Down in the Woods

by Gary Philpott

  Anna gently grabbed his wrist. “This is enough.”

  “Suit yourself.” He did not remove his hand. “If you change your mind between here and Maidstone, let me know.”

  She breathed more easily when they reached the main road. He seemed to turn the wrong way but after a few minutes she saw a signpost for Maidstone. His hand felt like a rat crawling up and down her thigh, but soon she would be free, soon she would be washing it all away under Anton’s shower.

  Chapter 5

  When she first left the tube station, Anna had turned the wrong way. Not because Anton’s instructions were wrong, but because she had come out of a smaller exit on the other side of the road to the main one he assumed she would exit from.

  It took twenty minutes of walking with sore, tired feet before Anna identified the problem.

  When she got to the door with the number one-four-six on it, three dirty white steps led up to a large front door. The door was more flaky maroon than the bright pillar box red of her mental picture. The house was wide and three stories high. Some steps on the left ran down to the basement. Her eyes were drawn to the faint glow from a frosted window at the bottom of them. A shadow moved behind the window. She heard a toilet flush, and the light went out.

  Anna pressed the top bell push on the left hand side. She was not expecting a response and she did not get one. It was only five-to-midnight and Anton had told her he was rarely home before one in the morning. Anna sat down on the top step and prepared herself for a long wait.

  As each person turned the corner at the end of the road, she always looked up hopefully, but was always disappointed. It was quarter-to-one when Anna stood to stretch out her aching back. Moments later a broad shouldered man approached. His pace slowed as he got close. He looked her up and down before smiling.

  “Are you doing business?” he asked in a soft voice.

  Anna shook her head.

  “You look like you are doing business.”

  She stepped back into the doorway.

  “Are you okay miss?” The man reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a warrant card.

  “I am waiting for my boyfriend.” She deliberately spoke quietly, hoping he would not pick up on her accent. Little did she know that London was such a multicultural society, he would not have thought anything of it if he had.

  “What time are you expecting him?”

  “Soon.” Anna looked at her watch. “One hour.” She immediately realised her mistake. She should have said one o’clock.

  “I should have words with him if I were you.” He returned his warrant card to his pocket. “Tell him to give you a key.”

  “I will.”

  “If I don’t get sidetracked, I’ll pop back in twenty minutes or so, just to check you haven’t come to any harm.”

  “Thank you.” Anna smiled in response to his kindness.

  After he had turned the corner at the bottom of the road, Anna sat down again. Do I really look like a prostitute? She asked herself. She comforted herself with the fact that it did not take much to convince the policeman that she was not.

  Her eyes were almost closing when she heard the rapid drumming of footsteps. She looked up, and there was Anton running towards her. Anna jumped up and ran to meet him. They embraced for the first time in almost a year. He smelt of cooking fat, his hair was a mess, he was gorgeous.

  “Come on, let’s get you inside, you must be knackered.”

  Anton slid his hand under her jacket and held her by her slim waist. He pulled her so close; she walked with a limp all the way back to the house.

  Anton picked up her rucksack and unlocked the door. Anna walked in first.

  The hallway was tiled with black and white tiles. Many of them were cracked. An old moped was leaning up against the stair banister. Two pushbikes were similarly propped up behind it. The only light came from a low wattage bulb hanging from the ceiling. There was no lampshade.

  “Up the stairs, and up the stairs again,” whispered Anton. He put his hand on her bum to guide her up the first step.

  The red stair carpet had a black geometric pattern on it. It was worn in the middle and heavily frayed where it wrapped over the steps. A musty smell hung in the air. It was not the England Anna had hoped for, but Anton was there, it had to be better than Latvia.

  Finally they reached the top floor. The door to Anton’s bed-sit was set in an alcove down two steps. He reached round her and put the key in the lock. With a twist of the wrist, the door opened.

  The curtains hanging above the two sash windows were open. A bed, a little over a metre wide, dominated the middle of the room. To the left was a hand basin. On the floor to the side of that was a small cupboard upon which a kettle and a microwave were standing.

  “I need a toilet,” Anna said.

  Holding the door open, Anton pointed along the landing. “It is on the right.”

  Anton was still holding the door open when she returned. His smiling face watched her every inch of the way down the landing. Anna stepped over the threshold. Anton gently shut the door.

  He grabbed her and pulled her close. Their lips engaged and their tongues entwined. He was holding her so tight Anna was struggling to breathe. She just carried on kissing him and soaked up the wonderful sensation of his body next to hers.

  His hand moved to where she was expecting it to move. What she had not expected was how uncomfortable it felt. In a flash, she was reminded of her ordeal with Ken.

  Anna pushed Anton’s arm down with her elbow. His tongue left her mouth. She twisted and lifted his other hand onto her right breast. Anton accepted the alternative option without questioning the reason for it and immediately picked up from where he had left off.

  The embrace continued until Anton backed her towards the bed.

  “I am dirty. I should shower.”

  “I can’t wait.”

  The edge of the bed met the back of her knees. She tumbled backwards and fell onto it.

  Anton threw his jacket off his shoulders and yanked his T-shirt over his head. He stared down at Anna. Her head was hanging over the far edge of the bed. She struggled with her jacket, but managed to work it down her arms. Her top came off a lot quicker.

  Anton grinned and his eyes sparkled as she struggled to reach the clasp on her bra. Her arm was bent under her back. Her weight was pressing down on it. One hook popped out, and then the other.

  Anna enjoyed the next bit, perhaps more than Anton did. Revealing her breasts to him always reminded her of the first time she had done so as a teenager. His face always showed its appreciation. She fixed her eyes on him and lifted her bra away.

  His two hands started on opposite sides of her waist and caressed their way upwards. She prepared herself to endure some discomfort when they got to her chest, but his touch was light and gentle. When his thumbs moved to her nipples, they softly stroked them to erection.

  Subconsciously, she moved her knees a little further apart. Anton decoded the message. He squeezed her right breast a little firmer. His right hand brushed down her stomach to the waistband on her jeans. The button popped open with a flick of a finger and thumb.

  Anna dropped her head back and waited for the removal process to take place. The zip buzzed its way down. Two fingers tucked themselves into each side of the waistband. The pulling and the tugging started. Over her hips they went. The cool air between her legs told Anna her knickers were going with them.

  The process came to an abrupt halt. She lifted her legs as best she could. Anton went to work on her shoes. A year earlier he would have got the order right. Anna lifted her head to see the progress he was making. The first shoe was just about to go. She looked at her knickers that had been left behind on her knees. Their position added to her excitement. The anticipation of what was to come built to an explosive level.

  The second shoe joined the first on the floor. Her jeans followed soon after. Now he only had her knickers to go. He reached for them and slowly slid them down her legs
and off over her ankles.

  As Anton finished stripping himself, Anna swivelled herself round on the bed and rested her head on the pillow. The foreplay was over. She opened her legs and presented herself to him.

  One last look at Anton told her he was more than ready to take her. She dropped her head back onto the pillow and closed her eyes. She wanted to feel what was about to happen to her, every inch of the way.

  She felt the mattress compress as he knelt between her feet. Everything wobbled as he shuffled up the bed. His hand pressed down either side of her chest, and then he forced himself inside. Anna let out a little gasp.

  He paused for half a second and then pushed in deeper. Anna had waited so long for that moment. Her whole brain was focused on that one part of her anatomy. It felt wonderful. If only that moment could last forever.

  Anton was past the tipping point now. He had no intention of taking his time as was his usual way. Anna knew this one was for him, she knew it would not last long. Her pleasure came from giving herself to him, letting him go as fast as he liked.

  For the first time that night, Anton spoke in Latvian. The words were mixed in with grunts and groans. They told Anna that he was enjoying it as much as she was. The first act was brought to a climax when she gave him three little squeezes in succession.

  The second act started twenty minutes later. This time Anton took things slow and made sure Anna enjoyed it just as much as he had enjoyed the first one.

  Anna never did get her shower. Instead, she fell asleep with her head on his chest and one leg wrapped over his thigh.

  “Felicity, I hoped I might catch you,” said Phillip anxiously.

  “Why are you phoning me? We have put things on ice, remember?”

  “There are things you need to know.”

  “Look Phillip, my physiotherapist arrives in fifteen minutes. I need to have a shower.”

  “Oh don’t Felicity.”

  “Don’t what?”

  “Don’t play with my mind. I could not help but imagine you naked when you said that.”

  “Oh Phillip, control your loins.” Felicity’s mood suddenly lightened. She let out a little giggle.

  “I cannot help myself. I just imagined you in the…” He paused deliberately.

  “Nude.” She giggled again. “Is that what you wanted me to say?”

  “Yes. Say it again.”

  “Nude.”

  “Thank you.”

  “It is all your fault that I need a massage.”

  “How can that be?”

  “I overstretched on Lester the other morning. My right buttock and hamstrings are giving me hell.” Another giggle left her mouth. “Daniel will be back from France this evening and he will expect me to ride him vigorously tonight.”

  “It is too much. Your physiotherapist will be squeezing your buttocks in fifteen minutes and you will be Daniel’s cowgirl tonight. When will it be my turn?”

  “Not for at least a month. We agreed, at least one month.”

  “Undress for me.”

  “I’m already naked and I have not got time for that sort of thing. Why did you phone?”

  “Oh yes. Did you hear I was the victim of a dawn raid yesterday? They dragged me into the police station and questioned me for hours.”

  “Why did they do that, Phillip? I don’t understand.”

  “Neither do I. All I do know is that Katherine now knows about our affair.”

  “You must have told her.” Felicity suddenly sounded angry.

  “Katherine is nobody’s fool. She worked it out. All I did was fill her in on some of the detail. We argued most of the night.”

  “She won’t tell Daniel, will she?”

  “I don’t think so, not directly, though if she confides in her father, the whole county will know before the month is out.”

  “We have been so silly, Phillip. You should have listened to me. We should have ridden away.”

  “We could still ride away. I could come and collect you after lunch.”

  “I have no plan to become penniless. What are you thinking of?”

  “I love you, Felicity.”

  “Not now, Phillip. I need to shower.” She ended the call.

  The door to Phillip’s study flung open. It was Katherine. He wondered if she had been listening to his phone call.

  “I thought you might like to see this,” she barked, and threw a copy of the Times down on his desk. “Page five.”

  He turned two pages in quick succession. An artist’s impression of a young Arab looking woman stared up at him.

  Phillip scanned the article and picked up on the fact that it was the woman from the woods. The picture had been constructed and published in the hope that someone would be able to identify her.

  “She’s not someone you met in Dubai, is she?”

  “We played golf in Dubai, and took a trip out into the desert. The nearest I got to an Arab woman was watching a belly dancer.”

  “Damn you Phillip. I know you couldn’t murder anyone, but why did you have to bring this shame on our family?” Katherine started to sob.

  “There is no need for any shame.” He clutched her head to his shoulder. “Not if we leave the public to believe Felicity was alone when she found this girl.”

  “Cover up your affair you mean.”

  “We have each other and always will. Why spoil that?”

  Katherine lifted her head away and looked at him with her red eyes. “And you promise not to fuck her again?”

  “I promise.” He took hold of the zip on the back of her dress and tugged it down.

  “Okay Phillip. It goes no further.”

  “Good. Now let me see if I can put a smile on that pretty face of yours.”

  Chapter 6

  It was almost midday when Anna woke. She remembered the pleasure of being able to stretch out once Anton had rolled out of bed, but did not remember him leaving. Suddenly thoughts of going outside to explore the streets of London flooded her mind. She climbed out of bed. The air felt cool on her skin.

  After stepping a few paces across the wooden floor, she pulled open each drawer on a chest under the nearest window. She found the small stash of clothes Anton had bought for her in the third one down. Before putting on clean underwear, Anna wanted to be clean herself. She pulled out the largest item in the drawer. It was a red cotton dress. In fact, most of what Anton had bought for her was either red or black.

  Pulling the dress over her head made Anna realise how short it was. Nonetheless, it was long enough to get her down the landing to the shower. Next to the kettle was a plastic bottle of shower gel, full to the brim. Anton had told her that it would be waiting for her in his last letter. He had also said he would wash her all over with it, but that would have to wait. She picked up the bottle and read the label. Two new words left her lips as she did so, ‘moisturising’ and ‘Tesco’. Anna hoped he had not spent too much of his hard earned money on it. Two navy-blue towels hung on the main door. The top one felt very damp. She took the lower one and draped it over her arm.

  The temperature of the shower meant that Anna did not spend as long in it as she expected to. At best, it could be described as lukewarm. She stayed under it just long enough to wash herself all over, quickly rub some of the shower gel into her hair and rinse herself off.

  Back in the bedsit, Anna chose a pair of black knickers from the drawer. That way she could change into clean red ones just before Anton got home. Next she put her jeans on and pulled her trainers onto her bare feet. There were no socks in the drawer, Anton had only bought stockings.

  Food, socks, and maybe a new pair of shoes, thought Anna as she picked up the two twenty-pound notes Anton had left on the bedside table.

  The local shops were not a patch on Oxford Street, or the shopping malls Anton had written about, but as he had said, there were quite a lot of them, and they catered for people’s everyday needs.

  It did not take long for Anna to find the café just past the Bingo hall
. The full English breakfast and two cups of coffee took a larger chunk of her money than she had bargained for. However it did give her strength. She continued to cough for the rest of the day. The green phlegm she was coughing up was not pleasant.

  Getting a tube over to Oxford Circus was not part of her plans when she left Anton’s bedsit, but the temptation was too much. By three o’clock she was treading the pavements down either side of Oxford Street.

  At eight-fifteen that evening she was almost the last customer to leave John Lewis. Not that she had bought anything, but just looking had been wonderful.

  “Where can I buy fish and chips?” she asked.

  The woman she had approached ignored her.

  “You won’t get any along here love.” The voice came from over her shoulder.

  She turned to see a man in his mid-sixties facing her.

  “It’s all expensive ciabattas or steaks around these parts. If I were twenty years younger I would offer to cook you some meeself.” The man chuckled and carried on his way.

  Anna settled her mind to walking up to a MacDonald’s she had passed earlier in the afternoon. It meant her aching feet would need to endure a long walk to the far end of Oxford Street, but if it could not be fish and chips, then it would have to be a Big Mac and a shake.

  By the time she got back to Anton’s bedsit she had less than five pounds in her pocket. All she had to show for the money she had spent was a small bag of groceries she had bought in a corner shop by the tube station. As she sat on the edge of the bed, a feeling of sadness swept through her body. It was a mini-depression that lasted until eleven thirty.

  Her spirits rose again, just as quickly as they had dropped. Anton would be home in not much more than an hour, it was time to get ready for his arrival. Off came her jeans and black knickers, on went a red thong and almost matching stay-up stockings. At that moment Anna thought about the red stilettos she had fallen in love with while looking in a shop window along Oxford Street. Naively she had gone into the shop intending to buy them, but backtracked with embarrassment when she was told the price. I will get a job and buy them for you Anton, she said inside her head.