Unexpected visitor

Monday 15 September

It was delightfully warm all day, as I had hoped and even expected it would be here in Virginia. These late-summer afternoons are glorious, not too hot with plenty of sun, nothing like the quickly-greying twilight we had in England even at this time of year. Even though the daily humidity has pretty much gone since the hurricane, the pool has not gone too cold and even a dip in the Bay is not too chilly. Today, instead of doing any homework I went down to the lower lawn and spent a lovely hour by myself, on my chaise with a towel and a book.

Jessy did not come down, claiming she had reading or something, but I knew she might have seen me as her room is on the second floor at this corner. Nevertheless I was good, so I wouldn't do anything too spectacular. When I presumed it was close to tea-time I sat up, pulled my panties back on, and collected my towel and book. The panties are not what I wore to school but brand-new, just plain low-rise cottons in a very pale pink. I love the fit and so wore them just as loungewear even though I could have gone without anything at all.

As I came in the side garden gate I perceived Mother leaning out the back door looking for me. 'Oh!' she called. 'There you are. Janine... you have a guest.'

Half a second before I froze-- you know, who could this be? -- I saw a familiar face peering out past Mother at me. 'Oh, hello,' I said politely, and made sure my posture was straight as I ascended the steps inside the gate.

'Hi,' Chris said, somewhat shyly, and she watched me stroll confidently across the garden and up to the back terrace.

Mother just looked from me to Chris and back again, and then made a kind of sly giggle and stepped back into the back parlour. 'What's up?' I said to Chris as I stopped right in front of her.

'Nothing,' Chris said. Her eyes went all over me. I guess I kind of expected that she would be curious about finding a nice friend from school who sunned nearly naked. Honestly I didn't feel awkward myself at all. I have been getting so used to this that I might not have flinched if she'd been with a boy.

'So... you just came over here yourself, then?' I asked to make sure.

She shrugged. 'Yes, just to see you.... Your stepmother said you'd be having tea. I didn't think that....'

I made a wry face. 'Well, I can go put something on then. You might as well come up.' And I eased past her, through the double French windows that usually stand open in weather like this, and started in to the big parlour.

'Janine,' Mother called, coming through the dining room behind me, and I turned round with Chris almost bumping into me. 'Would you tell those other two that tea is up? And Chris, you are welcome too, if you'd like.'

Chris thanked her politely and I led her off, through the big parlour to the back hallway, up stairs to the gallery and in past my bathroom to my room. 'Wow,' she said slowly, stopping at the doorway. 'What's on these floors?'

'The floors?' I turned and looked down where she looked at the floor boards. 'Nothing's on them. They're just wood. Unfinished oak.'

'Unfinished?' she wondered. 'That's so--' Then she looked up at my canopied bed, dark-green-stained with curtains and a spread that match the blue-and-white toile of the window draperies, and my dark mahogany Sheraton (repro) dresser, and the little round table between the windows done in blue milk-paint, with its two matching Windsor chairs. My walls have panelling along the bottom, up to the window sills, the same green milk-paint as the bedstead, and above the rail the plaster is just plain white. It's nothing very expensive, just very traditional, like the rest of this house, simple and understated and easy to have been made, like it would have been had this house really been built in 1720 instead of just looking like it was. Unlike most people I have known I don't have any posters of Zac Efron or photo collages of friends tacked up on my walls, just a few framed mementoes here and there and a litho of Romney's children over my fireplace. Most of the stuff in my room was either acquired through junk shops or else, like the bed, ordered specially for this house while we were still in England. When you grow up around wood and cabinetry and architecture as I have, you get to appreciate these things, you know.

'Janine,' she said looking round it all, 'my God....'

At the time I was not really thinking. 'What?' I asked.

'This place is gorgeous.'

I laughed and turned from her towards my table. By now I don't think she was so surprised to have found me nearly naked. Either the room, or my near-nakedness, would just be one more unexpected and unusual part of her surprise visit to me this afternoon.

I opened the laptop and showed her some of the pictures from England, letting her sit in my chair while I leaned over and poked at the keys. She didn't seem to mind that I was so close to her. Some people might be expected to feel awkward at someone bare right beside her. But Chris was already willing to accept me. She's a real friend.

With the windows open on the shady side of the house the sea breeze can make it pretty chilly and I was a little embarrassed to discover I was showing it. While Chris paged through some more pics I got a jersey out of my drawer. It's just the one from my old school, a little heavier than a t-shirt, with the flag on it. Chris looked up and watched as I wriggled it on over my head. In spite of the flat fit it fell down just low enough to hide the panties. That was good enough. 'Well,' I said, 'shall we go down for tea?'

She smiled and looked me over again. I have good legs and showing ALL of them is a pretty good look for me. 'Really?'

I shrugged. 'Well, it's kind of my stepmother's thing, you know.'

Now that I think about it I don't think that what she wanted me to explain was that we really do have afternoon tea here.

Down stairs Jessy and Lisa and J.J. were all at the table. Fortunately both of them were dressed, Jessy actually in the same faded long jeans and pretty pale-green top she had worn for school. She looked cute. Mother served blueberry muffins and the tea. We all shared how our day had been at school, and Mother told us about what she'd done in the garden. At about 5.00 Chris said she would have to go. I walked her out to her car, parked somewhat shyly too far from the steps and the door. 'I'm glad you weren't upset that I just popped in,' she was saying. 'I hope I didn't interrupt your... tanning.'

I shrugged. 'I don't really need it. It's just a chance to be alone for a while.'

Chris smiled. 'Do you ever just stay in your room?'

She was looking me over again, not in an inappropriate way of course, but because I am sure none of her friends had ever walked with her down to the lane with no pants on. 'Sometimes. But I'm not really a recluse, you know.'

'No, you're really not.' She stopped at her car and turned round to look up at the house. 'It's some house, Janine. You must be so lucky....'

'It's what Daddy wanted for us,' I said, standing there with my arms folded over my stomach, looking up at the place too. 'He wanted us to live in a castle, like we're his princesses and Mother is his queen. And, so we do.' I giggled.

Chris giggled too. 'It's very romantic,' she said, and looked at me. 'And you seem to enjoy it.'

I shrugged. 'We do. It's all harmless, really.'

'It is,' she said wistfully. 'And as long as you're so good about it....'

I laughed. 'But of course!'

...