(Part 01)
Owen Carrington’s star was definitely in the ascendency after the success of his first Romantic novel “The Maiden Muse” but the change in the fortunes of his writing career were not the thing that was preoccupying him that morning.
He had been in a relationship with a local girl, Juliana Molesworth, for more than a month and on that day he was due to meet the family and he was feeling uneasy about it.
The Molesworth’s were a very well-known family in Denmead and everyone knew who they were, but Owen was new to the village, having only taken up residence in January.
While Owen was fretting about being introduced to his 20 year old girlfriend Juliana’s family, one of them, Valentine, was out jogging along the bridle path through the Normandie woods.
He was five years older than Juliana and was a doctor and had been away from Denmead for 8 years, doing his training.
But he had moved back a month earlier after he got a job at the Royal Downshire Hospital in Purplemere and it was only after his return that he realized how much he missed it.
He was fast reaching the point on his run when he would have to turn around and head back home when he spotted someone familiar, someone from his past.
It was Catherine Ray and they had history, she was the only child of a wealthy couple with more money than sense, and she had been one of Juliana’s best friends for many years.
She had been a frequent visitor to the house and had spent many nights at the Molesworth’s on sleepovers.
But on one occasion when he was seventeen the 12-year-old Catherine tried to kiss him and that was only the first time, she was very persistent and tried at every opportunity until one night when she was 13 she climbed into his bed.
He didn’t know how it may have escalated after that had he not left for University.
On the night that he had a near naked 13 year old girl in his bed he got out of bed and left her there and went to a friend’s house for the night and never spoke to Catherine again and he never told his sister what her friend had done.
But there she was ahead of him and he couldn’t avoid her, and he couldn’t ignore her, and he knew it was going to be so embarrassing.
As he suspected there was a distinct awkwardness between them and he got the distinct impression that she wasn’t any happier about meeting him than he was to see her.
She was still as pretty as she was when he last saw her but she had lost the puppy fat, if that’s the PC way of saying it, from when she was thirteen years old.
She was a little taller now about 5ft 1, with shoulder length blond hair and a petite figure.
He gave her quite a clinical appraisal of her assets because he hadn’t seen her for 8 years, not since she was a chubby teenager, the fact that she was wearing Jodhpur’s made her very attractive.
(Part 02)
Catherine was a bit of a chubster when she was a teen, but that wasn’t why he didn’t take advantage of her, he wasn’t that shallow, she was a cute girl, no, he rejected her advances because she was only a child and he was all but a man.
She was a pretty girl and only a tiny little thing, and seemed even more so beside a chestnut mare.
She had the reputation of being a bit stuck up, although he doubted that, perhaps her perceived aloofness was as a result of spending most of her time riding her horse, and the additional height gave the impression of her looking down her nose at the hoi polloi.
She never ever speaks to anyone when she’s out riding and never responds to hellos or good mornings, but that was as a result of shyness, not snobbishness.
Her parents didn’t help the situation and were prone to spoiling, he had heard from Juliana that for her 21st birthday later in the year they were flying her to America in a private plane to go on a riding holiday.
“Hi Catherine” he said “How are you?”
“I’m fine” she lied “Are you back?”
“I am” he replied
Then came the first of the embarrassed silences as they stood facing each other.
“Are you back at your mums?” she asked
“No I have one of the Normandie cottages” he replied
Then came another embarrassed silence.
“Well I’d better get going” he said pointing to his watch “I’ll see you around”
“Ok bye” she said as he set off back the way he came.
About ten minutes later a girl on horseback rode by, it was Catherine and he thought she was crying and he suddenly felt guilty as he watched her trot out of sight.
As Owen stepped out of his front door he looked at his watch and was concerned he was cutting it a bit fine and realised there was a very real chance he was going to be late.
He had arranged to meet Juliana, her parents and her brother for lunch in Brocklington at the Mulberry Tree, it was the first introduction and it meant a lot to Juliana so he jumped into the car and rushed off.
As a result of driving like a maniac he made it to the restaurant with minutes to spare much to Juliana’s relief and her brother Valentine arrived five minutes late.
Although he wasn’t looking forward to it, he was pleasantly surprised, her parents were good company, he hit it off with her brother, and the food was wonderful and it really was a very pleasant way to spend a couple of hours.
Her father Gregory had a meeting to go to and left about half an hour before everyone else and Juliana and her mum, Lavinia, wanted to go into Purplemere shopping so Owen said he would drive them over there.
They offered to drop Valentine off in Denmead first but he was so stuffed after the meal that he fancied a constitutional, so he declined the offer and set off to walk back to Denmead, it was less than 3 miles as the crow flies and he knew the route through Normandie Woods from his boyhood, well roughly anyway, so he was quite confident when he set off.
(Part 03)
It was about an hour into his trek when he realized he was hopelessly lost and blundering about in the woods and he was wishing he’d accepted the lift.
The woods were getting thicker and thicker and darker and darker and he was starting to get despondent when he saw a glimmer of light though the trees.
He headed towards the source of the light, which appeared to be a small clearing and as he got closer he could see there was someone in the clearing, it was Catherine Ray and her horse.
The mare was tied to a tree and she appeared to be grooming the beast.
His first reaction was to avoid another embarrassing confrontation but he was hopelessly lost so he moved a little closer and was about to ask her to direct him back to the path to Denmead when he realised she wasn’t grooming the horse at all.
He had come upon a scene, where Catherine stood beside the tethered beast, still wearing her riding hat, white shirt and Jodhpur’s and she was sobbing against the horse’s neck and shoulder.
The girl who the villagers thought snobbish and unattainable was not actually aloof at all but was vulnerable and in despair.
In that moment he had a choice where he could walk away unnoticed and leave the sobbing girl or go to her and comfort her.
As he stood there watching from the edge of the clearing he pondered his choices and knew in an instant that he could not leave and should have been able to if he had not had even the slightest feeling for her.
So he walked slowly and stealthily, on her blind side, across the clearing to close the distance between them.
He was about five or six paces from her when she suddenly became aware of his presence and she hugged the horse even closer in an effort to make herself invisible and cover her embarrassment.
“Hey what’s the matter?” he asked as he continued to close the distance but as he continued to get closer she said nothing and just stood stock still against the horse with only her shoulders moving in sync with her sobs.
When he was stood directly behind her he placed his hands gently on her shoulders.
“Come on now, don’t upset yourself, and tell me what the matter is” he said but her only response was to turn and bury her face in his chest.
All he could do was hold her and utter soothing words while she cried her tears and her whole body shook within his arms with the force of her heartbreaking weeping.
Valentine had no idea how long they stood in that clearing with her soaking his shirt with her unrelenting tears but eventually her sobs relented.
(Part 04)
Valentine had no idea how long they stood in that clearing with her soaking his shirt with her unrelenting tears but eventually her sobs relented he waited a few moments longer and then he asked gently
“So now can you tell me what upset you?”
There was silence at first and then he felt her little body go rigid and she pushed herself away from him and shouted at him
“What upset me? What upset me?”
“Um yes”
“You did” she snapped and she would have cried again if she hadn’t been so livid.
“Me?” he retorted “How do you work that out?”
“You’re unbelievable” she said and started marching around
Valentine reran their earlier conversation and could think of nothing he had said or done that would have upset her.
“Look I hadn’t seen you for eight years until this morning, so I don’t know what I could have done” he said
“You broke my heart, that’s what you did” she snarled
Valentine opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again and scratched his head
“How did I do that exactly?” he asked finally
“You broke my heart when you rejected me 8 years ago” she replied “I thought I’d gotten over it but when I saw you this morning it all came flooding back”
“I’m sorry” he said although he wasn’t sure why
“What for exactly? For breaking my heart or for rejecting me because I was fat?” she retorted bitterly
“Wait a minute” he replied “That’s not what happened”
“Oh yes it was” she snapped “I can still remember the look of horror on your face”
“It wasn’t like that” he corrected her
“I really liked you, fancied you” she said “And you humiliated me”
“I knew you had a crush on me” he began
“It was more than a crush” she added
“Anyway, I had feeling for you too” he said
“Then why did you react the way you did when I was in your bed?” she asked wide eyed
“Because it was inappropriate” Valentine replied
“How can love be inappropriate” she snapped
“When one of them is a man and the other is a child” he retorted
“They send people to prison for that”
“So it wasn’t because I was fat?” she asked and tears welled up in her eyes
“No it was because I had no right to think about you in that way” he said and then told her the whole story, all about the extent of the feelings he had for her and why he acted as he did and then she was in his arms again and softly weeping.
It was an hour later when they left the clearing having talked themselves hoarse about their shared past, the eight years when they didn’t see each other and the beginning of a shared future.
No comments:
Post a Comment