“Hold that, I won’t be long,” she said, giving me the helmet, and disappearing across the courtyard.
Will smiled at me. “I don’t know what you’ve done to her, but I’ve never ever seen her looking like this,” he said.
“We shared a remarkable experience, and all I can say it changed both our lives.”
“When I heard that she was getting married, I thought, no, not Gilly, she will never get married. But when I saw her in the airport, I saw she has changed beyond all recognition. This experience, what was it exactly?”
“It is hard to say, really. I’d been carrying an injured knee for a long time. I was further injured during a hurricane, so the local witch doctor conducted a sort of ceremony with Gilly and I. The British doctor who came with us was observing. My knee was healed, and Gilly and I just sort of melded into soul mates or something. Look, Will, I’m a Marine, I am not a highly educated man, but I don’t understand what we went through. Gilly and I were lovers before the ceremony, but our feelings grew a hundred fold afterwards. We both grew so close together, that life without the other would have been unthinkable. We love each other, and we will grow old together, God willing.”
“Well, I’ve known my sister a long time, and that girl there is as far from the sister I knew as I could imagine,” he said. “The girl I grew up with was more a boy than a girl. I’ve never before seen her wearing a skirt, ever since she left school. This is the first time I have ever seen her wear makeup and earrings. I tell you Ed, if I didn’t know better, I would say she was a different person entirely.”
“Hell, Will, I have only known her for six weeks, and she is the only I girl I want to know. When I first met her she was a little butch, but over the weeks, I have seen a change, and ever since that little ceremony, you see the Gillian that she is today.”
We watched her as she came out of the building. Her longer hair flowing, her eyes flashing and that smile of hers lighting up the world. My heart melted, and she came up to me and kissed me.
“That’s done; I have officially resigned. The dean was there and he was not surprised that I was leaving, but I think he was shocked at my appearance though. The silly old fool didn’t recognise me for a while,” she said, grinning.
“Well, you do look a lot different,” her brother said.
“Do I?” she said, innocently. “In what way?”
“Well, you actually look like a very attractive and desirable young woman, now,” he said.
“So, haven’t I always?” she asked, teasing him.
“Gigi. Enough! Don’t tease the poor man.”
“Aw, Ed, he’s my brother, I’m allowed to.”
“Enough, we’ve been talking about you, and he’s surprised enough.”
“No, little sister, you have not,” he said, oblivious to our mental exchange.
She laughed at her brother, and he looked not a little disconcerted at the very delectable and very feminine woman she had become.
“I’ve arranged to have all my stuff boxed and stored until such time as I arrange its collection. So, Ed if you don’t mind, we will pop back here before we go back to the States, so I can sort everything out for boxing,” she said.
“Sure, no problem; besides I’d kinda like to look round the city.”
“Right, then let’s go. I’ll see you guys at the farm,” she said, and took her helmet from me.
“Dad and Ma will not be there. They have gone to see Aunt Sheila, that’s why I collected you. But Alex is on the farm somewhere, and as you know, they never lock anything,” Will told her, and it dawned on me that she would arrive way before us.
She grinned, donned her helmet and swung her leather-clad leg over her motorcycle. She started it, waved, slapped down the visor, and disappeared in a spray of gravel.
I got into the Land Rover and Will drove us out of the city.
Chapter Seven
WILL
Nothing prepared me for the shock of seeing Gillian as she walked towards me in the airport. I’d received a call from Dad to ask whether I would be available to collect her and her young man from the airport, and bring them up to the farm. As it happened, I was available, so thought it would be interesting. They had told me that she was now engaged to be married, but I thought they were joking.
I’ve always been very fond of Gilly, but knew in my heart of hearts that she was not like most girls. We had all, even mother, come to terms with the fact that she would never marry, and we just wished her every happiness in whatever she did with her life. When I found out that she was engaged to a US Marine Sergeant Major, I was surprised and not a little shocked. I knew that I had to see this with my own eyes.
I arrived at the airport as the plane landed, so was waiting in the main concourse as the passengers came through the arrivals door. I watched the passengers collect their bags, and I immediately saw the only person who could be a US Marine warrant officer.
He was tall, slightly taller than me, but heavier built – in a very positive way. He is not a man I’d choose to upset. His very short fair hair had a tinge of silver at the sides, and he was very tanned. He was older than |I expected, but then knew that Gilly would never fall for a little boy.
He was wearing a short-sleeved white shirt, blue jeans and cowboy boots. His heavily muscled arms pushed the trolley that was carrying three bags and a suit bag. He could only be American, as his whole bearing screamed, ‘military’.
Then I discounted him, for a stunningly attractive, blonde woman with the most gorgeous legs accompanied him. She wore a short skirt and low cut top, such as Gilly would never wear. She was wearing dark glasses, but when she took them off, her blue eyes shone with humour. Her earrings sparkled in the sun, and she was wearing an engagement ring on her left hand. I automatically put her down as American as well, due to the deep suntan and very confident and relaxed manner.
It was only after I had looked away that it began to dawn on me who the girl was. I looked back, and they were walking hand in hand towards the exit. I shouted her name and she turned. The next thing I know she hurls herself into my arms. The sister I knew was never demonstrative with any outward signs of affection, and even a brotherly peck on the cheek was a no-no.
I had to hold her at arm’s length to take a closer inspection of her. She was a completely different person. She not only looked like an attractive woman should look, but she behaved in a way that I found disconcertingly alien. She was tactile and relaxed, whereas before she had always been distant and slightly tense.
She introduced me to her man, whom I felt was trying hard not to salute. He was a tough looking man, but his eyes showed the same humour and laughter that Gilly’s now emanated. He had a quiet husky voice, with a deep drawl, obviously used to command. I liked him instantly, and obviously Gilly was clearly completely smitten. They were in constant eye contact, and were prone to sharing sudden secret smiles.
I took them out to the Army Land Rover I had ‘borrowed’, and drove them to Gilly’s college. She wanted to hand in her resignation, so while she was gone, I asked Edward about the changes I saw in my sister.
He was frank and open and, although they had been through a lot together, some of it was clearly inexplicable; I was left with an impression that there was more to it than what he told me. But, Gilly was so totally happy and glowed with contentment, who am I to complain?
She took off on that silly motorcycle of hers, so Edward and I followed in the Land Rover. It was a two-hour journey, which she probably managed in one. But it enabled me to get to know my future brother-in-law a little better.