The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

by Cheryl Mildenhall

  Giving what she hoped was a convincing illusion of physical exhaustion, Hillary explained that they had spent the day sailing and swimming.

  ‘You certainly caught the sun,’ Alicia observed, handing her sister a tumbler filled to the brim with iced gin and tonic.

  Stifling a yawn with the back of her hand, Hillary stretched. ‘Did you have a good day?’

  ‘So, so,’ Alicia mumbled. ‘It’s Fearn’s weekend off so we decided to play happy families at the beach.’

  ‘What’s wrong with that? It sounds lovely.’ Hillary had just received a surreptitious wink from Haldane and felt she could afford to be magnanimous.

  Chloe and Alicia sighed in unison. ‘It’s Clive and Gus,’ Alicia explained. ‘They just don’t seem to be able to grasp their roles.’

  Chloe nodded vigorously. ‘Would you believe Gus flatly refused to hire a speedboat?’

  ‘And Clive kept complaining that the sun was too hot, or the sand too gritty, I mean really,’ Alicia added, with more than a tinge of annoyance. ‘All either of them really wanted to do was spend the day playing golf, or in the pub.’

  They both flashed a similar look of pure contempt in their husbands’ direction. Unable to help herself Hillary giggled aloud. Both women seemed to forget that these weekends were the sum total of their husbands’ summer holidays.

  ‘It’s all right for you, floating around deserted coves with your hunky boyfriend but we’ve been having a really miserable time,’ Alicia complained.

  ‘Excuse me,’ Gus interrupted. ‘But we didn’t have to come here this weekend at all. If we’re so terrible we’ll just go off and find something else to amuse us, won’t we, Clive?’

  Hillary shifted uncomfortably and glanced at her sister. Realising that she had overstepped the mark Alicia sought to redress the situation. ‘We’ve got a lovely day planned for tomorrow though, haven’t we?’

  She nodded at Chloe who quickly plastered a happy smile on her face before turning to look at Gus and Clive. ‘That’s right, we’re all going to the beach again but this time we’re going to buy a dinghy.’ She caught Haldane’s eye. ‘Perhaps we could get one at your shop. Do you open on a Sunday?’

  Haldane gave a small smile. ‘I’m sure I could make the effort for two such lovely ladies.’

  Suddenly overcome with protectiveness for their wives, Gus and Clive walked across the room and stood close to them.

  ‘That’s very decent of you.’ Gus looked anything but grateful. He clearly didn’t relish the prospect of leaving his wife alone during the week in such close proximity to Haldane. He glanced overtly at his watch. ‘I think it’s time for us to hit the sack if we want to get an early start in the morning.’ He ran a finger tantalisingly across Chloe’s bare shoulders and she shuddered, although Hillary couldn’t be sure if it was from desire or repulsion.

  ‘Not just yet, sweetie, I’d like another drinky-poo.’ She held out her glass but Haldane had taken the hint and was already rising to his feet.

  ‘I must be going now,’ he said, turning to Theo. ‘Come to my yard any time and I’ll show you that thing we were talking about.’

  Hillary was intrigued but didn’t get the opportunity to ask him what it was he had to show Theo. Haldane shook hands with everyone in turn and, as he made for the door, he waved to her. ‘Don’t worry about seeing me out, Hillary. I will call you soon.’

  She sat down again reluctantly and made do with blowing him a kiss. Even though they had made love countless times that day she still yearned to be close to him and to nestle in the safety and comfort of his arms. As soon as they heard the front door close, Gus and Clive stood up, making a great show of stretching and yawning. They looked expectantly in the direction of their wives, who both blatantly ignored them.

  Odile and Theo stood up. ‘Goodnight everyone.’ They left the room hand in hand, their body language speaking volumes.

  Alicia sat next to Hillary on the sofa. ‘By the way, you’ll never guess who turned up here yesterday.’

  Sensing that the women were about to indulge in a long bout of gossip, Clive and Gus reluctantly decided to go to bed alone. Hillary turned to look at Alicia whose face was lit up with excitement.

  ‘Prince Andrew?’ Hillary struggled to keep the sarcasm from her voice.

  Alicia laughed. ‘No, silly, of course not.

  ‘I wish,’ muttered Chloe.

  Hillary grinned. ‘Okay, if it’s not a member of the royal family, I give up.’

  ‘Fearn’s brother and a woman, his mother I think, judging by her age,’ Alicia added a mite bitchily.

  ‘Oh, really, how interesting.’ Hillary didn’t know what else to say. She couldn’t understand for the life of her why the appearance of Fearn’s brother should be so earth shattering.

  Chloe whispered conspiratorially. ‘You don’t understand, Hilly darling, he is gorgeous.’

  ‘Oh, I see.’ Now she got the picture. ‘What’s he like then? How come he’s so gorgeous? Fearn’s not that outstanding to look at.’ Hillary instantly regretted her words, she didn’t mean to sound cruel.

  ‘No, I know she isn’t.’ Chloe smiled thinly. ‘That’s one of the reasons I like her. Anyway,’ she continued, ‘Fearn’s brother is very good-looking, tallish, darkish and very Scottish.’

  ‘Well, he would be,’ Hillary commented dryly. ‘How old is he?’

  ‘Young,’ Chloe asserted.

  ‘Early twenties, if that,’ Alicia interjected. ‘Probably more your age, Hills,’ she added gloomily.

  ‘Hardly,’ Hillary said. ‘Anyway I’ve got my hands full at the moment.’

  Alicia allowed her head to drop back and stared silently at the ceiling for a minute or two. ‘So I noticed, you lucky bitch! When did that happen?’

  Feeling slightly embarrassed, Hillary looked into her half-empty glass. ‘I bought that toy windmill from his shop, remember?’ She blushed.

  ‘Was that all it took? I never realised he was such an easy target.’ Alicia sounded almost bitter.

  ‘No, not really, in fact I said something to upset him that day. We actually met properly yesterday evening in the pub.’

  ‘No wonder you came home so late. Odile just said that you’d bumped into a friend and decided to stay on at the pub for another drink.’

  ‘Is he that well built all over?’ Chloe was more to the point.

  Hillary blushed harder and nodded. ‘What about Fearn’s brother? We were talking about him, remember.’ She was desperate to change the subject.

  ‘Oh, we haven’t seen him naked yet, have we, Alix? He only arrived this afternoon for God’s sake.’ Chloe sounded positively shocked.

  ‘I didn’t mean that.’ Hillary laughed. ‘Can’t either of you get your minds above a man’s waistband even for a second?’

  Chloe and Alicia looked at each other, then they turned to Hillary genuinely dumbfounded. Alicia said, ‘No, what’s the point? Unless they keep their wallets higher up of course.’ The two women broke out into gales of unrestrained laughter.

  Hillary couldn’t help but laugh along with them. Their mercenary attitude often shocked her but deep down they were harmless and both totally incorrigible. The ice well and truly broken between them, the three women relaxed into no-holds-barred girl-talk covering all aspects of their favourite subjects – men, sex and money. Consequently, it was well after two o’clock by the time they staggered, still laughing and more than a little worse the wear from alcohol, to their respective bedrooms.

  Collapsing gratefully on her own bed, Hillary lay and stared at the ceiling for a long time. She had spent a wonderful day with Haldane yet ever since she had returned to Harwood Hall she hadn’t been able to get the recurring image of Darius’s dark, brooding good looks out of her mind. Talking about sex with Chloe and her sister had stirred up a maelstrom of emotions that she was hardly aware existed within her.

  She thought back to the day before, when a mysterious, unseen person had caressed her breasts on the beach and then th
ere was the still hazy memory of her strange encounter with Darius in the forest. It seemed incredible that those events had taken place less than thirty-six hours previously.

  Desperately trying to blank out the unwelcome sensation of longing and desire for a man who obviously didn’t have a conventional approach to sex and relationships, she stripped off her clothes and climbed between the cool sheets, eventually drifting off to a shallow, shadowy dreamland.

  For once, Hillary was not the subject of Darius’s regular nightly intrusion. Ilona had expressed an interest in one of her friends, the auburn-haired girl with the large ebony-skinned boyfriend. He glanced at the older woman who sat with rapt attention in front of the monitor, her fingers absently stroking her own sex as she followed the couple’s movements.

  ‘My God!’ she exclaimed to Darius, not taking her eyes from the screen. ‘Can you imagine what it must be like to have that beautiful man inside you?’ She was referring of course to the Frenchman whose cock now rested upon Odile’s quivering buttocks. At the moment it looked as though he was debating between one of two orifices.

  Darius felt his own sex harden – he was certainly not averse to a little anal exploration of either sex.

  ‘Look, Darius, look!’ The woman urged him closer to the screen, her voice eager. ‘See how beautifully their bodies contrast, she so delicate and pale, he so huge and black.’ She sat back in her chair and smiled dreamily. ‘Oh, I would love to paint them. Do you think they would pose for me, Darius?’

  Darius shook his dark head, the blue of his irises so dark at that moment that they looked almost black. ‘I honestly don’t know. They are my guests, remember, not simple village folk who will do anything I tell them.’

  The woman pouted. ‘I wish you wouldn’t talk about your villagers that way; most of them are not simple by any means.’

  Placing a placatory hand on her shoulder, Darius zoomed the camera in closer to the couple on the bed by means of a remote control panel. ‘You know I didn’t mean it like that.’

  To Darius’s slight disappointment, Theo had chosen to take his girlfriend in the conventional way, ramming his huge shaft into her vagina from behind, urging her forwards so that she rested her forearms on the top of a wooden chest of drawers, the pale globes of her buttocks thrust high in the air to receive him.

  The woman watched open mouthed, moaning slightly as she parted her own legs, stroking herself more forcefully. She looked up at Darius. ‘Won’t you help me out here?’ she pleaded softly in her soft Scots burr.

  Darius shook his head, his expression stony. ‘I’m not in the mood, Ilona. Besides,’ he added, glancing at her fingers as they slid fervently between her fleshy sex lips, ‘I like watching you do it.’

  She opened her mouth to speak, thought better of it, then decided to go ahead anyway. So what if she risked incurring his wrath, he wouldn’t take her tonight anyway. ‘Your father would have obliged. He was always in the mood.’

  As she expected, Darius’s expression darkened a little.

  ‘My father was an old man, he had to take it when he could,’ he said cruelly.

  The woman flinched at his words, removed her hand and closed her legs primly, all desire extinguished in a flash. She searched her mind desperately, determined to hurt him in return. ‘I expect Torran will soon be saying the same thing about you to some young girl.’ By the look of hurt and anger on Darius’s face she saw she had hit the target.

  But he recovered quickly and delivered a scathing retort. ‘You forget. Torran is not my son, he is yours. The bastard product of your relationship with my senile old father!’

  She refused to allow him to hurt her in return. ‘You forget so quickly, Darius.’ She smiled triumphantly. ‘Your father wasn’t so senile that he forgot to add that all-important codicil to his will, leaving the Caithness house and half his disposable income to myself, Torran and Fearn.’ She stood up and glared down at him. ‘Don’t overstep the mark, Darius, or I may just take Fearn away from here and withdraw my support completely, then you’d be forced to sell your precious Harwood Hall.’ With a toss of her elegant dark head she left the room, leaving an uncharacteristically subdued Darius to ponder the seriousness of her threat.

  7

  It seemed strangely quiet when Hillary awoke the next morning. No shuffling of slippered feet, no frantic flushing and tooth-brushing and, most noticeable of all, no shouts, whines, or streams of vicious invective from either Alicia or Chloe. For a second she wondered if she had woken up in the wrong house, or if they had all suddenly decamped in the night and left her there alone. Then she heard Clive’s deep tones and lay back against her pillow with relief.

  After a few moments of contemplation she threw back the sheet and pulled on her bathrobe. Walking down the stairs she noticed that the hallway looked as though World War Three had broken out. She eyed the overflowing bags, picnic baskets and numerous items of beach equipment, then looked enquiringly at Clive as he shuffled out of the kitchen, a mug of coffee in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Seeing Hillary there he glanced guiltily at the curl of smoke rising from his right hand.

  ‘Christ, don’t tell Alicia please, Hillary.’

  ‘I wouldn’t dream of it, Clive. You’re a grown man and you can do as you please.’ Hillary personally detested cigarettes but didn’t feel she had the right to preach to others.

  He looked relieved. ‘I wish Alix was as tolerant as you, she won’t allow them in the house.’

  Hillary glanced around them. ‘Where is she now – Alix, I mean?’

  ‘She’s getting dressed and Gus just said Chloe’s putting on some make-up so it could be quite some time before we actually go out.’

  ‘I can imagine.’ Hillary giggled. ‘I can’t quite envisage Chloe stepping foot outside the door without her full war paint, not even to go to the beach.’

  Clive nodded his agreement, puffed on his cigarette and raised his mug of coffee. ‘There’s plenty in the pot if you’re interested.’

  ‘Mmm, yes please.’

  Deciding that she liked Clive when her sister wasn’t around to goad him, she followed him back to the kitchen, her nostrils twitching automatically at the aroma of fresh coffee. They sat down at the kitchen table. Clive lit a fresh cigarette and they sipped their coffee in companionable silence for a few minutes.

  ‘Hillary?’ He cleared his throat nervously.

  ‘Yes, Clive?’ She looked up, surprised to see him looking so serious all of a sudden.

  ‘You – you would tell me, wouldn’t you? I mean, if –’ He seemed to be having great difficulty forming each word and his face was bright red with embarrassment.

  Hillary patted his hand and she spoke gently. ‘I would tell you what?’

  He took a tentative sip of his coffee and several huge drags on his cigarette. ‘If Alix was having an affair. You would tell me, wouldn’t you? I mean you’d be honour bound to, being my sister-in-law and all that, wouldn’t you, Hilly?’

  The words tumbled from his lips in a rush and he looked pleadingly at her, almost like a little boy. Hillary felt compassion towards him but she couldn’t forget what Alicia had said about him screwing everyone at work either.

  She sighed and raised her eyes to the ceiling, hoping, she supposed, for divine inspiration of some kind. ‘I would, Clive.’

  His face brightened and he took another, more controlled, sip of his coffee.

  ‘But,’ Hillary added quickly, ‘it would really depend upon the circumstances.’

  It was a lame reply and she knew it, although her brother-in-law appeared to be satisfied with her response.

  ‘I suppose you’d have to be certain,’ Clive said. ‘I mean, you wouldn’t want to risk destroying our marriage for no reason.’

  She sighed again, more deeply this time. She recognised a no-win situation when she saw one and she knew full well that Clive and Alicia were doing a good enough job of destroying their own marriage without any help from her, or anyone else for that matter.
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  ‘That’s right, Clive, no need to worry.’ She patted his hand again, then downed the last of her coffee and stood up. ‘I’m going to get dressed myself now.’

  He nodded absently, lighting yet another cigarette. Out in the hallway Hillary bumped into Odile; she too raised her eyes when she saw the clutter all around them.

  ‘I take it they’re all going out for the day?’ She commented dryly, inclining her head towards the stairs.

  Hillary giggled softly. ‘Shh. Alicia and Chloe are already up and Clive’s just in the kitchen.’

  ‘Oh.’ Odile put a finger to her lips and grinned. ‘Are you going out with Haldane again today?’

  ‘We haven’t made any arrangements.’ Hillary looked despondent for a moment. ‘What are you and Theo planning to do with yourselves?’

  Odile gave a little shiver of excitement. ‘We’re going for a trip in a hot air balloon.’

  Hillary was immediately envious. ‘You lucky things!’

  ‘You can come with us if you want, I expect they can squeeze you in,’ the young woman offered generously.

  ‘It’s a lovely thought.’ Hillary did feel genuinely tempted but the last thing she felt like doing was playing gooseberry to two such obvious lovebirds as Odile and Theo.

  ‘You sound as if you’re not going to accept.’

  ‘I’m very grateful for the offer, Odile, believe me, but . . .’

  ‘But you want to hang around the house in case a beautiful blond Norwegian comes knocking, I know.’ Odile laughed, assuming she had all the answers.

  Hillary didn’t bother to correct her. ‘You never know,’ she said smiling. ‘Anyway I fancy being really lazy today, just sunbathing out on the patio, all alone.’

  ‘Who’s going to be all alone?’ The voice belonged to Alicia. She and Chloe were coming down the stairs, their arms filled with more things and the pair of them looking as though they were planning to take a second holiday.

  ‘Do you really need to take all that stuff?’ Hillary was incredulous.

  Before either of them could answer, a male voice interrupted. ‘My God, what’s going on here?’ Gus appeared looking around in amazement at the mayhem. In no time at all he had stacked the necessary equipment by the front door and made everyone, with the exception of Odile and Theo, assemble in the sitting room.