Scene Thirty-Six
As the evening wore on, Sir Ian and Sir Alan Peasemarsh had the peculiar feeling of being more and more relegated to the sidelines. They felt that somehow, their accustomed milieu had been stolen away from them from under their very noses. They had that uncomfortable feeling that insidious forces had infiltrated and had taken over their domain and things weren't as they used to be. By contrast, a feeling like champagne coursing through the veins overtook the majority at the party where the conversation shifted between light hearted humour, serious observation and a feeling of shared intimacy amongst which the four women comfortably mingled.
In the old days, the Attorney General and Home Office minister were the natural centres of conversation in a social event, fuelled by bonhomie and expensive wine. This event was a natural celebration of their smooth working relationship where everyone knew their role in the great scheme of things. In their heart of hearts, both men felt that Neil Haughton had brought down a lot of troubles on them all from an excess of zeal and a shortage of that ability to smooth the way to the objectives they all shared. The really difficult problem was that it was hard to find the right words to phrase this uncomfortable truth to his face. If the point were made too discreetly, the man wouldn't understand the point being made. If, on the other hand, the approach were too direct, the man would take it personally. This partly explained why he was overlooked in arranging the invitations, the other point being that the aborted bill to restrict judge's powers still rankled with the brethren. They had to admit to themselves that Deed had grabbed the opportunity offered to him why those two lesbian troublemakers were invited when strictly speaking, they had no standing there. Worse than that, they handled the social occasion with an unexpected finesse, which they hadn't anticipated. The worst problem that faced them was the potential fallout of the public acceptance of George's new partner. This was something that was the natural food of gossip, which was bound to find its way back to Neil Haughton. It explained why Sir Ian was deputised to get in there first. After all, he was the smooth-talking civil servant who was ideally suited and trained for this purpose.
Sir Ian ran his finger round his shirt collar as he prepared himself to break the bad news to Neil Haughton. After all, as he reasoned to himself, if he hadn't heard a whisper to date as to Ms Channing's newfound sexual orientation, it was quite certain that neither had Neil Haughton.
"But..but she can't possibly be a lesbian. I used to have sex with her, dammit. She never complained at what I had to offer. I mean we broke up over personal reasons. I'm sorry, Ian but you must be mistaken."
The man shook his head from side to side repeatedly, as Sir Ian's words sank home.
"Regrettably, people change, Neil. After all my relationship with Francesca soured over a period of years , which finally caused us to separate. After all, consider how conservative George used to be at one time. Her interests were in making money, wearing expensive dresses and aiding the wealth creators with her considerable legal skills. At one time, her sympathies were quite clear cut and her views were sound."
"You, you don't think she's trying to wind me up, to pretend to be a lesbian. She's a mother for God's sake. She used to be married to Deed."
"Surely, an over elaborate deception, Neil."
"I know why she's doing this, Ian. Why didn't I see this before? She's doing this to humiliate me, to get back at me for some supposed wrong she thinks I've done me. She thinks that this will get all the gossiping tongues going, that everyone will be saying that I can't be much of a man if she breaks it off with me and goes off with another woman, that somehow another woman will satisfy her more than I did. This is typical of her. Underneath, she's a totally calculating ice cold vindictive spiteful woman who knows how to stick the knife in psychologically," exclaimed Neil Haughton with a rush of words, neatly ignoring Sir Ian's careful choice of words.
"I see what you mean," intoned Sir Ian. As a top civil servant, he knew just when to stop trying to correct politicians ravings. Besides, his prim and proper nature was repelled by such extremities of emotion on public display.
"Why in hell did they let her in at the party? I should have been there and not that woman and especially, not those two troublemaking lesbians. Somebody's head's going to roll for this," Neil Haughton started to rant, red in the face.
After that, Sir Ian didn't even try to attempt to keep up with the conversation. He was chief whipping boy after all and he let the man rant on and on endlessly to a point way beyond he supposed that another man would have exhausted his word power and venom. But then again, the man was a politician. He made his discreet exit, Neil Haughton still holding forth. When he finally got back to his office, he reached for some strong headache tablets.
After George and Alice had got through their front door, both women reached out hungrily for each other. In a flash, George unbuttoned the taller woman's white silk shirt from top to bottom and kissed her hungrily and deeply. They caressed each other's faces and hair passionately and then George's lips and tongue tasted her lover's neck and her fingers stroked her lover's exquisitely shaped backside.
"The party went fine but there was something missing. I've been dying to hold your hand all evening," murmured Alice as she ran her hand down her lover's bare back that her low cut golden dress that left exposed.
"I think we can do better than that, darling," murmured George in tones dripping with sexual desire as she continued to kiss her lover's neck and shoulders." If what I desire most is dangling in front of me and I can't have it, I only want it all the more."
Feelings of lust and desire surged through Alice as she moaned wordlessly in sheer ecstasy. It was so like George to express what they both felt so much, she thought, as her delicate fingers started to stroke her lover's breasts. This was heaven. On unspoken agreement, the two women temporarily parted and quickly discarded their clothes. They both felt gloriously naked in the cosy dim low lights of the lounge.
"Race you to bed, babes," whispered Alice.
"Not if I get there first, darling," came the sultry reply.
They both landed on the bed, George on top of Alice, overjoyed that there was no constraint, physical or mental, that lay between them. The blond haired woman started sucking at her lover's hard nipples, one after the other, feeling those tender fingers caressing her in turn. Faster than she normally did, George's tongue and lips traced a path down her lover's flat stomach. Instead of slowly teasing her lover, George eagerly entered her lover, whose hips were already moving in rhythm to her. It was moments like these that reminded George how much she loved the texture and taste of Alice on her tongue and the feel of her delightful curves as her hands caressed her. Alice came to a climax hard and fast, crying out wordlessly as she felt George's physical neediness and also her own.
"I love you, Alice. I love you so very much," George whispered into Alice's ear, tenderly running her hand through her lover's long hair, something that gave her sensual feelings inside her.
"You're the best thing that's happened to me, darling. I feel so complete with you," the taller woman articulated in reply, placing soft emphasis on every syllable as she hugged her lover close and wound her leg round her.
.
Both women know beyond doubt as they held each other in their arms that they had a long, ecstatic night of lovemaking in store as they gloriously celebrated how normal they really felt.
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Neil Haughton couldn't wait to spring his secret on John and finally ran into him at an informal social gathering, where the wine was normally as generously dispensed as much as there was a shortage of real emotional intimacy and meeting of minds. In recent times, even that had become suffused by a lurking tinge of humanity.
"Ah, John. We've not had an intimate talk with each other for such a long time," he said in his smarmiest tone of voice.
This worried John secretly as a cheerful Neil Haughton boded no good for anyone. He bit back his instinct to be provocative and opted to draw him out.
"I'm not ever so sure we were ever on intimate terms but you have the manner of someone bursting to tell me something. I'm all ears."
"A little bird has told me about George's new partner. I must admit I was rather surprised as George is so feminine but you never can tell these days," smirked Neil Haughton in a particularly gleeful tone of voice.
All at once, John was particularly struck by the petty childishness of the man. He was irresistibly drawn back to his schooldays when he confronted a particular sneak who rejoiced in spreading smears round the form room to his cluster of gossiping cronies. He was the one who labelled John 'Baker's boy' behind his back, spitefully sneering at his humble beginnings. That was the case till John caught up with him and a spot of fisticuffs in the boy's toilets sorted him out. John sighed with a strange sense on nostalgia as, on the one hand, this was typical of the persecution he faced, on the other hand solutions were simpler and more direct then. Nevertheless, these founding experiences had given him that toughness that he had needed all his life. His mind was drifting and he recalled Nikki talk of her difficult experiences of boarding school and he resolved to compare notes at some stage. All at once, John returned to the present and he understood that this worm was sneering at George's sexuality and trying to wind him up. He grinned broadly in a way that unsettled Neil Haughton who had been mystified by the faraway look in John's blue eyes.
"You mean that George is a lesbian and her partner, Alice is a very warm, sympathetic woman. She and George are ideally suited. We had an interesting conversation at the party," John said, the words rolling smoothly off his tongue and that most misleading look of innocence in his eyes.
"What? Aren't you offended and astounded by George's behaviour? You disappoint me, John especially for Charlie's sake," came the very sly response as the other man tried his inadequate best to conceal how his attempt to wind up John had failed.
No wonder the man made a fortune in advertising, John thought to himself. Part of him wanted to shrink away from the man's presence in case he might be contaminated by him, but the other combative side was dying to say something outrageous. Finally, he resolved that the simple truth would serve him as well as it had always had done.
"I have brought up Charlie to have an enquiring mind and not to be bound down by prejudices. In any case, Charlie has already met her last Christmas when she and George came round. Charlie has definitely taken to her and approves of their match."
Neil Haughton's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish. For once in his life, this glib talking politician was speechless. He had so lost his faculties that it took him a long time to work out how to make a physical exit from the situation.
"Why thank you, John for sticking up for Alice and me," that well known aristocratic tone of voice broke into the conversation."You are a true and generous friend to both of us."
Neil Haughton swivelled round and his jaw dropped to see the familiar sight of George, dressed in that expensive yellow dress that he had bought her, hands linked with a tall, attractive, dark haired woman. His jaw hung open. He could not get his head round the thought of his George being in the same frame as another woman. They were both attractive yet their manner told him that he was redundant to their very existence. To add insult to injury, both women smiled approvingly at John. Even lesbians preferred Deed to him, his outraged mind reasoned.
"I won't say that it's a pleasure to meet you again, Neil, as that would be hypocritical. We'll be polite to you but that's all," that same voice carried on in glassy tones. Her eyes flicked briefly past him and back to John again.
"It's nice to see you both,"Monty intervened to Neil Haughton's horror. He was suddenly conscious of being sidelined. Everyone was smirking at him and the circle of conversation closed round the two women, leaving him out in the cold. His humiliation was public and, for that reason, unendurable.
"You really don't think that women together actually do anything together? After all, they're not exactly equipped to deal with it?" Neil Haughton said a few days later to Sir Ian when he sidled round to halfway apologise. Sir Ian was not to know that Neil Haughton's abrupt deflation in his sense of self-importance had punctured his anger only temporarily. Even he thought that his temper tantrum was excessive and he didn't want to alienate so useful a man as Sir Ian.
"It's all outside my experience, Neil. All my circle of acquaintances are perfectly conventional that way. Even Deed and Jo Mills are perfectly normal that way. In fact, Deed goes out of his way to proclaim his normality."
"Don't I know it," Neil Haughton shuddered at the memories." I always got the feeling that Deed was always after George. I always suspected that he was trying to take her away from me."
"I think perhaps he was trying to wind you up. You forget the very strong rumours concerning him and Jo Mills."
"You know, I wonder if I really understand women Ian," confided a very maudlin Neil Haughton to a slightly queasy Sir Ian." You wine them, you dine them, you let them have expensive dresses and, and everything. You give them the opportunity to be part of something extraordinary, to be part of the glamorous central stage of politics, you give them your time but there's always something missing. You know what I mean?"
"I'm not really sure what you do mean."
"I think of it this way. I sometimes got the feeling from Georgethat she was never really there. I remember her charming smile and that voice of hers but there was nothing really real about her. I could never get a direct answer from her. It was all masks and appearances."
"I suppose there's something in what you say."
Neil Haughton drummed his fingers on Sir Ian's table for a few minutes, deep in thought while Sir Ian thought of his work stacking up. He kept his gaze trained on the other man however.
"Well, must dash. I've got a lot to do. Thanks for listening to me," said Neil Houghton, the hearty workaholic man of affairs once again in charge of the situation.
"It was nothing, Neil," came the answer, for once telling the truth.