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 which had become very important to the lives of those living in the village community with St Giles’ Church at its hub.
It was a busy village with all the usual
amenities you would expect, in addition to St Giles’ Church there was a village
Hall, and primary school of the same name.
There was also the Trinity Methodists
Church, two pubs, Étienne of Normandy and the Saracen and Stephenson’s General
store which included an off-license, newsagents and Post Office.
The General Store
was run by Ilyas Patel, although it was his young wife Anjuli and her Aunt
Shula who did all the work, along with a few additional staff.
One of the
shops regular customers, was the local curate Riccardo
D'Ambrosio, and he tried not
to dislike Ilyas, he was a surly old goat, old enough to be Anjuli’s father in
fact he was old enough to be Riccardo’s father, almost.
He tried to
forgive him for spending most of his time sat on his backside watching cricket,
while the girls did all the work.
But he was not able to forgive
him for his treatment of one of his staff, a gawky geeky girl called Shelley
Prangnell, who had worked at the shop since she left school.
Shelley was a hard-working diligent girl
but Ilyas was merciless in his treatment of her, but such was her nature she
just took it in her stride, and it was her resolute, chin up, stiff upper lip,
not to be down hearted attitude that made Riccardo fall in love with her.
So, whenever
he walked into Stephenson’s to buy a newspaper, or pick up biscuits for the
Parish Council meetings or milk and squash for the mother and toddlers, he
always looked for her and she was normally stacking shelves or sweeping up, but
one morning he was surprised to see her in the shop on her own.
“Hello
Shelley” he said surprised
“Hi Riccardo”
she replied brightly
“What are you
doing here on your own?” he asked
“Shula and
Anjuli have gone to get Ilyas from hospital so they asked me to mind the shop
for the day” she replied proudly
“Good for
you, I’m proud of you” he said and kissed her cheek, which made her blush and
then he added
“Ilyas would
have a relapse if he knew”
And that made
her giggle.
The next morning, he was working in the
parish office in the Church Hall doing the parish accounts when he was
distracted by the loud droning of an engine.
When he went to investigate he discovered
Jake Price and Kevin Dunn in the garden area, feeding sand and cement into the
bucket of a cement mixer.
He had forgotten he had arranged for then
to extend the patio and lay a new path, up to the play area, and that put an
end to his accountancy for the day, as the drone of the engine was going
straight through him, so he took a walk into the village, and wandered
aimlessly down the road with no particular purpose and found himself walking
past Stephenson’s.
“I’ll go in and see Shelley” he said to
himself and walked into the shop only to find she was nowhere to be seen and
Shula was behind the counter looking tired and drawn.
“Hello” he said brightly
“Hello” she replied flatly
“No Anjuli today?” he asked, although it
was Shelley’s whereabouts he was really interested in
“She is upstairs nursing Ilyas” she
replied
“He’s still poorly then?” he enquired, and
she just nodded in response.
So, he picked
up some mints and after paying for them he had one last glance around the shop
and left.
That night
after evensong Riccardo’s presence was required at the Summer
Fetĕ committee meeting, which proved to be a very jovial evening and a
little more of a social rather than a meeting and the wine was as free flowing
as the joviality, unfortunately
when he left he had imbibed a little too much and the night air knocked him for
six.
He had never been much of a drinker and
the Summer
Fetĕ committee
were hardened veterans of the social event.
Riccardo set off
down the road and struggled to maintain a steady course and he kept drifting to
the left and found himself in the middle of the road and when he tried to
correct his navigation he went further left until he tripped on a curb stone
and crashed into someone and they fell to the floor in an untidy heap, when he
scrambled to his feet he found he was outside Stephenson’s
“Thank God,” he
muttered before his thoughts turned to the cute geeky girl that he loved, but
then he remembered he had to help the other poor soul he had left on the
ground.
“I’m so sorry”
he said as he grabbed a handful of belt and pulled the stricken body to its
feet.
The individual
muttered incoherently under their breath as they brushed themselves off and he
got the impression his apology was not accepted, and when they began to turn in
his direction he was bracing himself for a volley of unchristian language but
to his great surprise he found the previously stricken figure to be Shelley and
the muttering scowling indignant face instantly changed to a beaming geeky
smile when she recognized the face of her assailant.
“Riccardo” she
said excitedly then cautiously gave a long look in the direction of the shop
doorway, then in a quieter voice she continued
“I didn’t know
it was you”
“Are you ok?” he
asked
“I am now” she
replied and glanced again at the door
He looked her up
and down and realised why he hadn’t recognized her before she was dressed in
jeans and a t-shirt instead of her customary uniform.
She was still
looking anxiously towards the shop as if she was worried about something, then
she suddenly set her chin resolutely and steered him around the side of the
building and kissed him passionately, which he reciprocated eagerly.
After a minute
of mutual passion Anjuli called from the shop doorway
“Shelley! Are
you ok out there?”
Reluctantly they
ceased their passionate exchange
“Yes,
everything’s fine, I’ll be there in a moment” Shelley called back then she
kissed him again.
“I have to go
now” she said regretfully, and he looked at his watch
“I can wait
until you finish” he suggested
“Oh yes please”
she replied excitedly and then she rushed off.
“You do work in
mysterious way Lord” he said looking to the heavens
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