The Weekly Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3259 by Angharad Copyright© 2020 Angharad

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This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
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I was too unsettled to do justice to the braised steak that David had cooked for us with his usual talent, it was lovely but my heart wasn't in it. The others asked where Danielle was and I said she wasn't feeling very well and would probably be down a bit later. They accepted that or seemed to. As we cleared up, David, who'd stayed to eat some of his own confection asked me if everything was all right. When I asked him why he'd asked, he said he could see I'd been crying and he wondered if it was related to Danni's absence. He appears to have retained some of his female intuition because Daddy was there and hadn't noticed anything.

I fobbed David off and he went back to his cottage. Danni did come down but couldn't face her dinner, so I did her scrambled egg on toast. I then left her to clear it up as I needed to get back to my university papers. I'd been at it for about an hour, sorting out the bids and so on when Daddy came round to my study and knocking let himself in. My first thought was of irritation, 'What does he want now?' Instead, he seated himself opposite me and demanded I stop my paperwork and talk with him.

"Daddy, I haven't got time for a chat, you need all this for tomorrow's meeting."

"There are mair important things than blessed paperwork."

"You won't say that if we fail to set budgets for next year."

"Aye I wull, whit's wrang wi' Danielle?"

"Not a lot, just boyfriend problems. She'll get over it."

"Wi' ye helping her, I ken she wull; but I asked whit was wrang."

"Daddy, I haven't got time for this."

"Sure ye hae, whit's mair important than your children and ma grandchildren?"

"Look, I agree in principle, but she's not seriously ill or facing any other emergency, so can we discuss this some other time."

"It's aboot sex, isnae it?"

"Who told you that?"

"I pit twa and twa together efter ye said it wis her boyfriend and sex is a very likely answer."

"I can't discuss things she told me in confidence, Daddy."

"Aye, I respect that, but ye ken where I am if ye need me." He stood and left the room leaving me back in a fluster again. Danielle came in and sat opposite me and I ignored her while I checked some figures on a calculator.

"He hasn't put the photos up yet, Mummy." Her voice was full of relief.

"Yet being the operative word, young lady. D'you know where he lives?"

"Yeah, I know the house but not the number."

"But you could take us there?"

"Yeah, I suppose so, why d'you want to go there?"

"I want to speak with him."

"Won't that make things even worse?"

"Danielle, I have the resources to destroy him and his whole family..."

"Mummy, you're frightening me..."

I raised my hand, "I don't want to harm anyone, sweetheart, I'd much rather he thought so much of you that he wouldn't wish to disrespect you."

"Oh, I thought you were thinking pre-emptive nuclear strike..."

"That's the final option. If I can ascertain if he really likes you and respects you, then I'll just thank him, ask him to delete the photos and leave."

"And if he doesn't?"

"I'll give him an ultimatum before I start destroying his life, one cell at a time."

"That's nasty, Mummy."

"I'm not usually nice to people who attack my children."

"If he posts them, I'll get them taken down double-quick, or Jason will. It's amazing what mention of, 'underage child', has upon their efficiency."

"I'm not sure if I want you to meet him."

"I'm not asking your permission, I'm insisting you tell me where he lives."

Half an hour and many tears. I was switching off the engine of my Jaguar while Danni tried to hide in the glove box. "You stay here,"

I knew his name was Michael and rang the doorbell to ask to speak with him. His mother answered the door. "Yes?" she said. I stepped back and put my face mask on to observe the covid protection procedures.

"Hi, I'd like to have a word with Michael if I may, it won't take long."

"What about?" she stayed inside the door, which was a white plastic covered thing with an awful picture of a bird in the centre of the glass panel.

"It's rather personal."

"So, I'm his mother and I don't see why an older woman would need to speak with him."

"I have a sixteen-year-old daughter."

She looked as if she was about to say something then changed her mind. "So it's about her then?"

"It's about both of them."

"So why isn't she here then?"

"She's in my car."

"If I get Michael you go and get her and we'll sort out what this is all about." It seemed a fair thing for her to say but to me, it was just going to make everything worse by a factor of ten.

"I think that isn't necessary for the moment and if it becomes so, then I shall get her."

"If you're intending to interrogate my Michael, why can't I do the same with your girl? I don't even know who you are."

"I'm Cathy Cameron, Danielle's mother."

"You'd better come in," she stepped back and I entered a very tidy semidetached house built in the 1970s with an attached garage and space to park a second car on the driveway.

She called him down and this gangly youth appeared looking a bit perplexed with me standing in their lounge. "This lady would like to speak with you about you and Danielle, her daughter."

He shook his head, "Don't think I know any Danielles." His mother looked slightly relieved and was about to dismiss him and me shortly afterwards when I asked if he played football.

"He plays for Pompey youth team, why?"

"Danielle plays for their ladies team."

He caught his breath, and he knew damn well who I was talking about.

"You do know her, she's the best female player in Portsmouth and possibly the whole of the UK."

"Yeah, I've met a few times."

"You persuaded her to go out with you and had intimacies with her in your car." His mother was about to say something and I put my hand up to her to be quiet, "I'm not condemning you for that, but she seemed to think you had photos of the event on your phone and you were going to put them on the internet. That I will not allow."

He blushed and mumbled something.

"Have you taken these photos?" demanded his mother.

"No, course not."

"So let me see your phone then?" she asked him and he reluctantly took it from his trouser pocket and she tore it from his hand.

"This what you're on about?" she said passing me the phone. I looked hesitantly and nodded, she deleted each of them. "Happy now?"

"Happier, thank you."

"I know you, don't I?"

"Do you?" I said back to her.

"You're at the university aren't you?"

"I work there, yes."

"So do I, in the general office, you're a professor or something, aren't you but I thought it was a different name you used there?"

"Yes, Professor Catherine Watts."

"I knew it, aren't you married to some banker bloke?"

"Yes, Simon Cameron."

"He's a lord or something isn't he?"

"Yes," I was blushing now.

"My husband works for his bank."

"Oh, I see." I blushed some more as she realised that had I felt unhappy with her or her son, retribution could have been swift and overwhelming and both of them could have been unemployed very quickly.

"I'd better go," I said and moved towards the door.

"Goodnight, Lady Cameron," she said and shut the door and a moment later she was blinding her son, "You stupid little fool, d'you who she is? She could have destroyed us without any effort at all. Leave the bloody girls alone you stupid moron..."

I got back into the car waking the snoozing Danielle. "Oh, you're back," she said sleepily.

"Yes, and he won't post them on the net."

"What?" she said almost in surprise.

"The photos you were concerned about have been deleted."

"Oh yeah, thanks, Mummy," she leant over to kiss me and I hugged her as much as the seat belts would allow.

"Please don't see him again, darling," I asked her firmly.

"No, okay, Mummy, I don't think he was my type anyway."

"Glad to hear it." I started the car and was pulling off from the kerb when she added,

"His dick was too small."

How I didn't hit the car in front of me, I'll never know but she laughed uproariously until the tears ran down her cheeks.