Peter Noakes was the organist and choirmaster at St Leonards' church and had been so for over thirty years. He had been a widower for the past three years and had two grown up children. He had lived mainly on his own for the last year since his youngest child, his daughter Alice, had joined her brother at university.
The parish had received a new vicar four months previously, Reverend Maxine Power, a slim, plain looking brunette in her early thirties. This was her first parish as a vicar and already she had made an impression on people in more ways than one. The congregation had increased steadily at the morning services and she had successfully recruited seven members of the local primary school into the choir and reinstated the Sunday School for younger members.
She had also made quite an impression on Peter, so much so that they had had amorous liaisons on two consecutive days. These had been once in her car after a series of weddings on the Saturday and again the following day after the morning service at the vicarage. Unfortunately they had been caught out at the Sunday session when Trish Thorndike, a divorcee and the mother of one of the choir girls, had called to collect the keys to the parish hall after her daughter had left her mobile phone in there.
Finding the vicar wearing only a black slip, and Peter wearing nothing but his watch, she had naturally been embarrassed and Maxine had thought it right that they should go round the next day and apologise. Due to a meeting with a parishioner lasting longer than expected, plus the fact that she had a prior appointment with the bishop, Maxine couldn't go and he decided to go alone, whereby he succeeded in getting off with the aforementioned Mrs Thorndike, only to be caught stark naked again, this time by her friend Helen Faraday the Sunday School teacher, firstly to her shock and latterly her amusement. And so, our story continues...
Peter had got home exhausted after his session with Trish Thorndike but he was worried though. He had managed to apologise to Trish for any embarrassment caused and had then enjoyed screwing her and knew that she too had enjoyed her liaison with him as it was the first time she had had any male company in thirteen long years. However, this was now the second time that he had been caught having sex with ladies from the parish. Tongues were bound to wag and it would only be a matter of time before he was caught and then he and possibly Maxine also would be fired. His children would be home the next day also and while they would support him if he were to date suitable ladies, they would be ashamed and embarrassed if they knew that he had been caught in flagrante twice on successive days. Nevertheless, he decided to go and visit Helen the next morning just to set the record straight.
Meanwhile Helen was sat in Trish's lounge listening to the entire goings on. Trish was now fully dressed again and was telling her not only of the events on the previous afternoon, but those which had taken place within the last hour.
"Of course, you won't tell anyone, will you," Trish had said to her as she left later that afternoon. "I don't want Abigail to find out."
"No, of course not, you know I won't tell anyone." Helen had said and kept her word, apart from telling her husband, who never went to church anyway, her mum and her sister.
Peter didn't sleep very well that night. He was up early and had a light breakfast. He had a bit of work to do at an old lady's house in his day job as a gardener, just trimming the hedge and sorting out a few weeds. He was round there by eight thirty and finished just before ten 'o clock. He'd had a text from his daughter that morning to say that she would be arriving on the train from London at ten past twelve so he had an hour or so until he had to leave for the station.
Helen lived in a big detached house with her husband who was now a barrister and their two young sons. Her car with its personalised number plate stood on the driveway. She was thirty-two years old, 5'6" tall and had shoulder length strawberry-blond hair with a short fringe and big brown eyes, framed by a pair of gold rimmed spectacles. She wasn't currently working but spent her day looking after her two young children.
Peter rang the bell and waited nervously. He guessed that her children would be at home so there should be no repeat of the previous day's actions. She came to the door wearing a blue blazer over a light blue print floral knee length dress. She wore light hosiery and a pair of high heeled beige sandals.
"Hello Peter," she said smiling. "How are you today?"
"Oh, not so bad," said Peter. "I wondered if I could have a quick word with you about yesterday."
"Sure," she said. "Come in. Mark's working at his office today, he's got a big case starting on Monday and the boys have been at my mums since yesterday lunch time. You've only just caught me; I've just been to a job interview."
Peter thought she looked a bit dressed up just to be child minding.
"What was that for?" he asked, stepping through the front door. "Is it at Mark's office?"
"No," she said. "It's for a teaching assistant at Riverside Primary School. James will be starting there in September and I've got Callum into the Nursery section so I'll be on hand if there are any problems. It was Maxine's suggestion. She noticed how I got on with the Sunday School children and suggested I go for it so I talked it over with Mark and he was all for it."
"So when will you know?" said Peter.
"They told me today, I've already got it," she said. "I had the main interview last week and had to go back for a second one at nine o'clock. Mum's looking after the boys until lunch time."
"Well congratulations," said Peter. "I'm very pleased for you. Now, about yesterday, I hope that Trish and I didn't cause you any embarrassment and I hope that I didn't frighten you too much."
"Well I wasn't embarrassed so much, but you did scare me a little when you loomed up in the doorway," she said. "The last person I expected to find there was you, especially in the buff!"
"Well let's just say that things got a bit out of hand," said Peter. "I went a bit further than maybe I should have and I'm sorry you felt frightened"