Mornington-By-Mere,
is a small country village lying in the Finchbottom Vale nestled between the
Ancient Dancingdean Forest and the rolling Pepperstock Hills.
A
quaint picturesque village, a chocolate box picturesque idyll, with a Manor
House, 12th Century Church, a Coaching Inn, Windmills, an Old Forge,
a Schoolhouse, a River and a Mere.
But
it wasn’t just a quaint chocolate box English Village it was the beating heart
of the Finchbottom Vale.
And
although the village was the hub it was the surrounding farms and hamlets that were
its life blood.
One
such Farm was Manor Farm on the Western side of the village.
The
Hargrave family had farmed the land at Manor Farm since the days when Napoleon
was still a Corporal and they were showing no signs of bucking that trend.
The
head of the Hargrave’s was Bruce though he leant heavily on his wife Karen.
They
were in their mid-fifties and were looking forward to many more years at the
helm.
There
were three children the eldest at 32 was Mandy who along with her husband Jason
McCabe had produced the first grandchild.
The
second child was Norman who was two years younger than his sister and two years
younger still was Michael and neither of them showed any sign of producing a little
Hargrave.
Michael
was a serious farmer, and a good one at that, but there was more to him than
just farming.
Michael was very active in the church, at St
Winfred’s as well as farther afield.
This involved among other things, being a greeter
at the church services, delivering Parish Magazines, helping at the Christmas Bazaar,
you name it and he did it and that was only in the village.
His wider good works included the
Soup Kitchens in Finchbottom or Purplemere, who were always desperate for
volunteers.
The Christmas Charity Wagon in Sharpington, which was an old Mornington
Brewery dray pulled by two white shire horses.
The
whole thing was bedecked with tinsel
and lights and carried on the back a multi denominational choir.
Michael was not however among those going from door
to door, as the wagon drove around the town, collecting donations in plastic
buckets and handing out sweets to the excited children, no he was in the choir
because he had the voice of an angel.
He
was also volunteered for the Roving Angels which had been in existence for
about two years and was similar to the Street Angels, Street Pastors and other
groups that had sprung up all across the UK in the previous 12 or 15 years.
They
had made a really positive impact on crime and antisocial behaviour in
Finchbottom and Purplemere town centres over the first two years, particularly
in the general vicinity of the bars and clubs.
They
provide a calming presence on the streets late at night in situations where a
police uniform might have the opposite effect.
In
the two years since they began Roving Angels had contributed to a 29% fall in
public place violence on the weekends.
It
all began when Christian Churches in the area came together with the Police and
the Borough Council’s to establish the Angels.
But
it took people of Faith to make it work as with so many things in life.
Michael had been with them since the beginning.
But one of his favourite good
deeds was to help out on the Santa Express, which was something to
behold, and he loved it because it reminded him of his childhood.
The Boddingtons were pig farmers at Saddleback Farm near the hamlet of Fallowacres, which was as near as
damn it the center point of the Vale, though only geographically.
But they also had a number of butcher’s shops in and around the Vale.
The
Mornington Estate heavily subsidised the businesses in the village among them
were a General Store, Farm Shop, Bakers and of course a Boddington’s Butchers
Shop.
It
was only a small shop located on the River Brooke side of The Street next to
Addison’s Baker’s.
As
a result of it being a small shop located in a small village it hadn’t had a
full time butcher since before RAF Mornington was mothballed at the end of the
90s.
However
when the Mornington Estate
exercised its option to purchase Mornington Field back from the MOD it also
acquired all the buildings and infrastructure on the airfield itself as well as 29 houses in the village formally used
as quarters for military personnel.
Once plans were drawn up to optimize the newly acquired assets and more
people moved to the village all the businesses benefitted.
So everyone in the family did a stint in Mornington but no one wanted to
make it permanent.
Eleanor
Boddington was approaching her
twenty fifth birthday and she was fed up with not having proper roots.
The
longest she had in one place was a two year stint at the shop in Childean,
which ended in disaster when her ex-boyfriend wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Since
then she had been like a nomad, she would love to settle in Mornington with a
particular farmer she was keen on, providing she could get him to notice her.
Which
shouldn’t have been as difficult as it was proving to be. she was a typical Boddington,
good looking, thick black curly hair and wild gypsy eyes and she flirted with
him for all her worth.
Over the
last few years she had had a lot of dealings with Manor Farm because they were
a heritage farm and as well as breeding more exotic animals like llamas and ostrich,
the farm produced quality meat.
And it was during
her dealings with Manor Farm that she first met Michael Hargrave.
She
liked that he was a tall man with broad shoulders and hands like shovels.
Ellie
also liked his short brown hair, neatly trimmed beard and thick rimmed glasses.
But
the things she loved the most about him were his hazel eyes and his infectious
laugh.
He
seemed to enjoy their conversations which were lengthy and diverse and she
learned a lot about him and his interests.
And
she admired him very much for all his voluntary work and she suggested she
might join him some time but nothing ever came of it.
Until
December came around and he suggested she join him on the Santa Express.
He
had resisted previously because he wasn’t sure she genuinely wanted to help he
thought her interest might be purely superficial.
“So
if you’re really interested” he said “I will pick you up outside the shop at 1
o’clock on Wednesday”
“I’ll
be there” she promised
The Santa Express was a renovated steam engine and
coaches, which ran from Sharping
St Mary station to a secret location where Santa was waiting in his grotto.
It picked up the local children and their parents
late afternoon so that they arrived at the grotto in darkness in order to make
the most of the spectacular lights.
It was one of the high points of his year, he well
remembered his parents taking him when he was a young lad and he liked to see
other the kids as excited as he used to be at their age.
On Wednesday afternoon Eleanor was standing outside
Boddington’s at 1 o’clock as promised and they talked the whole way as they
drove to Sharping St Mary and when they got there the kids were going crazy
with excitement and the excitement was quite infectious.
But Michael’s job on the trip was to make sure none
of the over excited little darlings fell off the train.
John Cooper and his sister Lyndsey, and Bizzie Lizzie Florist Michelle Norman among others from the
village were also present and at one point Michele managed to trap him between
the carriages armed with a bunch of mistletoe and only when she had satisfied
herself in the pagan ritual did she let him go.
Eleanor witnessed the kiss and she was not at all
happy about it but she did enjoy the day as a whole.
Now if the kids were excited on the way to the
grotto then judging by the decibel level they were even more so on the way back
to the station.
When they disembarked and the children and their
parents made their way home Michele Norman kissed Michaels cheek and said
goodbye and then Michael and Eleanor went back to his car.
On the journey back to Mornington Eleanor barely
spoke because she was sulking about all the kissing.
Back in Mornington he drove into Military Row and dropped
her off outside number 7.
“Well did you enjoy the day?” he asked
“Most of it” she replied, kissed his cheek and got
out of the car.
He had never believed in love at first sight or in
soul mates he thought them rather fanciful notions the stuff of romantic
fiction and sentimental movies.
That was until he met Eleanor and he was instantly
smitten, and he thought she may have felt the same.
Even his mother had noticed and after she had seen
them together she said
“You two are like two halves of a different whole,
and that each of them was the missing piece in the others puzzle”
It
wasn’t many months before when his mum was nagging him about getting a wife he
had said
“I’m
not looking for a life partner” well he thought he may have found one whether
he was looking or not.
But after the Santa Express experience he was
beginning to think he and his mother had misread the situation and over the
following week that feeling was reinforced as she appeared to be avoiding him.
On
Christmas Eve local Vet Hayley Gwilym was at Manor Farm to look at a sick Lama
and she happened to mention that her retired mentor Robin Jeffrey had been bending her ear all morning.
And
during her visit she asked Michael if
he would pop up to Dulcets Mill because he couldn’t get the web cam to work and
he needed it functioning for Christmas Day so he could skype his kids and
grandchildren.
They both knew it probably meant that he had
disabled it by accident but she had tried to explain over the phone and failed miserably,
she would have gone
up to see him, but she had an extraordinarily long list of calls so she pleaded
with him to go in her stead.
So later that afternoon he had to go out in the cold
and trudge across the village through the snow just to tick a box.
As he suspected Robin had accidentally disabled the
web cam so he worked his magic and went back out into the cold night and by the
time he got to the road it had started snowing again and by the time he reached
the Close it was coming down hard and fast.
In fact it was coming down so rapidly that
visibility was reduced to zero.
It was so disorienting that he couldn’t have even
found his way back to Robin’s despite being no more than 15 minutes away from
Dulcets Mill.
So he inched his way along the footpath tucking up
close to hedges, picket fences and garden walls so he didn’t wander off course.
When he reached the end of a row of houses he had to
take a leap of faith, as he couldn’t see the other side of the road.
As he trudged onward he realised he had gone off
course because he hadn’t reached the other side.
He had no idea how far he had gone as he had no
point of reference, so he decided the best course of action was to veer left to
try and find the footpath again.
Unfortunately he had no idea how far left to go or
for that matter how far left he had already gone.
Michael was just beginning to panic when he tripped
on a kerbstone and crashed into another lost soul and they fell to the floor in
an untidy heap.
When he had scrambled to his feet he found he was
outside Boddington’s
“I’m saved” he thought as he envisaged taking refuge
in the shop until the snow abated, but first he had to help the other poor
customer he had left prostrate on the snowy ground.
“I’m so sorry” he said as he grabbed a handful of
coat 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 abuse but to his great surprise he found the
previously stricken figure to be Eleanor Boddington and the muttering scowling
indignant face instantly changed to a beaming smile when she recognized the
face of her assailant.
“Michael” 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 heavy duty winter clothes.
Her lovely thick black curls were completely covered
by a red woolly hat, her dainty feet were in wellies and her slender figure was
concealed by a puffer jacket.
She was still looking anxiously towards the shop doorway
and then impulsively she steered him around the side of the building and kissed
him as the snow fell steadily on them, which he reciprocated.
After a minute of mutually beneficial passion he
said
“Does this mean you’re talking to me again?”
“That depends” she said enigmatically
“On what?”
“On whether you go around kissing Michelle Norman
every five minutes or not” she said
“I see, you are referring to the mistletoe kiss on
the train”
“I didn’t see any mistletoe” Eleanor said
“So you thought it was just a snog?” he asked
“Yes” she replied and looked down at her feet.
Michael lifted her chin so he could see her eyes and
then he kissed her.
It was less prolonged than the first however because
a voice called from the shop doorway
“Ellie?”
So Michael released her reluctantly and she called.
“I’ll be there in a moment Dad”
“I have to go” she said and kissed him again
“Perhaps we can pick it up again later” he said
“We’re going to Fallowacres”
“How long for?” he asked
“Until the New Year” she replied
“In which case I’m going to need another kiss before
you go” Michael said and then they kissed one last time
“Happy Christmas Ellie” he said
“Happy Christmas” she echoed and she paused by the
door and added
“I’ll bring you a present”
“You’re the only present I want” he said and she ran
straight back into his arms.
Michael watched as they drove away from the shop and
then turned around and continued his journey home as the snow abated.
And he spent all that Christmas looking forward to
the New Year.
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