There was a slight pause during which Victoria looked very thoughtful. Then she put her knife and fork down with a clatter and announced, “I must have slept with more boys than there are peas on Dayna’s plate, and I have to say that Louise knocked them all for six.”
Louise spat out what she was eating and nearly choked. Victoria had to pat her on the back.
Sam and Dayna stared in surprise, and Dayna said, “You never told us you slept together!”
Louise was bright red again. She took a gulp from her wine glass and began to calm down. “I wish you wouldn’t do that…,” she gasped as she muttered to Victoria.
“Baiting you is half the fun! Anyway, it’s the truth! And if we hadn’t done it we wouldn’t be here, would we?”
“But it’s private,” Louise replied hoarsely.
“Sam and Dayna are talking about their feelings, so I figured it was my turn. What are you worried about?”
Sam said, “She thinks I’ll put it on the Internet.”
Victoria laughed. “That’s a good idea! Sexy Supervixen Seeks Sex for Sensual Satisfaction! I could go for that!”
“Me too,” Dayna remarked.
Sam saw the look of horror on Louise’s face and quickly said, “Stop it, you two, or you’ll give poor Lu a heart attack!”
And Louise said to Victoria, “Yeah, you’re supposed to be on my side!”
Victoria and Dayna both laughed at her obvious distress. Louise smiled wryly. “Rotters!”
Sam didn’t want the distraction of Victoria’s outburst to take them away from their discussion for long. “Come on, Victoria!” she said. “You can’t stop now! If you and Lu have slept together, and you haven’t run away screaming, then you must have some idea of how you feel. So why don’t you tell us?”
The laughter and smiles faded and Victoria sighed.
“Oh, bollocks! I hate being serious,” she said. She stuck half a roast potato in her mouth and leaned on her elbow as she went on with her mouth full, “What I was trying to say, in my own distinctive manner, is that things have never been as clear to me as it has been for you.” She finished chewing and swallowed.
“Like I said, I’ve slept with lots of boys, but mainly when I was younger. Not that I have changed that much. I am a bit of a slut, really. Hate me if you must, but there it is. I have to say that I didn’t enjoy it that much, but I never felt that it was actually wrong for me. I just didn’t like it. I never even thought about sex with a woman until Louise came along. But I did enjoy that. So now I want to give it a try. I’m not the first girl to give it a go just to see what it’s like, but I don’t really know if I like sex with Louise because she’s a woman, or merely because it was nicer. Do you know what I mean?”
“Maybe you should try it with someone else,” Dayna suggested.
Louise caught her meaning. “You wish!” she said. Dayna smiled.
Then Sam said, “Are you in love with Lu?”
And Dayna said quickly, “Ooh! That’s a heavy question!” But Victoria didn’t hesitate.
“Louise is always pestering me with that question, so I can only tell you what I keep telling her. I know how she feels about me, and I like her, too. I like her lots, and we do get on really well together, especially when you realise how little time we have actually known one another. But that’s also part of the problem. After only a couple of days, it’s far too early to say whether it’s love. But I have promised to Louise that once I know, one way or the other, I’ll tell her. Does that sound fair?”
“Well parried!” Dayna said.
“Shut up!” Sam told her. Then she turned to Louise. “What do you think, Lu? Are you happy with this arrangement?”
Louise nodded. “Very happy,” she said. And she meant it.
“Well, if you’re happy, then there’s no more to be said.”
The rest of the meal and the afternoon was filled with more casual conversation. But Victoria still asked Sam and Dayna lots of questions about their life together, and Dayna made three more passes at Victoria, including a suggestion that they play strip Trivial Pursuit, for which Sam condemned her to the washing up.
By the time Dayna was finished, it was to find Louise and Sam both laughing as they sat on the floor on cushions in the lounge platting Victoria’s hair in a race to finish a pigtail each.
“I’m going to beat you!” Sam was saying. “I’ve nearly finished!”
“This isn’t fair! Mine’s longer than yours!” Louise complained.
And Victoria said, “Don’t pull so tight, you two! I feel like my head’s being pulled off!”
“What’s this?” Dayna exclaimed. “Have I passed through a worm-hole and ended up in Scandinavia?”
“Finished!” Sam announced.
“Oh, knickers!” Louise said in dismay.
Victoria pulled the pigtail Sam had completed over her shoulder. As soon as she began to examine it, it began to unravel.
“Shit!” Sam muttered.
Louise’s attempt wasn’t much better.
Dayna sighed and shook her head. “You two are hopeless!” she said. “Out of my way. I’ll show you how to do it.”
Sam and Louise moved out of the way as Dayna came to sit behind Victoria and started to undo the untidy pigtails. “I’ll plat your hair in one pigtail so that you don’t end up looking like a goat-herder who’s escaped from the set of The Sound of Music.”
Everyone laughed, but then Sam and Louise stared in silence as Dayna started to produce a perfect pigtail.
“You know, I bet you’d look really good with short hair,” Dayna told Victoria as she worked away.
“I’ve never thought about it,” Victoria replied. “I’ve always had long hair. Even when I was little.”
When she was nearly finished, Dayna turned to Sam and said, “Sam, get me that ribbon from out of the top drawer on my side of the bed, will you?”
Sam did as she asked, returning with a white embroidered ribbon which she handed to Dayna. Dayna tied it into the end of the pigtail in a big bow and announced, “Done!”
Victoria pulled the pigtail around and looked at it. “That’s really good,” she said. She turned to Louise. “What do you think?”
Louise nodded. “I like it.”
Dayna saw Sam looking at her with that familiar look in her eye and said, “Not bad for a rabbit on Viagra, hey?”
Sam and Dayna got very soft after that, and whenever they hugged or kissed, Victoria was fascinated. The conversation turned more and more towards topics of love, and past loves. Each had a story to tell of love spurned or lost, and before they knew it, the hours had passed quickly and it was late evening. By then, it was obvious that Sam and Dayna had other things on their minds. So Louise and Victoria took the hint, said their goodbyes, and left.
Victoria was very subdued on the way home. Louise had to make all the conversation and Victoria hardly spoke at all. Louise began to get worried, wondering why she was so quiet after being so lively with Sam and Dayna. When they were safely back home, Louise could stand it no longer.
“Are you alright?” she asked as they hung their coats up. “Dayna didn’t upset you, did she? I know she kept propositioning you, but she didn’t mean it.”
“Oh, she did!” Victoria replied with a wry smile. “But it wasn’t that.”
“What was it then?”
Victoria sighed. “They made me jealous, Louise,” she admitted in a very subdued tone. She kicked off her shoes and slumped down on the sofa. “They’re so much in love, aren’t they? I know Dayna fools about a bit, but you could see it in their eyes when they looked at one another. I think if we hadn’t left when we did, they’d have thrown us out. And all the way home I kept thinking about what they would be doing after we left. It made me feel jealous. Silly, isn’t it?”
Louise came and sat down next to Victoria. “It’s not silly,” she said. “I’ve always envied my friends because of the relationships they have. It’s the only thing I’ve always wanted. It’s wh
at I want with you.” She reached out to stroke Victoria’s long blonde pigtail, tugging on it gently. “We could do it, too, you know.”
Victoria looked up at her but didn’t reply. Louise moved closer, reaching out with her other hand to caress Victoria’s cheek and jaw. Still Victoria didn’t respond or shy away. Louise moved even closer, staring into Victoria’s green eyes, shining so brightly. Almost at the last moment, when their lips touched, Louise felt Victoria’s hands around her waist, and the embrace was suddenly passionate. They fell over on the sofa, wrapped in each others arms and oblivious of the world around them.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Currency
Woodville House was on the road to Blackburn just north of Bolton. It wasn’t a very large house, but it was impressive. It was set back from the road in a large walled garden. Chrissy stared at the iron gates as they drove between them. They looked old and were overgrown by the hedge that lined each side of the gravel driveway to the house itself. There was a crest on each gate, but they were faded and illegible. The house was Georgian. Or at least that’s what Chrissy thought it was. It was square, with many large windows and an impressive front entrance.
They arrived just before noon. Charles drew the car up opposite the front door. Adam came out of the house to greet them almost before Charles had managed to get out, and it was him that opened the door for Chrissy.
“Welcome to my home!” he said with a flourish.
Chrissy got out of the car. “Why do I feel like a fly?” she said to Adam.
Adam laughed. He walked her up to the house, his hand on her back. “There are no spiders here,” he told her. “At least none that would trouble you.”
“Oh, I don’t know, I think I’m looking at one.”
Adam clutched at his heart and grunted. Chrissy wasn’t impressed by his mock offence. As they stood on the threshold, she prodded him in the chest.
“If you try and cheat me one more time, Adam Campbell, I’ll deck you! I mean it!”
Adam looked even more hurt. “I wouldn’t dream of it! I may have been possessive with the truth, even cunningly devious. But I have never cheated you.”
Chrissy eyed him closely. He looked very sincere, but she didn’t trust him one bit.
“If you were a kitchen utensil,” she said. “I bet you’d be a cork-screw. Now show me your treasures. I want to see everything. And when you feed me, I’m going to think very carefully about which treasure I’m going to pick.”
“You wish a tour of my humble home?”
“I want to see every nook and cranny.”
“In that case, I’ll show you the bedroom first. I want you to be very familiar with it.”
As Charles put the car away, Chrissy was taken on a tour of the house. As promised, they started with Adam’s bedroom. It was the first of five bedrooms on the first floor. It was modern, with an en-suite bathroom, up to date furniture and a large king size double bed. His wardrobe was full of suits and row upon row of shirts, ties, and shoes. Everything was neat and tidy and well regimented. It was very much a bachelor’s bedroom.
The next three bedrooms were the same. All had en-suite bathrooms, and all were neat and tidy, but with empty wardrobes.
“Guest bedrooms,” Adam called them.
The last bedroom was much more old-fashioned. The furniture was older, and the wardrobe was filled with clothes from the fifties and sixties. Chrissy was surprised to find both men and women’s clothes inside. Adam quickly explained.
“This was my father’s room,” he told her.
Chrissy pulled out a woman’s dress from the wardrobe. It was short and bright and very sixties. “So these must be your mother’s clothes?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
“And you’ve kept them all this time?”
“I have plenty of room, and sadly, her remaining belongings are very few.”
Chrissy had spotted another dress. It was white, and it was in a plastic cover. She quickly replaced the first dress and pulled out the white one and unzipped the plastic case.
“Don’t tell me this was your mother’s wedding dress?” she exclaimed.
Adam nodded again. “My father kept it. They had only been married eight years when she died.”
Chrissy pulled out the dress and held it against her body, looking at herself in the mirror. Unlike the first dress, it was strapless, very long and traditional. “It’s a beautiful dress.”
“It suits you.”
The tone of his voice made Chrissy look up at him. His eyes were filled with sadness, and something else.
Chrissy handed him the dress and pulled her list from her pocket. She studied it for a moment, and then announced, “Angola.”
Adam immediately brightened. “Ah! I see you have been doing your homework!” He returned the wedding dress to its cover, zipping it up carefully.
Chrissy lowered her list. “Do you know it or not?” she demanded.
“The kwanza.”
“Sod! I was sure that would get you. Afghanistan.”
Adam placed the wedding dress back in the wardrobe and closed the door. “The afgani,” he replied.
He led Chrissy out of the bedroom. Further along the hallway was a bathroom on its own. Chrissy glanced in at the pink bath and tiling and knew instantly that it had been used by Adam’s mother.
Adam waited for her outside. “I think we will have a quick peep in Charles’s room before we return downstairs,” he said as soon as she re-emerged.
Chrissy nodded. “Okay. China.”
“The yuan.” Adam took her hand and led her up another flight of stairs to another floor.
Charles’s room turned out to be a suite of rooms in the attic. Entry to the suite was through a single door at the top of the stairs. The rooms inside were not as tidy as the rest of the house, but they were bright and pleasant, and lived in. There was a lounge, a kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom. Charles was in his bedroom in shirt-sleeves, his jacket and hat on his bed. As soon as he saw them, he quickly shooed them out.
“Be off with you!” he said with mock severity, chasing them back down the little corridor. “There is no place for sight-seer’s and day-trippers here!” He closed the door on them, leaving them at the top of the stairs.
Chrissy was amazed. “Are you going to let him get away with that?” she demanded. “Brazil.”
Adam laughed. “Charles is his own master in his quarters. It is a rule we have both agreed and adhered to. Cruzeiro.”
Chrissy sighed and glanced at her list again. “Grenada,” she said as she followed Adam downstairs.
“The dollar.”
“Bulgaria.”
“The lev.”
They reached the ground floor and Adam showed Chrissy the other rooms. The lounge was the most lived in looking room she had seen outside Charles’s flat on the top floor. There was a large fireplace with comfortable looking easy chairs and sofas grouped in front of it, with a large and decorative coffee table between them. There was even a television and video on a table in the corner. Everywhere were newspapers and magazines. The untidiness was somehow comforting.
On the mantelpiece above the fireplace were some photographs set in silver frames. Chrissy went over to look at them, and quickly picked up a picture of a young woman. The picture was in black and white, but it was bright, and the woman was dressed in shorts with a shirt tied at the front. It must have been summer. She was standing by an open top sports car in front of a large house. Chrissy recognised the house to be the one she was in. The woman was beautiful. She was smiling, and her eyes were bright and expressive.
“This is your mother, isn’t it?” Chrissy asked as Adam came to stand next to her.
“Yes. My father had bought her the lotus that day. It was bright red. She loved it.”
“How old was she?”
“Twenty-eight. She died the following year. She always did drive it too fast.”
Chrissy put down the photograph and picked up another. It had al
so been taken in front of the house. “Is this your father?”
“Yes.”
“You look like him.”
Adam nodded. “So I have been told.”
“He looks older than her. Was this taken at the same time?”
“It was, and you are right. My father was thirty-four when they were married in 1959. She was twenty-one. Not much older than you. She died in 1967.”
Chrissy put the picture down and sighed. “Okay, next room.”
The next room was an office –the most untidy room so far. The desk was covered in papers and files. On a table next to the desk was a personal computer. It was still switched on, and the screen showed a continuously upgrading list of figures.
“Exchange rates,” Adam told her. “Money marketers never sleep.”
“Even on a Sunday? Vietnam.”
“Even on a Sunday. The dong. Somewhere in the world there is a stock exchange open.”
The next room was a drawing room with lots of books on shelves and three very comfortable looking armchairs. There were also several silver ornaments and vases dotted around, and an odd statue or two. Chrissy immediately noticed the crest from the iron gates on the silver vases.
“My treasures!” Adam exclaimed, pointing them out.
Chrissy stared at them. “I think your real treasures are all in your computer.” She turned to look at Adam, her eyes narrow. She poked him in the chest. “When I’m done with you, Adam Campbell, I think I’m going to pick a bank account. An investment account, maybe. Something offshore.”
Adam clutched at his heart and staggered. “Ouch! Your greed and materialism astounds me! Your future as a member of the Inland Revenue is assured! Beating you is rapidly becoming a matter of saving my own financial security. I shall be relived when I win.”
“Ethiopia!” Chrissy snapped.
“The birr!” Adam replied just as quickly.
“Damn!”
“Now that one I don’t know!”
Chrissy made a face at him.
After that came a games room with a billiard table, and finally, the dining room. The table was already set for lunch. It was a long table, but the place settings were close together at one end. As Chrissy looked at the silver cutlery and decorative plates, Charles suddenly appeared with a white napkin over his arm.
The Look of Love Page 17
