CHAPTER 5

IN MID-WEEK Gertie arranged to meet with Gill for lunch, telling her it was to discuss her feelings for Jake and to fill in some of Jake's background. Gill was apprehensive about which way the conversation was going to go, but could see no choice but to agree to the meeting. She was intrigued about Jake's background, but was the purpose of this meeting going to be Gertie warning her off getting too close to her precious grandson?

They met at an old-established restaurant, filled with low light, dark mahogany and private booths. Gertie had insisted on sending a cab to collect her from the bank, the driver almost treated Gill like royalty.

The lunchtime meal that Gertie took charge of and chose for them both was light, delivered quickly and quietly and tasted delicious. They were left to talk after the dishes were cleared away and Gertie had poured them both a cup of tea in fine bone china cups.

"Jake was impressed with how you handled that injured hiker the other weekend, Gill. He said you were very calm and reassuring under pressure."

"Oh, it was nothing, I only held poor Tim's hand while Jake went to get help. We had no choice really, Jake knew the terrain and the exact location."

Gertie patted her hand, "Well, I was impressed, too. Tell me Gill, what do you think of my grandson and what are your plans for any future together?"

"Oh! Well, I sort of expected you'd ask me something along those lines but asking me so direct, you've er still caught me at a little bit of a disadvantage. I'm not sure what to say as it is so early in our friendship."

"Well, getting directly to the point saves us having any misunderstandings, dear. Now, I know you are highly thought of as an excellent manager and a brilliant negotiator at Standhope Winter. So I'd have thought you wouldn't have got caught out by us cutting to the quick." She patted Gill's hand and smiled reassuringly. "Relax, my dear, I am not going to bite, I just want to understand where both of you are going. I'm not getting any younger, you know."

"I understand where you are coming from, but I have never had a boyfriend's family ask me what my intentions were before!" Gill laughed, although the situation was really too strange to be funny.

"I think my Dad did pin my ex-husband down pretty smartly when he first started taking me out," Gill smiled at the memory of her late father, "Wayne, my ex-, was, well is, nine years older than me and I met him when I did my internship at Winstone's Bank. I was still at college then, while he was a rising star in the organisation. I was flattered to catch his attention and my Dad was after assurances from Wayne that I was not going to be ... taken advantage of, I suppose."

Gertie smiled back, "I realise it's a little unconventional for a grandmother to get involved, but Jake is very special to me and, well, he never tells me anything about his private life. That's why I tend to worry about him. And I worry about you too, my dear. I mean, how are you coping with a husband who cheated on you, with your family split between two homes, while taking on yet more responsibility at work?"

"I do keep my work and home life —"

"Oh I know, Gill," Gertie soothed, "I asked around and you are a very attractive and successful business woman, who will eventually reach the top of your profession, I'm sure. In business you have to entertain clients and, in turn, you are entertained, while Jake is, well, you know Jake."

"Ahh. All right. First of all, I am not all out for revenge on men, to pay back my husband, if that's what you think. I do get hit on a lot and I ignore them all. Jake is the only man I have dated since my husband left me. My priority is still my children first, my happiness and future come second to them."

She paused and Gertie let her have her space, feeling she had more to say.

"I am not interested in going out with any of my single, high-flying business associates, who are perhaps simply looking for an uncomplicated good time. I am not built like that. I was a faithful wife who was replaced by a younger woman. I am angry about what happened but I am not bitter."

Gertie nodded, but remained silent, encouraging Gill to go on.

"Jake is a man that I have known and liked for, well almost forever. As soon as I started working at the bank, he was always friendly and helpful. I count him as a friend. He's bright, I mean really clever, much smarter I think than anyone I've ever met. And he is so warm and kind and gentle, he's great with my two children and always has been." She smiled, "He has them enthused about life around them, he engages and enlivens them, like their natural father never did or does. Actually, Jenny and Clay both said as much about Jake in positive comparison with their father on Sunday night."

Gertie smiled. "They are great kids, Jenny and Clay, that's all credit to you."

"Thanks," Gill continued. "I wish Jake was their father, sometimes, instead of Wayne. I think Jake is the best man I have ever known and ... I think I am beginning to fall in love with him."

"I think he has already been in love with you too, probably for many years."

"Maybe.... I don't know what you've heard or from where. I never thought of him romantically, until now, when we have spent a little time together. I think the respect and affection I have always felt for him, has grown, grown a lot. As for him, how he feels about me, I am at a loss. Sometimes I think he does love me, but at other times it seems that Jake is not ... not really keen on a physical relationship with me. I am trying to open myself up to him and I really want him to open up to me too. But every time I try to er, ... try to escalate our er, relationship —"

"Sex, dear, it's all right to say sex. We're talking girl talk here, and you should know that I was married three times, and each time sex was very much in evidence," Gertie chuckled.

Gill sighed, "Yes, sex. I know ... well, it's pretty obvious that he reacts positively, to my er, stimulation, but Jake keeps reining me in. I mean that he's the one that's stopping me getting carried away, and it was always the other way around when I first started courting Wayne. I mean, Jake kisses like a dream and, er, he makes me go weak at the knees. He's a wonderful selfless lover. He's just beautiful but —" she sighed again.

"But?"

"I'm not sure if he really wants a girlfriend."

"But aren't you getting together this weekend, then?" Gertie chuckled, "and this is another completely child-free weekend isn't it?"

"Yes! As soon as Wayne collects Jenny and Clay, Jake is going to pick me up and take me back to his little flat —"

"Little flat?" Gertie raised her eyebrows, "is that in New Timber Lane?"

"Yes," Gill was puzzled, "why, does he have another love nest somewhere else?"

"No no, he's lived there a long time, since he was old enough to stop living with me and make his own way into the world. It is so handy for the city; it's just that I haven't been there for such a long while and wonder how he's looking after himself. It's a little flat you say … on the ground floor above the basement garage, if I remember?"

"Yes, at the back of the building. I mean, we dined at a little table in the living room that he had set out beautifully, with linen and crystal glasses. We were tight for time, as I had to leave to pick the kids up, so I left him to do the washing up and putting away, as he insisted. He didn't show me around the flat or anything, so I assumed other than the kitchen diner it was just a couple of bedrooms and a bathroom. It was all very neat and tidy, but Spartan, minimalist, no pictures and photos on the walls. It was like a typical bachelor pad, one that needed a woman's touch."

"Yes, of course, I agree it probably does need a woman's touch, and not mine, but I'll have to keep a closer eye on him. He does stay with me sometimes, usually the night before our monthly walk. Are you coming to the next one by the way? It's the weekend after next."

"I'll definitely be coming, well if Jake comes as usual, and the kids have already said that they want to come as well, only it's Wayne's weekend with them, so he may not want to give them up."

"Invite him along, too. Does he have a girlfriend?"

"Yes, the mother of his child." Gill's shoulders slumped; she took a final sip of her tea, before Gertie topped it up again from the teapot.

"We never mention her name in the house," Gill continued, "but it isn't all her fault, I suppose it takes two to tango. And she's half his age, so he should have known better and been more careful about precautions. I shudder thinking about it. I only knew just after Christmas that he'd had a girlfriend all along and she'd had a baby. Honestly, I couldn't get tested for ... diseases quickly enough."

"All clear?"

"Oh yes! Absolutely! All clear, for sure. If not, well, I wouldn't be showing my face in public ever." Of course, Gertie would naturally be thinking of Jake's safety. "Jenny would probably look after the baby if Wayne and his partner did come on the ramble."

"Do you still feel upset about the end of your marriage?"

"Yes, I suppose I still am."

She picked up her refreshed cup of tea to take a sip, then put it down and played with the spoon in the saucer.

"It's just that I didn't even realise we had a problem. Nothing was ever said between us about it not working out. Even when he said he wanted the divorce, he tried to explain it away as being because we grew apart and the divorce would be better for both of us, help me with my banking career. Wayne never admitted to any affair until I finally confronted him about a week after his girlfriend had the baby. Then, there's the effect the divorce has had on the children, the poor lambs don't know which way to turn since we separated."

"The children always take it hardest, the poor dears, their whole world collapses."

"Yes, it does. They are so quiet most of the time at home, I feel they don't want to talk about what a great time they had at their Dad's, in case it depresses me and I suspect they don't want to tell Wayne what a great time they've just had pony trekking on Dartmoor with Jake." She put her cup down again. "And I just felt so stupid. It was all going wrong for my marriage under the surface and I didn't have a clue. I still feel stupid!"

"You weren't stupid then and you certainly aren't stupid now. I have never said anything about this to Jake, Gill, but my second husband, not only had an affair and a baby before I knew anything about it, he had a whole separate family."

"No!"

"Yes! And, like you, I never suspected a thing. He kept his other life completely separate from us, so there were no clues. Mind you, I wasn't looking for any. We both had busy lives, he was a QC and I had my charity work at the hospital."

"How did you find out about his other family?"

"I didn't go looking for them, they came to his funeral. A family just turned up out of the blue, a woman wearing black and two pre-teenage children. They came to the church service, slipping unnoticed into the back, and then they followed us out to see the actual interment. There were lots of older children there, all relatives that I knew, but this little group stuck out like sore thumbs, because the family had been asked to keep all the younger children away. They were keeping themselves to themselves, and looking so sad.

"One of my nephews invited them back to the house for refreshments afterwards, but they declined, so I went over to apply a little more pressure. I assumed this young woman knew my late husband from work, or her husband or father was a friend of his, but no, in his anger and sorrow, one of the sons burst out that my late husband Albert was his father!"

"That must've been a shock! Whatever did you do?"

"The only thing I could do. Our family lawyers were there. We quietly arranged a meeting at their offices the following week. You see, the Will had been read several days before the funeral and that selfish bastard Albert had made absolutely no provision for them. Not a mention."

"What a rat! Sorry, he was your husband. You must've felt awful."

"No, not at all, in fact, it cheered me up no end, dear," Gertie laughed, "we were married for eighteen years but had grown apart, we had separate bedrooms and I had actually felt guilty when he died suddenly, and I discovered that I didn't love him as much as I thought I did. His affair took a huge weight off my mind and the wake afterwards turned into a party."

"So how did the meeting with the er, mistress go?"

"Oh, very well, dear. She was quite a young girl when she worked as a typist for Albert, in the late 1960s. He was a successful, handsome and charming man and she fell for him. He set her up in a rented flat, but left no provision for them in his Will."

"Was she genuine?"

"Oh, yes, she had the rent book in his name and signature, and the boys' birth certificates. He had actually registered the births himself while the mother was still in hospital recovering. There were other bills and receipts, holiday photos. Oh she was genuine all right, and he was enjoying her charms right up until he died suddenly, of a heart attack."

"What a bastard!" Gill was shocked, "what happened to the little family?"

"Albert was a wealthy man. Between the lawyers, and us we made financial arrangements for the boys, for their schooling to continue and Shirley was settled comfortably for the rest of her life. She lives in Spain now."

"You sound like you keep in touch."

"We are not close, but yes, we do keep in touch. The boys turned out very handsome men, they took after their father in that respect, and have done very well for themselves. One played international rugby and now runs his own PR company, the same one that the Bank uses actually. The eldest boy retired a couple of years ago and is living quite comfortably in Greece. They still call on me from time to time, to check I haven't pegged out on them yet. Charming boys."

"You are amazing, Gertie. I couldn't do that. I want nothing to do with Cheryl and their baby. I am still angry about what Wayne did."

"Anger doesn't solve anything dear, just relax and concentrate on your children ... and Jake, if you want to."

"Yes, I do," Gill smiled, "I was worried that this invitation to lunch was to warn me off."

"Oh no, dear, nothing's further from my mind. I just wanted to set my mind straight about what you had in mind, plus other concerns. I think I'd like to meet up for lunch regularly, say once a month, to have a little chat."

"I would like that," Gill agreed.

"That's settled, then. I will contact your secretary at the bank and give her a choice of dates for a month's time." She winked at Gill, "So, Friday night is the next date night is it?"

"Yes, oh gosh, I can't wait for Friday. I bought a new dress and underwear yesterday that I can't wait to show off, just for him. And, to make a special night of it, Jake tells me he is going to be wearing his tux, as if we were going out on the town."

"Where are you going to dine?"

"We're not really going anywhere, actually. He's cooking for us both at his flat and then, er ... we're staying in, hopefully all weekend."

Gill could feel herself going red.

"Ah. So, have you two, shall we say, got down and dirty yet?"

"No! … No, we haven't yet.... I can't believe I'm sitting here talking to Jake's grandmother about this!"

"Well, just think of me as one of your eccentric aunts, dear, one that has been around the block a bit seen life up close at first hand and you know you can conspire with. My dear, I may want the very best for my grandson, but above all I want him to be happy. I feel he is happy with you and therefore I am delighted for you to be a friend, or a niece to me for now, maybe even a granddaughter later on. Whatever you say to me about you and Jake, I will not be shocked and I would never break a confidence between us."

"I know, I do trust you ... Aunt Gertie," Gill laughed. "Well, Jake and I have slept together a couple of times, no, three times altogether, but only kissing and cuddling so far. Well, maybe a little more than that, but we have not yet fully consummated our relationship. Once, he was naked, but that was when he got soaked in a hailstorm after he had given me his coat. Mine was covered in blood from that hiker's broken leg. But we have done pretty everything else, but."

"I see," Gertie smiled, gently, "and all this romancing was pretty well fumbling in the dark?"

"Yes, pretty much." Gill remembered back, "the first couple of times were in Derbyshire and we were exhausted, so we literally just kissed and cuddled before falling asleep. In Dartmoor, we slept apart the first night. I shared a room with Jenny while Jake shared a tent with Clay. But the poor lambs were so shattered after riding all that first day that they dropped off in the bedroom early on in the night. Jake and I sneaked away to the tent, but were conscious that one of them could wake up and come looking for us. And Jake is a complete gentleman."

"I know he is, and was brought up to be so. Has he told you what happened to his parents?"

"Yes, how terrible! Both died in a car accident, car rolled off the road and burst into flames, didn't it? Horrible. Oh, Gertie, of course, his parents, of course, it was your son was it or your daughter?"

"My daughter Mary, and her husband Colin. Jake looks a lot like them, his build is clearly Colin's, strong and wiry, while his eyes and mouth look just like Mary's. They would have been so proud of him."

"And he was only about five or six?" Gill tried to remember what he had said.

"He was only four and a half," Gertie said, her mouth set grim, "and although he has no recollection of seeing them die, he was in the car with them when it rolled on its roof and caught fire."

"Oh, no! He never said that. I thought ... I don't know what I thought, I think he deflected me. He said he had been to the same Derbyshire hills that we walked, a few days or maybe a week before they died and he had such happy memories of the walk. I didn't realise ... flames! I remember, he said the car burst into flames! Was he badly hurt or burned?"

"He was upside down in the car, strapped into his booster seat, and was either asleep or had been knocked unconscious. The car burst into flames. Although the flames were mainly at the front of the car, it was very hot and his sleep-suit was a washable synthetic material which melted onto his bare skin."

Gill put her hands to her mouth, with her memory in the tent, her eyes wide open.

"Goosebumps!" she exclaimed. "His back was covered in them and I thought it was because it was chilly and wet."

"He's always been very self conscious about his skin, Gill. As a child he had dozens of operations, skin grafts, then one day he cried 'stop!' as he felt he had gone through and suffered enough. And he had had to have numerous skin grafts over many years, leaving his upper torso particularly discoloured and scarred."

"But he seems all right, particularly 'down there', Aunt Gertie. I mean, he has the most perfect bum I've ever felt."

Gertie snorted, then laughed.

"He was wearing cotton underpants under the sleep suit, which provided some protection, but his upper torso and thighs were badly affected. They had been to a family get-together, all afternoon and early evening. Jake fell into a pond playing and was changed into whatever sleepwear could be rustled up to make him comfortable before they drove him home. He was a bit upset at falling in the pond and was inconsolable I remember."

"Family party, was Jake's father responsible? —"

"No. There was no drink involved, it was a children's party. The inquest found a box van had jumped a red light and clipped Colin's car, flipped it over and off the carriageway. The hospital kept Jake sedated for many hours while they cut away all the melted fibres and started the repair work. He was a mess, the poor little soul, but we had the best plastic surgeon we could possibly find for him, Sir Michael Rahn, who we now count as a dear family friend."

"It's amazing that he has turned out such a beautiful and amazing person after suffering so much."

"He is both beautiful and amazing," Gertie agreed. "Can I ask you, Gill, not to say anything to Jake about our conversation, unless you have to? I just wanted to prepare you for the shock of seeing him naked, if your relationship was going to continue along its logical path."

"I'm glad you did, but I hope that in any case that I wouldn't be so shocked waking up with him on Saturday morning that I would want to end our friendship."

"Thank you my dear, I knew that you would understand."

"Gertie, has Jake been out with many girls that you know of?"

"Because of his condition, I don't think Jake has ever had a girlfriend. And he has never indicated to me any interest in having one, until now. I think you may be his first, dear, his first in everything that happens between a man and a woman. Unless he has used a professional ... But I don't think he would, dear, do you?"

"No, I think you're right. Oh my god! He could be a virgin! How old is he?"

"Thirty three last January."

"That's only three years younger than me. He looks ten years younger."

"My last husband Jonathan was a decade younger than me, but he had heart trouble towards the end. I find I miss him terribly and rely too heavily on Jake, both for company and affection."

"I promise I won't take him away from you completely, Gertie, but I do think I could easily fall in love with Jake. Now I can't help thinking about him as a little boy, losing his parents like that and having to suffer all that pain. I just want to kiss it all away."

"I know, dear, me too."

Gertie and Gill left the restaurant, embraced each other, eyes full of tears for the boy now man they both love dearly, and who suffered so much. The waiting cab, with its polite and cheerful driver, took Gill back to work.