Downshire is a relatively small English county but like a pocket
battleship it packs a lot in, a short but beautiful coastline, a channel port,
the Ancient forests of Dancingdean and Pepperstock, the craggy ridges and
manmade lakes of the Pepperstock Hills Nation Park, the rolling hills of the
Downshire Downs, the beautiful Finchbottom Vale and farm land as far as the eye
can see from the Trotwood’s and the Grace’s in the south to the home of the Downshire
Light infantry, Nettlefield, and their affluent neighbour’s, Roespring and
Tipton in the north but our story begins in the West, to the south of
Northchapel, in the beautiful village of
Chapel Hill.
There was an expanse
of green at the center of the village complete with duckpond and a weeping
willow tree.
On the north side of
the green was the pub, The Woodcutters Tavern, and attached to the side of the
pub there was a Stephenson’s general store and post office, across the green
from the pub was the church, St Peter’s, with the vicarage to one side, and a
row of shops ran alongside the road on the West of the green, Buckley’s
Greengrocer and Fruiterers, Addison’s Bakery, Harvey’s Pharmacy, Bizzie Lizzie
Florist, Mazzone’s Hairdressers, Harrisons Hardware and Boddingtons Butchers.
It was the third day
of Shrovetide, known as Collop Monday, which was ironic for several reasons,
firstly because it was named after Collops of bacon, which were traditional
served on the day when it was known as Shrove Monday, and our tale is set in a butcher’s
shop and the butchers name was collop, Terry Collop, and that day was of
particular significance to him as he had a date that evening, his first date
with Elaine.
He had been a long
time coming and he had asked her out countless times and she had always said
no, but he persevered, and he eventually got his reward.
Elaine Buckley was 28 years old, single and happy to be so, she had
studied business at University, but after graduation she still ended up working
in the family Greengrocers.
When she
was in her first year at University, she had her heart broken very badly, and
again in the third year, and the second time nearly cost her, her degree, so he
resolved to have no more truck with love, and that was why she was single and
glad to be so.
It suited
her living and working in Chapel Hill as she could live at home in the flat
above the shop and didn’t have to interact with people, other than the
customers who went into the shop, and even then, she spent as little time as
possible interacting face to face.
When she
wasn’t at work she hid away in her room, it meant that she spent a lot of time
on her own, but she didn’t mind that as she was happy in her own company and
she was a voracious reader.
Elaine had
taken a bold step by agreeing to go out to dinner with Terry, and open herself
up for disappointment again, for the possibility of heartbeat, but she couldn’t
help herself, she had tried to resist, she had rebuffed his advances so many
times, saying no every time she wanted to say yes, but no one was more surprised
than she was when she said yes, but once it had happened she found herself
looking forward to it more than she could ever have imagined.
But if she
was going to make the most of it she had to make the most of herself.
When she
had no interest in relationships she dressed down to make herself invisible to
the opposite sex, she found that if she made herself look undesirable men
tended to leave well alone.
Not Terry
Collop though, he saw through her disguise, he had also had his heart broken,
just the one time for him though, but it had also left him cautious, but when
he saw Elaine for the first time, he knew that she was his soul mate.
As it was
five years since her previous date and she had been dressing down for all that
time she didn’t have anything remotely suitable for a date, so she was in
Northchapel all day shopping for girl clothes.
Terry spent
his day fending off questions from his boss Jason Boddington, about where he
was going and who he was taking.
Terry was
sat at the bar of the Woodcutters Tavern a full half an hour before he was
supposed to meet Elaine and he was ridiculously nervous, he hadn’t felt like
that since he was 14 and he was waiting outside the bowling alley for his first
ever date with Jenny Hack, however he was soon thinking it was a mistake to
arrive early as his stomach was doing somersaults.
Elaine was
second guessing herself and as she stood in front of the mirror wearing the
outfit she had spent all day searching for.
Her long
brunette hair was down, and her face was, subtly made up, it had been a while
since she had bothered with makeup and the face she was wearing had taken three
attempts, she wasn’t one hundred percent happy with the result, but she was
running out of time, so the third one would have to do.
“Why on
earth did I say yes?” she asked her reflection
“Because
you wanted to” she replied out loud to the mirror
When Terry
turned around and saw a brunette in a black skirt and pale-yellow blouse
walking towards him, he couldn’t stop himself from saying
“Wow”
And Elaine
smiled
“I was
expecting a tomboy” he said, and she laughed
“I decided
I should make an effort” Elaine said as she sat on the stool beside him
“I thought
this might be more appropriate for a date”
The
evening passed by really quickly, and they were so absorbed in each other’s
company that they completely lost track of time, to such an extent that they
both jumped when the last orders bell rang, and neither of them were ready for
it to end but end it must.
Unfortunately,
the walk from the pub to the Greengrocers was less than one hundred yards and
even walking very slowly got them to her door in a very short time and for the
first time that evening they struggled for the words that would secure them
another date.
“I really
enjoyed this evening” she said
“Me too”
he agreed “I’d like to do it again”
“That all
depends on whether you’re a good kisser or not” she said cockily
“Well I
like a challenge” he retorted and kissed her and when it was over she added
“Well?”
“I don’t
know” she said “It was adequate”
“Adequate?”
“Yes, I
think there’s room for improvement, so you may take me out again tomorrow” she
said and kissed him again
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