There are four Windmill
Cottages in the village of Mornington-By-Mere and they are as quaintly
picturesque as is the rest of the village.
They stand detached in
a neat row alongside the southern bank of the River Brooke situated between the
East Bridge and Church Hall.
The Chapman family live
in number 1 and Jo Williamson and her daughter Cassandra live next door at
number 2.
Alan Chapman was a 50 year
old widowed Farm Labourer and was very highly regarded and as such he was never
out of work as a result and because of that he could easily pick and choose
where he worked.
As a consequence of
his outdoor life he was a lean fit man with a full head of sandy hair and a
weathered complexion.
His daughter Lorraine
didn’t live with him full time as she was a Nurse at the Winston Churchill
Hospital in Abbottsford and rather than commute back and forth she shared a
flat with two other Nurses, Jane Hall, and Rosie Parsons who also lived in
Mornington and worked at the Churchill.
It wasn’t a huge flat
and nor was it in the smartest part of town but it was perfect for them as it
meant that they had a place to live that was close to work, which was ideal for
them all as they worked shifts, and it meant that split between the three of
them their expenses were less than their travelling would have been.
His 23 year old so James
was also a Farm Labourer but he worked exclusively at Windmill Farm and the
baby of the family Siobhan went to college and was well employed
in the evenings babysitting.
So as a result of his children’s independent
existences Alan spent a lot of his leisure time on his own.
He wasn’t altogether happy with that but he
had been a widower for ten years so he was getting used to it.
He was not an unsociable man however and was
well liked by those who knew him and he got on well with his neighbour’s.
One of those neighbour’s was Josephine Williamson who he knew very well and would
have liked very much to have known her better.
But what held him back
was that she was 8 years younger than him, so he
admired her from a distance.
She was five foot
eight with luscious thick ginger curls tumbling down onto her shoulders and
mesmerizing green eyes, with a lovely figure, curvaceous and perfectly
proportioned.
Jo was a divorcee but
had raised her daughter single handed and had to stand on her own two feet, she
had managed to get a full time job with one of the new firms up at Mornington
Field, Paige Turners and things were going well for her so she was happy-ish.
But Caz was in her
final year at University and when she graduated she was going to marry the love
of her life, Alex Kincaid-Smith who lived at number 4 which meant Jo would
truly be alone.
But she wouldn’t under
any circumstances tell her daughter how scared she was of that prospect because
she didn’t want to hold her back.
Alan was in a much more positive frame of mind when December came around,
because Christmas was just around the corner.
He liked Christmas and so did the kids so he was guaranteed they would
all be around if only for a few days.
Alan had spent the whole week working up at Wood Hill Farm for the Newman’s but they had got on so
well that they were finished by Friday lunchtime so Kashveena fed him a good
lunch and sent him on his way with a full weeks wages.
Kash Newman was
renowned in the area for her cooking and she didn’t stint on the portions
either.
When he got home to an empty house he sat down in front of the TV and
started watching “The Bishops Wife”, one of his all-time favourite Christmas
movies, but with his stomach still full with Kash’s lunch he lasted no more
than 10 minutes before the long blinks set in and as a result he spent the
afternoon sleeping on the couch in a fitful dreamy sleep in which Loretta Young
featured heavily.
It was just when he had woken from that long afternoons snoozing and
surfaced from an erotic dreamland that he heard the sound of the doorbell.
The bell continued to ring as he made his way up the hall and when he
opened the front door he found a rather tipsy Jo Williamson leaning against the
doorframe.
“Alan darling” she slurred, “I am a damsel in distress”
“How can I help?” he said
“I’m locked out” Jo said “and Caz won’t be back for at least an
hour”
Cassandra had gone to Abbottsford with friends to do her Christmas
shopping.
“Could you be a dear and let me stay here until she gets home?”
“Yes of course” he said just being neighbourly “Come on in party girl”
“Thank you kind sir” she said as she almost fell through the door.
“Let’s get your coat off” he suggested which proved to be something of an
effort, but they managed it in the end and when they had she adjusted her skirt
and straightened her scarlet festive top.
He sat her on a chair in the hall while he pulled her boots off revealing
her festive tights with a cute holly leaf motif.
“Come in the kitchen and I’ll put the kettle on” he said
“Wine will do” she suggested and fell against the wall giggling.
“Coffee I think” he replied
A couple of cups later and Jo had sobered considerably and she told him
all about the Paige Turners Christmas lunch at the Old Mill Inn and how much
she had enjoyed it.
Well he already knew how much she had enjoyed it by the way she fell in
through the front door.
“Do you want another cup?” he asked
Jo checked her watch before replying
“Yes please, but I must have a pee first”
“Ok, I’ll take it through to the lounge” he said
Alan was sitting on the sofa when she tottered into the lounge, make up
repaired, outfit perfect, and in one hand she held a sprig of mistletoe.
“Look what I have found,” she said and as she reached him she raised it
above her head.
So he stood up to face her, puckered up and gave her a Christmas kiss and
as his lips touched hers her it was evident that it was a more intrusive kind
of Christmas kiss she was interested in, which took him by surprise, but it was
a nice surprise, so in the spirit of the season and just to be neighbourly he
responded in kind.
Holding the bubbly
redhead in his arms was something he had often imagined but never expected for
a moment that it would actually happen.
She was gorgeous and
felt so good in his arms and the smell of her hair and her perfumed skin
intoxicated him.
He never for a second
believed that she might view him in a similar light.
He supposed it must have
been as a result of the over indulgent boozy lunch, but whatever the cause she
was showing no signs of letting up and had consolidated her position by locking
her arms tightly around his neck.
Jo and Alan lay
silently in the afterglow in his bed and after a few minutes Jo turned her head
to look at him.
“My goodness that was
really powerful mistletoe” Jo said from beneath the duvet.
“It was that” he
agreed
“This isn’t quiet how
I envisaged the day going” she said
“Well we Chapmans take
hospitality very seriously” he said
“I don’t make a habit
of this” she said
“Nor do I” Alan said
“And this isn’t something I envisaged happening either, but it’s something I
pictured in my dreams, often”
He reached out and put
his arm around her and she lay her head on his chest.
“Truly?” she asked
“Truly” he confirmed
“Mine too” Jo
whispered and kissed his skin
“I’m sorry if it
wasn’t as good as you dreamed” she said
“I’ve only ever been
with… I had only ever been with my husband John”
“It was every bit as I
dreamed it” he reassured her and she hugged him tightly
“I’m no serial
philanderer” he confessed “There’s been no one since Eve, until now”
“I’m glad” she said
and he felt her sighing breath on his chest
They lay entwined
beneath the duvet and after about 5 minutes Jo broke the silence.
“I have to go” she
said “Cassandra will be wondering where I am, and what I’m doing”
“I don’t want you to
go” he said
“It won’t be forever”
she reassured him
“I know” Alan said “I
thought we could try another sprig of that mistletoe”
“Oh yes” she said
“merry Christmas”
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