After stirring for the appropriate amount of time, Tom poured the liquor into the martini glass slowly, admiring how the condensation beaded almost immediately as the liquid filled the glass. When the shaker was empty he scraped a curl of peel from a lemon and dropped it into the glass to finish. The party was being catered but Tom always liked playing bartender. He was pretty good at it, or at least he liked to think.
"Adam, take this to your Aunt Penny please pal."
Tom's son excused himself from the conversation he was having and came to the drink's cabinet.
"Where is she, do you know?"
"She usually hangs around in the conservatory." Adam nodded like it was obvious and picked up the glass. "Here, use this," Tom said and slipped a small round tray under the glass. To complete the look he hung a clean white towel over his wrist, grinning as he did so. "Off you go." He did enjoy teasing his son.
Adam Saddleman, 20 years old and newly buffed from a strict training regime that his uni housemates had instilled in him, made his way through his parents house, weaving carefully between the many guests. He passed by Bryony who was seated with some older ladies in the living room. They all smiled at the handsome young man. "Such a lovely young girl!" they all reassured him. Bryony was seated politely with her hands in her lap doing her best new-girlfriend-eager-to-please routine.
"Is that for me?" she asked with a hopeful smile.
"Sorry, I'm under instruction to deliver this to Aunt Penny,"
The elder ladies soured a little at mention of the name.
"Oh, ok," Bryony said, a little disappointed. She'd been doing the butter-wouldn't-melt act for a few hours now and felt like she'd earned hard liquor.
"I'm sure he'd be happy to make you one. Lemme get rid of this and I'll sort it out."
He continued his journey through the house, politely sidestepping and rustling passed his family's many guests. The house was large; extended well beyond its original Tudor bones to reach out into the land that had been previously used as a small holding. Downstairs alone there was three rooms that could be called reception or living rooms as well as his fathers office, the kitchen (huge) and of course the conservatory. Adam said a thousand excuse-me's and thank-you's as he made his way around the house.
The conservatory was large and spacious; A 3-piece wicker suite situated in a wide circle to use up the space. Small house plants sat at the waist of the windows and a potted lemon tree sat stoutly in the corner. It was late November and the room would only warm for a few hours in the middle of the day. Here Penny was permitted to smoke. She landed on her knees on the largest sofa and lifted her feet onto the seat as she leaned into the backrest, looking out into the green fields of the houses surroundings as she took a cigarette from a packet and lit.
She was 42 but passed easily for ten years junior. She stood slightly under average at a cute 5' 7"; a slight and slender frame which still managed to hold a room in heels (which she was was rarely out of). A Phoebe Cates-esque Brunette; she held onto the fuller-faced features of a younger woman through no surgery and just a strong diet of good living. To her two elder sisters frustration, she exuded all the qualities of a youngest sibling: infinite youthfulness and abundant style and character.
That and the ability to get away with things which seemingly more adult people could never imagine daring to attempt. Penny was twice divorced and seeming to be in her prime despite. She was childless by choice and, though she loved her nieces and nephews, could only look upon her sisters with sympathy when she saw what the experience of raising these children had done to their lives and their bodies. No thank you.
Today she wore a modest black fabric dress with dark stockings and brilliant white stilettos which had made hobbling down the driveway a bit of a task. She'd finished the look with a brindle fur ("Aunt Penny, is it real?") which Tom had taken from her when he greeted her in the hallway. She'd decided against pearls which was one of her hallmarks (Because, you know, today was meant to be casual) but still wore a long necklace which hung across her modest chest. She was, by a large margin, the most glamorous person in the building. Also the sexiest despite not really showing any flesh and other attendees being much younger.
As was usually the case - when Penny Feldman walked into an empty room - others soon followed. Katy and Siobhan were first, eager to talk about clothes and maybe share a cigarette. "Sorry girls, it's not worth the agro." Others followed creating a light hum in the room and then a few minutes later the fine figure of Adam Saddleman strode into the room carrying a perfectly acceptable Martini.
Penny blew smoke out away from him as she manoeuvred herself up without standing. "How wonderful!" she said with a smile and air pecked him on the cheek as a thank you. She assessed him properly now. Though it had probably been a couple of years since they'd seen each other, Adam seemed broader than she could remember, his shoulders stretching further across and biceps slightly bulging through the arms of the long sleeved top that he wore. He was making more of an effort with his hair now and the scruffy nature of his teenage years was now properly shed. Her nephew was properly a man now, at least that's what his physical appearance before her seemed to indicate.
The twins were eager to tell her: "Oh my god! Aunt Penny! Have you met Bryony yet?"
"Oh my god! Aunt Penny! She is so cool!"
Penny noticed Adam smile. "Well, roll her out then. Let's get a good luck at her."
"She's stuck with Molly and Susie," Adam informed them with a slightly worried tone.
Penny grimaced. "Good lord. Poor thing."
Privately educated and generally thought to be from good stock - all three of the Blithe sisters-Trudy, Elizabeth and Penelope-were fine examples of Oxford's upper middle class. Their father had hoped to send at least Trudy to Eton in the hopes of seeing the family possibly married into some lower level royalty. But they'd never reached that level of money and had to make do with the next best thing.
Adam watched Penny breath in on the cigarette with a slow and considered casualness; couldn't help but notice her neck as she pointed her chin upward in order to exhale away from his twin sisters. The neckline of the dress stopped just below her collarbone and somehow Adam could not stop himself thinking about how it perfectly accentuated the shape of her modest chest. He himself was glad to have Penny around. She'd been mostly absent from the family for the duration of her second marriage. But with the ink on her divorce reaching its first birthday she'd been more and more present. Though this was the first he'd seen of her for a long time as he was now in his second year in university in Manchester where he now spent most of his time.
Katy and Siobhan spoke in hurried teenage tones about something to do with Bryony. Penny, still kneeling, relaxed back in to the arm of the sofa as they gabbled. She was enjoying their excitement when Trudy turned up suddenly. She leaned into Penny and with a hushed voice said, "Shall I get Tom to turn down the spare room," with a nod at the Martini.
Penny took her time to flick ash into a seashell ashtray and collect herself with a breath before responding with, "thank you. That won't be necessary," in much the same tone that the question had been asked. Trudy smiled falsely and walked off. Penny had been here less than half an hour and already battle had commenced.
"So, Adam, tell me everything about student life in Manchester."
"Yeah, it's good. Course is good. Got lots of friends. And now there's Bryony as well."
"She's on the same course as you?"
"No, no, she's studying zoology. She's in her first year."
"My, my," Penny said with a raise of the eyebrows, "a zoologist! How impressive!"
Katy, the youngest twin by 4 minutes, interjected. "Oh my god, Aunt Penny! Do you still have Coleman?"
Penny flicked ash again. "Yes, of course! You must come for a ride sometime."
Like all the Blithe sisters, Penny had riding lessons from a young age. But, again, to her sisters chagrin, and in no small part due to her being a good foot shorter and generally less broad then Trudy and Lizzie, Penny had been an accomplished rider and even had a few trophies to her name. It had fallen by the wayside in her twenties and thirties; but ever since the veritable windfall of her divorce she'd decided to climb back into the saddle and had acquired Coleman whom she rode twice a week unless out of the country.
Love, if she felt it at all these days, was reserved for Coleman and the pleasure she garnered from even a gentle trot upon his back. Some people liked fast cars and motorbikes, and Penny was not immune to that allure; the Jag she rolled in on could attest to that. Penny, however, looked down on anyone who thought that any thrill in this world bested the adrenaline rush of a horse like Coleman at full speed: the wind in her hair, her will at the reins, his muscles attuned and raging between her legs, the almost hydraulic thud and clomp of his feet tearing up the earth, competitors left to eat grass in their wake. Exhilarating. That was the only appropriate word. Penny had promised the girls a ride when she'd first acquired Coleman but had so far not made time for it. For this she felt bad now and quietly resolved to make good on the promise. They deserved to experience the thrill.
Horse talk - time for Adam to step away quietly. He made a quick apology and went looking for Bryony, worried she might be feeling neglected.
More and more people passed by the conservatory. They greeted Penny with curiosity, some graciously and others with a touch more suspicion. All of them melted after 30 seconds of her company. The twins witnessed her change minds through mere enquiry: "How is your mother? Where's that beautiful daughter of yours? Tell me all about your trip to Tokyo!" Even Molly and Susie showed up, surprised somewhat at the court she held. They were barely polite at first; but Penny at a party was impossible to resent. Especially when she started showing them pictures of Coleman and talking about her weekends in Paris.
The catering staff periodically circled the room with trays of food. At one point a young woman approached Penny. She was dressed as the others in a grey shirt with a black apron covering a black skirt. Unlike the others, she wore Dr Martens instead of flats and her red hair was shorn to the scalp on one side with a long bunch on the opposite side. A tattoo, somewhat indistinguishable, sat at the bottom and to the side of her neck, disappearing under the collar of her shirt.
"What have we here?" Penny asked, still kneeling upright on the sofa.
The woman leaned in closer to her revealing an attractive décolletage and a cheap and almost teenage fragrance.
"It's salmon," the girl said in a friendly manner, staring directly into Penny's eyes and holding her gaze for a few straight seconds. Penny took one of the small pastries and smiled a thank you with her eyes whilst eating.
Later, Trudy returned to a din of laughter and jollity which seemed to centre around her youngest sister. She injected herself into conversation and quickly began to tell of all the work done to the house over the years. The most recent of this was the conservatory itself.
