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.
So having
overcome their initial difficulties of not being accepted in eacho ther’s
worlds and having set out to make a world of their own, they made the decision,
after spending two weeks together on a narrow boat on their first holiday
together, that they should move in together.
Samantha
asked “In Tipton or in Brocklington?”
Her house
was up in Tipton, although she was rarely in it as she spent more time living
in hotels than she did her house so it had never felt like home to her, but she
thought it might if she had someone to share it with but Neil had a nice
cottage in Brocklington and that would also be lovely so when he replied.
“Neither”
To her
question, she was taken aback.
“Neither?”
she asked
“I think we
should buy somewhere new, a blank canvas, somewhere that will be ours and not
yours or mine” he replied and a she exclaimed
“That’s
perfect”
However as
perfect as that solution was it didn’t solve the problem of where they should
set up home.
Samantha
was from Tipton in the north of the county but when she fell in love with Neil
she also fell in love with the Finchbottom Vale so they considered buying a
house in the area and they almost bought one in Forestdean but it fell through
at the last minute.
At the time
they were quite upset about it but every cloud has a silver lining because they
found a place in Applesford that needed a bit of TLC but by the time they
completed and took possession it was almost a year after they started courting.
Neil spent
a lot of time doing up the house, he was good at DIY, and there were things
they wanted to do before they moved in completely, so he had been staying in the house all week
decorating and doing some repairs while Samantha was away on business.
He was up
early on Friday morning which was just as well as at 8 o’clock Samantha arrived
at the house dressed in joggers and a T-shirt, not her normal apparel at all,
in fact he had never seen her dressed down to that degree and he was quite
surprised that she actually owned a pair of joggers.
“Can I
help?” he asked
“It’s me
you fool” she replied
“Who’s me?”
“Your
girlfriend” Samantha said
“No, no,
not dressed like that you’re not” he said
“These are
my working togs” she said
“And it’s
no good putting on that posh voice either” he said and laughed and then he
kissed her
“What are
you doing here?” he asked “I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow”
“I wrapped
it up early so I could come and help” she said
“And I
missed you”
“I missed
you too” he said and kissed her again
“So how
have you got on?” she asked
“Pretty
good, the dining room and the lounge are done they just need tidying and the
furniture putting back” he said “So if we do that I’ll let you take me to
lunch”
“Well the
sooner we get started the sooner we’ll be finished” Samantha said cheerily.
So Samantha
set about dusting and hovering the lounge and dining room while Neil started
carrying things in from the garage and by eleven o’clock they were almost
finished, there was just one small sofa to bring in and then they were done.
So the two
of them set about the task and having maneuvered it through the hall and into
the lounge all that was required was to push it into place and with both of
them pushing, it moved easily into position.
Which was
when with the job done he said
“Thanks
Sam, it would have taken ages without you”
Samantha
leant back against him and he kissed the top of her head,
“Welcome to
your new home” he said and she turned around and kissed him.
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