ACV's 1 Operation Black Gold (33 page)

‘What’s the matter?’  Samantha had followed.

‘Acid attacks, I’m really going to have to go and get something to eat.’

‘So,’ Andrew appeared round the corner.  ‘Not only do you assault one of my best friends and his son you also insult my table.  I believe you have outlived your welcome Mr. Murison.’

I stood slowly; he was red faced with indignation.  ‘I believe you are right sir.’

‘But you can’t.’  Sam protested.

‘It’s OK Samantha, I’m used to this, people have a tendency to get sick of me pretty fast.  You’ll be all right now.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I’ll see you on Monday.’  I kissed the back of her hand and made to leave.

‘Lt Murison, before you go, I’d like an explanation as to why you assaulted my friends.’

‘I’m sorry sir, but my reasons were personal and not for general knowledge.  If you will excuse me.’  I left.

Samantha panicked, it had all happened too fast.  She made to go after him but Andrew caught her by the arm.  ‘Let him go Samantha, he’s just scum.’  He reeled under a flurry of blows to his chest.

‘How could you, how could you treat him like that, he only came to protect me.  How can you call those animals’ friends?’

Lady Flora arrived and pulled her into her arms.  ‘Samantha dear, did that beast touch you again?’

‘Yes,’ she sobbed, ‘Jim broke his fingers.’

‘Good for him, but why did he go after the son?’

She looked up into Lady Macdonald’s face with tears streaming down her face.  ‘He, he tied Amanda to a bed and whipped her with a cane last year, and then he tried to hit Jim with it tonight in the toilets.  He keeps it up his sleeve.’

‘There now, Shh.’ She produced a handkerchief.

‘That is preposterous.’  Andrew spluttered.

‘Shut up Andrew.  Why didn’t he eat his dinner?’  A quick explanation and another flood of tears.  ‘The poor fellow and him so hungry, why didn’t he say so?’

‘He didn’t want to appear rude.’

‘I’ve never heard so much rubbish in my life.’  Andrew was getting angrier.

Lady Flora was getting angry and turned on the spluttering man.  ‘No it damn well isn’t.  If you don’t know what’s been happening then you’re the only person here that doesn’t and the only man with the guts to do something about it, you throw out.  You’re a beast Andrew Pearson, a beast and if you don’t rectify the matter immediately you can host your own damn parties from now on.’  His anger evaporated under her accusing stare.  ‘Come Samantha, let’s get you cleaned up.’

‘I was enjoying myself so much,’ she sobbed as she was led away.

‘Yes I know dear,’ Lady Macdonald soothed.

CHAPTER 33

I heard the crunching of gravel.  Andrew appeared.  ‘Lt Murison.’

‘My cat’s shot off into the bushes somewhere, as soon as he returns I’ll leave.’

‘Actual I’d like to talk for a moment.’

I was feeling a bit talked out for one day.  ‘I think you’ve already said enough, point taken; I’ll leave as soon as I possibly can OK.  Boy shift your arse.’

‘Would you like to come back inside so we can talk?’

‘No I bloody wouldn’t.’  The cat came running up out of the darkness and jumped in, I followed starting the motor and slamming the door closed.  Andrew raced round and jumped in the other side.  ‘Where the hell do you think you’re going?’  I asked as he put his seat belt on.

‘Where ever you are.’

‘Dinna be daft, you’ve a house full of guests.’

‘I also have two very lovely ladies whom won’t talk to me again if I don’t take you back, which just happens to be a lot more important to me at the moment.  I’m sure no one will miss me for a little while.  So where are we going?’

‘Well I’m going for something to eat.’

‘I could get the chef to cook you up a steak or something.’

‘I have no intentions of spending the rest of my evening arguing with a chef on how to cook a steak properly.  I’d be quicker getting something from the town.’  He shrugged, so I drove off. 

We sat in silence for a few minutes.  ‘Samantha told me what’s been happening, I didn’t know.’

‘Bollocks!’

‘Pardon!’

‘Bollocks, if the country’s head spook can’t see what’s happening under his own roof, it’s because he doesn’t want to.  What do they have hanging over your head?’

‘How dare you?’

‘Easily, I’ve no breeding remember.’

‘Damn you.’

We rode in silence again.  I pulled up outside an Indian take away.  ‘When I was a young man, my father’s business ran into trouble, his family baled us out.’

‘Didn’t you pay them back?’

‘Of course, it took many years, but yes the money was paid back, that was the easy part, what’s harder to pay back is the debt of gratitude.’

‘I see, so along with the debt you also inherited a blind spot?’

‘Yes, I suppose I have.’

‘Believe it or not, I do understand.’

‘Do you?’

‘Yes.’  I got out.

‘Thank you for that.’

When I came back, I jumped straight into the back and Boy was all over me in a hot second.  ‘Aye, aye man wait a minute will ye,’ I had got a couple of spare tubs with raw meat in one and filled the other with the milk they sold me.  While he stuck in about that, I stuck into a Lamb Kashmiri Korma with peshwarie nan.

‘Isn’t that a little rich for you?’

‘Everything in this dish is properly cooked and fresh, here try a bit.’  I wrapped up a piece of meat in Nan bread and dipped it.

‘I don’t like foreign foods.’

‘Try it,’ I insisted.

He did so reluctantly and his eyebrows shot up comically as the flavours hit him.  ‘I say that is nice.’

I pushed the tray over.  ‘Help yourself.’  To my surprise he did.  It didn’t last long and I finished it off with the last of the milk.  ‘That’s better.’  I jumped out and dumped the rubbish.  ‘So what now?’  I asked as I climbed back in.

He shook his head, ‘I’m not sure, I still have a bit of a problem on my hands.’

I mimicked him, ‘Just leave it.’

‘Damn it man I can’t just leave it.’

‘If you’re lucky I might already have sorted it.’  I sighed.

‘I still can’t leave it.’

I was getting fed up of the argument, ‘that lassie had to pour her heart out twice today already and she finds it extremely upsetting.  So far, things have been kept under the table as it were.  If you start kicking up a fuss now things could get messy pretty fast, causing that lassie a lot of unnecessary grief and that would make me very angry.  I don’t want to have to rectify the situation again.  Just swear if I’m not there she has your full protection.’

‘You have my word of honour on that old chap.’

‘That’s good enough for me.’

I dropped in by an off license on the way back and grabbed a few bottles of German wine.  ‘What are these for?’  He asked as I handed them over.

‘Some decent wine for you.’

‘I’ll let you know I’m a connoisseur of wines.’

‘French?’

‘If it isn’t French then it isn’t wine old boy.’

‘Bollocks.’

‘There’s that word again.’

‘You wouldn’t know a decent bottle of wine if someone hit you over the head with it.’

He retrieved a bottle from the bag.  ‘Ye gods it’s German, how can you drink this rubbish.’

‘What you’re holding in your hand is a German Icewine.  It’s a little more expensive than the rubbish you served up tonight, but a 100 times better.’

‘Rubbish, did you call my wine rubbish?’

‘I can think of a few stronger words.’

‘Damn you man.’

I burst out laughing.  ‘Trust me you’ll enjoy them.’

‘I’ll only try them if you join me.’

‘I canna, I’m driving.’

‘You could spend the night; I’ve bags of spare rooms.’

‘What about Samantha?’

‘She often stays over.’

‘Well speer at her, if she wants to stay, I’ll have a drink.’

‘Splendid, splendid.’

One or two had noticed Andrew’s absence but not many.  He disappeared with the bottles of wine and reappeared with Lady Samantha.  Her eyes shined in her smiling face, she had agreed to stay.  I spent the rest of the evening dancing with her, the three friends and Lady Macdonald.  By one o’clock most of the guests were well sozzled and had started to depart.  Andrew and I slipped away to his study to sample the now chilled wines leaving Lady Macdonald and Samantha to see off the last of them.  They joined us presently and we sat and chatted, the atmosphere warm and friendly.  The wine went down well especially the icewine, and Andrew’s perception of wines other than French had changed dramatically. 

By three o’clock I was on my last legs, it must have shown.  ‘You look tired Jim?’

‘I am Lady Macdonald.’

‘Please call me Flora, come with me I’ll show you both to your rooms.’  She took us upstairs and placed us in adjoining rooms promising to drop off a nightie for Samantha.  I found some coat hangers and carefully placed my new clothes on them, piled into bed, and was asleep in seconds.

I woke to the insistent tapings on the connecting door.  ‘Come in.’

Sam ran in, in a knee length nightie, the sunlight streaming through the window made it see through.  I almost fell out of bed.  She took no heed of me though, and ran to the television.  The delights that were revealed to me when she bent over to switch it on, made my head spin, but not for long.  The dour voice of a reporter and familiar jungle scenery soon had my full attention.

‘You have to see this, what’s going on?’

‘Give us a chance to see what’s happening.’

The drama began to unfold.  Sam sat on the edge of the bed with the remote flicking between channels trying to get as wide a view on what was happening as possible.  She shivered.  ‘Are you cold?’

‘A little.’

‘Get under the covers then.’  To my surprise, she shot right over to my side.  We watched in silence for a while. 

A Japanese documentary team, travelling with one of their patrols had come across the scene of a massacre in a remote jungle village.  It wasn’t long before evidence started to appear as to whom the perpetrators were.  Scottish troops.

‘What does it mean Jim?’

‘It means were up to our eyeballs in shit.’  Graphic scenes flitted across the screen.  There the corpse of a woman laid her head sat on a stave a few feet away.  That she was alive when it was cut off was evident by the spray pattern of her blood.  The camera moved to the remains of a hut, burned to the ground with the occupants still inside.  It moved on to a disembowelled baby.  Sam spun and hid her head against my chest.  I grabbed the control and switched it off.

‘Ugh, god what kind of animals could do that?’

‘I don’t know.’

A hot wet tear dripped onto my chest.  ‘Do you think out troops could really do something like that?’

‘No Samantha never, but what we think doesn’t count.’

‘Tell me what’s happening Jim, what’s really going on?’

‘I haven’t got a clue.’

‘No don’t say that, talk to me think it out, that’s what your good at, find a reason for this madness.’

‘This is well beyond me.’

‘No it isn’t, try; I just want to hear you talk.’

‘That’ll make a change.’

‘Stop it; I hate it when you put yourself down.  I like hearing the sound of your voice.’

‘OK, OK, I’ll try.  Would you like a tissue to dry your eyes?’

‘Yes please.’

I reached over and got one from the bedside table.  I rearranged my pillows and lay down properly.  She surprised me by snuggling into my chest.  I put an arm round her and she didn’t seem to mind.  I started to talk, trying to put what we’d seen into prospective, then pulling it to bits and examining each piece in turn.  I found it strange that the only people who seemed bewildered were the Scot’s troops that had arrived on the scene and our foreign secretary.  The Japanese and American’s were going at it hell for leather and things were developing at a pace that was far too fast for my liking.

But something else was developing nearer at hand.  She flicked away a loose strand of hair from her face and laid her hand gently onto my chest.  I ignored it for a start and actually absentmindedly started playing with her hair.  She moved a little to get comfortable and I felt her pubic bush gently touch my leg through the thin material.  Then slowly her pubic bone began to press against my leg.  She wriggled again and a leg came up, the nightie riding up with it.  Flesh contacted flesh and goose bumps raced up my body.  She started playing with the hairs on my chest and I felt a flash of heat and found myself battling with an impending hardon.  She wriggled again and the silky material rode up as the leg came across farther.

My senses reeled as the heat from her naked crotch crashed against my leg, a sigh escaped from her lips and my voice faltered for the first time.

‘Are you alright?’

‘Never felt better.’  I gave up the battle and let him rise.  Relaxing, I babbled on.  She started drawing circles on my chest and tracing newly appeared muscle.  Her wrist brushed against a nipple and I had to grit my teeth to stop my self-yelping as it stiffened.  Another little gasp escaped her lips, when her hand came back around and felt my response.  For a brief second I thought I was going to shoot my load on the spot.  What the hell was happening to me?  My leg was on fire, my whole body tingled and every time her finger completed a small circle, shock waves radiated up from the tail of my spine making me want to scream.

I’d long ago lost count of the women I’d made love to, but never before had I felt sensations such as these.  Her hand started travelling downwards.  I was being seduced.  Her fingers traced a line down the dark hairs on my chest towards my navel. 

I stopped her hand with a gasp millimetres from it.  ‘If your hand drops any farther Samantha you’re going to get one helluva surprise.’  I removed my hand from hers and it carried on downwards.  She gasped with surprise as it came into contact with the moist head of my penis.  Her hand lifted slightly and a feather light touch travelled its full length.  I couldn’t suppress the groan that escaped my lips.  It travelled back becoming bolder, she was trembling now and so was I.  Her hand travelled back up to my chest and her face turned upwards, we kissed.

She sat up suddenly and removed the nightdress.  The sight of her naked beauty made me gasp and every fibre of my being was screaming at me to take her there and then, but I fought it, or it would have been over before it started and another virgin would have been left wondering what all the fuss was about.

We lay side by side just kissing until I felt the fear begin to leave her and I was able to bring my raging passion under control.  Then I started kissing and caressing her less sensitive areas, building a passion, teasing, a new canvas the first brush strokes.

I used my tongue moving over her breasts avoiding the nipples, down her side over her stomach flicking her navel and making her gasp, down towards her bush, brushing over it, kissing her thighs.  Her legs opening automatically caressing the inside of her thighs with my fingers so close I could feel her burning heat.  She was shuddering with pent up passion her voice a sob.

I moved back up slowly, my fingers slipping into her wetness as my lips accommodated a nipple.  Her hip convulsed instinctively as she came over my fingers.  Her cry of release the call of an eagle as it greets dawn’s first thermals.  I moved over to the other nipple keeping her on a plateau, her passionate silence broken now, her cries of pleasure came freely and without shame.