most of them they were relieved that she dropped all of them. None, in their opinion, matched up to their daughter.

The two of them decided to do a fortnight's fell-walking in June in the Lake District. They invited the girls but, being term time, Zoë could not make it. Joanna on the other hand leapt at it. They based themselves at Langdale. They walked every day, starting with fairly short ones but increasing the length and steepness as time went on.

At the end of their first week there were two new faces on the Saturday morning whom they did not meet until that evening at the bar. Their names were Ralph Woodhead and Simon Carstairs. Both were twenty-six or seven. Ralph was tall, well over six foot and lean. Simon was shorter and stockier at about five foot ten. Both were attracted by Joanna and soon all five were talking happily.

Ralph and Simon had met at school and immediately became friends, one of their common interests being rugby football. Both had made the first XV. They had both gone on to Cambridge, Ralph reading politics and economics and Simon mechanical sciences. They had then gone their separate ways. Ralph went into insurance in the City and Simon joined a national estate agency. He had spent his first year learning the basics and showing people round houses. After that he had spent three years in estate management before taking over the Pitsbury branch of the agency. That of course produced great excitement.

Despite their different employment each had maintained close contact with the other and frequently took holidays together. They had driven all the way up on Friday night, slept like logs all morning and had then gone for a short walk on Loughrigg Fell that afternoon. They were going to drive back south leaving early on the following Sunday morning.

"I'm surprised you haven't both got glamorous girls with you," grinned Emma.

"Just as well," riposted Simon, "or we'd have jettisoned them when we met Joanna."

Everyone laughed and Joanna blushed slightly.

"Actually," said Ralph, "we both want to do some pretty serious walking and I think that if we had brought any girls they would have become a bit fed up with us."

"Have you got a detailed plan then?" asked Jerry.

"Yes, subject to the weather of course. We're going to kick off with Bow Fell tomorrow as a warm up. Then it's Coniston on Monday, just a bit of a flog to get the breathing going, Illgill Head on Tuesday to be able to look down on Wastwater, Scafell on Wednesday, the Langdales on Thursday and finally Helvellyn on Friday. Saturday will be a day of rest before the drive back on Sunday, so a look at Skelwith Force and that sort of thing."

"That's quite a week," said Jerry.

"Yeah," replied Simon, "but good for the figure and fun too."

"Have you got any plans?" asked Ralph.

The girls looked at Jerry.

"Nothing really," he admitted, "but I did think we'd do Helvellyn: up Striding Edge and down Swirral or vice versa. I think that Scafell and the Langdales might be a bit too much for we old codgers."

"Speak for yourself," grinned Joanna.

"I'm a bit of an old codger too," smiled Emma.

"Rubbish!" exclaimed everyone.

Everybody laughed.

Emma squeezed Jerry's hand and they smiled happily at each other.

"Um?" asked Joanna. "Would you mind if I joined you for Coniston? If I run out of puff I'll wait for you on the way down."

Both men smiled delightedly. "We'd be honoured," said Ralph.

Conversation scarcely faltered although both young men could not help but show that their primary interest was Joanna.

On Sunday the family went on a boat trip on Windermere although they did put in a two mile walk in down the west shore. On Monday though, Joanna joined the boys and loved every minute of it. She did not run out of puff or slow them down. She was a little worried that she might invade the privacy of these two great friends but that was never apparent. They both seemed delighted with her company throughout the day.

The five of them met up each evening and had dinner together. Both Ralph and Simon were clearly taken by Joanna but it became clear, at least to Emma, that Simon was the one that Joanna was more drawn to. Jerry agreed but did not think that there was a great romance in the offing.

"Wishful thinking, my darling," was all he said as they got ready for bed.

Emma had to agree with him. "Although I think there's an attraction," she said.

"With a girl with Joanna's looks and character there could hardly not be."

"No, you clot. Her for him."

"Oh. Well. I rather agree with her."

"Ooh ducky!" giggled Emma.

"I know somebody who's going to get a smacked bottom."

"Ooh, yum!"

"Wicked wench!"

A giggling Emma got her smacked bottom, albeit very tenderly administered, and was then made love to, very thoroughly.

Joanna was divided. She was perfectly happy with the walks and climbs that Jerry planned for them but she wanted something more challenging such as the boys were offering. She took the bull by the horns on Thursday evening.

"Dad," she said, "why don't we do Helvellyn together as a grand finale tomorrow?"

Jerry looked questioningly at Emma.

"Why not? It's probably quite a stiff climb but we're used to that now."

"There's just one minor problem," said Ralph, "in that we've both done it a number of times, up Swirral and down Striding Edge or vice versa so we thought we'd do something different. We thought we'd walk up the valley to Red Tarn and then climb from there. It's not crags or anything but it's pretty steep. Then we'd come back down Striding Edge."

Joanna jiggled with excitement. "I'd love to do that," she exclaimed.

"What's your footwear?" asked Ralph.

"Boots with soles like tractor tyres."

Ralph and Simon looked at each other. So did Jerry and Emma.

Emma was clearly uncertain but she shrugged at Jerry. "I'm not entirely happy but she is twenty-three and mistress of her life," was her thought which Jerry read.

His thought was, "Let her do it even though we will be fussed."

"OK," said Simon.

"OK, sweety," added Emma.

Joanna beamed. "Thank you," she whispered.

It was agreed that Jerry and Emma would go up Swirral; they would all meet at the summit for a sandwich lunch and then go back down Striding Edge. Ralph or Simon would then give Jerry, Emma and Joanna a lift back to pick up their car.