The Valley of Longing 2

The nervousness that had afflicted Lily since she left her parents’ house seemed to grow with every step, She had set out with just a single butterfly fluttering about her stomach, but now she was almost at her destination her stomach roiled and churned with what seemed like thousands. Her nervousness was made all the worse by her lack of familiarity with the feeling. She was the only daughter of the richest family in the Dorpie, was worth more than anyone she went to school with, and was one of the most attractive people she knew; because of that she had never encountered a situation where she couldn’t do or have what she wanted, the result of which was that she had been given little cause to experience nerves during her young life. A loud toot made Lily forget, momentarily, about the butterflies in her stomach. She looked around without slowing and saw Louise Hawkins in her front garden. The elderly woman was shaking her head disapprovingly, and when she saw where Louise’s gaze was fixed, on the point where her micro mini - skirt stopped, Lily grinned. It amused her to think that she was probably showing more leg publicly than Louise had ever shown in private, and the thought buoyed her and made some of her nervousness disappear; if her outfit was disapproved of by Louise Hawkins then she had chosen the right one. ‘Afternoon, Mrs Hawkins,’ Lily called out cheerfully, before the overgrown hedge that surrounded the house next door cut off her view of the old woman. Jack Wild’s fingers danced over the keys of the laptop before him. He was far from a speed typist, he couldn’t even touch - type, nonetheless he was rapidly filling the screen with words. His attention was diverted from what he was doing by a sudden flash of colour, which he saw out the corner of his eyes; lifting his head to look out the window, he saw nothing. He had just decided that it must have been a bird when the doorbell rang. He cursed the interruption, and tempted to ignore it; he was on a bit of a roll with his writing and didn’t want to lose his momentum. The courtesy his parents had drilled into him during his youth wouldn’t permit him to do so, however. It might have been easier for him to ignore the doorbell, if he was still living in Kuruman, where the person at the door was as likely to be someone from a charity, pestering for a donation, or a political canvasser, as a genuine visitor. Here in Doring Draad, though, the odds of the person at his door being a genuine visitor were much higher. With an unhappy sigh, Jack pushed his chair back from the desk and got to his feet. The greeting that rose to his lips died there when he caught sight of the person on his doorstep. The first thing he saw was a pair of tanned legs, followed by a black micro mini-skirt that was only a little bigger than a belt, then a red top, cut low to show off the cleavage and so skin - tight, he couldn’t help thinking that it must be at least one size too small. From the skirt and top his eyes took in the rest of the figure, which he liked very much - he could not remember the last time he saw someone in such a revealing outfit, at least not in person - before moving up to the face. He quickly cut off his thoughts when he saw how young his visitor was. She had the body of a woman, but it was clear from her face that she was a teen, no older than sixteen. He was at a loss, he couldn’t think why such a provocatively - dressed teen should be on his doorstep at any time, let alone at a quarter past two on a Friday afternoon, when he was sure she should be at school. He swallowed, ungluing his tongue from the roof of his mouth, and forced his gaze back to his visitor’s face. ‘Hello,’ he finally managed to say. ‘You’re Jack Wild,’ Lily said excitedly, the last of her nerves gone, now that she was there and she had seen how he looked at her - the same way almost every other male, regardless of their age, did. ‘That’s right,’ Jack agreed. He was still getting used to people reacting to him in that fashion, though he didn’t think he would ever truly become comfortable with the semi-fame that came with being a bestselling author. ‘And you are?’ ‘Lily, Lily Potgieter, I’m a huge fan,’ she declared breathlessly. Her nervousness might be gone, chased away by her usual confidence, but she wasn’t yet in complete control of her - she had met a number of famous people through her great - uncle, who was a successful businessman in multiple fields, but none were as handsome as Jack Wild, and the combination of his fame and his looks left her more excited that she could remember being. She was as attracted to him as she suspected he was to her. ‘Hello, Lily’, Jack shook her hand briefly. ‘I wouldn’t have thought my books were the sort of thing a girl like you would read,’ he said. He was not all that interested in such things, but his agent had provided him with a breakdown of his reading audience, which told him that it was mostly twenty to forty-five year olds that read his books. ‘Oh I absolutely love them,’ Lily enthused. ‘I’ve read everything you’ve written, and loved it all. I got the first one from my Dad and just had to get the rest. Your true crime books are great, but I prefer your Inspector Dickens books. Would you sign them; I’ve brought them all with me.’ Jack watched in amusement as Lily took the rucksack from her shoulder and knelt to open it. He saw that she wasn’t lying, she had brought copies of all seven of his books, in hardback no less. ‘Will you sign them?’ Lily asked, looking up at Jack from her kneeling position, her most winsome expression on her face. The question drew Jack’s attention away from the books in the bag, though before it reached her face it came to rest on her cleavage. Her cleavage was not as large as his ex-wife’s, but it was generously displayed by her revealing top, and he felt distinctly uncomfortable when he remembered that she was a teen and he shouldn’t be looking. Despite that he couldn’t seem to drag his eyes away. ‘Mr Wild?’ Jack flushed and wrenched his gaze from the view he knew he shouldn’t be enjoying. When he found her face, he was surprised to see that she didn’t appear to be bothered by his ogling, to the contrary, there was a hint of a smile playing about her lips which suggested she was amused rather than annoyed or upset. ‘Sure, I’d be happy to sign them,’ he said once he had recovered.’ Let me get a pen.’ Can’t I come in?’ Lily asked. ‘ I didn’t just come for your autograph, though I do really want that.’ ‘What is it you want?’ Jack asked, his hand on the door as he prepared to close it at the first sign of the trouble he now sensed was in the air. ‘I want to be an author like you,’ Lily told him. ‘I’m writing a book at the moment. I was hoping you could give me some tips on how to make it as good as it can be, and on getting it published. Please, it’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do; when I heard you’d moved to the Dorpie, I thought it must be a sign.’ If there was one thing Jack had learned over the years, it was how to tell when someone was lying, and he didn’t get the feeling that Lily was. ‘You’d better come in then,’ he said, opening the door wide. When Lily stepped over the threshold, she brushed past him, her breasts rubbing against his arm. It was a deliberate move, Jack was sure of that, and it occurred to him that she had done it as part of an attempt at seduction, he was old enough to be her father, though, and he couldn’t think why she would want to seduce him. The feeling that there was trouble brewing increased, and he was tempted to send Lily on her way before that trouble could show itself; the politeness that had made him answer the door when he wanted to get on with his work wouldn’t let him, however. He was closing the door when he glimpsed movement through one of the bare patches in his hedge. Straightaway he realised that it must be his neighbour; he liked Louise Hawkins, she was generally a pleasant and friendly person, but she was curious about the limited comings and goings of her neighbours, and not all that discreet in her curiosity. Jack couldn’t make up his mind whether to be concerned, or amused, by what Louise Hawkins was likely to make of his having invited a barely - dressed teen into his house. There was one thing he was certain of, news of his visitor was likely to be all around the Dorpie in next to no time, whether he cared or not. He put his overly inquisitive neighbour from his mind as he closed the door and followed his visitor into the living room; he arrived in time to have his eye caught by something bright orange on the sofa. It was a moment before he realised that it was his guest’s underwear, being revealed by her too short skirt. A half smile, a duplicate of the one he had seen when Lily knelt on his doorstep, made him realise that the flash was deliberate and that she wanted him to look. For the second time, he got the impression she was trying to seduce him; he quickly dismissed the idea, however, she had said she wanted his help but couldn’t imagine she would go to such lengths to get it. ‘Would you like a drink?’ he asked from the doorway, doing his best to ignore the orange that peeked out at him again as Lily shifted position. He hoped she did, he wanted a chance to recover his equilibrium, and to do something about his parched throat.