Chapter Sixteen

The interviewer had been nervous when she arrived, but had been rapidly put at her ease by Jessie Sauniere, who had given her coffee and home made cookies and generally made her feel right at home.

“I’m so sorry I’m early,” she said yet again.

“Lee, it’s okay,” Jessie assured her for the third time. “You can rest assured that they’ll be late anyway. They completely lose track of time when they’re on the beach.” There was a quiet cry from somewhere deep in the house.
”Sounds like Kelly is awake,” she said. “I’ll just go check on her. Want to come with me?” Lee nodded and followed, looking around in wonder at the house. It was all wood and glass, looking out past a huge swimming pool to a pristine white beach and rolling waves. And it was huge. It had taken her all morning to get here, eventually landing on a private airstrip. It had definitely been worth it.

“Ohhh,” she said, walking into a nursery behind Jessie, who was walking very slowly, hand on her lower back. Being eight months pregnant was hard work. A baby girl was sitting in a crib, blinking at them. She had golden curls, huge brown eyes and alabaster-white skin. She smiled at Jessie, displaying two bottom teeth.

“Hello beautiful,” Jessie said, and Kelly held her arms up.

“She looks like her father,” Lee said, marvelling at the perfection of the baby as Jessie lifted her and carried her over to a table to change her.

“You think?” Jessie said. “She’s got his hair, but she’s got Angie’s skin, and her eyes are more like her mother’s too.”

“How old is she?”
”Seven months. Aren’t you Kelly?” The baby gurgled and kicked her chubby little legs. “The boys look a lot like Patrick,” she went on. “And they have his mischievous nature, too. No, don’t kick your little cousin, my sweet. He or she is kicking me enough from the inside, thank you very much.”

“Want to have a cuddle?” she asked Lee, straightening up with the baby.

“Will she come to me?” the interviewer asked, reaching out. The baby immediately held out her arms, and Jessie laughed.

“All of our children will go to anyone,” she said. “They’re so friendly it’s dangerous.” Kelly burrowed into Lee’s shoulder, grabbing a fistful of her long, dark hair and babbling at it. There was a loud noise from outside.

“They’re back,” Jessie said. “All peace is now at an end.”
”The boys are loud and active?” Lee guessed.

“Very,” Jessie replied. “And the little boys are almost as bad.” Laughing, Lee followed her back out to the big open living area just as the invasion began. The vanguard was a small, blonde boy in tiny swim trunks, hurtling down the hallway.

“I bags the shower!” he yelled, hotly pursued by another, identical boy, blue eyes narrowed as he concentrated on catching his twin.

“You can both go together,” a tall, red-headed woman who Lee instantly recognised as the author, Angela Myers, called out to them. “And shut the door of the shower!” She sighed. “It won’t make a scrap of difference,” she said. “We’ll still end up with a sandy lake on the bathroom floor. Hello, I’m Angie.” She held out her hand.

“Lee Langston,” the interviewer said, just managing to shake hands while the baby in her arms reached out imperiously for her mother.

“When did she wake up?” Angie asked, her long hair swinging as she took her daughter and turned to Jessie.
”Just now,” Jessie assured her. “Your sarong is soaked.”
”Yes. Someone who shall remain nameless, but who you may have the misfortune to be married to, thought that it would be funny if I were deposited on my butt in the waves while wearing my sarong.”
”Someone who shall remain nameless, had just made a very inappropriate comment about MY butt,” Daniel said, grinning as he came through the door, a little girl snuggled against his bare chest. Her black hair was the exact shade as his, and when she lifted her head from his shoulder and looked around, Lee caught her breath. She had never seen such a beautiful child. Her face was heart-shaped and soft, with little rosebud lips and huge green eyes.

She smiled at Lee, showing tiny, perfect little teeth.

“This is Lily,” Jessie said to Lee. “And the great sandy thing holding her is my husband, as you probably know.”
”Hello,” he said, also reaching out to shake hands. Even though he was wearing black swim trunks, there seemed to be an awful lot of tanned skin on show. And he was gorgeous. More than five years had not in any way diminished the physical appeal of Daniel Sauniere. Lee found his eyes almost mesmerising.

“Did you finally see sense and bury Patrick?” Jessie asked, reaching out a hand to stroke Lily’s little bare back as Daniel put his free arm around his wife and held her close against his side.

“I heard that,” the man himself said as he came through the door, laden with towels, balls and a bucket and spade. Again, Lee was stunned. Even with his golden hair slicked back, his body covered in sand and clad in swim trunks of a particularly violent shade of orange, he looked incredible. From her research, she knew that he was thirty-nine now. He could easily have passed for ten years younger.

“Aha! The sacrificial offering has arrived,” he smiled at Lee. “We can have the pagan ceremony tonight after all.”
”Don’t mind him,” Angie said. “He can’t help being silly.”

“Geez, woman,” Patrick shook his head at her, grinning. “You really do get in bad moods when you have morning sickness, don’t you?”

“And whose fault is it that I’m already pregnant again?” she demanded.

“Well, if we could just work out what’s causing it, we could stop it,” he responded, putting everything down on the floor and pulling her, protesting, into his arms for a hug, Kelly snuggled in between them.

“Feeling better after the walk?” he asked, rubbing noses with his wife. She nodded and hugged him back, her eyes soft.

“Right, now we should probably be all welcoming and give you a tour or something,” Patrick said, looking back at Lee. “But first things first. I bags the shower!” With that, he let go of Angela and raced down the hallway, looking like a much larger version of his sons. Jessie laughed.

“What a big kid,” she said. “Daniel, Lily is completely covered in sand. What did you do, roll her in it?”
”She rolled herself in it, didn’t you, grub?” Lily’s father said. “She found her own private sand dune and spent most of the time rolling down it, stopping only occasionally to splash around in the water to make sure the sand would actually stick to her. Even her hair is full of it.”

“Here,” Angie said. “Swap you. You take Kelly and I’ll take Lily into Patrick. If he’s insisting on having first shower, he can wash the sand off her.” Daniel let go of Jessie, took the baby with one arm and passed Lily over with the other.

“I’ll take Kelly,” Jessie held her arms out, but Daniel shook his head.
”You’re carrying enough weight already,” he said. “Sit down, honey. You too, Lee.” From down the hallway, they could hear the shrieks and yells of the two boys, then, a bit closer, the opening of a door and Patrick’s protests as Angela handed Lily over.

“He just loves sharing his shower with children,” she said, smiling wickedly as she came down the hallway again.

“I should warn him not to put Lily down,” Daniel said, his big hand covering Kelly’s back as he patted her. “Yesterday, she found a unique way of getting my attention after I’d foolishly set her on her feet.”
”She reached up and tugged,” Jessie confided, laughing. Daniel rolled his eyes as all three women laughed.

“Ah, the joys of fatherhood,” he said. He lifted Kelly up and blew a raspberry on her tummy, making her squeal and kick and laugh.

“Somehow, I can’t find it in me to feel sorry for you,” his wife said dryly, easing herself down into a chair.
”And neither can I,” Angela said, having spent an hour that morning being sick.

“Did you have a good trip here?” Daniel asked. Lee wished he’d sit down. She was getting a crick in her neck trying to look all the way up into his face. In addition, there just seemed to be too much of him when he was standing up. And all of it was so nice she just didn’t know where to look.

“Sit down, Daniel,” Jessie said, noticing Lee’s unease.

“In a minute,” he said. “I’ve been sitting on the beach for hours, building sandcastles with those ruffians.”

“And building up reserves of sands in his shorts,” Angela added. “Which was what my perfectly harmless comment was about, I might add. I just suggested that with those tight buns grinding away at all of that sand, it’d be powder by the time we got back here.”
”Thank you for sharing that,” Daniel said. “Consider yourself lucky I don’t feel like carting you back out there and dumping you in the surf again.”

“Big talker,” Angela scoffed, but she kept a very wary eye on him. He’d been known to do a lot worse than that.

She peeled her wet sarong off and sat down on one of the wooden chairs in her black one-piece swimsuit. There were no signs of her pregnancy showing yet, and Lee had trouble believing she’d already had three children. Angela caught the look and glanced down at her stomach.

“If this is twins again, I am divorcing the man,” she said.

“How many children are you planning to have?” Lee asked, sitting back down as well.

“Apart from Daniel and Patrick?” Jessie asked, scoring a laugh from her husband.

“Planning?” Angela snorted. “Who plans?”
”We’re aiming to cause a population explosion,” Patrick added, coming down the hallway, dripping water, a towel wrapped around his hips. He was also holding a bundle of towel in his arms. “She’s in here somewhere,” he said, his wet hair falling over his face. “And I did my best, but she’s got sand in places I’m not going near. It would take an exorcist to get some of it out of her,” he finished, handing her down to Jessie. “She’d been completely crumbed. We should probably have deep-fried her instead of washing her.”
”No,” Jessie said, cuddling her little girl close to her. “We wouldn’t do that to you, would we baby?”

“I would,” Patrick growled, and Lily giggled, her little dark head emerging from the white towel.

“Go check on the boys,” his wife said to him.

“I’m going to finish my shower first,” he said. “And I am well aware that you have hold of my towel, woman. Let it go.”
”Just trying to give Lee a cheap thrill,” Angie grinned. “Something to write about.”

“I get no respect around here,” Patrick confided to Lee. “I’m completely taken for granted. Write about that, will you?” He tugged his towel free and stepped out of reach. “Hello beautiful,” he said to Kelly, touching the tip of his finger to her button nose. You love me, don’t you?” Kelly wriggled in her uncle’s arms, keen to get to her father, who was definitely one of her favourite people. “Yes, of course you do. You’re a woman of good taste, aren’t you? I’ll come and rescue you from horrible Uncle Daniel soon, I promise.” He leaned in and kissed her on the lips, then turned back to the hall. Two steps away, he swore.

Jessie sighed and covered Lily’s ears, knowing that the little parrot would certainly be using that word later. Then she joined in the laughter as Patrick stalked down the hallway, sans towel. Daniel grinned and tossed it over to Angela.
”You’re quick,” she complimented him. “It’s still nice watching him walk away. I’ve never gotten tired of that view.”
”Very nice indeed,” Lee agreed, deciding that she would most definitely be writing about Patrick Sauniere’s backside.

Two small, tanned projectiles exploded from the hallway, heading for the door.

“Stop!” Angela yelled, and they skidded to a halt. “Where are you going?” she asked.

“Outside,” one of them said.

“Have you picked up your towels? Have you put your swimmers in the washing basket? Have you turned the shower off? No, I didn’t think so.” The boys looked at Daniel in mute appeal.

“I can’t save you, fellas,” he apologised. “Go do all that. And put some pants on while you’re there, too. Little savages,” he smiled as they trudged away, weighed down by all of that responsibility.

“Coffee anyone?” Daniel asked. “You want some herbal tea, Jess?”

“I’ll make it,” she said, shifting to get up. He leaned over and put one hand on her shoulder, holding her down.

“No you won’t,” he insisted. “Sit. Stay.”

“Is there where I bark and roll over?” she asked.

“You can’t roll over any more,” he laughed. “As we established this morning, when you tried to perform that complicated manoeuvre in bed and almost fell out.” He’d only just caught her, lunging across and grabbing her arm before she tumbled to the floor.

“Oh, now there’s a nice image for Lee to have,” Jessie complained.

“I could give her another one,” Daniel offered, eyes twinkling. Once they’d stopped laughing about her near miss that morning, he’d eased pillows under her, taken her oversized t-shirt off, and spent a very pleasant twenty minutes stroking her swollen breasts and belly and places further south, taking her mind right off the discomfort in her back.

Lily, having difficulty getting comfortable because of the baby already occupying the space where Jessie’s lap would be if she had one, abandoned her towel, climbed down off the chair onto the floor and walked over to Lee.

“I come up,” she said, clambering up.

“No you don’t,” her father said, scooping her up one-handed while still holding Kelly in his other arm. “It’s not polite to sit on someone’s lap when you haven’t got anything on. At least not until you’ve known them for half an hour or so.”
“Daniel will demonstrate later,” Angela said. Lee bit her lip, then decided to be brave.

“I’ll look forward to it,” she said. They all laughed, and Daniel slanted her an amused look out of those dangerous green eyes that made her wish, just for an instant, that he wasn’t quite so happily married.

“This would be the perfect time to pants him in retaliation,” Patrick commented. “With his arms full of little girls.”

“He might drop them,” Jessie pointed out.

“There is that,” Patrick said. Now clad in jeans, but still bare-chested, he took his daughter from his brother. “So, what’s it to be today? Shall we sit on the floor and plot world domination again?” This met with a gurgle of approval, so he took her over to a corner and sank down, cross-legged onto the floor, the baby sitting between his legs.

“And we’ll make the coffee,” Daniel said to Lily, who agreed.

“I make it,” she announced.

“Of course,” he agreed, finding her a plastic cup and sitting her on the sink so she could ‘make coffee’ to her heart’s content with cold water.

“So how do you want to do the interview for the written article?” he asked Lee. “Are you just going to watch us and write, or do you want to ask questions?”
”I have some tapes with me,” she said. “Tapes of some of your shows. I’d like to go through a few of them with you and get some reactions and comments.”
”Not in front of the boys,” Jessie cautioned. “They’re far too interested in naked ladies already.”
”Precocious brats,” Patrick commented.

“Yes, they take after their father in so many ways,” their mother said. “Tell me, Lee, do you have a tape of the final show, too? The auction?”

“Oh yes,” Lee smiled broadly. “That was definitely required viewing. I watched that several times.” With her finger on the pause button, if she was honest, but she didn’t think she’d go that far.

“Do you want an interview or not?” Daniel asked, laughter in his eyes. “That is NOT one Patrick and I want to dwell on.”
”But it was so…memorable,” she responded. “And neither of you looked bothered anyway. You looked perfectly at ease, in fact.”
”I wouldn’t go that far,” Patrick said. “But there was nothing we could do about it, so we both just went along with it. It’s not as if we had a leg to stand on if we objected, anyway.”
”Not after what we’d done to all of those women,” Daniel agreed.

“What did you do, Daddy?” Lily asked from inside the sink. Daniel pulled a face and turned back to her.

“We weren’t very nice to them,” he said. “You’re going to have to shift your little bottom off the plughole, sweetheart. Otherwise the sink is going to overflow and Aunty Angie will be very cross with me. And you know how scared I am of Aunty Angie.”

“Why is Lily in the sink?” one of the twins, now dressed in a pair of khaki shorts, demanded.

“I’m planning to serve her up as part of lunch, so I want to make sure she’s clean first,” Daniel answered.

“Ewwww!” the boy said.

“You don’t want Lily for lunch?” Daniel asked.

“No,” he was answered.

“Really? I think she’s good enough to eat. Particularly that little bit there.” He swooped on his daughter, snatching her up out of the sink, dripping wet again, and started nibbling on her neck while she shrieked with laughter.

“Go and play with Uncle Patrick and Kelly,” he said, giving her a kiss before setting her down on her little feet. “I’ll just go get her some pants,” he added. “There’ll be a slight delay with the coffee.” His small nephew followed him, a ferocious gleam in his eyes. Uncle Daniel was usually good for a wrestle, and although he was always ultimately defeated, could be counted on for a decent fight first.

“He seems like he’s very a very involved father,” Lee commented. Then she looked over at where Patrick was engaged in building a block structure that never got past the third level before a pair of baby hands swatted it over. Patrick just kept picking the blocks up and stacking them again, laughing almost as much as his daughter was. Lily picked up one of the blocks that had been flung wide and handed it to him.

“Thank you,” he smiled. “Come here and give me a snuggle.” She did so immediately, climbing up onto his leg and wrapping her arms around his neck. His arm went around her protectively.

“They both are,” Jessie said. “Hard to imagine, isn’t it, given what they used to do for a living.”

“Very difficult,” Lee agreed, storing away the image of Patrick sitting on the floor with the two tiny girls. “Do they miss it?”
”Not at all,” Patrick answered, looking over and smiling to show he’d overheard. “You can only take so much tight leather and studio lights.”
”And naked women,” Angela added softly.

“No,” he disagreed. “You can never get too much of that.” Grinning, he turned back to the blocks.

“And you were one of the women on the show?” Lee asked Angela tentatively, prepared to back off fast if the line of questioning wasn’t welcomed. Angela nodded.

“I was one of their victims, yes. Tell me that isn’t one of the tapes you’ve brought with you?”
”No,” Lee assured her. “It’s not possible to get hold of a copy of that tape. I admit that I tried. The official tape has disappeared, and all of the bootleg copies were bought up years ago.” She glanced over at Patrick, who didn’t look up, apparently fascinated by the plastic blocks he was working with.

“Fancy that,” Angela smiled, looking in the same direction. Jake had passed the bill for $100,000 over to Patrick when that particular DVD’s absence was noted, and Patrick had paid it without an argument.

“Save me!” Daniel said, crossing the room with the twins hanging off him, one on his shoulder and the other at his hip. “I’ve been attacked!”
”Nothing can save you!” announced the one at his hip in stentorian tones. “You are our prisoner!”
”No!” Daniel moaned, sinking to his knees on the floor not far from Patrick and tossing a pair of tiny pink frilly panties at him. “Mercy!”

“No!” the boys yelled, pouncing on him as he rolled onto his back, bringing one hand down to protect himself as they attacked.

”Tickle him,” Patrick suggested, as he tugged Lily’s panties up her legs and settled them on her.

“Traitor!” Daniel accused, then rolled over, laughing and taking the boys with him as they immediately dug into his ribs with their fingers. After a short and spirited battle, he wrapped them up, their arms trapped around each other’s bodies, picked them up in one bundle, carted them over to the door, put them aside, and shut and locked the door.

“Right, back to the coffee,” he said.

“How are they going to rework that into a victory, I wonder?” Angela laughed as her sons thumped against the glass, vowing violence, revenge and further tickling.

“Sean will manage it,” Jessie said. “That child has the best imagination of any four year old I’ve ever come across.”
”Wonder where he gets that from,” Patrick grinned at Angela.

“And Luke will have that door off its frame if he can find some tools to use,” Angela added. “They’re fiends,” she confided to Lee. “And they never sleep.”

Lunch was a sumptuous seafood meal prepared by Daniel and Angela. While Lee played with Kelly, Patrick single-handedly entertained Lily and his sons, stripping down to swimming trunks again and engaging in epic naval battles in the swimming pool while simultaneously catching Lily in his arms every time she launched herself off the side into the water, which appeared to occur on at least three hundred separate occasions. She wore herself out with all of the diving, and after lunch, both she and Kelly went to sleep.

The boys had just been banished outside to play on the beach within sight when they came racing back up to the house.

One of them, Lee thought it was Luke, but certainly couldn’t be sure, dragged the door open and yelled “Josh is back!” Daniel got up and walked over to the door, opening it fully just in time to greet a tall, brown-haired five year old with green eyes and a sweet smile.
”Hey buddy,” his father said, picking him up and tossing him above his head. Josh was big for his age, but he still looked very small next to his dad, who he hugged tightly before wriggling to be put down so he could go over to his mother.

“You feeling okay?” he asked her, his hand going automatically to her belly.
”I’m fine, Joshy,” she said, her hand on his soft hair as she leaned in to kiss him. “Better now that you’re back.” Her instincts that night at the restaurant had been correct. She had already been pregnant, and neither she nor Daniel had ever experienced a moment’s regret about it. He was a delightful child, frighteningly smart and advanced for his age. His grandfather already had him pegged as the future chief of all of his businesses.

“Did you drive over by yourself?” Patrick asked seriously. Josh laughed.

“No,” he assured his uncle. “Grandmere and Granddad came with me.”
”So you drove them as well?” Patrick persisted.

“Teach me to drive and I will next time,” Josh countered, making Patrick laugh and catch him in a friendly headlock.

“Hey Aunty Angie,” Josh said, breaking loose and going to her for a hug, too. He looked at Lee, holding out his hand. “I’m Joshua Sauniere,” he said. She shook his hand formally. What a little charmer.

“I’m Lee Langston,” she replied, just in time to be heard by the man and woman coming through the door.

“Anything my mother says is off the record,” Patrick said immediately. “She hasn’t got one sensible thing to say and is not to be trusted. We’re considering having her committed.”

“He always was a silly boy,” Gabrielle said.

“But pretty,” Jake added. “Always very pretty, just like his Maman.”

“Low blow,” Patrick complained. Daniel hugged his mother.

“Was Josh okay?” he asked.

“My Josh is always wonderful,” Gabrielle replied, smiling at her eldest grandchild. “Aren’t you darling? And so are these two little angels.” Sean and Luke appeared, cuddling into her from either side.

“See?” Patrick said to Lee. “Not one sensible thing to say.”

“Why don’t we move outside?” Angela suggested, before Gabrielle could retaliate. “We’ll have more room there, and with the windows open, we’ll be able to hear the girls if they wake up.”

“So, what have you observed so far?” Gabrielle asked Lee as they all settled themselves onto deck chairs, wooden chairs and grass. Daniel was helping Jessie into a hammock, even though she didn’t want to get into it.
”Daniel, I’ll never get out of it!” she laughingly protested.

“I’ll help you,” he promised. He put his arm under her knees and swung her up, putting her down gently in the hammock, which Patrick casually reached out and held steady with one hand.

“Lee’s observed my butt, so far,” he answered his mother.
”Which is, of course, worth half a page just on its own,” Lee said.
”Can we keep her?” Patrick asked plaintively. “Can we? Can we, huh? I’m sure there’s room. Although she did eat a lot at lunch.”

“Patrick, you are a bad host,” Gabrielle reproved.
”No, just a tease,” Jake added, smiling. “Lee, are you interviewing people separately, or all together?”

“A bit of both,” she admitted. “Can I ask you some questions?”
”Ask away,” he said. She looked over to make sure the three boys were out of earshot.

“Was it difficult for you to sell the Shame Institute?” she asked. He considered that for a little while before answering. Gabrielle opened her mouth to answer for him, but he stroked his hand down her arm, silencing her.

“No,” he said finally. “It was actually quite easy. The Sauniere-Miller special needs schools took off so fast, and when the concept caught on overseas, it was too much for Daniel and Jessie on their own, particularly given that they had Josh so quickly. So then Patrick and Angie got involved, and then I was dragged in as well and…”

”Maman said he had to sell the Institute,” Daniel said, eyes dancing.
”So he did, like the good little boy he is,” Patrick picked up the thread. Their father threw them a look which caused them both to grin.

“And what’s wrong with that?” Angela wanted to know. She dug a knuckle into Patrick’s ribs.
”Not a thing, my darling,” he recovered fast. “Are you asleep, Jessie?”

“No,” she said, sounding very drowsy. “Just rocking and listening. Oh, that’s nice.” Daniel had started rubbing her lower back through the material of the hammock.

“It wasn’t easy to see what happened to it afterwards,” Jake said to Lee. “Some of what they did was tacky and physically cruel. I’d never have allowed that to happen.”

“And then it closed down,” she said. He nodded.

“When the original dazzlers walked out,” he said. “One of them is now working for us again. Russ Millson. He’s a fitness specialist, and he’s developing some great programs for the kids.”

“You didn’t mind that it closed down?” Lee persisted. Jake shrugged.

“I’d moved on,” he said. “Once Patrick and Daniel left, it didn’t hold as much interest for me. It was a social experiment, and it kept a lot of women out of jail, which was my main aim.”

“You made a lot of money out of it,” Lee said. He nodded.

“But I already had a lot of money anyway,” he said. “Not that more ever goes amiss,” he smiled.

“Mrs Miller, do you enjoy your lifestyle now?” Lee asked. Gabrielle smiled at her.
”It’s still Miss Sauniere, dear,” she said. “I’ve never married the man, and I can’t see the point in it now. Yes, of course I enjoy our lifestyle now. We have our slice of this island, we have our little cottage and this second house for the children and grandchildren to come and stay whenever they want, and I have my lovely man back with me all the time. What’s not to enjoy?” Jake’s hand slid down her arm and locked with her hand.

“You don’t get bored?” Lee asked him. He shook his head.

“We’re connected electronically to the rest of the world, and we’re only a plane trip away anytime I need to go see to anything personally,” he said. “Daniel, is Jessie alright?”

“Yes, she gets uncomfortable when she’s lying on her back like that,” Daniel said, smiling at his now sleeping wife. “She tries to roll over on her side, but she’s having trouble in that hammock. I might leave her there. She can’t fall out of it the way she tried to fall out of bed this morning. Although...” He got up fast, because she was twisting in her sleep, and the hammock was starting to swing roughly. Patrick caught it again, slowing it, and held it while Daniel reached in, slid his arms under her and lifted her.
”It’s early yet,” Jessie mumbled in her sleep.

“You’re right, it is,” Daniel said, carrying his very pregnant wife across the grass and up into the house.

Gabrielle was smiling as she watched them go.

“He doesn’t look much like The Cat now, does he?” she said to Lee.

“Not at all,” the journalist replied, although he still moved very gracefully, and those green eyes were still just as arresting. On his mother, the green eyes were beautiful in a different way.

“Put him in a pair of black leather pants and he’d look the same,” Patrick commented, stretching out on the grass and reaching out to tickle his wife’s ankles with a piece of grass.

“And you in white leather pants, of course,” Angela said, shifting her feet. He followed her move, tickling again.

“Never,” he said. “My days of strutting my stuff in leather pants are behind me now.”
”Finally, he admits that he strutted,” Angela said. “Patrick, stop that!”
”No,” he grinned, tickling some more. He rolled over onto his stomach so he could get at her more easily, trapping one of her feet and tickling at her toes.

“You’ve never been tempted by any of the offers for you and Daniel to do another television show?” Lee asked. Patrick shook his head.

“Not even slightly,” he said. “When they offered us Carlton’s show, they were very persistent, but we’d had enough of television by then, and interviewing a heap of boring guests wouldn’t have been half as much fun as spanking naked women. Ouch! That’s spousal abuse, I’ll have you know. AND in front of witnesses.”

“Did anyone see anything?” Angela asked, having deliberately stamped on his wrist. He shifted his grip and started tickling with his fingers instead of the grass.

“See what?” Gabrielle asked.

“I didn’t see anything,” Lee added. Patrick sighed.

“And Sienna has made the show her own now,” he added. “It was great to see her come back, with ‘Mallow at Midday’. Not many people could have made that sort of climb, but she did it.” Lee didn’t think it politic to add that she’d watched the series on Sienna Mallow’s stay in the Institute as part of her research, had observed the part where the woman – her boss, had bounced up and down naked on Patrick’s lap while he looked bored, and also the famous scene where Daniel had turned the light off and left it off for forty minutes.

“And I believe you were both offered money to pose nude for a number of magazines?” Patrick grinned and Jake laughed.

“That was following the auction,” he answered for Patrick. “Heaven knows why anyone wanted to pay them for that, given that almost every adult in the country had seen them both in the buff anyway. The auction was one of the highest rating programs in history.”
”You see why we spend so much time hiding out on an island,” Patrick commented. “Oh, does that tickle, Angie? What about here?”

“Leave her alone, Patrick!” his mother ordered. “She’s uncomfortable enough as it is without you making it worse.” He looked up at his wife and his expression changed.

“Sorry, sweetheart,” he said, rolling to his knees then standing up. “Come on. You need an afternoon nap, too.”
”No I don’t,” Angela said, but she did look tired, Lee noted.
”Of course you don’t,” Patrick said. “Just because you were awake half the night with Kelly, and throwing up all morning with this baby. Come on kid, I’m not taking no for an answer.”

“When have you ever?” his wife sighed. “Leave me alone.”

“Nup,” he shook his head. “You’re going to have a rest.”

“I’m too tired to walk in,” Angela complained. “I’ll just rest here.” Patrick sighed.
”I had hoped not to have to do this,” he said. “I normally leave the macho displays of strength to Daniel, but still.” He leaned down and picked her up in his arms, even as she protested and laughed.

“For heavens sake, keep still woman,” he said, managing to sound panicky. “I’m only just able to do this as it is!” He was obviously doing it with no difficulty at all, and he strode into the house carrying her easily against his chest, teasing her all the way.

“They seem very happy,” Lee said, watching them go.

“They are,” Gabrielle smiled contentedly. “Jake, what are those boys doing?”

“Poking at something with a stick,” he said. “Undoubtedly something dangerous. I’ll go check.” He got up and walked down towards the beach, still a strong, good-looking man. Patrick and Daniel came from good stock, Lee mused, making another mental note for her article.

“May I ask you some more questions?” she said to Gabrielle, who nodded.

“Of course,” she said.
”How did you deal with having your sons doing what they did for all of those years?” she asked.
”I didn’t,” their mother answered simply. “I couldn’t be a part of it, and I couldn’t watch what was happening to them, so, though it broke my heart, I had no contact with them for three long years.” Her fabulous eyes looked sad, just for an instant. Then she heard Jake’s laughter and she smiled as she glanced over to where he was surrounded by his three grandsons.

“That time is gone now,” she said. “And now they don’t hurt women any more.”

”It may interest you to know that of all of the women I’ve interviewed, women who went through the Shame Institute,” Lee said. “Not one held any grudge against your sons. In fact, and I found this amazing, some of them even seemed to like them.”
”They are nice to look at, and they have a certain style to them,” Gabrielle admitted. “And they brought that style even to that horrible show they ran. So, with bad puns and silly comments, they probably made a dreadful, humiliating experience marginally better than it could have been.”
”It must have been a dreadful thing to go through,” Lee shivered. The look in Gabrielle’s eyes would have alerted her if she’d been looking up, but she wasn’t.

”It was,” Daniel said from behind her. He hadn’t lost his capacity to move soundlessly. He lowered himself onto the grass beside her. “We didn’t hurt them physically, well, not much, but the overall experience wasn’t anything any of them were ever going to forget in a hurry.”

“How could you bring yourself to do it?” she asked. He shrugged.

“At first, we believed in it,” he said. “Not in the value of stripping women and spreading their legs on national television as such, but in providing an alternative to conventional prisons. Those women had to be punished, and society at that stage was receptive to the idea of shaming. In fact, the Government insisted on all manner of things that Dad would never have inflicted on those women. Like the presence of the public at the Institute itself. That was never part of his plan. And ‘The Shame Game’ itself was initially supposed to consist of each woman being brought on and being confronted by her victims. Funnily enough, that’s why Dad wanted Patrick and I involved, because we were big enough to intervene if things became ugly, and hopefully smart enough to know how. The stripping and spanking were added on orders from the Government.” He stretched out and rolled over onto his stomach. “And the network loved it,” he said.

“And so did the public,” Lee said. She still remembered hearing people talking about it, about the figure of the woman the night before, the way a woman had wriggled around and pleaded when ‘The Cat’ spread her legs, something funny ‘King Dazzler’ had said.

“Yes,” Daniel agreed. “They did.”
”I’ve watched some of the tapes, and I’ve talked to some of the women, but I still cannot imagine what the experience would be like, to go through it in front of so many people like that,” she said.

“Really?” Daniel said. He glanced over to confirm that his mother was still watching the beach.

“Patrick and I could give you a taste of it,” he said, speaking softly. “Not with all of the crowds, of course, but we could probably get some of the local residents around and…” Stunned, she looked down at him, to realise that he was grinning broadly. “Only joking,” he assured her. “If Angie didn’t kill us, Jessie would.”
”I’d kill you first,” she said.

“Little thing like you?” Daniel shook his head. “Josh could beat you in a fight.” Patrick wasn’t the only tease, obviously.

She tried to recover her composure. It wasn’t easy. Daniel Sauniere was distracting enough without that mischievous gleam in his eyes.

“Why are you so tense, Lee?” he asked.

“Tense?” she played for time while she tried to think of an answer. He was on his feet again easily, just rolling and straightening fluidly. He reached down and put his hand on her shoulder, squeezing lightly, his fingers searching and finding sore spots. She winced.

“Tense,” he nodded. “Come on, I’ll give you a massage.” She almost said ‘a massage?’ but didn’t want to repeat his words again.

“You will?” she said instead, being tugged up out of her seat. He grinned and led the way, still holding her hand.
”I will,” he replied. “Back soon, Maman.” Gabrielle smiled and waved a hand in his direction before looking back to the beach, where her three grandsons were now sitting on the sand, building a castle with the love of her life.

“Is he leading you astray?” Patrick asked, when they passed him on the way in.

“I don’t think so,” Lee responded.

“Well, if he’s not going to, I’d be happy to,” Patrick offered.

“Go away, Patrick,” Lee said. He laughed. Then he met Daniel’s eyes as the reporter turned away, and mouthed the question ‘now?’ at him. His brother nodded.

The room he led her to was at the back of the house, and was obviously well used. There were three separate massage tables there, one that was longer and wider than the others, a normal one, and one with some strange patches of clear fabric in it.

“The long table is for Patrick and Dad,” Daniel said, seeing her looking around. “And Patrick designed a material that expands and supports really well, so we cut some holes in another table and attached that. Now a pregnant or breast-feeding woman, which we usually seem to have at least one of, can lie face down and have a massage, too. Jessie was in here this morning, in fact.”
”That’s nice,” Lee smiled, meaning it.

“Anyway, I’ll leave you to take your clothes off. Just lie down on your stomach on the ordinary table when you’re ready and drape the towel over your butt.” Lee swallowed.

“What clothes do I take…off?” she finished lamely. Daniel, on his way out of the door, turned back and smiled.

“All of them,” he said. “Full body relaxation massage, Lee.” He left her staring at the door he’d closed behind him. All of them? She was going to get naked in front of Daniel ‘The Cat’ Sauniere? Now? Here? Traitorously, her mind added the word ‘again’?

She racked her brains for a way to get out of it, but nothing suggested itself. If she said no, they’d all think she was silly and naïve and while they’d still let her interview them, they wouldn’t be as open and as inclined to answer her questions, she knew it. But if she just did it… Lee realised that if she WAS going to do it, she’d better get moving, or he was going to come back in while she was undressing, and that would be even worse, for some reason. She stripped quickly, folded her clothes and put them on a chair, and then, with a sense of unreality and almost panicked urgency in case he re-entered the room while she was positioning herself, she climbed up onto the table and arranged the towel over herself.

“Ready?” she heard him call through the slightly open door a couple of minutes later.

“Yes,” she responded, although she wasn’t.

“Good,” he said, coming in. “Now, have you ever had a massage before?”
”No,” she said, her face framed by the cut-out in the table. She was looking down at a wooden floor.

“Any injuries, pains, illnesses?” he asked. She could hear him moving about, opening things, shifting things around.

“No, no and no,” she said.
”Okay then,” he said. “All you have to do is relax, and tell me if I press too hard.”
”Okay,” she replied, then jumped as the towel moved.

“Just shifting this around,” he said, doing just that. She’d had the towel across her. He turned it so it was lengthwise, and then pressed on different parts of her – her feet, her calves, her thighs, her butt and her lower back, through the towel, his hands firm and confident. She heard something poured, and then the towel was shifted again, drawn in from one hip down, baring half of her butt and all of one leg.
”Relax,” he said again. “One way or another, I’ve seen a lot of bodies, Lee. At this point, it’s just skin and muscles and tendons and so on.” He started on her foot, and it felt good, very good, as he found all of the aches, all of the pressure points, and worked them, soothed them, rubbed them into relaxation. It did bother her that she was bared right up to the waist at one side, but she supposed there were reasons for it. He worked his way up, and when he reached her butt, he found all sorts of sore places there.

“A lot of people hold tension here,” he said, digging in and making her wince. “Whoops. Tell me if it’s too much, Donna. Don’t let me hurt you.”
”No, it’s okay,” she said. “It’s just…” She realised what he’d called her, and stopped. Just for an instant, she considered correcting him. Then she gave up. His hand on the back of her knee, he stood, silent, and she just knew he was smiling.

“How did you know?” she asked. His hands started moving again.

“We have our ways,” he said, and she could hear laughter in his voice. “Did you honestly think we wouldn’t recognise you? There was a photograph of you with the interview proposal.”

“I’ve changed a lot,” she pointed out.

“Your hair has changed, you’ve matured, and you wear makeup now,” he said. “That doesn’t change your facial structure, your build, your eyes, and that very definite look in them, Donna. I was never good at remembering names, but I always remembered faces. Particularly the face of one little journalism student who tried to take me on with the odds stacked against her. And who then took photos of us that she sold to papers nationally, I might add.” She sighed.

“So this is revenge?” she asked.

He laughed at that, but didn’t answer her.
”Keep in mind that if we hadn’t recognised you, you’d never have got the interview,” Patrick said. She jumped in surprise, then turned her head to look at him, leaning against the wall just inside the door. He was smiling. “We never give interviews, Donna,” he added. “Let alone the full satellite connection to the studio that we’ve agreed to as well, this time. So no, it’s not revenge. If anything, it’s gratitude. Your photos gave us the impetus to get out of the jobs we were in, the leverage we needed.” Surprised, and still not comfortable, she turned her head back to look at the floor.

“Does everyone know?” she asked.

“Pretty much,” he said. “We told Jessie and Angie, of course. And we gave them an expurgated version of the last time we met you.” She moaned. Daniel laughed again.

“Are you moaning because they know, or moaning in memory?” he asked.
”Both,” she admitted. “And you had to pick NOW to tell me?”
”Now, when I’m relaxing you?” he suggested, tongue in cheek.

“Now, when I’ve got nothing on!” she corrected. “Again!” That rich, deep laugh yet again, echoed by Patrick’s.

“It seemed appropriate,” he said. “I guess I’m going to have to work twice as hard to get this tension out now, aren’t I? Off you go, Patrick. We’ve made our point.”

Daniel was remarkably good at the task, and he had her alternately purring and marvelling at his capacity to find every sore spot and find a way to make it burn as he released the tension there. After another thirty minutes of having his warm, strong hands expertly gliding over her oiled skin, she’d almost forgotten she was lying virtually naked under the gaze of the man who’d presided over one of the most embarrassing experiences of her life.

“Very good,” he said, sliding his hands up from her hips to her nape and back down again. “Now how do you feel about rolling over, just as you are?” She whimpered, and Daniel laughed.
”Only joking,” he said. “I’ll hold the towel.” He was as good as his word, holding it between them, obscuring his view as she awkwardly turned. He draped it over her, covering her from her breasts to her knees.

“Jessie is the only one I massage completely nude,” he reassured her, starting on her hands. She mustered the courage to open her eyes, to look up into that impossibly good-looking face.
”Does she take her clothes off too?” she asked. His grin flashed.

“You’ve got quicker with age, Donna,” he complimented her.

“Please call me Lee,” she begged. “I’ve used my middle name since I graduated, and I don’t even want to think about how silly I was back then.”

“Sweet,” he corrected, moving up her arms. “And brave and opinionated and determined.”
“You were patronising that day, too,” she muttered, scoring another laugh from him.