Chapter 54

Vee didn't come home that night.

When I knocked on her door the next morning to see if she wanted a cuppa, she was not there, and her bed hadn't been slept in.

Julie squealed with delight when I passed on the news.

I forestalled her comment.

I bowed low, tugged my forelock, and addressed her as 'The all-powerful, all-knowing, Omniscient One'.

She threw the pillow at me.

I was ordered, on pain of being tickled beyond reason, to go and put the kettle on.

I have always known my place. I headed for the kitchen. Julie's Sunday lie-in when we hadn't got to get up for any reason was founded on a succession of cups of tea in bed. She claimed that she couldn't function without tea, but I already had my suspicions that she just liked the comfort of being brought a cup of tea in bed, and considered it a key part of being loved and cosseted!

I've never minded. I like the feeling of Julie's body against mine as we chat, or just enjoy being together. Besides, quite often our Sunday mornings turn amorous, and there's something extra special about making love when you're neither tired, hungry, or in a rush. So I took her a couple of slices of hot buttered toast as well, but on a big dinner plate so that not too many toast crumbs would fall on the bed. They can be quite sharp, and I didn't want the romantic mood spoiled by a sudden squeak of discomfort from my darling as her tender skin was attacked by a hard bit of crust.

My plan worked. After a few more minutes of kissing and cuddling, Julie and I made love slowly and tenderly, and then lay there still connected until Gustav reluctantly fell out of her.

Then it was back to the practicalities; I passed her a tissue to mop herself up and she headed for the bathroom with her hand between her legs, while I took the mugs back to the kitchen and put the kettle on. Who says romance is dead?

xxxxxxx

Vee did pop back in to the flat around mid-morning to quickly change out of her dancing clothes, kiss us both briefly, and say that she'd be back in the evening. Then she was gone.

The glow she left behind her lingered a little longer.

Julie gave me a huge smile, and repeated the phrase I had begun to dread.

"I told you so!"

I had to admit, humbly and sincerely, that she had been right all along.

I might have overdone the humbleness, because I was almost immediately the victim of a sneak tickling attack, and after a few minutes of rolling about the floor, I was forced to submit. The love of my life was quite capable of fighting dirty, and as I was desperate not to accidentally hurt her with my greater weight, she tended to always win these play fights. Mind you, the kissing to make up was always the best bit!

We did agree that Vee had looked incredibly happy, and that there was clearly more to it than just having been very well fucked.

There was, of course, no doubt that she had been; the contented expression on her face had been unmistakeable to two people who had seen (and caused) it as much as we had done.

"Yep, looks like we've got our last couple. Thank the Lord for that - it was far too close to the wire for comfort!"

"Are you going to ask her about the holidays tonight?"

"You don't think that it's too early in their relationship?"

"I'm not sure, darling. It IS very soon, but we haven't got a lot of time before we have to decide. Vee seems pretty relaxed in his company, but wants to look her best and impress him, so I think she's treating this as a proper relationship, not just a quick end-of-term fling."

We went for a stroll after lunch; Julie wearing a short summer strapless dress to try and get some sun on her shoulders, upper arms and legs. I had warned her that I hadn't caught much of the sun the previous year, so that she should work on her tan before we started our holiday job.

There were a lot of people out and about in the streets and parks; a sunny Sunday afternoon is not as frequent an event in Cardiff as the inhabitants would like it to be - being located on the western side of the British Isles involves receiving plentiful rain from the Atlantic. Cardiff gets about 45 inches of rain a year, with something like 145 wet days. In our view, all too many of those wet days were at the weekends when we didn't have to be in classes all day. Maybe it's a matter of perspective, but the wet drizzly weather seemed disproportionately present at times of leisure. I also had a sneaky feeling that Cardiff basked in glorious sunshine during the summer holidays when we weren't there to enjoy it!

xxxxxxx

Sian and Malcolm got back from their trip to deepest darkest Worcestershire at about five o'clock on the Sunday, having been dropped off at Hereford station by one of Malcolm's relatives, so that they could take the direct line to Newport rather than having to change in Birmingham at the dreaded and soul-less multi-platform New Street Station.

"How did it go? Was the shotgun loaded? Did the vicar object?"

Malcolm laughed.

"Uncle Ernie and Aunt Janet were pretty relaxed about it all, actually. Dad told me that either Daisy was conceived on their wedding night and born a few weeks early, or Aunt Janet was also pregnant on their wedding day, so they couldn't be too angry with Daisy for jumping the gun. I shared a room with my cousin Eddie; now he's 17 and can drive a tractor and trailer on the road, he's going to be able to help a lot more with the harvesting than he could last year."

"Did you tell them that you weren't available to work for them this year?"

"Oh yes; I think that they were actually quite relieved, as they don't need me, and had been worrying about having to tell me that they couldn't give me a job. Eddie will do most of what I did last summer, and Daisy will be able to work all harvest as well. She drove the other tractor last year; she just won't be able to heave the bales up into the barn."

"And what is her new husband like?"

"Bill? Nice lad, still a bit bemused at the speed of everything, but seems fond enough of Daisy. I'm personally not convinced that he's definitely the father, Eddie let slip that he wasn't the only boy she was seeing, but he's pleased with her choice. He told me that she'd picked the cream of the local crop."

Sian displayed a Polaroid photograph of the wedding party outside the church, with Daisy in her white wedding dress and everyone else wearing smart outfits and hats. I was glared at for my comments that she and Malcolm had actually cleaned up very well, and were almost unrecognisable.

Julie took a couple of extra minutes to closely scrutinise the fashion on display.

"So, how was the reception?"

"They had two - a formal one in the afternoon at home, just a few family and neighbours for a sit-down lunch, which was fine. Then they had a barn dance in the evening - good timing that, with an empty Dutch barn before haymaking - and all their friends and the local Young Farmers turned up en masse. That was a real hoot; there was a good band, the caterers did a barbecue, and there were a couple of barrels of beer on trestles in the corner. Uncle Ernie seemed more worried about that than anything; he'd watched the caterer like a hawk when he tapped the barrels, and he was really chuffed when the first pint ran crystal clear - he said that he'd been worrying all night that it hadn't stood for long enough to settle."

"And did the beer last out?"