Clarification:
The Met. = London's Metropolitan Police Force, incorrectly known around the world as Scotland Yard or New Scotland Yard, that's just their headquarters.
" Lock-in" locking the doors of a public house outside normal opening hours, so that a private party can be held. Providing no money is exchanged for any of the alcohol that is consumed and no members of the public could gain free access, then it is (or was - UK licensing laws have changed in the last few years) technically legal. In practice a collection was normally held either before or just after the doors were locked, to pay for the alcohol to be consumed.
Diddums, used to express commiseration, normally to a child.
Chapter 03
Millie was in my room and chaffing at the bit to get started when I got there that night. God only knows how she got downstairs in her nightdress and into the kitchen without being spotted by anyone.
"God, that man winds me up!" she exclaimed as she almost tore my clothes off. "I've needed to feel a cock in me from five minutes after he first kissed me this morning. How the hell can any man have the power to do that to someone?" Then she stopped speaking for a couple of seconds before she asked. "Um, any chance you could do me like last night again, Mack?"
I looked at the pleading expression on her face. "Sure, if you'll let me have a shower first," I replied. "It was interesting to see or rather hear your reactions."
"Come on, Luvver, I'll wash your back for you. 'ere, is there anything special you want to try, by the way?" she asked.
There was, but I thought I'd leave it until another time, when I felt more settled with the situation. All this sex suddenly being thrown at me was a little overwhelming.
Well, that's how things played out over the following few months. Millie would fuck my eyes out at least two nights a week and sometimes four or five. The two nights I could guarantee were always the night before and the night after she had her day off with Phil. But often she'd come down on other nights as well. Sometimes she stayed most of the night; other times, once she'd worn me out she'd retire to her own bed. And just a couple of times she suddenly appeared early in the morning "for a quickie" as she put it; tapping on the old wooden door to the kitchen if I'd remembered to bolt it.
But most of that was still in the future. It was the third or maybe the fourth week that I was at the pub when the village Bobby came into the bar one afternoon. He'd been in before; well, he was around showing his face along the riverbank most every other day or so. This day he removed his helmet and came into the bar, making a beeline for a stool near where I was loading the glass washer.
Placing his helmet on the bar he said, "Got some paperwork here concerning you, me lad," in more of a friendly tone than anything. "Seems you're on the Met's missing persons register, is that right?"
"Dunno, George. Not exactly missing, am I? After all, I'm standing here and you're sitting there talking to me, aren't you?"
"Come on, son, you know what I mean. Someone has reported you missing and has asked the Met to find out where you are. Now, what do you want me to do? I can tell them where you are, or I can just inform them that I've spoken to you, and that you've assured me that you are here of your own volition, but do not want your whereabouts to be made public knowledge."
"The latter please, George," I told him.
"Very well, son, as you wish. Who's looking for you by the way? Your family?"
"I should imagine so. There's no one else who'd care."
"What about Lindsey?" Millie butted in. I hadn't heard her come into the bar.
"I can't see that, Millie. Lindsey's probably quite happy with her squaddy now that I'm gone!"
"He might have gone back overseas," Millie suggested.
"Come off it, Millie. Surely she's sussed that I know about him by now, and will have probably found herself another mug to string along."
George was sitting there looking from Millie to me and back again. Obviously he was a policeman who knew when it's the right time to ask questions, and when is the right time to shut up and listen.
"Oh, love triangle, was it?" George commented once Millie and I had gone silent. "But why aren't you letting your family know where you are, Mack?"
"'e says they sided with her, George! Mack seems to think he's got it all worked out; but I'm not so sure that he hasn't got things all arse about face. Seems odd that the girl would string him along for over a year, whilst she's got a soldier boy overseas."
"I watched her with him, Millie..."
"But you never saw them in bed together, did you?" Millie butted in. "And that flat of hers, you've still got the key, ain't you?"
"Yes," I replied meekly, not knowing whether I was committing some kind of an offence by still having it in my possession.
"Well, don't make much sense t'me," Millie went on. "You could have walked in on them anytime she had him there, couldn't you? An' did you ever see any signs of him around that place of hers, pictures, or even letters and things from him?"
"No, not that I can recall. But I wasn't looking; I had no idea about him at all," I replied
"Well, don't that seem strange to you. After all, if he's the love of her life that you seem to think he is, and he's out of the country for god knows how long; wouldn't she be writing to him or on the telephone to him all the time. George," Millie said, turning to him, "your daughter's 'usband was stationed abroad, wasn't he? Didn't she get discounted telephone calls from him every few days or something?"
"They were free, I think," George replied. "I can't quite remember now. Look, Mack, I don't know the ins and outs of your troubles. But you can take it from me; what you believe you can plainly see ain't always what really is 'appening, you know. The times I've thought I've nabbed some bugger who I thought was up to no good, only to find out that they were just going about their own legitimate business."
"I know what I saw!" I said angrily.
"But you ain't given Lindsey a chance to explain what you saw, have you, Mack?" Millie chastised me.
"Please, Millie, leave it out. You know talking about her upsets me."