I don't know what made my younger sister tell me her story. Perhaps she had a need to confess. Whatever the reason, it happened like this.
It was the half term of Gemma's last year at school and Mummy had phoned me and suggested that I should invite Gem to spend half term with me in Portsmouth. Gem had been under a lot of exam pressure but her revision was up to date and Mummy felt very strongly that Gem needed some time away from her usual environment to gather herself together before the final push. Of course Gem did bring her books so that she could do some studying but I agreed that just a change of scene was a good idea for her.
The plan was that Gem would have my bed and I would be in my sleeping bag on the bedroom floor but Gem had a much better idea.
"Do you remember when we used to visit Granny and we shared a bed?"
So that was what happened. There was just room for two in my bed and we snuggled up together in the dark to have a whispered girly conversation.
Somehow the conversation turned to Daddy. That came from Gem but I don't quite recall the exact words. Gem asked me outright if I had ever made a play for him. I giggled and said that I had sometimes had fantasies about him as I diddled myself in bed.
And then Gemma told me her story.
Gem was eighteen when I started at uni and she had secretly resented those times when I had spent time alone with Daddy and when he had given me a chaste kiss on the top of my head. Now she was going to make the very most of having him to herself.
Her campaign began gradually. Of course Mummy had always been at Julie to "cover yourself up" but she had become so accustomed to ensuring Julie's modesty that Gem had managed to remain in the background and enjoy a little more freedom. She now pushed that freedom to the limit.
No-one who was not keeping notes would have noticed the increase in the number of times that Gem "happened" to be coming out of the bathroom and bumping into Daddy on the landing. Usually she would be just in her dressing gown which was only loosely tied at the waist so it made very clear that underneath the thin cotton was nothing but nubile Gemma. On two occasions Gemma was completely naked and holding a towel in front of her as she apparently made a dash for her room not wanting to be seen. If Daddy had looked after her as she fled he would have been treated to an unimpeded view of firm teenaged buttocks.
Gemma made full use of evenings when she was to go out and rushing around to get ready. On one Tuesday when Mummy was out Daddy was relaxing in the lounge when the door burst open and his youngest daughter rushed in wearing a blue satin thong and a tiny bra. He looked up in dismay and Gemma explained.
"I left my dress on the radiator. Sorry Daddy."
She grabbed the short dress and left the room.
Her campaign intensified when Mummy spent a weekend with Granny. Fairly early on the Friday evening Gem went upstairs to shower and then came downstairs in her short, pink nightshirt, thin white housecoat and pink fluffy slippers.
She flopped onto the sofa and began to leaf through the television listings.
"There's nothing on is there? Let's not have TV tonight."
She made her way over to the wall unit and knelt down to the bottom drawer where the photograph albums were kept.
"Let's go down Memory Lane."
My scheming sister knew exactly which album to choose and, of course, Daddy had to leave his chair so that the two of them could sit on the sofa going through the book. Gem's gown had gapped open to reveal the short nightie and her pink, rounded knees. She kicked off her slippers and folded her feet underneath herself as she turned the pages. It was all there.
Gemma in a tiny bikini on the beach, Gemma sunbathing in our back garden.