Snippets of Downshire Life – Old Year’s Night

 

Downshire is a relatively small English county but that didn’t bother its inhabitants, they may not have been the biggest but they were in no doubt that it was the best.

And that belief was no more truer than in the southern town off Abbottsford which was Downshire’s administrative capital and the seat of the Downshire government.

It was also a place of learning thanks to the Downshire University, it could also boast that it was a Cathedral City, was home to Abbottsford Town football club and benefitted from the renowned Winston Churchill Hospital, and twin sisters Ariadne and Scarlet Shakespeare were both nurses at the Churchill.

They were identical twins, Ariadne was the older of the two by an hour and was five foot eight with bobbed brunette hair and an olive complexion and hazel eyes.

Scarlet was two inches taller than her sister and had more hair.

The girls were both foot lose and fancy free and liked to party and had no intrest in tying themselves down, but on the occasion of their 27^th birthday, on New Year’s Eve, that all changed, when they met best friends Marcus Birkin and Gareth Clare.

 

Marcus and Gareth both worked for Bramstock, Goodman, Crossfield and Bushe solicitors in Abbottsford, although they hailed from Turnoak-Under-Hawthorne, a large rambling village, originally settled in the 12^th 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.

The Birkin and Clare families had lived in the village for many years and were of the landed gentry and the boys were public school and Cambidge educated.

 

Abbottsford was a world away from Turnoak-Under-Hawthorne and socially the Shakespeare girls were a world away from Marcus and Gareth and their meeting on New Year’s Eve was purely by chance.

The twins were travelling from home after getting ready to party into the New Year, and the solicitors were in Marcus’s car travelling in the opposite direction from work when the two vehicles collided.

It wasn’t serious just a bit of minor damage, but Marcus had only had the car for a month so an angry exchange between him and the cab driver ensued, which Gareth tried to cool, to no avail, but when the two leggy drop dead gorgeous brunette girls emerged from the Taxi, the two adversaries and the peacemaker all went quiet.  

They were both stunningly beautiful and wearing low cut party outfits and when Marcus first saw the one with the bobbed hair, he was smitten and the fender bender was no longer of any importance to him, whereas Gareth felt the same about the tall one.

The taxi driver, who had been at fault for the accident, took full advantage of the distraction and got in his cab and sped away.

“Hey come back!” Ariadne shouted

“What are we going to do now?” Scarlet asked as the Cab disappeared around a corner

“Don’t worry” Marcus said “We’ll get you to your destination”

“You don’t know where we’re going” Ariadne pointed out

“You could tell us and then we would” Gareth said

“Problem solved then” Scarlet added and gave her sister a look that said “just get in the car”

Ariadne complied because it was obvious her sister fancied the drivers friend, and she thought the driver was ok, and he was posh, and she liked posh.

 

They were on the way to a New Year’s Eve Party at the Hospital, and by the time they got there the twins had persuaded the guys to join them at the party rather than just drop them off and go their separate ways, not that it took much persuading.

During the relatively short drive across town the four passengers had come to the conclusion that they weren’t going to accept any other outcome than to see the old year out together.

 

The Shakespeare’s were determined not to let their chosen solicitor out of their sight and they in turn had resolved not to let the girls out of view.

So they spend most of the night on the dance floor and the time that they were not dancing they were at the bar, with the exception of spending a penny.

 

At midnight, Scarlet was dancing with Gareth to a slow number by James Blunt when the music was suddenly replaced by the sound of Big Ben through the sound system.

“Happy New Year” Scarlet said and kissed him before he could respond, and then he didn’t want to speak.

Ariadne looked across at her sister kissing Gareth and then she looked at Marcus and thought “why aren’t we doing that?”

She smiled at him as Big Ben continued to sound, and he smiled back, but no kiss, “plenty of time, six bongs to go”.

Bong,

Bong,

Bong, and nothing happened so she said

“Have you seen what Scarlet and Gareth are doing?”

He turned to look at the kissing couple

“Oh yes”

Bong,

“Can I ask you a question Gareth?”

“Of course”

Bong,

“Why aren’t we doing that?” she asked and before the final bong he was kissing her.

As things turned out that night didn’t just mark the end of the old year for the two couples it marked the end of their old lives.