Royal Flush Ch. 08

"Susan! Susan! Wake up!"

"Please, five minutes, just five minutes more."

Tamsin was just about to roll over and go back to sleep when she remembered where she was. She sat up and tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes only to be frustrated by the goggles. Standing between her and the sun was another of the prey but, back lit like that and with the sleep still in her eyes....

"Charlie?"

"Looks like we both had the same idea. Is there room for another on that rock of yours?"

"Of course; be my guest." Tamsin shifted over to one side and patted the rock next to her.

Charlie sat down next to her. There wasn't much room so they ended up wedged together.

"Are you sure you're OK with this. There's not really room for the two of us. I could go and find another spot, if you want."

"No! No, please, I'm.... Sorry, I'm a bit dense when I've just woken up. Please, I'd love it if you stayed." Tamsin shifted further across and, once again, they both tried to get comfortable but the rock was an unforgiving surface. "Look, why don't we both try and find another spot? Somewhere where we can relax a bit."

"You looked pretty relaxed before I blundered in and disturbed you but, OK, let's go upstream a bit."

They stood up and, with Charlie taking the lead, they made their way up the stream. A hundred yards further on they found just the spot. A bend in the stream had left a little ledge, not much, maybe six feet long and four feet at its widest, but the local sheep had cropped the grass to a comfortable sward. "This is perfect," Charlie announced as she lay down full stretch. "Come and join me."

Tamsin looked down at Charlie lying there and knew that she had never seen anyone so beautiful in her life. She had to fight off the urge to leap, to throw caution to the winds, to blow her cover, to blow everything, just so as she could lie beside her without any pretence. As it was she got down gingerly and lay as far away as she could without actually falling in the river. And then the bank crumbled a bit and she would have fallen had not Charlie reached out and grabbed her.

"Come here. I won't bite, honest."

'Oh, bite me, bite me, please!' Tamsin fought back the urge to cry out and all that escaped was a muffled squeak as she allowed herself to be pulled back from the edge.

They lay, side by side in the sunshine, mere inches apart and with Charlie's arm still holding Tamsin from falling into the stream. Tamsin picked up a twig from grass and fiddled with it; anything to distract her from her desire to lean forward and kiss. Charlie smiled at her and, nervously, Tamsin smiled back. But there was something she had to know, something she had to settle. She was pretty sure; she had researched the princess pretty thoroughly, but she had to hear this one direct from the source.

"Charlie, can I ask... can I ask you a really personal question?"

"Go ahead."

"When we met at Celia's house in Bedfordshire you were on your own. Now, here, you're on your own. Someone like you, surely...."

"Why haven't I got a significant other?"

Tamsin saw the shadow cross Charlie's face.

"I'm sorry. I should never have asked. It was ever so rude of me. Please, forgive me."

"It's OK. It's just that... well, there was but there isn't any more."

"I'm really sorry. Please, I've upset you, I really didn't mean to."

"You weren't to know. Seriously, it's OK, really it is. Now, give me a hug and make it better."

Without waiting for an answer, Charlie gathered Tamsin in and they lay, wrapped in each others arms.

"She was called Jocasta," Charlie quietly muttered after a while. "She was..."

They broke from the hug and lay there, face to face again.

"I thought that she was the one," Charlie continued. "You know that feeling. Suddenly it's spring all over. You've never met anyone so completely perfect. I'm pretty sure she felt the same way but, poor thing, she couldn't take the strain."

"The strain?"

"People... people in my position... we have to be careful. There are always reporters, everywhere, every bloody where. Reporters with their busy little cameras. Snap, snap, snap, snap snap. If you put one foot out of line then the next thing you know you're on the front page of the Daily Sleaze. It started to go wrong for Jocasta when we got snapped holding hands as we came out of my place in London and the next day the picture is in the papers with a suggestive tag-line. Not much, absolutely nothing about how we were lovers or anything, but it really upset her.

"And then we went on holiday together. We thought the beach was private but with these long lenses they have nowadays nowhere is really safe. It wasn't much. Just a rather blurred picture of us lying on the beach together but we were both topless and it was enough to make Jocasta nervous.

"We managed to get the story buried but it was never the same after that. She started to become obsessed, seeing reporters everywhere every time we tried to go out together. She all but refused to be seen together in public. I could cope with it. I have done all my life, I was born to it but, for poor Jocasta, it just seemed to get worse and worse and worse.

"And then, one day, it was my birthday and, as a special treat, I'd finally persuaded her to conquer her fears and go out with me. It was a lovely little place, so private and discrete and I thought it was all going swimmingly. However, we must have been spotted because, as we came out of the restaurant, there was some damn paparazzi waiting for us and he all but shoved his camera in Jocasta's face. She freaked out completely and really went for him. Fortunately I had people with me but I had to pull all the strings I had to keep her out of court. Part of the deal was that she had to spend some time away and, after that, she said she couldn't bare to see me any more. That was a couple of years ago. Last thing I heard she'd emigrated to Canada and married some chap who breeds horses.

"Fuck them! Fuck them all, each and every one of them! Damn reporters, blood sucking leeches that ruin people's lives. And the really stupid thing about it all was that, all along, no one had the slightest clue that there was anything between us, even after the topless photos. What a waste, what a fucking waste." The uncharacteristic bad language brought home the intensity of Charlie's feelings.

"That must have been awful for you."

"After all this time I still miss her. The guys have all been great and Georgina keeps insisting I have to turn up at these sorts of things to get me out of myself but I'm not sure it's working. Still, it gave me a chance to meet you."

Tamsin looked down to hide her blushes.

"Gosh, I'm sorry, that must have sounded like I'm coming on to you. I didn't mean just you, I meant the two of you, you and Emma."

Tamsin looked at Charlie and smiled shyly. It had sounded exactly like she was coming on to her and that had been a problem, but just not in quite the way that Charlie had thought.

There was another long silence between them; neither could say what she wanted, both were prepared to settle for the companionship of lying together.

"I'm beginning to wish we didn't have to play this silly game," Charlie admitted after a while. "I could just stay here all afternoon. It's so peaceful."

"I know what you mean," Tamsin replied with the understatement of the year. If only Charlie knew how fervently her wish was shared by Tamsin. If only she knew.

Tamsin rolled over onto her back. Partially she wanted to soak up the sun. Partially it had been just too intense, lying that close to Charlie without being able to do anything about it. As she did so her right arm was over the edge of the little cliff that separated the ledge from the stream. She let it drop and her hand dangled in the water. It was cool and refreshing but, more than that, it woke a playful little daemon within her. She lifted her hand up, out of the water, and flicked her fingers in the direction of Charlie's breasts.

"What the...!" Charlie sat up and brushed the drops of water off her.

With a grin that would have put the Cheshire cat to shame Tamsin scooped up some more water and tossed it over Charlie.

"Come here, you little minx!" Charlie turned on Tamsin who tried to escape but that made the edge of the ledge collapse beneath her and, in a cascade of peat and bodies, they both tumbled into the stream with Charlie very much on top. The water was only a couple of inches deep so there was no danger of drowning but it was still quite cold and Tamsin was very definitely in it. The tables were now very much turned with Charlie straddled her victim, pinning her down.

"You little minx! Say that your sorry; say 'sorry, Charlie'."

"Won't."

Charlie let go of Tamsin just long enough to scoop some water out of the stream and splash it over Tamsin's face causing Tamsin to shriek in a mixture of surprise and laughter."

"Say 'sorry, Charlie' or I'll do it again."

"Won't, won't, won't, won't, won't," Tamsin recited as if on the playground.

"Will, will, will, will, will," Charlie replied in kind, once more splashing water all over Tamsin's face.

"Make me."

"Don't tempt me."

"Go on, make me."

"If you won't say you're sorry I'll have to...." Charlie leant forward and kissed Tamsin on the tip of her nose. And then again, and then....

Their mouths met and, for a long, long moment, Tamsin knew she was in heaven. This was what she had wanted, ever since that afternoon in Bedfordshire and it was surpassing every expectation.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" Charlie said, suddenly pulling back. "That was so inappropriate of me. I really didn't... please, can we just... please, Susan, forgive me."

By now Charlie was standing up and getting out of the stream. In the blink of an eye Tamsin had gone from heaven to hell. Suddenly the water seemed icy cold and there were a million awkwardly shaped stones pressing into her back. She too stood up and, as she did so, the water from her wet hair streamed down her back.

"Please, Charlie, it's OK, really, it's OK."

"No, it's not OK. I should never have kissed you. I wasn't thinking."

"It was my fault, I never should have splashed you."

For a moment they just stood there, Charlie on the ledge, Tamsin still stood in the stream. Tamsin could see that Charlie was genuinely hurting. How quickly a little fun, just mucking about, had turned into such acute embarrassment. Tamsin wanted so much to tell her, to explain, that the kiss, far from being inappropriate had been the most appropriate thing that had ever happened to her.

But there were no words, no words that would explain, especially now, when any explanation would, inevitably, also expose Tamsin as one of the enemy, one of the blood sucking leaches that ruin peoples lives.

"You poor thing, you're soaked. Are you OK?" Charlie asked, noticeably changing the subject. "Here, come on out of the water." Charlie reached out her hand and, although the ledge was mere inches higher than the stream, Tamsin took it as she stepped up. They were standing there, facing each other, wondering what came next when there was a splatting sound and Charlie cried out, reaching for her buttocks. When she brought her hand back it was covered in green paint. Tamsin had just time to turn before she too was hit, a stinging sensation and a burst of green paint hitting her just above her hips.

"Gotcha! Got the both of you," Roberta stood up out of the bracken, still with the paintball gun aimed directly at them. "Now stay there while I come and claim you."

Roberta came galumphing along the edge of the gulley and then half scrambled, half fell down the side to end up a few feet downstream. As she came up to Charlie and Tamsin she was reaching into a canvas bag she had across her shoulder and when her hand reappeared she was holding two sets of wrist cuffs.

"Turn round, face the cliff," she ordered.

They did so and, feeling like a naughty schoolgirl caught in the act, Tamsin glanced sideways and saw Charlie looking back at her. As their wrists were bound behind their backs they shared a wry smile. Maybe they had been captured but at least this got them out of the awkwardness that the kiss had landed them in.

It turned out that it wasn't only wrist cuffs that Roberta had in her bag. She ordered them to hold their head up and, moments later, Charlie and then Tamsin found themselves being collared.

"There, that's better," Roberta said once the buckles had been fastened. "Now everyone can see that you're mine. Charlie, what a piece of luck. And, as for you, Susan, I've been hoping to bag you from the first moment I saw you. The others are going to be so jealous. Now turn round and face me."

The last thing out of her pockets was a pair of leashes which she attached to the collars. If put to the test they wouldn't have really stopped Charlie or Tamsin from running away but it was the symbolism that counted. It was the same with the paint gun which she cradled under one arm. She almost certainly wasn't going to use it again but it reinforced the sense of being captured. Then, with her two captives walking before her, they started on the long walk back to the ghillie's cottage.

"You'd have been fine if you'd just kept quiet," Roberta commented as they made their way through the bracken. "I was on my way to that copse over there when I heard you. If it wasn't for all the noise you were making I'd have walked straight past. It's as if you wanted to get captured."

Charlie and Tamsin just trudged on down the sheep track.