Wednesday, 17 March 2021

Snippets of Downshire Life – Shakespeare Week

 

Downshire is a relatively small English county but that didn’t bother its inhabitants, the may not have been the biggest, but they were in no doubt that it was the best and that belief was no truer than in the southern town off Abbottsford which was Downshire’s administrative capital and the seat of the Downshire government.

It was also a place of learning thanks to the Downshire University, it could also boast that it was a Cathedral City, was home to Abbottsford Town football club and benefitted from the renowned Winston Churchill Hospital, and Twin sisters Ariadne and Scarlet Shakespeare were both nurses at the Churchill.

They were identical twins, Ariadne was the older of the two by an hour and was five feet eight with bobbed brunette hair and an olive complexion and hazel eyes, while Scarlet was two inches taller than her sister and had more hair.

The girls were both foot lose and fancy free and liked to party and had no intrest in tying themselves down, but on the occasion of their 27th birthday, on New Years Eve, that all changed, when they met best friends Marcus Birkin and Gareth Clare.

 

They both worked for Bramstock, Goodman, Crossfield and Bushe solicitors in Abbottsford, although they hailed from Turnoak-Under-Hawthorne, a large rambling village, originally settled in the 12th century on the sparsely wooded slopes on the Northern fringe of the Finchbottom Vale about 5 miles from Purplemere, and it was everything you would expect from a Downshire Village.

The Birkin and Clare families had lived in the village for many years and were of the landed gentry and the boys were public school and Cambidge educated.

 

Abbottsford was a world away from Turnoak-Under-Hawthorne and socially the Shakespeare girls were a world away from Marcus and Gareth and their meeting on New Year’s Eve was purely by chance.

The twins were travelling from home after getting ready to party into the New Year, and the solicitors were in Marcus’s car travelling in the opposite direction from work when the two vehicles collided.

It wasn’t serious just a bit of minor damage, but Marcus had only had the car for a month so an angry exchange between him and the cab driver ensued, which Gareth tried to cool, to no avail, but when the two-leggy drop dead gorgeous brunette girls emerged from the Taxi, the two adversaries’ and the peacemaker all went quiet. 

They were both stunningly beautiful and wearing low cut party outfits and when Marcus first saw the one with the bobbed hair, he was smitten, and the fender bender was no longer of any importance to him, whereas Gareth felt the same about the taller one.

The taxi driver, who had been at fault for the accident, took full advantage of the distraction and got in his cab and sped away.

“Hey come back!” Ariadne shouted

“What are we going to do now?” Scarlet asked as the Cab disappeared around a corner

“Don’t worry” Marcus said “We’ll get you to your destination”

“You don’t know where we’re going” Ariadne pointed out

“You could tell us and then we would” Gareth said

“Problem solved then” Scarlet added and gave her sister a look that said “just get in the car”

Ariadne complied because it was obvious her sister fancied the drivers friend, and she thought the driver was ok, and he was posh, and she liked posh.

 

They were on the way to a New Year’s Eve Party at the Hospital, and by the time they got there the twins had persuaded the guys to join them at the party rather than just drop them off and go their separate ways, not that it took too much persuading, and the old year ended with the two couples kissing on the dancefloor at midnight.

 

In the following months the four of them spent a lot of time together, and the relationships between the two couples growing and their feeling were deepening, but it took some freak weather and a freak accident to take things to the next level.

 

It happened at the end of February when a weather feature bringing arctic Siberian air across the country met a low-pressure front moving in from the west, and the result was snow, and a lot of it.

As a result, Downshire ground to a halt and schoolchildren and adults alike found that they had an unexpected snow day.

Ariadne and Scarlet unfortunately had to work but Marcus and Gareth took to the hills around Abbottsford for a spot of sledding, not that they had a sled, in fact most of the participant didn’t, but it didn’t stop the sledding, as they improvised with anything they could find, tea trays, plastic sheets, pallets, even black sacks and carrier bags.

Marcus and Gareth’s mode of locomotion was a “keep left” road sign they had commandeered from the site of an RTC, and they had made several successful descents before tragedy struck.

They were at the bottom of the slope gathering themselves for the climb back to the top, as the snow had begun to fall heavily again, and visibility wasn’t great, four teenagers sliding down the hill on a van door, wiped the men out.

It was probably because they hadn’t seen it coming that they weren’t more seriously injured, but even so Marcus had a broken ankle and a dislocated knee and Gareth had a broken collar bone and wrist.

 

The nearest hospital was the Winston Churchill, so the twins heard about it very quickly and were on hand to offer a hand to hold, and because of the extent of the snow and the relative remoteness of Turnoak it was two full days after the accident before a family member could get to the hospital.

When they did arrive, they were more appalled by the two common, overfamiliar nurses that were hanging around the boys, than they were at their injuries, but when they did remember why they were there they completely blanked the girls, and even when addressed directly, they ignored them.

“I’ll see you later babe” Ariadne said and leant over Marcus and kissed him slowly and deliberately and there was an audible intake of breath, and then Scarlet did the same to Gareth, and then they both headed toward the door.

When they looked back the family were wearing expressions raging from shock to disgust, but the boys were smiling.

 

They were working the nightshift following their meeting with the family and then slept all day, but when they went to visit the boys before the next shift they found that they were conspicuous by their absence.

“Where are they?” Scarlet asked

“No idea” Ariadne replied “Let’s ask Katie”

Katie Blake was the Senior Staff Nurse on the ward.

“I thought I’d be seeing you two sooner or later” Katie said “and I can well understand why you would be anxious, they’re gorgeous”

“They are, and they’re ours” Scarlet said with a giggle “Where have you stashed them”

“What’s it worth?” Katie teased

“Are you going to tell us, or do we have to waterboard you in the sluice room?” Ariadne asked menacingly

“Ok I’ll tell you, they were spirited away in a private ambulance to a nursing home” Katie said “I overheard the wicked grandmother say, and I quote, “we need to get them away from the influence of those common gold digging fluesy’s””

“Bloody cheek” Ariadne said “we’re not common”

“This is where they took them, but you didn’t get it from me” Katie said handing Scarlet a piece of paper “my Auntie Rachel works there so I’ve included her phone number”

“Thanks Katie” the girls said

 

The medieval Village of Withery, was located between Purplemere and Finchbottom, which was where once the Monks of St Vitus Abbey were the first to grow grapes in the county.

The Abbey was long ago reduced to rubble and provided much of the fabric of the Village cottages surviving from 15th and 16th centuries.

Withery Grange Nursing Home was the 21st century incarnation of the Manor House.

 

It was another two days before the girls could get away from Abbottsford and although they had spoken to their lovers, they had been denied the pleasure of holding them and the boys holding them.

And when they did set off, in a hire car, they didn’t tell them they were on the way. 

 

Marcus and Garth were in a private two bed room and they were both getting stir crazy, they would have been happier had they been aware they were about to get some special visitors.

Gareth was asleep, and Marcus was listening to music and dozing off when he was disturbed by the sound of the door opening followed by footsteps approaching his bed.

“What now?” he snapped without opening his eyes

“Temper, temper” Ariadne said, and he opened his eyes and couldn’t believe what he was seeing, and couldn’t speak as he was filling up because he was so pleased to see her friendly face  

“Hello” she said and kissed him

And then out the corner of his eye he caught sight of Scarlet standing holding Gareth’s hand.     

“And the other one as well” he said

“As if I could keep away” she said and kissed he lovers sleeping face.

Marcus and Ariadne glanced across as Gareth opened his eyes and gasped

“My Scarlet” he exclaimed “Is it really you?”

“Of course, it’s me darling” she replied and kissed him

 

“Where did you get uniforms?” Gareth asked, as they were very different from what they normally wore.

“We borrowed them” Scarlet said and then she kissed him again.

“I’ve missed you” She said wanting to say the “L” word, but afraid to jinx it

“I’ve missed you too” he confessed

“I missed, your smile, your kiss and your love”

“You know?” she whispered

“I do” he said “and I feel the same”

 

“I can’t believe you’re here” Marcus said, and they kissed again

“Well I am” she retorted

“I love you so much” he said, and Ariadne cried because he had never said it before.

“I love you too” she sobbed

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