Caught

Dave put his hand on her midriff and lifted himself on an elbow. He looked at Alice's face and to his immense joy he saw her completely at ease. She looked up at him without any hint of tension in her any more, with no anxiety left - just happiness. He bent over to kiss her again and she put an arm round his neck.

"Would you really like to have a baby with me?" she whispered.

Dave nodded. "Yes," he said. "You know, last night - I sat up for a very long time, and I finally realised how much I had missed the things that life's about - warmth, and happiness, and an arm around your shoulder -" He stroked her hand - "and sharing what you like. When you started to cry at the concert - my ex would never listen to my records. She'd sing through them, deliberately out of tune. And I loved shopping with you, and I think we can share poetry and stuff... I'll check with the airline tomorrow to see if there's a seat for you, too - otherwise I will have to get new tickets on a different flight."

"Maybe I can find a job in a hotel nearby there," she said.

"No," Dave said.

Her eyes opened wide as she looked at him.

"Oh dear," he said. "I'm sorry. Just pull my ear when I act like this, won't you? Of course you can, especially in summer. And you certainly should retain your independence, as much as possible. But I meant to say, why don't you finish your studies?"

She was quiet for a moment. Then she said, "Yes, I'd love to, of course. I may have a more interesting job then. Oh, I must tell them I'm leaving, tomorrow."

"Will it be a problem for you to stop at once?" Dave asked. "I have only one more appointment tomorrow afternoon. I had planned to visit the library, and do some other things but they're of no importance, really. We can have all day to show each other the things we like here, and you can show me a little of your history, if that's not too painful. I'd really like to know."

"No," Alice said. "I don't think it's too painful - it will be good to get it off my chest. And I have a lot of good memories, too. I will tell them I want to stop straight away."

Dave nodded. Then he grinned and said, "So where did you get those eyes? You father's, or your mother's?"

"I'll show you," she said. "Come."

They got up and walked into the living-room.

"It's strange," she said. "I would never have thought I could simple be here stark naked with someone and not feel embarrassed - but I just feel so happy!"

Dave beamed. He looked at her and nodded, and tried to answer, but the words stuck in his throat. Instead he kissed the tip of her nose while he held her face with his hands. He nodded again.

She went to one of the cupboards and took an album.

"These are the photographs I've got," she said.

Dave sat down and Alice sat on his knee. She opened the album and they looked at it together. There were a lot of pictures of a little girl with blonde corkscrew curls and a friendly-looking man with a moustache.

"That's me," Alice said, "and that's my father."

There was a picture of a woman who stared into the lens with unseeing eyes. Dave didn't like her mouth very much; it showed discontent and reminded him of his ex.

"That's my mother," Alice said. "She'd already started using then, but it wasn't too bad yet. You can at least see her eyes clearly in this picture."

"Yes," Dave said. "Isn't there a portrait of your father?"

Alice nodded. She got up and took an envelope from the cupboard. Inside was an enlarged photograph of her father's face. She looked at it and wiped a hand over her eyes.

She handed the picture to Dave. He looked at it. The features were only a little like Alice's; but his eyes were the split image of Alice's own, he thought.

"You've got your father's eyes," he said. "That's lovely."

Alice nodded. She took the picture from him, and put it back. Then she sat on his knee again. She put her arms round him and rested her head on his shoulder.

"I am so happy with you," she said, "but I also feel like crying - I wish you could have met him."

"Yes," Dave said. "I like his looks very much - and you can see in the pictures of the two of you how much he loved you. Why do you keep it in an envelope? We could have it framed and put it on the wall."

She nodded. "Yes," she said. "You won't mind?"

"On the contrary," he said. "I want you to feel it's your place as much as mine - and luck didn't leave you too much. But this is a wonderful portrait. Have you any more treasures?"

Alice shook her head. "No," she said. "Anything that was of any value..." She let the sentence dangle. "I'm getting cold," she said. "Shall we go back to bed?"

They cuddled together under the duvet. Alice stroked his chest, and then she ran a finger round his nipples. It made him shudder. He felt her buttocks with his free hand, and then he said, "I'd love to kiss you all over. May I?"

In answer Alice let go of him and rolled onto her back. She smiled at him. "Be my guest," she said.

Dave slowly explored her body with his mouth. He loved the taste of her, and he liked the smell of her body. He went all the way down to her toes and then up again, and he stopped at her crotch. He looked up at her face with a question in his eyes. She smiled and nodded. "Please," she said.

Dave made love to her slowly. He used the blade of his tongue first, and ran it along the length of her slit; then he found her inner labia and took them between his lips. He pulled at them a little before he stuck the tip of his tongue between them to taste her juices. Alice got the shivers from his treatment; not just because he touched the right nerves, but even more so because she could sense his love for her.

Dave went back to her labia with his tongue and eventually he slowly, slowly moved up to her clitoris.

"Oh, please, yes..." Alice said. She gripped his hair with her hands and pushed her pussy up to meet his face, and she came almost immediately. Dave lay his head on her thigh and waited for her high to subside. She stroked his hair and found his mouth with a finger. He kissed it.

When her breathing was steady again Dave stretched out beside her. "When you changed into your new outfit," he said, "you were wearing some blue lingerie. Could you tell me about it?"

"Yes," she said, surprised at the question. "I bought it after a nasty confrontation with my mother. She's shouted at me and she called names, and said I was plain, and - I just wanted to feel desirable and nice and I went and bought it. It was really beautiful then. And I didn't know if you wanted to have me as a courtesan, or what, and I decided that if you should want to have sex with me I wanted to look my best..." She smiled a little. "I know it wasn't much, really. But I wish I had kept it. I - it did keep up my spirits a little, somehow."

"I thought as much," Dave said. "Er, it's still there. Your smell was on your bra, and I just couldn't throw it with the rest. It's in my suitcase in the hotel."

She let the implication of what he'd just said sink in. "Were you in love with me already then?" she said.

He smiled. "I think so," he said. "But as I told you, I didn't want to give in to my own feelings - I thought I'd be unable to commit myself again."

"Uhuh," she said. "I'm glad you've kept it."

Then she rolled on top of him and felt for his cock. "Let's make love again," she said.

The next morning they went back to the hotel together. Alice went into the managers office and told him she wanted to give up her job. He was a little surprised, since he knew she was hard up, but she told him in a few words what he needed to know to understand her reasons. Alice had been a good worker; he paid her wages to the hour and wished her happiness. Alice thanked him and left the office.

"I'd like you to meet Mary Anne," she said. "She's the woman that fed me."

They went to the kitchen together. Mary Anne, who hadn't seen Alice for couple of days, was happy to hear nothing untoward had happened, and even happier for her when Alice told her she and Dave were going to live together in the provinces.

"Lovely, Alice," she said. "I hope you'll be very happy together."

She kissed her and shook hands with Dave. "Coffee?" she said.

Alice looked at Dave. "Yes, please," he said.

They had coffee together in the kitchen, and spent a pleasant ten minutes talking together. Then Dave and Alice took their leave.

They spent the morning shopping; Alice bought more dresses, some pairs of trousers, some more lingerie - and this time Dave took an active part in their purchases - and generally all they thought Alice might need.

They took the spoils back to hotel.

"We've forgotten to buy some trunks," Dave said. "If we want to ship your things to Newport we can't just ship paper bags."

He opened his own suitcase and took out the bag he'd kept. "Look," he said. "I'd love you to wear it for me."

Alice looked into the bag and smiled. "Gladly," she said. "Now?"

"Yes, please," he said. "And I'd love to take it off of you tonight."

She cuddled him for a moment and went into the bathroom to change. Like the other time she stepped out again to show him. He looked at her and somehow his eyes got wet. He took her in his arms, and held her as if she were about to run away. She smiled at him again.

"Come," she said. "I'll put my dress back on."

Early that afternoon Dave bought a second ticket to fly them to Southampton. He finished his final appointment and then they took the tube to the outskirts. Alice held an arm round Dave's waist as they walked to the house she was born in. She showed him a small, well-proportioned building that Dave judged to be about seventy years old. It had a small garden and looked well-kept. Alice pointed at a first floor window.

"That used to be my room," she said. "I really loved this place."

Then she showed him where the shops used to be, and they visited her old school.

"Let's have a look inside," she said.

They were met by an elderly lady.

"Hello, Mrs Jamison," Alice said. "I used to go to school here and I'd like to show it to my friend. May we look around for a moment?"

"You must be Alice Green," the lady said to her surprise. "You remind me of your father. I hope you take after him. Yes, you may look around; I will come with you."

They made a short tour of the building and then Mrs Jamison took them into her office.

"I don't want to intrude," she said, "but I heard your mother died some time ago. Rumour had it she gave you a hard time."

Alice nodded. "Yes," she said, "she did. But that's past and done now."

"So," Mrs Jamison said. "And what have you made of your life?"

"Well," Alice replied, "I think I will finish my studies by the end of this year... I worked as a chambermaid for the last ten years or so."

She briefly told her about her life; and then they went out into the spring sunshine again.

"She was a dear," she said. "Very severe, and very just. I liked her a lot."

They went to a bookshop first. Dave found a copy of Robert Frost's Selected Poems and showed Alice The Road Not Taken.

"This is what made me realise I really wanted you, and that I would be an idiot if I let this one chance pass," he said.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Alice said. "It's really what life is all about. And sometimes -- most times, I suppose -- you simply don't know the right road. But we both chose right. And we both found the crock of gold at the end of our rainbow; especially now its one rainbow for the two of us." She looked at him with so much love in her eyes that it made Dave glow inside.

They went to one of the parks for the afternoon and walked, talked and had a good time.

Dave told her about his youth and his family, things they had not talked about yet, and they spent some time sitting on a perk bench watching the people going by.

They had early dinner at a small restaurant and then they went to hear Jean Françaix and a couple of other twentieth century French composers. The concert was pleasant enough but not as devastating as the first one had been.

They went back to the hotel. "I'll get my toothbrush, my razor and pyjamas," Dave said. "We can leave the rest here; it's quicker to the airport and we have most of tomorrow to arrange things."

"Do you really think you'll be wanting your pyjamas, sir?" Alice said, looking at him demurely.

"My toothbrush and razor it'll be, then," he grinned, looking forward to undressing her.

In her room he took off her dress and first held a along time in her old lingerie.

"It really looks beautiful on you," he said, "and I am very glad it's still there."

Then they made love, very gently and very long, and afterward they lay talking for hours while Alice held his head firmly against her breasts.

The next morning they bought some big trunks and packed most of Alice's clothes in them, together with her stereo, the two books and her CDs; and they arranged for them to be taken to Dave's place.

Then they went for a drink and from there they walked along the river once more. They ended up at the Abbey.

Dave hadn't been there for ages, so he bought tickets and they went in. He wasn't particularly religious, but this, he thought, a little awed by the surroundings, was a good place to propose to her. "It's a little unnecessary an longer, perhaps," he said. "But still - will you marry me?"

Alice nodded and kissed him. "I love being caught," she whispered.