The Pepperstock Hills National Park stretched from the bare, and often barren crags of Oxley Ridge in the North to the dense wooded southern slopes on the fringe of the Finchbottom Vale and from Quarry Hill, and the Pits in the West to Pepperstock Bay in the East.
It is an area of stark contrasts and attracted a variety of visitors.
The quarry hill side of the park to the west, as the name suggests, was heavily Quarried over several hundred years, though more extensively during the industrial revolution, the Quarries had been un-worked for over fifty years and nature had reclaimed them and former pits had become lakes and were very popular with anglers and the sparse shrubbery and woodland made it popular spot with courting couples whereas the northern crags and fells were popular with climbers and more hardy folk.
To the south and east was an extensive tract of magnificent mixed forestry and was rivalled only by the ancient woodland of the Dancingdean Forest.
It was in the village Oxley Ridge where Stuart Fenwick and Linda Emerton worked at the Foothills Hotel.
They were both students at Abbottsford University on the same Outdoor Adventure Degree and were on their third year placement at the Foothills.
Stuart and Linda were staying, with a group of other students in a house in the village owned by the Hotel which was very much like the student accommodation they lived at in Abbottsford.
Which was a very noisy and boisterous place in which it was very difficult to get any peace and quiet for yourself, let alone develop any romantic feelings you might have for a housemate.
So when the rare phenomenon of an empty house presented itself to Stuart, because his housemates were off trekking or climbing, he decided to take full advantage and have a bit of a lay in and then spend the rest of the day doing very little.
However he was awoken earlier than planned, much earlier than planned in fact, and what woke him was the rattling of crockery from the kitchen and the sound of water running.
He determined that the water was probably filling the kettle and the crockery was for whatever beverage they were making.
He looked at the clock and it was 6.05am and he had an unexpected houseguest, which he assumed was either a housemate or a very bold burglar, he didn’t know for sure who it was but he knew who he wanted it to be.
He got out of bed and threw on his robe and wandered downstairs but as he approached the kitchen he suddenly hesitated as he caught sight of Linda sitting on the kitchen counter looking at something on her phone.
Stuart’s heart started to pound in his chest as he watched her through the crack in the door, she was the world to him and he had never been able to tell her how he felt for a variety of reasons, but now fate had presented him with a perfect opportunity to share his feelings with her.
Linda wasn’t fazed when he suddenly appeared, or when he walked into the kitchen.
“What are you doing here?” he asked
“My Trek got cancelled” she replied and smiled
“How long have you been watching me?”
“What do you mean?”
“You were watching me from the hall” she said and smiled again
“I thought you were a burglar” he replied feebly
“No I think you were ogling me” she said and put down her phone
“No, no”
“Yes, yes, you were ogling me because you want to do this” she said and leant forward and kissed him and when the kiss ended the toast popped up.
They sat at the kitchen table, drinking coffee, and eating toast
Well now you can tell our grandchildren that we had our first kiss on National Toast Day” she said
“I didn’t know that it was” he retorted
“You don’t know much” she said wryly
“What do you mean?”
“Well you wouldn’t have even known I was here if I hadn’t made enough noise to wake the dead” she explained
“You did it on purpose?”
“Of course I did” she admitted
“Why?”
“Because I fancy you” she replied “and so I could get you down here for a kiss”
“Oh”
“When exactly were you going to get around to telling me you fancied me?” she asked
“I was actually on my way to tell you when you attacked me” he lied
“Liar” she mocked “I think you wanted to but you would have lost your nerve, just like you did at New Years, Christmas ‘Halloween, the summer Ball and every party we’ve ever been to together”
“Probably” he admitted and she laughed so hard she spilled some coffee.
“But I think that now I know where we stand we should be doing less taking and more kissing” he said
“Not while I’m eating my toast” Linda retorted
“Well I know now that it’s “Nation Toast Day” and I like toast very much, I really do, but I would prefer to remember the day for the kissing rather than the Toasted Bread”
“You make a very valid point” she said wiping the toast crumbs off her mouth with the back of her hand, then she got up and sat on his lap
“Happy toast day” she said and then she kissed him.
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