You saw her at the wedding.”“Yes, of course, but not like we are now. I tried to talk Stepa into staying with me tonight, but I do not think he wi...ll.”“No, I don’t think he will, either,” Kara confirmed.“He is very good at this?” Lyudmila asked. “I could never get Tanya Ivanovna to answer this question. She said it was «некультурный» to ask.”Kara laughed, “Yes, she would say that. And yes, he is very, very good at it. The best!”“This is not fair!” Lyudmila protested. “I asked him to demonstrate. ’”“God,” Helen replied. “They prepared you for Dr. Doom!” She thought for a moment. “Ok, yeah. I totally see that. After Julie and I parted in Madrid, I didn’t really talk to them for a while; except for the odd ‘I’ve got a problem that only you and Troy can understand, and can’t or don’t want to bug Troy about it’ call. They always answered those, and so did I. Whatever you come away thinking of me, Susan, I hope you know that you’ve got that, too. I wish I’d been better about doing it back. I, on the other hand, touch myself imagining the feel of his touch. He wasn’t that great in foreplay. We were doing it for the experience of it all.”“This continued for a few times, but eventually, I felt this was pointless so, I ignored his pleadings and went back to being normal cousins. It was hard at first because he wanted to do it and, I didn’t.”“I used to ignore him initially but, eventually, he understood and stopped asking me about it. Now, we are how we used to be back then.”“Do you. We shall have our dinner, we shall drink a glass of sherry, and then I shall bring you to bed and warm you with my body. Will you come, love?”Reluctantly, Harriet consented. She had to admit that the roaring fire in the living room was a blessing for her frozen limbs, and the hot chocolate she was served renewed her spirits. It tasted strange to her, but good; and at first she did not notice that it had been spiked with a generous helping of Navy rum.The rich chicken soup served for dinner.