In the Village of Pepperstock Green – Chapter (079) – Waterside Meeting

April

 

29-year-old Emily Hemmings was a pretty girl, with fine corn coloured hair and was only a tiny little thing, four foot eleven if she had her hair up and was sat astride a great Chestnut coloured colt called Hector and was riding along the bridle path of the River Oxley.

She rode every day since she had left her old job in the Dulcets and as she wasn’t starting her new one until June 1st she spent her time doing the one thing she loved more than any other so it was no hardship, and she regularly rode up as far as the Old Carpenters Farm where she was going to work just to see how things were progressing.

She was the only child of a local couple, who were both surgeons who lived in a huge house in the poshest part of the village so she was staying with them until her cottage on the farm was ready.
At the beginning of April it had been such a beautiful morning that she rode considerably further and longer than originally intended so on the way past Carpenter’s Farm Emily decided to walk the horse part of the way to give Hector a little breather.
So she was walking Hector alongside the River Oxley and both she and the horse were spattered in mud.
Emily was chatting away to Hector when there was a bit of a commotion ahead of them and a man suddenly appeared from the bushes causing Emily’s horse to rear up.
“Whoa! Steady boy” she said as she tried to calm him down.
“Alright” Emily said softy patting the horse’s neck “Good boy”
Once she had complete control she led him by the bridle.
“I’m so sorry” the man said
“We didn’t mean to startle you”
“We?” Emily queried
“Yes” he said “I’m not alone”
“Excellent” she thought “I’ve stumbled upon the local nutter”
At which point a Cockapoo emerged from the bushes and she laughed.
“Meet Benji” he said
“Well hello Benji” Emily said
“We really are sorry for startling you” Matt said
“That’s ok, no harm done” she said
Once she realized he wasn’t a nutter she saw him in a much different light, he was a tall skinny man, a few years older than her, with short brown hair and glasses with a lopsided grin on his face.
“I’m Matt by the way”
“Emily”
“Are you going far?” he asked
“No, just a couple of miles” she replied
“Do you mind if we walk part of the way with you? We live at Waterside Cottages”
“Not at all” she replied “As long as you don’t mind being seen with me looking like this”
“I don’t mind if you don’t, I’m the Nature Warden so I’m almost always a mess” he said “Not that I think that you look a mess”
Matt got very flustered and went a delightful shade of scarlet.
“It’s ok Matt, I am a mess” she said and laughed “I always look like this when we hack through the woods, I’m not very glamorous am I?”
“Oh I don’t know” Matt said “you still look lovely even under the mud”
“What makes you think I’m lovely under the muck?” she asked suspiciously wondering if he might still be a nutter, or a stalker.
“Well I’ve seen you a few times before” he explained “Going past the cottage, minus the mud”
“Oh I see” she said “That makes sense”

They started to walk and exchanged small talk as they went Emily told him about her upcoming job at the St Adelaide’s riding School and her love of horses and how her career choice had disappointed her parents.
While he told her about his love of the River and the woodland and all the diverse life that depended on in.
It was his dream job and his cottage was within yards of the River he loved so much.
They also discovered that neither of them had a significant other in their lives but as they were only about half a mile from his cottage it didn’t take long for them to reach it and when they did he said
“Sorry again for scaring you and Hector”
“It’s not a problem really” Emily insisted “we will be more alert in future, and be on the lookout for brown haired ninjas with spaniels”
“Goodbye then” he said as he opened his front gate.
“Maybe our paths will cross again” she said
“I do hope so” Matt said

It was late afternoon when Emily got back home and she was spattered from head to toe in mud but she was also grinning from ear to ear.