Purplemere was one of
the largest towns in the Finchbottom Vale, and the Vale was nestled comfortably
between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest to the south and the rolling Pepperstock
Hills in the north, and those who were lucky enough to live there thought of it
as the rose between two thorns.
The Vale was once a
great wetland that centuries earlier stretched from Mornington in the East to
Childean in the west and from Shallowfield in the south to Purplemere in the
north.
But over the many
centuries the vast majority had been drained for agriculture, a feat achieved
largely by the efforts of famous Mornington Mills, of which only three had
survived to the present day and even those were no longer functional and were
in various states of repair.
There were only three
small bodies of water left in the Vale now one in Mornington, one in Childean
and third of course was Purplemere where our story takes place.
Mark Tongue was a
Staff Nurse at the Royal Downshire Hospital in Purplemere and shared a house in
town with two Junior Doctors, Dave Torrison and Mary Macintyre and another
Nurse, Toni Torlini, who all worked at the same Hospital.
It wasn’t a huge house
and nor was it in the smartest part of town but it was perfect for them as it
meant that they had a relatively inexpensive place to live that was close to
work, which was ideal for all of them as they worked shifts, and it meant that
split between the four of them their expenses were very manageable.
They were all single,
though were all looking and all quite pessimistic regarding their prospects in
the relationship department given their working hours.
But they all got on
well and made the most of their situations.
They all had hopes and
dreams though, of finding the right person and settling down and for Mark he
hoped that person would be Toni Torlini.
He had been in love
with her since he first saw her on the ward at the Royal Downshire and those
feelings had just grown deeper in the twelve months they had been living under
the same roof until he loved her body and soul.
She was a bit of a
dynamo about the place and was not the sitting around sort and he liked to
watch her while she did the mundane things around the house, especially when
she was in the kitchen making lunch.
She would be hunched
over the kitchen counter fastidiously assembling a sandwich, and as she applied
the finishing touch of mustard mayonnaise she would adopt a stance not unlike a
world class table tennis player preparing to serve.
He wasn’t sure why she
stooped over so dramatically, she wasn’t exceptionally tall, but he really
didn’t care he was just glad she did.
However he had held
his feelings for her in check because he didn’t want to upset the dynamic,
after all it had taken him a long time to find a group of people he was happy
to share a house with, and he thought having a relationship with one of them
could get messy if that relationship failed, or worse than that what if he
asked her and she said no, how awkward would that be and what an atmosphere it
could evoke, and there was always the likelihood that she would say no, as he
was well aware that she was out of his league.
But he was encouraged
to at least entertain the idea of asking her after his housemates Dave and Mary
became an item at the beginning of February.
So he set his sights
on winning her by Valentine’s Day, which was slightly ambitious given his poor
success rate during the season, when February normally bought him no Valentines
save for the jokey kind he would get at work, but this time he had high hopes.
His new-found
confidence sprang from the knowledge that Dave and Mary were attending the
upcoming Valentine’s Ball together which gave him the idea for his own
Valentine.
Because Valentine’s
Day fell on Thursday, the Valentine’s Ball wasn’t to be held until the Saturday
following which meant he could invite her without her actually knowing it was
him.
His first action was
to purchase two tickets for the Ball, one of which he kept for himself while he
placed the other one in the envelope with the Valentines card he had carefully
selected for her.
On the day itself, she
was on the night shift so he stamped the envelope and then sneaked it into the
pile of that day’s mail before she got home.
As he wasn’t working
he was in the house when she returned and when she paused by the front door and
thumbed through the pile of mail he was crouched down on the landing watching
her through the bannisters in order to gauge her reaction.
Which he took to be
favourable by the way she held the card to her chest and grinned.
Mark continued to
watch from his hiding place as Toni then hugged herself before she skipped
away, giggling to the kitchen.
He was very pleased
with her reaction, it was a far more positive one than he could ever have hoped
for, however once he was alone in his room doubt began to creep in.
Toni was undoubtedly
thrilled with the Valentine and the ticket to the Ball but what began to worry
him was the imagined identity of the sender.
His hope was that she was
thrilled because she had guessed that it was from him, but what if there was
some other recipient of her affections whom she had wrongly given the credit
for the missive and the gift, a these doubts tortured him for the next two
days.
His anxiety was not
diminished by the fact that on the day of the Ball he had been at work all day,
which was problematic in two ways, firstly because he didn’t have time to go
home before and had to shower and change at the hospital, and secondly because
he didn’t go home he didn’t get to see her and wasn’t even certain sure she was
actually going, despite her obvious pleasure when she opened the Valentine.
So when he went
downstairs to the Ballroom he had no idea if he was going to see Toni dressed
to the nines in a designer dress or find nothing more than another empty chair
when he reached the table, as a result of his lengthy and fruitless musings he
was one of the last to arrive.
Mark checked the
seating plan to locate his table and found it was the furthest away from the
entrance, so as he entered there was no clear view across the crowded Ballroom,
which did not ease his anxiety one iota.
As he was one of the
last to arrive he could only make slow progress through the assembled melee of revellers.
It would have been a
quicker passage had they chosen to take their seats more promptly rather than
standing in groups and engaging in conversation in the gaps between the tables.
However by the time he
reached halfway good sense had begun to prevail and there were more seated than
standing and at the three quarter mark those still on their feet had reduced to
a handful which allowed him his first glimpse of his destination.
The round, twelve seat
table was almost fully populated save for his empty seat, but as it was the one
nearest to him, the girls either side of it had their backs to him so he wasn’t
able to identify them, although the girl on the left had an abundance of
flaming red hair so he immediately ruled her out.
The girl on the right
was the right build and hair colour but Toni has long straight hair and the
girl he was looking at had her hair arranged in braids, plaits and buns atop
her head.
She was also wearing a
yellow halter neck dress which he had never seen her wear before, although that
didn’t really mean anything, but it contributed to his anxiety going up several
fold as he began to suspect that not only was Toni a no show but that she had
given the ticket away.
He tentatively
approached while casually checking the table number with that on his ticket and
having confirmed that the empty seat was indeed his and he was all too soon
standing behind the vacant chair.
“Hello” he said and
the girl visibly tensed as he pulled the chair out “I’m sorry I’m late”
As he sat, the girl in
the yellow dress turned slowly towards him and the first view he got of her was
best described as expressionless, but only for the briefest moment because the
instance of recognition her face lit up and she beamed a radiant smile at him.
“I was hoping it would
be you” Toni said and took hold of his hand “and it is”
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