Aunt Vanessa's Seduction
It was a normal, standard wedding for the time; about sixty guests attended, mostly family members.
Mr and Mrs Hardacre, otherwise known as Jenny and James left for their brief honeymoon on the coast, before returning to life back home. Home was a rented flat in Chingford, Essex.
Although some organisations in the late 1930s insisted that women that got married had to leave (for example the Post Office), Jenny was fortunate to work as a secretary at a small company, who valued her conscientious and accurate work. James on the other hand returned to his job driving a bus for London Transport. Life seemed good.
But then came the War. James had been in the RAF until 1936 and was called up as a Reservist. He did not actually fly, although he had been in quite a few aircraft. He was aircrew, specifically an armourer. He was posted to 87 squadron where he quickly learned about the new Hurricanes. Then he was sent as part of the BEF to France, where he experienced the "phoney war".
Meanwhile, back at home, Jenny had not been feeling very well. It did not come as a surprise to the rest of the family when she told them she was pregnant. James found out by letter but, of course, was stuck in France. Two months later the phoney war came to an end. James was slightly wounded and was captured during the retreat towards Dunkirk.
So, James was a POW when Jenny gave birth to Jake. Unfortunately, conditions in the camps were not great and disease and illness were not uncommon. It was during the Winter of 1944 that he contracted pneumonia and died.
Jenny was left on her own to bring up the four-year-old Jake. She had family, who offered help, but she was too proud to accept it -- other than for looking after Jake -- and returned to work. This was unusual for the time; most women were expected to give up work once they started a family, but that norm was about to change, and Jenny had no difficulties finding a good employer who valued her services. However, this did mean that she had to leave Jake with her Mother for extended periods during the day.
As Jake grew, it was clear that he was an intelligent young lad and that he was expected to excel at school.
That was until he was ten years old, when the whole world seemed to come caving in around Jenny. Jake had been poorly for a few days, but he had continued to go to school. But then, on the Thursday when she arrived home, she found Jake unconscious on his bed. He had contracted Tuberculosis.
The medical profession had been battling against the deadly infectious disease for some time, and now had many weapons in their armoury. However, not all of these were successful, and Jake had one complication after another. For three years he was on a roller-coaster ride with periods of recovery followed by relapses. Eventually, due to the efforts of the NHS, he came through.
When he was well enough, Jake returned to school. The problem with this was that he was almost three years behind and was therefore placed in a class that was many years lower than his actual age.
Intelligent and hard-working, by the time Jake reached the age of 15 (when a lot of children left school) the authorities were prepared to move him up a year and to continue his education.
By the time he reached 18, he was only a year behind. But it meant that he would have to stay on another year to complete his "A" Levels which he needed to attend the Technical College he wanted to go to (he would eventually gain Distinction in all four subjects). His interest (like his Father) was in aeroplane engineering and he already had Bristol in mind.
So, one more year at school for her son and then he could go off and make his own mark on the world. Perhaps then Jenny could relax a little, no longer having to work all hours to support her son. But, in the meantime, she had a week's holiday due to her and she decided to take Jake and spend it with Henry (her late husband's brother and his wife Vanessa. She had already written to them and asked if Jake could stay with them for the remainder of the Summer holidays. She felt he needed a complete break after all his hard work.
*****
The big problem with Jake, one that his Mother was acutely aware of, was that he was not really able to communicate with people of his own age. When he started back at school, his already deep voice had stood him apart from his younger classmates. Bullying was not a problem; his size made sure of that. Although he had been very weak at first after his illness, a program of diet and exercise had been followed rigorously and his muscles and lungs developed rapidly. But he did not really talk with anybody else and he went through puberty alone.
Working so hard to catch up left Jake little time to socialise. Even at eighteen he was not mixing with young people of his own age.
Jenny knew this was a problem but had no answers. Jake seemed happy in his own company, but this was originally forced on him with Jenny having to work long hours to be able to keep him at school, rather than have him leave at the age of fifteen and wind up in a dead-end job with no future.
*****
When younger, Henry and James had been very alike. So much so that people sometimes had difficulty telling them apart. Henry, unlike his brother, came through the war without a scratch and afterwards carved out a career in the textile industry. His success brought financial rewards and a seat on the board. The couple moved to a large house in the Shropshire countryside. They had no children, so naturally it looked immaculate.
Vanessa was standing at the door when the taxi pulled up into the driveway carrying Jenny, Jake, and their luggage. The two women kissed in greeting and then Vanessa looked at Jake.
"Good heavens! My, but you've grown!"
Jake gave a brief smile in response, but that was all. He picked up the cases and followed the women into the house. He watched Vanessa from behind as she walked. Her movement was almost hypnotic. His eyes swept down from the brown ponytail, past the shoulders and the narrow waist, to the flaring hips and independent movement of each buttock. The flared skirt held out by a petticoat ended just below the knees, but below the nylon clad calves looked shapely, yet firm. The stockings were sheer, and the seams pointed down to the reinforced heel that disappeared into the deep blue stiletto shoes.
Inside, Vanessa showed Jake and Jenny to their rooms. The house was large and had five bedrooms. Indeed, the bedroom that Jake was given was almost three times the size of his own back home. And the bed was a double; much better than the small single that he had recently begun to outgrow.