In the small but thriving English county
of Downshire people go about the tasks of their everyday existence in ways that
range from the mundane to the extraordinary as their forebears had done for centuries
before, in the varied and diverse landscape, from the Ancient forests of
Dancingdean and Pepperstock, the craggy ridges and manmade lakes of the
Pepperstock Hills National Park, the rolling hills of the Downshire Downs, to
the beautiful Finchbottom Vale and the short but beautiful coastline to the
east.
But our story is set in and around
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.
It was the
village where the Higgins and Hewer families lived next door to each other and the
families should have been tied by the marriage of Helen and Neil, but instead
of a joining of the two families they were split apart when Helen ran away, and
two years passed before the couple met again, on Boxing Day.
Neither knew
that the other would be in the village on that day and they were both taken
aback when they bumped into each other at the Hen and Chickens, he was on the
way up the steps and she on the way out, and they stood there as the snow fell
and minutes past before either spoke, but it was Neil who broke the silence.
“I’ve really
missed you”
She seemed
both surprised and pleased by the revelation and he wondered if she had heard
him correctly or if it was just whatever she’d been drinking having an effect
on her processing ability,
“I’m sorry”
she replied
“Why did you
go?” he asked “I never understood why you left”
“I had to”
she replied earnestly
“But why??”
he asked
“Because I
was scared” Helen confessed
“Scared?” he
asked aghast
“Yes”
“Of what?” Neil
asked angrily
“Marriage”
She admitted
“So, all you
had to say was no” he said and then there was an uncomfortable silence for a
few minutes as the snow began to fall faster but then she said
“I thought it
was for the best”
“It wasn’t
the best for me, or you” he said and turned and began to walk away and Helen followed
him
“Let me
explain” Helen said as she trotted behind him, but he ignored her and pressed
on across the car park towards the road, but she caught up with him as he
stopped to allow a car to complete its maneuver.
“I made a mistake” she said from behind
him and he span round on her
“I realised almost immediately” she
continued
“So why didn’t you come back?”
“I didn’t
know how” she said and fell in to his arms
“So, you just
made us both unhappy” he said gently
“Yes” she replied,
and Helen began to cry
When he imagined
them meeting again he hadn’t expected to see that side of her, vulnerable, that
was a different girl to the one who had run away, she wasn’t vulnerable or
unsure of herself on that day.
So, when she
looked up at him through tear filled eyes he kissed her, a kiss they had both longed
for, and dreamt of for two years.
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