4.

Stepping out.

Pru was woken up by someone tickling her feet.

She opened an eye to see Rob, immaculately dressed in a beautiful Italian silk dress, with makeup hosiery and shoes to match.

“Bastard!” she muttered.

Rob laughed, somehow managing to sound so feminine, and yet retain the core of his masculine identity.

“It's nearly eight thirty. If we're going to drop in on the Greysons, we need to get a move on.”

“How long have you been up?”

“Bloody ages. Don't you know how long it takes us girls to look pretty in the morning?”

Pru laughed and made for the bathroom.

“Get me a coffee, there's a love,” she said, running the shower.

She wasn't long, and came out a few moments later, with a towel wrapped round her, as most women do. Rob had poured her a coffee, and was sitting reading the Daily Telegraph.

“Tremaine Holdings are up again,” he said.

“Good for them, so what?”

“Dad was always particularly interested in them, over and above all others.”

“Why?”

“Beats me, I just remember him always looking at them first, no matter where we were in the world.” He turned over a few pages.

“Oh God! I don't like the new Spring range from Paris. Those shoulders are just over the top.”

Pru smiled and shook her head. Some girl was going to have a tough time if he ever found one stupid enough to get married to him.

Pru drank her coffee, reluctantly dressing once more as a male. Rob helped with the binding process, so that once more, Pru became Peter Marriott. Combing her hair with a central parting, Pru conceded that she looked the part.

“If I was a girl, I'd fancy you,” Rob teased, looking every inch a very attractive girl.

“Thanks darling.”

Rob helped Pru pack, and then they descended with their luggage to the reception level. They left their bags with the receptionist, strolling into the dining room for breakfast.

Many a male eye followed Rob's seductive walk as Katie once more took to the floor. He had perfected a walk that rolled the buttocks, with shoulders perfectly straight, placing each delicately high heeled foot in front of the other with the toe just pointing out, causing grown men to cry and redistribute their anatomy inside their trousers.

Katie sat, just giving a brief tantalising flash of leg before pulling her hem down to cover up. They both ordered a full English breakfast, and settled down to watch the other guests.

“Do you think it ever warms up?” Rob asked.

They both stared at the greyness outside and the rain that lashed against the vast glass wall. The pond looked wholly uninviting.

“I bloody well hope so,” said Pru, with some feeling.

“Do you remember any of it?”

She shook her head.

“I was only two or something when we left. I don't even remember Mum.”

“I know. I still feel guilty,” said Rob.

“Don't. It wasn't your fault the doctors in Columbia were crap. Dad's shouldn't have ever made us leave.”

“It's not Dad's fault. They said that her heart was going to go pop anytime. It was just my birth that caused it. It would have happened here, as well.”

“I still think we shouldn't have left. I often wonder what kind of life we would have had if we'd stayed.”

“Boring! I would be boring, not able to speak Cantonese, Arabic, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and all the rest. We would never have had as much fun as we have.”

Pru smiled.

“I still would have liked a home.”

“We've had hundreds. Remember that ranch in Argentina?”

“Yes, we only stayed there eight months.”

“We stayed in Monaco for nearly two years. That villa was brilliant.”

“It wasn't home though, was it?”

“It was good enough. What about the yacht in the Aegean?”

“That was lovely, but is wasn't a home. We've never had a dog, do you realise that?”

“So? I had a tarantula in New Mexico.”

“It's hardly the same,” Pru said.

“Maybe not, but it gave me respect at school.”

“Third graders don't keep tarantulas in their lunch pails.”

“I did.”

Pru went quiet as their food was delivered.

“It was fun, though, most of it,” she admitted.

“It's not over yet. I have a feeling this bit will be the best.”

At that moment, one of the receptionists came over to their table.

“Mr Marriott?” he asked Pru.

“Yes?”

“I have a message for you, sir.”

The man handed Pru a folded piece of paper and departed.

She read it.

“Shit!”

“What?”

“It's Tony. He's invited me to a dinner at his club tomorrow night. Black tie.”

“Oh, goodie, we get to go shopping,” said Rob.

“No, not ‘we', this is a men only event.”

Rob smiled.

“How apt,” he said, and continued eating.

They left the hotel at nine thirty, catching a black cab for the centre of town.

The cabbie wasn't the cheeky cockney that Rob was expecting. He was a disillusioned University ex-lecturer from Aberdeen, who grunted occasionally and sniffed perpetually.

They arrived at Cadogan Place in Belgravia at a quarter after ten. It was still raining. The whole of London seemed to have an atmosphere of gloom hanging over it, even the posh bits.

They took all their luggage out of the cab, and Pru paid the miserable Scotsman. Looking up at the large town house, she felt slightly out of her depth.

“Are you sure this is the place?” she asked.

“Yup, absolutely. Impressive, isn't it?” ‘Katie' answered, pushing the bell.

Pru smiled, watching her brother adopt perfect feminine gestures and mannerisms as if born to the role. The door opened and a man dressed in a smart suit looked at them.

“Hello, we're Katie and Peter Marriott, we've come to make sure that Letty got home in one piece after her nasty ordeal.”

“Please some in,” said the man, eying the baggage with some apprehension.

“Oh, we're just dropping in for a quick visit. We're on way to Elm Park Gardens, do you know it?”

“I do, Miss, thank you. Please, leave them here and come through to the sitting room, I'll inform Miss Letitia and Sir Charles that you're here.”

The butler left them in a luxurious sitting room, with what could have been a Turner over the mantelpiece.

“Letitia,” said Pru, smiling.

“It's better than Prudence.”

“Yes, Katherine, it is.”

Their sibling spat was interrupted by Letty bursting into the room at a run, and flinging herself into Rob's arms.

“Oh, Katie, I'm so glad you came. I was hoping you would.”

“We just had to make sure Tony brought you back in one piece,” said Pru.

“And why shouldn't I?” said a deep voice from the doorway.

Pru went bright red and Rob laughed with pure joy.

“No reason, I just, um, I just wanted, to….” Pru was lost for words, looking embarrassed.

“Did you get my message?” Tony asked.

“I did, thank you. It was very kind of you to ask me, but until I've touched base with our hosts, I am not yet able to accept.”

“I understand. Give me a bell when you know.” Tony turned to Rob. “Are you well, Miss Marriott?”

“Tony, please call me Katie. Miss Marriott sounds so formal. I'm very well, but wholly unused to the climate. Does it ever stop raining?”

“I told it did once in eighteen seventy-four, for ten minutes,” he said, drawing a smile from all.

Sir Charles Greyson chose that moment to enter the room. He saw his daughter with her arm around a strikingly attractive blonde-haired girl some three or four inches taller that she. Tony was standing next to another fine looking young man, of medium height and build. It was Tony who introduced them.

“Sir Charles, this is the delightful pair who thwarted that arse Markham last evening. Katie and Peter Marriott, Sir Charles Greyson, Letty's longsuffering father.”

Sir Charles looked faintly embarrassed. He was of slight stature, with grey hair, receding, but rather long at the back so it curled over his Saville Row suit and pink shirt. In his late fifties, he was particularly protective of his daughter, who had come late in life to his late wife and he. This over-protectiveness was probably the cause for her rather flighty behaviour, but somehow, he was unable to revise his behaviour at this late stage.

“I am indebted to you, it seems.” He was about to formally shake their hands, when Katie breezed over to him and kissed his cheek. She was of a similar height to him, if not slightly taller in her heels.

“Oh, Sir Charles, I've heard so much about you, and I don't believe a single word the girl said. It is so nice to meet you, and I can see where Letty gets her twinkle from.”

From that moment on, ‘Katie' had him eating out from her hand. Pru simply shook the man's hand, muttering, “How d'ye do,” and stood back and let ‘Katie' do the rest.

They spent an hour with the Greysons. Tony took ‘Peter' to the snooker room, as clearly the two girls were inseparable once Sir Charles retired to his study, much relieved to find Letty in the tender hands of a responsible female companion for a change. Pru gasped at her brother's audacity as she heard him say to Sir Charles, “Rest assured, for while I am in London, I shall make it my business to be a good friend to Letty, and make sure that she's rarely out of my sight.”

Crafty bugger.

Pru, no stranger to snooker, pool or billiards, performed more than adequately against Tony, by beating him in the first frame.

“Letty tells me that you've lived abroad for most of your life, where about?”

“All over. USA, Canada, South America, Europe, the Far East and Australasia. Dad has various business interests, so we kept moving around.”

“You must have seen some sights, eh?”

“One or two. Thailand was different. Hopefully things will settle down now we're back.”

“Left a string of girlfriends along the way?”

Pru went red; pleased she was standing behind Tony as he played his shot.

“One or two, maybe.”

“I'll bet your sister's a real heart breaker.”

“Yes, she is,” Pru said, not having to lie for a change.

“Who's the elder?”

“I am by a couple of years. I'm twenty four.”

“You don't look it.”

“My nickname at school was Cherub, but to be honest, I'd rather forget that.”

Tony laughed and potted the white of the end cushion.

“Shit!”

Pru smiled.

“What school did you go to?” she asked.

“Wellington. Dad went there, so it was a family tradition. How about you?”

“I went to about twelve schools in all, stretching from Columbia to Australia and most points in between.”

Tony paused in his game, looking up at her.

“So, there's a lot more to you than meets the eye. Were these English Schools or what?”

“Or what mostly. A couple were, like Hong Kong and Milan, but usually they were simply local schools in the local language. America and Canada were easier, on the language front at any rate.”

“Ah, a bit of a linguist then?”

Pru smiled.

“A bit,” she said, modestly.

“What do you do?”

“I've got a job with Tremaine Industries, in their legal department.”

“Lawyer?”

“Law degree only. International Law at Harvard.”

Tony was impressed.

“And Katie, I'm sure she's not just a pretty face?”

Pru laughed out loud.

“Oh, she's far more than meets the eye. She's the real linguist. I can get by, but she's fluent in six other languages and most capable in as many more. She starts work with the same company in their International office, as an interpreter and translator.”

“I've not heard of Tremaine Industries.”

“Neither had I, until searching for jobs. They had a push to recruit people with international experience.”

“It certainly sounds as if you two fit the bill.” Tony left Pru with a snooker, and stood back grinning maliciously. “Get out of that!”

Pru did, by going of two cushions and a pocket edge. She was rather fluky and potted the last red.

“Bugger me!” said Tony.

“I'd rather not, I'm off luxuries this week,” said Pru, potting the black and lining up on the yellow.

She potted the yellow but missed the green. Her lead left Tony needing at least three snookers.

“You've played before,” he said.

“Once or twice,” she admitted.

“I hope you can make dinner, you'd like the club.”

“Loads of old men in leather armchairs, overdosing on gin?” Pru asked.

Tony chuckled and potted the pink instead of the brown.

“Fuck! I concede, sir.”

“Seriously, what do you do, apart from fuel a chemical dependency in a leather armchair?”

Tony laughed again.

“I like that,” he said. “I farm. Or to be brutally honest, I manage six farms of our land. I took over from my Pa when he died four years ago; I was only twenty-four when he went. Had to leave the army, just as I was about to sign on as a regular. So, we had tenant farmers in five, while the main farm was ours. To be frank, we were buggered by the recent mad cow disease scare, and then came foot and mouth. The tenants sold up and decided to leave, so I took on all the farms, diversifying into vegetables for supermarkets and putting one farm under glass for tomatoes and some soft fruits.

“I employ three managers, one for the livestock, one the arable crops and the last for the green houses. I breed prize bulls on the original farm, and my mother's stables are still very lucrative. To be honest the place runs itself, but occasionally I show up and pretend to know what is going on.”

“You miss the army,” Pru said. It was a statement, not a question.

He chuckled again.

“Yes I do, does it show?”

“Yes, a little. Oh, don't get me wrong, you are committed to what you're doing, but you miss the life you left behind.”

“You're very astute, that's why I joined the TA. I'm a Captain in the Bucks and Berks Horse. It's an armoured yeomanry regiment; we get together and play soldiers every month and, once a year, go somewhere different to play for a week or so. It's not the same but it does the job.”

“My father says that you can take the man out of the army, but you can never take the soldier out of the man.”

Tony looked at Pru, half closing his eyes.

“I must meet your father some day, he sounds my sort of chap.”

“I think he is,” Pru said, reddening, for her father also said, “A girl will often marry a man who is most like her father.”

“So, another game, or shall we join the girls?” Tony asked.

Pru looked at her watch, noting that over an hour had elapsed. She couldn't remember an hour she had enjoyed so much for a long time.

“We'd better go, we are due at out friends in a while. Thanks for the game.”

“Thank you, I'm sorry I wasn't better competition for you. Perhaps we could have a game of squash someday soon?”

Pru laughed in spite of her control.

“Maybe. It's not my game, though.”

“I don't mind winning, I promise,” Tony said, and Pru blushed.

Returning to the sitting room, the girls were nowhere to be found. However, Letty's giggles led them upstairs to Letty's bedroom, or to be more accurate, Letty's suite.

It was a huge house, and with just Letty and her father in the main house, with the staff of three in apartments to the rear, it was really far bigger than was appropriate for so few people. However, Sir Charles wouldn't see it that way, and entertained his foreign clients and guests in a grand scale, initially with his wife as hostess, and after she died, his daughter in her place.

They found Letty and Katie kneeling on the floor looking at photograph albums scattered around them.

“This is Tony as a serious sixteen year old,” said Letty, pointing at the page. Pru leaned over and saw a much younger and serious faced Tony glaring at the camera.

“I don't like having my picture taken, either,” she said.

“I'm not so bad these days, but I used to hate it.”

“Katie, we ought to be going. Theresa's expecting us any minute,” Pru said.

Rob looked up and grinned, his eyes dancing with unmitigated pleasure.

“Did you get beaten then, Peter?”

“I'm ashamed to say that young Peter thrashed me in two straight frames. He is a veritable tiger with a cue,” Tony said.

“You'll have to get together for a rematch. Do they have tables in the Cavalry Club, Tony?” Rob asked.

“Indeed they do.”

“Then he'll just have to accept your very kind offer, I'm sure Theresa will understand,” Rob said, enjoying watching Pru's colour rise in her cheeks.

“I'll wait until I check with her. She might have something planned, you never know. It would be impolite to make plans without speaking to her first.”

“I quite agree, give me a ring when you know. I gave you a card, didn't I?” Tony asked.

“Yes, you did,” said Pru.

They said their farewells in the hall, even causing Sir Charles to venture out from his study to thank them once again.

“We'd better call a cab, I'm not lugging all this round to Elm Park Gardens,” said ‘Katie'.

“”I'll drop you off, if you like. I've plenty of room in the beast,” said Tony.

“The beast?” said Pru.

“My Range Rover. Letty calls it the beast because she thinks it's too big for the town.”

“I might have known you'd have one of them,” ‘Katie' said with a smile.

“Thanks, but you don't have to,” said Pru, before Rob started lowering the conversation down to penis sizes in relation to the size of a man's car.

“It's no problem, I'd like to help.”

Pru blushed again, feeling foolish, as the man was just being friendly.

“Thanks, it'll save us a few bob,” said Rob, recognising that Pru was getting sidetracked.

It took them a few minutes to reach Elm Park Gardens, and to a slightly smaller but equally up-market town house.

“Ah, the Lowes,” said Tony as he pulled up outside.

“You know them?” Pru asked.

“Yes, I was at Oxford with Stephen. How do you know them?”

“Daddy met Roger Lowe in Hong Kong some time ago, and I think they still have business connections,” said Pru.

Theresa opened the front door and was surprised to see Tony with the siblings.

“Tony, what are you doing?” she asked. Her accent was still discernable, although she'd been married to Roger for thirty years; her French accent had not quite been eliminated. Hailing from Switzerland, she met Roger at a conference in Geneva. Roger had been a hard-nosed businessman, and she was the complete opposite, so they had complimented each other wonderfully. She was a gloriously outrageous hostess, and as a result, any party at the Lowes was bound to be fun.

Roger died a couple of years previously, and the siblings' father had renewed his friendship with her shortly afterwards in Geneva.

She was a jolly plump woman, being one of those women whose beauty wasn't reduced by age, but enhanced. Her lively smile and wonderful sense of fun transcended generation boundaries, and her laughter was infectious.

“Theresa, how lovely to see you. It seems that we now have mutual friends. These good people were of assistance to Letty last evening, and in return I find myself helping them. I had no idea they were coming here until just now.”

“What's Letty done this time?” Theresa asked.

“Just been a blackmail victim by that idiot Howard Markham, do you know him?”

“I don't think so.”

“He's nothing to worry about, but he thought he could get his hands on her assets by marrying her. Letty, poor fool that she can be, fancied she was in love and went as far as the airport and then, as usual, got a touch of the seconds. Luckily, Peter and Katie here managed to thwart him, and Letty was reunited with us once more.”

“How fortunate,” she said, arching her eyebrows at Pru.

“While I am here, would it be in order for me to steal young Peter from you tomorrow evening for dinner at the club? Only I'd hate for it to clash with an event you'd already planned.”

Theresa looked questioningly at Pru, and noticed that Rob was trying hard not to laugh.

“I have nothing planned, so he is all yours, if he wants to, that is.”

“Oh, he'll want to,” said Rob, watching his sister go bright red again.

“That's settled, I'll be here at seven to pick you up, old man,” Tony said.

“Right, thanks,” stammered Pru.

Tony kissed Theresa and ‘Katie's' cheeks, shook Pru's hand and departed.

“Welcome to England my loves. Oh, to see Tony kiss you, Robbie dear, what a lovely sight.”

“Theresa, don't you remember me, I'm Pru?” said Rob.

“Pah, you are far too slender to be Prudence, and far too pretty.”

“Thanks very much,” said Pru.

“You, my dear are not pretty like the boy, you are beautiful and statuesque. It might have been six years since I last saw you, but you are far more the woman than your impish little brother ever could hope to be,” she said, giving them both a hug.

“Tell me how's your father?”

“As always, insufferable,” said Rob as the door closed, and for a while, they were able to be themselves.

Go on to Chapter 5