Owen Carrington’s star
was definitely in the ascendency after the success of his first Romantic novel
“The Maiden Muse” but the change in the fortunes of his writing career were not
the thing that was preoccupying him that morning.
He had been in a
relationship with a local girl, Juliana Molesworth, for more than a month and
on that day he was due to meet the family and he was feeling uneasy about
it.
The Molesworth’s were
a very well-known family in Denmead and everyone knew who they were, but Owen
was new to the village, having only taken up residence in January.
While Owen was
fretting about being introduced to his 20 year old girlfriend Juliana’s family,
one of them, Valentine, was out jogging along the bridle path through the
Normandie woods.
He was five years
older than Juliana and was a doctor and had been away from Denmead for 8 years,
doing his training.
But he had moved back
a month earlier after he got a job at the Royal Downshire Hospital in
Purplemere and it was only after his return that he realized how much he missed
it.
He was fast reaching
the point on his run when he would have to turn around and head back home when
he spotted someone familiar, someone from his past.
It was Catherine Ray
and they had history, she was the only child of a wealthy couple with more
money than sense, and she had been one of Juliana’s best friends for many
years.
She had been a frequent
visitor to the house and had spent many nights at the Molesworth’s on
sleepovers.
But on one occasion
when he was seventeen the 12-year-old Catherine tried to kiss him and that was
only the first time, she was very persistent and tried at every opportunity
until one night when she was 13 she climbed into his bed.
He didn’t know how it
may have escalated after that had he not left for University.
On the night that he
had a near naked 13 year old girl in his bed he got out of bed and left her
there and went to a friend’s house for the night and never spoke to Catherine
again and he never told his sister what her friend had done.
But there she was
ahead of him and he couldn’t avoid her, and he couldn’t ignore her, and he knew
it was going to be so embarrassing.
As he suspected there
was a distinct awkwardness between them and he got the distinct impression that
she wasn’t any happier about meeting him than he was to see her.
She was still as pretty
as she was when he last saw her but she had lost the puppy fat, if that’s the
PC way of saying it, from when she was thirteen years old.
She was a little
taller now about 5ft 1, with shoulder length blond hair and a petite figure.
He gave her quite a
clinical appraisal of her assets because he hadn’t seen her for 8 years, not
since she was a chubby teenager, the fact that she was wearing Jodhpur’s made
her very attractive.
Catherine was a bit of
a chubster when she was a teen, but that wasn’t why he didn’t take advantage of
her, he wasn’t that shallow, she was a cute girl, no, he rejected her advances
because she was only a child and he was all but a man.
She was a pretty girl
and only a tiny little thing, and seemed even more so beside a chestnut mare.
She had the reputation
of being a bit stuck up, although he doubted that, perhaps her perceived
aloofness was as a result of spending most of her time riding her horse, and
the additional height gave the impression of her looking down her nose at the
hoi polloi.
She never ever speaks
to anyone when she’s out riding and never responds to hellos or good mornings,
but that was as a result of shyness, not snobbishness.
Her parents didn’t help
the situation and were prone to spoiling, he had heard from Juliana that for
her 21st birthday later in the year they were flying her to America in a
private plane to go on a riding holiday.
“Hi Catherine” he said
“How are you?”
“I’m fine” she lied “Are
you back?”
“I am” he replied
Then came the first of
the embarrassed silences as they stood facing each other.
“Are you back at your
mums?” she asked
“No I have one of the
Normandie cottages” he replied
Then came another
embarrassed silence.
“Well I’d better get
going” he said pointing to his watch “I’ll see you around”
“Ok bye” she said as
he set off back the way he came.
About ten minutes
later a girl on horseback rode by, it was Catherine and he thought she was
crying and he suddenly felt guilty as he watched her trot out of sight.
As Owen stepped out of
his front door he looked at his watch and was concerned he was cutting it a bit
fine and realised there was a very real chance he was going to be late.
He had arranged to
meet Juliana, her parents and her brother for lunch in Brocklington at the
Mulberry Tree, it was the first introduction and it meant a lot to Juliana so
he jumped into the car and rushed off.
As a result of driving
like a maniac he made it to the restaurant with minutes to spare much to
Juliana’s relief and her brother Valentine arrived five minutes late.
Although he wasn’t
looking forward to it, he was pleasantly surprised, her parents were good
company, he hit it off with her brother, and the food was wonderful and it
really was a very pleasant way to spend a couple of hours.
Her father Gregory had
a meeting to go to and left about half an hour before everyone else and Juliana
and her mum, Lavinia, wanted to go into Purplemere shopping so Owen said he
would drive them over there.
They offered to drop
Valentine off in Denmead first but he was so stuffed after the meal that he
fancied a constitutional, so he declined the offer and set off to walk back to
Denmead, it was less than 3 miles as the crow flies and he knew the route
through Normandie Woods from his boyhood, well roughly anyway, so he was quite
confident when he set off.
It was about an hour
into his trek when he realized he was hopelessly lost and blundering about in
the woods and he was wishing he’d accepted the lift.
The woods were getting
thicker and thicker and darker and darker and he was starting to get despondent
when he saw a glimmer of light though the trees.
He headed towards the
source of the light, which appeared to be a small clearing and as he got closer
he could see there was someone in the clearing, it was Catherine Ray and her
horse.
The mare was tied to a
tree and she appeared to be grooming the beast.
His first reaction was
to avoid another embarrassing confrontation but he was hopelessly lost so he moved
a little closer and was about to ask her to direct him back to the path to
Denmead when he realised she wasn’t grooming the horse at all.
He had come upon a
scene, where Catherine stood beside the tethered beast, still wearing her
riding hat, white shirt and Jodhpur’s and she was sobbing against the horse’s
neck and shoulder.
The girl who the
villagers thought snobbish and unattainable was not actually aloof at all but
was vulnerable and in despair.
In that moment he had
a choice where he could walk away unnoticed and leave the sobbing girl or go to
her and comfort her.
As he stood there
watching from the edge of the clearing he pondered his choices and knew in an
instant that he could not leave and should have been able to if he had not had
even the slightest feeling for her.
So he walked slowly
and stealthily, on her blind side, across the clearing to close the distance
between them.
He was about five or
six paces from her when she suddenly became aware of his presence and she
hugged the horse even closer in an effort to make herself invisible and cover
her embarrassment.
“Hey what’s the
matter?” he asked as he continued to close the distance but as he continued to
get closer she said nothing and just stood stock still against the horse with
only her shoulders moving in sync with her sobs.
When he was stood
directly behind her he placed his hands gently on her shoulders.
“Come on now, don’t
upset yourself, and tell me what the matter is” he said but her only response
was to turn and bury her face in his chest.
All he could do was
hold her and utter soothing words while she cried her tears and her whole body
shook within his arms with the force of her heartbreaking weeping.
Valentine had no idea
how long they stood in that clearing with her soaking his shirt with her
unrelenting tears but eventually her sobs relented he waited a few moments
longer and then he asked gently
“So now can you tell
me what upset you?”
There was silence at
first and then he felt her little body go rigid and she pushed herself away
from him and shouted at him
“What upset me? What
upset me?”
“Um yes”
“You did” she snapped
and she would have cried again if she hadn’t been so livid.
“Me?” he retorted “How
do you work that out?”
“You’re unbelievable”
she said and started marching around
Valentine reran their
earlier conversation and could think of nothing he had said or done that would
have upset her.
“Look I hadn’t seen
you for eight years until this morning, so I don’t know what I could have done”
he said
“You broke my heart,
that’s what you did” she snarled
Valentine opened his
mouth to speak and then closed it again and scratched his head
“How did I do that
exactly?” he asked finally
“You broke my heart
when you rejected me 8 years ago” she replied “I thought I’d gotten over it but
when I saw you this morning it all came flooding back”
“I’m sorry” he said
although he wasn’t sure why
“What for exactly? For
breaking my heart or for rejecting me because I was fat?” she retorted bitterly
“Wait a minute” he
replied “That’s not what happened”
“Oh yes it was” she
snapped “I can still remember the look of horror on your face”
“It wasn’t like that”
he corrected her
“I really liked you,
fancied you” she said “And you humiliated me”
“I knew you had a crush
on me” he began
“It was more than a
crush” she added
“Anyway, I had feeling
for you too” he said
“Then why did you
react the way you did when I was in your bed?” she asked wide eyed
“Because it was
inappropriate” Valentine replied
“How can love be inappropriate”
she snapped
“When one of them is a
man and the other is a child” he retorted
“They send people to
prison for that”
“So it wasn’t because
I was fat?” she asked and tears welled up in her eyes
“No it was because I
had no right to think about you in that way” he said and then told her the
whole story, all about the extent of the feelings he had for her and why he
acted as he did and then she was in his arms again and softly weeping.
It was an hour later
when they left the clearing having talked themselves hoarse about their shared
past, the eight years when they didn’t see each other and the beginning of a
shared future.
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