A Family Christmas Ch. 03

In truth, I felt that I was also partly to blame, if I had not forgotten to buy enough cigarettes or had not mentioned it in front of Cora she would not have dashed off in a frenzy and the accident would not have happened.... If I had not screwed up with my driving lessons, I would have been driving by now and would have been the one going the shop not her....

"It's all going to be OK..." I told her, "Mum has fixed it as usual..." We had carefully explained what was going to happen over the next couple of days and although I did not expect her to be over the moon with our plan, I think that she did feel a little bit better knowing that most of the holiday was going to be salvaged, and it gave her something to look forward to.

"I think that you are getting the best of the bargain...." I joked when we were alone. Aunt Julia had arrived early to fetch me and had taken Mother for a late lunch in the hospital café. "All you have to do for two days is lay here in bed with Mum waiting on you hand and foot..... whilst I have to traipse around frigging airports dragging a shit-load of bags and cases...with Aunt Julia nagging me every foot of the way..... By the time you join us I shall probably be totally knackered and laid out with a broken back..."

"Oh Jim," she whimpered, "I am so, so sorry... I was so looking forward to our holiday and being able to do some 'après-ski relaxing' together.... You won't get all horny without me and go screwing any of those ski-whores that get in the bar at night...will you?" At least her sense of humour was returning. "Oh, You will.......won't you!" she said, putting on a dramatic pout...."You'll forget all about me lying here in my bed, feeling lonely and randy with nobody to help me 'relax'..."

"That is easily fixed..." I chuckled and discreetly slid my hand beneath the bed covers and ran my fingertips up her naked leg.

"James Watford! You stop that this minute...!" She hissed urgently, swatting at my hand through the covers, "You can't do that in the bloody hospital..."

I pulled my hand away but the fooling around had at least cheered her up a little bit. "I guess that I am just going to have to wait a couple of more days..." I chuckled.

"That was a rotten thing to do..." she scowled. "now I am feeling horny and you are going to fuck off and leave me all on my own..."

"What are you two squabbling about now..." Mother said as she came through the door.

"Nothing!" We both chorused together. "Just mucking about..." I added, "I was just trying to get Cora to relax..." She punched me hard on the arm which started us both giggling again.

The second most boring occupation in the world in probably hanging about in airports waiting for your flight. Actually everything had gone to plan...better than to plan in fact. Aunt Julia had got parked in the long stay car park at Heathrow and to my surprise had then flashed her official identity card as a High Court Judge and we were immediately met by our own personal attendant and fast tracked through passport control and customs in a matter of minutes. It was actually quite fun being given the VIP treatment and by-passing the queues at the check-in desks. I was even more impressed when our 'attendant' turned out to be an armed special escort duties policeman who stuck to us like glue for as long as we were at the airport. I was not certain what level of personal security my aunt justified but I did know that the Law Lords had their own permanent personal staff including a Special Branch bodyguard.

"I am not allowed to wander about places like airports without an escort...." She explained to me... "I had to make the judiciary office aware of my movements as I was going abroad.... Normally the escort officer would have picked me up at home but I managed to plead special circumstances....as I am officially on holiday..."

"So is he coming to Austria with us?" I finally thought to ask.

"Oh no," she grinned, "The holiday is viewed as a low risk scenario.... Besides I have you to look after me, don't I..."

I was still very impressed with the level of respect that everybody afforded my aunt. We were ushered into the VIP Lounge at Terminal 5 and offered a selection of complimentary drinks including champagne but both of us sensibly settled for straight black espressos.

The hire car that Mother had booked was waiting for us at Innsbruck Kranebitten Airport, a smart new silver VW Touareg four wheel drive and within 10 minutes we were parked in the hotel car park watching our cases being wheeled through the light dusting of snow into the hotel by old Eric, the elderly porter who had been at the hotel forever, at least certainly since we had been coming for the past ten years. He had patted me on the back in greeting but squinted at Aunt Julia with a puzzled expression, I guess that he wasn't sure if it was my mother or not, it was dark and they do really look very much alike at times. In the end my aunt put him out of his misery....

"Hallo, Eric, es ist schön dich wieder zu sehen nach all diesen Jahren. Erinnerst du dich an mich" I had not realised that she had such a good command of German.

His face wrinkled into a wide grin, „Ja, ja, es ist die andere Fräulein Watford ist es nicht, willkommen zurück zum Hotel"

"He has remembered me as 'The Other Miss Watford'..." she translated for me with a pleased grin.

"I guess that you have been here before," I said as we walked towards the hotel reception. I was beginning to be less and less surprised at the things I was discovering about my aunt.

She laughed and put her arm through mine and hugged it affectionately, "Your mother and I came here every year to ski together before you were born until...." She paused for a moment as a look of sadness passed over her face, ".....until our parents died..." I remembered the story that Uncle Ted had told me about the family break-up and didn't push her any further.

The Tirolerhof Hotel was an old fashioned traditional Austrian hotel that looked like a giant chalet and had been run by the same family since the late 19th Century and was located on the south side of the city of Innsbruck with easy access to the modern skiing at Igls, Patsch and Natters, whilst also being just a brisk walk into the centre of the city to the shops and restaurants. We loved the skiing and snow-boarding but we also liked what the city had to offer; Mother never had to force Cora and I to visit concerts or restaurants whilst we were on holiday.

The duty receptionist was a young woman named Etta, who recognised me from previous visits but was too young to have remembered my aunt. She chatted in perfectly fluent English whilst filling out our registration cards and processing our passports.... there was a note on our booking form explaining that we were the advanced guard of a larger group and she recalled Mum and my sister and was very sympathetic when I explained about Cora's accident. Etta was typically Tirolean with a pretty suntanned face and blonde hair tied in twin pig-tails. She had a neat figure which was shown off to perfection by the traditional Austrian folk costume that all the female staff wore during the tourist season. She was probably in her early twenties; I had tried chatting her up last year and had thought that she was quite warming to me by the time that our holiday ended. I made a mental note to press home a bit harder this year before Cora arrived; I might even get laid this holiday if I was lucky.

"You are staying in the Floor Three Suite.." she told us handing each of us a digital swipe card, "The card locks are new..." She explained, "The one card opens the door to the suite, all the internal doors if you lock them, the ski locker and the late night door into reception if you go out partying..." That was an improvement, last year we had needed a ring with three keys on it and had to knock up the night porter if we stayed out late. "Dinner is still being served in the restaurant, if you are hungry... but you need to be quick it finishes at 21:30..." she added, "Have a nice stay...."

We followed Eric into the rather ancient cage lift which deposited us on the third floor. Our 'suite' turned out to be the whole of one end of the hotel wing, the dividing door of the corridor had been closed and locked, effectively giving us a self-contained suite of five rooms around a wide hallway; one large room had been converted to a communal sitting room by removing the beds and replacing them with arm chairs, a couch and a large screen television. There was another small seating area at the end of the hallway and a picture window which overlooked the snow covered mountain.

The doors to all the rooms were open and we looked into each in turn. Each bedroom contained a comfortable looking double bed with a thick Austrian duvet and monster sized pillows, the usual chair, vanity unit, wardrobe, and minibar and had its own en suite bathroom with a big iron bath and swan neck shower head. The ancient iron radiators were too hot to touch and the whole suite was cosy and as warm as toast. The hotel was not the most modern that I had stayed at, not like the luxury Invisor Hotel we used in Spain during the summer but the old fashioned bedrooms were huge and had a really traditional atmosphere and we liked it.

Eric deposited the suitcases randomly into three of the bedrooms, accepted a 5 Euro tip then wished us a good stay and a comfortable night and departed.

"I guess that I am in here..." I said, joining my bag in the first room inside the main door and tossing my cabin bag onto the bed. "Where do you want this?" I held up her laptop case which I had been carrying on my shoulder.

"I think I shall take...this one..." my aunt smiled dragging her designer suitcase across the hall into the room opposite me. "Shall we leave the unpacking and go down to dinner? She asked, "I don't think we need to change.... everybody else seemed to be dressed informally." I guess that it was part of the ski culture, nobody dressed up in the hotel and casual dress was common in the dining room.

"Good thinking Batman...." I scoffed before remembering that it was Aunt Julia not Mum or Cora I was with, but she just laughed... "I just want to telephone Mum to let her know we have arrived undamaged..." I added tugging my mobile 'phone out of my jacket pocket. In fact I intended sneaking down to reception tomorrow morning before breakfast to use their internet service to speak to Cora on Skype. I had sneaked her iPad into the hospital and had promised to call her when I got the chance.

"Go for it Robin...." She chuckled, "I am just going to take a quick wash and then we can eat..." She disappeared into her bedroom. Surprised again....a few days ago I would have sworn blind that Aunt Julia would not even have heard of Batman and Robin.

The Tirolerhof Hotel did not boast the finest restaurant in Innsbruck but the food was always wholesome and usually featured a couple of traditional Austrian dishes daily. That night the choice was limited to 'Tiroler Gröstl' the traditional bacon and potato stir-fry or 'Steirisches Wurzelfleisch' a pork belly fillet hot pot with apple and horseradish. I like both but when Aunt Julia choose the pork I decided to follow suit.

"Would you like a glass of white wine, Auntie Julia?" I asked trying to sound urbane and knowledgeable. I wanted to order a glass for myself, or a beer but wasn't sure that I wouldn't attract her disapproval. Mother had always allowed Cora and I table wine at home and often in restaurants as well as we got older and could pass as adults. She always ordered good wine and I realize now that she was trying to teach us a little bit about quality food and drink.

"Absolutely not!" She said with a mock scowl and then smiled broadly," If we are having wine we should have a FULL bottle of something decent.... " She beckoned the waiter over and asked for the wine list and studied it for a minute "A bottle of the Domane Wachau Gruner Veltliner 2006, bitte."

I wasn't about to argue...I knew absolutely nothing about Austrian wines...or most other wines for that matter but I suspected that my education in that area was about to begin. When the wine arrived I was impressed with her choice, it was fresh and sharp but fruity at the same time, a really tasty drink which complimented the pork perfectly. Mostly I was just overwhelmed and grateful that Aunt Julia was treating me as a grown man rather than just an immature teenager.

"So what did Gill have to say...?" She asked as we started eating.

"Oh, she had just got home.....Cora is comfortable and is less stressed out now.... And has her first scan in the morning..... Mr. Goldblum has said that he should know tomorrow if she will be able to fly out to join us on Wednesday. "Oh, and Mum sends you her love..."

I hadn't realized how hungry I had become, I had only had a sandwich at lunchtime and a handful of biscuits whilst sitting with Cora. Aunt Julia and I had both declined the in-flight meal on the plane, most airline meals are pretty foul but Lufthansa seem to have gone one step beyond inedible so we settled for yet more coffee. The pork hot pot was really very good and enhanced by the pleasant wine I felt quite comfortable and content by the time we had finished and were ready to order desert. We both chose the hot plum strudel with a vanilla sauce and a huge pyramid of whipped cream and nut sprinkle for pudding and finished off with cups of strong espresso coffee.

"So what do you wish to do tomorrow, James?" Aunt Julia asked me after we had relocated to the bar with a pot of steaming hot chocolate and balloons of cognac. "Would you like to drive up to one of the slopes and ski in the morning?"

"Will you ski with me?" I asked her. Perhaps because we were here on our own I felt emboldened, or perhaps it was the unaccustomed amount of booze that I had consumed in the past hour, or maybe it was simply that I felt our relationship had developed to the point where I could ask some personal questions.

"No." the answer was succinct and terse. She looked at me over the rim of her brandy glass her eyes sparkling with an icy glint as though challenging me to push for an explanation, but at the same time held just a hint of amusement.

"Will you tell me why...?" I guessed that I was pushing my hand but suddenly I really wanted to know.

"No."

I held her gaze defiantly and tried to psych myself into believing that I was Dirty Harry...go on punk...make my day... but in the end it was more like a rabbit trying to play chicken with a lioness. I had tried challenging my Mother this way in the past and had always lost and her sister was probably just as tough and a lot scarier. In the end I had to fold my hand and started to laugh. "OK Auntie Julia....I give up....you win....I'm sorry I asked.... It was rude of me."

She didn't say anything for at least one full, long, slow minute and then she took a sip from her glass, lit a cigarette and sat back with the smoke just trickling in a silver stream from her mouth and nostrils.....God but it was sexy the way she did that....like Marlene Dietrich in Destry Rides Again.

"Pride and fear..." she said quietly. "You will not understand this James, dear...but I am 58 years old, I haven't been on skis for at least ten years..... I don't know if I can do it anymore, and I am afraid to find out that I can't..."

For a moment I caught a glimpse of the fragile and vulnerable woman that lurked beneath the frosty High Court judge image. She sat forward and stubbed her cigarette out in the ashtray.

"If you so much as whisper a word of this to your mother..... I will slap you bloody senseless and then kick your skinny little arse all over the Alps!"

I was shocked. Not by the threat, I recognised the underlying humour, even if the meaning was to the point.... It was the actual words, I would never have imagined my stiff backed aunt coming out with anything like that.

"OK, OK so maybe we should do something else in the morning...." I grinned. I lit a cigarette and leaned back in my chair, "How do you feel about snow-boarding?" I teased.

"I really will slap you in a minute....." she laughed, I joined in as she waved the waiter over and ordered another couple of brandies. We had developed a camaraderie and suddenly I realized that she was actually quite fun to be with, she was so much like my mother both in character and appearance and I would hate to lose this new found amity.... I truly could not really remember why we had been at logger heads for so long. It was well after one o'clock local time when we finally left the hotel bar and made our way to the antique rattle box that served as a lift to the upper floors. Somehow she had managed to get out of me all the details of my aspirations for a military career and my frivolous plans for spending a year travelling in the Far East before university.... Plus some things that I had not even shared with Mother or Cora yet. I didn't think for a moment that I was rat-arsed although I would willingly put my hand up to being a bit mashed... not quite sober.

We let ourselves into the suite and paused outside my room. "Thank you for a lovely evening, James..." she said, "I have really enjoyed it .... I feel that I have found a new friend..."

"Yes, me too..." I realized suddenly that I really meant it, I was genuinely glad that we had become friends. After just one day I could not now imagine her anything other than a friend.

She leaned in and gave me a small pecking kiss on the cheek and a friendly hug and then for some reason our fingers brushed and I took her hand in mine... just a natural reaction and gesture of friendship.

The shock was as though somebody had briefly connected a car battery to my balls..... not painful but the sort of tingling that you get from one of those fairground machines, certainly enough to produce an instant erection which crammed the front of my trousers. Aunt Julia had obviously felt a similar sensation as she stepped back and gave a sharp gasp....

"What the bloody hell was that, James.... What did you do....?"

"I don't know... I didn't do anything..." I gulped in total honesty. I had no idea what it was but this was the second time it had happened, both times when I touched Aunt Julia.... I only knew that it left me tingling and feeling as horny as hell. I thrust my hands deep into my jacket pockets and wound it tight around me hoping that the bottom edge would conceal the sudden bulge in my trousers.

Whatever it was that had happened had left us both a little breathless and I noticed that Aunt Julia's face was a little flushed, her eyes looked a little wild and there were small pink blush patches on her cheeks. Maybe it was my own aroused state but she looked bloody sexy and exiting.

"I guess we are just both very tired..." she offered, "It has been a long day... we probably ought to turn in now..."

"Yes, we are just tired that is all.." I agreed, but I knew differently and I suspect that she did as well. We said our goodnights and withdrew into our own rooms. I heard her door close but left mine slightly ajar so that I could hear if she came out again.

I stripped off and got into my sleeping shorts and tee-shirt but decided that it was best to leave having a shower until the morning. The old fashion plumbing in the hotel had a tendency to creak and groan and roar like a thunder-storm and I did not think that that would be appreciated by other guests at nearly two in the morning.

I lay in bed my erection feeling like a second person crowding beneath the heavy duvet but I was just too tired to get up and go through to the bathroom to choke the chicken for relief. I lay there and fantasized about 'relaxing' with Cora but mostly my errant thoughts kept drifting back to that incredible 'thing' that happened between Aunt Julia and myself which had created this incredible boner and I eventually fell asleep still horny and remembering her round buttocks and shapely thighs in that tight skirt as she walked away into her bedroom only a few paces across the hall.