Silent Treatment (7 page)

Chapter Four

The Next Day

Jim stood at the bottom
of the stairs, staring up at the closed door of Carrie’s bedroom. He dropped his briefcase outside the under-stair cupboard and slipped out of his jacket, then
he
took a deep breath and walked through to the kitchen.

Helen looked up at him in surprise.

“Whatever are you doing home so early?” She smiled as she walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, then gave him a brief kiss on the lips.

He didn’t kiss her back.

“Is that great oaf still here?” He looked down at his wife, his expression hard.

Helen let go of him
quickly and stood back.

“Is that why you’ve come home early?
Just to check up on them?” She turned back to the cooker and lifted the lid of the saucepan. “And I thought you had made the effort to see me! I wish I hadn’t rung you to tell you he was here. You’re being far too suspicious.” She poked a knife into the contents of the saucepan.

Jim stepped up behind her and
gave
her a belated kiss on the cheek.

“I don’t see why I shouldn’t be suspicious. I’ll swear that kid’s on steroids. It can’t
be normal to be that huge. His parents aren’t that tall, well his mother isn’t at any rate...It’ll be a disaster if she gets pregnant by him when she’s only sixteen. Her life will be over. Nobody likes a teenage mum. Makes them cheap.” His words were hard.

Helen put the knife down firmly on the worktop.

“Well, thanks for that Jim. Maybe you have forgotten but I was pregnant at sixteen. It’s nice to know that even while you were making love to me, you thought I was cheap.” She moved along the kitchen units, grabbed the knife again and began peeling the carrots vigorously.

Jim sighed wearily and moved up close behind his wife. He ignored the knife being wielded expertly along the carrots.

“I didn’t mean you. I love you now and I loved you then. I knew you were the one for me right from the moment I lay eyes on you…It’s just all so different now-a-days. Everyone has to have a career and Carrie has been given the chance of a fabulous one. I just don’t want it all ruined for her by that great lumbering kid. Do you even know what they’re doing up there?”

Helen gave a resigned sigh. He obviously wasn’t going to let this go.

“They were listening to some music when I took them a drink and some biscuits an hour ago. Daniel was sitting on the floor by the end of her bed, fully dressed, including his trainers, and no-where near Carrie.” Helen added the carrots to the saucepan. “I’ve asked him if he wants to stop for dinner, so you’d better put on a pleasanter manner before they come down or he’s going to think you’re a right grumpy old git.”

Jim groaned and rolled his eyes.

“What the hell were you doing encouraging him?” He sighed, his shoulder drooping in resignation. “I’m going to get changed. Why don’t we eat outside? The weather’s nice enough and he won’t be quite so overpowering out in the garden.”

Helen nodded and turned back to the cooking.

Jim trudged to the stairs and then, making sure that the kitchen door was shut, he crept quickly up them and stood listening outside Carrie’s door. He heard voices inside. Daniel’s was low and rumbling.

“Perfect Carrie. Spread them wide, wider, go on, I know you can do it. Now lift this one higher, yes, see…I can push you further, and another deep breath. That’s right, I want you to really feel it. Relax your whole body now.” There was a short pause, then. “Perfect, you’re loosening up nicely. I told you it wouldn’t hurt if we went slowly.”

Jim
’s eyes grew wide and he bent his head closer to the door, listening hard. He heard Carrie’s higher pitched voice. She sounded breathy, almost lazy.

“That feels so good Dan
iel, it’s really hard, but when you push gently I can get it nearly all the way up, much higher than I thought would be possible. I’ve never done anything like this before. The deeper I breathe, the more I can take. You must have had a lot of experience with this sort of thing.”

Dan
iel’s deep rumbling laugh came back as the floorboards creaked in a gentle rhythm.

“Only once or twice before Carrie, and you are the first one to take so much. It’s just a matter of taking things slow and easy. I don’t want to hurt you. You have to
be really relaxed. It’s no good at all if you’re too tense, but you’ve managed to do it for well over half an hour. Not everyone can take it this hard the first time, but you are so flexible you make it look easy. Are you feeling good? I don’t want this to hurt you. Tell me if it’s too much.” There was a short pause and then Carrie answered.

“No, it’s fine.” Then a great sigh. “Oh wow! I can feel that deep inside.”

Daniel grunted as the floorboards creaked.

“Not too fast Carrie. There’s plenty of time. We don’t have to rush this. I can come again tomorrow if you want me to
. We’ll keep it gentle so you have time to get used to the different positions and I promise that it’ll feel even better the second time. There’s no way you can take in all of this the first time, so we’ll work slowly and as soon as you’re ready we can really get into a rhythm. We’ll see if we can work it all the way up tomorrow, maybe even try it from the other way round. Bending over forwards and arching your back sometimes makes it easier.”

Carried moaned a little and then sighed deeply.

“Yeah, I think that would be a great idea. I’m not averse to experimenting. I mean, I’m obviously pleased I’ve done so well today, but you must be disappointed that it’s still so stiff. I bet you would have preferred it if I had been able to go all the way with it. You know, released it completely.”

Dan
iel’s voice rumbled through the door.

“Try not to worry
Carrie, I’m a very patient guy. There’s a lot to take in and I’m satisfied with what we have done today. I wouldn’t expect anyone to manage it all the first time. If I’m really gentle with you, we’ll probably be able to go the whole way tomorrow. I don’t want to get all tense by going too far too fast.”

Jim stood up straight. His cheeks were purple with rage. He had heard enough. He didn’t care how big the animal was, he couldn’t let him ruin his daughter.

He grasped the door handle and shoved hard, putting all his weight behind his shoulder as he rammed the wooden panel at the same time
, just in case the door was locked.

It wasn’t. He burst into the room and almost
tripped over Carrie who sat cross legged on the floor with her back towards the door. He swerved to avoid a collision and fell headlong onto the bed, his momentum crashing him into the opposite wall. Momentarily stunned, he slid off the bed sideways, and landed in Daniel’s lap. He struggled to free himself from a tangle of huge, long limbs and massive feet as Daniel took hold of his shoulders and sat him up straight.

“You okay there, Mr. Denton? Do you w
ant to join in?” Daniel looked more than surprised.

Jim was still purple.

“Why you filthy!” Jim shouted and wrenched himself out of Daniel’s grasp, his whole body shaking with almost uncontrollable anger.

Then he suddenly shut his mouth as he saw that Dan
iel was at least six feet from Carrie. They were both fully dressed including their trainers, exactly as Helen had described. Carrie glared furiously at him, her arms still stretched above her head. He blustered as Daniel stood up gracefully and stuck his hand out to pull Jim from the floor. Jim frowned for a moment then took it begrudgingly, his eyes opening wide again as he took in Daniel’s bulging biceps as they tensed with his weight.

His voice was back at a normal level when he spoke again.

“What’s going on in here? It sounded like, Oh I don’t know what it sounded like. What were you both doing?” His tone was still accusing.

Dan
iel smiled easily at him, but then glanced at Carrie as she moved her arms to put them down. He spoke quickly.

“No! Don’t stop yet,” He warned as he made gentling motions with his huge hands. “Extend the stretch first,
that’s right…make sure your breath comes out fully. And slowly bring them back down. Okay, you can relax now.” He gave Carrie instructions before turning to her father again. “Sorry about that Mr. Denton. I didn’t want Carrie to cut the stretch short. There are a lot of instructions to follow and it can be easy to forget a vital one.”

Jim raised his eyebrows quizzically as he brushed carpet fluff from his trousers and straightened his shirt.

“Instructions for what exactly?”

Dan
iel smiled widely, obviously keen to share his favourite subject.

“I’m showing Carrie my new form of workout. I’ve designed it especially for sportsmen and women who are sick or injured, but need to keep their fitness up. I thought it would be a good idea for her while she’s poorly. You know, so she doesn’t feel sluggish when she goes back to the dancing. Three or four days without exercise can make a huge difference to someone as fit as Carrie.
It’s based on something like yoga, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Deep breathing skills are really important so you get a really good work out without wearing yourself out. I’m hoping to launch it in America when I go to college in September. It’s going to be a major part of my thesis.” His enthusiasm was more than genuine.

Jim smiled lamely and then turned bright red as he saw his wife shaking her head at him from the landing.

Carrie pulled her arms up over her head again, breathed in deeply and then relaxed back down. She was still glaring at her father as she rolled her shoulders gently.

“And it was working too, until you burst in and nearly bashed me on the back of my head. Whatever were you thinking of dad? You only had to
knock if you wanted to join us,” she said sarcastically.

Jim sidled out of the doorway.

“No, no, I was coming to get changed before dinner. I just tripped at the top of the stairs and grabbed the door handle so I didn’t fall over…I’ll leave both you to it shall I?” He stuck his thumbs up at Daniel. “Sounds good Daniel, it’ll be an excellent thesis I’m sure. Keep it up.” He walked quickly across the landing to his bedroom. Helen followed him closely. She closed the door behind her and turned on her husband.

“How embarrassing Jim! They weren’t doing anything wrong. You’re lucky Carrie didn’t show you right up. Maybe she thought you’d done enough by yourself, you great idiot. If you ever do anything
like that again, I shall make you apologize properly and then you’ll really know what embarrassing is.”

Carrie still sat cross legged on the floor. She rubbed her shoulder hard as she looked down at the carpet, her cheeks as bright red as her fathers.

“I am so sorry Dan. He must have been listening at the door and thought we were up to something. What an idiot.”

Daniel came over to her and brushed her hand away from her shoulder.

“Parent’s eh? It’s okay. I guess
I’d be worried if I was the father of a beautiful young girl who had got a massive great lump of a bloke in her bedroom. Don’t be angry with him. It’s good that he cares about you.” He knelt down behind her and laid his huge hands on her shoulder. He began massaging firmly.

“Maybe” She answered
quietly as she relaxed completely and felt her body moving in rhythm with his massage. “But he’s still an idiot.”

Carries T-shirt sleeve started riding up with the movement and Dan
iel’s hot hands touched her bare skin. She hung her head, pretending to stretch her neck as his heat worked through her body. It was almost impossible to keep calm. All she wanted to do was to reach round, throw her arms around his neck and kiss him passionately.

“Hmm…Your hands are so warm
Dan, it’s like having a heat treatment on my shoulder. I’m surprised how much I can do already.” She tried to keep her voice neutral as she rolled her arm in its socket.

Dan
iel moved his hands to the back of her neck. Carrie could feel his breath in her hair and she let out a small groan of pleasure.

He
dropped his hands and moved away from her.

“We’ve done enough for today. I don’t want you to overdo it. It’s obviously painful still.” Dan
iel stood up quickly and moved towards the door. “We can do a little more with it tomorrow if you don’t go too stiff overnight. Make sure you take a hot bath later and keep it moving tonight, but do it gently, okay. Don’t do anything that pulls it tight.”

Carrie stood up too, wishing that she had managed to take control of her voice box as easily as she could control her body.

“Sure, anything you say, come on, I bet dinner is ready by now. I’ll come down too and have just a small plate full, just to keep up the appearance of being ill still.”

Dan
iel looked a little concerned.

“Do you think I should stay? Your dad didn’t look very happy to see me here, even after he knew everything was okay. I don’t want to upset him or anything.”