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At one point in my wanderings I found myself at if not exactly a dead end then certainly a loose one. I still carried my secrets, sure enough and securely, but seeing similar in the dustily draped, deep set windows of a ponderous, faded to grey hostelry in which I’d only recently resided got me into considering seriously the implications of continuing to harbour such things.

So, a loose end then and a rather untidy one, containing both dark and light imponderables with all the old urges and desires not in the least diminished. For a day or so I wandered aimlessly frequenting deep doorways and similar sheltered places for the night until, of a sudden a certain coffee shop in an alley off the quay became both sanctuary and salvation to me.

Curiosity brought me girls, even before I’d revealed, wild offers, bargains not to be missed, all manner of deals, some good, some bad. Secrecy stifled me but caution prevailed. I took my pleasure carefully but frequently, variously and variedly until I met one woman in particular who, upon learning of my predilections introduced me almost immediately to her man friend. After that while some loose ends became at last tightly tied others, to my chagrin, became all the more unravelled.

They had some rooms, the pair of them; their relationship being at first to me uncertain, within a huge rambling building adjoining a warehouse close to the merchants quay. For now, for convenience, not for identification I shall call her Hannah and him, to whom I am now indebted, I shall name only Hannah’s Man.

That he was for a time also My Man is of no consequence, as you will discover if you venture deeply enough into this tale with me.

………………

For several days I sat alone. Several, no many, I would say, watching via a small window the comings and goings within the alley and noticing that, for all its narrowness it was the most busy of busy little places. Traders and moneylenders predominated of course, while merchants and speculators flitted moth like around the edges. Beyond those a ragged fringe of neverdowells and chancers circulated, petty thieves and failed pimps, the underlying basic slag of societies everywhere.

For many days I sat alone, sipping coffee until it grew cold and insipid within the cup, set in a slow spiral downwards ever downwards before the girl I have named Hannah appeared.

“Do you know my name is the same both ways?” she asked me brightly, setting fresh hot coffee down at my place.

“Bet you can’t guess what it is?”

Now being in no mood for guessing games I, for a moment simply gazed at her. She was youngish, probably no more than twenty five or thirty I supposed, tall and shapely, not in the least unattractive.

“Sit awhile” I offered “and we may converse”

She laughed at this, setting aside her tray and wiping her hands on her apron.

“Converse?” she asked “Is that what you call it?”

But she sat anyway and we did converse, for time enough for the clock to show it was close on midday. What we conversed about I can scarce remember there being few points of interest to me. How was it then that more than three hours passed, three hours and some several minutes in the twinkling of an eye while, stone cold and untouched, on the table the coffee she’d brought stared accusingly at me.

And when the clock chimed she arose, smiling, surplus words torn like tissue paper from her lips.

“Tis twelve and I must away!” she said dramatically, as if it was midnight rather than midday.

My disappointment must have been apparent though I did not, in all honesty, consciously make it so. Situations! Chance encounters. And all the while, underlying, the secrecy.

Chance encounters? As she stood there I wondered, for I’d seen something more than mystery in the depths of her dark eyes.

“We must……” I began, convinced that I’d lose her.

“Yes!” she said “We must, mustn’t we!”

……………

I found myself to be quite aroused after she left though I know not why. We’d skirted all manner of eroticism warily, tiptoeing across the thin ice of sexual freedoms and met each others eyes calmly and without too much blinking. And yet I’d become erect and eager from so simple a conversation, the contemplation of which now disconcerted me more than a little.

Rising from the table I walked to the door of the facilities, requesting a fresh cup of coffee on the way and once inside I entered and closed the door of a box. In a moment I undid myself enough to release my penis and in that same moment I began to masturbate furiously bringing myself to a startlingly copious climax almost immediately.

Five minutes later, back at my table I drank my hot coffee thoughtfully, very thoughtfully.

……………

“How are you today?” she asked when next we met.

“Agreeably pleased to see you again!” I told her. “There is one……”

“Hush!” she urged suddenly.

The serving girl brought us a plate of small cakes and biscuits, along with our own jug of coffee unasked. I thanked her; she bobbed her head and went away again.

“Curious ears” she said, her fingers moving indicatively.

Fifth key, second sign. I saw it immediately.

“Well met, met well!” I said.

……………

We finished our coffee and cakes unhurriedly, desiring not to draw attention to ourselves unnecessarily, conversing casually, animatedly, as if we were old friends.

Time passed and passed until eventually she signed and we rose from our table and made to leave. No-one asked for payment so we made none. Neither of us ever did again after that day.

Time passed and we passed with it, through that oft sought door most often unseen and, as was the custom we challenged each other further a few steps along the way.

There are ways of discerning both the degree and the level. I asked of her and she asked of me. We laughed together upon finding ourselves equal, though different but only then did she disclose her cowrie to me.

“The Lady lies hidden in these parts” she told me, the shell gleaming dully in the warmth of her breasts.

“Not without good reason?” I asked.

She nodded, stepping ahead of me on the first flight of stairs.

Hence the fifth key! It went without saying.

“Not without good reason!” she agreed.

And not only fifth key but fifth floor as well, in that vast house, all of it. Vast enough to have a garden with a terrace and fountain all hidden away up on the roof.

……………

The man she lived with was not exactly her husband. That man was away at sea somewhere, she said. Sailing off China or New Zealand, somewhere like that. The man she lived with was welcoming and handsome and it was with an unrestrained kiss that he greeted me.

“Hannah has told me all about you!” he said while she grinned mischievously enough to make me wonder what exactly she’d said. For a moment I was more than a little taken aback then, exchanging signs far quicker than I could read them she winked at me and left.

“We are generous here” he went on, as soon as the door had closed “to our own……”

He gazed at me quizzically.

“But you’ve taken chances, haven’t you? With women who may be jealous and men who might talk……”

“Am I in danger?”

Hannah’s man shook his head.

“No longer, now you are here, but earlier you might have been”

“How so?” I asked, suddenly alert to what he was saying. “And from whom?”

“From those two sisters, for a start!” he informed me.

“Those two……?”

It was thoughtless of me I know but at the time the idea of making love to identical twins appealed to me. They weren’t particularly attractive girls but they were, well lets just say they had a certain appeal.

Hannah’s man grinned at me. “Both of them considered you marriageable material……”

“Marriage……!” I began and Hannah’s man grinned

“Then there was Thomas the Tailor!” he said.

Inwardly I groaned. I’d encountered Thomas the Tailor on one of my less than energetic days. He’d been disappointed, so had I come to think of it, disappointed enough to make some sarcastic remarks when I left. He’d been rather too effeminate a man for my liking but I didn’t tell him that. French perfumes did nothing to disguise his natural aroma and I think a mannequin from his window would have performed better than he did.

“Thomas the Tailor was an oaf! I said.

“Nevertheless you allowed yourself to speak freely with him”

“We talked of this and that, yes” I said “But nothing oathbound as I recall”

Hannah’s man nodded grimly.

“His next liaison was with an importer of seeds and grains; a merchant with connections with the orient” He said. “A man of no little influence in the field of espionage and……

“The tailor was found in the harbour this morning!” Hannah told me quietly “Officially he drowned but the men who found him say he had a large wound on his head……”

“Maybe he fell” I suggested.

“Maybe he did!” Hannah’s man agreed “That is what we hope everyone will think. His close friends however may suggest something different……”

“Ah!” I exclaimed “That throws a rather different light on the matter!”

Hannah’s man grimaced.

“A different light and different shadows and all of them stark!”

“Whats to be done then?” I asked.

“Where……” he peered at me questioningly “……where and when lies your craft?”

I thought it prudent then to tell Hannah’s man that my craft, so called, lay parked safely in a lock up garage at a place called Woodbastwick, in the county of Norfolk in the country of England and in time at the very end of the twentieth century.

“Wood……bast……uic?” he mouthed thoughtfully.

I nodded “Little wood, lots of farmland, no-one can see the wood for the trees!”

It was a feeble joke and it fell not only upon stony ground but on deaf ears as simply and as easily. But she was well hidden anyway, as well as she could be to my way of thinking. Hell I’d paid enough to the land agent, exclusive use of the building for one year. The van was practically new at the time and he’d asked no questions. I’d got off with his receptionist too, easily, without even trying. Would she be able to show me the way to the farm? I was a stranger here. That was my excuse.

Of course she would!

They were closing the office for the day anyway so she conceded and I, following her directions, drove there in double quick time. She didn’t ask why I wanted to store a nearly new commercial vehicle in a tatty shed for a year and I didn’t enlighten her. I showed her the interior sprung mattress I had in the back of it instead.

And you know, secretaries, receptionists, those sorts of women, are much of a muchness when you get them undressed. I might sound a bit like a male chauvinist when I say that, but its true. As true as I lay in the back of my van with her.

“’s the firs’ time I bin done in the back of one o’ these!” she admitted.

I wondered what vehicle she more often did it in, but I didn’t ask.

“Johns new Range Rover……” she informed me anyway.

“Shhhhh!” I said.

She’d a nice round bum and longer legs than I’d thought originally, immature little nipples and pale ginger pubic hair which was very curly and springy. Her most appealing feature I think.

Perhaps John’s new Range Rover was more expensive but my van was certainly more comfortable. And more private, shut up inside an agricultural building as it was. So private indeed that we were able to make love in the back of it without closing the doors, a feature which the receptionist girl found immensely amusing.

“I shall have fond memories of this place from now on!” she murmured as we left. Awkwardly she lived some miles away and I felt obliged to take her home. We were almost there when her mobile rang. It was her husband demanding to know where she was. If I tell you I was touching her up at the time would you think me very naughty? Well it didn’t bother her and it was very stimulating for me as her slippery little pussy tightened involuntarily against my hand ……

“Woodbastwick!” I said and Hannah’s man nodded.

“OK!” he announced decisively.

You know I like men who make swift decisions. They turn me on no end! Oh I can’t abide those who dither and fiddle. Give me a decisive man every time.

“She left her knickers in the van” I told him as we cuddled up in bed together. “I saw them there on the seat when I took the van back!”

“And don’t tell me” Hanna’s man said carefully “You picked them up and sniffed them?”

“Damn right I did!” I said. “It’s a deliciously earthy scent, isn’t it, that of a woman?”

“Yerr it is!” Hannah’s man shivered.



© Aahlu. 101010.