My time with Joan had steadied me and I made it through the rest of the term and my mock exams. One of my more perceptive pals at college said, “Pete, you seem much happier and relaxed. That awful look in your eyes has gone. What happened?”

“It’s OK,” I said, “All life is change,” marvelling at it!

My mother was more perceptive than my father.

“There was such a change in you, which I noticed when we returned from the reunion. Something must have happened.”

“Yes, something happened. Don’t worry, the change is permanent.”

“In a young man, that usually means one thing.”

She said no more. I looked away and didn’t reply. Mother had possibly guessed, but only at a fraction of the truth.

Work on Joan’s boat continued, and we launched it with other boats one evening. The boat owners invited the gang to the clubhouse for a ‘thank you’ drink. Walking over to the clubhouse with Joan, out of earshot of the rest, she murmured, “My place afterwards. Leave the club alone. The back door to the garden is unlocked.”

The session in the bar ended. I mingled with the gang and left after a polite delay. There was not a funny look. I rode to the alleyway behind Joan’s house and went in through the back door to the garden. The kitchen light was on, and I could see her inside. She saw me and opened the kitchen door.

“Great,” she said. “No one followed you?”

“No, there was no one behind me when I turned into the lane.”

“I wanted to talk because it’s six weeks since we have been alone without the risk of interruption. Amanda is stopping over with a friend tonight. Is everything OK?”

“Yes, I have to keep going for another nine weeks and it will be the finish of my A-levels. Joan, thanks to you, I’m in much better shape. My pals have noticed and they wonder why. How are you?”

“I’m in much better shape, too. I so badly needed a man, and you answered the call. Peter, it’s not long until the end of the summer term and Amanda leaves for France. We can spend time without pressure. I want you to have a key for the back gate.”

Joan handed me the key. She instructed me about a ‘signalling’ system involving objects on a windowsill in a rear window visible from the alleyway behind her house. There was a method for me to show I had a message for her, when it was safe to deliver, etc. In messages, I was the figure seven, Amanda was the figure eight, and Joan was twenty-seven in figures. I was to act according to the message and to burn it. No names, etc. How funny, but a great idea!

“You handled it perfectly at the club over the last five months. I don’t think anyone has picked up on us and you have mingled with the gang that looks after the old boats. I need a crew when it’s windy. Amanda will crew for me in light winds, but she doesn’t like heavy weather. With your fast dinghy experience, I’m sure you can handle it. Can you be available for the week at sea, please? It will look so natural.”

“Of course, I start my holiday job as soon as exams are over in mid-June. It’s morning only from five-thirty to midday at the arcade (fixing slot machines and electronic bagatelle games). I get the afternoons off and always all day Sunday.”

“That’s fantastic. Turn up early before sailing. If it’s a light wind and Amanda is there, she will crew for me. If not, it’s the two of us.”

“Peter, the next time we will be together, there will be a lovely change in the house. I won’t spoil it by telling you, please, wait and see.”

Joan took me in her arms and kissed me.

“Not tonight. You must go home. We don’t want to arouse suspicions, do we?”

What would those changes be?

It was time to go, and I said a fond ‘goodnight’ to Joan.

Amanda, now seventeen, appeared at the club and was friendly. She thanked me for helping her mother with the boat, admitting that working with a blowlamp in a freezing shed was not her idea of fun! She was very pleasant, but I detected an undertone of strain. It was easy for me to spot, and I put it down to the inevitable end-of-term exam worries. I felt confident but fatalistic about my forthcoming ‘A’ levels, which came and went without drama.

Then it happened. I rode down the alleyway behind Joan’s house every day, and on Thursday, only a day after my last ‘A’-level paper, a ‘come in’ signal appeared in the window. Joan was there in the kitchen and opened the door for me, a worried look on her face.

“Amanda is going through a bad patch. She didn’t do very well in her end-of-term exams, and it was a shock. She’s very upset. As soon as she can find an excuse, she wants to talk to you. Amanda is talking about cancelling her job in France and it would be a huge mistake. I’ve made her promise not to do anything for three days, and see how she feels at the end of that time. Her college course runs for another few days.”

“Joan, sure, I would love to talk to her. If I get lucky with my ‘A’ levels, Amanda will listen to me, for sure. Where is she tonight?”

“There’s a group of them who didn’t do so well and they are out at someone’s house commiserating. You mustn’t talk about luck after the effort you put in. The weather forecast is good for Saturday and Amanda will crew for me, I hope. Please, Peter, do you think you can be at the club and be ready to talk with her? Don’t worry about your ‘A’ levels. We all have something dragging on us.”

Why had Amanda suddenly started talking to her mother about me? There was something I had missed, and what was it?

“Of course. I will be there. I can’t wait to be with Amanda.”

The weather was ideal on Saturday. A light sea breeze had got up and Amanda crewed for her mother. I took my dinghy out with a younger guy who was keen to get experience. The afternoon’s sailing concluded, and I waited for Joan and Amanda to row ashore from their mooring.

Joan made excuses about needing to get away and left me with Amanda.

“When are you off to France?” I asked.

“I suppose I must go,”

Poor Amanda was in very low spirits. An afternoon on her mother’s beautiful old yacht had not helped, which was a surprise.

“Let’s take a walk towards Furze Heath. It’s lovely up there on a night like this and the Bird in Hand pub is nearby.”

Amanda smiled and followed me. I took her hand, and she didn’t resist.

It wasn’t the Heath or the pub I had in mind. It was the privacy provided by the pine forest by the Heath, because I had found girls like forests. There is a primaeval streak in many of them which reacts well to a forest.

On the way there, I did what any young man should do and talked about myself, the strain it had been coping with three tough ‘A’-level subjects and how it had almost got on top of me. I said I worked out a plan of how to deal with the academic side and applied it. But I had neglected the inner me, which had been stupid. Amanda wanted to know how I had fixed the inner me, and I moved around the edges. An older ‘sympathetic person had lent me an ear and resolved my inner conflicts in the nick of time,’ as I put it. If it ever came out, Amanda would find I had been economical with the truth.

“Amanda, we have something in common. What do you think it is?”

She stared at me. “You are gregarious by nature, but ‘A’ levels weighed you down. You behaved like the ‘cat that walks by himself’ and I wonder if I do the same thing.”

I was astounded, because I thought it was exactly what I thought we shared in common. How perceptive of her! We were on a footpath and within a few minutes, were sitting on a small bench in a clearing in the forest. We were alone.

“Amanda, you must keep to your plan and go to France. The change of environment will take you out of yourself. I enjoy my holiday job because it’s such a complete change. If you sit at home, all you will do is worry and feel miserable.”

“Peter, please, will you write to me when I’m away?”

“Sure. Just give me the address. Air Mail will be there fast if I catch the early post collection.”

I got up. “Let’s go for a walk in amongst the trees.”

Once away from the path and the clearing, I leaned against a tree. For the first time, she snuggled up to me and we kissed. It was an electric moment.

“Peter, if I drop my plans, it will look like a weakness. I will be back two weeks before the start of the college year and that’s time to sort out my approach to studies.”

“Once I get my results, if they are good enough, I will feel justified in offering you help. It won’t be much use listening to me if I have screwed up.”

“You won’t screw up. You should hear what my mother says about your abilities. She says there is a lump of hard rock inside the unusual lad in a good way. I have seen you isolate yourself at college with a grim, hard look on your face. Am I correct in thinking you did that because you won’t let people and events around distract you?”

“Yes, that’s right. I was terrified of ‘losing’ anything from my brain if I allowed myself distraction. It was Janus-faced, good and bad. On balance, it was bad, because my inner turmoil almost tipped me over the edge. Fortunately, an older friend rescued me in the nick of time.”

“Mother said you would understand me and you do. Please, can you tell me who helped you?”

I was ready mentally for that one.

“The Bible starts with Adam and Eve and ends with Revelations. Let’s leave that for now because the person involved has asked I remain silent and I won’t break that confidence.”

“Mother talks about the lump of rock and I can see why. Here we are, and you won’t talk. It’s good.”

“Go to France. I will write and wait for you.”

Taking the opportunity, I gently fondled her cute bottom through her slacks. She sighed and rested her head on my shoulders.

“Mandy, I hoped we could get together. At college, I tried hard not to let my feelings show.”

“You did an excellent job. There was no sign of your feelings. Sometimes I thought you were simply ignoring me.”

I kissed her, and she took my head in her hands, so like her mother.

Daylight was fading, and it would be pitch black in the forest.

“Do you feel like a drink at the Bird in Hand? It’s warm enough to sit out in the garden. It’s only a short walk from here and we should be on our way before it gets dark.”

“Yes, great idea.”

At the pub, Amanda had a shandy, and I had a pint of best bitter. We found a quiet corner and sat looking out over the garden. I didn’t recognise any of the customers, which was a relief. Small-town tongues wag. I walked her home, hand in hand, down another footpath back to the town.

“Mandy, please, assure me, you will go to France?”

“Yes, I will if you promise to write.”

I laughed. “Of course, I will try to write at least every other day. Let the time in France help you recover from your recent disappointment. Your confidence will increase, and if you get the time, think of me waiting for you.”

She burst into tears and put her arms around me.

“Don’t cry, there’s nothing to cry about.”

“My life was so empty. Now we have each other.”

“Please, don’t go home looking upset. I don’t want your mother to think we upset each other.”

Mandy’s crying stopped.

She said softly, “I must go to France and practice self-denial for now until I get back. There’s still a few days of college, but you won’t be there, which makes things easier for me.”

At her front door, we had a goodnight kiss. I had an enormous erection and I think she noticed.

Two days later, I saw the ‘message’ alert in the window. It was on my way back from the arcade workshop and Amanda would be at college. I went in and found the message.

To paraphrase, it was “Whatever you did or said made the difference. ‘8’ is in a better place and is going to France. Mission accomplished.” I had a pen and wrote a brief reply. I put my message delivered marker in the agreed place and left.

At home, I got an even bigger and welcome surprise. My parents extended their holiday to a month and were relying on me to look after the house and garden. My father unexpectedly bought me an old banger, insured and taxed it for me for six months, which would not expire until December. I had passed my driving test and now I had a set of wheels! Joan needed to know as soon as possible, so I wrote and left my external marker to show I had a message. The ‘deliver message’ alert soon appeared, and I made the drop, finding a message for me.

“Find out about the dressage whips at the Anston shop. ‘How much?’ and put it in a message to me, please.” Things were on the move at last!

I took the banger to Anston, checked out the dressage whips, and put the details in a message for Joan. We exchanged messages. There was an envelope with twenty pounds in it and a tick against Joan’s choice of whip. I followed the instructions. The forty-eight-inch whip with its flexible end cord would be excruciatingly painful. I hid it in the car until I could deliver it and left my message marker. The ‘come-in’ alert appeared and was still there when I arrived after dark with the whip stuffed down a trouser leg. Joan met me at the kitchen door.

“Here it is and here’s the receipt and the change.”

"Great and thanks. It’s OK. Amanda is at her friend’s place tonight. You had better go home. I guess you have a cover story?”

“Yes, and it will stick if they come asking, which isn’t likely.”

The next day, Amanda rang me at my parent’s house and asked if we could meet up. I was so happy and said I would collect her in the banger and we could decide where to go. To my surprise, she wanted to walk to the forest and then go for a drink at the Bird in Hand. She was happy and getting ready to leave for France in two days.

We were deep in the forest and alone apart from birds, squirrels and a few snakes.

“When I come back, we can have a great time before you go to uni and my next term starts. You must help me get ready so I can be happy (a momentary pause) in every way.”

“Mandy, it’s so kind of you to talk about uni, but I’m still waiting for, you know. But for sure, I can make you happy. There’s a hope in life.”

I was kissing her and gently squeezing her bottom.

“It will be worth the wait and I won’t let any of those French guys near me. You will get your grades. But let me show you something.”

Amanda undid her top and took her left arm out of its sleeve. I had not seen her in a bra before! She showed me a small mark on the inside of her upper arm.

“Do you know what that is?”

“No.”

She got dressed again, put her arms around me and said, “It’s the mark from the placing of a contraceptive implant. I talked about my feelings with my mother and she understood me so well. She said to me, ‘Follow your instincts. If you think a lot of him, you may well wish to have sex, and if that’s the case, there’s nothing wrong with it. The thing is to avoid a pregnancy and one easy way out is the implant. But always trust your instincts.’”

“So I said, ‘How do I go about getting an implant, please?’ Mother said she would call the doctor, and he said I could get an implant after an interview. So I did three days ago.”

I was so surprised! “I’m so pleased you could talk to your mother. It must be a great relief to you.”

Mandy gave me a long, lingering kiss and ran her fingers inside my shirt.

She murmured in my ear. “That’s not all we talked about. Mother told me how her uncle offered her and she accepted a caning when she was about my age. It gave me a little shock! She understood I had been under terrible pressure and that a caning could provide stress relief. I had not fantasised about it, but for my mother to do it would embarrass me too much. We need to wait until we can be alone at home and the implant takes at least a week to work.”

“Mandy, your offer takes my breath away. The wait will be worth it.”

For the first time, I put both hands down and massaged her lovely little bottom. To think that in a few weeks, I was likely to see it bare was beyond belief!

Mandy looked me in the eye and said, “Since talking to my mother, I think of lying on the bed, bottom-up, while you give me a slow, stinging caning. Afterwards, you comfort my flaming tail with tender lovemaking. Mother said there is a highly erotic side to spanking and caning. The wait will make...