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reduced to silence. This was a side to Auntie Pen they hadn’t experienced before. She collected the contents of the envelope and left while the going was good.

Chapter Eight
    Janet met Melissa in the corner café. They had met like this almost every Thursday lunchtime for over four years, ever since Janet had moved her business to London. She took her herbal tea over to the corner table they had adopted. Melissa looked up from her magazine.
    ‘What’s new, Jan? Did the leopard skin shoes recover from the soaking?’
    ‘Sort of. They’re about two shades darker now. Talking of shades, I got a reply from my dirty book man.’
    Melissa looked up in surprise.
    Janet had already decided to tell her everything. They had known each other since school and had few secrets. Melissa had been a guest at Janet’s wedding. Janet had been to both of Melissa’s. She sat down and went through the story. She started with the advert and finished with Tuesday’s letter. As she outlined the new project, she saw her friend’s eyes widen.
    ‘Well, that’s a bit different, I must say.’
    ‘I still can’t tell you why I went for it. I think it was just such a strange advert I needed to know what it was all about.’
    ‘By the sounds of it you’ll need to know lots of things to write this kind of stuff. Are you sure you know enough about it?
    ‘Enough about what?’ Of course she knew what Melissa meant, really.
    ‘Sex, Jan, kinky sex.
Fifty Shades of Grey
is all about bondage, submission and sadomasochism. I didn’t know you were into that sort of thing.’
    ‘Firstly, I’m not, and second, it’s not all about that sort of thing. Have you read it?’
    ‘Well, no, but the girls at work have been talking about it for weeks, months.’
    ‘Well, I have. I got it off the internet last week. It’s not the greatest book in the world, but there’s a story to it. It’s not just non-stop spanking. In fact there’s little or no sex for ages. And anyway the man said I could choose the time, place and “encounter” I liked. It doesn’t have to be chains and whips.’
    ‘Well, that’s a relief. Mind you, that’s just for your trial piece. What if he comes back with some outrageous plot involving really horrid stuff?’
    ‘Then I won’t be part of it.’ She had been debating this very point for the last two days. ‘Anyway, he said it would be a joint effort, involving give and take.’
    Melissa wasn’t convinced but she could see that Janet had made up her mind. The one good thing in all this was that her friend was looking more animated than she had seen her for months.
    ‘At least you’re sounding full of beans. Maybe this will be the breakthrough you have been waiting for. So, what time, place and, erm, “encounter” are you going to choose? Time means historical time, presumably?’
    ‘That’s right. He says our book has to be historical. I quite like that. After all, my degree was history, you know.’
    Melissa had forgotten. History? How a history degree had prepared Janet for her post at the head of a big recruitment agency was a mystery. It always astonished her that she found the time to do her writing at all. The company was still expanding.
    ‘So if it’s history, what period appeals?’
    ‘I’ve been wondering about that. The only periods I know reasonably well are the Romans, the Tudors and Stuarts, and the twentieth century. My Masters was on the rise of fascism in Europe.’
    ‘Hmm, I don’t like the sound of Nazis and death camps. Anything involving the SS or the Gestapo could be very, very nasty.’
    ‘I know. I’ve already ruled that out. The Romans, of course, were pretty promiscuous. Lots of weird stuff going on back then.’
    ‘You’re right. I was watching
Carry on Cleo
over Christmas. Lots of hanky-panky.’
    ‘I think we need to go a good bit further than “hanky-panky”.’
    ‘Slave girls violated, naked Christians thrown to the lions, drunken orgies – that the kind of stuff you