Chapter 26

Julie was back in the house already, as was Sian.

They put the kettle on as soon as they saw me come up the stairs.

Julie and I had a long hug, and I also gave Sian a kiss and a hug. It was really good to be back with them.

They said that they thought Vee was still with Jeff at home, and would probably come down in the morning.

Sian and her parents had spent the Christmas week with her aunt, uncle and cousins; she reported that, as it hadn't remotely occurred to the 'grown ups' that the three of them would, or could, get into any mischief together, they had managed to relieve some tensions in the privacy of Sheila's bedroom on the pretext of playing noisy board games, while their parents napped or resolved the problems of the world downstairs.

"We had to learn to keep quiet, and we almost had to gag Sheila with Adrian's hankie one time! As there was a risk of being called downstairs for a cup of tea and Christmas Cake, we had to keep most of our clothes on, but Sheila and I wore skirts all the time, so that wasn't a huge problem. We actually only got interrupted once, and we'd only just started, so us two girls just nipped to the loo on the way downstairs, and quickly pulled some panties on."

"Oh, I almost forgot, they said thank you for their Christmas presents, and that they are really looking forward to seeing you two on Friday 18th for the dinner."

Malcolm was due back the next morning, so Sian wasn't going to have to wait too long for some more loving.

She said that he and his parents had been invited to his uncle's farm for Christmas, so it was quite possible that he had taught his cousin Elsie some of the things Sian had taught him. She had given him full permission to do whatever he liked; she had said that she owed Elsie a big favour in return for making Malcolm less shy over the summer holidays, and that she had told him that it would do him good!

I hoped that she was right. Or that Elsie was determined. I wasn't convinced that Malcolm would feel easy in his mind about what he would probably consider to be cheating on Sian.

We had a simple supper, and an early night. The house was reasonably warm considering that we hadn't been there for a fortnight; it had helped greatly that the girls had carefully closed all the curtains before we left, in order to keep what heat there was from escaping through the windows. Of course we had also benefited from any heating the girls in the flat below had, because the warm air rose up the stairwell to our top landing.

Once we were naked under the quilt, Julie announced that it had been a very long ten days since we had last seen each other. She wanted to make up for lost time, in a very similar way to Jen!

I just couldn't keep up the pace demanded of me, and had to confess to Julie that Jen had almost totally drained me.

"We did an awful lot of pretending to be Bruce and Anthea on honeymoon, with her legs wrapped around my waist!"

I thanked my guardian angel for allowing me almost seven hours to recuperate between leaving Jen's mattress and bedtime with Julie; with a little bit of effort, Julie did manage to raise just enough interest from Gustav to send her to sleep with a smile on her face.

I don't think I moved the slightest bit during the night; I was dead to the world. I was quite sure that my little sister was in a similarly comatose state in her bed in Reading!

xxxxxxx

Over breakfast that Friday morning, Julie gave me the third degree about exactly what I had done with Jen. I told her as much as I could remember.

"Bloody hell, Jon, the two of you must have been going at it hammer and tongs!"

"It felt a bit like that; Jen wanted to store up some orgasms against the approaching famine, and she didn't want to waste any time sleeping! We were forced to have a couple of naps though, we just couldn't keep it up for twenty-four hours non-stop."

"Well, I hope that you did your best for her, because the poor kid is struggling to find someone decent at Reading. Did you remember to invite her down here?"

"Oh yes, she's very keen to come and stay with us for a weekend at the end of January."

"Good, I'll make sure that I mention that in my next letter."

I had no doubt that some long and intimately detailed X-rated correspondence would be exchanged shortly! The girls seemed to be able to discuss sex far more easily than we boys ever did, and they went into far more detail. I would never in a million years have committed anything like that to paper; it had been difficult enough to write love letters to Julie!

Julie had some news of her own to tell me.

"I had a real stroke of luck - I overheard the man in the corner shop complaining to a customer that his assistant wouldn't get back for a week because their car had broken down and needed some parts, so I asked if he wanted a stand-in for a few days. He jumped at the chance, and I earned twenty quid! Mind you, sorting newspapers at half-past-five on a winter morning was a tough way to earn the money, and I wasn't too upset when his man got back on New Years Eve."

"Well done you!"

I was genuinely pleased for Julie; her parents hadn't allowed her to get a proper summer job, and I knew that she was embarrassed about being short of cash much of the time.

Although I was quite happy to pay for all our little treats, I knew that it would be better for our relationship if Julie was able to pay her way more often, and feel less reliant on me. I didn't want to hurt her pride; she was determined to stand on her own two feet through life, and all I wanted was to stand beside her as we faced the likely ups and downs of the future, together.