Neil
Etherington was an average man approaching his thirtieth birthday not that he
was a bad looking man, he wasn’t, but he wasn’t stunning, sexy or buff, he was
strictly middling but his girlfriend
Samantha
Barraclough was anything but, she was an absolute beauty three years younger,
elegant, daintily petite, intelligent, funny, sexy and with a perfectly
beautiful angelic voice, pure Carrington Chase educated perfection, Carrington
Chase being Downshire’s version of Roedean, although those in Downshire thought
it was the other way around, and it was a voice that made Charlotte Green sound
common.
He pinched
himself at the start of everyday, especially the ones on which he woke up
beside her, just to check he wasn’t dreaming.
Because the
good fortune that brought Samantha into his life was the type of thing that
didn’t happen to him, and everyone who witnessed them together unanimously
agreed that he was punching well above his weight.
They first
encountered each other at a business meeting at the Abbottsford Regents Hotel,
where she was a potential new client and he was trying to win a new account, but
the meeting was unresolved as it was love at first sight.
Neil worked
for a firm of architects called New Horizons whose head office was in
Sharpington by Sea while Samantha Barraclough was approaching her 28th birthday
and was a project consultant for the family business, Barraclough Ventures and
the project that Samantha’s company was heading up was the regeneration of the
former Industrial Power House of the county, Northchapel.
The love
that bloomed between Samantha Barraclough and Neil Etherington in Abbottsford
in June went from strength to strength
However things had not been all plain sailing since they had met, though not between the two of them they were completely simpatico.
The
problems stemmed from a different quarter entirely and from those who should
have been the most delighted for them, their close friends and family.
Neil and
Samantha were the victims of snobbery, inverted and otherwise.
Her family
thought she had set her sights to low while his nearest and dearest believed he
had set his too high.
Her friends
thought he was common while his thought she was a snob.
Only their
closest friends Jonathon Hardman and Isabelle Decoene stuck by them.
So as a
result they had found it difficult to fit inside each other’s worlds, but the
couple believed that love will out and Samantha drew a line under the
difficulties when she said
“If you
can’t live in my world and I can’t live in yours we shall just have to make a
world of our own”
If he
hadn’t been in love with her already he certainly would have been after that
speech.
As part of
“making a world of their own” they decided to plan to spend as much time
together as possible which meant staying at each other’s houses, normally on a
pre-planned basis but on the night of the Lord Lieutenant’s Summer Ball in July
Sam had pitched up at Neil’s in a taxi because she couldn’t face all the
constant nagging from her friends and family about her unfortunate choice of a
boyfriend.
So they
spent the night but on the next afternoon she had to go in search of her car,
which she had left at her sister’s house in the grand neighbourhood of
Sharpington’s Granite Hill, which in a nod to San Francisco the locals
nicknamed Nob Hill.
So they
drove from his Cottage the relatively short distance from Brocklington to
Sharpington and then followed the sign towards the posh part of town.
“I don’t
get to Nob Hill as often as I’d like” he said and Samantha laughed and then she
began
“I don’t
get no...”
“Don’t say
it” he interrupted, “you’re a lady remember”
And she
laughed a very dirty laugh.
“Samantha
Barraclough?” he said shocked “I thought you were a lady”
“I am a
lady” she said when she could talk again “it’s just that you bring out my inner
trollope”
And then
she disintegrated in to laughter again.
When she
had calmed herself she suddenly said
“Don’t drop
me off yet”
“Why not?”
“I’m not
ready to say goodbye” she said and looked at him sadly
“Ok then to
the promenade” he said
“Hooray”
she cheered
They spent
the next two hours walking hand in hand along the beach and the promenade.
“I’m so
glad I didn’t go to the ball, I’ve had much more fun with you”
She said
“It’s been
a lovely weekend” he agreed
“But too
short” Sam added
“Yes far
too short” he agreed and then they fell into silence as they watched the
holiday makers as they walked along and then they both stopped and looked at
each other and said in unison
“Holiday”
An hour
later he drove her to her sister’s house where they shared a farewell kiss and
he watched her walk away towards the house.
No comments:
Post a Comment