Snippets of Downshire Life – St Dwynwen’s Day

Glynis Jones was 26 years old and had been working in the costume department at the Purplemere Studios for eight years.

It was her first job after she finished college and she had been happy there, mostly.

But while she was there, she had been seeing a design director, Jordan Andrews, he seemed nice at first, but ultimately, she realized it wasn’t working, so after a couple of months, she ended it.

However, when it ended Jordan wouldn’t accept it and he wouldn’t stop pestering her, but she remained resolute, which was when he turned nasty and made her life a misery.

So, she chose the only course of action left open to her and resigned, that enraged him even more and he pledged that she would never work in the industry again.

“I will have you blacklisted” he screamed

Fortunately, she had been approached several times by one of the studios supplier’s, Periodicity Costumers, who were based in the idyllic village of Mornington-By-Mere, situated in the beautiful Finchbottom Vale, which nestled between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest and the rolling Pepperstock Hills.

And as luck would have it her cousin Dave was the village Police Sergeant, so she was able to stay with his family for a couple of months at the Police House while she found her feet and she knew that the job was going to work out.

 

She lived with her brother Graham in Purplemere while she was working at the Studios, and when she moved to Mornington she left a lot of her stuff there as she didn’t want to burn her bridges completely.

They were both from Wales originally and moved to Downshire together, and they had lived together in his flat for 7 years.   

 

At the beginning of October Glynis started working at Periodicity and was welcomed with open arms as they had been trying to poach her from Purplemere for two years.

She was also introduced to the village nightlife by her co-workers, even though that was restricted to the Old Mill Inn and she immediately turned heads.

 

Because she was a pretty girl, tall and slim with lovely corn coloured hair, a fair complexion and a lovely smile, she soon had the young men dancing attendance on her.

But she had sworn off men for the duration, so she gave them no encouragement.

But two of her admirers were not so easily discouraged and they were two friends who worked for Paige Turners up at Mornington Field and they not only shared an attraction to Glynis they also shared a house in Military Row.

 

The two guys in question were Scott Lazaro and Graham Collins and they were both personable enough in their way but were as different from each other as chalk and cheese.

Scott was the younger man by a year, tall and dark with classic good looks, whereas Paul was short, stocky with close cropped orange hair and despite her pledge Glynis really liked them.  

But despite the fact that she liked them, they were men and she had played that game before and lost so she was in no mood to repeat past mistakes.

 

However, her reservations notwithstanding, she did weaken after a month of persistent pursuit and went out on a few dates with them, cinema, coffee, a drink or a pizza, but strictly as companions, nothing else, but without her meaning for it to happen a fondness developed between them.

They were all of a similar age and even to the casual observer there appeared to be a bit of a love triangle forming, and as time went on Glynis was enjoying the attention and as a result, she was reluctant to upset the status quo, but in the end, it wasn’t her decision.

 

It happened in early January when Scott overheard his love rival Graham talking to his sister at the house they shared, where he was boasting about securing a Valentines date with Glynis and how he was going all out to win her affections once and for all, a lavish restaurant, red roses and handmade chocolates.

“She can’t possibly say no” he said smugly

“We’ll see about that” Scott said to himself because Scott knew something that Graham was ignorant to.

 

The first thing he did was to make a date with Glynis for the last week of the month, and secondly, he went to see another friend, who also worked up at Mornington Field for Bespoke Furniture, to cadge an off cut of soft wood for a little project.

Working on wood carving had always been a hobby of his but now he had a project that had to be completed in two weeks.  

 

On the day of the big date Scott picked Glynis up from the Police House.

“So where are we going?” she asked as she closed the passenger door

“You’ll have to wait and see” he replied and accelerated away

An hour later he pulled into an empty parking space on the promenade at Sharpington-By-Sea

“The seaside?” she asked

“Disappointed?” he countered

“No, not at all, I love the seaside, but I’ve never been here before”

“Then you are in for a real treat”

 

Obviously, January was not the time to see Sharpington at its best but even in the winter the attractions were open even if for restricted hours except for Friday to Sunday, but it was worth a visit just to see the illuminations.

The first place he took her to was Bizzoni's Ice Cream Parlour on Sharpington Pier.

“Ice cream? In January?” she asked

“It’s not just ice cream, its Bizzoni’s ice cream” he explained “And no visit to Sharpington is complete without one”

“Well, when you put it like that it makes perfect sense”

 

After Bizzoni’s they walked to The Sharpington Fun Park, which was the first purpose-built amusement park to open in Britain, which had an assortment of rides, like the Rotor and the Wild Mouse, The Cyclone and the Morehouse Galloper, all very tame compared to a 21^st century roller coaster, but of all the rides on offer it was the Tunnel of Love, which Scott thought was the perfect location for what he had in mind.

They were wrapped up against the cold and Glynis put her arm through his as they walked and she felt comfortable, because Scott was a tall man, six foot four in fact, Glynis was tall herself, so it made a nice change to walk arm in arm with a man who was taller than her and it made her feel very feminine.

 

When they got to the Fun Park, he went to the kiosk to buy a shed load of tokens, because he didn’t know how many rides it might take to do what he needed to do.

As he queued for the tickets Glynis looked on, and he turned around and smiled and she surprised herself when she said to herself

“I think He’s the one”

 

When he rejoined her, they went inside the park and ambled around aimlessly until he said

“Let’s go on the Tunnel of Love”

“Oh ok” she agreed

There was a bit of a queue as the ride was clearly still popular even if it was a bit old fashioned for the 21^st century.

When their turn came, they got in the next empty boat and it set off, it was an altogether slower ride than anything else in the park but that suited him.

“I’ve got you a present” he said as he fished in his pocket

“Why?” She asked suspiciously “What’s the occasion?”

“You don’t know?”

“No”

“Happy St Dwynwen’s Day!” He said and held a small, gift-wrapped package in his hand.

“You know about Dwynwen?” she asked “The Welsh patron Saint of love”

“I do, which is why I got a gift for my Welsh Goddess of love”

He said and handed her the small, gift-wrapped package

“What’s this?”

“Open it and find out” he suggested but her fingers wouldn’t work because she was overwhelmed, she had never felt such romantic feelings.

When she managed to gain control of her digits and tear the paper to reveal the contents of the package, she audibly gasped

“It’s a love spoon” she whispered

A Welsh love spoon was traditionally given as a St Dwynwen’s day gift and was ideally hand carved by the suitor, but in the contemporary age they are normally bought commercially.

“It’s beautiful” Glynis said, “where did you find it?”

“I made it”

“You made it?” she asked in disbelief “For me”

The romantic feelings that she had felt previously, multiplied exponentially as she held the hand carved spoon in her hands.

She only took her eyes away from it long enough to look at the man who had made her feel so special.

Her eyes had only just returned to the spoon as the boat emerged into the night air.

“Let’s go around again,” she pleaded “Twice”

So, he handed over two more tokens to the operator and their boat passed through the entrance again and the moment the door closed behind them Glynis kissed him and they were still kissing when they emerged into the night air again and for most of the next circuit.