CHAPTER 4
During dinner Gran said, "I'm be ready for you to paint a cover for my book Carlson."
"Great, I said I'd do that for you. What do you suggest?"
"A representation of me riding in a gondola or perhaps of me skiing in the French Alps."
"Do that for an inside illustration but for the cover I want something else."
"That's fine dear, I'm guided by you in this project."
Milly asked, "Can you do the painting -- A3 size for me to take to New York when I go before the end of the month?"
Carlson said why not. "A painting of what?"
"Finish eating and drinking your beer. I need to find the passage in Gran's draft manuscript."
Milly returned and from the doorway read:
"I stood outside the open double doors to the young Sultan's bed chamber, dressed in wispy silk by his sisters, my hair tied up and covered, my breasts straining forward but bisected by the straps holding my father's encased 1930s Leica II camera. Nervous I was not. I had such presence of mind that I stopped and took the photograph of the doorway and to the bed on a raised dais beyond. Then the Sultan's hooked-nosed mother arrived, clapped her hands and the guards hurriedly closed the doors and she hauled me back to my palatial bedroom and pushed me inside very roughly indeed. The doors banged closed and I heard a key turn. She then unleashed words with venom and I could only recognize one of them, probably when she lapsed into English for it. The word was bitch."
"Jesus," Carlson said.
Gran laughed and said, "The anguish of a young woman being denied sex happens more than you would think Carlson."
"I haven't seen the photo collection yet," Milly said. "Do you have that photo looking into the Sultan's bedroom, a glamorous photo of yourself of about that time and a photo clearly showing your camera?"
Gran said yes, that she would find them in the morning. "I have the photos sorted into years so finding them won't take long."
"So I paint that scene from photos."
"Oh good boy Carlson, you catch on fast," Milly said.
"I will need your body for Gran's body posing in that picture to bring it alive. The face from a photo -- no problem. You were probably not too dissimilar to Mrs C at that age."
"Well do that if you have to Carlson," Gran said. "We do require your best work."
Milly scowled. "But not up to your cabin in this cold weather. Winter is coming."
"Well use one of the guest rooms as a studio," Gran said.
"I'm not posing nude if that's what you are thinking Carlson?"
He grinned and said well a compromise then; she could wear panties, very brief panties. "I must get the light right off the body to express movement otherwise the physical form will be static, dead."
"Well we can't have that happening, can we," Milly said stiffly. "I suppose there is a possibility of sex?"
Carlson scrubbed his jaw to hide his grin and he removed it, saying seriously, "A possibility...hmmm...I'd have to say perhaps."
Milly ignored Katherine's gasp and a glance took in Gran's grin.
"Then I must insist that when I am required to pose for you that you have bathed and cleaned your finger nails...just in case a possibility becomes more than a probability."
"Clean finger nails?" Katherine queried.
Gran laughed and held out her arms. "Come to me you darling innocent."
On the afternoon of the third session, with Katherine at the hospital and Gran asleep in front of TV Carlson said, "Sex instead of painting this afternoon?"
"Yes, all right."
They kissed and when they began tonguing Milly thought he smelt fresh and lovely. He sucked her breasts and they began swelling to his touch and his teeth bit into her rubbery nipples until she felt close to gushing. She lay back on bed and Carlson flopped beside her and worked her legs open with his hand.
"Stop," Milly commanded. She checked each hand and fond his hands were very clean. "Okay, you can finger me." He soon had her almost screaming to him to put it in. They were at it hard for almost two hours and Milly left him to go to her room to clean up. She met Katherine just arriving home.
They kissed.
"Katherine, consider this. "I've just finished having sex with Carlson and can tell you he's a real man. I would think you've never had a real man. Go to him. He'll be dozing. If you want sex from him just sit beside him and stroke his chest softly and play with a nipple."
"Play with a nipple?"
"Yes, soft and unhurried. He'll know what to do but make sure he wears a condom. He has plenty. If you decide to do it with him take your time. I'll have dinner ready to serve at 7:00 and usual. I'll keep Gran occupied sorting through more photographs with me. I'll tell her where you are."
"What? Oh no. You can't."
"Please Katherine. If you don't appear within fifteen minutes I'll tell her and I'm sure she'll be very pleased for you. We both think Shane is rather too passive for you but you need something to judge that against and I think in time you'll think back to your experience with Carlson and realize what I told you was correct but then again you don't have to abandoned marrying Shane unless you feel absolutely sure that's what you should do. Only you really know that you want when in possession of all the facts."
Watching Katherine's walking nervously along the passage Milly thought had she just thrust a knife into her young friend's beautiful back, leading into a horrible experience that could ruin Katherine's coherent attitudes and turn her off men even her young man Shane. Milly sweated thinking she'd done a terrible thing, interfering like that, pushing Katherine into it without counseling her at length. She was here to write a book, not to play ducks and drakes with people's lives. She'd been grossly stupid...but then she'd always thrived on that streak of stupidity that allowed her to move outside the square. She was acting in that mode using it on Katherine, pushing Katherine into a new experience she never had contemplated for herself. If it went wrong Katherine would never forgive her; nor would Gran. If she lost Gran's trust and confidence she might as well abandon the project and leave. God, what a mess -- you stupid bitch, she thought. The only thing on her side was although Katherine was rather shy she wasn't timid, otherwise how could she have survive the toughness of nursing training. "Me and my big mouth; over eager to please."
* * *
Katherine had come to realize Milly was one of the most exciting woman she'd ever met and that had been reinforced in recent days as Gran moved into working sessions with Milly. Gran had confided only two days ago: "I'm finding Millie has the openness, the energy I had when I was that age and even thinks like I used to think. It's eerie; almost like a reincarnation. You did wonderfully well to pick her out and bring her to me." Now Milly was pushing her to have sex with a wild man. Milly wanted her to step over a frontier she'd long thought about.