Dirty Minds (17 page)

‘Suzy. I’m sure it’s Suzy. Great plan, Ros. But tearing Alfonso away from,’ he adopted a sexy Gallic accent, ‘Jeanette, isn’t going to be easy.’

‘He’ll do it for me, Tom.’

And so would I
, he thought to himself.
Plus commit a few murders if necessary
. He realised he was no longer on the slippery slope. He had fallen over the edge of the cliff. Without a parachute.

Tom led the six writers to a low coffee table, surrounded by comfortable leather armchairs. There was a brief hiatus while a more upright chair was found for Maggie. Once they were all settled comfortably, he cleared his throat and launched into the first part of his prepared programme. He reached into his folder.

‘I’ve put together a pack of stuff for you to look at. We’ll go through it all tomorrow morning. If you can familiarise yourselves with the contents before then, I would be grateful. In here,’ he passed the clear plastic wallets round the table, ‘you will find various bits of paper.’

He waited, as they shuffled through the sheets. ‘You all very kindly sent me a thousand word demo piece. I have enclosed copies of each. Each has the name of the writer upon it, so you can start to associate style with author.’

Penny raised her hand hesitantly. ‘Erm, Tom, is it all right to ask a question now?’

‘Of course, I should have said. Do feel free to butt in whenever you need to know something, or if you want to add anything. In spite of these fine surroundings, I’d like to keep things as informal as possible. So, yes Penny, fire away.’

‘I don’t know if the others are in the same boat …’ She paused, searching for the right words. ‘I chose my piece because I thought you wanted something racy and saucy, if those are the right adjectives. It was a fairly random choice and it was all the product of my imagination.’ She looked round the group, an expression of embarrassment on her face. ‘I just wouldn’t want people to think I was an expert on spanking, whipping or three-in-a-bed sex.’

‘Took the words out of my mouth.’ Ros added her support. Tom could see other heads nodding in agreement. Maggie made no move. Tom hastened to explain.

‘No, I quite agree. You are dead right, Penny. This is going to be an exercise in imagination for all of us.’ He made a point of avoiding looking at the Indian Torturer. ‘It’s the style, not the subject matter of your peers, I want you to study. Some of you are particularly good with dialogue, others with description. Some are good with action, others with conveying feelings. Some need a crash course in punctuation, others the removal of about a hundred adverbs. So, take the subject matter with a big pinch of salt. We’ll worry about that tomorrow.’

Penny and the others looked reassured.

‘And, above all, look at the characters. Even though these pieces are very short, I was delighted to see that a good number of you have managed to create credible characters. When we get down to planning our book tomorrow, we may well want to incorporate some of these. OK?’

He took them through the other items, finishing with the programme for the weekend.

‘Tonight you, and I, are all free. No business tonight. All we are doing tonight is having what I am sure will be a memorable meal and getting to know each other.’

He looked round the group. Even the Indian Torturer was smiling. His confidence strengthened. Maybe this crazy project might just work out.

‘Writing a book as a group activity is no mean feat. By the time we leave here on Sunday, we must have established the characters and the storyline. We will each have our assigned tasks. We can decide together how many weeks it will take us all to write the various pieces. Then it will be my job to draw it all together into a coherent whole. But, for tonight, my friends, just enjoy yourselves.’

A waiter appeared, bearing fresh champagne. The waitress brought a plate of prawns and grapes on sticks. This was followed by polenta cubes topped with Fontina. Alongside them were delicate rolls of Parma ham concealing slices of succulent melon.

Tom looked across to the other side of the bar. Alfonso was pouring the champagne himself. He appeared to be fulfilling his instructions, as issued by Ros, to the letter. His avuncular arm was wrapped around the shoulders of the blonde girl. She, for her part, looked enchanted at the attention she was receiving.

Ros also glanced across the room. The first thing she noticed was the way Alfonso was looking after Suzy.
Good old Fonsie
, she thought to herself. Then she had to stifle a giggle, as she saw the look on Melissa’s face as she gazed at Alfonso. It was so reminiscent of the look on Noah’s face the night of the cold lamb, but at least Melissa wasn’t drooling. She turned back towards Tom. She had hardly had any time with him since then. From his reaction upstairs in her bedroom, however, she was definitely optimistic that he was laying his demons to rest.

Maggie looked across the room in her turn. Her eyes narrowed, as she watched Suzy flirting with the old Don Juan. She would pay for this frivolity later. Thought of the scene to be played out on the huge bed later that night quite restored her good humour. She smiled broadly.

Beside Maggie, Jimmy also had his eyes trained on the beautiful blonde girl. Unlike Maggie, he was not smiling.
That dirty old man
, he thought to himself,
he’s old enough to be her grandfather
.

Tiffany wasn’t watching Alfonso. She was watching Luca. He looked very smart in his blue suit. How they had managed to get dressed and downstairs in less than five minutes was amazing; truly record-breaking. She had definitely got the feeling that the beautiful model had realised what they had been doing. She glanced at Ros’s face. She was surprised to see her smiling happily, as she watched Alfonso cuddling the blonde girl.

How strange
, she wondered,
she isn’t jealous. So maybe she isn’t with him after all
. She turned her attention back to her husband. At exactly that moment, he swung round and looked straight at her. She felt a sensation that ten years of marriage and a young family had not been able to stifle. She blew him a kiss, a warm glow inside her.

Penny had her eyes on Scott. He appeared to be obeying orders not to drink too much. The last thing she wanted was for him to fall down dead drunk. The possible embarrassment was the least of it. She wanted him mellow, but fully functioning. Ever since she had first accepted that she really wanted him to come to Dorset with her, her whole way of thinking about him had changed. He was no longer good old Scottie, who did the lion’s share of the washing up. He had transmogrified into her plus one. And the more she thought about it, the more the idea appealed. It appealed very much, indeed. As did he.

Janet was definitely not happy. She was watching Alfonso as he plied the blonde girl with drink. He even patted her bottom. His charm was still irresistible, even for a girl young enough to be his granddaughter. She gave herself a mental talking-to:
He turned on the charm with me and I fell for it. Now he’s moved onto a little girl half my age. I should have known it was just an act.
She gritted her teeth. It might be explicable, but that didn’t make it any more palatable.

The maître d’hôtel arrived to inform them that dinner was served.

Tom had very sensibly handed over the seating plan to Ros. Left to himself, he would have just told people to sit where they liked. She took on the responsibility with enthusiasm.

She started with two imperatives. First and foremost, she was sitting beside Tom. That was non-negotiable. Second, she wanted to ensure that the assembled writers got as much opportunity as possible to interact and to get to know each other. Events that evening, however, now imposed a third imperative. It was blatantly clear to her, and probably most of the women in the room, if not the men, that Janet had to be seated beside Alfonso. Particularly, since his over-enthusiastic compliance with the request to see that the blonde girl enjoyed herself, there were now wounds to be healed. Wounds of which he had no inkling until she took him to one side and told him.

‘Fonsie, you did a great job with the girl, Suzy.’ He nodded modestly, aware that his charm had once more triumphed. ‘But you overdid it. I am afraid that Janet is feeling unloved and abandoned.’

‘
Porca miseria
.’ He slapped himself on the forehead. ‘I didn’t think she would mind. The girl is young enough to be my granddaughter.’

Ros decided against reminding him that age had not stopped him before. ‘I’m putting Janet next to you at dinner. You may find things a bit frosty. Forewarned is forearmed.’

‘What would I do without you, Ros?’ He hugged her to him and kissed her ear. Unfortunately he chose the precise moment that Janet and Melissa walked past. Janet did not even acknowledge his presence. ‘Oh,
Dio buono
!’

‘I think this evening will put your legendary charm to the test like never before.’ She felt sorry for him, but she was looking forward to the show.

It had been arranged for them all to be seated around one large oval table. In total there were twelve of them: five men and seven women. She put Tom at one end, Alfonso at the other. She sat Janet alongside Fonsie, and she staked her claim at Tom’s right hand. She spread the others between the two ends, ensuring that couples were seated side by side. Tom had volunteered to have Maggie next to him, as he wanted to get to know her better. Suzy sat on the other side of her. Out of sheer devilment, Ros sat Jimmy next to Suzy. ‘Light blue touch paper and retire,’ she said to herself.

She saw everybody to their places before sitting down in her turn. The first thing she did was to offer Tom a bit of encouragement. She knew how nervous he must be feeling.

‘It’s going really well, Tom. It’s going to be great. Trust me.’ She squeezed his hand for extra support.

‘With you at my side, how could it fail?’ The touch of her hand reached deep inside him. ‘Have I told you, I couldn’t have done it without you?’

‘Only about five times but I’m always happy to hear it again.’ She squeezed his hand and then released it.

Waiters appeared with bottles of wine and mineral water. Once the glasses were all filled, Tom rose to his feet. The murmur of conversation subsided. He launched into a little speech he had prepared earlier.

‘I would very much like to propose a toast of gratitude to our host. Alfonso has offered us a location that fits so beautifully with the outline for our book. The luxury we experience here this weekend will, I sincerely hope, be translated into spectacular prose. We are all so very grateful to him.’ He raised his glass. ‘To you, Alfonso.’

There was a chorus of ‘Alfonso’ around the table.

The Italian stood up in his turn. He nodded graciously and wished them all good luck with their deliberations. Then he sat back down again and plunged deep into conversation with Janet.

‘Jeanette, my dear Jeanette, I had a mission to accomplish.’ She treated him to a chilly stare. He lowered his voice. ‘The little blonde girl is here with that woman.’ They both knew to whom he was referring. ‘We think she may be here against her will.’

Janet’s eyebrows shot up. Still in a low voice, his mouth so close to her ear that she could feel his breath, he went on. ‘Tom and Ros believe the woman is a true sadist. You know, not just like you writers, using your imagination. We think she really does whip and beat people, in particular, the girl. Look at her, her body language. She’s scared stiff of that woman. Rosalind asked me to look after her, and see if she is all right.’

Janet began to mellow a bit. ‘Mmm. And that involved patting her bottom?’

His reply surprised her.

‘Yes of course. You know, these sadists, they like spanking and beating on the bottom. Everybody knows that. So, I couldn’t really ask her, “Excuse me, Signorina, but does the lady whip your
derrière
?” Now could I?’

Janet had to concede that he had a point.

‘But I gave her just a little smack and she jumped. Now if I gave you a little touch on the bottom, you would hardly feel it. The girl jumped. So, my deduction is that her
derrière
is more tender than normal.’

Janet began to feel reassured, and a whole lot happier. ‘Ah, Monsieur Poirot, your powers of deduction are amazing. But, just for the record, I think I would jump if a strange man touched my bottom.’

‘Ah, Jeanette, but there is touching and touching. And I truly hope you do not think of me as a strange man.’

Melissa, from her position alongside Janet, just heard the last part of the exchange. She then lapsed into a daydream that involved his hands and her
derrière
. An expression of sheer ecstasy flooded across her face.

Peace would appear to have broken out before the starters arrived. Ros, from her vantage point at the other end of the table, watched in admiration. Whatever he had said to Janet, it appeared to be working.

Jimmy was delighted to be seated alongside Suzy. He started by asking what she did for a living.

‘I’m temping at the moment. I just finished a degree in English last summer. I’m afraid I’m finding it hard to get a permanent position.’

‘Well at least you don’t need to worry about repaying your student loan for a while.’ He tried to look on the bright side for her.

‘That’s not a problem.’ For some reason she looked embarrassed. He decided to leave that line of questioning.

‘So where are you temping at the moment?’

‘Canary Wharf.’ She told him the name of the company.

‘That’s amazing. I work just round the corner. What a coincidence.’ He filed that information away. The offer of a lunchtime cup of coffee or an early evening drink would be extended at a suitable moment over the weekend.

‘And what do you do?’ She glanced sideways towards Maggie, who was conversing with Tom. Reassured, she looked back at Jimmy and hazarded a guess. ‘You look very fit. Are you an athlete?’ Jimmy’s spirits soared.

‘Just a boring old accountant. But I do play a bit of soccer.’ He glanced sideways in his turn. This time it was towards Tom. Lowering his voice, he asked. ‘Seeing as you’ve done English, can you tell me something. What’s an adverb again?’

Suzy paused for thought. ‘That’s easy. Adverbs are words that end in “ly”.’

‘Thanks. So, you mean a word like “silly”?’

‘Oh dear, that’s not right. Give me a moment to think about it. I tell you what, I’ve got a laptop in my room. After dinner, I’ll check it out for you.’

‘I could come up to your room with you, if you like. You know, the quest for knowledge and so on … ?’ Jimmy thought it was worth a try.