The Paul & Jenny Stories Pt. 17d: The Batting Order Ch. 04
As with all my stories all events and characters are fictitious.
Part 3.
Paul.
I pulled up on the gravel drive in front of my grandfather's cottage next to my father's Jaguar.
The front door was open and Millie, my old Labrador bitch bounded out to meet me. I made a fuss of her, rubbing behind her ears, pushing her away then letting her come back to me.
"Oh Paul." My mother said from the doorway. "Why do you always leave everything to the last moment?"
"Leave what?" I protested.
"There are five of you staying here and nothing in the house to eat or drink. Today, of all days. You know I have so much to do."
There was a cellar full of wine and I was sure I could have found some bottles of beer. Still, we had to think of the girls I supposed.
"Thank you for thinking about that."
"Somebody has to." She looked at me and adjusted the collar on my shirt. "You need a haircut."
"I'm only down to play cricket." I had visions of her ordering me to the barbers.
"Ah Paul." My father came out of the house and placed his arm about my mother's waist. "I've put some fresh sheets on the beds for you. Are you coming down to the nets?"
"When the other's arrive." I replied, rubbing Millie beneath her ear.
"I'm glad you have brought all the girls with you." Mother said taking my fathers hand from her hip and walking with it in her own towards their car. "We could do with a hand with the teas. Mrs Clarks gout has flared up and Jill and Janet are away on holiday still."
She made it sound as if it were a crime to holiday in August. I wasn't sure of the girls' reaction to being volunteered for making sandwiches and teas in the old pavilion and the marquee. Yes I was.
There was always a good crowd when we played East Chipstable. A rivalry in cricket that went back to Victorian times. The local good causes would have tents set up selling cakes and flowers and nick-nacks. The pony club would bring some mounts and give rides. There would be a fire engine for the children to clamber all over. The pub would set up a small bar in one corner of the main tent. It was going to be a fun day.
I watched my parents as they drove away then walked into the house with Millie getting under my feet. I loved this building. It had once been the site of a much larger house of which only the cellars and the underground passage to the walled garden remained. I hoped it would be mine one day. Grandfather hadn't been well since the death of my grandmother. Jenny said he was dying of a broken heart. He was only seventy-four, I told her, and he would have at least another ten years. She became quite upset and burst into tears. Women are strange.
He was in Spain. He went three times most years. I think he would have moved out permanently if grandmother had still been with us.
Millie was growling at the back door so I went and look out of the kitchen window. Two people were moving quickly towards the entrance to the walled garden. I recognised Len immediately and that looked like Stephanie, the pub landlord's daughter. Hmm. This needed investigating. I turned the key in the lock of the door that led down to the cellar and went down the flight of stone steps. I switched on the lights and walked to the old oak door at one end of the passage and slipped the bolts top and bottom.
The floor of the tunnel which led to the walled garden was paved with flag stone and the walls and curved ceiling made of brick which had been plastered at some time. It could do with re-doing. My father had installed some lighting for my old scoutmasters wedding two years before and I clicked the switch to turn it on. There were six sockets at approximately ten-yard intervals. One of them wasn't working. I must remember to change the bulb.
I hurried along the passage. It was always cold down here. At the far end there was a flight of steps leading up to another old oak door. I slid back the bolts and stepped out into the gardeners shed in a corner of the walled garden. I told Millie to be quiet and crept to the window. Once the garden would have supplied a lot of the fresh fruit and vegetables for the house but now it was mostly covered in lawn with flower beds around the sides and fruiting shrubs and trees trained against three of the walls. My grandparents had acquired two oak park-benches and they stood facing each other across the lawn.
Len and Steph were sitting on one of the benches. They were about fifteen yards away and sideways on to me. Len had his arm around her shoulders and she was holding his other hand between her own. They were talking and Steph was looking up at Len. She looked as if she was going to cry. She was crying. Len lowered his face to hers and they were kissing. I could see one of Len's huge hands close around one of her breasts. She let it remain there for a few seconds then pushed it away and, breaking their kiss, looked about them.
I stepped back from the window into the shadows at the rear of the shed.
Millie whimpered and I hissed at her to be quiet.
Len was talking. I heard something about there being nobody about and his hand was back on her breast. She turned away from me to face him and they kissed.
Steph's arms were around Len's neck as they kissed and I saw his hand leave her breast and travel down her back to rest upon her hip. He was feeling her thigh. Pulling at the hem of her short black skirt. She must be serving behind the bar today. Her knees parted and his hand disappeared between them. Then she was pushing him away and standing up. He was holding her in front of him with a hand on either hip. She looked around again. Then she reached behind her back and undid her skirt. Len helped guide it to the floor. He was saying something about grass stains. Steph was wearing white knickers. Len was pulling them down over her hips and ass while she was unbuttoning her white blouse.
Steph's fanny looked hairier then it did the last time I had seen it. When Len had been having her on the floor of the Pubs stockroom and Steve and I had gone investigating strange noises on my stag night. I was struck with a twinge of conscience for a second. It passed. I convinced myself that Len would probably watch if it were Jenny and I. Millie was whining again.
"Shut up." I hissed at her.
