Tales from the Finchbottom Vale – (60) Christmas Came Early

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, soon to be divorced 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 when she arrived at his caravan dressed as a witch and announced that not only was she divorcing her husband David but that she was staying the night.

 

But after that, on the rare occasions that they managed to get to spend the night together they always made the most of it, but most of the time they just stole a few hours here and there.

However in December, for a variety of reasons, several weeks had passed and they hadn’t been able to grab even a few minutes together.  

In fact the first time he had seen her in a fortnight was on the day when he had driven over to Abbottsford to do a bit of Christmas shopping, which was when he bumped into Francesca coming out of a very expensive lingerie shop, Silk and Lace, in the Phoenix Shopping Centre.

“Hello darling” she said and air kissed him and then she spotted him looking at the designer carrier bag she was carrying.

“No you can’t look at them” she replied to his unasked question

“Ok I don’t mind seeing them on you, if you insist” he offered

“You’re incorrigible,” she said

“Is that a maybe?” he asked

Unmoved she shook her head disappointedly.

“The chance would be a fine thing anyway” she said quietly

“Have you got time for a coffee?”

“I do” he replied

They went into the Espresso Phoenix coffee house, a really nice one, not one of the chains, and he ordered the drinks as Francesca sat in the corner.

When he joined her he asked

“How about Saturday?”

“For what?” she asked innocently

“To show me your new underwear” he said

“No” she replied

“Why not?” he asked,

“I have to go to a dinner party at Mornington Manor”

She replied “but I don’t really want to go”

He looked at her with puzzlement and then said

“So don’t go, and let me spend the night doing all those things to you that fill your imagination when you’re alone” 

That made her blush scarlet and avert her gaze but after a few moments she looked back at him and smiled.

“I have to go, I’m expected” she said but she reached under the table and held his hand

“But I want what you want”

“I understand” he said

“It will be soon though wont it?” she asked earnestly and held his hand tightly under the table.

“Yes” he replied

When they left the coffee house they air kissed and went their separate ways.

 

Paul was working all day Saturday, so he wasn’t able to get away to the caravan in Sharpington, as he normally would, so he was at home in his flat and spent Saturday night watching a movie and drinking wine but at some point he leant back against the cushions and promptly fell asleep.

He woke up just after eleven o’clock, and he only woke up then because he needed a pee, so he got up and attended to the matter in hand.

When he finished answering his call of nature he was decidedly peckish so he went to the kitchen and made himself a snack.

Paul then returned to his sofa, restarted the movie he had begun watching four hours earlier and sat eating cheese and biscuits’ as he watched Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood taking on the Nazis.

At the end of the film he was still wide-awake so he got up and chose another DVD off the shelf.

He was about a quarter of the way through “The Fifth Element” when he detected the tell-tale clip clop sound of a woman in high heels from outside in the corridor.

He glanced at the clock and thought it must be his neighbour Elaine arriving home from somewhere so he returned his attention back to the action.

A moment later there was a knock on the front door and he checked the clock again before he got up and walked out into the hall, he guessed that Elaine had locked herself out and was knocking for the spare key.

So he opened the door and to his surprise a rather tipsy Francesca almost fell through it.

“Hello Paulie” she said with a flourish.

Francesca was immaculately dressed as usual in a full length green halter necked designer evening dress and a lavish faux fur shrug.

“Wow” he said, “you look stunning”

“Bless you darling” she responded

“You had a nice time then” he said as he helped her into the house.

“I had a wonderful time” she exclaimed

She tottered a few steps then kicked off her shoes, which made her a little more stable on her feet, and then she quickly progressed into the lounge.

All the while talking nine to the dozen about how marvelous the evening was, who was there, what they ate, who said what, and to who.

“And plenty of wine” he asked as she plopped down on the sofa.

“I did,” she said smiling and giggling

“I’m glad you had fun” he said

“Me too” she said coyly

“Good” Paul said as he sat down next to her

“So what are you doing here then?”

“Well I saw your lights were still on from the taxi and I thought I’d come and tell you all about my evening” she explained.

“Why were you in a taxi?” he asked, “I thought you went there with the Conway’s”

“I did” Francesca said

“So why didn’t you come back with them?” he asked

“They left early” she said

“Could no one else give you a lift?” he asked

“David someone offered” she replied

“So why didn’t you accept?”

“What kind of a woman do you think I am? I couldn’t get in a car with a complete stranger” she said affronted

“You weren’t that discerning with me” he said 

“That’s different” she said “with you it doesn’t really count because you’re such a tart”

The statement caused her to roar with laughter to such an extent that she ended up collapsing in a heap with her head and shoulders on his lap.

“You’re my bit of rough” she said and then she disintegrated into laughter again.

“So you decided not to have David drive you home” he said

“It would have been cruel to tantalize him with my gorgeousness for the whole journey only to dash his hopes” she said

This bought about another burst of laughter and when she eventually composed herself she was laying at full stretch on her back looking up at Paul

“Do you still think I’m gorgeous?” she asked, regally draped before him.

“Quite gorgeous” he conceded

“Well quite gorgeous won’t get you a look at the new underwear I bought in Abbottsford the other day” she said

“I bet it does,” he said as he slowly moved his right hand, which had been resting on her chuckling belly, up to caress the roundness of her breast.

“Well maybe” Francesca murmured as she tipped her head back and closed her eyes and then he began tickling her and she was giggling so much she could barely breathe and Francesca wriggled and squirmed beneath his gaze.

But when she got control, Francesca suddenly sat bolt upright and she squealed frantically

“Ok, I’ll let you see my knickers”

And then she pulled herself up so she was seated on his lap and kissed him, he loved kissing her, he thought she was such a great kisser, the best in his experience.

The quality of a kiss is difficult to define and it is like many other things of a sexual nature, which is dependent on the perspective of the participants.

With kissing it can be the thickness of the lips, the width of the mouth, the size of the tongue, the size of the oral cavity and the amount of saliva produced.

For Paul, Francesca scored highly on every criterion and as she kissed him, he thought he had died and gone to heaven.

 

Once they had finished she stood up and looked at him smugly and then took hold of his hand and she said.

“Now come and enjoy my gorgeousness”

Paul got to his feet and they kissed again and then he said

“Just one question before your deliciousness distracts me”

“What’s that darling” she retorted

“How are we going to get you out of here in the morning dressed like that, without anyone noticing?” Paul said

“Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it darling” She purred

“I just might have to stay here with you all day, until I can leave again under the cover of darkness”

“That sounds like a wonderful plan” Paul said and walked her towards the bedroom and took Francesca off to bed and let her take him to paradise.

 

Christmas came early for Paul and Francesca as she did indeed stay with him until after dark on Sunday afternoon.

She would have stayed longer but she had to get back for the girls.

Getting her out of the flat unnoticed was less of a problem than either of them anticipated as he had a draw full of his sisters clothes in the spare room and they fitted his lover well enough and as he walked her home across the golf course they were aided in their stealth by some well-timed freezing fog.