The Tangled Web Ch. 19

April 2005 – Helen's Holiday

The Tangled Web is a story spanning several years and is based on the complicated lives of Sara and Sam, lovers who are brother and sister, and those they live with. Set in the English Midlands, the tale is told through a series of interlocking short stories. Although designed to be read in sequence, I have tried to make each chapter stand as a complete and satisfying story in itself.

This Chapter is long – I hope not too long – but no matter how I tried, I couldn't do justice to Helen's story in fewer words.

I hope you have the patience to read it through to the end. I think you'll like it.

*****

"….And we expect to be on the ground in Toronto at 18.25." The blond, slightly camp steward announced in an impossibly correct English accent.

Helen pressed the small silver button in the arm of her window seat and stared out of the small round window. The wide, comfortable business class seat reclined smoothly, its base lifting to support her legs and feet. She sipped the chilled Buck's Fizz and tried to relax as the bright white clouds sped past her. She was on her way.

Her children, Sara and Sam with their her two grandchildren had all come to the airport to see her off, not fully understanding the importance to them and their future of Helen's mission in Canada.

Sara and Sam, her beloved but incestuous children, were now living as a couple with their own two children in a beautiful cottage in a small picturesque village in the north of Britain, far away from anyone who knew them. They were deliriously happy – more so because their mother knew about and approved of their forbidden relationship.

But Helen knew this could only be one step on a long road to security and that they would soon have to emigrate and start a completely new life together. This visit to Canada, to their Uncle Steven who had lived there for over 25 years, was a vital step on the way.

Helen hoped so badly that she would be successful. She hoped – no, she believed – that Steven would understand and help them. She had good reasons to believe this.

To her right, a tall, well dressed, middle aged businessman was tapping away at the keyboard of his small, expensive laptop computer. She watched his surprisingly nimble fingers as they dextrously tapped out a long document which he periodically paused to read.

He noticed her watching and smiled at her. His eyes were bright and warm and ….interested! He was actually interested! Helen smiled back.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be nosy." She said apologetically.

"That's alright. There's not much else to do on these flights, is there?" The man responded warmly. "I'm William – Will, by the way."

"Helen." She replied and they shook hands slightly awkwardly over the console between them.

"Are you on business?" Will asked, observing Helen's smart travelling clothes. "I have to make this trip every month."

"I'm visiting my brother in Toronto. We've not seen much of each other for a long time." Helen replied, enjoying the novel experience of a handsome man chatting with her.

"Alone?" He asked, observing her wedding ring.

"My husband died last year." Helen said without self pity.

"Oh! I'm sorry." Will said, embarrassed.

"No! Don't be." Helen quickly responded. "We had a wonderful life together."

And as the flight progressed, she found herself talking freely about her late husband, her children and grandchildren (but not the real truth, of course) and about her excitement at visiting a country she knew so little about.

Will was an excellent listener. He told Helen truthfully that he could barely believe she was old enough to have grandchildren, which made her blush. Was he flirting with her? It had been so long that Helen couldn't be sure. Will himself was a lawyer based in London. He was married, on the whole happily, but there were always tensions; partly as a result of his spending so long away from home. Helen thought how very lucky she had been in her own choice of husband.

The time passed easily until, after the meal had been served and Helen had enjoyed two glasses of rich red wine, the cabin lights were lowered and the movies began. Will put on his headphones and concentrated on the small, bright screen in front of him.

But Helen couldn't concentrate on the movie and soon gave up trying to watch. She turned her headphones to relaxing classical music and tried to sleep. But it was no good. After so many years she was going to see her brother Steven again! She had spoken to him briefly at the funeral, but there had been no opportunity for them to get to know each other again and he had had to return to Canada after only two days.

Helen had initially wondered if he had deliberately avoided her, the memories of their early life and love too painful for him. But when she had telephoned him at Christmas, the week after breaking the news to her children that she knew all about their incestuous relationship, there was no mistaking the joy in his voice at the prospect of seeing her again.

But it had been so long! How would they feel? Did he now regret all they had done? Had she ruined his life? Would he be prepared to help Sara and Sam?

Helen closed her eyes and dozed, her head full of powerful emotions.

Born during the war years, Helen and her brother Steven had known little of the actual fighting and almost nothing of their father, an RAF airman who had been killed fighting the Germans. Helen had been born in 1942, barely a year after her brother. Part of a single parent family, they had grown up through the long post-war years of rationing without a father, their mother being too busy providing for her young family even to consider allowing a new man in her life. She worked in a factory all day, and looked after Helen and Steven all the rest of her waking hours, which were long and arduous.

The two children understood how difficult things were and tried hard to make life easier for their mother. With her long hours away from home, they had grown closer and closer together; they had cooked for each other, washed each other's clothes, cleaned the house together and as a result had found only little time to see friends outside of school.

Inside school, the hard working pair had been academically bright and had both passed their eleven-plus examinations with sufficient ease to secure places in the local single sex grammar schools. This, of course, provided them with even fewer opportunities to meet the opposite sex and they grew up inexperienced and naïve, even for that innocent era.

Physically, they were both healthy and strong, as so many ration-raised children were. Steven became tall and athletic with jet black hair; Helen was shorter and slimmer with long curly locks. Inevitably they began to attract the attention of the boys and girls around them, but all the time were fiercely close and loyal to each other.

Their mother continued to work hard and after some years acquired a boyfriend, the foreman in the factory in which she still worked. Their 'courting' took their mother out of the house for many evenings as well as the working days and Steven and Helen were left to help each other both with their schoolwork and with the myriad of emotional problems that beset teenagers worldwide.

One night in the spring of 1960, Steven was awakened around midnight by a soft but frantic knocking at his bedroom door. He quickly jumped out of bed in his pyjama bottoms and opened the door to see his sister, now eighteen and beautiful, standing in her nightgown shivering. Her eyes were tearstained. Steven pulled her into his room and shut the door. Helen sat on the edge of his bed and he put his arm around her.

"What's the matter, Helen?" He asked. "Come on, tell me! What's wrong?"

"It's Mum…..she's …..I don't know. She sounds like she's in a lot of pain and the door's locked. I can't get in to see her!"

"Come on! Show me!" Steven had said and together they crept down the short corridor towards their mother's room at the front of the house.

The sound was low, but unmistakeable. Behind the door, their mother was making short, sharp high pitched noises. Silently, Steven tried the door handle. It was locked from the inside. The noises grew louder and the two children looked anxiously at each other.

Then the noises were joined by another sound; a low, grunting sound in what could only be a man's voice. Steven's face underwent several changes from realisation to relief to confusion to revulsion.

"What is it? What's the matter?" Helen insisted, grasping his arm.

"Come here!" He whispered. "Keep quiet!" And he led her quickly back to his bedroom and closed the door behind them once again.

"Can't we help her?" Helen begged. "Please Steven, she's in pain."

Her brother held her by the arms.

"Relax, Helen. She's alright. She's not in pain. We've just got to leave them alone."

"No! She's hurt, I'm going to…"

"No!" Steven almost shouted. She doesn't want to see you right now. She's ….well, she's busy."

Helen looked puzzled.

"Helen! She's not alone!"

Helen sat back on the bed. Suddenly her mouth dropped open and her face flushed bright red.

"You mean she's….doing it!"

"Yes, little Helen. She's 'doing it!'" Steven replied, holding her hand.

"With him? In her bed?" Steven nodded.

Helen sat still, her mouth wide open in surprise. Finally she said vaguely "It must really hurt! I thought she was dying!"

Steven laughed. "I'm sure she's fine. We'd better go back to bed."

Suddenly Helen gasped loudly. "Steven!"

"What? What's wrong now?"

"Look!" She said and pointed to his groin.

Unbeknown to Steven, the sound of his mother making love had given him a large erection which was at that moment sticking vertically upwards through the open fly of his pyjama bottoms. Flushing as red as his sister, he quickly grabbed a pillow to cover himself.

"You had best go to bed now, Helen." He urged. "I'm….I'm sorry. You shouldn't have seen that."

Keeping his hand against his groin, Steven hurried Helen back to her room and rushed back to bed.

Nothing was spoken about the incident for nearly a whole week, but the following Friday evening there was another knock on his bedroom door. Steven opened it and let Helen into his room again.

"They're doing it again!" She whispered, excitedly.

"Doing what?" Asked Steven, sleepily.

"You know, 'it'….making love……doing it!" His sister replied and sat down next to him on the bed.

"What can I do about it? Can't you just ignore it and go to sleep?"

"No, I can't. It makes me feel all funny inside, Steve, and I keep thinking about …."

"About what?"

"About your …..you know….your thing that popped out last Sunday."

"Helen!" Steven gasped, truly shocked. "You mustn't say things like that!"

"I've just realised that I'm eighteen, Steve, and I don't know anything about….about sex." He made to object, but she interrupted him.

"Oh I know how babies are made, but I don't know anything about making love….having sex….." He voice died away in embarrassment, but then she forced herself once again."…..you know, doing it!"

Steven was speechless.

"Steve…" She went on. "I've got nobody I can ask. Mum just won't talk about things like that, and if I ask my friends they'll laugh at me for being so childish." She paused, obviously distressed.

"Can't you explain it to me? I don't want to be this stupid and naïve all my life. I'm worried I'll never know how to behave with a man." She looked at her feet, embarrassed.

"I let Jim kiss me tonight outside the cinema. It was nice, but then he tried to get his hand inside my blouse and he pressed his…thing….against me." Steven smiled. "I didn't know what to do and I froze up and stopped him. I was so embarrassed I just ran away. He yelled after me that I couldn't be a baby all my life." Her eyes were wet with tears of shame.

"I don't want to be a baby, Steve, but I can't let Jim just do it to me, everyone will get to know and I'll become one of 'those girls'. What can I do? Can you tell me?''

"To tell you the truth, Helen, I'm not very experienced myself." Steven said quietly. "I've never actually done it properly either."

"But you do know all about it, don't you? You're a boy. You know what boys think and what they feel. Please explain it to me, Steve. Please help me understand. I don't know who else I can ask."

There had been a long silence. Steven's head filled with strange thoughts. He felt a powerful stirring in his loins and the head of his growing erection pressed painfully against the cloth of his pyjama bottoms.

He tried to dismiss the dreadful idea that was growing within him, but Helen was still standing in front of him, looking at him with pleading eyes, her body taut, anxious and beautiful.

Silently, gently, he reached towards her and slowly unbuttoned the front of his sister's nightgown, all the time expecting her to scream, or object or to slap his face. She did none of these and, feeling bolder, he slipped his warm hand inside to caress her small, firm breasts. Helen gasped.

"Did Jim do this?" He asked.

Helen nodded and held her breath as his rough fingers touched her soft tender flesh for the first time. Steven hesitated at the warm, smooth sensation, then gently cupped his sister's soft breast in his palm. She breathed out heavily and shivered a little.

"Is it alright?" Steven whispered. Helen waited what seemed like an age, but then nodded again. He gently kneaded her breast and felt it become firmer under his touch, the nipple hardening noticeably. Steven felt his chest tightening with excitement and moved his hand from his sister's right breast to her left with the same miraculous result.

Helen's eyes closed as her brother's hands spread over her warm chest. Her breasts were firm and pointed and ached as she trembled gently while he cupped them and kneaded them. She flicked the straps of her night dress off her shoulders. It slipped down her pale torso, leaving her naked from the waist upwards.

"Is it nice?" Steven whispered. Helen just nodded again, as if deprived of the power of speech.

Steven instinctively pressed himself against her waist. Helen could feel his erection hard within his pyjamas. It felt big and hard and frightening – but not as frightening as when Jim did it. She trusted Steven.

"Did Jim do this, too?" He asked. Helen nodded again.

"He put my hand on it too." She said, so quietly that Steven could hardly hear her. He took her right hand by the wrist and placed it on his bulge.

"Like this, Helen?"

"Yes!" She replied but this time Helen did not pull her hand away as she had done with her boyfriend. Rather she nervously pressed her palm against his swelling, and her fingers explored its shape through his pyjamas. Hot and hard, it felt strong and manly. A shiver passed up her spine.

Steven moaned very softly as his sister caressed his young, still virgin erection. One or two of his girlfriends had gone this far – a couple had gone yet further – but he was still strictly speaking almost as much a virgin as his lovely sister. And now her fingers were upon him, softer and gentler than any before. He pressed himself harder against her, trapping her hand between their two groins. He kissed her sweet breasts, feeling her hardened nipples under his tongue and between his lips.

Helen felt the pressure against her lower belly and it scared her a little. Steven was strong and could, she knew, do whatever he wanted with her. But she trusted him and cared for him and besides, this was perhaps the most exciting thing she had done in her sheltered life.

She nervously closed her fingers around his shaft, still feeling him through his pyjamas. She felt a slight thrill of power as her brother immediately moaned and tightened his grip on her. She squeezed his cock in her fingers and heard his breathing becoming tight.

"Steven?" She whispered, hardly daring to speak the words.

"Mmmmm?" He replied, the pleasure mounting.

"Can I…..can I touch it……inside?" Her face was bright red with embarrassment. She could hardly believe her own wickedness, but she asked all the same.

Steven could hardly believe his ears and moaned in assent. His heart hammered in his chest as he felt his sister's fingers slide tentatively through the open fly of his pyjamas. They closed around his shaft and squeezed it lightly.

Helen let out a small squeal of surprise. It was firm and strong, yes, but it was also so hot and she had not expected the soft smoothness of its outer flesh or the way the skin slid so easily up and down the firm shaft.

Steven moaned much more loudly as she slid her hand from its strange, smooth, rounded tip all the way down to its thick, hairy base. She moved her fingers lower still until she felt the tight sack between his thighs. It was firm and hairy and strange and she didn't like the feel of the rough pubic hair that covered it. Nevertheless, she squeezed it between her fingers, cupping its rock hard contents in her palm. Steven moaned loudly, bringing his lips onto hers forcefully in a passionate kiss.

Instinctively, Helen responded to his kiss in a way none of her few boyfriends had induced. Their lips slid over one another's, their eyes wide open, each searching for signs of objection or revulsion on the other's face. There were none.

Helen felt her brother's tongue sliding between her lips. It was strange and tickled her. It ran along her front teeth. She opened her mouth to do the same to him but instantly his tongue was thrust into her mouth. She was initially shocked. This was entirely new to her, but after a few seconds she relaxed into their embrace. Their tongues touched and writhed together in her mouth.

She felt a wonderful tingling as his hands slowly reached and touched all over her body, drawing her firmly towards him. Her fingers moved up and down his erection as his played up and down her spine and across her breasts whose nipples were so sensitive they ached.

Suddenly Helen's whole body stiffened as she felt her brother's hand drop down to her buttocks and knead them. She felt a totally new burning between her thighs as his hand slipped round to her front and to her horror, she felt him slide a single finger deep between her legs to stroke her vulva through her night gown.

She broke the kiss and looked into her brother's eyes.

"What are you doing?" She whispered, her voice sounding a little dreamy or drunk from her aroused state.

"I'm sorry, Helen." Steven mumbled. "I thought that as you were touching me I……well that you might want me to……" He didn't know what more to say.

Helen seemed to think about this for a long time as if weighing up the idea in her mind.

"Alright. It's sort of nice." She eventually said. "But you must stop if I tell you to."

"In that case the same goes for you, Helen." Steven countered. Helen nodded in assent.

Helen shyly removed her nightgown and they lay awkwardly together on Steven's bed. As their hands moved tentatively towards each other's groins once again, the atmosphere became more loaded with tension and passion. There was no giggling or crudeness. Rather it was sweet and oddly innocent as very nervously they touched each other once again.

As her brother's fingertips brushed against her short, soft pubic hair, Helen felt an unfamiliar wave of pleasure spread through her body. At first she found it frightening, but within seconds her body had instinctively shown her what to do. Her tight, nervous legs began to relax and, eyes closed, her mind filled with images of opening flowers as she felt a man's fingers exploring her most private zones for the first time.

Helen's long, slim fingers wrapped themselves again around her brother's shaft and she pumped him a little more firmly. She felt his chest heave with pleasure and his body stiffen and relax in time with the strokes of her hand. She loved the strength of his manhood, the raw animal pleasure his body was obviously feeling seemed to match her own.