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This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, events and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner.
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
A Liberal Temptation
Delilah J
Copyright: © 2014 Delilah J
published by: epubli GmbH, Berlin
www.epubli.de ISBN 978-3-7375-2865-8
www.delilah-jay.com www.facebook.com/delilahjay
Delilah J
c/o pellybay films GmbH
An der Alster 18
20099 Hamburg-Germany
Layout and Production
2014, by Anita Böning
Coverlayout
2014, by Nicole Laka
Cover photo
Getty Images
Photo Delilah J
Kai Krellenberg
Used Fonts
Marcelle Script
New Century Schoolbook LT
Printing and Binding
Delilah J
A Liberal Temptation
For Massi and Charlie
Mi par d’udire ancora,
O scosa in mezzo ai fior,
La voce sua talora,
Sospirare l’amor!
I PESCATORI DI PERLE by Georges Bizet – Enrico Caruso
EDDIE
I’m looking out of the black tinted windows of the 4 x 4. We are turning into the estate near Perth in the South of Scotland.
“We’re there!”, my stepbrother Henry shouts.
“Isn’t that fantastic!” I can hear Edwina saying; She’s my stepmother.
We are in February and it is bitterly cold here in Scotland. Even at home in London it was freezing. It feels like spring will be far away. I’m looking forward to seeing my friend Felix from school. He and his mum are coming here tomorrow, to Swanley-on-Tay. Henry and Theodore came with us. My other stepbrother Richard had to go back to boarding school. His half term holidays have already ended. Also Daisy is coming tomorrow with her grandmother Miranda—Edwina’s best friend.
We drive up the long path past the cottage and the fisherman’s house until we finally reach the manor house. My labrador, Biscuit, is totally happy being released from the car after seven hours drive in a cage. For the last two years we have come here in almost every single holiday and I have to go for fishing, shooting. I have to obey to Edwina’s rules because about two years ago my father met her at a dinner party in Queen’s Club, London. I am twelve years old and a bit clumsy; so the others say. I’m very tall for my age. My father Edward IV, is also very tall. He lives in London and in San Francisco and he’s got companies all over the globe. Often he’s travelling for a long time. I stay with Edwina or with one of the many nannies that I’ve had over the past years. They changed more often than I usually changed my underpants—often only after a few days because they say I was so difficult. I still have nannies now mostly chosen and controlled by Edwina.
All of Edwina’s three sons are in boarding school and I will be too after the summer holidays. She thinks that’ll be good for me even though I have difficulties staying overnight at a friends house for a sleepover. I rather stay at home. Yes, home ... where is home?
“Hello, how nice to see you!” Edwina waves to the entrance hall where Maria Clara our Brasilian housekeeper has just appeared on the door step. It’s late afternoon and fog covers the wide meadows and the river Tay. The doorbell rings. Jock, the ghillie, enters the scene.
“Come in quickly, Jock.”
He grabs Edwina, takes her in his arms. They go into one of the living rooms with fire places where Maria Clara already lit the fire.
“Here you are ... finally, Edwina! I missed you!” Jock presses her tight on his chest.
“Be careful—the boys are here,” I can hear Edwina whispering.
“What would you like to drink? I’ll have a glass of champagne ... Maria Clara.”
“A beer for me!” Jock has a round and friendly face. He’ll probably take us for fishing tomorrow. That’s his job basically.
For me it is too cold and the salmon and trout we catch have to be thrown back into the river. We are not allowed to keep them as they are in mating season. But we have to catch them because this is the favourite game over here—for those who can afford it. That’s what we do every single day when we are here and later in the year we go hunting and shoot game. I don’t like doing that at all but I have to so I can be prepared to become a real man—an alpha male—just like my father.
“Let’s empty the car,” Theodore says to me.
I kind of like my stepbrothers but I enjoy much more spending time with my friend Felix. I trot out in the cold
and Theodore, Henry and I take the luggage out of the car. Theodore is almost 20 years old. He just finished his ‘A’- levels and wants to study politics.
I hear a spiky scream from one of the living rooms. Edwina is lying on the floor, Jock leaning over her. An empty bottle of champagne is rolling towards me. Edwina’s legs are spread wide open and I can see her knickers. Jock’s hand is moving inside her shirt touching her flat boobies. I’m shocked and drop everything I hold in my hands. The supermarket shopping falls on the floor. Glass smashes on the hard surface of the tiles. A bottle of wine, a jam jar, the yogurt and the contents all intermingle on the antique Isfahan carpet on which I’m standing right in this moment.
“I’m sorry, so terribly sorry”, I stammer and don’t know how to make unhappen what I just had seen ...
EDWINA
“Miranda, how lovely to hear you! What time will you arrive—you and Daisy? We are all so much looking forward seeing you! I’ll pick you up from the station”. I’m pleased about my very best friend’s call. She’s also bringing her granddaughter, Daisy. They are on their way to visit us in our manor house in Scotland as they have so many times in the past.
She is a real lady in her mid sixties, a former teacher at one of the most prestigious girls-only schools in England for a short time—then she went on long journeys with her husband George, God bless him. He died 20 years ago on a diplomatic mission. She proudly tells her story saying.
“I know the good life big time”, Miranda usually reports of her past day’s glory. “Housekeepers, butlers, gardeners ... you know, Edwina, I still cannot believe how I am able to survive without these privileges in my little doll’s house in Holland Park. It’s just terrible! George left me his far to small pension. We used to have everything we desired, you know. His extraordinary income in the English bank account and don’t forget—for certain missions George was