Chapter 12

Education in the Henderson household had been something of a bone of contention. Marjorie Henderson, Pippa's mother, was a product of private schools, Conrad, her husband, of state schools. He believed the local state schools to be excellent, and that attendance there would provide Pippa with both a perfectly adequate preparation for university, and social experience that would better fit her for her future life than any private education. Marjorie Henderson, it has to be said, was something of a snob. Her acceptance of Nadiya could have gone either way. She put a good face on her husband's insistence on state education and had to acknowledge that a private school might have been difficult for Nadiya, quite aside from separating her from Pippa.

Just as an aside, here, none of the summer's events made it into the news; there was too much power and influence around. The limited circulation of video records of the interviews resulted in a number of resignations by senior figures in politics and law enforcement. Several deaths (including the one in Woodbridge, the man from whom Nadiya escaped) were passed over as 'fatal heart attacks'. The man captured by Goat and Snoopy was eventually found washed up on a beach, presumably drowned, having 'fallen over the side of a ferry while drunk'. The full story is yet to be told.

Nadiya's first days at school can best be described as 'confusing'. However, she was evidently a bright and able girl who soon managed to integrate satisfactorily. She deflected several requests for dates by claiming she wasn't allowed to date yet; that raised eyebrows, but was accepted.

Pippa, however, was a different matter. Her changed appearance, combined with taking more trouble with her dress and hair, added to her new-found air of confidence, caused her contemporaries to take a new look at her which resulted in several approaches for dates. She declined as diplomatically as possible on the grounds, "I have a boyfriend."

Marjorie Henderson did not entirely approve of CC. The only times she'd seen him, he'd been dressed for sailing old boats. In denim, marked with Stockholm Tar, sail dressing and paint. She had not registered that he was in the UEA (University of East Anglia) undergraduate law programme. Her disapproval when Pippa was intending to spend the weekend at Maldon working on the barges with him was muted, however, when he arrived to collect her daughter in a late-model BMW, straight from the University campus in smart casual clothes...

It was a cruise weekend, and they were crewing SB Reminder for skipper Tom Carmichael, with a group of bird-watchers; they were to leave around nineteen hundred and return around twenty-two hundred on Sunday. A late finish, but unavoidable.

Their passengers were less interested in the sailing than in what they could get to see around the mud and saltings, so the sailing wasn't strenuous. They anchored for the night at Bradwell, by the decommissioned nuclear power station and landed some of the passengers for a short walk after an early breakfast to see what could be seen in the designated nature reserve area. Once the ebb was well started they sailed down the coast before heading up the Colne to anchor at Fingringhoe.

The fo'c'sle – the space right in the bows of a boat – in Reminder is not large, and contains three single bunks, one of which is an enclosed, coffin sized space in a locker, giving some privacy, but also a climb to get in. As it happens, that bunk is also the one with a deck leak over it ... a leak which has defied all attempts at cure for years. None of the bunks is large, so really the only way two people are going to lay down together is one on top of the other.

When Pippa and CC finally got to bed – getting on for twenty-three hundred hours – on Saturday, it was really their first opportunity for privacy. They got naked and Pippa lay on top of CC. Anticipation had both of them very ready for penetration, but once there, they barely moved; just lay revelling in the sensations.

"Pippa ... you kept saying you didn't want commitment. Is that still true?"

She kissed him gently as she considered his question. "I think so. Did you want to change? Did you want to ... be more than a ... friend with ... what's the expression? Oh, yes. Benefits."

"Well, no, actually. You know I think you're beautiful. And sexy. I hate to think of a life in which you weren't my friend. With or without benefits. But I don't think I'm in love with you."

"And I'm not in love with you, CC. They say you never forget your first, so you'll always be special and I hope we'll always be friends." She manoeuvred until she was upright and riding him, having cautiously made sure there was enough headroom. There was ... just. She rocked her hips and he sighed with pleasure, and reached to fondle her breasts.

"Such pretty titties," he said, "and such ... sumptuous curves," running his hands down her sides to hold her hips lightly as she began to gyrate on him. "Keep that up and I'll fill you up."

"That's okay ... I'm," gasp, "coming anyway!"

The squeezing and rippling of her vagina as she orgasmed was all CC needed to push him over the edge. Pippa laid herself carefully on top of him. He went back to caressing her body as she sprawled there.

"This is just ... heaven," he said quietly.

"I'm glad you like it, 'cos I do too," Pippa told him. "But I think you were going somewhere with your questions, weren't you?"

"Well, yes..."

"Well, go on..."

"I don't want to offend you, or lose your friendship, Pippa, so just say if you disapprove. I want to date Nadiya. I can't get her out of my mind. When I'm with you, it's fine. You're great and I love what we do and I love just being with you and talking to you. But since you took her back with you, I can't ... I can't forget her."

Pippa kissed him softly. "You lovely man." Kiss. "I can't think of anyone I'd rather trust with my sister. Her birthday – sixteen – is in the middle of next month, the sixteenth. I expect mother will have something in mind in the way of a party, probably involving classmates from school, but possibly Valda and Liina as well. Why don't you think of something nice to do with her the weekend after? I don't know ... you'll just have to ask. I don't think she'll hit you over the head." She kissed him again. "Can I have another weekend with you before then? I won't feel right about this if you are dating Nadiya."

"Of course. And of course we'll have to stop making love if ... well, if Nadiya wants to date me. Crumbs, I'm four years older. Won't she mind?"

Pippa giggled, which did interesting things to her anatomy when she was pressing against him and squeezed his softening penis out of her. "I think a College boyfriend may be every teenage girl's dream. I'm almost certain ... but no. You must ask for yourself."

When Pippa realised her eyelids were drooping she crossed to the other bunk and zipped herself into her sleeping bag. "G'night, CC."

"'Night, Beautiful."

The rest of the weekend was uneventful. A slow, relaxing sail – more of a drift, really – down the Colne gave the ornithologists plenty of opportunity to look at the creatures of their obsession. A sailing barge, of course, is almost silent, and ideal in the right conditions for getting close to waders and sea-birds. Anchoring at Mersea for lunch then slowly working back up to Maldon; not quite so easy in the south-westerly wind. A stop at Lawling Creek including tea, watching the tide gradually covering the mud-flats, finishing back at the Hythe Quay just after twenty-two hundred. An hour's work to put the barge to bed, then back to Brentford for Pippa. Having dropped her off, CC had a longer drive back to Norwich.

A fortnight later, the two of them were on their way back to Maldon. It was to be a maintenance weekend, with just one cruise on the tide on Saturday. CC had negotiated the use of Serendipity to sleep. It was, Pippa thought, perfect that for what was probably their last two nights sleeping together they could, in fact, sleep together and make love in comfort.

CC returned Pippa home in the early evening on Sunday and, for once, went in the house with her.

Pippa called her mother out of the lounge where she was sitting watching a film with Nadiya. "Mother, could we have a word with you and Dad?" The expression on Marjorie Henderson's face was priceless. "Don't worry, it's not about me. We just want to talk to you about something."

Conrad Henderson's expression was slightly more relaxed than his wife's, but not much.

"What's this about, then?"

CC cleared his throat. "I ... er ... want to take your ward out for a date, after her birthday. I haven't said anything to her yet because I wanted to make sure you didn't object."

Pippa's father looked at his daughter, "You don't mind?"

"I approve," she said, simply.

He looked back at CC, "You're – what, twenty?"

"Nineteen, sir. Twenty in the New Year."

"You know how it looks to have a twenty-year old undergrad taking out a sixteen-year old? Especially considering her history?"

"Yes, sir, but..."

"Don't be silly, Dad," Pippa interrupted, "CC knows he can get anything he wants right here."

He looked sternly at his daughter, suppressing a smile (his wife looked shocked), "I think that's more information than we either need or want, Pippa."

"Yes, Dad. But I want you to know ... I think CC and I have been very good for each other. He's not a horndog, he's gentle and considerate and I trust him to be very careful with my sister."

There was a pregnant pause, during which the older couple looked at each other. "I suppose," Pippa's mother said hopefully, "it depends on Nadiya wanting to go out with CC."

"Go and ask her," Conrad Henderson said.

When CC entered the lounge alone, Nadiya looked round from the T/V. Puzzled and uncertain, nervous, she muted the box and slowly came to her feet.

"Hello, CC." Her language skills had improved immeasurably in just a few weeks.

"Nadiya, I wanted to ask you ... if ... you'd like to go out with me. After your birthday, I mean."

Few could have followed the play of expressions across her face. "But ... what about Pippa?"

"Pippa and I ... we talked over the weekend." (He didn't say which one) "We agree that we want to be friends ... just friends. This is up to you; if you don't want to go out with me, well, I'll be disappointed, but I'll leave you be."

Nadiya thought for a moment. "Just a minute, CC." She left the room and found Pippa and her parents in the study.

"Pippa, CC just asked me for a date. He said..."

"I approve, Nadiya. I think you've liked him a lot for a long time and I trust him. If you want to go out with him, it's fine with me."

"And we think it has to be your choice," Conrad Henderson put in. "If you want to do it, we won't try to stop you."

CC was pacing the room when she returned.

"Where will you take me?" She smiled as she asked.

"Well, I'm not very experienced. I was going to ask what you'd like to do. It could be dinner; I know some nice restaurants."

"CC, I tell you, I never had proper dates, before ... you know ... What I like, a film and ... McDonalds. Can we do that?"

He laughed. "Of course! Here I was wanting to impress you!"

She reached out and took his hand. "You did that long ago."

The film, a chick-flick recommended by one of Pippa's friends, was okay. Shortly after it started, Nadiya took his arm and draped it round her shoulders, snuggling against him. Somehow it felt right to him and he squeezed her gently. He felt her move and looked down as she looked up; their eyes met and she smiled ... their lips met in a soft kiss and she hummed in contentment.

They walked hand in hand to McDonalds, where her eyes sparkled as she asked for "A Big Mac, fries and a Coke, please."

CC had to smile as she took an enormous bite of the burger and closed her eyes as she chewed. She swallowed, reached out and laid her hand on CC's. "Back ... in Russia..." She paused and swallowed, "I nearly said 'home', but ... anyway. When I was just another girl at school in Moscow, I dreamed of having a handsome boy take me to see a film and then to McDonalds for a burger. Then ... you know what happened ... I thought I would be a ... whore ... for the rest of my life, which would probably be short. You can not understand what this means to me."