CHAPTER 25 --- Fish'n'chips In London
Next morning, Daniel woke up in a very cheerful mood. Once washed at the basin, once shaven at a mirror with no picture of Zabel, once clad in his royal khaki uniform, once he had smugly shone his brass diamond on his shoulder straps, he went downstairs and walked through the lobby as proud as a peacock. He still felt the bliss from Heidi's ministrations.
After his Saturday morning pancakes with authentic maple syrup, Daniel slowly sipped his coffee from a fine porcelain cup with a matching saucer, bordered with plated gold. Even the emerald-green tablecloth had an air of glamour. His brown-visored peak-cap looked fitting on the peg near the restaurant's dark-wooden entry door. England was a wonderful place!
He wanted to enjoy his last days of glamour before more trying times. He had sent a telegram to her landlady in Montreal, telling her that a cheque for November's rent was coming forthwith. He had indeed sent such a signed cheque for 35 dollars by the Royal Mail.
His parents had replied with a telegram saying all was well and asking when will he be back. Not a word from Zabel. He needed to go and book a flight for next Thursday.
More worrying was the loss of his job. He had been due to be back two weeks before. His ex-boss had sent him a telegram telling him his services were no longer required. He was thus going to look for a new job as soon as he'd be back. Perhaps he could become a coach in weightlifting. At any rate, he was going to be short in cash upon his return. Doing lifting exhibition for money was out of the question, since this would cause him to lose his amateur status, and he absolutely wanted to compete in the 1948 Olympics in London. And that meant another trip to England. No way he was going to miss that!!
Daniel was entering his very prime years as a weightlifter. He set his sights on next year's World Championships, which were to be held in Philadelphia, USA. He was going to see John Davis there! Now, he began to think... What numbers would be realistic for him to hit? Without self-doubting himself, he pictured himself pressing 300 pounds above his head. If he had been able to achieve 274 after only five months of training, then he could realistically shoot for 300 or close to this figure after eight more months of training!
As for his snatch, 275 would be lofty, but attainable. Clean & Jerk? How about that 350 he missed in Paris? This would give him a total of 925 lbs and probably a bronze medal, or perhaps even silver if Kuziev was having an off-day! John Davis was going to take gold with 1,000-plus pounds for his total. Returning to Montreal with a medal... Now this would be jolly!
Daniel took a notebook with a fountain pen and began to write his new lifting program. The one he'd follow to train himself back to top shape for perhaps a lifting exhibition, as an amateur, in Montreal or even in his home village of Sainte-Thérèse some 12 miles north of the city.
As he had spent more than three weeks without training, his strength would be a bit down. Later in the day, he'd go to the weightlifting club that had been referred to him by the King, and he'd first weigh himself. Chances were he had lost a couple of pounds. Thus, his training poundages would need to be conservative to begin with.
"For the Clean & Press", he wrote, "I shall begin with something really easy, like 205 lbs for sets of three repetitions... ten sets of three... and I shall train four days a week, like John Davis... Lifting on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and then Friday. Or perhaps on Saturday, then Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday so I could take Zabel to the movies on Friday night if she wishes it. Oh, sweet Zabel! I miss you so!"
Daniel wasn't writing anymore. He was lost in his thoughts, which took him back to the day before.
After the Swiss fondue, Heinrich and Heidi had gone for a stroll along with him through the streets. A stroll that led them to the Big Ben. Heinrich took a Kodak picture of Heidi, then of course Daniel took a snap-shot of the age-gap couple at the foot of the world-famous landmark, just as the giant clock struck three, and then it started to rain.
"Heidi's going to get a lovely tan from being in the English rain!" Daniel had jested before translating his words. Heidi laughed, casting her head back in her most peculiar way and causing her breasts to push out against her plaid dress. Making the myriads of blue and white squares very fascinating!
They headed back to the hotel on foot, but the rain intensified and came to a downpour. The trio got caught with no umbrella, no raincoat. Once they made it to the hotel, they were drenched. Heidi's hair looked light brown and she squeezed the water out of her braids just before walking through the lobby's front door, with the coloured footman looking at her sideways.
Heidi laughed nonstop. Not a word was spoken in the elevator. They headed straight to Daniel's room and as soon as they were behind the closed door, both men avidly unbuttoned her dress, opening it wide, going at it as if her water-soaked bra contained the world's most precious treasure!
Heidi laughed all the time! Heinrich pushed her bra up. Daniel's cock went hard as he saw Heidi's free-moving tits and cupped one! It felt cold and damp under his hands as he gently squeezed it and her girly flesh yielded under his touch.
"Du bist sehr schön, Heidi!" (You're very beautiful, Heidi!) Daniel said as he kissed her pale nipple and rubbed the cold and fresh dampness off it with his lips, this while she kept laughing, her face still blushed from all the wine she had drunk and from her fast walking to the hotel under the rain.
Before long, both Daniel and Heinrich were sucking her apples, pressing her against the closed door as they peeled down her wet dress, now uncovering her shoulders, where Daniel began kissing her as well. Keeping one hand on her bosom, he went up and kissed her neck, enjoying the scent and dampness in her hair. Heidi was priceless in every way!
Heinrich undid her belt while he kept kissing and sucking one of her titties. Heidi began to moan amid her laughter while both men in wet clothes quickly peeled down her wet dress off her and then Daniel pulled her panties down, marvelling at her triangle of golden hair between her pale-honey legs!
While Heinrich got rid of his water-heavy grey suit and Daniel removed his wet uniform, the naked wife went to the bed and laid herself down on her stomach as she observed both men stripping themselves naked, folding her legs with her feet hoovering above the visual dream of her butt curves.
Both her husband and her lover joined her on Daniel's bed and Heidi laughed again and again as she got both men touching her and kissing her absolutely everywhere.
Daniel smiled, sipping his morning coffee as he remembered this second session of sex with Heidi and her husband.
At one point, he lay down on his back, with Heidi giving him the royal view on her buttocks where she was straddling him and facing away. He was inside her. Heinrich was on the other side, sucking her breasts while she belly-danced on Daniel, taking him deep, forcing Daniel to grunt through the pressure of her vagina.
Daniel kept running his hands on her legs, often lingering on her feet, which he had ready access too on either side of him while she kept belly-dancing on him and moaning as she cast her head back and let her husband play with her tits. Daniel often held her waist, causing her to moan louder as she felt his touch there while Heinrich kept sucking her breasts.
Heidi's butt magnified Daniel's elation as he let the wave of heat rule over him, consenting to the debauchery and letting his gaze enjoy those buttocks as they kept crashing down on him, a repeated heaven, his hands caressing the softness of their contours, following the child-bearing curves of her hips, then returning to the sensual magic of her feet, finding priceless joy in feeling her tender soles and caressing her heels.
Daniel was fucking another man's wife and revelled in the scandalous nature of the deed, enjoying her pungent scent as she whimpered. Her head kept nodding along with each new bouncing shock in her German cowgirl dance.
Heidi's ever-moving bottom, those sweeping curves of youth, caused Daniel to experience a nearly painful bout of hard-on inside her. Grunting and happy, he grabbed her waist and accelerated the pace, now passing his no-return point and hurrying her moaning through the sharing of his exertions, feeling the priceless life of her feet against his sides, and the heat from her straddling legs, and the exploding pressure of her pussy!
Heidi's gentle butt crack was the epicentre of Daniel's disregard for morality. The eruption was epic! It was met with Heidi's white-hot moaning, a high-pitched litany that sounded she was perhaps in pain as Daniel kept his hold on her waist and tried to keep bouncing her on him throughout his ejaculation. But the pain in his high pleasure forced him to stop.
"HHHNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!! Oh, God!"
After Heidi got off from him, she licked his cock! Licked all the semen and her juices off his cock until he was nearly dry! While her husband took his position behind her and began to pound her, holding her waist, slapping her butt-cheeks and calling her a "Hure". A tramp. A tart.
Once Heidi was done with licking off Daniel, the married couple switched positions. Heidi found herself on top of Heinrich, facing him, and often arching her back in a full-blown display of her swollen titties! Complete with her vanilla-pale nipples. Heinrich was a lucky bastard! Such a young wife at 45 years old!
Daniel went behind Heidi and began to kiss her neck while cupping those magic boobs from behind, all this while she was moaning louder and louder as she kept belly-dancing on her husband! She presently exploded in another climax with Daniel feeling the puffy softness of her nipples in his hands and tasting the sweat in her neck, his nostrils lost in the perfumes of her hair, all this while Heinrich kept calling her a cheap tart!
Heinrich lasted long. He fucked his wife like an undisputed champion. Daniel had nothing against this. He kept playing with Heidi's boobs all the time. Sensing she was quite sensitive there, he kept pressuring her boobs and the German wife experienced another jackpot. Now this was some serious fun!
They fucked the rest of the day! Daniel tried her out in other positions, his young cock returning to life within two hours. With her legs propped up and her feet where he could rub them against his face, he grunted like an orangutan and screamed when he came! It was like raping a girl near the source where she had gone to haul water. With her father helpless and watching.
Later on, he bucked her on all fours again. With her husband's cheerful approval. Heinrich followed suit and Heidi saluted his enduring performance by whimpering long and hard, her face on the blanket and her buttocks protruding... Until the couple shared the unforgettable by climaxing together!
It ended up with a generous slave session from Heidi, where she knelt and smoked the cigar for both men. Daniel first!
Once more, Daniel used her braids as handles and got lost in the increasingly savage act of fucking her face and telling her she needed Allied ammo, that she was a German girl who had to be liberated with some strong Canadian ammo!
"Deutsche Frau! Deutsche Frau! Du bist nur eine Schlampe!" (German woman! German woman! You're just a whore!) Daniel repeated on and on, always using her braids for better leverage as he obliterated all morality in her face.
... Until he passed his boiling point and pulled out of her. In absolute bliss, he showered Heidi's boobs with a generous load, while telling her it wasn't moral to have such gorgeous breasts, that it was her fault if he had raped her!
Daniel realized that in all this excitement, he had spoken those words in his native French. He translated for Heidi and she laughed her head out, with the glossy pools of his semen glistening on her heated boobs.
As he put his uniform back on, 2nd Lieutenant Lévesque watched as Heidi held the hairy base of Heinrich's wiener with one hand and spit-polished it, using her tongue on its full length, and licking it. Relentlessly, with her eyes filled with love.
When Heinrich was done with painting Heidi's face with his eruption, the trio got washed at the basin. They then went downstairs and enjoyed a late-night supper of sirloin steak with mashed potatoes and brown sauce. With some black Scottish stout beer.
***
Daniel smiled, reliving the pleasant memories in the hum of voices as the restaurant grew quieter. People had finished breakfast and went to their business. Daniel's coffee had gone cold and he ordered a refill. The waiter told him it was free, so he ordered an apple strudel. His mind drifted back to weightlifting and the writing of his new program.
He was half-way through his strudel when he sensed someone standing near. He looked up and saw a girl, very young, not older than 15 or 16. She had long chestnut hair under a stylish round hat with a very pretty face. He suddenly recognized her.
"Mary?! Mary Higgins?! Wh-what the deuce are you doing here?"
"Sir, will you please stop speaking like a Dickens novel? Say something in French!" the spirited girl replied.
"Do your parents know you're here, uh, well, of course they don't! Did you take the cab by yourself?"
"Indeed I have! What a silly question!" the lass said, taking a chair and sitting next to the 2nd Lieutenant in uniform, who looked at her, transfixed and not too sure what to do.
Daniel looked around, fearing some people would take issue with him sitting at a table alone with so young a person. The handful of guests still present were minding their business as if he and Mary weren't there. He took a closer look at her, and indeed, the girl was no longer a child. She had the looks, the figure and the garments of a young lady, complete with white day gloves and a round hat that truly became her. It was a stylish hat, ivory white with some aquatic green feathers pointing up and trying to make her look taller.
"This hat looks great on you, Miss. Especially the turquoise ribbon. It matches your eyes."
"You like it? Oh, I'm so happy! Father gave it to me as a gift for my fifteenth..., uh, for my birthday three months ago. This is actually only the second time I'm wearing it."
Mary beamed at him as she spoke, her eyes sparkling with mirth.
"You most definitely have good taste, Miss. Are you hungry? Can I order you something?"
"No, thanks. I've had breakfast not long ago. I'll take a coffee with you if you don't mind!"
"Coffee?! At your age... uh, waiter... Waiter, please! Waiter, yes. One cup of your fine coffee for the young lady here! Thank you most kindly."
"Oh yes, I know, Sir... I'm just an in-between! Too old for toys and dolls, but then too young for dating and having a coffee with a gentleman!"
"You're a very spirited girl, Mary. Please, between you and I, call me Daniel."
"All right... Daniel! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!"
Mary blushed as she laughed, her eyes filled with joy as she kept gazing at him.
"Being an in-between is like standing in a no-man's land. You're no longer on one side, but you aren't over there either. And yet, in the meantime, you want to live life. It's a bit like being a ghost who wants to exist."
"Precisely so, and there are ghosts haunting this very hotel!" Mary replied as she took off her hat and put it on a corner of the oak table. Then she removed her gloves and put them down, next to her turquoise-ribbon white hat, before looking above her shoulder and away from Daniel, to see if the waiter was bringing her coffee. Her gesture was both elegant and graceful. The maiden seemed to always move flawlessly.
"Are you taking ballet lessons, Mary? You move very gracefully."
"No, well, I took some when I was a child, but now, ever since I was twelve, I often have fencing lessons. And I horseback ride too! My father is a lover of fox hunting. As a matter of fact, he's gone fox hunting today with friends, the same friends he plays golf with in the summer months. I'm very fond of my dad!"
"Oh, here comes your coffee, Miss!"
"Please, Sir, uh, Daniel. Please call me Mary!"
After taking her first coffee sip, the girl hugged the cup with her hands.
"I love the heat from a hot mug. When I was a little girl, I would always do this with my hot cocoa. Once, I burned myself quite painfully. But I didn't cry. I was a big girl! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ooh, this is a most jolly wonderful day! My first coffee cup with a gentleman!"
As she took another sip of coffee, the spirited girl kept smiling at Daniel.
"What were you doing, Daniel, when I arrived? I mean if it's not too indiscreet to ask..."
"Not in the least. I was writing my new weightlifting program."
"You lift weights? Oh, then, this is why you have such incredibly broad shoulders!"
"Well, yes. I practice the sport of weightlifting. I competed in Paris last month at the world's championships."
"Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! You are joking again!"
"Not in the least. I was planning to go and train at the Excalibur Club later today. Would you like to come along? Then you'll see for yourself that I wasn't joking. I love this sport!"
"Sir, uh, Daniel, do... I mean back home in Montreal, do you... do you... Do you, uh, do you, train often?"
Mary wanted to ask whether he had a girl in his life, but she felt too shy to ask such a personal question. She took another sip of coffee.
"Well, uh, I... I usually train four days a week, each session lasting between two hours and three hours and a half."
"Three hours in a half lifting weights?! Wow! This must be why you have such thick arms! Ooh, it's incredible! This is, mental! (She felt his upper arm as she spoke.) Your arms! They're so big! Bigger than my own legs!"
"It's actually a side-effect that comes from me being tall. As I got stronger and stronger, my muscles got bigger and filled my frame, and since I'm tall, of course I'm larger overall, and it's a bit of a hassle when I buy myself a shirt or a suit. But let's talk about you, Mary. What do you want to do with your life?"
"I'd love to become a fencing champion! And then, I don't know... Once I'll have achieved this, then I guess I'll... I'll meet a gentleman and get married."
"But why couldn't you do both? A man who truly loves you will let you do things that are important to you. I mean, if you're still not a fencing champion by the time you're twenty or twenty-two, you could marry a man who will let you pursue your dream."
"Well, I'll see... But I don't want to think too much about the future, at least not today. Today, I... I wanted to see you. I wanted you to be the first gentleman with whom I'm having a cup of coffee, just between two souls."
"Well, now you have! Goal met for Miss Mary Higgins! Met with flying colours!"
"Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!"
Daniel and Mary kept talking, back and forth. Jesting. Finding both of them were fans of Sherlock Holmes, who had lived at 221B Baker Street from 1881 to 1904 according to Arthur Conan Doyle.
"That place still exists today," Mary said. "It's a boarding house. I'll take you there if you want. It's a nice walk, not even a half-hour from here, and the weather's most pleasant today! Almost like spring! I only brought my wool cardigan to wear over my dress."
"Yes, a beautiful cardigan of the first quality! Deep golden leaning on the flame orange. Very becoming with your chestnut hair!"
"Perhaps you should become a painter in addition to being a weightlifter, Mister! You clearly have a sense for colours! Well, are we going? And near Baker Street there's a place with juke-boxes that serves the best fish'n'chips in London! I'll be the guide and you be the provider! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!"
"How could I say no to such a nice girl?"
Both new companions finished their coffee and off they went. Daniel in his uniform and under his peak-cap, Mary in her autumn-gold cardigan and under her young lady's round hat with those stylish feathers.
***
After passing by the famous 221B Baker Street, Mary and Daniel headed for that fish'n'chips place she had mentioned. They walked arm-in-arm, with Mary looking comically short and small next to the 250-lb weightlifter. But everything in her felt spirited, from her gait to the way she wore her hat with one side lower. Daniel noticed how proud Mary looked. She walked with her head high, with each step as confident as if the whole world was her oyster.
When they entered the place, it was crowded with girls and boys around Mary's age. The girls all seamed to wear the same type of hat as Mary. They all wore the same white pumps with a low heel, with stockings instead of bobby socks. Long skirts, but tightened blouses under their sweaters or cardigans. This was the place where schoolgirls and lads went to eat, gossip and dance to those juke-boxes on Saturday.
Mary walked in at Daniel's arm and she clearly felt just like ten feet tall! So this was why she had brought him there! She wanted to show off with him in front of her friends! Well, perhaps she was fond of him too. At any rate, he took it in stride and smiled, and blushed, as he heard the girls commenting and giggling.
"Mary?! Do you see her date? A full-fledged gentleman, and an officer!"
"Wow! Mary! May I dance with him later?"
"Ethel! Take a number and wait your turn! I saw him first!"
"Bernice, you're with George and I have no date! So you'll wait after me!"
"Mary! Where did you find such a dreamboat?"
"He's so handsome! Wow!"
Daniel blushed crimson from this barrage of uninhibited female attention. Some of the lads there looked clearly jealous and shunned Mary, out of pride. He had once been there himself. Mary was beaming! This was her glory day!
"I'm not hungry right now. Will you have an ice cream soda with me? Let's dance. Do you have a three-pence? This is three pennies per song," Mary said.
"Well, yes! An ice cream float to share! I haven't done this in months!"
"I want a soda with chocolate ice cream! Let's make it extra-tall! Like you! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!"
After ordering the large ice cream soda, Daniel spotted a small table that looked vacant and he took Mary there. She took off her cardigan and looked at Daniel, nodding at the nearby juke-box.
"Pick a tune from this year or last year!" she said, all smiles as she removed her hat and her cardigan before stretching her arms, then her legs, with anticipated joy filling her eyes. She was clearly very eager to dance.
Daniel put the three-pence in the slot and chose a cheerful song that reflected the overall mood when the war came to an end the year before...
Mary clapped her hands and began to move in the song's slow rhythm at the beginning, then accentuated her motions as the tune entered its true pitch. You gotta to Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive!
"Daniel! Don't stay sitting there! Come here! Dance with me!"
Daniel stood and began to dance, awkwardly, and Mary laughed and giggled. She took his officer's peak-cap and put it on her own head, giggling like a crazy girl as she spun in front of him, her eyes like lights of life! She gyrated around him, with her hands up, then realized she was still wearing her day gloves and quickly removed them before throwing the pair straight at the table where they landed on her cardigan. She did so in a graceful gesture, and did likewise with his peak-cap before returning to her gyrations around him, hands up and beaming, with her eyes nearly bursting with joy. While Daniel merely stood in front of her, following the tune's rhythm as he let Mary enjoy the dance.
"Wow! This was fun! Let's have our soda before the ice cream melts! Come!"
The short girl led the uniformed colossus by the hand, and the strange duo sat at the table facing each other with the tall glass of soda between them, with two straws. They shared the soda, foreheads touching, Daniel smiling at life's unforeseen twists, Mary constantly giggling and blowing bubbles into the soda.
Then one of Mary's friends came to ask for a dance with the dashing officer. Daniel obliged her while Mary looked at the pair as they danced to another song. She turned down a boy and kept looking at Daniel.
This kept on and on. Each of Mary's friends took their turn in dancing with Daniel, each of those girls giggling and clapping her hands the whole time while devouring him with eyes that ranged from clear-water blue to gypsy dark, all of them slim with youth oozing through every pore of their skin. Those kids were so young that Daniel felt ancient. The forty-something owner of the place grinned at him with eyes that said, "Do you realize the jam you got yourself into?"
Finally, Mary managed to claim Daniel back for a dance. The short girl and the large man moved into some pop-variant of a waltz, dancing hand-in-hand, arms wide but close together, with her face nearly resting against his chest as Bing Crosby sang "Don't Fence Me In" along with the Andrew Sisters.
Mary was now smiling in a more quiet way, often looking up into Daniel's eyes, and blushing. Most likely from the place's crowded heat. Both of them being hungry after this dance, Daniel ordered two servings of fish'n'chips with one large Seven-Up to share between them.
"Daniel, don't think I just brought you here to show off in front of my friends," Mary suddenly said in a serious tone. "I'm very fond of you."
***
They had walked back to the hotel around three o'clock. Now they were playing cards on Daniel's bed. Mary lay on her stomach with her feet up, in her dark blue dress with a snowflake storm of polka dots. She watched the cards intently. Daniel had shown her how to play Crazy Eights, a game popular in North America, but not so well known in England.
Mary just kept laughing and giggling. The game was simple. It was a shedding-type card game where the goal is to be the first player to get rid of all your cards. Players discard cards that match the rank or suit of the top card on the discard pile, or they can play an eight, which is wild and can be any suit. One had to empty his hand before the other.
As they played, Mary's white shoes neatly stood side by side at the foot of the bed with her rolled-down stockings lying near them --- Mary had felt quite sweaty after so much dancing and walking and decided she needed to get more comfortable. Her day gloves were neatly placed next to her hat on her folded cardigan, on a coffee table near the ice box, wherefrom they had taken two 8-oz Seven-Ups, now long empty.
Then came a sudden knock on the door.
"Oh my God! This must be my mother!" Mary exclaimed, looking at her thin wrist watch, which said it was already a quarter to six!
"Don't alarm yourself, Mary. Those knocks are from a man. There's heaviness behind them. Yes! Come in, it's open!"
"But it could be my father!" the girl added, showing all signs of alarm and distress as the oak door opened. "He's going to crucify me!"
But the man who walked in was not Mr. Higgins.
He was tall, imposing and wore a tall stovepipe hat, with a dark astrakhan coat.
"Well! Daniel Lévesque, an officer now! Life's treating you fair, I see!" the newcomer said, smiling at Mary, who showed much relief.
"Phew!" she let out, before noticing the man's most peculiar outfit.
"Sir?! Is it you?! Yes, it is you indeed! The stranger on the train!" Daniel exclaimed as he got up from where he had been quietly sitting on the bed near Mary.
"But wait Sir!" Mary said. "You, you look exactly like the King of Bohemia in The Scandal Of Bohemia! Oh, this is my favorite Sherlock Holmes adventure!"
"Well then, there was no need for me to wear a mask, wasn't it!"
In an instant, Mary had got up from the bed and swiftly went to the stranger, where she hugged him in such a sudden and natural way that it didn't feel the least out of place to both men present. She just rested her head on his large chest, feeling the astrakhan that made up the lapel of his dark overcoat, acting as if he were a relative she had not seen in ages.
"This is so cuddly!" Mary said, stroking the black astrakhan with hands that looked like lost lights on his chest.
"You are a very spirited girl!" the stranger said, gently stroking her hair.
"She is indeed!" Daniel confirmed.
"Young lady, there are lights and shadows in this world, and you, my precious girl, you are one of the lights!" the stranger added, quoting Van Helsing speaking to Mina Harker in Dracula, and he presently told so to the young lady.
"So you think I'd be fine as Mina in a stage play of Dracula? I haven't read the book, but I do appreciate the compliment!"
"Young man," the stranger said in earnest as he turned his attention to Daniel. "Young man, there is something very important I must tell you. Can I speak freely in front of this young lady?"
"By all means!" Daniel replied, looking at Mary who beamed at him.
"Ooh, but it's getting really late, my darling!" Mary told Daniel, looking once more at her watch with clear worry on her face as she moved away from the stranger. She then went and picked up her stockings, then excused herself to the loo.
"Young man, I have to compliment you once again for your good taste in young ladies. But there's another young lady who's waiting for you most anxiously in Montreal."
"Zabel, the light of my heart! How is she? I haven't heard from her at all!"
"Well, I, I called at her parents' once, about a week ago. I saw her briefly with her parents. I told her you were in England and well, that you would shortly be back. She didn't smile. She was very low in spirits. I'm afraid those newspaper photos of you alongside my wife have hurt her most deeply. She's really hurt! If I were you I..."
"Your wife?! Nadia Kuziev, your wife?!"
Daniel sat back on the bed, hit by the news as if by a bolt of lightning. His gaze chanced to meet Mary's white low-heel pumps.
"Nadejda Paskevich-Erevansky by her real name!" the stranger corrected. "I am Ivan Paskevich-Erevansky, named after the illustrious Count Ivan Fyodorovich Paskevich-Erevansky, Serene Prince of Warsaw. I am one of his..."
"You are a Prince! I knew it!" Mary bellowed as she came back from the loo, and ran straight into his arms again! "So much good in you! There are good men and bad men in this world, and you are one of the good ones!" Mary added, pulling herself back, then making a curtsey to him in the most graceful, middle-class way.
"You are quite a girl, young lady!" the noble stranger replied, smiling under a thin greying mustache. "Quite a girl indeed..."
Both men watched Mary as she quickly put her shoes back on, singing the tune of Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive as she swiftly fastened them.
"You'll be able to speak most freely, for I chiefly must go!" the young lady said as she quickly checked out her outfit, then looked for and found her stylish round hat and her cardigan along with her day gloves and her purse. A few moments later, she was all dressed up in her street clothes, just as she was in the morning when she showed up and upset Daniel's plans for the day. And yet something in her had changed.
Mary walked to Daniel, who walked her to his door, telling her to wait so he could take her home shortly after.
"Oh no, my darling, that won't do! I wouldn't want mother to see us together. She'd go mental! I'll need to talk to her. In three days, father's having his usual bridge evening. Would you like to come? By then, that would do better. I know how to handle mother! Now, my darling, kiss me good-bye! I had a wonderful day with you! I'll miss you! Tomorrow is Sunday! Let's go to Hyde Park and have a picnic in the afternoon after the Mass, English weather permitting!"
"I'll miss you too, little darling," Daniel said as Mary hugged him and the two kissed good-bye.
A moment later, Mary was gone like a mid-summer's night dream, leaving palpable mirth behind her lithe steps.
"Welcome to my house! Enter freely. Go safely, and leave something of the happiness you bring," Ivan said, quoting Dracula as he finally removed his stovepipe hat and his astrakhan overcoat.
"Young man, I perhaps should scold you for dating this young person while you already have a fiancée waiting for you back home, but who would I be to judge? I myself did such things, and much worse, in my day," said Ivan, switching to Montreal French now that he was alone with Daniel.
Daniel looked down at that spot on the floor where Mary's shoes had been. He was overpowered by guilt as he thought of his behaviour.
The stranger by the name of Ivan took a leather chair and sat near the young officer, who began to weep.
"What have I done! This girl's in love with me, and she'll be hurt when I leave only a week from now! What have I done!"
Daniel felt the man's prodigiously strong hand on him. It was a fatherly shoulder pat.
"Don't alarm yourself too much, young man. She has youth. She's like a cork that will always come back up straight to the surface whenever sunk. She's too strong to let herself brought down by sorrow. But I came here to talk to you about my wife. Are you listening? It concerns you to the utmost.
"Now, as you sure know, Nadejda was a much tried woman in her escape from Paris and from Soviet Union's regime. She was always officially my wife. As I speak, my legal counsel has already worked out all the papers and the details with the British authorities. For some, uh, far-fetched reasons, the Anglican Church had made your so-called marriage legal. What a joke! Needless to say, your marriage is annulled, and any mention of it will be erased from your records. In other words, you are free. I know you have been much tried yourself during this trip, and not always behaving like an angel, but I'll always be most grateful to you for reuniting us. Nadejda is the love of my life."
Daniel broke down in tears, saying he was sorry for doing all those things he did to her.
"Quite honestly, I do not feel any anger for you. It's weird, but I mostly feel grateful. We do plenty of horrible things when it's life or death. When I was about your age, I fought in this horrible war between 1914 and 18. I was a scared boy wearing an officer's uniform and fighting for the Czar. Me and many other men in the platoon I commanded, we were, I'm ashamed to say it, sometimes quite evil to country girls in Pomerania and Poland, some of whom were not much older than this wonderful kid who just took her leave from us. But I didn't come here to talk about morals. I wanted to let you know that you are a free man. Free to wed the girl you love."
"Please, Sir, tell me. How did you meet Nadia, I mean Nadejda?"
"Well, maybe we shall go downstairs and have some nice sirloin steak. I'm the one inviting, my young friend! We shall speak much more at ease with our bellies full and comfortably sitting at a table! I am positively starving! A Guinness will do nicely too. One does not travel to England without drinking a Guinness and having fish'n'chips!"
TO BE CONTINUED.
