I pulled on my panties and got into the dress.
“Wish you could stay the night, darling,” she said, wistfully.
“We ought to have the chance at Bridlington. I was just wondering about that. What is the sleeping accommodation like at the bungalow?”
“Well, there's a large bedroom with a double bed and a smaller one with a single bed. The small one will be just right for Jane, which leaves us together in the large one. Oh, darling-a double bed all to ourselves! We've not yet had the chance of sleeping together- all our love-making has been done more or less in a hurry.”
“I can hardly wait!”
“There's a little strip of private beach, too.”
“What sort of bathing gear do you wear?”
“Bikini, of course!”
“Wow-with that gorgeous body! It's just as well the beach is private!”
“May I go and get my new coat from the car?”
“Of course-I'd forgotten all about what the original intention of going into town was for.” She went to her handbag and handed me the car keys. “Here-get mine as well. I can't very well go out like this-I'll be seeing you off in the same state as Rose saw us off.”
I fetched our things from the car and prepared to leave.
“I've been thinking about Rose,” Stella said hesitantly.
“Did you mind my suggesting what we did for her? I realise I was a bit blatant about it.”
“Of course I didn't mind — I like her. Made her happy, anyway!”
“If we go into town together any time, we'll be able to use her flat-we're bound to have the urge, especially if I take you to that club again!”
“That will be nice. Well. I suppose I'd better go and face the music!”
“It's not as bad as all that, surely?”
I smiled a little regretfully as I thought of poor Phil sitting at home while I went round enjoying myself sexually with another woman, going to lesbian clubs and planning to sleep with the said woman, so that we should be able to indulge our craving for one another's body. I looked at the half-naked Stella, and I'm afraid desire outweighed the feeling of guilt.
“No, not really. It's been such a wonderful day, I'm hoping I don't look guilty and jeopardise the week- end.”
“Well, I'll say the same as Rose did-better let yourself out. Supposing one of the neighbours walked past just as I was waving you good-bye at the gate in my near-nothings!”
“Or, worse still-my Phillip!”
I gathered her nakedness into my arms and we kissed. She came as far as the hall with me, a faint tinkle coming from her dangling suspenders as she walked. I turned and she blew me a kiss as I let myself out. I remembered something and stopped in her porch to patch my make-up before going home.
Jane was in the living-room preparing to go to bed when I got in.
“Where's dad?”
“In the next room-up to his neck in drawings!”
“Had any supper?”
“Had some cocoa-not very hungry.”
“Jane-how would you like to come up to Bridlington with Stella and I for the week-end?”
“Fab! This week-end — before I have to go back to school?”
“Of course. I take it you approve?”
“And how! What about dad?”
“Well, he's too busy — otherwise, we should have taken you somewhere for a couple of weeks. You like Stella, don't you?”
“Mmm-she's dishy!”
“Well, all I have to do is get dad's permission and we start out on Friday in Stella's car. A friend of hers is going abroad for a few months and is letting her use a bungalow she has there whenever she wants-it has a private beach, too.”
“Golly! If the weather holds up. I'll be able to show a South of France tan at school!”
“Off to bed with you, then-only one day to wait.”
“Oh, you're a darling, mummy!” She hugged me tightly, and once again I had that queer little tug as she kissed me, her lips a little too lingering. I shrugged it off, making a mental note to watch her closely in the next holidays; she was beginning to feel sex stirring in her body, without knowing what the sensations meant, and I didn't want it led into the wrong channels, or, as Phil put it-“straddled across a motor-bike with her drawers off!”
I took a cup of cocoa in to Phil and decided to broach the Bridlington excursion right away. I told him.
“I was telling Stella that Jane hadn't had a holiday this year and she suggested we give her a treat. I told Jane and, of course, she's all for it.”
“The 'we' being yourself and Stella, eh?”
“Well, as a matter of fact, you were invited as well,” I lied, “but I said you would be too busy. Of course, the invitation is still open.” I crossed my fingers behind my back.
“That so? Well, of course, I am too busy-far too busy, unfortunately. Take Jane by all means.”
I breathed out and went to the door. I heard him clear his throat and turned.
“But-uh-watch yourself with that Stella — something tells me she'd just love to get you into bed with her!”
I felt my face flame hotly, and prayed he didn't notice the guilty look I must have shown. Even so, I had to get to the bottom of it.
“Why do you keep saying things like that about her? I haven't noticed any mannishness in her-I think she is extremely feminine.”
“Well, why hasn't she got herself a man, then?”
“Maybe she has-how do you know?”
“You're her friend-she would have told you by now. That's just the point, Rita; she hasn't. She is an attractive, feminine woman and very well off into the bargain-she could take her pick. She has a car, money, her own house and what does she do? Lives by herself and has just one friend-you. Sure-I like her well enough-she's good-looking and intelligent, but there's something peculiar somewhere and you might, you just might, be weak enough to let her have what she wanted — even if only to avoid hurting her feelings. Then, who knows — you might like it, which leaves me with a lesbian wife on my hands!”
I stood looking at him, trying to think of something to say. He was getting far too close to the truth: I mustn't underrate his intelligence. Panic flared briefly as the possibility occurred to me of his knowing already — or at least guessing-and this was by way of warning me off tactfully, without bringing things out into the open. But no-that wasn't Phil's way; he would have said so right out. I pretended anger.
“I'm sorry you feel that way about her; sorry you have such a horribly twisted outlook on life. So, according to you, any woman who isn't married is a lesbian — that right?”
“When they get to her age-what is she, thirty-three, thirty-four? — with her looks and possessions, I say there must be something funny somewhere; not even a man-friend in tow.”
“She may have had a disappointment in her life-something she wouldn't even tell me about. Thought of that?”
“I have and I'm allowing it as an outside possibility.” He grinned, then. “So I'm okaying the Bridlington trip.”
I smiled back, content to drop the matter.
“Well, I'm off to bed now-coming up?”
“No-I'll be a while yet. You go ahead.”
As I undressed for bed, I wondered how it was all going to end. Phil already suspected Stella of being what she was; I knew he didn't suspect me, but that was the logical progression. Would I be able to go on like this, giving myself to Stella without Phil eventually finding out? I thought over my actions since intimacy had begun between Stella and I. Had I acted in the same way as I had when we were just ordinarily friendly? I thought so. Had
