In the quaint chocolate box
English Village of Mornington-By-Mere, which was the beating heart of the Finchbottom
Vale, stood Mornington Manor which was the beating heart of the Mornington Estate.
The Finchbottom Vale nestled between the
Ancient Dancingdean Forest and the rolling Pepperstock Hills and the village is
quaint and picturesque, and is 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.
Mornington Manor is the residence of the St George
Family, the guardians of the estate, and the head of the Estate and the family
is Baron Gabriel St George, who lives at the Manor with his wife Chantel.
The village retained its old English
quaintness and its heart and soul into the 21st Century simply
because everything in the village is owned by the Mornington estate, and under
their stewardship the village has remained traditionally English and has not
been allowed to become a soulless haven for hooray Henrys and weekenders with
their second homes and country getaways.
The St George family had been landowners in
Downshire since the Norman Conquests and at one time their lands covered the
whole of the Finchbottom Vale.
However in the 21st century the
Estate was much reduced and only extended to a radius of between 11 and 12
miles from the Mornington Mere although they owned other land and properties
all over Downshire which they had rescued from developers over the years.
And it was one such property that was the subject of a meeting at the
Manor one Wednesday evening in May.
Thirty five year old
Richard Stephenson was one of the attendees and he was one of “The”
Stephenson’s who had supermarkets and convenience stores all over Downshire and he had
worked his whole life for the family business and for the most part he loved
what he did.
The only facet of his
job he didn’t enjoy were the business dinners which were an inevitable part of
his professional life, in fact he hated them, but sadly he knew they were a
necessary evil so he had to endure them.
Not that he didn’t
like restaurants or fine dining or indeed dining in general, the contrary was
true.
Whether it was the
more exclusive restaurants such as the
Worsted Viper and the Runcible Spoon in
Purplemere, The Phoenix Restaurant in Shallowfield, The Diamond in the Rough in
Sharpington, The Wooden Slipper in Abbottsford, The Leathern Bottle in
Finchbottom or The Cloche Hat in the Dulcets.
The varied foreign cuisine served up by the Bengal Curry House in
Shallowfield, the Scented Garden Chinese,
Roberto’s
Italian and the Beirut Lebanese in Abbottsford or the high standard of pub grub at hostelries
such as Finchbottom’s White Horse Inn, The Huntsman’s Lodge and
the Mallard in Childean, The Mulberry Tree at Brocklington, The Woodman’s Axe
in Shallowfield and Mornington’s Old Mill Inn.
And it didn’t matter
if it was one of his favourites or not, or if it had a good reputation, or if
he thought it was just a trendy nouvelle cuisine restaurant
serving high
flavour, low substance dishes, with tiny artistic
arrangements the size of an Hors
d'oeuvre on a slab of welsh slate, or the sort of place where he was
hungrier when it was time to leave than when he arrived, and he would need to
go to a burger bar on the way home.
But despite his foodie
loving appreciation of dining out he was still filled with the usual sense of
dread when he was told there was another dinner meeting, but his fears were
abated slightly when he found out that the dinner was at Mornington Manor.
Thirty five year old
Richard Stephenson was one of the attendees of a dinner meeting at Mornington
Manor and he was one of “The” Stephenson’s who had supermarkets and convenience stores all
over Downshire.
Despite his foodie
loving appreciation of dining out he was still filled with the usual sense of
dread when he was told there was another dinner meeting, but his fears were
abated slightly when he found out that the dinner was at Mornington Manor.
Apart from Richard
Stephenson, one of his legal eagles, Leonard Wells, was also to be wined and dined
by Baron Gabriel St George and his wife Chantel.
Also present were
Estate solicitor Rizalina Pugay and the Estates
financial manager Michelle Smith.
30 year old Michelle
was one of the Smith clan who were tenants at Smithfield Farm
and they had been there for as long as anyone could remember and everyone
expected her to take her place on the land but she surprised everyone when she
chose the route which led her to accountancy instead.
Michelle had been driven
and focused from the moment she made the decision at the age of 13 that farming
wasn’t for her and she had always behaved with the utmost professionalism in
every meeting she had ever attended but the moment she first laid eyes on the
tall blonde haired Richard Stephenson, her legs turned to jelly and every fact,
figure and number left her head and she felt like she was 13 again.
And as it turned out
the feeling was mutual because on that night Richard
learned to truly appreciate an intimate dining experience, because shortly
after the main course was cleared away he felt Michelle’s hand on his knee and
by the time desert arrived at the table her hand was in his.
The quality of the company not withstanding
and the meal definitely falling into the fine dining category, the finer
details of the meeting went completely over his head as his attention was
totally focused on the girl holding his hand.
He was a well-seasoned man of business and he
had been attending important meetings since he was 19 but he had never had one
of the other side hold his hand.
At first he wasn’t sure if this was some
strange new negotiation technique, or a seductive ploy to distract him from his
purpose, but in truth it wasn’t a cynical ploy at all it was love at first
sight.
When he looked at her during coffee she was
smiling smugly and as they said goodbye outside the Manor Richard said
“It was a very nice dinner”
“Yes, the food was exquisite” Michelle
agreed
“I particularly enjoyed desert” he added
“Me too” she agreed and then they shook
hands and he said quietly
“You have a very firm handshake”
“Thank you” she said
“But I preferred it when we were holding
hands”
“Me too” he said “And I look forward to our
next meeting with interest”
Richard Stephenson had
been very much looking forward to meeting Michelle Smith again after she had lovingly held his hand under the table
during the business dinner they were attending at Mornington Manor, but seeing
her the second time was different and if anything it was even better because he
knew her and the ice between them had already been broken, but he had absolutely
no idea what show of affection, if any, she might reveal at the meeting,
before, after or even during.
The second meeting
was again at Mornington Manor but was to be more informal and was not scheduled
to be over lunch or dinner and he didn’t have his legal eagle, Leonard Wells, in attendance.
However as he drove
into the Manor Grounds an alarming thought crossed his mind, what if Michelle
wasn’t going to be there.
He was surprised at
exactly how much he wanted her to be there after all they had only held hands,
it was all very juvenile really in the cold light of day, but the effect she
had on him was palpable and in the two weeks since they last met he had thought
of little else.
Michelle Smith had
also thought about that evening constantly and she was utterly embarrassed at
her behaviour, he was a very good looking man but even so she wasn’t a schoolgirl,
she was 30 years old for goodness sake and she had worked very hard to get
where she was and she now risked becoming a laughing stock because she went all
gooey at the sight of a square jawed, blue eyed, muscular hunk.
In fact she was so
embarrassed at the behaviour that she tried desperately to get out of the
second meeting all to no avail and to add insult onto injury she found out that
morning that it was to be a one to one meeting so she hoped and prayed that he
would be sending one of his minions but as she approached the reception area
her heart sank and soared simultaneously.
“Hello Richard” she
said trying not to look into his crystal blue eyes as she shook his soft
well-manicured hand
“It’s good to see
you again”
“Yes I was just
about to say the same thing” he retorted and smiled but Michelle was looking at
the floor
“Do you want to follow
me?” she asked in as much of a business-like manner as she could muster.
As she strode down
the hall ahead of him her short red hair bounced about her neck and shoulders and
danced softly there in time with her movement.
Just as she had
been at the dinner she was immaculately dressed, this time in a fitted green
silk blouse tucked into the waist of dark grey flared skirt, which complemented
her slender frame perfectly, her narrow waist and the flaring of her skirt accentuating
her hips.
Her fleshy buttocks
contained within the tailored skirt were quite hypnotic and her shapely legs
were sheathed in black.
She paused by an
open door and bade him enter, which he did.
“It will just be
the two of us today” she said as she indicated where she wanted him to sit.
“I’m afraid all the
other room are occupied” she said “but this will serve our purpose”
It was a small
informal meeting room with no meeting room table as such and half a dozen
chairs around the outside and an occasional table in the middle.
Two of the walls
were solid while the other two had windows in the top half, one of which looked
out into the grounds and Manor Wood beyond while the other looked into a small
open planned office in the room next door.
“I thought Gabriel
would be in the meeting” he said as he was seated in the meeting room at the
Mornington Manor
“No this is a one
to one” Michelle said trying to remain aloof
“Oh I see” he
responded
“And you really
wouldn’t want his lordship doing this” she added and leant in close and kissed
him.
“I really love business meetings with you”
he said
Many more meeting
followed between them, mainly over dinner in some of the finest restaurants in
Downshire and none of them ever resulted in them discussing business but after
about a month Michelle thought things had stalled so she decided to take
decisive action and she put her plan into action at a fund raising dinner at the Worsted Viper Hotel
in Purplemere.
She knew he was to be there and asked Gabriel St George if she could
attend to represent the Mornington Estate, and he was delighted to give her the
opportunity to spread her wings while getting himself off the hook at the same
time.
When Richard saw her at the dinner he was over the moon and resolved
immediately that he was going to make sure he stayed close to Michelle
and take advantage of the chance meeting.
He sat next to her, expecting to find her
hand on his knee, but it didn’t happen, he danced with her in the ballroom
hoping she would kiss him but she didn’t, in fact there was no brush of the
hand or a boob graze or even a knowing look.
Michelle pretty much ignored him entirely so
he ended the evening in abject disappointment and meandered back to his room in
a cloud of melancholy.
Richard got back to his room and raided the
mini bar and then got himself ready for bed and he was just about to turn the
light off when there was a knock at the door.
“What the fuck?” he snapped angrily and got
out of bed, it seemed that not only had he had a disappointment in regard to
Michelle but now he was apparently not going to get any sleep.
He put on his robe and went to the door muttering expletives under his
breath and he was ready to launch a tirade of abuse at the intruder and he
threw open the door and was struck dumb because standing on the threshold was
Michelle Smith in her PJ’s, she would have preferred to have been stark naked
for maximum effect but she wasn’t that brazen.
“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” she asked as he stood staring at her
open mouthed.
“Oh yeah” he said and stepped aside to let her in and then he watched as
she walked towards the bed and he thought she looked as perfect in pyjamas as
she did in everything else.
“I thought you were ignoring me” he said as she walked towards him
“I was merely testing your mettle” she retorted
“Oh”
“Yes I wanted to make sure you wanted me as much as I want you” she replied
and kissed him
“And what conclusion did you reach?” he asked and in response Michelle
pushed him back onto the bed and said
“You’re mine”
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