Hannah rode her bicycle back up the gravelled drive following tea with Sir Hugh and Lady Lyanthe. She was in a happy mood, whistling to herself. She had enjoyed a lovely afternoon. Croquet, a walk in the woods and good conversation both with Sir Hugh and Lady Lyanthe. She had also been somewhat sexually satisfied. Hannah was really enjoying how often she was having something firm between her legs, having Sir Hugh and, indeed sometimes, Lady Lyanthe's hands roaming so freely over her body. She liked both the exercise of riding her bike and the sexual exercise. She smiled to herself. Hannah was sure Sir Hugh would tell her all about how sex was good for toning muscles, might go off into some long Freikörperkultur description of Germanic maidens and, most probably, young men exercising naked, stretching and running on the spot in a field, sweaty and hot, before the young men engage in press ups upon the young maidens.
Hannah was thinking of the strict Frau insisting all exercise was done in unison, serried ranks of young men and women engaged in synchronous copulation; taut male bottoms rising and falling; legs and backs straight and rigid, and lovely, equally, rigid penises going in and out of wet young vaginas. She was riding along, thinking of all those connections when it happened.
Hannah came off her bike all of a sudden. Perhaps it was a skid upon the loose gravel, perhaps her foot slipped on a pedal, but she was over and on the ground in a trice, right by the entrance gate. She lay momentarily winded and confused, knowing there would be quite a bruise to leg and buttock. Had she done any more damage?
All at once over her a shadow. Hannah looked up, squinting. It was Bradshaw the gardener, reaching to help her to her feet. She was not too worried at what he had seen, her dress had certainly become pulled up and she had been lying in not exactly a dignified way. He would have seen everything!
"You've hurt yourself, miss. Your knee. Anything else?"
Hannah felt herself all over. Her dignity and composure and her joy at cycling had taken a bit of a battering, as had her bum and knee, but nothing was broken and her head had not hit the ground, she thought. No concussion then.
With a scooping motion, Bradshaw picked her up and carried her to his lodge. She had just had tea but, inevitably, the kettle went on. Tea, warm water and Dettol, the antiseptic making the water go cloudy like milk and the smell coming clean and soothing to her nostrils.
She sat with one knee up, foot on a low stool, so Bradshaw could bathe and clean her knee. He had told her to sit like that. Knees are used to being grazed. It happens a lot to children. A younger Hannah, having been a bit of a tomboy, had had permanently grazed knees, sometimes covered with half peeling Elastoplast - sometimes not. In that position her dress had ridden half-way up her thigh. She was aware, very aware, the old gardener already knew she was knickerless. Would he ask why? They were still in Sir Hugh's pocket.
Despite large and calloused hands, Bradshaw was surprisingly gentle with Hannah's knee. A fair bit of blood staining the cloudy warm water in the bowl, as he dabbed and washed with a cloth. Dried and only bleeding slightly he peeled the paper from a large Elastoplast and smoothed it over the graze.
"There's we are, miss." He bent and kissed the plaster just as her mother might have done when she was a little girl, his curled beard brushing and tickling her skin, his hand resting upon the smooth skin of her thigh, well above her knee. Hannah was not at all sure the movement had not been to bring his eyes down and take a peek up her dress. "Accidents happen," he said rising to his feet, "let's see how it supports you, miss."
Hannah was surprised to find that whilst she could walk, she had a bit of a limp.
"Come, lean on me and we'll go for a little walk. Do you good."
And so, Hannah found herself being given a tour of Bradshaw's domain whilst leaning upon him. She was sure the old boy was taking great pleasure in having a young girl leaning against him; he even had his arm around her waist by way of support. Only thin material between her tummy and his big hand.
The old potting shed, brick and pantiled, had a strong earthy smell when they stepped inside.
"Here's where I does me potting on and seed plantin'. Good strong seed in fine steamed loam with a light covering o' compost; or taking them young plants by their leaves and easing they into fresh good compost. Used to be several men back in Sir Hugh's grandfather's day. Aye, woomen too. Best to be potting with a wooman."
"Really, why?"
There was not that much light in the shed or perhaps it was because the light had been so bright outside, but Hannah saw Bradshaw's teeth flash. "Ah well," he said, "those wpomen were a bit free and easy with their favours, you might say. Catch a young gardening lad in here for an afternoon's potting and..." the teeth appeared again. "Had me first - ah, well, yes - right here. Mrs Sowerby, she the head gardener's missus, bent herself right over the potting bench and told me to 'do me best.' She was a right one. Mind you, so was he with them young maids up at the hall!"
"Oh... really, Mr Bradshaw. And did you, um, do your best?" The sudden revelation had caught Hannah a little off guard.
"I'd been taught well," again the teeth, "You's need to learn a lot in gardening. Theory and practice. T'other gardeners had told me all about the theory - I just had to put it into practice!"
"What sort of theory, Mr Bradshaw."
"Don't go a' it like bull in china shop for one; pace yerself, treat the lady with respect; like you let a wooman go through a door first make sure she do come first!"
Hannah laughed. She had very much warmed to Bradshaw. Was he about to bend her over the potting table and 'pot' her?
Out again in the sunlight Bradshaw took her to the vegetable garden; like so many old country houses it was walled and delightfully sheltered. Hannah was delighted by the profusion of strong plants. She asked about Bradshaw's secret and how to make the garden grow.
"Shelter and good compost." He went into quite an explanation of compost making taking her over to see the compost bins. They were old and brick built. "Regular turning and plenty of urine. Good, sweet compost for the garden."
"Urine?"
Bradshaw explained about the importance of nitrogen whether from nitrogen fixing plants like beans or from other sources. "I always pees on the compost. All they old gardeners did."
"And the women?"
"They just climbed up and... thar's the thing about skirts, preserve modesty even if we men get todgers out."