The Clerembeax Palace Hotel and Spa – Father’s Day

 

The beautiful Downshire village of Clerembeax St Giles was situated to the west of Abbeyvale located between Grace Hill and Bushy Down and on the outskirts was the Clerembeax Palace Hotel and Spa and when Yvonne Labuschagne inherited it from her cousin, the last remaining Clerembeax, she undertook the task of modernizing the Palace and opening a Hotel and Spa offering, fitness classes, gym, rock sauna, infra-red sauna, aroma steam room, ice fountain, drench showers, Jacuzzi, a Romanesque pool, Reflexology, Raki, facials, scalp massage, hand massage, Manicure and Pedicure, while also providing accommodation, meeting and function rooms, a superior restaurant and whatever temptation might attract potential visitors.

 

Ray Morrison was a trained Physiotherapist and Masseur, who had worked with Yvonne at the Dancingdean Spa, when her husband was still alive, but his role at the Palace also involved training some of the younger ancillary staff as well as using his skills on the guests, but he enjoyed being in Clerembeax, and he had made many friends among the staff, and he also enjoyed taking long walks in the surrounding countryside, when he wasn’t working,

 

One of the younger members of staff he had a lot of interactions with was 17-year-old Cheryl Lee, who Ray had great regard for and had taken under his wing. 

It was due to that great regard and his avuncular nature that on Mother’s Day his actions lead to great changes in his life.

It was during the final incarnation of the Beast from the East at the end of a long Winter, when Cheryl was desperate to get home to her mother, who was laid up, in the village of Tollington, with a broken leg, and as the storm had affected mobile phone and landline coverage, she was unable even to contact her, to reassure herself that she was ok, so Ray took pity on her.

As Tollington was only about two miles from the Hotel as the crow flies and as he drove a Landrover Discover, he offered to try and get her home.

 

It was a perilous journey which involved having to winch the car out of a ditch at one point, but fortunately there was no obvious damage to the car, so twenty minutes after that they pulled up outside Cheryl’s house.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you” she squealed and hugged him again before saying “come on” and got out the car.

Ray followed and watched her run up the path and then fall in a heap about three paces from the front door.

In his concern he rushed to her aid

“Are you ok?” he asked but when he reached her she was giggling so much she couldn’t speak.

 

Once she got her to her feet and she’d regained her ability to speak they walked gingerly to the porch and she unlocked the front door.

“Mum! Mum!” she called as she walked inside “it’s me”

“Cheryl?” a call came back in reply

She shed her coat and accessories in the hall as Ray closed the front door and then Cheryl went into the cosy lounge where her mum was.

“Happy Mother’s Day!” she said as she burst into the room

“I wasn’t expecting to see today” her mum said with tears in her eyes, and there was a prolonged teary hug.

 

“How did you get here?” Her Mum asked as she wiped her eyes

“Ray drove me”

“Ray?” she asked

“Yes, Ray from work” she replied “You know the one I’m always talking about”

“Oh yes, well that was kind” she said and then hurriedly added “I hope you haven’t let him drive back to Clerembeax again”

“No, he’s in the hall” Cheryl replied

“Well bring him in then, so I can thank him”

So, she went back out to the hall and said

“Come in and say hello”

“Ok”

“Mum this is Ray, Ray this is…”

“Sarah Daniels?” Ray said

“I used to be” she said with a confused look on her face

“You used to go out with my brother Ben” he explained

“Ray Morrison” she exclaimed “But I’m surprised you remember me though, we only met a few times because you were away at University most of the time”

“You obviously made an impression on me” he said and smiled because she may not have remembered him, but he remembered her very well and the feelings he had for her back then and it appeared they were still there.

 

Ray accepted the offer of a hot drink and a seat by the fire but when his mug was empty he got up to leave.

“Thank you for the drink” he said “but I’d better make a move”

“You can sit right back down where you were” she snapped “Don’t think for one moment I’m going to let you risk life and limb out there again”

Ray opened his mouth to protest but Cheryl said

“You’d better do as she says, even with a broken leg, she’s more than a match for you”

So, he sat back down, and Sarah insisted he stayed the night because of the snow.

But it had nearly all gone by the next morning as it had turned to rain sometime in the night.

Ray had managed to get through to the Hotel in the early hours and report he and Cheryl were safe and would be back at work the next day.

 

They didn’t leave quite as early as Ray intended as Sarah insisted they get a cooked breakfast inside them first, which Cheryl cooked under her mum’s strict supervision.

But when they did get away they found the journey took even longer than the night before, due to flooding, road closures and diversions, but they got there in the end.  

It wasn’t much better when he repeated the journey over the next couple of days, when he drove Cheryl home to Tollington, something that he insisted upon because Ray said the buses weren’t running a normal service.

 

After the flooding subsided and life got back to normal he had no more excuses to make the drive over to Tollington on some pretext or other to spend time with Sarah, in fact it was more than a week later before an opportunity presented itself.

 

It was on Wednesday afternoon and Cheryl was helping him clean down his room in the massage suite and she was chatting away as she moved bits of furniture to clean underneath, when she asked him to help her move the massage table.

“That’s alright, we’ll do under there on Friday” he said

“I’ve got the day off on Friday” she responded “I’m going with mum to Kiddingstone General, she’s having the cast off”

“That’s good news” he said, “How are you getting there?”

“We’re going on the bus” she said cheerily

“No, no, that’s totally unacceptable” he said “I’ll drive you there”

“It’s ok, we’ve done it before” Cheryl replied

“I know but now you don’t have to, so I’ll drive you” he retorted in a tone that brooked no response and then he phoned reception to take him off the rota for that day.

 

On Friday morning when he arrived at their house in Tollington Sarah and Cheryl were ready to go.

“This is really very kind of you Ray but she shouldn’t have imposed on you like this” Sarah said

“She didn’t” he replied “I insisted”

“Well I’m grateful” she said not wishing to protest further as she was rather pleased to see him.

 

When they arrived at Kiddingstone General he pulled up outside the front entrance and Sarah was disappointed as she didn’t think he was just going to drop her off and go, but when he came to a complete halt he said

“I’ll drop you here and go and find a space, and then I’ll see you inside”

She had to supress a smile in response but had to make a verbal protest, even if it was merely for appearance sake

“You don’t have to wait, we can get the bus back, or get a cab”

“I wouldn’t dream of it” he retorted

“But we’ve imposed on your good nature enough already” Sarah added

“Nonsense, if I wasn’t happy to do it I wouldn’t have offered” he replied

“Blimey! You two are like two sides of the same coin” Cheryl said and laughed

 

Ray sat in the waiting room while she was having the cast removed and Sarah was smiling broadly when she emerged, minus the cast, which Cheryl was brandishing like a trophy.

Even through her jeans it was obvious to Ray that she had lost quite a bit of muscle definition while she had been incapacitated.

 

Sarah was sat in the passenger seat reading her discharge notes on the journey back to Tollington when she said

“They’ll send me a physio appointment in the post”

“How many? And how often?” he asked, and she scanned the notes

“One a week for six weeks”

“You need more than one session a week” he said

“I’m a trained physio myself so I can help”

“Really?”

“Yes, physio and massage is what I do” he said

“Where would you do it? At home or at the Spa?” she asked, and he knew he would be seeing a lot more of her over the coming weeks, so he replied

“A bit of both I think”

 

At first, he would drive to Tollington and either do her physio there or pick her up and drive her to the Spa where he could get her on the massage table.

In the later sessions she had sufficient strength in her leg to be able to drive herself to Clerembeax, but he would still do the reciprocal visits to her.

 

As time progressed they did more talking and drinking coffee than they did physio, but then they had passed the point where she needed it by several weeks any way.

It was on one such visit when he suddenly knelt on the floor in front of her.

“It’s alright my leg is fine, you don’t need to massage it today” she said and smiled

“I’m not kneeling down to massage your leg” he replied

“Oh”

 

When Cheryl walked in and found Ray kneeling on the floor in front of her mum she panicked

“Oh God what’s wrong? Is it your leg? What happened?”

“Don’t worry, nothings wrong” Ray said “I’m not down here for the leg”

“What then?” she asked with a puzzled look on her face

“I was…” he began and then looked at Sarah who nodded her head “Proposing”

“And?” she asked, eyes wide

“I’m going to be your father” he replied

“Wicked” she squealed and rushed over to hug them both