Chapter 38

Despite sleeping well most of the night, I was awake quite early on the Monday morning; I therefore went into the kitchen to make a pot of tea, only to find Sian already there, engaged on the same errand.

"Sorry if I woke you, but we needed a cuppa!"

"I don't think I heard you, but it doesn't matter at all. By the way, thanks again for coming over to Bristol for lunch; I'm really chuffed that you took the trouble!"

"I wasn't sure whether Sheila would keep the secret; but it was great to get the chance to meet Hamish and see what all the fuss was about."

"He's a great lad, I'm delighted for Jen that we introduced them. She's so pleased to have a real boyfriend, and I think Reading really improved for her when they got together. I'd been worried about her being lonely."

"Well, she's really grown up since she was here last June, she's so much more confident."

"You haven't seen half of it!"

"Julie did say that you two might have created a monster, but it sounds like Hamish is man enough for the job?"

"I hope so! I felt very guilty when I discovered how she'd nearly killed Adrian, and then she had a damn good go at wearing me to a frazzle."

"Couldn't happen to a nicer bloke!"

The big smile I received took any sting out of that remark; the reservations that Sian had initially had about her twin cousins committing incest were long gone, and she'd even enjoyed both of them herself. Sian was definitely on our side, and a really good friend.

We reckoned that the tea had brewed sufficiently, and poured it out. Sian took two mugs to her room, and I took Julie's in to her.

To my surprise, because she'd somehow got past the open kitchen door without Sian and I seeing her, I found Vee sitting on our bed chatting to Julie. So I collected the other two mugs and joined them.

"Girl talk, or can I join in?"

"I was just explaining to Julie that I now understand why she sometimes can't walk properly on a Monday morning!"

I smiled. Vee was of course exaggerating, but she did have a point in that we were normally worn out after a weekend of sexual excess with the twins.

"And how do you feel, Vee?"

"I slept like a log, but I know I've been seriously overdoing it. My tummy hurts when I sit up, and it's not the only bit of me that's sore. I think I'm going to be covered in bruises!"

She was! On the Wednesday afternoon, when our downstairs neighbours were out in their tracksuits, Vee took Julie and I down to the half-landing bathroom to show us her bumps and bruises. They were turning quite colourful, and we almost felt guilty at the clusters of blotches around her nipples, on her tummy, and around the top of her thighs. Naturally, we offered to kiss her better, one thing led to another, and I ended up fucking Vee on the cast iron radiator again. Julie demanded her turn when we had finished, and after a few minutes I was able to persuade Gustav to give an encore.

After our sports afternoon physical activities, it seemed very sensible to have a bath together, which was great fun. I was worried that the soft cotton flannel might irritate the girls' boobs, so I washed them gently with soapy hands. They seemed to appreciate my thoughtfulness...

The next morning, the papers and the radio were full of the kidnap attempt on Princess Anne as she was driven back to Buckingham Palace the previous evening. Her bodyguards pistol had jammed as he faced an armed man, which caused a great deal of press speculation. Luckily, despite the nutter shooting several people, nobody was killed, and he was quickly subdued and arrested by an unarmed detective, with help from passers-by.

Judging from some of the tabloid headlines, it was the end of the world that someone would dare try and kidnap a member of the Royal Family. Malcolm and I were quite surprised that it wasn't the IRA trying something on.

xxxxxxx

The next few weeks went quietly as we settled down into serious studies; there were second year exams to be undergone, but there was quite a lot of continuous assessment work to be completed before then, and we knew that our second year performance would be taken into account when our degrees were finally graded.

Malcolm and I were assured by our tutor that we were still doing very well; but he also warned us not to take things for granted and slack off.

The two of us had to temporarily move out to his house for a couple of days; the girl's landlady had written to them to warn them that she was coming to visit to assess if any decorating works needed to be done over the summer holidays. We cleared out any traces of our habitual residence, which in my case meant all of my clothes, and we reassembled the three beds so that it wasn't quite as obvious that the girls were having frequent energetic sex.

Sian came over a couple of evenings later to give us the all-clear; Mrs Hughes had arrived as expected, given the place a quick but thorough going over, and had pronounced herself satisfied. The stairs and landing would be repainted sometime over the summer, but the other rooms were judged satisfactory. She had even told the girls that she would be delighted if they wanted to spend their final year there as well.

Both Julie and Sian were delighted to have their men back in their beds; Vee gave Julie and I two hours privacy and then sneaked in with us for a cuddle. I tried to make myself remember that we still needed to find Vee a boyfriend; I wasn't sure how much longer I could handle being ravished by the two of them.

xxxxxxx

Easter 1974 was quite late again that year, mid-April - but a week earlier than it had been the previous year.

We had heard that the Swedish band 'Abba' had won the Eurovision Song Contest the previous week with a song entitled 'Waterloo'; it was played so much on Radio One that we all knew the tune and words by heart. It was a lot more memorable than the previous year's winner!

Our studies slowed down for Easter week; many of our lecturers had children who were now on the school holidays, and they were expected to do their share of child-minding, or indeed take the whole family away.

Prof said during his final lecture that they always went to Tenby in Pembrokeshire to stay with his wife's brother, and that he did some of his best thinking while his kids were making sandcastles!

Jen and I both went home on Maundy Thursday; we had talked on the phone and agreed that we owed Mum and Dad more than just a two-day weekend.

We knew that Mum had been upset at losing her father, and we wanted her to know that we were still thinking about her. We had tried to write and phone more often, and had co-ordinated our efforts so that they heard from at least one of us every week.

Quite often it had been hard to find any suitable news to put in our weekly letters; how does one tactfully report meeting up in a flat in Bristol for a weekend-long orgy?

Julie also went home to Exeter to spend the holiday with her parents, but more out of duty than pleasure.

I went the long way round on the train, arranging to meet Jen at Didcot station, so that we could travel home together.

I saw her immediately she got off her train. She was looking utterly gorgeous, glowing with health and happiness. She was a very different girl from the one who had been at Grandpa Shaw's funeral a month earlier.

I ran to meet her, dropped my bag, and picked her up off her feet to hug her and kiss her.

"You look great, Sis!"

"Thanks! It's really good to see you too!"

I let her down and we picked up our bags. We moved over to the other platform to wait for our train, and sat on a bench to chat.

"So it's not wearing thin between you and Hamish, then?"

"God, no, it gets better and better!"

"And how much have you declared to Mum and Dad?"

"Just that I've met a really nice boy who I like the look of - I wanted to have a chance to get our story straight before we get home!"

"Well, you look amazing, so Mum will spot immediately that something is up! You are going to have to get quite close to the truth."

"I know. She isn't going to be delighted that I'm having sex - remember how she made Julie sleep in my room at Christmas so that I could chaperone her from you? How much do you think we need to tell her?"

"Your face is going to give you away immediately. The 'I'm all loved up' expression is a dead cert giveaway, and you just radiate happiness and contentment. You're going to have to come pretty clean about Hamish."

"I'll tell her I'm in love, and see where she goes from there."

"You might as well explain that I introduced you to Hamish; I'll handle that bit, and hopefully she'll be pleased and reassured that I like him too."

Mum actually surprised both of us with her reaction.

She did work out incredibly quickly that something had changed in Jen, and exactly what that something was.

She took Jen up to her bedroom for privacy, and gave her a brief and technical inquisition on what contraceptive measures she was using, and then kissed her, saying how proud she was that her daughter had become a responsible woman.

Jen was shocked speechless!

Mum made us all another cup of tea, and we sat down around her kitchen table.

"So, young man, your sister tells me you introduced her to Hamish?"

"Yes, Mum, I met him at a dinner in Bristol, and thought he was a really nice lad, so when his father said he was in his first year at Reading, I persuaded Jen to come down and meet him, and they got on really well."

"And?"

"Errr ... And I'm very pleased for both of them?"

"No, you fool, what were you doing at a dinner in Bristol?"

"Oh, the friends we helped sort out their flat invited me down as a thank you."

Fortunately, I was saved from any further inquisition by Dad coming home from work for the Easter weekend. He shook my hand, kissed Jen, and then kissed Mum.

"Thank god that lot's away before the Bank Holiday. I can have a break with a clear conscience!"

Dad explained that he'd had a rush order in at work, and had been working long hours to ensure that it was completed and sent out that week.

"Jen, as it's your birthday next Wednesday, and you'll be back at Reading, I've booked us a table at the steak house tonight. Is that okay?"

"Oh, Dad, you're a darling! Thank you, that would be lovely!"

"Jon, we missed celebrating yours because Grandpa died, so you'll have to have this as a joint birthday party with Jen, unless you've got a better idea?"

"No, Dad, that's fine - you sent me a very nice cheque, and that's quite enough."

"I'd better warn you, though, that as it's your twenty-first next year, we're not going to let you get away without a party!"

We got a little bit dressed up for the steakhouse, I put on a shirt and tie and a sports jacket, and Jen found a skirt and blouse.

Mum inspected us.

"Oh dear, you've both grown again! Jon, haven't you got a decent shirt with cuffs that actually reach your wrists?"

"Yes, Mum, the one you bought me before Christmas, but I forgot to bring it home with me!"

"Oh god, you're going to be just like your father! Good job I love all three of you!"

We had our usual excellent sirloin steak at the steakhouse, washed down with a bottle of Algerian red wine, which Dad pronounced one up in quality from their previous house wine, which had been decanted on the premises from a five-gallon plastic container with a tap. As he teased the proprietor about selling paint stripper without a licence, and we weren't chucked out, we assumed that this was an ongoing joke between them. It didn't taste all that bad to us!

Jen described how Hamish had taken her out for an Indian meal, and they had been given a free bottle of red wine, which had proved completely undrinkable unless swigged in between forkfuls of curry. They had gone for a pint of lager each instead.

Jen's bumper Knickerbocker Glory arrived as our plates were being collected; they hadn't even bothered asking what she wanted for dessert. Mind you, my Banana Split, and Mum and Dad's bowls of mixed Neapolitan and Tutti Frutti ice cream, also arrived very quickly once we confirmed that we wanted them.

We decided not to stay for coffee, so Dad settled up and we headed for home. After a cup of tea together in the kitchen, we all went to bed. It was good to be back in my own bedroom, but not good to be alone in my bed without Julie. I told myself that it wouldn't be for long, and went off to sleep thinking about her.

xxxxxxx

Dad always planted his potatoes on Good Friday, having had them 'chitting' in old egg boxes on the kitchen windowsill for a few weeks.

Over breakfast, Jen and I offered to give him a hand digging the bed over, as the weather had been pretty miserable, and he hadn't been able to get on the garden.

He accepted our offer enthusiastically.

We were out of practice with hard physical work, and Dad had to remind us a couple of times that we needed to take it steadily, and not make it more difficult for ourselves.

As we finished supper, Jen tried moving her neck on her shoulders.

"Jon, I'm solid after all that digging, be a darling brother and knead my shoulders a bit, will you?"

I moved behind her chair and gently poked my fingers and thumbs into the muscles on the top of her shoulders.

"Hmmm, you've certainly stiffened up a bit, I think it's going to have to be a hot bath for you tonight!"

She purred as I massaged and manipulated her flesh.

"Oh big brother, you can stop doing that any time in the next three days!"

"Shall I phone Hamish, and get him to come up tonight to give you a proper full body massage? He'd just make it on the last train, I think?"

Mum and Dad roared with laughter at the shocked expression on Jen's face.

"You beast, just because you want Julie to come up and keep your old bones warm in bed!"

This time our parents were laughing at my discomfiture.

"You'd better tell them, Tom!"

"No way, dear, it's a mother's job!"

"Coward! Kids, your father and I had a long chat last night, after I had 'warmed up his old bones' as you put it. It's a great relief to us that you've found Julie and Hamish, and we can treat you as the adults you are. You forget that we were only 21 when we got married, and you two came along before we were 24, so we're not yet in our dotage! It's been fun having the house to ourselves again after all these years."

"We wanted to tell you that if you do ever want to have Hamish and Julie to stay, they will be most welcome, and they can share your beds, as long as you don't keep us awake all night. You can do your own laundry, though!"

"Mum, you darling!"

Jen jumped up and hugged Mum, then Dad. I kissed Mum, and shook Dad's hand.

"Thanks, that means an awful lot to us! We're sure you will really like them, but we didn't want to embarrass you by asking if they could stay."

"Now, Maggie darling, I think our adult son and daughter should mark the occasion by taking us out to the pub on a Friday night and buying us some drinks!"

The four of us put on our coats and walked down to the pub, where we spent a pleasant hour chatting. Mum and Dad had clearly made that mental break from treating us as children, and we enjoyed exploring our new relationship. I even asked their advice on meeting Julie's parents.

"It's always tricky! Although I knew your Mum's parents for years before I went off on National Service, and they knew we were going out dancing together, they were a bit wary when I kept writing to her so regularly. Your grandad got quite hot under the collar when he caught her writing M.A.L.A.Y.A. on the back of a letter to me, and when I did finally get home and go round to see her, I got asked very abruptly what my intentions were!"

"Fortunately my dad liked his answer, so he let us get married quite quickly, even though we had to live with them for a few months until we could find a place of our own, because I was expecting Jon."

"Julie wants to have a bit of a career first, so we probably won't get married for a few years. She says that a lot of people still won't employ married women, so she wants to start as officially single until she's got some experience."

"What is she intending to do?"

"She's hoping to go to teacher training college for a year after we graduate, and then try and find a job where I'm working, and then once she's settled, we'll get married."

"That's a sensible approach, until quite recently a lot of women teachers had to resign from their jobs when they got married, and it's ridiculous that it took so long for the government to finally realise what a waste of money and talent that was."

A couple who Mum and Dad knew then came over to our table for a chat, and our family confidences were at an end.

We went back home, had a last cup of tea together in the kitchen, and all headed for our beds.

I was just dozing off after reading for a few minutes, when my door opened and someone came in, and using the faint light from the landing, sat on my bed. Jen's voice whispered to me.

"Jon, quickly, come and have a listen! Mum and Dad are making love!"

I got out of bed, and we tiptoed in our pyjamas to their bedroom door, trying to avoid the creaking floorboards.