Twenty-eight-year-old
Paul Ingram had fallen in love with an older woman, a forty year old woman to
be precise, who was a beautiful unhappily married, Carrington Chase educated
woman called, Francesca Carrington-Webber.
Attraction for him was
instant when he saw her in the first class carriage on the train to
Abbottsford.
That was before he’d
even heard her speak in her posh Carrington Chase educated voice which he
didn’t hear until she fell on his lap on the return journey.
Carrington Chase was
Downshire’s version of Roedean, although those in Downshire think it was the
other way around.
Paul had always been
turned on by a well-spoken women and turned off by common ones.
For him there was no
greater turn off than to see a spectacularly beautiful woman open her mouth and
speak in a rough colloquial accent, Cheryl Cole being a good case in
point.
But Francesca was
beautiful to look at and she had the sexy posh accent, but more than that after
having spoken to her and seen behind the beauty and the poshness, she was a
lovely person from the inside to the out.
Paul and Francesca
both lived in the village of Forest Dean situated equidistant between
Shallowfield and Childean, she lived in a huge house that backed onto the The
Forest Ridge Golf Club, and coincidentally Paul worked for the Golf Club.
Although he didn’t
realize it at the time, Francesca had noticed Paul on the train to Abbottsford
and she was taken with him from the first glance, and it was the first glance
of many.
She had even spotted
him later that afternoon as she was in the back of a taxi, slightly the worse
for drink, and he was sitting in the beer garden of the Downshire Castle, and
totally out of character she waved at him.
But nobody was more
surprised than she was when she fell in his lap, not once but three times when
she was returning home.
And from that moment
on the die was cast.
But it wasn’t until 6
weeks later when she was attending the Sharpington Yacht Club Dinner Dance when
their paths crossed again.
Francesca was well
used to being ignored by her husband at such events but the moment the dancing
started he deserted her to go and drink with his mates at the bar and that was
the straw that broke the camel’s back for her so she made a dignified exit and walked
up to the promenade where she broke down completely.
She couldn’t have put
a time to the period she spent crying on the bench or how much longer she may
have remained had she not heard a male voice behind say
“Is everything ok?”
And when she turned
around to reveal her tearstained face she saw it was Paul Ingram
“Oh it’s you” she said the moment she saw him and was up on
her feet and rushing into his arms, but was unable to speak for several minutes
as Paul held her in his arms and she sobbed.
And those tender
moments of consolation lead to them making love in his caravan.
After Paul and
Francesca made love in his caravan in the middle of July and he walked her back
to her Hotel in the early hours of the next day Paul was very optimistic about
the prospect of seeing her again, and in the very near future.
However by the
beginning of August he hadn’t even seen her again let alone hold her and touch
her.
He had phoned her numerous
times but she never picked up.
He would have gone to
her house but unfortunately he neglected to get her exact address when he last
saw her.
Francesca was trying
desperately to avoid speaking to Paul, even though that was the last thing she
wanted to do.
She had thought of
little else since that night they spent together but she had also had terrible
feelings of guilt, which was why she kept ignoring his calls and she would have
kept that up indefinitely until the point he gave up calling, had fate not
taken a hand.
Paul had been sent to
collect some grass seed from the Shallowfield Garden Centre which was quite
unusual in itself because they normally got there supplies from a wholesale
supplier, but they had an urgent need due to their own stock being found to be
sterile and the lead time on replacement not meeting their urgency.
It was as Paul drove
along the high street in Shallowfield when he caught sight of Francesca
Carrington-Webber sitting alone at one of the tables outside Addison’s Café.
She was wearing a
summer dress and she looked absolutely gorgeous, he guessed she was probably
enjoying a coffee while waiting for a friend.
He parked the car in
the first available space and walked back towards the café and as he got close
he quickened his stride and as luck would have it, or so he thought, he caught
her eye and he gave her a wave, but instead of waving back she gathered up her
things and hurried away.
“That’s very odd” he
thought
Having failed to speak
with Francesca he went to the Garden Centre and got the seed and decided to
have lunch at The Woodcutters Arms and had a sandwich and a pint.
When he stepped back
out into the sunlight, he spotted Francesca again, this time in the pub
carpark, so he approached her on her blindside so she couldn’t run off again
and when he was a few feet away he said
“I think you’ve been
avoiding me”
Francesca jumped and
immediately became flustered
“No, no not at all”
she corrected him
“I think you have,” he
repeated “why?”
Francesca didn’t say
anything for about a minute
“Please tell me
Francesca” he entreated
“Because I feel
guilty,” She snapped
“You don’t need to
feel guilty Honey” he said
“You don’t understand”
She said vehemently “I don’t feel guilty because it happened”
“Then why?” Paul asked
but she didn’t respond
“Francesca?”
“Because I enjoyed it”
she barked
“I liked it because
you made me feel sexy”
Francesca paused and
then continued
“I liked it because
you made me feel special”
Then she hurried away
towards her car, but stopped and turned after a few paces and said
“But most of all I
feel guilty because I want to do it again”
And then she was gone
again, Paul thought for a moment before he hurried after her
“Francesca?” he called
but she kept going so he pressed on after her instead and Francesca was
standing by her car when he caught up with her.
“Do you mean it?” he
asked but his question met with silence
“Francesca?”
“Yes” she replied
reluctantly “but it can never happen again”
“Why?”
“Because I’m a wife
and a mother” she retorted and then added almost as an after thought
“And I love my
husband”
She may have once but
not so much now he thought, her husband spent more time on the Golf course or
in the club house than he did with his gorgeous wife.
He believed Francesca
was clearly lonely which she didn’t deserve to be, and it was in his power to
change that.
She opened the hatchback
and was about to put her shopping in the boot; but he put his right hand on the
edge of the boot, preventing her.
“Do you think about
that night?” he asked
“Yes” she said
“Often?”
“Yes” she replied “All
the time”
“Do you remember us
laying in my bed” he asked and she reddened at the recollection and then nodded
“It’s something I’ll
never forget” he said “I think about it every day and especially when I go to
the Caravan”
“Don’t make fun of me,
don’t make fun of it” she screamed and started to cry
“I’m not making fun of
you,” he said taking hold of her hand
“I think of it all the
time” he said “And not just the love making, I think of you, in that cocktail
dress, with my jacket on your shoulders”
Francesca squeezed his
hand and he continued
“Walking arm in arm
through the park”
“So do I,” she gasped
and squeezed his hand again.
They didn’t speak; the
only sound was her steady breathing and the birdsong as they both recalled
moments of that night.
He watched her, eyes
closed, lips slightly parted, and her tongue lightly moistening them as she
breathed but then a group of pub customers walked by and the spell was broken,
she let go of his hand and she threw her shopping quickly in the boot and
slammed it shut.
“Please don’t avoid me
again?” he said
“I won’t, I promise”
she said and then she drove away.
He hoped he wouldn’t
have to wait long before he saw her again and as he walked back to his car Paul
allowed himself to fantasize about where and when he might see her again, the
first occasion in Sharpington was a chance meeting, a serendipitous event,
which culminated in them making love, the second time was also by chance, but
it was too public for him to embrace her the way he wanted to, hopefully the
next time they met by chance it would be different.
“I hope there will be
a next time” he muttered under his breath and then he was snapped out of his
deliberations by the sound of a car horn.
When he turned around
to investigate the source of the sound he discovered it was Francesca, who had
pulled up alongside him.
“Hello” he said “I was
just thinking, about you, about us”
“Good, I want you to
come with me to the woods so I can kiss you” she said
“And I want to kiss
you to” he retorted “When did you have in mind?”
“Right now” she
snapped
“Are you sure?” Paul
asked
“Yes” she yelled “Get
in the bloody car”
“So much for a chance
encounter” Paul said to himself as he walked around to the other side and got
in the car.
And after a short
tense ride in the car up to a secluded part of the Dancingdean Forest Francesca
and Paul had a long awaited kiss in the woods.
After their passionate
embrace they talked and talked until it was time for her to go and pick up her
girls from school.
The outcome of the
discourse was that she wanted to see him again, but she was a married woman,
however unhappily, so they couldn’t be together in the way they were at the
Whitecliff Hill Caravan Park, not yet anyway.
They also concluded
that what had begun for him as a bit of fun with a fit older woman, and for her
some good energetic sex with a toy boy, had despite the age difference turned
into something else, as they had fallen in love.
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