The village
of Highfinch sits just on the edge of the Pepperstock Hills and the Lily Green
Hollows Golf Club separates the village from the Hamlet of Lily Green, and the
combination of those two and Kingfisherbridge made up the parish of St Martins
and was where the Bentleys lived.
Ken and Louisa Bentley were married, though not to each other, Louisa was
married to Ken’s cousin David, and they began their
affair the previous Christmas and lasted until Halloween.
At first, they thought that the attraction was the naughtiness factor,
the sneaking around, the guilty pleasure, but it turned out to be more than
that, they actually had feelings for each other, and it was the love that was
enhancing their anticipation and satisfaction.
So, it was falling in love that forced them to mutually end the affair
and they had successfully avoided each other for almost two months before.
However, that all changed when the same annual Christmas gathering
that brought them together came round again, and their resolve to keep out of
each other’s orbits was undermined when circumstances conspired against them.
Every year the Bentley clan gathered on the middle weekend in December
at the Abbottsford Regents Hotel, and they travelled from all over the Country
and beyond to be there.
Normally this wasn’t a problem, but this year his wife Tamsin was up
in Northchapel at her company’s corporate office until Friday afternoon after
which she would be driving down alone, while Louisa’s husband was in Brussels
and he was getting a midday flight, so
they insisted that Ken and
Louisa drive down together on Friday morning.
As they left home it had just started to snow and as they drove onto
the Pepperstock Expressway he said
“I don’t think we should weaken our resolve this weekend”
“I agree” Louisa said
“Good”
“It would be so easy to slip” she said,
“Very easy” he agreed
By the time they reached the hotel the snow was already laying quite
thickly and after checking in they found that they were the only Bentley’s to
have arrived and wouldn’t be joined by the rest of the clan any time soon, as
they had all been held up by the snow by some degree or other.
Tamsin was still at the Doll's House in Northchapel because the major
roads south had been closed and Louisa’s husband was stuck at Brussels airport.
So, they were in a quandary, should they spend an uneventful day alone
in their rooms being bored or spend it together and risk giving in to their
hearts.
They decided on the latter but reinforced their earlier pledge to not
revisit their previous behaviours and kept themselves busy for the rest of the
day, a light lunch followed by the jacuzzi and swimming, and finished with
coffee and cake in the conservatory.
The pleasurable afternoon went without a hitch, and they parted after
having agreed to dine together that evening.
The Restaurant at the Regents had a very good reputation, but neither
of them had eaten there before, because the usual form was to go out to The
Scented Garden in Abbottsford as it was the compromise choice because everyone
in the clan liked Chinese.
So, they decided to take advantage of the situation and indulged
themselves with the wonderful cuisine and a very superior wine list, however
along with wine came the flirting, and the more intoxicated they became the
more their true feelings came out.
So, their earlier pledge made in the cold light of day and complete
sobriety seemed unlikely to hold.
When they left the restaurant, he said
“I think I should escort you to your room”
“I think you should escort me into my room” she said and kissed him
As they lay
cuddling in the afterglow feeling very pleased with themselves Ken said
“I’ve
missed us”
“Me too”
Louisa murmured
Although the wine had broken down their resolve, it was love that got
them into each other’s arms and their night of passion was not a reboot of their affair it would prove to be a life
changing night and by the following Christmas they were very definitely a
couple, and when they married it was forever.
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