The traditional
seaside resort of Sharpington-by-Sea suited her very well with its Victorian
Pier, seafront hotels, crazy golf, The Palladium 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 and it was Emma Goldup’s hometown.
She was 23 years of
age and was a pretty girl, with fine blonde hair and was only a tiny little
thing, four foot eleven if she had her hair up.
Emma was the only
child of a local couple with several businesses in the town and a huge house in
the grand neighbourhood of Granite Hill, which in a nod to San Francisco the
locals nicknamed Nob Hill.
But when she finished
her expensive education she had no interest in working for any of the family
businesses and got a job working in a small riding school at Brooke Side Farm
on the outskirts of town, between Sharpington and the Dulcets.
The Dulcets were a
collection of villages and hamlets comprising of Dulcet Meadow, Dulcet St Mary,
Dulcet Green and Dulcet-on-Brooke to name but a few and Brooke Side Farm was quaintly situated on the Sharpington side of the
River Brooke.
Her parents were
outraged when she chose to be a stable girl, her father offered to buy the
riding school and let her run it but she forbade him from doing any such thing
and threatened never to speak to either of them again if he did.
She just wanted to
work with horses and when she wasn’t working she could be seen sat astride a
great Honey coloured colt called Paris.
But the most
remarkable thing about Emma was that in spite of her parent’s wealth and
snobbery she had no airs and graces whatsoever.
One day she was riding
Paris along the bridle path when she saw a familiar face
“Morning Mr Goodman”
“Morning Emma” he
replied
She always called him
Mr. Goodman even though it was 7 years since he retired from teaching.
He retired from
teaching the same time she left school when she was 16.
She had no idea where
he was headed but she knew one thing for sure and that was that he was doing
something good for someone.
She had never met a
more appropriately named human being because he really was a good man.
Emma liked him very
much but he was her second best favourite man because she liked someone else
better, Harrison
McQuiston.
She had met him the
first time back in May and it had been such a beautiful morning that she rode
considerably further and longer than originally intended so on the way back to
the Brooke Side Farm Emma decided to walk the horse part of the way to give
Paris a little breather.
So she was walking
Paris alongside the River Brooke and both she and the horse were spattered in
mud.
Emma was chatting away
to Paris when there was a bit of a commotion ahead of them and a man suddenly
appeared from the bushes causing Emma’s horse to rear up.
“Whoa! Steady boy” she
said as she tried to calm him down.
“Alright” Emma said
softy patting the horse’s neck “Good boy”
Once she had complete
control she led him by the bridle.
“I’m so sorry” the man
said
“We didn’t mean to
startle you”
“We?” Emma queried
“Yes” he said “I’m not
alone”
“Excellent” she
thought “I’ve stumbled upon the local nutter”
At which point a King
Charles spaniel emerged from the bushes and she laughed.
“Meet Charlie” he said
“Well hello Charlie”
Emma said
“We really are sorry
for startling you” Harrison said
“That’s ok, no harm
done” she said
Once she realized he
wasn’t a nutter she saw him in a much different light, he was a tall skinny
man, a few years older than her, with short brown hair and glasses with a
lopsided grin on his face.
“I’m Harry by the way”
“Emma”
“Are you going far?”
he asked
“No, he’s stabled at
Brooke Side Farm” she replied
“Do you mind if we
walk with you? We live at Waterside Cottages”
“Not at all” she
replied “As long as you don’t mind being seen with me looking like this”
“I don’t mind if you
don’t, I’m the River Warden so I’m almost always a mess” he said “Not that I
think that you look a mess”
Harrison got very
flustered and went a delightful shade of scarlet.
“It’s ok Harry, I am a
mess” she said and laughed “I always look like this when we hack through the woods,
I’m not very glamorous am I?”
“Oh I don’t know”
Harry said “you still look lovely even under the mud”
“What makes you think
I’m lovely under the muck?” she asked suspiciously wondering if he might still
be a nutter, or a stalker.
“Well I’ve seen you a
few times before” he explained “going past the cottage, minus the mud”
“Oh I see” she said
“That makes sense”
Harrison McQuiston worked as a
River Warden for the Downshire County Waterways and his stretch of river
reached from Dulcet-on-Brooke to Sharpington and his cottage was situated
equidistant between the two.
They started to walk
and exchanged small talk as they went Emma told him about her work at the
riding School and her love of horses and how her career choice disappointed her
parents.
And he told her about
his love of the River and all the diverse life that depended on in.
It was his dream job
and his cottage was within yards of the River he loved so much.
They also discovered
that neither of them had a significant other in their lives but as they were
only about half a mile from his cottage it didn’t take long for them to reach
it and when they did he said
“Sorry again for
scaring you and Paris”
“It’s not a problem
really” Emma insisted “we will be more alert in future, and be on the lookout
for brown haired ninjas with spaniels”
“Goodbye then” he said
as he opened his front gate.
“Maybe our paths will
cross again” she said
“I do hope so” Harry
said
It was late afternoon
when Emma got back to Brooke Side Farm and she was spattered from head to toe
in mud but she was also grinning from ear to ear.
Over the month
following that first meeting and the resulting walk, they had had many other
such meetings, at first by chance but subsequently by design.
But they all they did
was walk together and talk as they walked along a mile long stretch of the
riverbank path.
Emma for one would
have liked them to have broadened their horizons after a month of converse but
she didn’t want to force the pace so she remained patient.
When Emma left Brooke
Side Farm on the morning in June that she eventually rode past David Goodman
she was full of nervous anticipation about seeing Harry, much more than she had
previously and she didn’t quite know why.
The feeling
intensified as she approached the spot where he and Charlie normally waited but
there was no sign of either dog or master.
Her feelings of
nervous anticipation were instantly replaced by one of disappointment.
Although she was only
a tiny little thing, four foot eleven on a good day, when she was sat upon her
great Honey coloured colt, Paris, she was a giant and the additional height
gave her the chance to see beyond the fences and the hedgerows but still she
couldn’t see him.
Emma pressed on and
hoped Harry would be at his cottage.
Alas when she reached
the Waterside Cottages there was again no sign of man nor dog and his cottage
was in total darkness.
She and Paris slowly
walked on following the stretch of river bank they normally shared, looking
over the bushes on her side and then scanning the opposite river bank.
Emma waited for five
minute at the point where she left the river and followed the bridle path into
Sharpington, but he was a no show so she set off at the canter.
It was at the other
end of that bridle path where she saw the familiar face of her old teacher.
“Morning Mr Goodman”
“Morning Emma” he
replied
She would have stopped
to chat but she was close to tears so she put on a brave face and rode on.
She continued on her
normal route and when she heard the clock at St Lucy’s church chime she
realised she was going to be late back so galloped back the way she had come
and let out her frustration as she did so and pushed Paris a bit too hard.
When she felt him
labouring she pulled up sharp and jumped down and checked him over.
“I’m so sorry boy, I’m
so sorry” she said and when she had finished and all was well she patted his
neck and burst into tears.
The reason that
Harrison McQuiston was not waiting for her that morning was not, as Emma was
thinking as she sobbed against the horse’s neck, that he was not interested in
her, on the contrary he was very interested.
What had stopped him
from meeting her and taken him from his cottage just after dawn was a crisis on
the river.
About two miles
downstream of Brooke Side Farm half a dozen cows had taken advantage of a
broken fence and wandered down to the water’s edge and couldn’t get back up to
the field.
As River Warden his
presence was required along with a vet, the police, the fire service, the
farmer and several labourers.
It had taken hours of
their combined efforts to rescue the beasts and he was exhausted when he had
finished.
The police offered to
drop him off at home but he fancied a walk, so he declined the offer and set
off to walk back to his Cottage.
He hadn’t been
entirely honest with the police because what he really wanted to do was
intercept Emma on the return leg of her journey so he took a short cut through Kings
River Woods.
The woods were dense
and thick and it was so peaceful and quiet as he hurried on his quest.
It felt strange to him
not to have Charlie walking along with him through the woods but to take him to
that mornings emergency would not have been sensible so he had to leave him at
home.
As the trees began to
thin out he knew he was close to the bridle path and when he was a few yards
away he became aware of movement through the thinning woodland and as he got to
the edge of the wood he saw that the movement was Emma and her colt Paris
thundering along the bridle path.
He tried calling after
her but she didn’t hear.
At the speed she was
galloping he had no chance of catching her so he reduced his speed and walked
slowly towards home.
After about half an
hour he could see something ahead of him to the side of the path, so he picked
up the pace again.
As he got closer he
could see there was definitely someone at the side of the path and he could by
the find strands of blond hair below her riding hat that it was Emma and Paris.
The colt was tied to a
fence rail and she appeared to be grooming the beast.
He moved a little
closer and was about to say hello when he realised she wasn’t grooming the
horse at all.
She was actually
sobbing against the horse’s neck which caused
Harry to hesitate.
He was not well versed
in comforting crying women and were it not for the fact that he had feelings
for Emma he would probably, to his shame, have tiptoed away unnoticed.
So skulking away was
not an option so he considered his next move as he looked at Emma stood beside
the tethered beast, still wearing her riding hat and he was standing on her
blind side.
He walked slowly across
the bridle path closing the distance between them and as he got closer he could
hear the sobs accompanying her trembling shoulders.
Harry was a couple of
paces from her when she suddenly became aware of his presence.
“Oh Harry” she said
and threw herself into his waiting arms and buried her face in his chest.
Because of the height
difference she only just reached his chest so he kissed the top of her head and
said
“What’s the matter
Emma?”
At first she just
stood stock still against him but when she tried to tell him what was wrong in
was completely incomprehensible.
“Ok don’t talk honey
just cry it out” he said and ran his hands up and down her back.
After about ten
minutes when her breathing slowed and her sobs had subsided he asked again
“What’s the matter?”
“You weren’t there”
she said “You weren’t anywhere”
Then she started
crying again so he held her close to him again and explained what had taken him
away at such short notice and kept him away all morning.
“So it wasn’t me?” she
asked quietly
“What do you mean?”
“It wasn’t because you
didn’t want to see me” she explained
“Of course not, I want
to see you all the time” Harry said
“All the time?” she
asked in disbelief
“Yes all the time” he
confirmed
Emma pushed herself
away from his chest and looked up at him and a smile spread across her
tearstained face and then she leapt up and wrapped her arms around his neck and
said
“Me too”
She was hugging his
neck tightly and didn’t ever want to let go but the next thing she knew he was
sitting her on top of the fence.
“No don’t let me go”
she begged
“But I have to” Harry
said
“But why?”
“So that I can do
this” he said and kissed her trembling lips which met with no further
protestations.
Afterwards they walked
along with Emma holding the reins in one hand and Harry’s great paw of a hand
in the other, he with tears stains on his shirt and she with mud spattered up
her jodhpurs and both of them smiling inanely and from that day onward she
never knew disappointment again.
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