The Weekly Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3312 by Angharad Copyright© 2021 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 walking towards the checkout with a tub of the locally made, overpriced raspberry ice cream when I was buttonholed by none other than Peter Dominic.

"Professor, how lovely to see you again."

I wasn't sure I agreed with him, "Mr Dominic," I acknowledged him, "thank you for the flowers."

"My pleasure."

"I hope you're not stalking me."

"Goodness, no, I just popped in to grab a sandwich."

"I wish I understood what exactly you want from me, Mr Dominic?"

"Your order for my company," he smiled but there was something he wasn't telling me. What was it? I could just dismiss him as an over enthusiastic sales rep or some sort of weirdo who wants to be a groupie - of mine - yeah weird or what?

"I'm awaiting James' report on that, and at the moment you are in with a shot, so if there's nothing else, I'd better get this home and in the freezer before it melts." I nodded and stepped past him.

"Actually, there is something, but it's too personal to say anything here." My intuition was working fine.

"I thought there was." I paid for the ice cream and headed out to my car. "I was once stalked by a very sad and rather ill man from Bristol, who claimed that he loved me and I loved him. I tried to put him right that I had a husband but he tried to kill my colleague and possibly me and ended up slipping on the wet floor of a laboratory and falling on the knife that killed him. I am therefore very wary of stalkers and the like."

"I assure you that I am not stalking you, though I did follow you here. I need to talk to you about someone, who I think you could help."

"Do I know this person?"

"I don't think so."

"So how could I help them?"

"That's a bit too long a story to tell you in a car park."

"If you're messing me about, you realise I could cause you loads of grief."

"I'm not messing you about, I promise."

"Yet you have lied to me so far."

"I haven't lied, only not told you the whole story and I apologise for that, but I needed to meet you again and see if you'd changed. You were always very helpful in school, even when the whole system seemed intent on destroying you, you remained a decent and caring person."

"I can also be very nasty and aggressive when provoked, Mr Dominic, or if I think someone is threatening me or mine."

"You'd have every right to be so, but I assure you I'm not trying to do anything against you and I'm only trying to ask for your help for this person who I care about."

There was something in his demeanour which seemed to tell me he was being truthful and noticing the time, I decided I would take a chance and believe him.

"Follow me, but I warn you if you are trying something on, my husband will probably destroy you and your company."

He shrugged and went a little pale but assured me he wasn't. I drove slowly enough for him to be able to follow me through the increasing traffic and eventually turned into our drive. The minibus thing was already parked, so David and the girls had beaten me. No matter. Though I did wonder if I should be showing someone all the children in our house if he had malign intentions. I parked and unloaded my car. He parked behind me and offered to carry the ice cream.

"This is some house you have, Professor."

"You seemed surprised by it," I said, thinking he possibly isn't stalking me but he could also be lying. If he was, he'd know my married name and who my husband was. So far he hasn't said anything about Simon, so it could be he doesn't know who I am completely. Things seem weirder by the moment.

"I know professors earn a good salary but this place must be worth over a million."

"It's my father's house."

"What the guy from Bristol who used to beat you up?"

"What do you mean?"

"I saw bruises on you first thing in the morning and I know no one had had you in school, so it had to be at home or outside. I didn't think it would be outside because you could run pretty fast, so it had to be in the house and it was more likely to be your father than your mother."

"Ten out of ten, Mr Dominic. My father did beat me when I was younger but he died a few years ago and my professor at Portsmouth sort of adopted me. I call him my father and although I made my peace with my birth father, Professor Agnew has been twice the father he ever was, to me and a granddad for my children."

"You have children, wow."

"You should really do your research if you want to stalk someone."

"I'm not stalking you as you will see in a short time."

We proceeded into the house through the kitchen, where I said hello to David and asked him to put the ice cream in the fridge. "Oh this is, Mr Dominic."

"Is he staying to dinner, your ladyship?"

"I don't know, David. Any chance you could make us a couple of cups of tea and send them through to the study."

Moments later we were surrounded by girls, including Danni and her sore knee. I told them there was ice cream in the freezer but for consumption after dinner. There were cheers and grumbles when they realised they had to wait, but I ignored them and we went through to my study.

"This place is like the Tardis, it's bigger than it looks."

"Yes, we extended it a few years ago, we now have eight bedrooms but two of those form Stella's suite where she and her two daughters live."

"Should I know Stella?"

"No, she's my sister in law."

"Oh, right. Crikey, this is a lovely room," he said as we entered my study. It was lined with loads of books as you know, but mainly the ones I was using or I like around me, mostly field guides or specialist dictionaries. I'm still an ecologist/ field biologist even though I spend much time in my ivory tower, it isn't my vocation, being out in the field observing and trying to understand what I'm seeing is.

"The library is through there." I indicated a door off my study.

"You have a library? Jesus, how the other half live."

"I love books."

"May I see it?"

I opened the door and he looked at the books and journals on the shelved walls. He walked up and down shaking his head. "You've got a better library than some institutions I've studied at."

"Some of it is Tom's my dad. He's been collecting longer than me but I'm probably more acquisitive than he is. General books, fiction, children's book are mainly in the lounge, some in the dining room and the children have some in their bedrooms too."

"How many books have you got?"

"About ten thousand give or take a few and a couple of thousand journals. I take three or four here rather than the university, Tom has a similar number, plus we have loads of downloaded stuff on the server. I pay for a service via the university so we're not abusing their services."

"I'd have thought if you work for them, you'd have an entitlement to use their library."

"I do, but I don't abuse it."

"I'm impressed, Professor, I really am. You have certainly landed on your feet despite your difficult start." We walked back into my study and he saw a photo of Spike.

"What is that? A hamster?"

"That is Spike a dormouse who lived far beyond her allotted span and who was almost a pet. The kids loved her and so did I. She's buried in the garden."

Livvie knocked the door and brought in a tray of tea and bone china mugs with a teapot and small jug of milk and sugar bowl. "Have we really got to wait until after dinner, Mummy?"

"Yes, I told you all, so any whining and you'll wait until tomorrow. This is Mr Dominic, Mr Dominic, this Livvie one of my daughters." they nodded at each other.

"How many have you got?" he looked confused.

"There's me, Trish, Hannah, :Mima, Danni with the elbow crutches, Cate, and Lizzie, Julie and Phoebe live in town in their own place, Sammi lives and works up in London, Jackie is at Salisbury, oh, and Billie died."

"They're all girls?" he gasped.

"Of course," said Livvie cheekily, "we're better than boys." She smiled sweetly and left closing the door behind her.

"You had one who died, I'm sorry."

"Thank you, she died from a brain haemorrhage while we were out cycling."

"I'm really sorry, that must have been awful."

"It was." I poured two cups of tea and we added our own milk, neither of us used sugar. We sat silently drinking our teas I let my sadness about Billie dissipate though did remember I'd left flowers on her grave.

"Are you going to tell me what it was you wanted ask me about."

"Is that your husband in the kitchen?" he asked.

"Good lord, no, that's David our chef."

"Chef? What sort of household is this?"

"We're quite well off."

"I realise that."

"You really haven't done your homework, have you?" I said smirking, okay so it's juvenile, so what?

"No, not at all, all I needed to know was where you were now so I could meet you and ask you for your help. When I saw the name Watts, and C Watts at that, it had to be worth a try. I hit the jackpot at the first attempt."

"I wasn't aware I was trying to hide from anyone."

"Does your husband know, about, you know?"

"Yes and so do all the children."

"Are they yours, I mean are you their natural mother?"

"No, as you should realise, I can't have children all my breeding bits were removed not that they were much use anyway. I'm AIS."

"What does that mean, remember I'm a poor biologist not a clever dick professor who has a brain the size of a planet."

"Yes 42 and all that. I've got or had androgen insensitivity syndrome, so my body doesn't respond to testosterone."

"So that explains why you're so female."

"Yes, I started growing boobs while I was at Sussex and my hips broadened a bit as well, plus my voice didn't break or hair start sprouting everywhere I wouldn't want it."

"You're actually a very lovely woman."

"Careful, Simon can be a tad sensitive."

"Simon?"

"Yes, Simon Cameron, my husband."

"What, the Simon Cameron?"

"Simon the banker boy, yes."

"Isn't he a lord or something?"

"Yes, Lord Simon Cameron of Stanebury or Lord Stanebury, his dad's a viscount."

"Jesus H Christ, you are married to one of the richest families in Britain?"

"Europe, I think."

"Well, bugger me with a..."

"I'm trying to give it up and so is Simon, being ex public school."

"What?"

"That was a joke."

He looked totally confused, "So you're what Lady Stanebury?"

"Uh, not when I'm working, then I'm just Cathy Watts, queen of Portsmouth."

He smiled and then laughed. "So the girl done good?"

"That would be one way of describing it, not bad for someone Murray described as the bane of his school with my perverted desires."

"He didn't did he? I just remember him announcing that Miss Watts was attending the school and for us to show you every courtesy. Half of us fancied you, you know?"

"At that stage, I didn't fancy any of you, so sorry and all that?"

"Why did he make you wear the girl's uniform, shouldn't he have sent you next door to them?"

"That's where I should have been. No, by announcing it he gave every bully carte blanche to attack me as long as they were stealthy about it. Old Whitehead tried to protect me as much as he could."

"Goodness, I haven't thought about him for years, how is he, do you know?"

"He died in my arms."

"What?"

"He was at one of the schools one of my kids was at and I had to deal with him, at first I thought he despised me, but he told me he'd tried to protect me from the excesses of our beloved psychopathic headmaster when a parent whose child he'd suspended for being a thug, stabbed him to death in front of me. There were two of them, I managed to down one of them and when the other came at me with the knife, Danielle drove the car at him."

"Did she kill him?"

"No, thank goodness, but it was only when the CCTV showed we were telling the truth, that the police believed me."

"What, a peer's wife and a noted academic and they didn't believe you?"

"I have had a few run ins with the local plod but after they paid out half a million in damages, they tend to avoid annoying me. It went to a children's home."

"Goodness, I've missed out on quite a few things, haven't I?"

"One or two, now tell me why have to come to see me?"
The door was knocked and Danielle was standing there in all her girly glory, complete with a top which enabled her to show off her small cleavage and was tight across her ample hips. Normally she would dress down to do her homework. "Is Mr Dominic staying to dinner? Oh and Daddy's five minutes away."

"Thank you sweetheart, tell David, yes, he is staying to dinner. I presume that's okay?"

He blushed and spluttered, "If it's no trouble?"

"Not to me, David cooked it. How's the leg, kiddo?" I asked Danielle.

"Bloody sore, can you do some massage on it later?"

"I expect so. Get one of the others to let us know when dinner's ready."

"Trish will bang the gong I expect, you know what a ham she is." She left laughing and I smiled at her.

"What has she done to her leg?"

"Football injury."

"What in school?"

"No at Chelsea."

"Chelsea?" He looked totally bemused.

"She plays professional football for Reading ladies, she's got three or four caps for England."

"She's a Lioness, what a schoolgirl one."

"She's done that and moved on to the elite level, she's scored about half a dozen goals for England including one with an overhead bicycle kick."

"Against Germany?"

"Either them of Holland."

"I saw that on the telly, one of the most amazing goals I've ever seen. Is there anyone in your family who is just ordinary?"

"Not really, they're all cleverer than I am, one of them is off the IQ scale she's so clever. Cambridge have been trying to recruit her but she's too young to cope with older students."

"Bloody hell," he shook his head.

Just then the gong sounded and I thought saved by the bell, but he wasn't getting away until he told me what he'd come for.