CHAPTER 3

GILL spent the week at home wearing a haversack full of cans of soup and beans weighing about 24lbs, to get her body used to carrying weights again. She had never been up and down the stairs as often during that week since she’d bought the narrow three-storey town house three months ago. She took it easy on the Friday, though, to conserve her energy.

Thus Gill was extremely relaxed, her face smothered in smiles, when Wayne came over to collect Jenny and Clay on Friday evening for his weekend with his children. It was the only time she had managed to face her ex- in that cheerful state since the full extent of his infidelity had first come to light. Yes, she felt good. She felt even better when Wayne seemed rather subdued instead of breezing in larger than life as he usually did. Added to that, Jenny and Clay were full of news about Gill’s Derbyshire camping with a person they both described as this ‘really cool dude’, which appeared to piss off Wayne tremendously. This was a really good day for Gill.

Next morning, at just before the crack of dawn, Jake was full of smiles matching her own as he called to collect her, exactly as he said he would, and quickly stowed Gill’s haversack and other gear in the boot of his car alongside his luggage. There was rain in the air in the South of England and the forecast for the Dales was mixed rain, wintry showers and sunshine, but they had all the equipment they needed for a perfect weekend. Whatever the weather had in store for them, they were going to enjoy the exercise and good company.

They chatted on the journey north in much the same fashion as they had on the phone every evening, usually for about eighty or ninety minutes each time. They seemed to speak about everything and nothing, but each completion of their conversations always left her with a warm glow to go to sleep with.

Gill had only risked visiting Jake in the print room once during the week. She popped in an hour early on Tuesday morning and even at that early hour they had soon been disturbed by several early droppers-by. They were all asking advice on a wide range of topics from sport to investments. She was surprised that even the head of foreign market trends had prattled on in a two-way conversation with Jake about eastern European currency exchange rates, before he realised that Gill was also in the room. He had apologised to Gill about butting in on their conversation and exited.

“You were right about the extra-marital affair between Sampson and Sheila that I didn’t have a clue about,” Gill said when they were sitting in the car, the sky still dark around them as they motored northwards. “I called them into the office individually and told them to keep it out of the office, or else. Sampson has been coasting a bit work-wise recently, and he promises that he’s going to pull his finger out. As for Sheila, she was mortified that she had been found out and swears she wants to put it behind her and concentrate on fixing her marriage. Apparently, she thinks her husband is having an affair and simply wanted to get back at him. She and Sampson was only a fling and she wanted to bring it to a close anyway.”

“Ahh, thinking that two wrongs made a right, was she?” Jake suggested in reply.

“Something like that, I think. She’s had it out with her husband since and tells me they are going to start counselling in a couple of weeks’ time. Are you going to tell me how you knew and no-one else noticed, Mr Nicholls?”

“Trade secret, Ms Moorhouse, Chinese Walls and all that,” replied Jake with a smile, “Any luck with RadAlloy Industries and Autobit Engineering?”

“Yes, much more interesting, that is,” Gill looked at the driver again to try to see his response but it was hard to see his reaction clearly in the feint green glow from the instrument panel and the lightening sky behind him in the east.

“I had Tom Stevenson contact RadAlloy, who admitted they were looking for more metal bending capacity in the UK preferably or Western Europe at a pinch. They were delighted to hear we had a potential source in the Midlands. Then Tom called Autobit, not currently a customer but who have a lot of experience working with us in the past. Tom fired some loaded questions at his contact there and got him to admit they were preparing to close their Birmingham factory, due to lack of work, within twelve months. They were delighted to allow us to broker a deal for them that is going through now. It could mean a lot more business in the future with RadAlloy.”

“Great news, Gill.”

“OK, you’ve got to spill the beans. Where did that little tip come from?” Gill asked, laughing, seeing Jake’s impassive face, only his lips parting to crack a slight smile, “and I won’t take ‘trade secrets’ as an answer!”

“Tom’s quarterly report in January last year stated that Autobit were increasing the number of pressed steel and die-stamped units from the Far East and, with the downturn in trade since, I thought it likely they would have to cut production in the UK rather than cut back on the contracts that they have only just negotiated, bearing in mind the penalty clauses. Then in the press on the Monday before last, RadAlloy announced a huge contract to supply parts for the aero industry and put out a few subtle feelers for any spare capacity, which Tom mentioned in passing in his weekly report I printed a week ago.”

“Does that mean you read and remember all the reports you print?”

“Of course, don’t you?” he grinned.

“I do, every one, but putting those things together, takes a special talent. You really should be on the bank’s management scheme.”

“You forget, Gill, I don’t actually work for the bank.”

“I know, you work for a contractor supplying an internal printing facility, but that could change.”

“Also, I am perfectly happy where I am,” Jake said with his usual smile.

“What about if we start you on a 35k package, rising to 38k once you’ve covered the basic three-month training?” she offered, “you’d be on 45k within a twelve-month.”

“No thanks, couldn’t afford the drop in salary, I’d have to make some serious budgetary decisions!”

“You are joking! Aren’t you?” she spluttered.

“I don’t joke about money,” Jake grinned, “Actually, I am not really sure how much I earn at the bank. I know it more than covers my outgoings and that is all that matters.”

“If you change your mind, Jake, the offer’s on the table,” Gill smiled “But I don’t want to get into an argument about it and spoil the weekend. So, where exactly are we going?”

“Thought we’d camp in the Peak District and try the foothills of Kinder Scout and see how far we get. The visibility is likely to be poor today with all this low cloud, so it’s not worth climbing to the top, but the forecast tomorrow is better and we can try to get to the top of one of the smaller peaks then.”

“Sounds like I’ll be holding you back.”

“Nonsense,” he said, “We are going to have fun, it doesn’t have to be a slog, and we can relax, get comfortably tired and relaxed and leave all our cares behind us.”

“Thank you,” Gill said, reaching out with her right hand and finding his left. “I have been looking forward to this all week,” she continued, enjoying the comfortable gentle grip of his warm dry hand.

“Me too. Jen and Clay looked like they enjoyed last Sunday. Do they want to come out again, perhaps camp out as well at some stage?”

“They did enjoy it, I think, and Clay is definitely up to come out again and soon. Jenny was, well Jenny is going through a phase where she doesn’t want to do anything, and was non-committal about camping out. I think she’d like to stroll out with the toddlers again next month, though.”

“We could do that, certainly, in the meantime we could always try the New Forest for a weekend, would she be interested in pony trekking, I wonder?”

“She used to have horse riding lessons when she was younger, but gave it up when she became a terrible teenager about three years early. Clay never showed any interest before, but yes, I think they’d both enjoy it.”

“What about you?” Jake asked, “Is it something you’d like to try?”

‘Gosh!’ she thought, a man in her life considering what she wanted to do. This was practically a first. All those years with Wayne, all the time doing what he wanted. She was the one who had to give up enjoyable active weekends like the last one and this one that she had looked forward to all week. Just thinking of all those wasted years made her both sad and angry.

“I have been horse riding before,” Gill said, reminiscing, “I enjoyed it when I was a girl. It was only schoolwork that got in the way, after a while, so I stopped. That’s one reason why I introduced Jenny and then Clay to it when they were younger, knowing they’d get so much out of it. Clay refused to go when he was old enough to have a say on the matter. He thought it was ‘sissy’ but I think his father’s attitude to horse riding was a big influence. I think that he’d change his mind if you were also riding though. So, yes, pony trekking would be quite high on my check list of things to do with the kids.”

“I’ll look into it on Monday.”

“I am surprised you haven’t already got the information at your fingertips,” Gill teased.

“It is all on my laptop, actually, available dates, costs, contacts, but I didn’t bring it with me,” Jake grinned.

“We’ll sort it out on Monday, then.”

Gill smiled and settled back even more comfortably in her seat, closing her eyes, still holding Jake’s hand as they bombed up the quiet motorway. Mmmm, barely into the weekend and they were settling on where to go for their third date, she thought. Could this weekend possibly get any better?

---

Gill had to admit defeat soon, she was pretty well pooped. 

For the last twenty minutes she had simply placed one foot in front of the other like an automaton. She was thirsty but her water bottle was emptied a long time ago and she was sucking a small pebble to keep her saliva going, which made her mouth taste somewhat metallic. Their breakfast, taken three-quarters of the way through their car journey, seemed hours ago. No, it really was hours ago.

Jake had taken her haversack from her without receiving too much protest. He added it to his load of two tents plus most of the other necessary gear for an overnight camp in what to her looked pretty wild terrain. He was just ahead of her in a relentless march that seemed incongruous to her. How could someone so skinny have the muscles, lung capacity and stamina to carry all that gear and keep going without seeming to break into a sweat?

Although he was ahead of her for this little stretch of path, a narrow steep incline between weather- and water-smoothed rocks, most of the time they had walked companionably side by side. He had been extremely solicitous of the effects of the strenuous climb thus far and had a ready hand when she stumbled. He had noticed when she began to struggle under the weight of her pack and had insisted on taking it from her, saying they were within half an hour of their first stop and lunch. Five minutes ago they were only five minutes away but she had visibly slowed and there was no way they could stop here, there was simply no room. 

Gill gritted her teeth and gathered the rest of her strength. She could have been home hoovering and ironing but she had done all that Thursday and Friday evening. She would still much rather be here than not, really, honestly, she insisted.

Lungs bursting, they emerged from the narrow passageway between the rocks to a broad expanse of grass, heather and patches of gorse. The sun had been out for twenty minutes since the most recent of several heavy wintry showers and they seemed to have climbed out of the clouds as they appeared to be above the thick layer, while overhead rather more fluffy, less threatening puffballs of cotton candy scudded across the azure sky.

“Oh, Jake,” Gill always called him Jake now, even at work, “this is lovely, no, it’s absolutely glorious!”

“Worth the climb?” Jake grinned at her.

“Oh, yes, worth every second.”

“I’m sorry, Gill, it’s my fault I put you through that. I had forgotten quite how challenging a climb this section of hill was.”

“Well, we got here.”

“We did.”

OK, she thought, he has at last broken into a sweat, it was that warm, but he still had his long-sleeved sweatshirt covering his no-doubt glistening torso.

‘Listen to me, woman,’ Gill scolded herself. ‘Get a grip, Jake is just a friend. One friend kind enough to ask another friend to accompany him for a weekend adventure with no strings attached. No, he wasn’t a proper boyfriend ... yet.’ 

They did hold hands earlier but they hadn’t kissed today other than a little cheek peck just before dawn when he collected her from her house.

They had not kissed for nearly a week as it happened, the thought went through her head, almost a whole week! And before that nearly three months of tortuous gym work to get into shape and no one but Jake had so much as touched her. She’d been hit on a couple of times down the gym, but they were not worth consideration as she had worn her old wedding ring for protection and that still hadn’t put the wolves off. No, she was definitely not going down the path of meaningless affairs.

Gill had been so hot climbing in the sunshine that she had taken off her sweatshirt and bottoms down to just a halter neck top and fairly short shorts, having tied her sweats around her middle. Now she was puffing like a steam train and probably looked red as a beetroot, while Jake was hardly breathing hard and still had his heavy thornproof trousers and thick sweater on.

‘I must look a mess,’ thought Gill, depressingly.

“Sorry about rushing you through that last climb,” Jake said with a smile, resting a gentle hand on her bare shoulder, “We couldn’t stop anywhere there, but a lot of people take the opportunity to stop here for a while until rested. I’ll get the stove lit and we’ll have a cup of tea ready in less than five minutes.”

“Tea would be nice,” Gill admitted, “So, it’s downhill for a bit?”

“Yes, downhill for a while, then a more gradual climb to that hill over there.” He pointed away to a sunlit peak poking above a shroud of clouds.

Jake unpacked a small gas heater and lit it, placing a pot on top that he filled with water from a large bottle. “Then we have a fairly short descent to a campsite, with toilets and showers. We should arrive with plenty of light left to pitch our tents and prepare our evening meal.”

Gill nodded her approval and sat down on a convenient rock. It was warm in the sun and she was able to relax and get her breath back. Once she was breathing normally, she put on her sweatshirt again as the wind had picked up and it still had some wicked winter cold in it. She looked over at Jake while he calmly busied himself brewing the tea. She noticed he had a two-litre bottle of water, part of which he had poured into his billycan.

“That reminds me, I drank all my water on the way up, and I should have brought more with me. This bottle is one that the kids used to take on school trips, it only holds about half a pint.”

“I’ve plenty here. I’ll top your bottle up after our brew.”

“Thanks. Have you been up here before, Jake?” she asked.

He looked up from the gas stove and smiled at her. “Yes, lots of times, the first time when I was only four.”

“Wow! You climbed this hill when you were only four?”

“Yes. My father was ex-military, and a keen route marcher, more so than my mother,” he laughed, “She preferred walking on the level. But when she did come up here, she told me at the time, she loved the view.”

“So she came up here with you on your first time?”

“She did,” he replied, “It was middle of the summer and much hotter than today. We stopped here to rest for a while, so she and I could catch our breath. It has always been a special place for me. I suppose that’s why....” He left the rest unsaid.

“Have you come here often since?” Gill started, “Oh dear, that sounds like a bit of a line, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, it does,” he laughed, looking at her, his temporary reflective mood evaporating, “But, yes, I do come here regularly, a couple of times a year, sometimes three. It ... it’s the last place I remember my parents laughing, full of the joys of spring.”

“Oh, Jake, what happened?” Gill asked, concern at saying the wrong thing in her voice.

“They died shortly after,” he stated grimly, “An accident, not coming home from here but about a week later.”

“And you were only four?” Gill got up from her rock and stepped towards the crouching Jake, huddled over his tea-making utensils. This time she put her hands on his shoulders.

“You grow up pretty quickly when that happens,” he smiled up at her wanly.

“Stand up, Jake,” Gill insisted, in the voice she used to call bank meetings to order, “time for a cuddle and I won’t take no for an answer.”

“Yes, Ma’am!” he grinned and rose. As he turned she slipped her arms around his waist, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him. She buried her face in his chest and he lightly kissed the hair on the top of her head. Gill lifted her face to his and their lips locked. Nobody was counting this kiss, Gill felt light headed, relaxed, all her aches and pains from the climb melting away from her muscles.

When the kiss broke and Gill opened her eyes, she felt like she could float on one of those fluffy clouds.

“Jake,” she breathed, “As much as I’ve enjoyed the early start, the fresh air, the exercise and the view, that kiss ... has made my day.”

Jake smiled, silently nodding, caressing her back, before bending in to renew their kiss. Gill responded with her tongue, her fingertips tearing at his back, her whole body shivering. She could feel the effect she was having on him; he was rigid while she was melting. They broke off again, looking at each other eyeball-to-eyeball, slow smiles on each set of tingling lips.

“I think we better get moving,” suggested Jake, croakily.

“Tea?”

“Yes, I had forgotten, or something made me forget ... everything. Now, one lump or two, Ma’am?”

“No lumps, do you have any milk?”

“Yes, I brought some fresh milk up in a thermos flask for today. Tomorrow we’ll have to fall back on UHT milk though, if that’s all right?”

“That’s fine, Jake.”

They sat comfortably on a rock looking at the clouds, the ones on the horizon looking angry. The wind was picking up too. It was getting decidedly chilly after the warmth of the climb. Jake packed up his equipment and the mugs, and put on his haversack. Gill picked up hers and started to put it on with aching muscles.

“Are you all right with that?” he asked.

“Fine, it’s pretty much downhill from here, isn’t it?”

“Yes, one more gradual climb to go but it’s not too bad on the way down from there. I’m not too happy about those clouds though, we might get a soaking before we get to the camp site.”

The drizzle started not long after they resumed walking as they descended into the low cloud layer. They stopped briefly to unpack and put on their waterproof tops and Gill pulled on her sweatpants. Before long it was extremely dark overhead and the rain turned to hailstones, some of them large enough to be painful when struck.

“We’ll stop here and get one of the tents up and sit it out,” Jake yelled above the sound of wind and hail on rock.

Gill slipped off her haversack and shivered while Jake’s practiced hands swiftly erected and pegged down one of the tents. He pushed her inside, following up with the haversacks and zipped up the entrance behind him.

“Get out of that wet top and take off your boots and trousers,” Jake instructed, seeing how Gill was shivering, “I’ll unroll a sleeping bag and you can get in.”

Gill struggled with her jacket zips, her cold hands refusing to work properly. Jake helped her out and rolled up the jacket in a corner, then helped her get her sweatpants off. It was very dark in the tent and Gill didn’t even think about how self-conscious she was, having Jake help pull her trousers down. It was only when she had been zipped up in the bag and began to feel warmer that she realised that she was only wearing her skimpy top, bra, shorts and knickers. The hail was hammering down on the tent.

“Now you,” Gill almost giggled as Jake stopped, mid-task refolding her jacket and trousers, “Strip off your wet things and get in here!” she commanded.

Jake hesitated for such a long time that Gill began to squirm with embarrassment, thinking, ‘Of course he doesn’t want to get in here with a fat old woman, does he?’ It was so dark, she couldn’t see the expression on his face, so all her temporary bravado ebbed away.

Jake seemed to have made his decision at last and quickly removed his wet jacket, down to his long-sleeved top, rolled the jacket up and placed it on top of hers. Then he lay back and wriggled out of his wet trousers, having first loosened the laces and kicked off his boots. Gill fumbled, found the zip and unzipped the sleeping bag to allow him entry. Jake slid inside and Gill put her arms around him. He felt so warm compared to her. Their lips soon found each other again, as if kissing was becoming second nature for them. A fierce wind shook the tent, followed by an intense fall of noisy hail, to interrupt their romancing.

They both laughed at the wind fiercely and fruitlessly shaking the tent, knowing they were safe within. The humour of the situation got to them and they relaxed, Jake rolling onto his back and pulled Gill onto him. She drew up one leg up over his thighs and rested her head on his chest. She could feel the ribs on his slender frame and idly wondered if his chest was hairy or not under that shirt.

An unwanted image of Wayne’s hairy chest and soft, plump middle-aged stomach popped into her head; she hadn’t been able to feel Wayne’s ribs for years. She wondered how Wayne could even have attracted a much younger woman to have an affair with him? Now he had a fresh family relationship with the girl and their new baby. Jake was so much more desirable than her ex-, yet he didn’t seem to have anyone in his life, or anyone she was aware of.

Not for a minute did Gill consider the likelihood of enjoying a long-lasting relationship with Jake. He was out of her league on a whole raft of objections. She ran her mind through the obvious ones. She was too old and too fat; even with her fitness regimen of the past few months, her rounded tummy refused every effort to flatten. She had too many time-consuming family obligations, with two teenagers at home. There were heavy financial commitments too, trying to buy a city house on a single income. Jake already admitted he had more money than he needed, to live the carefree lifestyle of a single man who was apparently not interested in dating. That was another thing; rumours were that he either never or hardly ever went on dates, so was this just a one-off? He had mentioned a future get together for pony-trekking, but that was a break that included the kids.

Where did she stand with Jake, romantically?

She wondered if she should take a bold step, like when she kissed him at the footpath gates a week ago. That time the bold move brought dividends.

She moved her hand down towards his underpants and squeezed his right buttock. Jake almost jumped out of the sleeping bag, breaking off the kiss and grabbing her wrist. ‘Oh, damn!’ she thought, ‘too much too soon, you’ve blown it now, girl!’

“Sorry, Jake,” Gill apologised, “I got a little carried away.”

“Not to worry,” Jake said, keeping his voice tone neutral, unreadable, but releasing his limpet grip on her wrist, “It looks like it’s brightened up out there. We’ll pack up and get moving so we can get to the camp site before dark.”

Gill observed Jake’s methodical work as they emerged to clear blue skies and brilliant warm sunshine. They had to pull on their wet trousers straight away; Jake put his on while still in the tent. Jake spread out their coats in the sun to partially dry while dismantling the tent and packing it up in his haversack. By the time they set out again it was too warm for their coats, so they tied them to their haversacks and proceeded in their shirtsleeves.

Gill held out a tentative hand. ‘Would he still be upset with her?’ she wondered. Jake smiled and took hold of her hand as they walked along.

They hadn’t gone far when Jake suddenly released hands, dropped his haversack off his shoulders and started to run off to the side of the track and down a steep incline. 

Gill looked where he was heading and could see a man lying at the bottom of this deep gully, ahead of them and to their left. She slipped off and left her haversack too, but picked up her coat as she noticed that much of the gully was in shade as the sun dropped low in the sky this late in the afternoon.

When she had scrabbled her way gingerly down through the loose scree to the bottom of the gully, she saw that Jake had already reached the man, was talking to him and helping him to a drink from his flask. Gill gasped when she saw the man’s leg, his open fracture of the right leg shockingly obvious.

Jake rose and stood between Gill and the injured man. “We can’t get a phone connection down here, what about your mobile?”

Gill flipped her mobile open to see that there was no service on hers either. “I haven’t had any signal since shortly after we started the walk,” she added, “I have checked every now and again throughout the day.”

“Take my phone Gill, and continue down the path until you get a signal and then call the mountain rescue. Tell them that we need an air ambulance. They are in the list of contacts on the phone under ‘Mountain’. Then get back and let us know how long they will be.”

“Not sure if I know my way or may get lost on the way back, and even less able to describe exactly where we are. Best if you go and I stay with him.”

“Yes, but-”

“I’ve seen the wound, Jake,” she said, pressing her hand on his, “What’s his name? You go and I’ll talk to him until the air ambulance arrives.”

“All right,” Jake decided, “His name’s Tim. He lost his bearings in the middle of the hailstorm and slipped on the ice on the edge of the path and fell down here. He says he can’t feel a thing. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Gill approached Tim and spread her coat over the offending wound. She sat down next to him and held his hand, speaking to him all the time. She asked him about his family, surprised to hear he was a grandfather and a widower, who was more concerned wondering how he was going to get to work on Monday if he couldn’t drive his car.

In no time at all, Gill could hear someone descending through the loose scree. It wasn’t Jake returning, but a middle-aged man, more than a little overweight. He was puffed by the time he reached the two climbers sitting it out waiting for the emergency service.

“Hello,” the new arrival puffed, “we saw your bags at the top of the gully, my wife is looking after them. Can’t get any mobile reception, I’m afraid.”

“That’s OK,” Gill smiled in reply, “we couldn’t either. My er- boyfriend has gone down the hill to call help. He knows his way around these hills much better than I do.”

“I’m Ken, by the way, my wife Dee is at the edge of the gully,” he said, waving to his wife. Gill looked up, Ken’s wife was waving back, so Gill couldn’t help herself: she waved back automatically.

Gill heard the helicopter heading their way long before she saw it. Looking up, the clouds were lighter overhead than they had been. Up on the ridge Gill saw Dee take off her hi-vis anorak and wave it around over her head, the helicopter must have seen it and soon it hovered above them, picking out the best spot to land. The helicopter landed on the ridge and in no time at all the paramedics were on scene, armed with stretcher and blankets to check on the injured man. It was only then that Jake appeared at the top of the ridge and waved at her. Gill picked up her soiled coat, which had been put to one side by the paramedics, and walked up to meet him as he came down.

“How are you?” he asked solicitously as they met with a hug, “holding up?”

“I’m fine,” she said, chewing her lip, “I hope he’s going to be all right.”

Behind them, the helicopter took off, sending a cold wet downdraft. Jake squeezed her to him. Ken and Dee waved and took their leave, hurrying off the way that Jake and Gill had come. Gill noticed it was already getting darker and she shivered involuntarily. Jake took Gill’s soiled waterproof jacket from her, taking off his own coat and putting it on Gill. Although Jake was slim, he had broad shoulders. The coat was too big for her but would at least keep her warm and dry.

“What about you, Jake?” she asked, concerned that his courteous gesture would cause excessive risk to his health, “You’ll freeze in this rain. I don’t mind a little blood from the coat.”

“I’ll be alright, Gill, we just need to get a move on if we are going to get to the camp site before it gets too dark.”

He hoisted up both of the haversacks, folded Gill’s coat over his arm and tucked her arm in his before they started to move down the long path towards their target campsite. Overhead, the clouds were turning black and it was already rapidly growing dark and the intermittent freezing rain fell heavier by the minute. Even the wind picked up, driving a cold easterly into their faces.

“How long will it take to get to the camp site, Jake?”

“A couple of hours at most,” he said, getting small LED torches for them both out of a side pocket in his rucksack.

Gill noticed he was shivering, his top already soaked through completely. They hadn’t gone far when they were hit by another savage hailstorm, just as they were about to descend a narrow track, made slippery with ice crystals.

“We’ll stop here,” yelled Jake over the cacophony of falling hail, “I’ll get one of the tents up.”

Gill stopped by, watching as Jake unhurriedly and methodically unpacked and erected the tent. She held the rucksacks and the two torches for him while he worked. When the tent was up and partly pegged down, he took the torches off her and urged her to get inside and take the wet coat off, while he finished off the pegs.

Gill had unrolled her sleeping bag, removed her boots, stripped off to her underwear and was snuggled up inside it by the time Jake poked his head in moments later.“I need the other rucksack, Gill, can you pass it to me?”

“What for?” Gill replied.

“I need to get the other tent up.”

“No you are not! Get yourself in here, now, John Jacob Nicholls, strip off your wet clothes and get in here with me ... now!”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Jake replied meekly, coming into the tent on his knees.

He zipped up the flapping tent. It was a lot darker inside than out, and it had already got quite dark outside. With barely a hesitation, he stowed his mallet, kicked off his boots, and turned off the torches. He wriggled out of his clinging wet shirt. From a prone position he pulled off his trousers, down to the band of his underpants. They were wet too, the water having soaked through from his tee shirt. He hesitated for only a second before pulling them off, along with his socks.

Gill was well aware from the movements of his silhouette what his state of undress was, despite how dark it was in the tent. Without any hesitation on her part, she held open the flap of the sleeping bag, having wriggled over as far as she could to allow him room to get in. She mouthed a silent prayer as his cold body eased in next to her hot one. She put her arms around him and sensed a slight flinch before he relaxed into her warm embrace. Gill still had her bra and knickers on, and feeling a little overdressed.

Gill rubbed his back as he buried his cold face into the natural shelf between her shoulder and neck. Her first impression was that he was clearly cold and shivery, she could feel the goosebumps on his skin. She could also feel the growing tension and heat of his natural reaction on her thigh, which made her determined to press the opportunity up a notch. Gill started by kissing his cold cheek, he nuzzled her neck, and they both started breathing more heavily, the hunger rising between them. Neither could find the words that would break this spell, neither wanted the spell to break. Their lips moved across skin towards one another’s mouth, until lips met and they kissed deeply, passionately, their tongues urgently penetrating yielding lips. Gill gripped Jake’s wet hair with both hands, pulling him as tightly to her lips as she could. Jake’s erection was rampant now and Gill wanted it, needed it.

“I’m sorry, Gill,” Jake panted as he broke off their kiss, “I never intended this to happen when I invited you —”

“I did,” Gill interrupted, “I hoped and prayed this would happen. I need you Jake, I need you now!”

“Are you sure? —”

“Yes! Absolutely! I want you to suck my tits, now!”

She released his head, reached behind her and slipped off her bra. She wasn’t big in the bust. Her breasts had grown when she had the children and the half a stone she had put on over the course of her marriage but, since her disappointment over Christmas, her successful efforts to lose weight had paid off. Now, she was happy with her firmer, slimmer shape, other than her unsightly stretch marks and round tummy. In the dark, though, she felt beautiful, desirable and her excitement heightened.

Jake’s mouth sought out and found Gill’s stiffening left nipple and sucked gently, using his tongue to lick on its tip.

After a few minutes Gill urged him, “Harder, honey, please suck harder!” as she put her fingers into her herself. Jake sucked harder, switching back and forth across her chest as she shuddered with her first orgasm. She pulled his head up to hers and kissed him long and slow as she cupped her hands around his head. She gradually came down from her high. They rubbed noses and kissed each other with light butterfly kisses.

“Jake you were ... lovely,” she sighed.

“I, I didn’t do anything, Gill.”

She laughed, “You did plenty, Jake, honey. Believe me, what you did was wonderful.”

“Can I, er can I ... lick your fingers?”

“What? Oh, yes, of course you can. You can suck these two, but they are a bit ... mucky, if you know what I mean.” She wafted the index and middle fingers of her right hand in front of his face, his nose, resting them on his lips.

“I hope I know why,” he said, running his tongue up them to the tip, and then sucking them in, “Mmm.”

She laughed and pulled Jake into her chest. They were both warm and cosy, though the tent flapped and cracked in the bitter wind as they dropped off to sleep, happily in each other’s arms.