The Spirit of Ecstasy

I noticed her eyes watering, so I placed my hand over and held her hand while at the same time passed her my napkin. Although she had just said that there was no love between them, I was sure there must have been more than enough to bring to mind regrets about her private life. With the experience of my broken marriage I could understand what she was going through.

She glanced sideways at me while I changed the subject.

"Thank you, Fred, Pam, that was a wonderful meal, I would like to pass on my thanks to Carol in the kitchen."

Tom senior, who had just entered the room and was standing by the wall, coughed, "Excuse me Mr Crabtree, but Carol has already gone home to her family for the evening. She always does as soon as the last dish is served up."

"Thank you, Tom," I replied, "l hope I'll see and thank her personally tomorrow before we go off to the hospital, but if not I would be grateful if you could tell her that this is the best home-cooked meal I've enjoyed this year."

"I will, Sir, thank you," smiled the servant, who until then had silently waited on us impassively.

"Carol is a wonderful cook, Harry," Pam smiled, "I have always felt that we are really quite spoiled by her."

Gina pressed her other hand on top of mine, "And that is another reason everyone likes you Harry. Our meals are always this high standard and no less even when we've hosted large parties, but hardly anyone ever acknowledges the cook and no one has ever remembered her by name, and you've only been introduced to her a couple of hours ago."

"Well, the artist creating a memorable meal should be remembered."

Tom then spoke up as the conversation paused, "Coffee is ready in the library."

"Thank you, Tom," Pam said, "Gina and I will take our cups to the evening drawing room for ten minutes, if you don't mind, gentlemen."

Both Fred and I acknowledged the instruction with nods. I immediately thought, 'This is where Fred sets out the restrictive ground rules with Gina or else sends me packing.'

I stood up as soon as Pam and then Fred rose, Gina released her hands but as soon as she was standing she tucked her left hand into my right arm and enclosed her grip with her right, pressing her soft breast into my upper arm. We edged sideways past our abandoned chairs and moved towards the door that Tom preceded us through, and were waved in front of her parents by Fred.

The substantial library was a smaller and cosier room than the dining room, again with a log fire burning in the grate, fresh logs stacked in a cast iron lion by the side. There must be an endless supply of logs to burn from the estate, I thought. There were eight comfortable armchairs, five of them in a semi-circle around the fireplace, a central round table in the centre of the room with four hard chairs around it, and a couple of small desks each with a hard chair tucked in against the wall. One and a half of the walls were completely covered in books, floor to ceiling. The coffee pot, cups and saucers, sugar and milk were on a silver tray on the round table. Pam prepared coffee for herself and Gina, then the younger woman seemed reluctant to leave me behind before she followed her mother through the other door.

"How do you take your coffee?" Fred asked when we were alone.

"Black, two sugars, thanks," I replied, "So, what is your take on Gina's crazy idea of having me or anyone as an escort for her?"

"Actually, this was Pam's and my idea. Look, take a seat by the fire and I will explain..."

Once we were settled he continued.

"Gina is a competent businesswoman and confident leader and she is doing great at King's, where she has stepped up and taken charge for four months and everyone already respects and loves her. King & Son's is still run as a family firm within a loose group of associated companies. The individual companies in the Group all hold a minimum two-and-a-half to a maximum five percent share of the holding company and the holding company owns between a fifth and a quarter of each of the companies in the group. It is that assurance of working towards mutual benefit that keeps the group together sharing resources and contacts. We share certain administrative functions to save on costs, so we have a single company secretary, we defer all invoicing and receipts to headquarters and have a single bank location with individual accounts for each company. Gina is the only female acting managing director in the group, is virtually unknown by most and not particularly well respected by the rest of the companies and the main board is finely balanced between supporters and objectors. It has taken me four months to persuade the board to appoint Gina to the main board and I have had to concede to allow a director appointed from the Tremblett & Son company to the board at the same time. Other than me, Gina will be pretty well on her own on The Tremblett Group board. Emotionally, she has been knocked sideways by the public shame of her husband's infidelity and her confidence as a woman able to hold onto a man has also taken a hammering."

"She's beautiful, Fred," I said, wanting to speak up for Gina, "and she's bright, comfortable in conversation, in fact quite playful, a joy to be with in company. And she certainly commands respect in her workplace."

"I think she feels confident in your presence, Harry, but that is because you act natural around her so she doesn't have to put on an act. Even though these are the mid-1970s, women are still rare in business, except in subordinate roles, and very rare indeed on company boards. She needs emotional and physical support, both after the day at home and at all the functions and work visits and negotiations that a board member is expected to attend and contribute to. We had considered using an actor to fill in as an escort on the public role, but they can be unreliable for a period which could extend from now until the new year or even the spring. All the actors we interviewed wanted to break up for the panto season."

I was amused at the thought of someone escorting Gina to the opera one night and playing Widow Twankey the next, and I told Fred so. Fred matched my mirth with a laugh and rueful grin.

"We are more concerned about the time after work and between functions, which a by-the-hour front man simply can't do. We're not just looking for someone who will keep her confidence up, comfort her when she has been hammered all day by people who know the job better than her, but a bit more than that," Fred smiled, "someone who cares enough to have a hankie ready and squeeze her hand when she needs it, like you did earlier, doing it without thinking. And as well as having empathy they need to be trustworthy enough not to take advantage of her when she's low. And somebody who is also careful enough not break her heart, or be fragile enough to have his own heart broken when the need to protect her has come to an end and Gina's priorities and perspectives diverge. So, Harry, are you that man?"

"Fred, your daughter is a beautiful woman and there is no doubt that any warm blooded man would give their eye teeth to have her as a wife or girlfriend, or just enjoy being in her orbit. As for Eric Tremblett's actions, if they are as bad as stated, well, words fail me. I was married for 19 years to my childhood sweetheart, and for me to imagine on actions which would betray her trust was unthinkable. Mavis was put under different strains than I had to endure, a lot of pressure to bring up a family alone and suffer through loneliness for many years due to my weeklong absences for work. I thought I understood what she went to and tried to make up for it and even deluded myself that we had gone through the worst of it and things would only get easier for us as the kids left the nest. I had to put up with loneliness on the road, and I put in long hours while away so that we could still have our weekends free. But Mavis abandoned me, she found comfort in another man, who she has since married. I cannot get my head around committing myself to another real relationship, even a temporary one, especially at my age. And, simply looking at what is around me, and particularly looking at Gina, I know that she is clearly way outside my league."

"It would only be temporary, Harry, a few months at best, half a year at worst. And you only have to play a role, not get involved emotionally. But you never know what Gina feels after a month or two. Eric was a much older man, and she fell in love with him, so don't count yourself out. Maybe she sees you in a different light to how you see yourself."

"Maybe the the age difference between Eric and Gina was what sparked his philandering, thinking that it was Gina who was losing her attraction to him?"

"No, I don't think so. Ever since the accident lots of girls, young women, and disgruntled husbands, have commented on his many affairs going all the way back. Even in possession of a pearl like Gina, Tremblett remained an absolute swine."

"Well, I think there's some eleven or twelve years age gap between us and that is a huge hurdle to jump. When I'm 65, tired and probably retired, Gina will still be in her early fifties, on her game and working at the height of her energetic powers, hopefully running this group of companies, preparing it for Giles to take over. But that's a long way into an impossible future, the fact now is that she is still a married woman and I hate those smooth talking seducers that prey on women who are either saddled with commitments, feel undervalued or are at a vulnerable point in their lives."

"So do I Harry, so do I. You know, I liked Eric's father a lot, he was a good personal friend, probably my best friend, and he was a real gentleman. Eric took more after his flighty mother, who danced rings around my dear friend. Thank goodness I met, fell in love with and married Gina's mother and not someone who turned out like Eric's mother."

"I like Gina on a personal level and I would be happy to be able to regard her as a friend now and hopefully still in twenty years' time when all this is just memories. And to do that I know I would have to be respectful of both her feelings and my emotions throughout this drama, so we can each come out of this intact at worst and enhanced in confidence at best. Then we can laugh about these few months in the future whenever we got together. I wouldn't play loose with women's feelings, especially people I like or who are a little fragile, like I think Gina is under the assured businesslike front she puts on, Fred. So, I can promise you that Gina will always be perfectly safe with me."

"I believe you, Harry my boy, so I'm right behind you in this. Right, the girls'll be back with us soon, so, are you ready for a dram or three of Blair Athol 13?"

"Yes, please, but I better have only the one, I do have to work tomorrow, and I am my own driver."

"Touché. I'll just make it a large one, then."

I had to smile at that. Gina's people, I thought then as I do now, were decent, down to earth, really nice genuine people. Basing myself here, escorting the lovely Gina for a couple of months, well, this wouldn't do me any harm, I thought, and it could be fun.

Later, back in the Gold Room, my room, really a small suite of bedroom and bathroom, I set my travel alarm clock to 7am. I set out my clothes ready for the morning as had become my habit. After my second indulgent shower of the evening in that beautiful golden bathroom, I grabbed the folder from my slip case containing all the information on the companies I was due to visit that week and particularly reminded myself of the two appointments I had arranged across the very next morning.

I turned the bedside light off and settled down to sleep, but found I was tossing and turning reconciling myself to the task I had agreed to, of playing a role of escort over the next few months.

Was I up to it? Earlier that evening, with the support from Gina's parents, I had looked forward to it. Now, alone with my thoughts, I doubted it. Did I even want to do it? I surprised myself by an emphatic positive answer, yes.

Why did I want to do it? That was still a conflicting muddle and I always preferred order to muddle. I knew what my answer should be, as a gentleman of principle, in the spirit of altruism, but I was worried that my wanting to be around Gina and helping her was more in the Spirit of Ecstasy.

I had never been fazed by beautiful girls, but then I was never around them for long, a few moments in passing, part of a day at most before moving onto the next client; being constantly around Gina for several months, knowing my natural attraction to her, could I resist her? I would be foolish to think the age gap was a barrier to my feelings, however certain I was that it would be for her. I know she married an older man, but that was when she was a starry-eyed young woman in her teens, not the worldly-wise woman-once-scorned that she was now. She was a beautiful woman who I could be relaxed with if I knew I was meeting her fleetingly through business once a quarter, but seeing her, breathing her in and conversing with her daily, was another matter. Was I risking breaking my heart over the next few months?

I was still lying awake when I heard a light knocking on my door.

"Harry, are you awake?" came the voice through the door.

I got up, switched on the bedside lamp, noticed the time was close to half past one, walked to the door and twisted the huge antique key in the lock to unlock it. Gina stood there in the dark corridor, dressed in thick cotton pyjamas within an open dressing gown over her shoulders.

"Come in, Gina," I said softly, "how can I help you?"

"I can't sleep. Can you? If you could and did and I awoke you, I'm sorry."

She seemed smaller, timid, hunched over and holding her hands together under her chin, as if begging, the opposite of how she portrayed herself at work, the restaurant and at dinner. She really was quite vulnerable right now, I thought.

"No," I smiled, "Like you, I've not slept a wink so far."

"Do you think I could sleep with you ... here ... now, Harry?" she asked in a pleading tone, "I'll keep my PJs on, I just want the warm comfort and company of a friend."

"Then a friend you've found," I nodded slowly. What harm could this be? "We'll keep our pyjamas on, Gina, but you may inadvertently feel and therefore have to ignore my body's natural and unbidden reaction to your touch, heat and, no doubt, heavenly smell. I may possibly even react to any tiny sounds you make, like breathing for example," I chuckled and was rewarded by a slight smile. "But, as a friend, I will ignore my baser animal instincts and welcome you into a chaste but friendly embrace."

"You really lay down the house rules, I feel like a girl in her first night in a boarding school," Gina giggled.

"We need rules if you are going to graduate top of the class, young lady," I growled as I held out my arms and she moved into them.

"Yes we do, thank you, headmaster," as she pushed her arms around my chest and tucked her head in just under my chin. My nose was almost buried in her hair and my senses were bombarded with the flowery smell of her shampoo, soap from her bath or shower and the unmistakable scent of a hot woman, her, the smell of Gina, absolutely intoxicating. For a man who had spent seven years without the touch of a woman or even one within a couple of yards of him without a table or desk between us, I felt overwhelmed and probably even more vulnerable than this woman I had pledged to protect and comfort!

"Which side of the bed did you sleep on with Mavis?" she asked, looking up at me.

"The right hand side, but that was only because it was nearest the door and I was always awake and up first in the morning."

"All right, I'll take the right side if I may. I used to sleep on the left and I felt that I wanted to change, to make this different, but I would defer to your preference."

"No, Gina, don't defer to me, please. Not all the time anyway. For the next couple of months, or however long this process takes, you must be more assertive in your private life as well as I know you are in your public one. Suggest what you think I might accept or order me to do something, expressed with good manners of 'please' and 'thank you', of course. I am strong willed enough to say 'No, because, etc, etc' if I object to your suggestion or order and we can then agree or negotiate an agreement between us as equals. It would serve to demonstrate to yourself that you are prepared to take charge, but also willing to change your position in light of reasoned argument or if you decide that your original stance was unimportant enough to you to agree to change to a different point of view. Decisive without overbearance, and remaining flexible where reason intervenes."

She regarded me with a smile playing on her lips. Then she pushed herself out of my arms, shucked the dressing gown off her shoulders and dived towards the bed, "Last one in bed turns out the light!"

Of course she beat me by miles, pulling the bed clothes up as far as her nose. I squeezed in beside her on the cold left hand side of the bed.

"Mmm, it's lovely and warm this side," she laughed, breathing in, "and it smells all manly and comforting."

"Gina, I'm going to have to lean over you from my side to turn out the light."

"I know," she said smugly.

"I'm going to have to almost climb all over you to reach that light."

"I still know," she giggled. "So, go on then, Harry, please climb over me."

I smiled, this was more like the Gina who teased me walking round her dining room, not the timid waif standing at my bedroom door pleading for comfort a moment ago. I supported my upper body with my right elbow as I reached across to the lamp with my left hand. As my chest crossed her face, she reached up and bit me briefly through my pyjamas in the area of my left nipple.

"Ow!" I stopped, even moved away a little bit, so Gina clamped over my right nipple through my pyjamas and this time held on for a moment or two.

"Gina ... behave!" I said gently.

"Yes, headmaster, sorry, headmaster," she purred after releasing her jaws.

I switched out the light and settled back, "Are trying your hardest to get six of the best from me?"

Gina snuggled down, "I'm not even going to answer that, Harry, it's far too suggestive. Mmm, but just us doing this is nice and comfy, though, don't you think?"

"Yes, I do. Now, stop talking and go to sleep. I know I've got a lot to do tomorrow."

"So've I," Gina said, "it's my evening to visit Eric at the hospital tomorrow for a couple of hours. I know you said you'd come but this is rather short notice."

"Which hospital?"

"Reading General, on the west—"

"I know where it is, Gina, they have a small maintenance department that's in my patch. I'll drive you there and back and keep you company during your visit. I'd only be sitting in here working on my reports otherwise. I could catch up there, while you hold Eric's hand, or you could talk to us both about Trembletts and the individuals who you think we need to keep an eye on."

"Thank you, H, you're heaven sent."

"And you'd be an angel if only you stopped talking! You may not need it, but an old man like me needs all the beauty sleep going."

"Tosh! But I do feel relaxed enough to drop off now. So, night-night, H."

"Sweet dreams, Angel."

Chapter 2

Tuesday 16 September 1975, 5.30am

When I awoke with a short start, I found that I was spooning with Gina in a fetal position, both my arms wrapped around her, with one arm going dead with no feelings in it, the other palm resting on a warm, plump breast, my morning wood laying firmly like a log along the crack of her lovely bum. It took me a couple of seconds to be fully aware of where I was and who I was with. She seemed to be breathing lightly and steadily and I breathed a shallow sigh of relief that she was still asleep. My arm resting on her breast had her arm resting on it, so very slowly I straightened out my legs, then rolled away from her, pulling my hand away from her breast, but I could do little about my buried arm, although the slight movements I made started off a bout of excruciating 'pins and needles' as the blood started to reflow and my nerve ends started to wake up and let me know that they hurt. Gina snuffled a tiny moan at my movement, but didn't appear to waken. I shuffled my bum away from her, then turned back towards her and lifted my upper torso, leaving me room to pull out my dead arm. I did that quickly in one movement, then rolled away so my back was towards her. My released arm was now a paroxysm of pain as every nerve ending signalled its displeasure of rude awakening, and I flexed the arm, wrist and fingers to speed up the process.