Downshire Diary – (53) The Student Muse

 

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, but our story begins in the East, or more precisely, 20 miles inland from Sharpington-By-Sea, equidistant between Finchbottom and Pepperstock Green, in the sprawling village of Denmead.

 

Owen Carrington’s Uncle Glyn died on New Year’s Day and left him his Cottage and a small cash sum, more than enough to keep him going for a few more years.

He left it to him because he felt they were kindred spirits, he wanted to be a writer himself but his father made him get a proper job, Owen really liked him and he was a great story teller, and it was his Uncles colourful tales that helped him when he was writing his novels.

His death came as a shock as it was sudden though not unsurprising given his health.

 

So that was how he found himself living in a lovely Victorian Cottage in the quaint Downshire Village of Denmead.

It was a very tranquil place though not without its distractions. 

From his study he could look out through the open French windows and across the expanse of lawn to a stand of ancient woodland, there was no fence to separate garden and wood the two just merged.

And on the other side of the wood was the hub of the village, the Green Oak, everyone seemed to go there at some point, either for a drink, the restaurant or the coffee suite.

 

Owen’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 universally well received, his publisher liked it, his new agent loved it, the bank manager was ecstatic about it but his mother was disappointed by it because she thought it was a bit girlie.

 

But it wasn’t just his writing career that was climbing high, so was his love life thanks to his muse and lover, Juliana Molesworth, who had brought his writers block to an end, but his muse was going away and as always when then were apart he planned to catch up on his writing as he had fallen hopelessly in love with her the only antidote for his wanting her, in her absence was to throw himself into his work.

 

It had been a most unproductive Friday and he was not in the best of moods.
He had been on the phone all morning, not one of his favourite activities, firstly he had a very long winded call from his agent about a literary dinner in Nettlefield, which was only a few days away, he thought he should attend as he had been nominated in two categories, having initially decided just to ignore it as it was in Nettlefield.
He wasn’t keen at all and he normally only accepted those kinds of invitations in order to facilitate a night in a hotel with the love of his life and muse extraordinaire Juliana, but she was going back to University.

It had been a most unproductive Friday and he was not in the best of moods.
He had been on the phone all morning, not one of his favourite activities, firstly he had a very long winded call from his agent about a literary dinner in Nettlefield, which was only a few days away, he thought he should attend as he had been nominated in two categories, having initially decided just to ignore it as it was in Nettlefield.
He wasn’t keen at all and he normally only accepted those kinds of invitations in order to facilitate a night in a hotel with the love of his life and muse extraordinaire Juliana, but she was going back to University.
So he declined, his agent insisted, he declined again, he insisted again, Owen declined more emphatically, his agent insisted more forcefully, eventually and with great reluctance he agreed, if for no other reason than to get him off the phone.
He then called the garage to see if his car was ready, which it wasn’t, which posed another problem as he was supposed to be driving Juliana to Abbottsford in it.

So he phoned her dad, Gregory, and explained about the car and he said he could use the Molesworth family Volvo.

So it was late afternoon when he decided it was time to shower and get ready for his date with Juliana, she would be returning to University in Abbottsford the next day for the start of her final year so their date would be the last one for a while.

Juliana and a bunch of friends had rented an old Victorian house and he was helping her move her stuff in.

Under normal circumstances they would have moved in at the beginning of July but the week before their tenancy began the water tank in the loft sprang a leak and brought down the ceiling and made quite a mess.
So the occupancy had been delayed while the repairs were being done, now that they were complete the whole group were moving their stuff in.
They did have the option to renew their tenancy in the house they were in the previous year but it had turned out to be a bit of a slum.

He was going to walk up to Juliana’s when she finished work so they could load all her stuff into the Molesworth family Volvo.

They would then unload her stuff into her room, have a take away with her friends then Owen would leave her up there to unpack her stuff and drive the car back to Denmead and then he wouldn’t see her for a few weeks.

He reached chez Molesworth ahead of schedule to find Juliana’s dad, Gregory, had started loading the car without him and Juliana hadn’t arrived home from work.

“Hold on Greg, you should have waited for me”

“Hello Owen” he said “I just thought I’d make a start as she’s running late”
“Come on then I'll give you a hand” Owen offered

They had it all loaded and were sitting in the kitchen by the time Juliana got home.
“Sorry I’m late” She said “The pub was unbelievably busy and Emma was late in so I stayed to cover”
“Don’t worry darling” her dad said “Owen and I have the car loaded”
“Really?” She said and kissed them both “my heroes”
She then joined them in a cuppa before going to get changed, she was only gone about half an hour and when she came back she was wearing a short denim skirt and a pale blue short sleeved shirt, and not forgetting blue and white ankle socks.

Her short curly red hair was still wet from the shower and left damp splodges on the shoulders of her top.
“Do you want something to eat” her mum Lavinia asked

“No thanks mum” she answered “We're eating there”
She looked up at the clock then turned to Owen and said
“We need to get going”

 

The fact they were an hour late leaving didn’t hamper them in any way, in fact because the traffic was lighter than they were expecting they got to the house only ten minutes later than they had originally planned.

They were just taking dinner orders as they arrived so he let Juliana choose and Owen started unloading the car.

It was slightly harder work getting it out of the car and up the stairs and into her room than it was getting it loaded back at her house.

Still a couple of the other lads lent a hand and it was soon done and with perfect timing because just as he closed the boot down on the Volvo, the pizzas arrived so Juliana and Owen took the last two remaining places in the lounge, which were in the bay window.

 

There were nineteen people sitting in the lounge drinking wine and eating pizza, not Owen’s favourite fast food he would have had to say, and of the 19 Owen was by far the oldest and by some distance.

There were the four housemates and partners plus an assortment of friends.

It wasn’t a bad sized room with three large sofas in it but it was never intended to accommodate nineteen people.

Juliana and Owen were seated on the deep window sill in the bay window.

With a gap of about two feet between them and the back of one of the sofas.

It was also quite dark in the corner so Juliana took the opportunity to kiss him but a few minutes later one of the girls on the sofa turned round and spoke.

“Here Juliana look at this”

Juliana leant over the sofa between her two friends looking at something on her tablet.

All three of them were laughing at whatever they were looking at the moment he smacked Julianna’s buttock and she sat back down next to him again.

 

After the pizza’s was finished Owen said

“I should get going”

They were seated in the perfect place for s farewell kiss without being seen by everyone else but just as there lips touched the lights suddenly went on and the music stopped and some bright spark thought it would be a good idea to raise a toast to the new abode.
Juliana tutted

“Cheers” she said smiling falsely.
The moment the chinking of glasses was over Juliana was on her feet saying
“Come on”

So he followed her out of the room and once in the hallway he pursued her up the stairs.

When he reached her room she was standing scratching her head and when he looked around the room and there really wasn’t any room for the two of them so a farewell kiss was out of the question so they looked at each other and said in unison

“Bathroom”

So they quickly crossed the landing to the bathroom and once inside he bolted the door and then they had their kiss in private, which was long and lingering because it had to last a few weeks.

When they left the bathroom Owen went straight downstairs, while Juliana went into her room and cried.

 

When he got back to the Molesworth’s it was quite late so he was planning to just park the car on the drive and pop the keys through the letter box, but just as he was about to post the keys through, the door opened, it was her dad.

“Ah hello Owen I thought I heard the car door” he said

“Sorry I didn’t mean to wake you,” Owen said apologetically

“No its fine I hadn’t turned in yet, come in for a nightcap and tell us the tale”

So he spent the next half an hour telling Gregory and Lavinia about the house and her friends and as he was telling them he started missing his muse and lover, his student muse.