Mornington-By-Mere – (26) ABC

 

Twenty three year old twins Cordelia and Corliss St George lived at Mornington Manor, in Mornington-By-Mere with their brother, two elder sisters and an aunt.

They were tall, a smidge short of six foot, strikingly attractive with warm smiles, blue eyes and long blonde hair and hearts as big as a the Manor House they lived in and felt blessed to have loving siblings and 3 particularly good and longstanding friends.

         

Apart from the fact they all lived in Mornington and were all 23 years old, the five girls also went to Abbottsford University together.

And it was while they were at University that Lisa Kincaid-Smith, Megan Murray, Carina Crockford and twin sisters Cordelia and Corliss St George performed as the Jackson 5 for the first time.

It was during rag week on their first week when they donned gold lame flares and black wigs and sang “I want you back” and from that moment it became their party piece and one that had been repeated on many occasions since.

So when they signed up for the Sharpington Day Parade on Bank Holiday Monday, a Charity event which raised tens of thousands of pounds every year, much of which was collected by volunteers rattling tins along the route whilst in fancy dress, it was a forgone conclusion who they would dress up as.

Sharpington-by-Sea was a traditional seaside resort complete with a Victorian Pier, seafront hotels, crazy golf, ballroom, well maintained gardens, promenade, theatre and illuminations, all the usual things to have a great time by the seaside, as well as amusement arcades and of course the Sharpington Fun Park.

Which was the first purpose built amusement park to open in Britain, which had an assortment of rides, like the Rotor and the tame compared to a 21^st century roller coaster but still fun.

But on the August Bank Holiday Monday it wasn’t the Fun Park people were interested in.

It was the parade that attracted people from all over Downshire and beyond and Carina had an idea to make their Jackson 5 homage even better by having all the girls professionally made up to match Megan Murray’s skin colour which was dark caramel due to her mixed race heritage.

However much to her consternation her suggestion wasn’t greeted with universal approval.

That was mainly due to the fact that the St George girls were very white with pale skin and blue eyes and Lisa was a proper ginger who actually ended up paler when she went out in the sun.

Although their concerns centred more on not wishing to look ridiculous rather than the fear of any offence they might cause.

 

However their fears were soon put at ease when Carina explained what she had in mind. 

Since leaving University Carina Crockford had worked in the makeup department at the Purplemere Studio’s and it was there where she had charge of a group of trainee make-up artists and among them were Karen Cooper and Ivana Holubova, and it was they who Carina had persuaded to make the girls up.

Also she had co-opted the help of Sue Moss and Lisa Mendez from the costume department.

As a result the girls reluctantly agreed to go along with it but reserved judgement on whether they would allow themselves to be seen in public made up and costumed.

 

As it turned out the makeup and costumes were so good that on the day of the Sharpington Day Parade no one realised that only one of the Jackson 5 was actually black.

It was only at the very end of the day as they were getting into the car when Lisa’s wig fell off to reveal her ginger hair that a member of the public realised something was amiss.

There was however no public outcry though they got a mention in the Sharpington Courier and there was talk of a Police investigation but nothing came of it and the tale of the Jackson 5 passed into modern folklore.

 

Apart from the girls being twins Corliss and Cordelia were also the best of friends and like all the St Georges they were tall, blonde, blue eyed and strikingly attractive and yet they had passed the age of 23 without a steady boyfriend between them.

They weren’t exactly sweet sixteen’s and they had certainly been kissed but to be perfectly honest they weren’t really interested in men, not that they were otherwise inclined, it was just that their leisure time was precious to them and they hadn’t yet met the men that they would give up the time they had spare.

They both worked for the Mornington Estate and when they weren’t working they were sailing, canoeing, mountain biking, climbing, horse riding, you name it they spent their down time doing it, because basically Corliss and Cordelia were the outdoorsy type.

 

They both lived at Mornington Manor, and their primary aim in life was to have fun and keep their independence.

However while they were intent on enjoying themselves at every opportunity they met the devastatingly good looking White Brothers at the Mornington New Year’s Eve party at the Manor.

 

Peter and Paul White weren’t twins, in fact there was a two year gap between them, but they looked identical, they lived in The Close, at number 2 with their parents and younger brother.

They were also employed on the Mornington Estate as watermen,  

A role that they inherited from their father Andy who was now semi-retired due to ill health.

Their job was to maintain the health and wellbeing of the stretch of the River Brooke that dissected the Estate as well as the Mornington Mere and the numerous streams and ponds.

 

Although neither of them let on to the other at the time the twins thought the brothers were absolutely gorgeous and as a result from that moment on their perspectives on life altered.

 

Before the New Year’s Eve party they had no recollection of having seen the White boys despite them being Mornington natives, but from January the 1^st of the year onwards they saw them absolutely everywhere especially as their work for the estate took the twins all over.

 

It wasn’t until Easter however that Corliss confessed to her sister that she was attracted to one of the White brothers.

They were at the Manor and had spent the evening of Good Friday drinking more wine than was good for them.

“I really like Paul White” she blurted out and braced herself for Cordelia’s savage response, but instead of being cross she just laughed.

“I really like the other one” she said

Thankfully there was no argument as to who liked which brother they were instantly attracted to one hunk each, which was great for their friendship.

The problem was that as they had never really been interested in the opposite sex very much, they didn’t have a clue how to proceed, they only knew that they were smitten.

Looking the way that they did, tall, blonde and striking, they had had no shortage of male attention ever since their breasts arrived but historically they had hung onto the occasion one but mostly they just beat them away with a stick, but now the boot was on the other foot.

 

Nothing happened at all after the first encounter with them on New Year’s Eve at the Manor other than watching silently from afar and following their mutual confessions at Easter the twins did little else than talk about them a lot but that was as far as it went.

 

Once both girls had come clean they took their admiration to closer quarters and when the girls came upon their quarry they politely said hello and smiled and sometimes they even chatted briefly, they often came upon them on the River, fishing, but it was the closed season in April so they got harder to find.

 

By the beginning of May along with their ambushing the Whites whenever possible, which clearly wasn’t working, Cordelia and Corliss had adopted a different tactic.

They had established a pattern of where and when they would be on certain days and planned their working week around them.

Being the outdoorsy type they would take the mountain bikes, or the horses and ride past where they were working in the hope of catching site of them or engaging them in conversation but this proved to be a fruitless endeavour as did canoeing on the Brooke when they were taking water samples.

 

The four of them had lived in Mornington their whole lives and yet it wasn’t until they were in their early twenties that they actually met, quite remarkable really.

Paul White was a year older than the St George girls and Peter was a year younger but Corliss and Cordelia had no recollection whatever of them even though they must have gone to the same college in Finchbottom, they must have been either anonymous or invisible.

 

Paul was the older brother by two years, he was also two inches shorter and less self-confidence than Peter.

They were both athletically built with curly black hair and dark eyes and although the girls were unaware of it Corliss and Cordelia had not gone unnoticed.

 

It was about a week into the month of May that Cordelia St George was walking past the Vicarage and it was early on Saturday morning which was when Peter White came racing across the bridge on his bike at great pace and nearly took her out.

“Whoa” she said and jumped out of the way and Peter screeched to a halt.

“Sorry Miss St George” he said “I didn’t think anyone else was up and about this early”

He was up that early as he wanted to ride over to Shallowfield to order his brother’s birthday present so he would be back before Paul realised where he’d been.

Cordelia on the other hand was on her way home after an early shift at Windmill Farm due to a sick cow.

“Don’t call me Miss St George” she said “I’m Cordelia”

She looked at his gorgeous black curls beneath his helmet, and his dark eyes and sighed.

Peter had one foot on the floor and the other on the pedal and her eyes were fixed on the shape of his muscular thigh and the firmness of his buttock and she was transfixed until he caught her looking and she blushed and looked away.

“So why are you up so early?” she asked

“I’ve got to sort out a birthday pressie for Paul” he replied

“Where from?”

“Shallowfield” he replied “There’s a guy that makes handmade fishing rods”

Peter looked at his watch and said

“Oh damn, I really have to go”

“Oh ok” she said failing to hide her disappointment as he pedalled away.

“Bye” he said and as he pedalled off he cursed his luck after finally making some progress he had to leave.

“Paul had better like his bloody fishing rod” he said to himself

 

Peter was desperate to tell his brother about his encounter with Cordelia on the river bank and to recount the story of him catching her devouring him with his eyes, but that would have necessitated him telling Paul about the circumstances that brought him to the river path at that time of the morning on a Saturday so he had to keep it too himself.

 

A few days later Corliss was just leaving Addison’s Bakers when she saw Paul walking the other way, she liked Paul, and she thought he was cute, but she never got a chance to talk to him when he was alone or when she was alone.

He was either with his brother Peter or she was with her sister Cordelia.

She saw him on the pavement, he slowed down as he approached the shop and when he saw her he waved.

Corliss waved back and then suffered a rush of blood to the head and inexplicably blew him a kiss.

He stopped waving, went beetroot red and turned around and sped off.

“Shit” Corliss said out loud “too far, too soon”

 

“You stupid idiot” Corliss muttered under her breath as she shuffled disconsolately along the road cursing her missed opportunity.

In fact she was so distracted, as she ambled along berating herself for her stupidity, that she didn’t even notice her sister Cordelia coming the other way.

“What’s up sis?” Cordelia asked but Corliss didn’t react and carried on muttering to herself as before.

“Corliss!!” Cordelia called and grabbed her shoulder     

“Wha…” she exclaimed

“What’s the matter?” Cordelia asked

“I’m such a fool” she replied

“Why?”

“I had a chance to talk to Paul, one on one” she said “but instead of chatting him up I scared him away before I could”

“Ah, I see” Cordelia said “Was it really bad?”

“Oh it was bad alright” she said “it was much easier when we used to let the men make all the moves and we just cherry picked, I like him though”

“Really? I wouldn’t have guessed”

“Very funny”

“I’m just as crazy about his brother” Cordelia admitted

“So what are we going to do about it?” Corliss asked

“I have a plan” she replied

“Good”

“So what exactly did you do to scare him off?” Cordelia asked

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you” she replied

 

After running away from Corliss St George outside the bakery Paul went straight to his brother and blurted out the sorry tale.

“I behaved like an idiot”

“Don’t be daft bro” Peter said

“But she blew me a kiss and I ran away” he responded

“How could I be so wet?”

“It’s not so bad” Peter said encouragingly

“She’ll never look at me again” he said and buried his head in her hands.

Peter was desperate to tell his story about meeting Corliss but it would have to wait until after his birthday.

However on reflection he thought it probably wouldn’t have made either of them feel any better.

 

It was Paul Whites 25^th birthday on the 23^rd of May and his brother Peter’s was on the 27^th.

On their actual birthday they were going out to a restaurant of their choice with their family.

Paul’s favourite was a Chinese in Abbottsford called the Scented Garden while Paul liked the Brown Windsor in Shallowfield.

 

It was a week after Corliss had frightened away Paul and a week away from his birthday that the two brothers were walking passed the Mornington Mere heading away from the village.

They were on their way to take water samples for testing and were chatting about their upcoming celebrations.

But when they were about halfway along the path they found Corliss and Cordelia St George waiting by a tree.

“Hey you two” Corliss said and she and her sister smiled broadly. 

Peter smiled back and Paul blushed.

“Do you want some company?” Cordelia asked 

“Who are you asking?” Peter replied

“You of course” she said

“Then yes I do” Peter said cockily and she and Corliss walked slowly away.

While all this was going on the normally gregarious Corliss was suddenly uncharacteristically tongue tied and just kept grinning inanely at Paul.

He had stopped blushing and was waiting patiently for the invitation which didn’t appear to be coming so he said

“Alright then”

“Wha… what?” Corliss responded

“Yes alright then” he repeated

“Alright then what?” she asked

“You may keep me company” Paul said confidently

“Thank you” Corliss said and they walked off behind the other two.

By the time both couples had reached the end of the Mere they had arranged to go out for a meal at the Worsted Viper Hotel in Purplemere that evening.