Educating Harry Ch. 11

Some Australianisms
Esky = portable cooler
Yabbies = Freshwater crayfish(

"Hello," said Harry picking up the phone, "Who is it?" he asked, not recognising the voice.

"Cory Bruton, I was just ringing to tell you that one of my men has dropped off an industrial cleaner at Mrs Bunces place, but," he added, "She may have told you that already."

"She has," confirmed Harry.

"Yeah, well, to be truthful," admitted Cory, "I really rang to find out how long it would be before George could start. He's already managed to find a second hand set of tyres from a wreck, and the tyres are barely worn... saved us a lot of money, but now the old so and so is plaguing me to give him a start time.

"Tell him to give me two clear days," suggested Harry, "I don't know yet what else might need doing, and," Harry added, "You can blame me if there are any hold ups."

"I shall," laughed Cory, "I shall, but thanks for getting on with it. Cheerio for now."

Harry checked to see what he had booked for the day, one lawn and a picture hanging job, which would take ninety minutes each. He wanted to do some shopping, so there was no need to start until later in the morning.

Harry found that his aunt had anticipated him. "I checked your calendar," she said over breakfast, "And wondered if you could run me into town this morning. I have a big list for the supermarket and if you could give a hand that would be helpful." Harry nodded his assent, his mouth being full of toast and marmalade.

Aunt Diane's shopping was like a minor military operation, a limited objective to be achieved with the minimum of fuss. In less than forty minutes Harry was pushing a loaded trolley to the check out. "Hi Mrs Salt," greeted a cheerful assistant, "How much do you think it is."

"One forty six twenty," responded his aunt immediately. A few minutes later the assistant confirmed her figure.

"Does she ever get it wrong?" grinned Harry to the assistant.

"Not since I've been here, and that's six years," laughed the cheerful young woman, "But I've got it wrong a couple of times."

"Now Harry," suggested his aunt ignoring the exchange. "If you could take all this back to the car, then get what you want, maybe we could meet for coffee at Georgeo's in, lets say forty five minutes."

Harry completed his purchases quickly, and in little over half an hour arrived at the café. He lazed, sipping tea, watched the world go by a little, and glanced through the newspaper. His reverie, however, was short lived... "Hi Harry, I seem fated to running into you here," it was Bella Mason the High School Principal; she sat herself down. "I was going to phone you, but as you are here I may as well tell you how the arrangements are going for our conference weekend. First," she announced, barely pausing for breath, "We took Professor Neumann's name in vain a little, because he has contacted me already and sent a detailed agenda but..." Bella's flow was suddenly interrupted, Aunt Diane had arrived.

"Ah Harry," she suggested with her usual meticulous courtesy, "Am I interrupting, perhaps I should leave you and Mrs Mason."

"Oh no, not at all," responded Harry, "We were just talking about the arrangements for the conference, it's only a few weeks away now... sit down and let's order you a coffee."

That done Bella resumed, "There's not much to explain; if you could meet me at school on the Friday at say ten in the morning, we can then drive up to Armidale, we will arrive in plenty of time to liaise, if necessary with the organisers, before the reception in the evening. Then we will have a very full day on the Saturday with all the lectures, presentations, and so on, before returning to Hawksworth, sometime after breakfast on Sunday."

Bella continued to chatter, filling in details and Harry was gradually conscious that his aunt wasn't contributing much other than the occasional nod of assent or smile of understanding. Harry knew his aunt very well, and realised that she was being particularly watchful, almost wary of Bella Mason, he wondered why.

Bella concluded, "That is the outline, but don't worry about remembering it all because I will be sending you the necessary papers and arrangements in a couple of days. "Now," she said rising from her seat, "I must be getting along; I have another appointment shortly at school, bye for now Harry, and goodbye to you Mrs Salt, nice to see you again."

Harry and Aunt Diane watched in silence each thinking their own thoughts as the crisply elegant figure of Bella Mason walked away down the street.

Harry spoke first with a broad grin, "That's unlike you Aunt Diane, to show that you don't like someone."

Aunt Diane tapped her cup with the spoon and took a sip thoughtfully before answering acerbically, "Well, if even you Harry, were aware of my thoughts, I should indeed be more guarded in future."

"Alright," replied Harry ignoring the barb, "But why have you taken a dislike to her?"

"She seems to me," explained his aunt slowly, "To be a rather controlling woman, more manipulative than she needs to be. I do not dislike her, but I do think she is using you a little."

"Aunt," scoffed Harry, "You have to be kidding, using me, where did you get that idea?"

"Harry my dear, like most men you are amazingly unobservant of women, ask yourself this: who is organising this conference? The answer is, that it is not Bella Mason, so why have the organisers not sent your papers directly to you? answer, because she wants you to be under her wing, therefore she asked for them to be sent to her. This conference is about exceptional young people, the stars of the future, Bella wants to make sure you appear as her star, her former student, of her school. It's about her ambition, and how much reflected credit she can extract."

"Aunt Diane," interrupted Harry, but slightly uncertainly, "How can you read all that into a few moments meeting over a cup of coffee?"

"I didn't," smiled his aunt mischievously, and she patted Harry's hand gently, "I ran into Fred Neumann a few days ago and he was vastly amused at the way Bella had taken charge of you. 'Tell young Harry to watch out,' he said, 'Bella Mason is a good Principal but very ambitious, tell Harry not to let her use him."

"I hadn't thought of it like that," responded Harry rather lamely.

"Of course not," said Aunt Diane, "And whilst I will be the first to take you down a peg or two if you get swollen headed, you do need to develop some sort of sense of your own worth."

"And what about Mrs Mason?"

"Oh you don't need to worry about her, so long as you are aware of what her motives are, and what she wants from you, she will be easy enough to deal with. She's basically alright, just don't let her use you."

"Hmm," murmured Harry, "And I thought I was just going to have a pleasant weekend in Armidale."

"I'm sure you will," his aunt replied, "But now you had better deliver me and my shopping home and get yourself off to work."

Harry arrived a little later that day than he had expected at Maria's old house, but as he reflected, there was plenty of time to get the job done. In no time the generator was running, the lights were on, and the ladders in place ready to start on the inside of the roof. It was, however, soon apparent to Harry that he had completely underestimated the amount of work to be done. The roof timbers were exposed, and Harry soon discovered what sixty years of dust meant, he decided to brush off the dust and vacuum the floor afterwards. It was slow, painstaking, filthy work, and it was almost two hours before he even started to use the vacuum. Progress was then much faster and after another hour all that was left was to clean up around the steel trunks and chest in the middle of the floor. He decided to leave the bigger, more awkward trunks until he had some help. Harry had all but finished when he noticed a label attached to one of the trunks. In black ink, faded, but still quite legible, he read a name, 'Elizabeth Massie care of Mrs AJ Connon,' followed by an address in Centennial Park, Sydney. Harry memorised it carefully and smiled to himself, Aunt Diane would be itching to find out what was in the trunks.

Harry looked around: the place had scrubbed up pretty well so far, but as it was past six he had had enough of cleaning and decided to call it a day. Within a minute or two he bumped up the track to stop at the pool for a shower. Harry looked at himself in the mirror, scarcely believing how filthy he was and noticed a note tucked behind it; "there's something for you to eat in the top of the fridge, you'll need it to restore your energy!" There was also a house key taped to the bottom of the note.

I t took a long time to get thoroughly clean, and just as he finished Harry heard a car in the driveway. He emerged from the shower and was surprised to see Susan Tremaine getting out of her car. "Mrs Tremaine, I didn't expect to see... whoops," said Harry, as the towel, his only covering, almost slipped from him.

"Maybe you had better get dressed first," laughed Susan.

"True," acknowledged Harry grinning, "But maybe you had better face the other way for a few seconds."

Susan turned her back to Harry as he picked up the clean clothes he had brought with him. Not for the first time Susan had the opportunity to admire the thoroughness of the German engineers who had built her Audi, in particular the large wing mirrors which gave her an unimpeded albeit indirect view of Harry.

'Mmmm, lean but kinda muscley,'she mused, 'cute butt... oh my goodness, look at them, they're huge, no wonder he's got so much stamina... and his ... that looks pretty good to me, oh yes.'

But Harry was a quick dresser. "Ok Mrs Tremaine, I'm reasonably decent now."

"Sorry I caught you by surprise Harry, I was going to play tennis, but that had been cancelled, which I would have known if I had checked my emails, so I decided to drop off a book I had borrowed from Maria."

"Maria's in Coffs Harbour."

"Um yes, she told me she was going, but not when she will be back."

"Tomorrow or the next day," confirmed Harry, "Look" he said, "Maria's left me a key, and something to eat apparently."

They let themselves in and Harry immediately looked in the fridge.

"Look at this," he laughed, "Maria obviously thinks I need feeding up."

Susan looked over his shoulder at the enormous bowl of pasta sauce.

"Mmm a creamy sauce marinara, and a few extra bits and pieces," commented Susan.

"Hey, have you eaten?" Asked Harry suddenly, "There's enough here for three, maybe four people."

"No I haven't, but," replied Susan falteringly.

"No buts," insisted Harry, "I'm entertaining you to dinner, I'll just nuke this and boil up some pasta," he added, as he put the bowl in the microwave, "Just sit down and I'll find everything."

Susan did as she was asked and soon noticed his familiarity with his surroundings, Harry clearly knew where everything was and he soon had it all set out. "Ok, the pasta will take another couple of minutes or so; you know," he added, changing the subject, "You really look the goods in that tennis outfit."

"Why thank you sir," responded a surprised Susan smoothing her skirt with one hand. Susan knew the outfit with a body hugging shirt style top, and slightly longer than usual skirt was a classical look, which set off both her figure and her slim legs really well.

Encouraged, Harry added, "You remind me of one of those blonde Russians."

"Oh, you mean one of those sulky women who grump around the tennis court, scowling and swearing under their breath, and grunting loudly every time they hit the ball."

" Um um, no, not that," said Harry hesitating a moment, "No, not at all, it just struck me Mrs Tremaine, especially when I first saw you that you are... you are just stunningly beautiful. That's why I almost dropped my towel."

Harry turned slightly pink, and so did Susan for a moment, but she gathered her wits first, "Harry," she said firmly, "It's lovely of you to say that, but it's a wild exaggeration; now it looks as though the pasta is ready, so let's eat, and," she added, "Please call me Susan, Mrs Tremaine makes me feel so ancient."

Both of them were hungry, and it wasn't long before they had almost finished, but Harry suddenly said, "Oh look, you've spilt some on your shirt."

"Where?" replied Susan holding her hands up and looking down intently "I can't see anything up close without my reading glasses, can you pick it off and just wipe it with a damp cloth, I don't want to spoil this dress."

Harry completed the first task so deftly, she barely felt it as he removed the offending piece of pasta from just above where he imagined Susan's nipple to be; but wiping away the pale stain with a damp cloth was a little trickier. Two rather delicate rubs did little to help, and Harry was suddenly all too aware of the soft small bounce of her breast beneath his fingers. Susan's throat went quite dry, she was aware of the slight tremble in Harry's fingers. "I think," she suggested a little hoarsely, "I think you need to rub a little more thoroughly, a little harder perhaps." Harry did so, Susan pushed forward a fraction and Harry rubbed her firmly, both of them relying on the flimsy piece of fabric to justify their private deceit. There were just two silent witnesses to their quiet conspiracy, her nipple, pressed dark, erect and faintly visible through the damp dress and his erection, rock hard in his shorts.

Susan pulled herself together first, "I think that will do Harry." She took his hand and as Harry dropped the cloth on the bench top, just for a second, a split second she held the palm of his hand over her erect nipple. She then guided his hand away from her to the table, and released him slowly, noticing again his slight trembling.

Susan took a deep breath, "I'll do my bit now," she suggested, "Make the coffee that is, ah but hang on though, I seem to remember that Alice told me you prefer tea, anyway you stretch out on the lounge and I'll get it sorted out."

Harry did so and Susan joined him a few minutes later. The mood had changed, their excitement now seemed so slight so transient, a brief arousal, it was forgotten, at least for the moment.

Now they were just new friends, and when she thought about it later, Susan was surprised at how much she enjoyed Harry's company. She encouraged him to talk about himself, about Uni, his post graduate prospects, when he might go to the US. Harry in turn didn't question her so much, but Susan noticed after a while that he seemed to have a knack for making her feel good about herself. It was nothing in particular, the occasional quip, a smile, a "What d'you think?" about this or that. It wasn't anything as superficial as charm she realised with a start, no, Harry was genuinely interested in her, she warmed to him at that realisation far more than she had to his earlier compliment.

Harry for his part, was initially a little dazzled, that this lovely woman who he only slightly knew, treated him as her friend from the outset, and he soon realised that Susan was also a very intelligent woman who easily persuaded him to talk of himself, his hopes and fears for the future.

"And how is Alice?"

"Oh, I think that she's having a great time, I get an email almost every day and I call at least once or twice a week. Two of her cousins are sisters, one only a year older the other about twenty five. They seem to be doing some serious socialising together."

"Yes," responded Harry, "I get copied in on some of those emails, but I wonder" he added changing tack, "How Alice not being here has affected you, it must be a big change after having her around for eighteen years."

"You're right," smiled Susan, a tad ruefully, "I knew of course that she would be leaving home when she goes to Uni in February, but of course that has effectively been brought forward by this extended trip to Chicago. I miss her dreadfully but at the same time I'm glad to have some time to myself... I hope that doesn't sound selfish." Harry nodded his understanding and Susan with a wry laugh continued. "One thing I shouldn't have been surprised at is that there is no shortage of people willing to give me advice, mostly along the lines that I should settle down to some sort of rural domestic bliss. The truth is that I'm at a bit of a loose end, and really don't feel like being responsible and a pillar of the community, maybe later, but not just yet."

"Do what you want for yourself," suggested Harry.

"That's exactly what Maria says," replied Susan, "Now I have to work out how to go about it."

"I'm sure it'll work out in time."

"Maybe it will and... oh my goodness, talking of time look at the clock, we have been chattering away for almost two hours. Your aunt will be wondering where you are?

"Now that's a mother talking," laughed Harry, "But I suppose I had better get going."

"Yes you had," said Susan "And don't worry about clearing up here, I'll do it."

Susan escorted Harry to the door and as he left he turned to her "Thanks Susan for an unexpected evening, it was really good."

"Thanks to you too," she replied, "I haven't enjoyed myself so much for quite a while," and after a moments hesitation, she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. Again for no more than a second, Harry felt her breast press lightly against him, producing a jolt out of all proportion to the apparently innocuous gesture. Susan watched him walk away to his ute, and as he opened its door Harry turned back.

"Susan, earlier you said that I exaggerated wildly... I didn't, I didn't exaggerate at all."

Harry drove away and Susan didn't clear up straight away, she went back to the lounge and sat down, her mind a maelstrom of thought, thoughts of flirtation and friendship, thoughts with a slight element of guilt, and thoughts of more pleasure than she was ready to admit. She looked down, and her eyesight having improved remarkably in two hours, she noticed that her dress had dried completely, but almost simultaneously she realised something else... her panties were now soaking wet!

When Harry got home his aunt wasn't there, "Probably at one of her meetings," Harry said to himself and he decided to watch television for a while. After an hour or so of flicking between channels, he finally decided to get an early nights sleep. He lay in bed wondering about the past few hours, 'Had Susan intended he should rub her breast when he cleaned her shirt, had she held his hand over her nipple deliberately, her undeniably erect nipple, and when she kissed him on the cheek did she really mean to press her breast even if only for a moment into his chest?'

"Don't be an idiot," Harry admonished himself firmly, "You're reading far too much into it," but as he drifted into sleep, it pleased him to remember, just how well he and Susan had got on with each other.

The morning brought a surprise to Harry; a note was propped up on the kitchen table left there the day before.

"Harry, I have gone to Sydney, an old friend, Ellie rang out of the blue this morning to say her husband was in Hawksworth on business for the day, and she invited me to fly back with him in his plane. I am looking forward to seeing her and it fits in well with the research I want to do on Charles and Elizabeth Massie. There are several places I need to visit to tie up loose ends. I may be away a week perhaps a little longer, ring or email me if you need to."

"Well," said Harry to himself, "I had better tell Aunt Diane what I found." and he sat down at the computer. He typed quickly 'found today in the old house, two steel travelling trunks addressed to Elizabeth Massie, York Road, Centennial Park, Sydney.' "That will keep her interested," said Harry talking to himself again.

The next day Harry decided to reverse his usual schedule and finish cleaning up the old house first. He arrived there shortly after breakfast and found Billy Thompson already loading bricks with one of his men. In fact it was Billy's man who had a hydraulic hoist on his truck doing most of the work.