Back to Bristol Ch. 03

"Well, thanks for that. I really would like to be part of their lives. I'd like to see them every weekend, unless I have to go away, of course. And I'll take them on holiday again, two weeks somewhere, I don't know where yet."

She smiled, "They love their holidays with you!" She almost sounded wistful before she remembered herself, "So when do you want them, and what are you going to do?"

"I haven't really thought about what to do. I thought I might bring them back here for a bit, to see where their Dad was actually living. But beyond that, I don't know. But I thought of Sunday, I'll pick them up at about ten say, and bring them back around six. How does that sound?"

"A long time for all of you for the first time. If I were you, I'd volunteer for less." She smiled.

"Yes, perhaps you're right. How about I collect them at about eleven, bring them back here to let them see the place. Then I'll take them out to lunch, and bring them back to Ralph and Susan's mid-afternoon?"

"That sounds more manageable."

"Do you think there's going to be a problem with them? If my seeing them upsets them in any way, then I'll drop out. My feelings aren't important compared to what's good for them."

Suddenly, again tears were imminent, "No, don't say that! I never wanted to separate you and them. They need their father. Please, what I did caused enough damage to our family, don't make it worse."

I just sipped my wine. I didn't know what to say, and I suspected that if I opened my mouth, my emotions would fall out.

Eventually, she spoke, "I just want to say ......" Her voice was thick with emotion, and I could guess what was coming.

"Don't, Molly. Just don't let's go there. We are where we are. There's no point in having regrets about the way things fell out."

I paused and looked at her, I just couldn't read what was in her eyes, I felt it was that she wanted something from me, but I had nothing to give, "I just wish that one day you'll be able to tell me what I did wrong." Then I gave her a false, bright smile, "So that I can get it right next time. You could save some other poor girl a lot of heartache."

Her voice was still breaking, but she smiled, "She'll be very lucky..... so very lucky." She took her handkerchief and blew her nose. Then she smiled again, and looked brighter.

I smiled at her, reassuringly, "That's better. We'll get used to it. We should try to be friends for the boys' sake."

She smiled weakly, but seemed to relax, as if something was resolved in her mind, "Yes, let's work on getting the boys their father back. That's what's important now." She sipped her wine, but was watching me.

I sipped my wine and watched her as she watched me. I noticed she was wearing a very attractive gold necklace. I guess he had given her that. Molly was the sort of girl that men buy jewellery for. But I noticed she still wasn't wearing earrings, like me he hadn't convinced her to get her ears pierced. I'd wanted her to, so that I could buy her some good earrings, but Molly has a classic needle phobia, and no way was she going to volunteer for someone to stick things through her flesh.

She was the first to speak, "You seem less stressed by your work than you were at Jamesons. I know you were very stressed then."

I smiled, "Well, I've hardly started at Franks. I haven't been there long enough to know what to be stressed about. But you're right, I've changed my management style, and it's a lot easier on everyone." Then a thought struck me. "Was that it, that I forgot you with my troubles with Jamesons? I did try to keep things in proportion."

"Oh! No, it wasn't you at Jamesons. No, it was my fault, all my fault." Again tears looked imminent, she sniffed hard and stared at me.

I looked at her hopefully, I just needed her to explain. But she just said, "I best be going."

"Yes, you must get back to your husband. He'll be worried about you." And I went to get her coat.

I held it for her, and then opened the front door. She pressed herself against me, maybe I little harder than was necessary for me to peck the proffered cheek. But maybe that was my imagination. I got a full whiff of that damned perfume.

I shut the door behind her, and a wave of emotion hit me. Remnants of the hurt and anger of four years ago. Remembrance of what we used to have, what we lost. I poured myself another glass of wine, muttering "John, 11:35" under my breath, and strolled to the window.

For a moment I thought about Helene. I had really loved her, and I had been tempted to marry her before I realised what a lousy husband I would make. But, even with a love that came so close, it was nothing compared to the emotion that Molly could stir up in me. Helene didn't know what a lucky escape she had.

As I looked out of the window I saw her getting into her car. But she didn't pull away. I just watched. It just sat there, she didn't even put the lights on. I wonder if she had an electrical fault, I wondered if I should go down. But maybe she's just phoning home, checking in with him. He would be worried about his wife off to see the father of her children, her first husband. Yes that must be it. If it was that then it was a long conversation, she's been sitting there for at least ten minutes. I stood and watched, not knowing what to do. I'd look a fool if I went down and she was just on the phone. Then her lights came on. A couple of minutes later she started to move and pulled away.

As expected, the next morning Carole asked, "How was it?"

I smiled, "Mixed. Sorting out the children was the easy bit."

On the Friday evening, after work, I did go round to Keith's leaving do at the Lord Raglan. But I didn't know that many people, and I didn't know the jokes, and finally the senior partner started making overtures about the help I would need at Franks. So I bought Keith a drink and left.

So there I was, eleven o'clock on Sunday morning knocking at my ex-in-laws front door. Susan answered it. "Oh, its you!"

"Yes, Susan, are the boys ready for me?"

"Yes, they're ready." She paused and looked at me with accusing eyes, "Why have you come back? You only upset Molly and Peter, and now I hear you're his boss. You leave him alone, he loves Molly so much, and it's his job that their life depends on."

"And it's nice to see you again, Susan!" I was beginning to get very annoyed. So you're babysitting the boys, that gives you no right... but I didn't say it.

I saw Ralph doing something on the other side of the front garden. He was watching, but didn't come over. A man of few words is Ralph.

Just then Jamie came out, quickly followed by Ben. I crouched down to greet them, but they walked straight passed me, "Is that your car, Dad?"

"Yes. You'll have to squeeze yourselves into the back and strap yourselves in."

"Come on Ben, Dad's got a XK. Why didn't you get the XKR, that would have been better?"

Well, there's not a lot wrong with them, I thought. Actually the day went better than I feared. They weren't over the top in being pleased to see me, but they weren't sullen or withdrawn as I'd feared. They liked the lunch, partly because I allowed them to choose off the adult menu and didn't insist on the children's menu. It wasted a lot of food, but they liked being treated like grown ups.

When I got them back to Susan and Ralph's, it was Molly who opened the door, which surprised me..

She smiled, "I thought I'd come round for when they came back, just in case."

"Well there were no problems. They've been as good as gold."

"Good. Why not come in for a cup of tea?"

With a high probability of Peter Davies being in there, no thank you! "I won't thanks, I've got some business stuff that I must read before tomorrow. The boys will tell you all about what we did."

She stepped towards me, "Ralph said that Susan was a bit rude to you when you collected the boys. I'm sorry about that. She shouldn't have."

"Well she never liked me. That was another thing I got wrong." I paused and we looked at each other. I had the distinct feeling that something was being left unsaid, but I didn't know what or how to coax it out of her, "Look, how about we do exactly the same next Sunday, after that I can up the hours a bit for the subsequent weeks, as they get used to me."

"That sounds OK. I'll tell them."

"Well I'm off then." And I turned and walked back to my car.

On Monday it seemed that I was hardly in the office before I was out again, driving down to Exeter to meet Stephen Hobbs and learn about ITI-Franks Engineering Ltd, or that's what it would be called very soon. What I found was a very friendly, very professional specialist engineering company, building prototypes for the Laboratories, and solving engineering problems on special sales. It was a good, sound little company that TDF had brought into the Group when they realised that they were the biggest customer to a company that was up for sale as the two brothers who owned it wanted to retire. It seems that they then left it as a self-contained little unit, an hour down the road in Exeter rather than merging it fully into the Bristol operation. I also found out that it was a lot bigger and employed far more staff than I imagined. And it had a lot of underused capacity. But, I liked Stephen Hobbs and his colleagues, and they made me feel welcome. I left with some questions in my mind, but no great concerns.

Now, on Tuesday I arrived at my office to find a very attractive girl sitting on the couch in Carole's office, obviously waiting for me. I looked questioningly at Carole.

"I've left all your messages on your desk, and the first five summaries of Mr Bauer's Committees. I don't think you've met Miss Hepsted, who's waiting for you."

I turned, and Myra Hepsted stood up and shook my hand. She was blonde with intelligent grey-green eyes. About 5'8" with 36B's, and I would guess a bit under thirty years old. Overall, a very attractive package.

"Welcome, Myra, I'm Chris, Chris Bennett. I'm so glad you're here. You've got so much to do, and so little time to do it in. Come on in." I turned to Carole, "Coffee, please."

I guided her to a sofa, and I sat in a rather comfortable chair. I had a nice view of her legs, crossed at the ankles and tucked into the sofa. "I guess you know why you're here?"

"To be the hated one that's going to change all the accounting procedures?"

I smiled, "Only to start. Once Accounts really hate you, I will want you to move on, so that a couple of other areas get a chance to hate you as well."

Now she smiled, and a very nice smile it was, "Anyone in particular?"

"The three I've spotted to date are," I started ticking them off against my fingers, "Exeter: It seems a nice self-contained unit. I'd like to know that the in-house charging structure is on commercial terms. If so, we'll have to decide, do we keep them or sell them off. Production: I want a thorough review that we are doing it effectively. Should we be in production at all, or just contracting with the Far East say, or should we be an assembly point, using sub-contract production and some of Exeter's specialist abilities. And finally, the real imponderable one, the Laboratories, how much should we be spending on research, and are we getting value for money on what we do spend."

Again she smiled, and I was pleased that she was undaunted. "Well I can see I'll have my work cut out."

"In a minute I'll take you down to Accounts and introduce you, although I guess you know them all down there from the takeover?"

"Yes, and I don't think they're looking forward to me."

"Why not?"

"Most of them, including Trevor Gale the Director, have all been here for years. They spent a lot of effort changing to TDF's methodologies only a few years ago. Now I'm going to come along with the ITI systems and standards. Would you like it if you were them?"

"Not much. But that's life these days. But the change is necessary, and it'll keep a large part of HQ off our backs if they see us getting on with it. And it'll be nice to have some numbers we can rely on." I smiled reassuringly, "You'll be part of the Accounts Department, but you will have a direct line to me. OK?"

"Sure." She smiled, she was one confidant lady.

"I know you've still got some things to do back at HQ, The Old Man told me. How much of your time can you give us?"

"My best guess is that I'll have to be in London for about one day a week for the next month. After that I should be free. I've got a lot to do up there, but a lot of it I can get through in the evenings at home."

"You shouldn't be home in the evenings. A pretty girl like you should have a different beau for every night of the week." I smiled.

She smiled, "Well thank you kind sir, but I tried one beau and he rather put me off the whole beau idea."

"Bad time?"

"If you mean by that, did I chase a man all round the country, making a complete fool of myself, only to have confirmed what I already suspected, that he chased anything in a skirt and love and promises meant nothing to him? Well, Yes, a bad time." She really sounded bitter, but she opened her handbag and took out a tissue to wipe an eye.

"Bad luck. We're not all like that. Just some of us."

"Well, I'm off men for a long, long time." She looked purposefully at me. But I chose to interpret that as a positive sign, at least I'd registered as a possibility, which was progress.

When I got to bed on Tuesday evening I lay awake thinking about my visit to Marston Abbey tomorrow. What was I going to do with Peter Fucking Davies? I didn't move an inch on my guess that he was an immoral little shit, at least in the beginning, but I didn't want him to leave taking his good mind from the company. Worse still, he might then take my two sons off somewhere. No, not now, not when I've just got a chance to start being back in their lives. But, I did want him to feel guilty over what he had done to me, what he had done to the boys. I did want him to suffer.

For a while I thought about Myra Hepsted. She was an interesting challenge. I guessed she was in much the same place as Helena had been when I got together with her. Surely I stood a chance? This time it would only be one of us that needed nursing back to health. But, then again, we were colleagues, and affairs at work can be disastrous.

For a while, I combined my two problems. Maybe I could tempt Peter Davies into an affair with Myra. Show him up to everyone for what he was, an immoral little shit. But that would be a cruel misuse of Myra. It would also hurt Molly, I wondered what I felt about that, but I wasn't sure. Then I thought about Myra again, and decided that Davies had stolen one beautiful girl from me, I wasn't going to proffer another.

Eventually, I fell asleep with no better idea than I'd play it by ear.

When I arrived at the Laboratories I was impressed by a long sweeping gravel drive that led to a parking area in front of a huge timber framed medieval house. I asked for Dr McBaine and he came and collected me and took me to his office.

For the next hour he gave me a Power Point presentation about their work. It was actually quite good, and he presented it very professionally, I was impressed. When we got to the end I started asking questions. His presentation was very light on costs, on expectations for the market if the research was successful, or even the chances of success. What I got was a pure researchers answers about the need to understand the problem, the search for knowledge. I began to realise that I was talking to a scientific seeker of truth. My ear started playing.

After nearly an hour's worth of questions I asked my next one, "What chance of getting fed in this place?"

Piers McBaine smiled, "Well we have a Refectory here, not as varied as the one at the Factory, but still quite good. And I hear you like to meet staff and chat to them at lunch."

The fame of my lunch on the first day had obviously spread to Marston Abbey. But that didn't suit my purpose today, so I asked "Or?"

"Or we can walk over to the George in the village, it's got quite a good restaurant."

I smiled, "The exercise will do us good."

There was a footpath through the grounds that came out in the middle of the village, about fifty yards up the road from the George, which turned out to be a pleasant Victorian country pub. These researchers had an idyllic working environment, I was impressed if not envious, "How do you go back to work after lunch in summer? Just to sit in the sun or stroll the grounds must be so tempting."

"We're scientists. What's tempting is our belief that this time we do the experiment we will discover something; that this time we look down the microscope we'll see something new. We're driven by the need to know."

After that we returned to talk about the research projects until we were seated in the dining room and our lunches were served.

When it was obvious that that line of conversation had run out, I changed the subject: "I understand you chose today for my visit because your deputy is out of the office."

Piers smiled, "He was meant to be."

"You mean he came in today?"

"Yes. He's been out every Wednesday for months, today he came in."

"Did he know I was coming?"

"Yes, I told him."

"So either he wants a face to face, or he's putting a brave face on everything."

"My guess is that Molly sent him in. He is very worried about you. I told him to stay in his office unless I call for him. Will you shake his hand?"

Now that was a good question, "I once heard the definition of a gentleman was a man who would rather meet people he didn't like than dirty his hands on a bargepole. I guess you'll find out if I'm a gentleman." I smiled, "But if you see me arrive with a long pole on the roof of my car...."

Piers smiled, but then there was a pause, which he broke "Molly has been very good for Piers. That marriage has changed him."

"From what?"

He smiled as he remembered a few years back, "Peter joined us straight from getting his masters. I was Deputy in those days, and I very quickly recognised a nice bloke, and a great researcher. He never seemed to have a girlfriend, then, but after a couple of years he seemed to have a very active private life." He looked up at me, "He became a bit of a Don Juan. I dread to think how many girlfriends he had in the next few years."

"Any of them married?"

He paused and thought about that, "Yes, at least a couple. But I don't think they were in happy marriages, I think they'd separated from their husbands before Peter came on the scene. Jeanette, that's my wife, would know better. She is the religious and moral side of the family, I'm the scientist. And she wouldn't have anything to do with a home wrecker."

"Well he certainly wrecked my home! I reckon he was predator, preying on an attractive woman who he fancied, irrespective of her marriage, her children and her loving husband."

"Maybe it was love at first sight. I'm sure they love each other now."

"So am I. But do you believe in love at first sight? I know it wasn't like that for me. Attraction, lust, sexual interest, but not love. True, lasting love comes later. Didn't it for you? Do you know anyone else that you really believe fell in love with their partner across a crowded room? I don't know of any."

Piers fell quiet and thoughtful. So I sowed a seed, "Well I guess we'll never know. He's the only one who could tell us."

It was obvious that conversation about his friend was beginning to bother him. He wanted to bring it to an end, "Well it was years ago now. And anyway, there are plenty of bachelors.... No, some married men as well, who try their luck with a pretty lady. That's life."

"And you don't think they're wrong? You don't mind that?" I questioned.

Piers smiled, and spontaneously replied, "Not unless it's my wife they're chatting up!" Then he laughed.