Truly I do (11 page)

*

Russell was in
the lounge reading the papers. Julie-Anne had spread all her
painting equipment around the kitchen table and was really enjoying
herself. She hadn't painted anything at all for years - not since
she'd left university. This was such a delight, and because it was
for the pantomime she felt that she could really relax and get the
feel of the materials she was working with. It revived an old
passion and interest that she had almost forgotten she'd once had.
She'd switched the radio on to BBC Radio two and was happily
singing along at the top of her voice, enjoying the words to all
the heartfelt love songs.

She heard the
telephone ring and ignored it. It was probably for Russell, so she
looked very surprised when he came padding through to the kitchen
and said "There's someone called Freddy on the phone for you!"

Julie-Anne
gasped with delight, dropped her brushes and skipped past Russell
calling back over her shoulder "She's an old friend from
university, an absolute darling - you'd like her."

Freddy was
excited, she was with Julie-Anne's other good friend Grace.

Freddy, Grace
and Julie-Anne had been regaled as the terrible trio during their
time together at University. Freddy was extrovert, flirtatious and
very beautiful with fine blonde hair down to her waist and a sexy,
husky voice that seemed to entice men to flock around her. Grace
was the brown haired angel of the trio. She was tall and very
slender with a mild manner and an endearingly shy smile. Grace went
along with anything and everything because she did not have the
strength of character to deny Freddy's characterful whims.
Julie-Anne had been the steadying influence of the three,
adventurous enough to get involved with Freddy's parties, giggling
dormitory soirées and flighty trips; but sensitive enough to always
make sure they drew the line before things, one way or another, got
too raucous.

Even over the
phone Julie-Anne could tell straight away that Freddy was
excited.

"Oh my dearest
girl!" Freddy drawled huskily, "I heard about your sad news with
Andrew. I'm so sorry Julie-Anne, but then you know . . . well maybe
this is an opportunity for you to start over and find yourself a
more suitable life partner, eh? If it's not too insensitive of me
to say that?"

Julie-Anne
suppressed a girlish giggle. Sensitivity and holding back her
thoughts had never been among Freddy's repertoire. "I think I'll be
just fine Freddy, but thanks for your concern. Is Grace with
you?"

Freddy
confirmed that Grace was standing right beside her and went on to
explain how excited they were because they had secured the tenancy
for an art gallery in London and were due to open it on the first
of February. "There's just such a lot to do!" Freddy exclaimed.
"Anyway, darling, Grace and I thought it would be just super if we
could come and spend a few days with you before Christmas. You
know, the lull before the storm as it were. We could come down
tonight and start a pyjama party - what do you say?"

Christmas was
just a few short days away now. Time spent with Russell seemed both
eternal and fleeting at the same time. It would be an interesting
test to see how they got on with intruders coming into their
seemingly insular little world.

Instinctively
Julie-Anne laughed with delight and said "Yes, yes do come straight
away." But then she thought 'Oh, my goodness - what will Freddy
make of Russell!' and and added "I've got some news for you when
you get here."

Freddy was
intrigued but Julie-Anne didn't want to tell her about Russell over
the phone so they finished the call in agreement that the girls
would be arriving in about three hour's time.

Russell was
delightfully pleased that Julie-Anne wanted to spend some time with
her girl friends. "I was beginning to think you were a proper
hermit!" he grinned. "When are they coming?"

Julie-Anne
explained that they would arrive soon and asked Russell to take her
down to the village store in his Lexus which was, nowadays, parked
outside her cottage.

"Of course."
he agreed, "In fact why don't I drop you off and go on to my own
place? I've got a lot of paper work and phone calls to finish what
with my writing and the house in Yorkshire. I could come back
tomorrow afternoon and say 'Hi' to the girls when you've had a
chance to spend some quality time with them. How does that
sound?"

Julie-Anne
couldn't have felt more pleased.

He drove her
to the store and left her to make her own way home. She selected
three bottles of good wine; some crisps, chocolates, nuts and
nibbles from the shelves and paid for them with a big grin before
skipping, almost running out of the place filled with excitement.
She rehearsed what she would say about Russell as she happily made
her way home.

The arrival of
Freddy was, as always, like taking the lid off from a box of
fire-crackers.

Freddy whirled
through Julie-Anne's home inspecting and approving of the antique
furniture and few fine porcelain ornaments that had come down
through the family. Freddy had never visited here and Julie-Anne
proudly explained that her family had lived in this very cottage
for three generations as it had belonged to her mother's parents
before her mother and father had married and so-on.

Grace shadowed
Freddy's every move, delicately touching things here and there,
smiling sweetly.

Eventually
Julie-Anne herded them into the living room. There they sat on
cushions on the floor just as they had when they were university
students, and Freddy liberally poured wine to keep their glasses
full while they laughed and chattered about times past and times to
come.

Both Freddy
and Grace sat in silence with their eyebrows raised while
Julie-Anne explained about Russell. "My angelic girl!" Freddy
declared "How exciting for you! I do hope he is as good in bed as
he is at romancing you. Look at you! Your positively on fire."

"You do look
well." Grace agreed.

Julie-Anne
beamed with pride. "He's handsome, generous, apparently fabulously
wealthy and yes, Freddy, he's the best lover in the world."

"Oooh!" Freddy
wriggled conspiratorially closer, "Do tell more dear heart. I do
love to hear all about the secret antics of good lovers!"

"Freddy!"
Grace feigned shock at their friend's nosey behaviour, "Don't be so
crude!"

Julie-Anne
laughed again. "She's right Freddy - there are some grown up
activities that a girl just doesn't discuss in detail, even with
her best friend!"

Grumbling,
Freddy agreed not to pry further and their conversation returned to
her plans for the art gallery and her business partnership with
Grace.

They never did
dress up in their pyjamas. In fact they didn't go to bed either,
the three girls sat up all night talking and laughing and relishing
each other's company.

At ten o'clock
in the morning they moved to the kitchen table and, having run out
of alcohol some hours before, they made themselves some strong
coffee while Grace baked some quick recipe oatmeal muffins which
they ate warm for their breakfast.

Grace and
Julie-Anne spent some quiet time talking about Grace's hopes of
developing her own artistic skills as a sculptress. Julie-Anne had
always admired Grace's works and she hoped that her friend would be
very successful, especially with the opportunity of the gallery
where maybe she could show some of her work and pick up some
commissions. In the meantime Freddy rattled around at the sink
washing up their glasses and breakfast things while throwing in
comments about Grace's hopes and aspirations.

By the time
Russell arrived at the back door Grace was lying on the sofa and
Freddy had settled herself sideways across one of Julie-Anne's
comfy chairs with her legs dangling over the arm and her head
propped on several cushions.

Julie-Anne
couldn't wait for him to get there. She was exhausted and felt in
need of rescuing. He stepped into the kitchen, pulling her into his
arms and greeting her silently with a kiss. Contented to rest in
his arms she just stood quietly for a while until Freddy's loud
voice echoed through from the lounge "Julie-Anne if that's
sex-on-legs arriving I demand you bring him to me immediately!"

Julie-Anne
cringed. She'd begun to realise that she wasn't enjoying Freddy's
crudeness and loudness as much as she must have done years ago. By
now the woman's loudness and crudity was just setting her nerves on
edge.

Russell looked
down at her and frowned "What have you been saying about me then?"
he questioned on a low, disapproving voice.

"Nothing!"
Julie-Anne hissed back, pulling away from him. "I haven't told them
anything personal or vulgar. It's Freddy, I'd forgotten - that's
just how she is. Sorry!"

With an air of
detachment and maturity, Russell followed her through to the
lounge.

Immediately
Freddy began an outpour of what were supposed to be compliments
about Russell being the strong, handsome, silent type while she and
Grace stood up to be introduced.

Unsurprisingly, although Freddy was the more colourful and overtly
attractive looking one of the girls it was angelic Grace that
seemed to capture Russell's attention. He took her hand to shake it
and seemed to hold it for longer than was necessary. Grace had
hazel eyes and pale brown hair, she was as tall as Russell and her
willowy figure seemed to bend naturally toward him as they looked
at one another.

"Oooh, a
strong man!" Freddy drawled, trying to pull Russell's attention
back to herself. "Grace my darling," she continued to babble, "we
will be in need of one of these tough, handy-man creatures to do
the heavy chores around the place when we're setting up shop - why
don't you see if he can be persuaded to run away from Julie-Anne
and come to play with us instead?"

Grace flushed
with colour.

Julie-Anne
didn't know how to react. Freddy's approach had seemed so
embarrassingly crude, treating Russell like a dumb handy-man. So
she fled to the kitchen muttering about fixing afternoon tea for
everybody.

She was
leaving Russell to fend for himself for a few minutes. But even as
she withdrew she couldn't help but notice that Russell's attention
did not shift from Grace's face, and he was still holding her hand.
This was dreadful, what on earth was happening?

Julie-Anne had
never been given to fits of jealousy but now that her stomach was
clenched in a knot of pain, and her mind was buzzing with ideas of
Russell abandoning her to run off to a more exciting life with
Grace and Freddy, she hardly knew how to stop herself from
screaming.

When she
returned, a few minutes later, having calmed herself with preparing
a tray of tea and shop-bought fancy cakes, Julie-Anne was
positively horrified to find Russell cosied down in the middle of
the sofa with Freddy leaning on one arm while he and Grace were
bowed together over a picture, their heads so close that their hair
was almost entangled. Julie-Anne's knuckles whitened as she
clutched at the edges of the tray and plonked it down on the table
so-as to make a loud clattering sound. 'How can I get rid of these
two dreadful women?' she thought desperately. "What are you three
looking at?" she demanded, rather brusquely, aloud.

"Nothing!"
Grace coloured and slipped the photograph into her jeans pocket.
With feline smoothness Freddy turned her sultry dark blue eyes to
look harshly at Julie-Anne. Her grip on Russell's arm seem to
tighten more possessively.

Julie-Anne
wanted to press the matter and find out what was suddenly going on,
but something made her reserve her indignance and avoid an angry
outburst. She thought she saw Russell furtively wink at Grace. The
girl coloured in a flood of blushes and she seemed to turn away
defensively from Russell's attentions, putting a small space
between them on the sofa while Julie-Anne watched, dumfounded.

"It's nothing
Julie-Anne." Russell stated, pushing himself up to stride across
the room to the tea table. Leaning in to whisper in her ear he
instructed simply "Let it go. I was just getting to know your
friends, that's all."

Letting
Julie-Anne know that she was still there and that she had the
strong hearing of a night predator, Freddy said loudly "Speaking of
letting things go my dearest one, our train leaves in a short
while. We'll have a quick cuppa with you two, and then Grace and I
must leave you lovers to your own devices." Her smile was one of a
cat stalking it's prey with malice.

Julie-Anne's
relief must have been visible. She couldn't wait for them to go,
leaving her to restore the quietude and happiness that she and
Russell had been nurturing around themselves. In the back of her
mind she suppressed her urge to demand to know what they'd been
looking at, what were Russell and Grace talking about so closely?
However, she was now determined to get this visit over with as
quickly as possible, and it was obvious that asking such questions
would only string things out. So she smiled silently, poured tea
demurely and refused to rise to Freddy's baiting.

Freddy made a
great play of kissing Russell when she finally stood up to
leave.

He offered
them a lift to the station. Julie-Anne was almost beside herself
with fury. She refused to accompany them and was quite gruff in
wishing them well as they went. Turning back to her cottage she
marched in and slammed the door behind her to give vent to her
frustration. Russell would have a lot of explaining to do when he
got back.

To make
matters worse he was gone for an hour and a half, even though the
drive to the station was only fifteen minutes.

Finally he
came to Julie-Anne where she sat at her kitchen table, and pulled a
chair to sit down beside her.