Stepping off the train in Erding, Mark recognised her immediately. Hanna had aged well. Her figure, in body-hugging jeans and a summery top, was more womanly now but still as nicely proportioned as the youthfully slender Hanna of twenty-five years ago. From the distance, her now shorter-cut hair looked lighter than he remembered.
Approaching each other, just slightly hesitating in their final steps, Mark realised there was more silver in her hair than in his. Hanna stretched out her hand for the usual German greeting while Mark spread his arms for the Australian hug, reserved for people one genuinely liked.
She blushed as she stepped into Mark's bear hug and stuttered, "Oh Mark, it's great to see you again. Welcome back to beautiful Bavaria."
Having surprised her, Hanna did not struggle out of their tight embrace. Her body was firm and warm under her light clothes. Mark suddenly realised how sensually alive her body felt pressed against his.
Mark responded by releasing her before she would feel his growing erection:
"It's wonderful to be back after all these years. And especially, of seeing you again in the flesh after years of cards and emails.
I recognized you straight away, even though you are now more beautiful than I remember from, God, twenty-six years and seven months ago."
As they turned to stroll out of the station, his compliment made her smile. Mark noticed that the laugh wrinkles in the corners of her eyes, were the only signs aging had imprinted on her intelligent, calm face. In Mark's eyes, life had transformed Hanna from a pretty young thing into an exquisitely beautiful and desirable woman.
Her car was parked close by. It was a recent model BMW 3. Mark whistled, "You certainly travel in style, Hanna!"
"I am a working girl and like my little luxuries. My school is in a village twenty kilometres from here. As a principal, I need a reliable car." Hanna laughed, "And in Bavaria, I can't drive anything else but a Bemer."
From the outside, Hanna's house had not changed much. Originally built or bought by Hanna's grandfather before World War 1, it reflected the taste and prosperity of an esteemed citizen of a time long past. He had been the chief administrator of the local hospital and the regional health services, as well as running a lucrative private practice. He and his wife had only one son, who was killed on the Russian Front in 1943.
At twenty, at her grandfather's death, a stunned Hanna became -- what was in the small-town context -- a wealthy heiress. As his only but also much-favoured grandchild, he had left the house and a substantial part of his liquid wealth to Hanna, to ease her and her husband into their married life.
Hanna had fallen pregnant at nineteen without being engaged. For her disappointed family, it was fortunate that her man, Rolf, a seven years older, local civil engineer, was considered an acceptable partner. So, under pressure to save Hanna's and the family's reputation, a marriage was quickly arranged.
When Mark met Hanna, she had been married for five years and had two children: five-year-old Peter, and three-year-old Carla. In addition to being a housewife and mother, she had the five rooms on the two floors upstairs in her house converted for rental.
Mark, having arrived in Munich for a year of post-graduate study at the University, was looking for suitable and affordable accommodation. A relative of Hanna, in his department at the University, recommended her and rang her up. She had a room vacant and Mark became her tenant.
As sometimes happens, they liked each other and were at ease with each other from the moment they met. Though both were young and physically attractive, there was no sexual tension between them. With Hanna's respectable background and Catholic upbringing, it probably resulted from her sexual naivety, her inability -- not unwillingness -- to be the instigator. With Mark, it was not a code of ethics; he just could not see a mother of two as an object of sexual desire.
Unforced and undeclared, they became friends. They saw each other much more often than Hanna saw the other tenants.
Although sexually innocent, their relationship was still conspiratorial regarding Hanna's husband. Rolf openly disapproved of Hanna's tenancy business, and his behaviour towards her tenants varied between downright rude and icily polite.
Therefore, whenever Rolf was home, the regular and friendly interaction between Hanna and Mark ceased. They never talked about it; it was a silent agreement. It worried Mark that there was something seriously awry about Hanna's marriage.
Rolf worked in a senior capacity for a large construction company, either in the head office in Munich or on project sites all over Germany. In the case of the latter, even if it was only a few Autobahn hours away, Rolf rarely returned home for the weekend. When in Munich, late nights and weekend work were the norms.
Also, Mark never saw Rolf do any work around the house or in the garden. For him, her property was entirely her responsibility and concern.
What happened behind the closed door of their downstairs apartment, Mark could not know and Hanna never told.
That was then. Hanna's emails had briefly reported on some of the happenings since. It included news of her divorce, that Carla had married a Frenchman, and that Peter had joined his father in Dresden.
Hanna had made some changes to her house. A second entrance door to what was a stairwell built against the side of the house and a roofed carpark in the forecourt were for Mark unfamiliar additions.
The changes inside the house were substantial. The interior stairwell was gone and the ground floor was now Hanna's apartment. The first floor was a three-bedroom rental apartment, with two studio apartments, for long or short-term rent, on the level up under the roof.
As she told Mark about it, Hanna's pride in what she had done with her property was apparent.
Leading Mark into and through her tastefully furnished apartment, Hanna eventually opened the door to a well-furnished room with an en suite bathroom. She explained that it was originally the two children's rooms. As both had left, she converted it into a guest room, mainly for their irregular visits.
Looking at Mark, Hanna said, "I decided against putting you up under the roof." Then, with a sideway glance through the open door into her bedroom, she grinned and added, "After all these years with you on the other side of the world, I wanted to keep you close."
Mark grinned back, "As you know, I'll be on my best behaviour," without adding, 'but not like long past, innocent years ago.' He was convinced, Hanna read his mind. She had, he thought, blushed.
It was late afternoon. Hanna left him to prepare dinner. Mark unpacked, had a shower, and settled in.
Joining her later in the kitchen, Mark read and liked the signs.
Hanna had set up a delicious cold serve meal with an opened bottle of claret on the little kitchen table with the two chairs close together. Customarily, guests were entertained in the dining room but friends always met and shared in the kitchen. It told him, better than words, what he still was for Hanna.
The second sign gave him hope that now he could be possibly more. Hanna had changed out of her everyday jeans and top into a dress. Fitting the warm summer evening, it was knee-length, bare-shoulders and of the lightest cloth. It meant to show off the beauty of her figure just as the lipstick Hanna had put on highlighted the sensuousness of her lips.
She watched for Mark's reaction, fearing that he would politely pretend not to notice:
"Wow, Hanna, you are not only the sexiest school principal I have ever met but the most beautiful woman I have been with in a long, long time."
"Well, this little dress I bought for this summer holiday, knowing that you would come. I hoped, that you would want to take me out. I could not wear such a dress to school, being a boring head teacher."
