Chapter 35

Our west-bound train wasn't as crowded as they could get later on a Sunday evening, and Julie and I quickly managed to get two end seats on their own, so that we were able to talk relatively privately.

"Are you happy, my darling?"

"Oh yes, that weekend was lovely. I really enjoyed last night's party, and lunch today was a real treat. The Baxter's don't seem like grown-ups at all - I wouldn't mind at all if they were my parents! Do you think they might want to adopt a daughter?"

I squeezed her hand in sympathy; I knew that her relationship with her own parents never had been close or particularly affectionate; she had arrived ten years after her brother and was treated very differently. I changed the subject so that she wouldn't dwell on that one.

"And how was Hamish on Friday night?"

"Very good indeed! Mind you, I was so horny after watching Sheila have her go, and turned on by seeing Jen naked again, that I came a bit too quickly! There wasn't a lot of build-up, one moment it was feeling very nice, and the next I was seeing stars!"

"You didn't do anything with Jen, did you?"

"Oh god no, Jen hasn't talked to him about that side of it yet. It was enough of a shock to him to have three naked women in bed with him, we weren't going to do anything else. It was a pity though; Jen was looking quite adorable."

"She's like you - that 'freshly fucked' look really suits her. And did he seem okay to you about it the next morning? He was fine with me when we went to the shops."

"Oh yes, Jen took him into the shower during the night, and he obviously heard what the rest of us were doing, and he was pretty relaxed. He didn't seem at all spooked by seeing Sheila and I the next morning."

"Thank god for that! I was quite worried that Jen was going to blow it with that suggestion!"

"She's not stupid, you know! From what she whispered to me at the station, I think he's quite chuffed that he's now got three notches on his bed post; not of course that he's like that, but it's done his self-confidence a lot of good."

"I hope so! Let's see what Jen says in her next letter."

We got back to Cardiff at about six o'clock, and made our way in the dark streets from the station to the house.

We were really looking forward to a nice mug of tea and a natter before cuddling up in bed together. We'd had a great weekend, and wondered what the others had been up to.

It was not to be.

As we got upstairs, we could hear the sound of hysterical sobbing from Vee's room, and naturally we went straight in to see what was the matter.

Sian was sitting on Vee's bed, cradling her weeping friend in her arms. Julie and I quickly shed our coats and joined them.

"What the hell's happened?"

"The sodding bastard's finally done it this time!"

"Who, Jeff?"

Vee wailed loudly at the sound of the name.

"Yes, for her romantic Valentine's weekend treat, the little shit took her out to the pub so that she could watch him play in a darts match, got pissed, and threw up on her!"

I'd never heard Sian sounding so angry.

"Oh christ!"

Julie and I shared a despairing glance. Even though we'd never had the misfortune of meeting him, we knew from the way he treated Vee that Jeff was an utter idiot.

He had obviously really hurt our friend this time, and our first priority must be to help her get over it. Vee had been very loyal to him, and it was going to take some time for her to accept that he was a git who always put himself first - if she ever did.

I had an overwhelming urge to punch the selfish bastard's lights out, but I was pretty sure that he'd never give me the opportunity. He wasn't likely to show up in Cardiff again, after all, he hadn't visited Vee once in the year I had been on the scene.

I did what we Brits always do in emergencies. I made everyone a mug of hot sweet tea, putting a couple of extra spoonfuls of sugar into Vee's mug.

Julie took over the task of holding and consoling Vee, and Sian and I took the empty mugs back into the kitchen to discuss what we were having for supper.

Malcolm was over at his house; he had been with Sian when an almost-hysterical Vee had got back, and she had sent him off so that she could find out what was wrong without Vee feeling inhibited.

"Do you want me to fetch him back?"

"I think it would be better if he didn't come back until after supper; Vee trusts you two, but I'm worried that she's going to clam up if Malcolm is there."

I thought about that.

"Yes, you're probably right. Because we've kept our activities secret from Malcolm, she'll automatically be wary of letting it out, and it won't help her if she bottles it up."

"God, I could kill the bastard! I knew he was a male chauvinist pig, but I had no idea he could be quite that fucking selfish. Vee was really looking forward to being with him, and it's unbelievable that he took her to his darts match for her Valentine's Day treat!"

"So do you think their engagement really is over?"

"Oh god, I do hope so! He's so fucking immature, and he's always taken her totally for granted. I don't ever want to see the little shit again!"

Sian didn't often use obscenities; it was a clear sign of how upset she was. I gave her a hug; she hung on to me for a minute, grateful for my support.

"I'll go and get Malcolm after supper; you need him to be with you tonight."

She nodded, trying hard not to cry again. It was clear from the redness of her eyes that she had wept with her friend.

"I just wanted to give Vee a chance to let it out; she doesn't know whether to be angry, sad, guilty, furious, or what. In some ways he's broken her heart this weekend, but she also knows, deep down, that he never was man enough for her. She'll need a lot of help to get over this; they've been engaged for almost two years, and an item for much longer than that."

"But it's not her fault!"

"I know that, you know that, Julie knows that, Vee knows that deep down, but she won't admit it. Where she comes from, the man is always right, even if he's a lazy drunken wife beater far worse than Jeff. I have a pretty strong suspicion that her family will side with Jeff, and tell her to accept him for what he is."

"What, even her mother?"

"Especially her mother! I despair sometimes with some of the things Vee has told me; in some of these old industrial communities the man is God, and most of the chapels are more Old Testament than is good for anyone."

"Oh shit. It's going to take some effort to sort this out."

I was getting angry again; if a man had treated my sister like this, Mum would be ripping his throat out before Dad and I had even started. I couldn't believe that her, in the Year of Our Lord 1974, such Victorian, even medieval ideas still held sway.

It was a morose and quiet foursome who eventually sat down for the supper that Sian and I had knocked up. I had heard Julie and Sian cajoling Vee into coming to eat something; it appeared that she hadn't actually had a meal that day, and not very much the previous two days.

She picked at her food; at least she ate something, but it was almost mechanical.

She did drink several cups of tea; they put a little bit of colour back into her face, but she still looked bloody awful.

After supper, Julie and I moved her mattress into our room, and wouldn't take 'no' as an answer.

I left the three girls together in our room, and nipped over to Malcolm's house to tell him that it was safe for him to come back. I had a cuppa with him as there was some left in the pot, and chatted to his housemates for a few minutes.

Sian was back in the kitchen when we got upstairs; she welcomed Malcolm with a hug and a kiss. I had a pee, brushed my teeth, and went in to our room to find Vee and Julie both under Vee's quilt. I took the hint and quickly undressed and slipped into our bed, alone for the first time for quite a while.

Julie spent the night holding Vee as she tossed and turned, unable to sleep. I had offered to take my turn, but Julie felt that Vee might not yet be ready for a man's touch - the last one to be in bed with her had vomited a stomach full of lager and half-digested food over her. She probably had a point.

I went out for another pee around midnight; from the sounds I could hear from Sian's bedroom, it seemed that she had wanted (and was getting) some physical confirmation that her boyfriend was still interested in her.

I knew that Julie and I wouldn't be getting a lot of loving for a few days, but as we had been with the twins for the last two nights, a rest might not be a bad thing!

xxxxxxx

Malcolm and I had an early breakfast and went off to the labs before the girls were up and about. Sian had filled him in on all the details during the night, and he told me that he was very sorry for Vee, and eager to do what he could to help.

There wasn't much we could think of to do; it was far too early to try and distract Vee by us all going out together, and we thought that she probably wouldn't welcome male hugs for a while. We agreed that probably the best thing to do would be to support Julie and Sian by doing as many of the household chores as we could, so that they had more time to be with Vee.

Malcolm and I made supper that Monday night; it was again a very subdued affair and he and I went off to his house to study together for a couple of hours before returning to the flat at bedtime. Julie and Vee were already tucked up in our bed, so I crashed out in Vee's bed. The pillow was still a bit damp from having been cried on so much, but that was a flea-bite compared to the massive chunk that Jeff's selfishness had taken out of Vee.

I took Vee and Julie a mug of tea in the morning; I at least got a murmur of thanks this time. She looked even worse; the black bags under her red eyes and her woefully pale complexion made her appear physically ill. Julie bullied her into applying a bit of make-up, and took her off to lectures wearing a hat and a scarf.