It had simply not occurred to Claire that the sexual transformation she was imposing upon her mother would rekindle desires within her father. She had simply not thought to impose upon the sixty-five year old woman a prohibition against intercourse with her own husband. The man was nearly seventy, and Blanche had insisted that every flicker of sexual lust within his loins had extinguished itself years earlier. Claire had taken her mother's assessment at her word. Claire felt betrayed. She felt betrayed both by her mother and by her own judgment.
"When we first started, you insisted that Dad had no interest what-so-ever in sex," Claire railed as she paced the room.
"He's had no interest in sex with me for nearly a year," the very repentant senior woman corrected. "He still watches things on the computer when he thinks I'm not about. He'd lost interest in me."
"Did you enjoy spreading your legs for him? Did you enjoy being fucked by a man again?" Blanche blushed at the image her daughter's deliberately crude language evoked. "Did you entice him," Claire then asked, with a subdued tone.
Tears began to glisten at the corners of the elder woman's eyes. "He came home from the pub earlier than usual, crawled into bed and began to...touch me, as he did when we were younger. He'd caught a glimpse of me shaving myself smooth down there, before he'd left for the pub. It affected him, Claire. He left his mates to come home early...to be with me. He hadn't done that since the first years of our being together."
A groan of exasperation forced its way from Claire's soul. "Why were you even shaving yourself in front of him? He's old, mommy dearest, but he's still a man. You should have known that it would excite him. It's the sort of thing that entices a man to start thinking with his little head. Why didn't you wait until he'd left? How can I not think you were trying to attract his attention?"
Blanche struggled to defend herself against the implications of her daughter's reasoning. "I was shaving myself to please you, Claire. He only caught a glimpse of me, but it excited him. He's my husband, Claire. Should I have refused him by confessing that I was shaving myself down there for you...that our daughter wants her Mummy completely smooth when she plays with me?"
"It would have been added fuel for his imagination," Claire reluctantly conceded. She did not indulge conciliation for long. "You should have simply told him that it was for medical reasons and had nothing to do with sex. Men hate hearing about anything medical that pertains to a woman's sexual organs. His erection would have withered away at the mere suggestion and he would have retreated back to his pub mates." Claire stared hard at her mother. The old woman could not hold her gaze. "What did you tell him," Claire asked after causing the woman considerable discomfort.
"I said that it was just a whim."
"Have you ever heard of a woman in her sixties shaving her cunt on a whim?"
"I didn't know what else to say. He didn't really insist on any other explanation. He only smiled...got undressed and crawled up beside me."
"Did he force you?"
Blanche reacted as if shot. "Claire, he's my husband. It's my duty...my wifely duty to be available for him if I can." The elder woman's voice began to waver. "Please don't be angry with me, Claire. I really thought that sort of thing was over between him and myself. He's begun to notice me more, of late. Since you took charge of me, and made me your mum, he's begun to notice...and take interest again."
Claire's agitated pacing about the room stalled at hearing this news. "How long has be been noticing you and taking an interest," she asked suspiciously.
"Only recently, dear. He made me a compliment about the way you've changed my hair and clothing. The other day he told me that I seemed a changed woman these past weeks. He simply said that it was nice."
Claire moved to stand near her mother, facing her. "You should have told me this as it was happening, mom." Blanche staggered from the shock of hearing her daughter refer to her as mom, rather than as mum. Blanche took great joy and pleasure in her role, as Claire's mum. Sexual submission to her daughter was a liberation of both flesh and spirit for Blanche. It wounded her to have slipped and tumbled so in her daughter's eyes. "A man doesn't tell a woman something is nice about her unless he wants something more from her. When he tells a woman that he likes the way she's dressed it means he's thinking of getting her undressed. You must have known that his compliments were a sign of interest."