Beware the Roasburies! Pt. 05

Now the first thing that came to mind was an image of her fucking me senseless in the bed we now shared. I dismissed that as an argument: she had been forced to pay for lodging on her back too many times. I certainly didn't want to fall into the same category as those bastards who had used her.

The second thing was more realistic. She did not need a dead end job; she was far too intelligent and could do better. Perhaps...

"Connie, my sweet, you are highly intelligent. If you go looking for work you'll end up with a job that pays peanuts. Why not get some courses under your belt first and that'll open doors to better jobs?"

"But that means-"

"You would be working towards getting a job which pays well, rather than one at the bottom of the barrel," I pointed out. "Really, Connie, I'd feel better if you went that route. I don't want you cleaning hospital floors again."

She gave in reluctantly, and expressed her agreement by taking me to bed, leaving a trail of clothes all the way there. She was good at agreeing in various styles, and I was grateful for all of them. Mind you, I was sure she had an element of self-interest, judging by her determination to reach orgasmic bliss as often as possible before I surrendered to mine.

Tuesday 2 February 71 Candlemas

The next day she was at the library researching courses she could take. Then at night her father called her again and they had a long conversation.

"Dad says he'll make some enquiries about courses for me," she said eagerly when she returned to the living room. "Apparently he has 'connections'," and she giggled. Then became serious.

"He's tried talking with Mum, but she's obdurate that she's done the right thing. It's so sad: they've been together for nearly thirty years."

"Did he actually say he was leaving?" I asked.

"Well, no," she said, "but he said he didn't know if he could live with her after this."

Connie was so keen and I felt warm all over, and it got me thinking the unthinkable. We were so compatible: we were always touching, patting, stroking, hugging each other. We would kiss any time we passed each other, then kiss again. I wanted her and it was clear she wanted me. All the time.

Wednesday 3 February 71

I awoke to a fine sunny day though cold, we ran our miles together, had breakfast after a joint shower smiling at each other, and everything in life felt just fine.

When I got to work I was completely distracted by thoughts of Connie. We were so happy and more to the point, contented with each other that I thought it might be time to commit more fully to her, even though really it was so soon after we had met - two months and a bit - but it just seemed right somehow.

Then there were the problems we'd had thanks to her conniving mother. The spectre of my previous engagement still loomed large in my consciousness, and something in me wanted to leave things as they were, perhaps until well after Easter. Connie seemed happy enough as we were, and really, so was I; why tempt fate?

I needed to talk to someone and that someone had to be Zena.

I talked it over with Zena on the way home from work. Of course she had no problem with the idea.

"Look Graham, you've lived with her all the time apart from that silly break in January, which is more than you ever did with Penny. You say yourself that this relationship is completely relaxed, unlike that with Penny. It just isn't the same situation. There really is no risk here. I think it could only make your relationship deeper and even happier. I'd go for it. Ask her!"

Well, that was positive enough and I could see she was right: we were secure with each other and very happy. Anyway, she could always say no! I could propose on the Valentine's Weekend.

Then I had a thought, more a memory of the previous Valentine's weekend and a similar proposal to a Roasburie woman. Only a year ago! Suddenly I felt an irrational fear about repeating the exercise with another of the same family. No, I'd do it the coming weekend, the one before Valentines.

"Connie darling, Valentine's is a week on Sunday." I began.

"Yes, I know."

"Well, last year I proposed to Penny on Valentine's weekend. I feel it's cast a shadow over that romantic weekend for me, so how about we do the romantic dinner for two on this Friday, and make a weekend of it this weekend at home?"

She got all dewey eyed at that, and reached round my neck, pulling me in tight for a kiss and pressing herself against me. "That sounds just fine," she said throatily. "I'm different from my sister, but I do see your point." I felt both hers!

That settled, it meant I would be able to get a ring - definitely no watches this time round!

I decided on our favourite restaurant, Orchards, and booked a table for Friday, which, though fully booked for the following weekend, had plenty of tables for the week before.

The restaurant held no significance for Connie who had missed the drama of Penny's second engagement party, and I was damned if I was going to be put off the place that had been my favourite for years and where I was known.

Thursday 4 February 71

I 'stole' the dress ring that Harriet had bought her for Christmas to get the size right, and took the lunch hour to select and buy a ring, with the option of returning it if Connie didn't like it. It was a solitaire diamond on a gold band.

I had no sooner arrived back at my desk when my phone rang.

It was Geoff. Roasburie. Could we meet for lunch the next day, as he had something to discuss with me. The girls had heard a lot more from Geoff, who seemed to have rediscovered his family. He didn't disappear on business trips as often, and we suspected, perhaps unfairly, that he didn't feel the need to escape the dragon any more.

Friday 5 February 71

"Penny told me something and it's given me an idea," he began after we had ordered and before the food arrived. I nodded by way of encouraging him to continue.

"Connie was round at her place and in the conversation Connie was lamenting she had wasted her time at university, and was only fit for menial jobs. She mentioned you had suggested she got some training."

"She's certainly intelligent enough," I said. "She's agreed to start looking at courses."

"It set me thinking," he continued, "but it would depend on what you think. She wouldn't go against your wishes you know."

"Go on." I was getting an uneasy feeling about the conversation.

"She could go back to Keele and finish her degree. She would need to re-sit first year exams, but I've been in touch with the university admissions - my company has funded a chair at Keele - and that seems quite straightforward, then it's two more years.

"I would fund all her expenses and I was thinking of renting a studio flat where she could live. There are some brand-new ones on campus, I should know, my company has been involved with building the student accommodation. She's only twenty-one, and she'd have her qualification when she was twenty-four. It would open doors for her. What do you think?"

My spirits sank. It was as I thought. I decide to propose to Connie; wedding bells in a year or so, engagement ring bought, dinner booked that evening for the proposal, and here was a ruddy great spanner thrown in the works. To say nothing of how reminiscent it was of Penny. As someone once said, it was deja vu all over again!

I was struck dumb. It had never crossed my mind for her to go back to Keele; I was thinking of secretarial courses and the like, done locally and of short duration. But this?

I could see Geoff was impatient for an answer. He was so excited at his idea, he could not see any snags. I saw plenty.

"Geoff, I need to think about this. It's something that hasn't occurred to me. We're only just settled in together, and you will remember that there is a precedent for this which did not turn out well for me or Penny."

He immediately understood and looked dispirited, so I hastened on.

"Give me a little time to think it through. I'm not against it, don't get that idea. It could be very good for her, but as you say, if she even suspected I was not totally enthusiastic about it she would turn it down flat. You understand?"

He breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yes," he said. "I hadn't thought of the parallel with Penny. I can see that will arouse uncertainty. Yes, please think it over - talk about it with Connie if you wish. Just know that if you both decide she goes back to University, I will pay for everything. It's the least I could do after the experiences you've both had at the hands of the Roasburies."

"Thanks Geoff. I won't take too long over this; if she wants to go she'll need to apply as soon as possible."

The conversation ruined an afternoon's work: I was lost in thought. Luckily I had no clients to see. The paperwork could be done sometime over the weekend.

I had thought that it was proposing marriage to her that was a risk, and Zena scotched that one. But this? This was a real risk. We would be apart for a week at a time or more, she would be back in student life with all its temptations. I would be waiting for the time when she put me off visiting her, or stopped coming to visit me, citing pressure of work. I vividly remembered when Penny was with Martin and was putting me off seeing her.

There might come a time when she would need to revise and would indeed put me off. How would I cope?

Could I refuse? Could I stop her furthering her own education? The point being that if I even seemed faintly uncertain, I was sure she would not go. I already knew the answer to that.

My spirits dropped as I envisaged that this could well be the beginning of the end of our relationship. I doubted we could survive the long periods apart, but I could not stand in her way. Nothing was ever straightforward with the Roasburies.

Then the thought came, should I propose anyway, and would this keep us together? After all there were people who stayed together when the husband worked away from home, sometimes for weeks at a time. They survived. Then another thought, and some don't survive: one or the other partner cheats. The strain of being alone for such folk was just too much.

Harriet arrived at my office.

"Missed you at lunchtime," she said brightly. "Zena said you're going to propose to Connie tonight. Congratulations!"

"Hold on, Harriet," I smiled. "First of all I haven't proposed yet and she might refuse me. Second I just had lunch with Connie's father, and he wants to send her back to Keele University to finish her degree for two more years."

"But? I mean... I don't follow."

"He's just got her back and he wants to do what's best for her. I have to do the same, don't I?"

"You think she'll go?"

"If I can convince her I'm completely in favour, yes."

"But it's just like-"

"Penny? Yes, back to being apart."

"You aren't happy though."

"What do you think? I can't help thinking she'll find someone else while she's there."

"But that would be so ungrateful!"

"Harriet, you can't base a marriage on gratitude. Gratitude is not enough."

"So are you going to propose?"

"The last time I proposed it lasted a few weeks before Penny was in Martin's bed."

"Graham!"

"Yes?"

"Please talk it through thoroughly with her. At least then you'll both know where each of you stands."

"I think you're right."

So Connie and I went out for a meal at Orchards, and after the meal, over coffee in the lounge bar, I began 'the conversation'. I would convince her to go, after all I was a lawyer: convincing people was a central part of my job!

"Your Dad took me out to lunch today."

She looked surprised and intrigued.

"He was saying that you regretted dropping out of University."

"Yes. I do."

"It's not often you can put a mistake like that right."

"Sorry?"

"You can put that right. You can re-sit first year exams this coming summer and go back in October."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"I'm with you."

"You can still be with me. The summer vacation is at least three months, and roughly a month at Christmas and Easter, that's five months out of the year. Then there are weekends. Lots of people who work away from home have far less time together. You can find out if courses have changed and spend the next few months revising."

See? Convincing arguments.

"I don't understand. Why d'you want me to leave?"

"I'm not asking you to leave. I'm asking you if you would like to finish your degree. You're more than capable. You've been looking for courses to follow here. This is better."

"But we've only just got together-"

"Hey, Connie, you wouldn't be starting second year until the beginning of October. It's April, that's... five more months together. The two years will only be fourteen months in all, actually away from home. You're only twenty one. This is too good an opportunity to miss."

Where did that come from? Even I had not thought of that one before!

"I couldn't afford to live, and you're not going to be paying for me."

"No I'm not, your Dad is. He wants to rent a studio flat for you, and pay all your expenses. He would love to help you and see you get a degree. Now that would open doors for you. Think of the opportunities you'll have."

"Why are you so keen to get me out of the way? D'you want Colette back again?"

"Connie we have to trust each other. You'll be alone down there as well. Plenty of opportunity for a fling or two. Parties. Drinking. I have to trust you; you have to trust me. Don't forget, someone else betrayed my trust when she was away at College."

Silence. Had I swung it?

I added, "When you love someone you want to do the best for them. I think your Dad's offer is too good to refuse. I can come and see you every weekend, or you can come to me, it's only three quarters of an hour on the M6."

"Is this why you took me out tonight, to persuade me to leave you?"

'Connie darling, I don't want you to leave me. I will miss you terribly, but we can get through it and together we can get you a degree. Who knows you might even go on to postgrad! Now that you could do at home.

I had not realised how insecure she was about us - about me. Time for the clincher.

"And I invited you to this meal before your Dad saw me. I had another purpose but this is more important."

"Go on, what was the original purpose of this evening?"

"I was going to ask you to get engaged, to marry me."

"And you're not going to now? Why?"

"Well if you remember I asked your sister to marry me when she was at College and within a month she was in someone else's bed. I thought you might like it better if you stayed free, and it'd be less painful for me."

"So you don't trust me."

Wow, this was much harder work than I thought.

"I do, but I don't want to go through that again. We can still trust each other."

Connie was quiet for a moment. Then: "But you do want to marry me, and you'd wait until I finished at Keele?"

"Yes."

"Graham, I'm not the girl who dropped out of university any more. You've seen how I lived in London. I've grown up a lot; I know how much I have to lose, and I know I want you and only you. There are much more important things than parties and casual sex. So?"

Aha! Now she was trying to convince me! At this point I was glad I'd brought the ring along.

"Connie, we fit together so well. I know we've only been together a few weeks, but you are the light of my life. Will you marry me?"

"Yes of course I will. There's no doubt at all in my mind. I've been sure a lot longer than you have."

Different response. Very practical. Then I noticed the tell-tale moistness round the eyes. OK, she was emotional about it.

I got out the ring and offered it to her. Her eyes went wide.

"You brought it anyway! You are so Good! Put it on please?"

So I did, I slid it onto her finger and we were engaged.

"So," I said, "are you going to give Keele a try?"

"I will now I'm engaged. I want to do well for you."

"Ah! Sweet!" I simpered. Yes! I thought, metaphorically punching the air.

She scowled, then gazed at her engagement ring with a soppy smile.

Here we go again, I thought, ruefully, but this is different. She is different. I desperately hoped so.

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