Twenty eight year old
Paul Ingram was involved 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.
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.
They became involved
after three chance meetings, two on a train and the third more significant one
was on the Promenade in Sharpington, where he came upon her small huddled
figure on the bench ahead of him in some distress and after some tender moments
of consolation lead to them making love in his caravan.
Since that night they
had had a non-physical relationship and on the rare occasions that they managed
to get to spend some time together they always made the most of it, sometimes
they had to create opportunities and sometimes they just happened and sometimes
one of them managed to surprise the other but the biggest surprise came on the
Halloween weekend.
Francesca had been
invited to the Lutchford’s Annual Halloween party up at their home, Forest
Lodge, on Teardrop Lake.
Peter Lutchford was a
renowned film director and producer and had his own production company,
Teardrop Productions, and his wife Claire was the senior partner at The
Dancingdean Health Centre.
It was a great
privilege to get an invite to the Lutchford’s and so no one ever turned it
down.
So with little chance
of grabbing even five minutes with Francesca Paul decided to spend the
Halloween weekend in Sharpington in his caravan at Whitecliff Hill.
He wasn’t big on Halloween,
it was not his favourite holiday time.
He would have
preferred to have spent the evening with the love of his life but that wasn’t
an option.
So he spent part of
the day in Sharpington and then as darkness fell the temperature dropped like a
stone he returned to the caravan with a fish and chip supper and once inside he
drew the curtains and turned on the fire.
Then he settled down
with his supper on his lap and watched TV.
When he’d finished
eating and cleared away he found he wasn’t getting any warmer so he decided to
have a hot shower.
It was about an hour
later as he was coming out of the bedroom wearing his fleecy dressing gown that
there was a knock on the door.
He had no idea who it
might be, he certainly wasn’t expecting anyone, he just hoped it wasn’t trick
or treaters.
When he opened the
door his heart sank and his worse fears were realised when he saw a woman
dressed as a witch, but on closer inspection he was surprised to see it was
Francesca standing on his doorstep.
“Hello” he said with
genuine surprise
“Hello Darling” Francesca
said, “Can I come in? It’s bloody freezing”
“Of course” he said
fussily “come in, come in”
Francesca stepped inside
and he closed the door behind her and he watched her walk by and he thought she
looked absolutely gorgeous in her witch’s outfit, all black except for the
white stripes on her socks and the red laces in her high-heeled ankle boots.
“Have you come to give
me a trick or a treat?”
“Well you’ll have to
be the judge of that” she replied and took off her witch’s hat and threw it on
the floor before the little witch kissed him and he took her in his arms.
“This is a nice
surprise” he said “I thought you were going to the fancy dress party”
“I know” Francesca
said as she sat down “I was going to the party but…”
“But?” he asked
“I couldn’t face everyone
quizzing me about David”
“About what?” he asked
and Francesca took a deep breath
“I’ve asked for a
divorce, and he’s gone” she replied, “And I don’t want him back because I’m
moving on”
“I’m sorry,” he said
inadequately, although inside he wasn’t sorry at all
“I’m not” she said
surprisingly “though it’s your fault”
“Then I should be
sorry,” he admitted
“No you shouldn’t, you
opened my eyes and showed me that I’m still an attractive woman, still a sexy
woman, David didn’t appreciate that, and I need to be with someone who sees me
the way that you do”
“Am I allowed to be
pleased?” he asked hopefully
“Yes” she replied “but
that doesn’t mean I’m going to shack up with you, even though that would be
nice, but I have to think of the children”
“I understand” Paul
said
“So that’s why I
couldn’t face the party” Francesca said and smiled
“Well you’re more than
welcome to while away the evening here” he said
“Well thank you kind
sir” Francesca said “I could murder a drink”
Paul walked to the
kitchen are and opened the fridge and took out an open bottle of wine.
“Is wine ok?” he asked
“Yes please” she
replied
So he took two large
wine glasses from the cupboard and filled them both with wine.
When he walked back to
the seating area Francesca stood up and walked towards him.
He expected her to
take a wine glass from his hand but instead she walked between his outstretched
hands and kissed him.
As they were in the
middle of the room he couldn’t put the drinks down so he could wrap his arms
around her.
He was quite happy to
be stood in the middle of the room being passionately kissed but he was
interested to know where it was going so when she came up for air he asked
“So what exactly does
your divorce mean for us?”
“Well” she replied as
she took the glasses from him and put them on the table
“It means you can buy
me breakfast in the morning”
And before he could
respond she was kissing him again.
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