Saint Barnabas Started It

He chuckled at his superstition and thought, "No, we must make out own way and make our own decisions."

The procedure was the same as before. They picked Felicity up from school and she seemed excited to see Mark.

"You'll play another game of chess with me, won't you?"

"And get beaten again," he laughed.

"You should complain," Jenny said, "I haven't won a game with her since she was eight. You know," she went on, "she's just like someone I knew a long time ago; he always succeeded in everything he did."

"Who was that, mummy?" asked Felicity.

"Oh, just someone I knew once."

Mark could not miss the implication and muttered, "He didn't succeed in everything."

Jenny heard his softly spoken words and said, "Sometimes success doesn't happen immediately, we have to wait for the final outcome."

They drove on in silence, and even Felicity didn't press them with any more questions.

This time they began their game of chess soon after arriving at the cottage while Jenny prepared a more elaborate meal. They got through one and a half games before they sat down to eat, and, of course Felicity won the first game and looked set to win the second.

While they ate Mark asked, "Where did you learn to play chess like that?"

"One of my teachers."

"He's a chess black belt or a grandmaster or whatever they call them," said Jenny. "He thinks that chess helps to teach the children to concentrate and think. A few of them play during lunch recess."

After the meal all three of them helped to clear up and then Mark and Felicity returned to their game. As expected Mark lost.

Felicity was ready to play another game but Jenny intervened saying, "I think Mr. Philips has had enough, darling; now go and have your shower and you can put your night things on."

"If I put my night things on I won't be able to come with you when you take Mr. Philips back to the hotel."

"Of course you will, nobody will see you in the car, and even if they did they wouldn't take any notice of a little girl in pyjamas."

"If I wasn't a little girl and they saw me in my pyjamas, would they take notice of me then?"

"Of course they would."

"Why?"

"Well, you'd be...it wouldn't be...oh do go and shower Felicity."

No doubt wondering at the oddness of adults she went off as instructed.

Jenny smiled at Mark and said, "You see what I have to cope with!"

"Yes, she doesn't let us get away with much, does she."

Changing the subject Jenny said, "Tomorrow is Saturday, will you still be here?"

"Yes, I'll be here until Monday."

"I only work on weekdays so I wondered if you'd like to come out with Felicity and me for the day."

"Very much, where?"

"If it's a fine day I thought the beach would be nice; but if not there's a performance in the afternoon of an adaptation of Wilde's 'The Happy Prince', I know Felicity would love to see it, we could go there."

"Couldn't we do both; go to the beach in the morning and the performance in the afternoon, and then we could go to a restaurant for dinner afterwards." He gave a chuckle and said, "I'll have to buy a pair of bathing briefs, I didn't expect to be going to the beach."

"Are you sure you want to spend all day with us?"

"There's so little time, Jenny. I'll get out early and buy the briefs and what about theatre tickets, do you think they might be booked out?"

"I'll telephone and find out now."

Jenny came back after a few minutes and said, "It's okay as long as we pick up and pay for the tickets tomorrow morning; we can do that on the way to the beach."

"What about the restaurant, I don't know anything about them here; which would you recommend?"

"Well, we don't often go to restaurants we can't...well, would you believe it, Jenny does like Indian food and there's a place near here called 'The Rang Mahal', we could go there."

"Fine, I'll ring and book a table now; what's the number?"

"I don't know, we've never been there, but it'll be in the book."

"Seven o'clock do you think?"

"Yes, the afternoon performance will be well over by then."

Mark went off to make the booking. As he pressed in the number there beat in his head, "All day tomorrow...all day tomorrow I'll be with them."

Having succeeded in making the booking he returned to the living room to see Felicity standing there in white pyjamas.

"I thought girls were supposed to wear pink," he teased.

"Mummy says white makes me look prettier because of my hair and skin. You should see mummy in her nightdress, it's black and lacy and she looks ever so pretty."

"Felicity," exploded a red faced Jenny, "you mustn't say things like that to people."

"Why not, it's true? Don't you think mummy would look lovely in black night things Mr. Philips?"

"Felicity," said Jenny in a waring tone of voice."

Mark smiled at her and said, "I think your mummy would look lovely in anything."

"I'll make a cup of tea," said Jenny, and she rushed from the room.

Because of this exchange Felicity had not been told about the plans for following day. Mark undertook to tell her. Felicity seemed to hop from one foot to the other with excitement but when he told her about the Rang Mahal she became very serious and asked, "Are you very rich?"

Mark was somewhat startled by this question, but answered, "I'm not exactly rich, but I'm not poor either, why do you ask?"

"Mummy says that only people with lots of money go to the Rang Mahal. We'd like to go there but mummy says we can't afford to so she makes Indian food here sometimes; but we are going...we are going..."

"Going where, darling,?" asked a recovered Jenny as she entered carrying the tea things.

"To the Rang Mahal."

Mark felt sick with shame. Going to even the most expensive restaurants was something he did without giving it a second thought, yet Jenny and her daughter – their daughter - could not even afford it as an occasional treat.

He sat in silence as they drank their tea. He hadn't realised just how special this day might be for these two.

Jenny, who having overcome her embarrassment about the black nightdress, seemed to be almost as euphoric about the next day as Felicity. She began to relate the little details of how they would pick up the theatre tickets, which beach they would go to, what they might be able to order at the Rang Mahal.

"Dear God," Mark thought, "I've always taken so much for granted. All my life things have been made easy for me – except one thing – and these two are ecstatic over what I take as the given."

Jenny noticed his introspective mood and asked, "Are you all right Mark, would you rather we didn't go..."

"No, of course not, I'm looking forward to being with you both for the day; I was just thinking."

Felicity, in the way children have, cut through the solemn atmosphere.

"We've never been out with a man before, have we mummy?"

"No darling."

Jenny began to pick up the tea things, and she made her way out to the kitchen with them, Felicity following her.

When she returned Felicity, the previously exuberant and forthright child, was half hiding behind Jenny.

"Felicity wants to ask you something but she's too shy, so she wants me to ask for her."

Mark had not noticed any sign of shyness in Felicity up until then, but he asked, "What is it?"

"She wants to know if she can thank you properly for being so kind to her and playing games of chess, and for being with us tomorrow."

"Yes, you didn't need to ask."

Felicity came to him and putting her arms round him placed a smacking kiss on his cheek. "Thank you Mr. Philips."

For a moment Mark wanted to hug her to him, but he had his own brand of shyness, and the moment passed.

"Now, we have to take Mr. Philips back to the hotel, so go and put on your dressing gown."

They drove to the hotel in silence. There seemed to hang about them a shadow of thought. Mark bade them goodnight adding, "I'll see you at ten tomorrow morning."

He watched the car drive away through the evening traffic and he felt as if his heart went with them.

He was up early the next morning and was waiting outside one of the city department stores as it opened to buy his swimming briefs.

Jenny arrived promptly at ten and they went to confirm their booking at the theatre, and then headed out from the city to one of the beaches. They had all put their swimming gear on under their ordinary clothes.

If Mark had hoped that at last Jenny would be revealed in a sexy bikini, he was doomed to disappointment. She wore a one piece that looked somewhat out of date, and was showing signs of its age.

Felicity on the contrary, while not wearing a bikini since she still had little to put into such a garment, was clad in what was clearly a new white one piece. He could see what Jenny had meant by white enhancing her complexion. The contrast with the white seemed to make her skin glow.

There were lots of other women on the beach, mostly dressed to arouse fantasies in the watching males, yet in spite of the absence of overt sexuality in her gear, he noticed that Jenny did draw male eyes. What could be seen of her body was in sharp contrast to her daughter, her skin having a creamy look about it, and even her modest garment could not hide the full swell of her breasts.

Poor Mark; while trying to cope with the effect Jenny was having on him, was angry and jealous about the effect that she was having on the men around her.

Felicity solved his more pressing emotional problems by prevailing on him to go and swim with her. Swimming for Felicity had less to do with linear motion though the water and more to do with climbing on Mark's shoulders to leap up in a sort of flurrying dive.

She confided in Mark, "I can't do this with mummy any more, she says I'm too heavy for her. I wish you could always come to the beach with us, and then I could always dive off you."

For all that Mark was feeling somewhat wearied by her constant leaping, he too wished he could always be there with her. Swimming had always been for exercise; with Felicity it was fun even if tiring.

After a couple of hours they left the beach and first went to the hotel where Mark changed into a suit. He was not well provided for since he had not anticipated such a long stay. Then it was back to the cottage for "The girls" as he was beginning to think of them as, to change.

This time it was a white dress with red trimming for Felicity and dark green pant suit for Jenny. They ate some lunch and then they were off to the theatre.

After the show Mark at first was not sure that it had been a success. Felicity was sobbing and Jenny looked a bit tearful.

"Oh the poor prince and the little sparrow," wept Felicity.

"Perhaps we should have gone somewhere else," Mark whispered to Jenny.

"Why?"

"Well, it's made Felicity very unhappy."

"Don't be silly Mark, she loved it." She turned to Felicity and asked, "What did you think of it, darling."

"Ooooh," wailed Felicity, "It was beautiful."

"You see Mark; you've got a lot to learn about females."

"I suppose I have," thought Mark, as they walked back to the car with the still sobbing Felicity.

Jenny tried to console Felicity saying, "Darling, they both went to heaven."

"Yes but...ooooh, it was so sad."

When they got into the car Jenny said, "Talking of heaven, Mark, Felicity and I go to church on Sunday mornings, would you like to come with us tomorrow?"

"I...er...well...you see, I don't...er..."

"The school chaplain's theology didn't go down well with you, did it," she laughed.

"No, it didn't; I mean, all those dreary sessions in the chapel with him going on and on about nothing."

"It's all right; I just thought you might like to be with Felicity and me."

That pulled Mark up short; a bit more time with mother and daughter. "Well, I could come with you," he grinned, "it might do me some good." He didn't say what sort of good he had in mind.

"I'll pick you up about nine thirty then."

The evening at Rang Mahal went off extremely successfully, except that Mark ordered a curry that was hotter than he expected and it was his turn to have tears streaming down his cheeks.

Their day nicely rounded off Mark was driven straight back to the hotel from the restaurant. He got another smacking kiss from Felicity and thanks for a lovely day from Jenny.

Mark slept very well that night.

*

Chapter 7. Mummy and Daddy Talk

Jenny picked him up at nine thirty and she was alone.

"Where's Felicity, she's all right, isn't she," he asked uneasily.

"Oh dear, we're suffering from anxious daddy syndrome are we?" laughed Jenny. "She's fine; I've left her with a neighbour."

"Jenny, would it be possible to have an hour or two alone with you, I've got some things I want to discuss with you."

"You do mean discuss, don't you?"

"Yes, just talk."

"I'll see if I can get the neighbour to look have Felicity after lunch."

Mark found the service somewhat off-putting because he'd forgotten the ritual. People seemed to stand up and sit down at unexpected moments; the hymns didn't seem to be the same ones he had sung in the school chapel and he wasn't sure how much to put in the offering plate.

He wondered if the preacher had been forewarned of his coming because the sermon seemed to be aimed at him; its subject being "Love."

He was told that love was patent, kind, not jealous, boastful, arrogant or rude; it didn't insist on its own way and it doesn't end. He tried to work out how this accorded with the world as he knew it, and he had difficulty with this.

After the service they had lunch and Felicity left to be looked after by a neighbour. Settling down in the living room they sat quietly for a few moments, the Jenny said, "You wanted to talk to me?"

"Yes, there are a couple of things I think we must settle."

"Yes?"

"My future access to Felicity."

"You want future access, do you?"

"Of course I do, but, you see my time can be rather erratic, so I wondered if it would be all right if I called you to tell you when I was coming; I'll give you all the advance notice I can; and perhaps you could book a room in the hotel for me."

"That won't be a problem."

"If you could, perhaps you might book up for anything that you think she might like to go and see, you know, like the show yesterday."

"I can do that."

"The other thing is, I'd like to make some provision for your...her upkeep."

"I told you before, Mark, I don't want any charity."

"No...no...of course not, but my responsibility, I..."

"We've managed well enough so far and..."

"All right Jenny, I can leave it up to you. I'll make regular payments into an account in your name, you can draw on it if you want to, and if not, well..."

"I take it you like her."

"Of course I bloody well like her, she's my daughter isn't she?"

"Our daughter, Mark, and by the way, should you ever doubt your paternity we could always have..."

"Oh, don't be so silly Jenny; I only have to look at her."

"Yes, her looks and complexion are a bit of a give away, aren't they. Thank you for the offer of financial help; I won't pretend it wouldn't be nice to have something extra for Felicity, so..."

"It's for you as well."

"A bit generous for a one off sex session, isn't it?"

"That was uncalled for Jenny; nothing was further from my mind; why are you behaving like this?"

"Like what?"

"Cool, remote. We had a lovely day together yesterday, we were happy together, weren't we? So why the aloofness today?"

"Because I don't want you to feel under any obligation to us; we've had a lovely time but tomorrow morning you'll be gone. When you get back to where you came from you might start feeling differently, people do you know. It was good while it lasted, but..." She shrugged her shoulders; "Felicity has obviously taken to you; at this stage if she never saw you again you would become a happy memory – the nice man who took us out for the day and had dinner with us – push it much farther and who knows."

"And you?"

"What?"

"Can you forget quickly?"

"I may not be able to forget, but I can let go, as you should know."

"I want to ask you Jenny – look, I haven't been able to read you properly ever since we met the other day, one minute you're warm and friendly and the next you're cool and remote – I want to ask you, do you want me to keep in touch...to visit."

"Yes, of course I do, Felicity would..."

"No...no, not Felicity; do you want me to come back...you...for your sake?"

Jenny paused, looking at him before she answered as if making up her mind what to say.

"All right Mark, I didn't want to say this to you, but it seems I have to. I would like you to come here to see me as well as Felicity, but...but I don't want to go through the pain I felt when we had to part all those years ago; once in a lifetime is enough."

"I promise you I won't..."

"No promises, Mark, let's just see how it works out, shall we?"

"All right Jenny, let's do that."

When Felicity returned Mark was prevailed upon to play another game of chess. When they had driven back to the hotel he received a long hug from Felicity.

"You'll be at work before I leave in the morning?" he asked Jenny.

"Yes."

"We'll say our goodbyes then."

*

Chapter 8. Interregnum

Mark's flight left at eleven o'clock, so he was up and out early the next morning, doing some shopping. At ten o'clock his luggage was in the hotel foyer and a taxi had been booked. Mark came to the desk carrying two parcels.

There was no opportunity for any emotional demonstrations; Mark placed the parcels on the desk saying, "For you and Felicity...a sort of thank you for a lovely few days. I'll be in touch soon." He gave her his card, then the taxi arrived and he was gone.

Jenny would have cried if she hadn't been at work. She opened the parcels; one contained a beautiful hand carved chess set, the other a bikini marked, "To be exchanged if it doesn't fit."

A week passed and a message arrived from a bank announcing the opening of an account in her name and would she come in to register her signature. When she went in to the bank she was staggered to learn that a regular payment that amounted to nearly as much as she earned at the hotel was to be made regularly.

Another week passed and there were regular evening telephone calls from Mark. These were concerned with the welfare of Felicity and herself, but he was unable to get away to see them.

Jenny gave Mark her thanks for the financial allowance and had made her, and for what she called, "The naughty bikini." Felicity yelled her pleasure into the phone, thanking him for the chess set which she announced she would never use.

"Never use?" asked a puzzled Mark.

"It's too beautiful," she said, "I've got in on my dressing table, you'll see."

Then in the middle of the third week he said he could join them for the following weekend and would arrive at the airport at 10-15 p.m.

"We'll come and pick you up at the airport," Jenny said.

"No, don't do that," he protested, "it will be past Felicity's bed time; I'll get a taxi."

"Oh dear, anxious daddy again, it's Saturday the next day, she can sleep in if she wants to."

He laughed, "All right, I don't want to be the heavy father. You'll book me a room at the hotel?"

"Of course; see you at ten fifteen Friday."

"Fine."

*

Chapter 8. A Little Girl Knows.

Felicity was doing her hopping from one foot to the next as they waited for Mark to come into reception. When he came through the barrier she leapt on him, delivering her smacking kisses.

Jenny was more restrained in her greeting, giving him a peck on the cheek saying, "You're a naughty man."

"Why?"

"The bikini, I'll never be able to wear it."

"Why not?"

"It's too young for me; at my age..."

He laughed and said, "With your figure you'd look good in it at ninety."