Chapter 33

I was up and about at half past seven on the Saturday morning; sometime during the night I had promised Sheila that I would go out to the local shops and get some more bread and milk in good time for breakfast.

As we were lying together in the warm cosy aftermath of making love for the second time, she had suddenly remembered that the loaf of bread intended for breakfast had already been scoffed for our chip butties, and that with six mugs of tea at a time, a pint bottle of milk didn't have a very long life expectancy.

I had said that I'd nip out before breakfast, and we snuggled down and went back to sleep.

I got dressed in our bedroom, despite the temptation of staying cuddled up to Sheila's soft warm body in the bed, and nipped next door to the bathroom for a pee and a quick brush of my teeth.

When I went into the darkened living room, to find Jen and her boyfriend talking quietly as they cuddled under their quilt, there was no sign of embarrassment from either of them. I was heartened by that; Hamish clearly hadn't been offended by being stampeded into having sex with Sheila and Julie the night before.

Hamish noticed that I was fully dressed and asked where I was going; when I told him my errand, he immediately said that he would come out with me. He kissed my sister, got out from under the quilt, and rapidly began to throw on some clothes.

A naked (but not blushing, nor one tiny bit shy) Jen then also got up from their makeshift bed in front of the fire, and unhurriedly headed into the bedroom to take my warm spot in bed beside Sheila, stretching up and giving Hamish a lingering kiss on her way.

"Bring us a cuppa when you've made it, please, darling?"

"Of course we will!"

She didn't even pretend to pick up her nightie from the chair where it had been thrown as they went to bed, and the satisfied glow she exuded told me instinctively that they hadn't been long finished making love. Perhaps that was what had woken me up?

Gustav had quite a twitch in my underpants at the sight of my sister's nude body; he had very fond memories of it. It had been four weeks since he had last explored her velvety fastnesses; he most certainly would have welcomed another opportunity!

I quickly turned back round to face Hamish, so as not to get caught letching after Jen. Luckily, he was fully occupied in pulling on his shoes and tieing the laces, and hadn't noticed my eyes following his girlfriend's lovely female curves.

For a few selfish moments I almost wished that Hamish wasn't here, so that I could go and join Sheila and Jen in bed. But I immediately told myself that I was just being jealous and egotistical (behaving like the dog in the manger, as we would have said at home), and it was far better that Jen now had a permanent man of her own. Besides, I liked Hamish. He was a great lad.

He now had his coat on, and was ready to go out. As we went through the hall, I grabbed my jacket. It still smelt a little bit of the previous evening's chip shop visit, but a brief outing in the fresh air would probably cure that.

We let ourselves out of the flat, went down the stairs and into the street. We found ourselves in the shadow of the terrace, so crossed over the road to get away from it and into the sunshine. There was only a little bit of heat in the mid-February early morning sun, but it was just good to be out in it after weeks of what seemed like continuously cold, wet and dark days.

"Jon, what do you do about contributing to the twins' expenses? They surely can't afford to feed all four of us all weekend?"

"They are a bit sensitive on the subject - they weren't allowed to work and earn any money over the summer, but their parents pay for the flat, so they aren't skint. I find it best to cheat; I volunteer to do the shopping, and accidentally forget to ask Sheila for the money!"

"That's what I thought you might do! Jen and I were talking about it, and we'd like to help as well. My Mum's butcher is just down the road, I'll get some bacon and eggs from him for breakfast. He gets his pork from somewhere up near Cheltenham, it's really good."

The butcher was opening his shop as we approached, and he gave Hamish a big smile of recognition.

"Good morning, Mr Waite, how are you keeping?"

"Fine, thanks, Hamish, you're up and about very early!"

"We need some breakfast please! Could I have a dozen eggs, a dozen of your breakfast sausages, and a couple of dozen rashers of bacon - back, not streaky?"

"I hope there are more than just the two of you planning to eat all that? I thought you were away at University? Don't they feed you there?"

"They certainly don't feed us that well! I miss your stuff; they don't seem to have a proper butcher supplying my Hall of Residence, or they are cutting costs too much. I've gone right off streaky bacon! Anyway, I'm staying with some friends up the road, and there are six of us."

"Oh, I'd better throw in half a dozen tomatoes as well then! The mushrooms haven't arrived yet. I haven't got the cashbox out yet either, so I'll put it on your Mum's account, and you can settle up with her later. You owe her one pound and twenty-four pence. There you go, enjoy your breakfast!"

We thanked him, turned into the baker's shop for a couple of freshly baked loaves, picked up a couple of pint bottles of milk from the corner shop, and strolled back to the flat.

As we turned into Caledonia Place, Hamish finally broached the subject that had clearly been bothering him.

His face was too open and honest to keep a secret for long - I had known from the start that he had volunteered to come out with me because he wanted a chance to ask me something in private, away from my sister's inquisitive ears.

"Jon, I'm going to have to nip home this morning to show my parents that I'm still alive - do you mind if I take Jen with me?"

"Good lord, no! As long as she doesn't get the third degree about seducing and corrupting their son and heir - and I think your Dad's sense of humour is great by the way - she'll be really chuffed that you think enough of her to introduce her. Julie nearly killed me with passion the night I asked her home to meet my folks; girls seem to set a lot of store by that."

"Thanks! I was really worried about how you would take it, what with me sleeping with your kid sister and all that."

"Nah, she's an adult now, as she constantly keeps reminding me, and I'm really pleased for her. It would be very hypocritical of me to comment on her sex life, I'm just so delighted that she's got together with a great lad like you. There are a lot of real toe-rags out there, and I think she's struck gold first time. I know that she's safe as houses with you, and that means an awful lot to me."

"Thanks! I'll try and live up to that. I think she's a wonderful girl!"

"I think so too, so I'm wishing you both all the best!"

We smiled at each other. In true British fashion, we would have shaken hands on the deal, had we not been so encumbered by our purchases.

xxxxxxx

We reached the house and had to ring the street bell, as in our haste we had forgotten to take the keys with us. Julie came down to let us in, her hair still wet from the shower; and for Hamish's benefit, she did her famous impression of the desert traveller dying of thirst, until we gave her the milk to carry upstairs.

"Thank god for that! You know I can't operate as a human being until after my second cup of tea in the morning. You've been an age! Were you milking the cow? Did you have to catch it first?"

The shutters had been opened and the quilts in front of the fire tidied up and folded over an easy chair. The living room looked ready for the day.

We put our other purchases on the worktop, and Julie looked them over approvingly.

"Okay, so you're forgiven. I'm ravenous!"

The kettle was ready to boil, and the tea pot had been warmed up. It was only five minutes before Julie had that all-important mug clutched tightly in her hands.

Hamish and I went into Sheila's room to take our girls their mugs of tea in bed; they were cuddled together under the quilt and chatting away like old friends, and we gave them a kiss, before retiring to the kitchen for our own cuppa.

Adrian emerged from the bathroom freshly showered, and saw the goodies on the kitchen work surface as he picked up his tea.

"Jumping Jehoshaphat! Where did this lot come from?"

"Mr Waite! He's always said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day."

"Well, thank you very much, Hamish! I'll get started!"

Hamish and I quickly followed Adrian through the shower, and got shaved and properly dressed.

When we got back into the living room, Adrian had the toaster, the grill, the frying pan and the kettle all going at the same time, and Julie quickly nipped into the bathroom for a wee, before going to chase the other two out of their warm bed and into the shower.

The six of us sat down to a superb fry-up.

Hamish was absolutely right, Mr Waite's breakfast sausages were something special. Just the right amount of pepper, and a great texture.

The cheap sausages we bought in Cardiff were not a patch on these, neither in flavour or quality. The pork had clearly been minced with care rather than marmalised by machine; some of the commercial brands made it difficult for you to convince yourself that the sausagemeat they used had ever really had a consistency other than pulp.

The catering for six was a little bit hit-and-miss; Adrian had only been able to fit eight rashers of bacon under the grill at the same time, and there was a growing pile of food being kept warm on a plate on top of the grill. He had even opened one of the sash windows to let some of the steam out; otherwise all the glass would have been running with condensation.

But we were impressed with his juggling skills; he served the three girls their two fried eggs each first without breaking a single yolk, and then fried a second panful for us.

The tea towel he was abusing however looked very much the worse for wear; he had not only singed a hole in it when using it to move the plate on top of the grill, but had also caught it on the gas flame when tilting the frying pan. He wasn't injured himself - although there was a whiff of burnt hair, and the back of one of his hands was a little pink and bald.

We gave him a vote of thanks anyway; he deserved it for his valiant efforts to get everything almost ready at the same time.

The food disappeared in a much shorter period of time than it had taken Adrian to cook it, a sure indication of our healthy teenage appetites. I have to admit that we men were so hungry that we caught up and passed the girls, despite their three-minute start on us.

That meant that we got to make the next pot of tea; Hamish having had the forethought to put the kettle back on before he sat down to eat. Jen was clearly training him well!

The plates were all virtually clean; even the spilt egg yolk and tomato juice had been mopped up by bread and toast. Replete, we sat there and enjoyed our cuppa while we let the meal go down a little bit. We sat there in a comfortable companionship, until Sheila's inherited domesticity got the better of her and she started collecting the plates.

Once we had washed up and tidied away, Hamish borrowed the phone to check that his parents were at home.

"Put the kettle on then, Mum, be with you in about a quarter of an hour!"

He stood up from the phone and pulled Jen in for a hug and a kiss.

"Now, Jen, my darling, are you coming to meet my parents this morning?"

My sister tried to squeal and splutter at the same time as her brain processed what he had said; it came out as a strangled squawk.

"Isn't this a bit early? We've only known each other for four weeks!"

"And why not? They would love to meet you, even if they don't know it yet, and I want to show off my wonderful and beautiful girlfriend to them! No time like the present!"

Jen purred at the compliment.

"Of course I'd love to meet them too, but for heaven's sake don't make it sound so serious!"

He laughed.

"What, their first meeting with the girl who is going to give them at least fifteen grandchildren, not a serious matter?"

We all roared with laughter at the shocked expression on Jen's face.

"You beast, teasing me like that. Wait until I get you alone later!"

"Why fifteen, Hamish?"

"Oh, it's a pretty safe bet that out of that many, one will do well enough in life to pay for us to have a very comfortable old age in the South of France! And if that doesn't work out, my gorgeous Jen's daughters should be beautiful enough to command a really good price from an Arab Sheikh!"

We all laughed. Here was Hamish, only a month after meeting Jen for the first time, talking about them growing old together. And I didn't think he was entirely joking.

He kissed her, they put their scarves and coats on, and the two of them set off down the road holding hands; Jen clearly delighted that Hamish thought so much of her that he wanted his parents to meet her now.

We had a good chuckle after they had gone, though Julie did mention that two children was going to be quite enough for her, and that I'd better not be getting any ideas.

"It's alright for you, Julie, as twins they say that we've got a much higher chance of having twins ourselves, so we might well get two in one go!"

xxxxxxx

We assumed that they would be gone a couple of hours, so the four of us made the beds, discussed what to have for lunch, nattered, and generally pottered around for a while before we got ready to go out for a walk.

The phone rang in the corner by the bookcase. Sheila leant over and picked it up. We could only hear her side of the conversation.

"Hello? Oh, hi, Hamish. Oh, that is very kind of her, yes of course, we'd love to. Can we bring anything? Yes, one o'clock would be fine. Okay, we'll see you in a few minutes. Bye now!"

We looked at her for an explanation.

"No zoo visit tomorrow, gang - Mrs Baxter has kindly invited all of us for Sunday lunch at one o'clock. That was Hamish to check it was okay with us. They'll be back here shortly. His parents have to go out for a lunch engagement today, otherwise they would still be chatting."

"Better put the kettle on again then!"

I nipped down to the bakers for some buns; obviously the walk would have to be delayed while we gave Jen the third degree about meeting Hamish's parents, and breakfast was now nearly two hours ago.