Downshire is a relatively
small English county but like a pocket battleship it packs a lot in, a short
but beautiful coastline, a channel port, the Ancient forests of Dancingdean and
Pepperstock, the craggy ridges and manmade lakes of the Pepperstock Hills
National Park, the rolling hills of the Downshire Downs, the beautiful
Finchbottom Vale and farm land as far as the eye can see from the Trotwood’s
and the Grace’s in the south to the home of the Downshire Light infantry, Nettlefield,
and their affluent neighbour’s, Roespring and Tipton in the North and it’s in
leafy Roespring where our story begins.
It was after the
second exhausting day of reveling, when brother and sister in law, Roberto and
Annette Obertelli were exiting the front door of the Dancing Cavalier Hotel in
Roespring.
They had been attending
the wedding of close friends and what had been expected to be a classy,
cultured and refined weekend had turned into a raucous Hooley involving dancing
on tables and urinating in fountains.
The pair had just
performed a kind of walk of shame through the lobby causing all heads to turn
in their direction.
Among their audience
was an array of faces baring expressions, ranging from disgust, all the way
through jealously to envy and even admiration, but from the management the
universal tone was disgust.
They emerged through
the door into the sunlight looking red faced and sheepish.
Having had a lobby
full of eyes on them as they left the hotel they felt relieved to escape into
the fresh air where they turned to each other and burst out laughing.
Unfortunately they got
tarred with the same brush as the worst offenders when they had actually been
quite well behaved in comparison, admittedly Annette had been one of the first
to start dancing on the tables but that was the full extent of her involvement
and as Roberto was a bit of a lightweight when it came to drinking he had
already passed out on a sofa in the sunroom by the time the worst of the
shenanigan’s began.
“Well that’s one Hotel
I can never stay at again” Annette said.
“Well it’s not my fault
is it?” he said indignantly
“I’m not the one who
danced on the table like Siouxsie and the Banshees”
Annette blushed to her
roots and buried her face in his chest.
This was not the way
she normally behaved she was normally a rather boring and ordinary woman.
But the weekend was
the first time she had let her hair down in the two years since she became a
widow.
Fraternal twins
Roberto and Gianluca Obertelli owned the Vale Farm Pizza House franchises in
Purplemere, having inherited it from their father.
Gianluca and Annette
were married for five years when at the age of 31 he was tragically killed when
his motorcycle collided with a HGV that failed to stop at a red light.
He died instantly.
Roberto was 33 now and
he loved Annette with all his heart but only as a sister and she felt the same
way so it was only natural that they continued to run the business between
them.
Unlike his brother
Gianluca, Roberto had not found someone to share his life and since his death
his wife Annette had not sought another partner.
It wasn’t as if he
hadn’t been looking it was just that he hadn’t found someone to fit his
ideal.
Although the night
before at the wedding reception he had met someone who aroused his curiosity
and got his attention.
The wedding party was
held in the King Charles Wing but there was another party in the Prince Rupert
Suite, which was an old fashioned fancy dress masked ball and it was from the
latter that he imagined her to have come.
She was a small girl
in a Georgian gown of powder blue and she wore a powdered high hair wig of the
day and a sequined mask to conceal her face.
There was little
conversation but what there was, was filled with honeyed words of seduction.
But apart from the
copious flirting they danced on the terrace and even shared a kiss but then he
lost her in the crowd and try as he might he couldn’t track her down which was
when he turned to drink and ended up passed out on a sofa.
They boarded the train
at Roespring Station and made themselves comfortable.
They had barely left
the station before Annette was asleep with her head on his shoulder.
A long weekend away
with an excess of food, drink and very little sleep had clearly taken its toll.
They had made the decision
to go by train because they didn’t think either of them would be up to the
drive home and they were right.
While Annette was
sleeping against his shoulder he indulged in a spot of people watching.
The carriage was very
quiet and sparsely populated and most of the passengers were at the other end.
But there were two
girls sat diagonally across the aisle from the Obertelli’s, a tall willowy
blonde with outstandingly stellar legs and a small mousy thing.
The blonde was very
pretty but was very aware of the fact and she positively preened when she
realized Roberto was admiring her legs.
She crossed her legs
slowly and deliberately so he could marvel at them further but then he noticed
on the newly exposed inner thigh a tattoo of an arrow and beneath it were the
words “this way up”.
It was like an ice
cold shower to him.
“How very classy” he
thought and it was a huge turn off for him, so he turned his attention to the
quiet mousy girl sitting in the corner.
She had long straight
brown hair and a rather plain, heavily freckled face, but lovely blue eyes, a
cute nose and a thin-lipped smile.
She was short, body
shape undetermined due to a rather shapeless baggy sweater, so it was difficult
for him to tell which way she was facing let alone see her figure.
Her legs were nice
though, ensconced in black shabby tights and she had tiny feet which was always
a bonus for him.
He had trouble fixing
her age though and he thought she could have been anywhere between 20 and 30.
The mouse ticked quite
a few boxes for Roberto.
The leggy blonde on seeing
his transfer of allegiance huffed quite loudly and flounced off to another part
of the carriage.
Roberto continued to
appraise the mouse who seemed quite pleased with herself that she had lured his
attention away from “legs” and that the blonde had thrown in the towel, in fact
she took on an air of aloofness on recognizing her success in stealing his attentions,
so he and the mouse spent the next forty minutes exchanging glances, in between
admiring the wonderful scenery, his of curiosity with a hint of lechery, and
hers of coquettishness, in fact they continued until they were approaching
Purplemere.
Which was when his
thoughts turned back to Annette, and he woke her and helped her gather her
things together.
As they approached the
station he got up and carried the bags to the door, and she followed close
behind, the train stopped and Roberto turned to give the mouse one final look
but she wasn’t there
The doors opened and
he stepped out onto the platform and headed towards the taxis.
As the taxi left the
rank Annette said
“You seemed very
interested in that girl”
“What girl?” he asked
“The little brunette”
“That’s because I
thought I recognized her” he said
“Oh really?” she retorted
mockingly
“Yes there was
something familiar about her but I couldn’t put my finger on it” he explained
“A likely story” Annette
said
“No honestly” he
insisted “Maybe she’s a customer”
“Whatever” she said
and laughed
Roberto gave up
protesting, but it was true he had recognized her, but there was also something
about her which was why he couldn’t stop looking at her.
The taxi dropped
Annette first in Middle Gracewood and Roberto arrived home in Upper Gracewood
about five minutes later and after a long awaited cup of coffee he headed off
to the bathroom for a much needed shower.
The shower was
wonderful and he felt refreshed and invigorated so he threw on his toweling
robe and went back to the kitchen for another coffee.
Steaming coffee in
hand he walked through to the lounge, the room was dominated by a large L
shaped leather sofa with a large square matching foot stool which was sitting
in its default position i.e. in the right angle of the sofa.
The room was quite
stuffy so he put his coffee down on the table and walked across and threw open
the French doors but he left the curtains drawn as the sun was full on, on that
side of the house at that time of day, then he sat on the sofa and almost
immediately the long blinks began to set in and within minutes he was lying
stretched out on the cool expanse of leather and a few minutes later he was
fast asleep.
He had no idea how
long he had slept but when he began to stir the room was in darkness and he
thought he heard the sound of bare feet padding on the laminate floor and there
was the smell of perfume, subtle but distinct, and it was familiar, Lily of the
Valley.
He lay there for an
indeterminate time drifting in and out sleep with his mind full of little
dreams of the Georgian doll in the powder blue dress he had danced with on
Saturday Night that ended with a kiss.
And the dream was so
vivid he could feel the light touch of soft lips on his and he could smell her
perfume.
It felt so real and
the kiss so seductive, then he dreamt that he felt, no not dreamt, he felt the
pressure of her mouth on his and all the ensuing passion that went along with
it.
Roberto opened his
eyes but in the darkness he had no idea who was kissing him but to be perfectly
honest at that precise moment he didn’t really care he just didn’t want them to
stop, but when he moved to envelope his blissful assailant in his arms she
broke away and was giggling as she went padding across the floor and out into
the garden.
From the sofa he could
only see a vague figure in the gloom but couldn’t tell who it was whose lips
had been kissing him.
“Wait” he said “don’t
go”
He jumped up from his
recumbent position and headed towards the French doors and tried to find his
assailant in the garden.
The problem was it was
a very large garden, with trees at the end and an abundance of shrubbery, and
it was dark.
He didn’t even know if
she was still in the garden and as he was still wearing his bath robe and
nothing else, he couldn’t go searching further afield.
Roberto walked up and
down the garden for about ten minutes before he got dispirited and headed back
towards the house.
He sighed as he
reached the French doors and then when he pushed the curtain aside he saw her
“Were you looking for
me?” the mouse from the train said
“It’s you” he
exclaimed “and you’re the girl from the masked ball”
“Are you disappointed?”
she asked coyly
“Not of course not” he
said emphatically “but why didn’t you say anything on the train?”
“Because I wanted to
know if you liked me as me and not just the fantasy girl in the fancy dress”
she explained
“And did I pass?” he
asked as he walked towards her
“I wouldn’t be here if
you hadn’t” she replied and then they kissed.
“I don’t even know
your name” he said when the kiss ended
“Dora” she said “Dora
Green”
“Nice to meet you
Dora, I’m Roberto Obertelli”
“Now we’ve been properly
introduced can we get back to the kissing?” she asked
“Absolutely” he
concurred
“So how did you know
where I lived?” he asked as they sat on the sofa
“Because we’re
neighbour’s” she replied
“We are?”
“Yes I live in the
village” she said
“You do?”
“Yes my dad is the new
vicar of St Margaret’s” Dora said
“So we’ll be seeing a
lot of each other” he said happily
“I would hope so, I’m
a good Christian girl so I don’t behave like this with just anyone” she replied
and kissed him again before he could say anything else.
No comments:
Post a Comment