Chapter 6

Marilyn had offered to cook me a breakfast which I declined. My travelling had opened my mind and now I would usually breakfast on rolls with butter and a preserve and coffee or tea. The traditional English breakfast of bacon and eggs no longer appealed. She agreed.

"Yuck! All that grease. I used to get sick in the hotel with the smell of bacon and eggs at breakfast time." We sat down to fruit juice, granary rolls with butter and apricot jam. We ate with one hand only, my other hand was holding Marilyn's and she would not let go.

"When are you going to bring Sarah down? I ought to meet her before we get married." She stopped abruptly a fearful expression clouded her face. "We are going to get married, aren't we? That wasn't just a joke." To reassure her I knelt in front of her.

"My lovable adorable Marilyn I love you deeply and want you to be my wife. Please say yes." Tears came to her eyes and she brought her face down to mine and kissed me tenderly.

"Yes, darling Dalzeil I love you so much and nothing would make me as happy as being your wife. Yes. I will marry you." We finished our breakfast and Marilyn with mischief in her eyes took me back to bed to celebrate our engagement.

As it happened I was scheduled to have Sarah with me next weekend. Marilyn was eager to meet her.

"Bring her down, please Dal. I have plenty of room." I was a little dubious, and would have preferred to book the Travel Inn. I wondered about the propriety of sleeping with Marilyn with my daughter in the house. Marilyn was shaking her head laughing at me.

"How old is she, Dal?" She was being facetious. I sighed.

"As if you didn't know, she's twelve."

"Twelve year old girls these days are well aware of what adults do when they are engaged to be married. I doubt that Sarah will give it any thought at all."

She was right; Sarah gave it no thought at all. She said something that I didn't think about at first.

"Roger moved in with Mummy very soon after you left, Daddy."

She and Marilyn got on like a house on fire. Their friendship was sealed when Marilyn took Sarah to the Livery Stables just down the lane. Sarah came back demanding from me that I equip her with everything she needed for horse riding, announcing that she wanted to come down with me every time I came to see Marilyn and would be riding as much as possible. Marilyn explained how this was possible.

"Bill Thaxton takes in the horses at Livery. They need exercising frequently and he does it when the owners can't. He is pushed to do that, so I go down from time to time and exercise a horse or two. Sarah took to riding like a duck to water, so Bill told her that she could ride out with him anytime she's down. He will be with her all the time so she won't come to any harm." I shrugged my shoulders accepting the situation, happily when Marilyn whispered that that would give us plenty of time to get intimate with each other. "You can undress me and I will undress you and then you can do those deliciously dirty things to me that you do so well and I can bounce up and down again on top of you." Who's going to argue with that?

Marilyn had picked up on the comment that Sarah made about my ex and her man. In the way of women she had obliquely asked Sarah about that. One night she mentioned it to me.

"Dal. You did understand what Sarah said about your wife's new man, didn't you?" I must have looked confused as I couldn't recall what she was talking about.

"Remind me, I can't think of it at the moment." Well we were in bed together and her hand was asking questions of my bloke which was starting to answer positively.

"About Roger moving in very shortly after you left." I had known that Jane had a man-friend for some time. It would be curious if she had remained celibate.

"Oh yes. What about it?"

"It was three weeks after you left." She had my attention now.

"Bloody hell that was quick!" Then I thought about it more. "It was too quick, much too quick." My mental processes were in top gear as I pondered the ramifications. A light went on and the bell went 'ting'. "She must have known him before we spilt; the crafty bitch was cheating on me! And her mother must have known about it. No wonder they tried to stiff me." I began to laugh; it was so long ago now that anything other than laughing would be futile. "I am so pleased that my solicitor went overboard to get me visiting rights with Sarah. That really upset them." I turned to Marilyn. "And if all that had never happened I would not be with you now. So however devious they were, I came out on top." She hugged me and her leg came over mine.

"Only until I get on top, I have got all squishy down there, and you have gone all lovely and hard again. I have the perfect place for him." She did.

Our wedding was arranged very easily. I had thought that as I was divorced it could not be a Church Wedding. Not so. Marilyn had no doubts that we would be married in the local church. It would seem that she made frequent donations to the re-building fund. The Vicar, she was certain would agree to marry us for fear of losing those donations. I had thought from the start that Marilyn was quite well off, but as time went by I understood that she was in a much better position financially than I first believed. I discovered this by chance. For old time's sake and happy memories I had gone to look at the hotel one day when I was in Torquay. The building was still there, but was no longer a hotel. The place had been converted into apartments. I mentioned this to Marilyn.

"Yes, I know." She thought for a moment then carried on. "I had that done about five years ago." I was brought up short.

"You had it done?" She nodded. "But you said your dad had sold the hotel."

"He did. The new owners couldn't make a go of it, well few can these days. Everybody goes to the Mediterranean now. They went bankrupt, so I bought the place back from the insolvency practitioners for about twenty percent of what dad received." I was smiling.