Snippets of Downshire Life – Getting Noticed

 

The village of Highfinch sits just on the edge of the Pepperstock Hills, and the Lily Green Hollows Golf Club separates the village from the Hamlet of Lily Green, and the combination of those two and Kingfisherbridge made up the parish of St Martins and an important part of the parish was the Greenwood Guesthouse owned and run by divorcee Janita Front.

She was a native of the village, as was her husband, and they started the Guesthouse together, but he did not share her passion for it, but he did have passions, but those were mainly for the female guests and it was with one of them that he chose to leave Highfinch and Janita.

Undeterred she divorced him and continued to run Greenwood alone and as she approached her forty seventh birthday she had been doing so for twenty years.

There had been men in her life over those twenty years, but none were worthy of her because they didn’t share her interest in the B & B or have the same work ethic as she did.

But there was one man who she hoped might fit the bill, plumber and handyman Andy Whiting, who was her go to guy for repairs and maintenance, the problem was he was a little backwards in coming forward, and she hadn’t been able to get his attention.

 

One morning in June she had to call him to Greenwood because the shower in her en suite bathroom wasn’t working but when he arrived he was his usual bashful self, so she went on about her morning, dealing with the guest’s breakfasts, which kept her busy for the next two hours and at the end of it she noticed Andy coming down the stairs, so she went to intercept him.

“All done?” she asked brightly

“I’m afraid not” he replied “I just need to go and get a new pump”

“Oh, ok I’ll see you later then?” she said

“Yes, I shouldn’t be too long” he replied and went out the door.

 

When the guesthouse was busy, which was pretty much all the time, Janita employed two local girls to clean the rooms and the common areas, so with them gainfully employed, breakfast finished with and Andy off at the plumber’s merchants she had a couple of hours to spare before she had to think about lunch, so she decided to go and have a bath in the guest bathroom as her own was out of commission.

She had told the girls what she was doing so she knew she wouldn’t be disturbed and she had a long hot soak in the tub.

She really enjoyed it, but she knew she couldn’t stay in there forever, so she pulled the plug out and got to her feet, before stepping out and wrapping a fluffy white bath sheet around herself and wrapped a smaller one around her head.

 

Once she was dry, perfumed and powdered she wiped the steam off the full-length mirror and then loosened the towel wrapped around her and stood with her arms outstretched and the towel stretched behind her like a victory flag and admired herself in the mirror

“Not bad for an old bird” she said to her reflexion “Not too bad at all”

And then the door opened and startled her, and she turned towards the door, still with her arms out stretched with her full nakedness on display, to find Andy Whiting stood in the doorway with his mouth open.

Janita was not as surprised as he was, and she knew she should probably have covered herself, but he just stood staring at her and was clearly struggling to draw his eyes away, and she liked that.

“I appeared to have got his attention at last” she thought and then he said,

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t think, washer… tap… drip…”

And then he closed the door and headed hurriedly across the landing, so she covered herself and opened the door and could hear him repeating

“Sorry, sorry, I’m so sorry” Until he reached the sanctuary of her bedroom, and by extension her en suite.

 

Janita replaced her towel with a towelling bath robe and crossed the landing and was smiling broadly to herself.

She slowly opened the door and stepped in and found the room empty, but she could hear muttering and what she assumed was the sound of him putting his tools away, so she just stood her ground and waited, and she didn’t have to wait long.

He stepped through the door from her en suite and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw her.

 “IIIII’m…” he started to say but she put a finger up to her lips gesturing him to silence, and then she undid the belt of her robe and it fell open briefly before she dropped the toweling dressing gown to the floor revealing her dry, perfumed and powdered nakedness, before she walked towards him and kissed him, and he made no protest.