In the 1990’s the Dawkins
Family lived in the village of Pangmere situated on the Finchbottom Road
between Mornington and Finchbottom.
Julian and Sheila were
the Licensees of the Red Lion and their children, twins Brian and Karen, went
to college in Purplemere.
The family had lived
at the Red Lion since 1990, when the children were little and they were very
happy there, it was a run-down dump when they took it over and Julian and
Sheila had really turned the place around.
And all during that
time they had a number of regular visitors, friends and family alike, but the
most regular of them all was Annette West, or Aunty Annette as the children had
always called her, although she wasn’t their real Aunty, she was the daughter
of their mum’s best and oldest friend who was a few years older than Sheila.
In the early days when
she first started to visit Pangmere she was with her husband Paul, but the West’s
divorced when the twins were 12 years old, but prior to her marriage she
regularly babysat for the children.
Annette was a real
beauty and oozed sexuality and by the time the twins reached their teens Brian had
started to see her as something other than his aunty and Aunty Annette
regularly frequented his dreams.
For a young adolescent
during his sexual awakening she was manna from heaven.
What a sight she was, with her long blond hair and generous bosom and with the
flattering sweep of her hips and the roundness of her magnificent buttocks and
long shapely legs, who wouldn’t be impressed at the sight of her.
For Brian the whole package made a most wonderful vision of sexuality which
gladdened his young man’s eye and stirred his ardour.
Annette was totally
oblivious of the situation until around about the time Brian turned 16 that was
when she first became aware of the effect she was having on him and she had
mixed feelings about it.
She was incredibly
flattered of course but she was also troubled by it, so she cut down her
visit’s to Pangmere over the following couple of years in the hope that he
would grow out of it.
And when she did visit
she made sure it was at times when Brian wasn’t around and if it couldn’t be
avoided then she would dress down, no cleavage, short skirts or tight sweaters.
However her avoidance
of him came to an end when it was the twins 18th birthday, an event
which she could not ignore or avoid as she was their godmother.
She approached the day
with some trepidation and as had become her habit she dressed in a shapeless
outfit so as not to gain his attraction.
But it didn’t seem
work, he seemed more enamoured of her than ever.
It appeared that by
her distancing herself from him it had only served to make her even more
desirable.
That situation was
made all the worse when the callow youth with the unnatural and unhealthy
infatuation had turned into a gorgeous man.
It appeared that by,
30 year old Annette, distancing herself from 18 year old Brian, in the two
years since she discovered he was infatuated with her, it had only served to
make her even more desirable.
That situation was
made all the worse when the callow youth with the unnatural and unhealthy
infatuation had turned into a gorgeous man.
While she was giving
him a wide birth she made sure that she dressed demurely but when she saw him
on his 18th birthday she began something which would have far
reaching consequences, she started to dress provocatively and rather than
distance herself she actively flirted with him.
Brian had always
looked forward to her visits but after his 18th birthday he looked
forward to them even more and as he was older and Annette realised she was
still able to affect him she began visiting more and more often because the
truth of the matter was that it really excited her to think she was able to
make him squirm in his seat and blush to his roots and even cause him to
quiver.
She would show him a
generous expanse of shapely stockinged leg or bend over in front of him and rise
slowly to give him the full benefit of her shapely derriere or present him with
the vision of her gaping blouse and its tempting contents.
Annette wasn’t excited
by arousing a young man because she was frustrated or anything of that nature, looking
as she did she was not short of male attention and her generous heart was
fulfilled although romantically and emotionally she was less well served.
Apart from the
flirting and the flaunting she spent a lot of time in his company both at the
Dawkins pub as well as on excursions into the real world, with and without the
rest of the family, given their attraction, the amount of time spent in each
other’s company, her generous heart and his youth, they soon fell in love.
But it wasn’t until
shortly before his 19th birthday that they took it to the next
level.
It was just over eleven
months after she returned his infatuation and around six months after lust had
turned to love.
It was a Friday afternoon
when Brian arrived home alone from college, because his twin sister Karen was
staying in Childean at a friend’s house.
Neither he nor his sister
were particularly academic, but they were both good with their hands, so they
went to a technical college three days a week.
As he approached the
pub he noticed Annette’s car in the car park and he felt instant excitement and
quickened his step towards the door.
His mum Sheila was in
the crowded bar of the Red Lion and his dad was at the Cash and Carry.
“Hi love” Sheila said
as he walked in.
“Hi Mum” he replied
“I’ll get changed and give you a hand”
“No rush love” She
said to him, and he smiled because that was precisely the answer he was hoping
for, so he went upstairs to his room to get changed out of his college clothes,
but he knew he wasn’t the only one
upstairs.
When he passed the living
room he looked in and saw Annette standing in the middle of the room adjusting
her stocking, and Brian couldn’t take his eyes off her.
When Brian passed the
living room he looked in and saw Annette standing in the middle of the room
adjusting her stocking, and Brian couldn’t take his eyes off her.
Annette had waited for
the precise moment when he appeared at the top of the stairs to adjust her
suspender and she had timed it to perfection and as she looked at the expression
on his face she was very pleased with the result and because of that she was wearing
a seductive smile.
But, however pleased
she may have been with her effect on him she was not expecting what happened
next to transpire.
Seeing Annette with
her stocking tops on display, although extremely titillating in itself, which
would have been to any red bloodied man in his late teens, it prompted him to
cross the room and kiss her.
The kiss had been long
imagined by them both, and when it came it did not disappoint and it was long
and lingering and far surpassed their expectations, and marked the transition
from lustful flirtation to a full blown physical expression of their feelings,
it was of course conducted in secret and it was an affair which lasted for over
two years.
It was breathless and
passionate and was the fulfilment of years of lusty flirtation made manifest,
and from the first time they made love it was an electric nerve tingling
experience which they never tired of.
The breathless passionate
affair however came to an abrupt end when they were discovered in flagrante in
his parent’s bed.
The resulting fallout
of their exposure tore the Dawkins family apart and their discovery split the
lovers up.
The guilt of betraying
Julian and Sheila was too much for her to bear, after all she was the daughter
of Sheila’s best and oldest friend, and she was like a second mother to
Annette.
In the year following
21 year old Brian Dawkins and 33 year old Annette West being discovered in his parent’s
marital bed Annette’s world fell apart as her love affair with Brian came to an
abrupt end and then the total disintegration of her life long relationship with
her mother’s best friend Sheila Dawkins.
But apart from
breaking up the lovers and it causing an irrevocable rift between Annette and
Sheila it also caused a deep rift in the Dawkins family itself.
So unable to see the
young man she had fallen in love with and being estranged from the woman she
had looked upon as her second mother she decided to cut and run.
Her initial response
was to sell her flat and get as far away from Pangmere and the Finchbottom Vale
as possible.
So she quit her job,
sold her flat and spent the next twelve months working at her sister, Annabel’s,
bar in Benidorm while she got her head straight.
However she soon
realised that running away and hiding was not the answer.
She wasn’t sure what
the answer was by any measure but she did know that hiding away in Spain wasn’t
it.
Annette soon realised
that running away and hiding was not the answer.
She wasn’t sure what
the answer was by any measure but she did know that hiding away in Spain wasn’t
it.
Her Sister Annabel
thought the answer was to throw a succession of unsuitable men in Annette’s
direction but she managed to side step them all quite successfully.
However she eventually
tired of her sister’s good intentions and returned to Downshire but she could
not allow herself to fall back into the same social circle that she had left so
abruptly, but she didn’t want to remove herself entirely from her former life
so she settled in Finchbottom while keeping her former life at arm’s length.
Annette did a
succession of jobs, all of which were beneath her capabilities until she
finally ended up working for a second hand book business, Paige Turners.
The owner of Paige
Turners was a women called Paige Edwards who had owned a very successful book
shop in Finchbottom but changes in the business caused her to sell the book
shop in Finchbottom, but it wasn’t the end of Paige Turner’s and Paige stayed
very much in the book business.
When she closed the
door for the very last time on the shop she had mixed feelings.
Even before the shop
closed it had become primarily an internet business and because the bookshop
was in a prime location in Finchbottom it brought a very good price.
So she sold the shop,
but didn’t sell up, instead she leased the old Finchbottom Library and ran the
business from there.
It was a perfect
location and she was able to utilize the Library book shelves as well as the
ones from the old shop and it was to that business that Annette West joined.
Annette worked for the
company for four years and was blissfully unaware that unseen fates were busily
pulling the strings in her life when in Mid-December Paige Edwards received a
letter from her landlord to say that the lease was up on the old library
premises in Finchbottom and there would be no option to renew.
So as a result she had
to begin looking for a new home for Paige Turner’s and Paige was directed to
Mornington by a solicitor friend, Rizalina Pugay.
After having met with
agents and potential landlords in Mornington Paige was dreading the first day
back at work because she had to tell the staff that Paige Turner’s were moving
lock stock and barrel to Mornington within 2 months.
Because she was so
nervous about it she decided to take everyone to lunch at the local pub, the White
Horse Inn, on the basis that they probably wouldn’t kill her in a public place.
As it turned out the
news was received quite favourably as they were all expecting something as they
had heard about the proposed development of the Library Site.
Of her 14 staff 7 of
them said immediately they were prepared to move with her while of the other
seven, 4 were definite no’s and the other three wanted to see Mornington and
the accommodation before deciding, and Annette was one of those.
So the next day Paige,
Riza and the three doubting Thomas’s, Annette, Carole Beverley and Jennifer
Bardsley, drove over to Mornington.
Paige, Riza and the
three doubting Thomas’s, Annette, Carole Beverley and Jennifer Bardsley, drove
over to Mornington.
While they were there
they met with Victoria Johnson Higham, and Tallulah St George.
Victoria was from
Lyndon-Sanders Properties, who were tasked with finding tenants for the
commercial properties as well as some of the accommodation and Tally was the
property manager for the Estate, which formally took over the administration
from January 1st.
Mornington-By-Mere is a small country village lying in the Finchbottom
Vale nestled between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest and the rolling Pepperstock
Hills.
It is a quaint picturesque village, a proper 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.
There is a very good reason why it has retained its old English
quaintness and its heart and soul into the 21st Century and that’s
simply because everything in the village is owned by the Mornington Estate, and
under their stewardship the village has remained a traditionally English oasis and
has not been allowed to become a soulless haven for hooray Henrys and
weekenders with their second homes and country getaways.
Throughout its history
the Village of Mornington was largely dependent on agriculture for its survival
but shortly before the beginning of the Great War a large tract of land was
compulsorily purchased by the War Office as a training base for the newly
formed Royal Flying Corps which changed the dynamic to some extent with them
loosing valuable farm land, this was offset partly by the fact that the
Mornington Estate had the contract to provision the Airfield.
It remained as a
training squadron when the RFC became the RAF and right through to the end of
the nineteen thirty’s.
During World War Two
it became a front line fighter base in the Battle of Britain and many sorties
were flown from the field and many brave young men failed to return to it.
RAF Mornington
remained an operational base beyond the end of the 1939-45 conflict and was a
NATO base throughout the cold war.
However after the
breakup of the USSR it played a much lesser role until the end of the century
when it was mothballed and although the RAF maintained a presence it was only
really used as storage facility for the last decade of its existence.
When the War office
purchased Mornington Field in the summer of 1914 it was on a 100 year lease,
with an option for them to extend when the lease expired.
However in 2014 the
Ministry of Defence were in the midst of dramatic cutbacks in front line
resources and Mornington was one of the first facilities to be axed.
This meant that the
original owners, the St George family, had first refusal to buy it back for a
peppercorn fee and when the Mornington Estate exercised its option to purchase
Mornington Field 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 and it was the Airfield buildings that would house the Paige Turner
business and some of the accommodation for the staff.
In the year following
21 year old Brian Dawkins and 33 year old Annette West being discovered in his
parent’s marital bed Brian’s world fell apart as his love affair with Annette
came to an abrupt end and then the total disintegration of his life.
But apart from
breaking up the lovers and it causing an irrevocable rift between Annette and
Brian’s mum Sheila it also caused a deep rift in the Dawkins family.
Brian never forgave
his mother for driving her away or his father for calling her a cradle
snatching tart.
So unable to see the
woman he had fallen in love with and being estranged from his family he decided
to throw himself into finishing his college course.
When he first left the
Red Lion in Pangmere, his family home, he spent the next few months sofa
surfing at some of his friends’ homes, until he managed to get himself a bedsit
in Purplemere.
After Brian left home
Karen was left behind and was very much stuck in the middle, not wanting to
take sides but not wanting to lose contact with her twin brother, she spoke to
him whenever possible outside of college, but when her parents found out she
was in regular contact with her brother, they had an opportunity to use her as
a conduit to move them towards a reconciliation, instead they told her she had
to choose, them or Brian, so forced to choose, she chose Brian and they moved
into a dingy flat together.
Brian finished his
college course along with his sister Karen and they were fortunate enough in
the year before they qualified, to get some part time work with a local company
called Railway Enthusiast, working for a man called Dennis Thorpe.
He was a very gifted
craftsman who among other things was a Model Engine Maker, as well as making
rolling stock, buildings and infrastructure.
And when they both
qualified from college with distinctions Dennis had no hesitation in offering
them full time jobs.
While the two of them
shared a flat in Purplemere and worked together Karen had had a succession of
failed relationships and wished she could have found a man that not only loved
her as she loved them, but someone she could love as much as Brian loved
Annette.
Despite the depth of
the love he felt for Annette, Brian did not live as a monk but he never had a
relationship that was any more than physical.
Not just because he
was reluctant to fall in love again but more significantly because he was still
in love with Annette and every woman he met after they were driven apart was
inevitably compared to his first love.
As a result of their
abject failure to find a significant other, when Dennis Thorpe decided to move
the model making business to Mornington, Brian and Karen decided that there was
nothing holding them in Purplemere so they opted to move with him.
Mornington-By-Mere was
not just a quaint chocolate box English Village it was the beating heart of the
Finchbottom Vale and there were a
number of cottages and small houses on the Purplemere road and Dulcets Lane
which formed the part of Mornington Village known as Manorside and The
Dawkins managed to rent number 4 Brooke Side Cottages, which was a considerable
improvement on their dingy Purplemere flat.
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 and in February 2015 Paige Turners
made the move from Finchbottom to Mornington Field and took up residence in
what was formerly Hangar C.
Annette West also made
the move and her new home was located in Apartment 8 of Lancaster House, which
was once the Officers Mess and two months later Dennis Thorpe moved into
Apartment 4.
Annette quickly
settled in and as she was fast approaching her fortieth birthday she was
resigned to the fact that she would continue to live a solitary existence and
saw no sign of that changing in the foreseeable future but having fallen in
love with Mornington she was struck by the thought that there were worse places
to be alone.
Although he was only
27 years old, Brian had also resigned himself to living his life as a
singleton.
He loved his job and
the cottage he shared with his sister Karen was perfect, but unbeknown to him
or anyone else for that matter everything was set to change on a sunny
Wednesday in May after he had only been in the village for one month.
On that fateful
morning some mail had been wrongly delivered to Paige Turners and the owner,
Paige Edwards was going through it on her desk and there were eight pieces in
all that were not theirs.
“Annette honey?” she
called
“Yes Paige” she
responded
“Would you be a
darling and take these letters across to “Railway Enthusiast” The postman
dropped them off here by mistake?”
Paige asked
“No problem” Annette
replied “Which building are they in?”
“Block A, just the
other side of the roundabout” she explained
“Ok, I won’t be long”
Annette said as she took the letters from Paige.
It was a beautiful
warm May morning as she walked along the pavement towards Block A but it did
little to lift her spirits, she seemed to live her life on the same plain of
existence, just going through the motions of life without actually living it.
When she reached the
door to the Railway Enthusiast premises she knocked firmly on the glass and
waited until her knock was answered and the moment the door was opened her
heart began to beat again, and she felt alive for the first time in six long
years and the reason for her sudden lease of life was because she saw Brian Dawkins
standing there.
Brian opened the door
expecting to see a courier driver standing the other side of it and he couldn’t
believe the evidence of his own eyes as he stood looking into the eyes of the
woman he loved.
Annette smiled at him
and he smiled at her but neither of them spoke, neither daring to break the
spell of what could surely only be a hallucination.
It was a bright early
summer morning yet it was not warm enough to sit by an open door,
“Who is it Brian?”
Karen asked wondering why the door was still open and letting all the heat out
when he didn’t appear to be talking to anyone.
Getting no response,
Karen got up from her stool and walked towards the door repeating her question
“Who is it Brian?”
And when she saw who
was standing on the threshold she did a double take before she rushed towards
the smiling figure and hugged her.
“Annette, it’s really
you”
“Yes” Annette sighed
as she held Karen tightly to her and wished it were Brian in her arms, although
she doubted it would ever happen and as he looked on as the two people he loved
most in all the world embraced he thought the same.
When Karen and Annette
finished embracing there was an awkward momentary silence, as neither of them
knew what to say,
It was likely whatever
mundanity they chose to express would undoubtedly have brought the meeting to
an end, an neither of them wanted that.
A full minute of
silence had passed before Annette handed the letters to Brian.
“These were delivered
to Paige Turners by mistake” she said regretfully
“Oh ok thanks” he
retorted and they both smiled again and Annette turned to leave.
“Is that it?” Karen snapped
in disbelief and they both looked at each other before Brian said
“What do you mean?”
“Oh give me strength”
she exclaimed but the couple still just stared blankly at her
“For goodness sake,
you two have already wasted six precious years and now when fate has brought
you together again, out of the blue you don’t seize the moment”
Brian opened his mouth
to speak but Karen silenced him with a look and carried on
“Don’t you dare let
her get away from you again and as for you don’t think for a moment I will let
you run away and hide again”
At that point it was
Annette who tried to speak and she was also struck dumb with a withering
glance.
“You two were made for
each other, and you love each other in a way that I can only dream of, and I’m
so jealous, just to have a man look at me the way he looks at you would set me
ablaze, and to see your love reflected back in her eyes is a precious, precious
thing”
There was silence for
a moment and the Brian said quietly
“It’s difficult to
know what to say after so long”
“Who said anything
about speaking you idiot” Karen said sharply “just take her in your arms and kiss
her”
So he took her advice and
held the yielding Annette in his arms and kissed her and it was as if it had
only been the day before when they lay naked in his parent’s bed and he felt
alive again and he could tell by Annette’s response to his embrace that she
felt the same way.
After that day they
became a proper couple, a proper relationship with no sneaking around, it
wasn’t all plain sailing, there was still guilt and remorse on her part for
tearing his family asunder and they both regretted the wasted six years but
they weathered the storms and six months after the day the mail went astray,
they married.
Julian and Sheila
Dawkins were invited to the wedding at St Winifred’s, but they failed to show,
in fact they didn’t even respond, but that didn’t dampen the occasion for the
happy couple.
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