After the Dreams (Caroline's Company) (14 page)

‘But that’s the problem. I’m not really the right shape
and...’

‘Look, you are quite slim and elegant, many women would be
envious of that, and all the practice you have put into moving properly has
really paid off. You can hide what you need to, after all you did last night
didn’t you?’

‘Well yes, but that wasn’t in the water...’

‘The special breast forms will hold in the water, and the
adhesive has been specially developed to stimulate you and help you grow.’

‘Yes, Sylvie told me.’

‘So all we need to do is to find you a nice costume that
covers up what needs to be covered and you’ll be fine. Would you like a
one-piece, or a bikini?’

‘Wouldn’t my... my bottom...look too small?’

Jo laughed, and kissed her cheek.

 ‘Well you obviously have a little way to go if you ask that
question! But your bottom is fine. I don’t suggest that you wear something
quite as brief as Sylvie likes to wear, and as Caroline likes Sylvie to wear,
but I’m sure we can find you something in all the clothes racks in this house!’

‘I can swim a bit, but not really very well.’

‘Then you can practice in shallow water. It’s much nicer
than a swimming pool. Just don’t be startled by the fish!’

‘Fish!’ exclaimed Cassie.

Jo laughed again.

‘Well it is a natural lake, well not entirely natural
because it was created in the nineteenth century landscaping, but it’s been
there long enough to have a resident population.’

‘Big fish?’

Cassie still looked worried.

‘Well, there are pike in there, but you would be a bit big
for them! And splashing normally keeps them and the bigger carp away, so you’ll
all have to cope with are minnows and the odd perch. Come on. Let’s get you
kitted out, or rather perhaps ‘kitted off’ and then we can walk down, or would
you prefer to have a lift?’

‘A lift? With Poppy and the... ’

‘I think that Poppy and Philip need to rest for a bit just
now. You saw how they were held together last night? I doubt they got much
sleep, fastened together naked but quite unable to touch! No, the Newcombes
will take lunch down to the boathouse. They might use a Landrover, but as it’s
a nice day they might take the donkey cart.’

‘Oh,’ said Cassie, who had seen some donkeys grazing in the
paddock, but being a city girl had not realised that they could actually be
used to provide transport.

‘Now at other times Caroline does have pony-girls to... But
you can ask Caroline about that. Do you mind walking?’

‘Not at all, it’s a really lovely day.’

‘It is, and walking is good for you, and for me as well.
Keeps up the definition of your legs as well as burning calories from all this
food we keep eating here!’

Cassie wondered how many calories were being burnt up in
exercises such as she and Sylvie had been engaged in the previous night!

Chapter Seven

Confessions

In what seemed a magically
short time later, Cassie was floating in the sun-warmed water, languidly
kicking her feet and looking at the willows on the near bank by the boathouse.
On the far bank was forest with the hills rising behind it. Jo had been right.
It was much nicer than a swimming pool.

She was wearing a fairly
conventional flowery printed bikini and a lot of waterproof sun-block.

In this warm shallow water (she knew her toes could touch
the bottom), she felt much more confident than she had ever been before.

She heard splashing from further out. Jo and Caroline and
Sadie and Sylvie were racing out to a platform moored about halfway across the
broad lake. Cassie saw Sadie win the race, and haul herself out on to the sun-baked
wooden platform. She was wearing a miniscule iridescent blue bikini, which did
little more than display the curves of her wet and shiny body. Cassie could see
her gleaming in the sunlight, tossing her long blonde hair behind her as she
held up both her arms and shouted in triumph.

Cassie tried to wave in response, but floating on her back
all she managed to do was sink. When she had surfaced again, with both feet on
the bottom, she could see that Caroline and Sylvie had joined Sadie on the
platform; Caroline in a red-gold high cut one-piece, and Sylvie in pink shiny
scraps of fabric, quite like Sadie’s. Cassie looked at her own bikini top and
wished, as she did all the time now, that she had more to show!

Together the three women knelt
to help Jo out of the water. She wore a very brief red-gold bikini, of a
similar colour to Caroline’s one-piece. Even with her distant view, Cassie saw
the brief flash of the gold dragon on her lower back.

She felt something brush
against her, and looking down, saw a small shoal of shining minnows around her
legs. She picked up both feet, and nearly sank again. When she had spluttered
her way back to the surface, she saw Caroline say something to Sadie, who dived
effortlessly into the water and set off towards Cassie.

The platform being too far out to make a viable target,
Cassie tried swimming towards the landing stage and its steps. Her rather jerky
breast-stroke kept her afloat, but did not propel her very fast.

‘How are you doing?’ Sadie surfaced beside her, having made
the last part of her approach submerged. She trod water, and swept her long
hair out of her eyes. ‘I promised Caroline to keep an eye on you, but I got
distracted by the race. Sorry about that, but did you see me win?’

‘Oh yes,’ said Cassie, keeping afloat with her doggy paddle.
’You all seem to be such good swimmers.’

‘Well with this lovely lake and this marvellous summer
weather who wouldn’t be. We come down from the house often if it’s warm like
this. But swimming is such good exercise even when it’s colder; just not as
much fun. There is the pool on the terrace of course, but it’s not as nice as
here.’ 

‘It’s ever so much nicer than the swimming pools in London.’

‘Of course it is, no crowds and
no chlorine, and no-one ogling you or trying to touch you up.’

Having said that, Sadie had to grab Cassie’s arm as the
younger girl almost sank again.

‘Come on, do you want to come
to the ladder;  you’re well out of your depth here.’ She assisted Cassie to get
to the ladder, and the two girls pulled themselves out and sat side by side in
the sunshine.

‘Have you lived in London?’

‘Yes. I was at Uni for nearly two years. But it got very
.... difficult.’

Cassie could see her brow furrow. It was obviously an
uncomfortable memory for her.

‘Then I met the Doctors Startway, Peter and Jo that is, and
they introduced me to Caroline, and old Mr Benedict. And now...’

She stopped. ‘You’ve been in quite a long time, shall we
swim back to the beach, and then we can get dry, and put on some more sun
block. Jo will be shouting at us if we don’t; and we can have a longer talk
after lunch.’

Looking down Cassie could see a few medium size dark green
fish around the piles of the stage.

‘They ‘re perch,’ said Sadie. ‘They do have spines, but they
keep away from people in the water. My dad likes to fish for them, and they’re
quite good to eat; well with proper cooking that is.’

‘Your Dad?’

‘Yes, Fred Newcombe; I’m Sadie
Newcombe, or I am now anyway.’

Cassie took in this information.

‘Don’t your mum and dad ... mind that...?’

‘Not now they don’t. I was a
terrible mess before. When Jo and Caroline started to get me sorted out
Caroline insisted on meeting my parents, and it ended up with them coming to
work here. They were both wanting to retire anyway, and it’s not exactly hard
labour for them here. They love it.’

There was a pause.

‘And now Mum loves having another daughter. Except she’s
trying to teach me to cook (she didn’t have much time..... before) and I’m a
slow learner. Perhaps you’ll do better; if you want to that is.’

‘I like cooking.’ Cassie had had to cook for her struggling
family in the last months in London. It was one of the few things she could
take pleasure in.

‘Mum will be delighted. Come on, let’s swim back.’

Sadie dived head first into the water, then surfaced laughing,
adjusting her bikini top.

‘I keep forgetting about that
little problem with this top. If you dive the wrong way it can end up round
your ears!’

Cassie gently stepped down the
ladder, and pushed herself off backwards. As she set off towards the little
beach with the backstroke that she found quite easy, (all she had to do was
float on her back and kick her feet) she thought that she really did want to
have little problems of that kind. She also thought that it might be nice to
learn to cook properly with Sadie’s mum.

*****************************

The little sandy beach between
the landing stage and the boathouse faced west, and made a warm and sheltered
spot for the two girls, now that the sun had moved round and they got some
shade from the old creeper-clad timbers of the boathouse.

Lunch had seemed luxurious to Cassie, even getting used as
she was to the ways of this household.  They had all helped themselves from
splendid picnic hampers that Fred Newcombe had laid out in the shadow of the
great oak trees that formed a natural courtyard behind this secluded part of
the lake shore. Cassie had adored the salmon mousse and the champagne punch,
and had said so to Mrs Newcombe.

‘Sadie said just now that you liked cooking. That’s good.
What do you like to cook best?’

Cassie had said that she was very much self-taught and had
only made simple things like casseroles.

‘Nothing wrong with a good casserole, and you can use up
things in them. Fred really likes the sausage casserole that I do with potatoes
and mustard.’

This sounded quite sophisticated to Cassie.

‘I’ve only tried to make things that I thought I might
like.’

‘Well, if you like what you’re making then you’ll make it
much better. The danger is that you like what you cook too much!’

Mrs Newcombe patted her (not very) round tummy.

‘Anyway, a thin little thing like you needs to put on a bit
of weight.’

‘Well I wouldn’t...’

‘Yes, and of course you will want to put into the proper
places, I know, just like Sadie, and just like Lizzy, she’s my daugh... my
other daughter, well just like any girl really.  All of you so concerned about
weight. Anyway, if you want to cook I’m sure we can work together. It’ll be fun.
I’m trying to teach Sadie, but she doesn’t really like it, and I can never get
her to take her nail varnish off before mixing dough!’

Cassie had no idea how to mix dough, and no real idea what
dough was for and she said so.

‘Well baking bread is really fun, and kneading dough lets
you work off lots of aggression. You’ll see!’

Cassie had agreed to learn how
to make bread, and Belle said she was sure she would enjoy it.

She had repeated this news to Sadie after lunch.

‘Well good for you, and good for Mum as well. She really
likes teaching people things; and it’s not as though cooking is like a gender
related thing anyway. Lots of men can cook, and lots of women can’t. I think if
you enjoy it you should do it!’

‘Does your... your sister cook?’

‘Lizzy? (Elizabeth’s her proper name). Yes, she’s very good.
I mean Mum has always been a good family cook, but I think she had to keep
trying new things just to keep up with Lizzy.’

‘Where does your sister live now? Sorry – if you don’t mind
me asking?’

‘She lives with her husband and two kids near Manchester,
and no of course I don’t mind you asking. It’s probably due to Lizzy that I’m
sat here talking to you anyway.’

In reply to Cassie’s unspoken question, Sadie carried on.

‘Elizabeth is four years older than me, so I was always her
baby brother. We always played together, and lots of times she liked dressing
me up. No-one minded when we were both little, but Mum and Dad didn’t like it
when we got older. So we went “underground”, and Lizzy took me to her friend’s houses,
and they would try lots of things on me. I was like a little pet to a group of
teenage girls.’

Sadie smiled at Cassie.

‘Not that I minded. What young boy would mind being in the
constant company of older girls. They kept making me up, and dressing me up.
They even took me on shopping trips as their younger sister. It was lovely, but
I didn’t really get the chance to develop as a “normal” boy; not that I liked
the “boys” things anyway, like football and stuff. I was more interested in
music and art and design and how people work.’

‘What about the rest of your family, didn’t they... mind?’
asked Cassie.

‘Well, as I said, we went underground for the dressing up
and stuff. For everything else they were very tolerant. I have an elder brother
as well, but he is quite a bit older, so he was away to Uni when I was still
growing up. I think Mum and Dad thought I might be gay, but they really tried
to be supportive and helpful, and we went to a really good school as well that
encouraged people to do what they were good at. But then... there was this
girl, the younger sister of one of Lizzy’s friends. She was always there at the
dressing up parties, and she was in the same year as me. We just got closer and
closer, and spent a lot of time together. We both liked dressing up, and
dressing each other up as well. Then, when we were both about sixteen, and...
developing... you know,  well, I just wanted to be like her, and grow breasts
and everything. She, Jenny, helped me look up what to do, and found out about
things you could take.’

‘What, hormones?’ asked Cassie, rather startled at what
these teenagers had got up to.

‘No – we couldn’t get those, well we probably could have
done, on-line you know, but there were herbal supplements that you can buy at
health food shops. Jenny used to get them for me. And we used to keep each
other’s bodies smooth. Plucking and waxing. It hurt a lot until we got really
good at it.’