I walked hand in hand with you
Down
a country lane just we two
In
a land of a green and pleasant hue
Over
a bridge where the kingfisher flew
Through
woods full of telltale bells of blue
Across
a field wet with morning dew
Climbed
a hill amidst lamb and ewe
To
a perfect spot with an unspoilt view
Where
we could be alone just, we two
Downshire
is a relatively small English county but that didn’t bother its inhabitants, they may not have been the biggest, but they were in no doubt that it
was the best.
And that belief was no truer than in the southern town off Abbottsford which was Downshire’s
administrative capital and the seat of the Downshire government.
It was also a place of
learning thanks to the Downshire University, it could also boast that it was a Cathedral City, was home to Abbottsford
Town football club and benefitted from the renowned Winston Churchill Hospital.
Two of the Nurses at
the hospital were Ivan Christie and Kirsten Vaughan and they were on their
first date on the Saturday night of the third weekend in March.
They had a nice meal
at an Italian restaurant called Roberto’s and then went for drinks in the
Castle Pub.
The conversation
flowed all evening, with no embarrassed silences, and on the walk home the conversation
turned to the impending clock change.
“I hate British Summer
Time” she said
“I don’t like losing
an hour of sleep, it really messes with my head”
“Well don’t look at it
so much as losing an hour’s sleep” he said “See it more as us being able to see
each other an hour sooner than we expected tomorrow”
“Ah that’s very
romantic” she said and kissed him
Sharpington-by-Sea
is a traditional seaside resort complete with a Victorian Pier, seafront
hotels, crazy golf, the Palladium ballroom, well maintained gardens, promenade,
theatre and illuminations, all the usual things to have a great time by the
seaside, as well as amusement arcades and of course the Sharpington Fun Park.
The Fun Park
was the first purpose-built amusement park to open in Britain, which had an
assortment of rides, like the Rotor and the Wild Mouse, The Cyclone and the
Morehouse Galloper, all very tame compared to 21st century roller
coasters, but still fun.
It was also a
popular resort for retirees and boasted a number of static caravan parks and
one of them was the Whitecliffe Hill Caravan
Park which overlooked the town.
And just beyond the Park was the Jubilee Heights Industrial Estate and one
of the biggest companies on that estate was Martlesham Merchandise.
Martleshams had begun life as a mail order catalogue goods business in the
1960’s, but in the 21st century they were exclusively an online
company.
The goods received warehouse supervisor was twenty five year old Simon
Moore, six feet
four inches tall with dark brown hair and was a popular guy among the staff, in
particular with the goods despatch supervisor, Chantelle Cooper, who was
the same age as him and had had him in her sights since they were at school
together.
She flirted
with him shamelessly at every opportunity and she would incline her head to one
side and play with her hair and behaved exactly like she did when they were
still at school.
In was the same
tactics she’d been employing for ten years and it still wasn’t working, because
he wasn’t interested he never had been and never would be.
Because he just wasn’t attracted to her, and he didn’t like her, he didnt
like the way she spoke, the way she laughed, even the way she walked, in fact she
didn’t walk she slinked, and if that wasn’t enough he had another reason to
rebuff her advances, Clare Parker.
And Clare ticked all his boxes, he loved
her voice, her laugh, and the way she walked was an absolute delight in fact
there wasn’t anything about her that he didn’t like, brown hair, hazel eyes and
Clare was everything that Chantelle wasn’t.
Clare Parker lived at the opposite end of
Sharpington from Martlesham’s and had only started working there a few days
before Christmas and Simon was instantly smitten.
And the attraction was mutual although
they didn’t pick up on that, but Chantelle did, and she did not like it one
bit.
Nor did she like that she was 4 inches
taller than her and had longer shapelier legs, was 4 years younger and was prettier
not that she would have admitted to the last part because Chantelle Cooper suffered from pretty girl syndrome.
Which
is when an attractive girl thinks she is far more beautiful than all other
women around her and for that reason she thinks that she deserves to get all
the attention.
So, when Clare
met Simon and Chantelle in the warehouse on her first day Chantelle was at
first shocked, then upset and finally angry when she realised Simon was more
interested in Clare than he had ever been in her.
Clare was still
on her probation period and was used as a bit of a gofer and she had to work in
several different departments and had to work under both Simon and Chantelle at
different times of the day.
This was good
for her because it meant she got to see Simon for a couple of hours every day
guaranteed, but at the same time it was bad because she had to spend an equal
amount of time working for Chantelle and it was obvious that she didn’t like
her and she really wasn’t very nice to her, and she couldn’t understand why,
but she saw it as a price worth paying if it meant working with Simon.
As she walked
through Jubilee Park on her way to work on the first day of spring she had a
spring in her step because it was the last day of her probation and when she
had her meeting with Claudia Strohmeier
in HR she was going to request a permanent position in Simon’s department so she
would see him all day every day, even if he didn’t see her as she saw him she
would at least be close to him.
Simon Moore glanced at the clock and pretended to be busy so as not to
appear asif he was waiting for her arrival, he was trying to be cool.
She was always on time, in fact she was always ahead of time, and that day
was no exception, the only difference being that she was even more bubbly and
smiley than normal.
“Morning” she chirped
“Well if it isnt the soon to be “ex” probabationer” he said
“Todays the day” Clare retorted and crossed her fingers
“Not that you need it, but I got you something” he said and gave her a
little gift box
“For me?” she asked and he nodded
Her hands were shaking when she opened the little box and then she gasped
when she saw the little gold horse shoe charm.
He knew that she had been given a charm bracelet for Christmas by her
parents and that she hadnt got many charms on it yet.
“Its gorgeous” she said, “Thank you”
She didn’t want to simply say thank you, she wanted to kiss him, not that
that was unusual, but at that moment she wanted to kiss him more than she had
ever wanted to before.
In the end it was taken out of her hands
when the claxon went off to signify there was a delivery.
“When are you seeing Claudia?” he asked
“In an hour” she replied
“Well if I’m not done before you go” he
said “good luck”
And the good luck was accompanied by a
squeeze of her hand and at that moment she was convinced for the first time that
his interest in her was more than just friendship or co-worker.
So, with his gift to her in her pocket she
felt 10 feet tall as she left the warehouse for her appointment with HR.
When they had finished unloading a 40ft
trailer he looked around the warehouse and expected to see her excited face,
but she was nowhere to be seen so he returned to his office.
He had been sat at his desk for about ten
minutes when the phone rang, which took him a few seconds to locate.
It was part of the company phone system
but was portable, so he was tied to the office when he was on a call, which
made it convenient to use, but sometimes difficult to find.
He found it on top of the filing cabinet
with Clare’s fleece on top of it, which he thought was odd, she always
complained about the cold in the warehouse, so she always wore her fleece and his
as well sometimes.
With the fleece in one hand and the phone
in the other he pressed the green button and said
“Warehouse!”
“Hello Simon”
“Is that Clare?”
“Yes” she replied, and her voice cracked
“Are you ok?”
“No”
“Why, what’s wrong?” He asked with concern
“They’re not keeping me on” she replied
“What?” he asked in utter disbelief
“I’m leaving”
“That can’t be right, when?”
“Today”
“Today?” he asked as he left the office
“Yes, I’m leaving now” she said weekly
“Now?” He repeated with alarm “I don’t
understand”
“I’m not good enough” she sobbed
“Where are you?” He asked as he left the
warehouse and emerged into the main reception, but when he saw Chantelle
standing to one side of the entrance wearing a smirk he began to comprehend
what had happened
“I’m outside”
“I’m waiting for a cab” she said just as
he stepped out into the sunshine.
“Oh Simon” she exclaimed when she saw him
“Come here” he responded with his arms
outstretched and she ran between them.
“What am I going to do?” she sobbed
“Hey its ok”
“It’s not though” she said “Because I won’t
get to see you every morning”
“Well if it comes to that, you’ll have to
see me every evening instead” he assured her
“Really?” she asked as she lifted her head
from his chest and he answered by kissing her
The kiss only ended when the taxi pulled
up, and he turned and looked into the smiling face of the taxi driver who was
an old schoolfriend of his brother, Danny Tomkins.
He kissed Clare once more on the mouth and
then opened the back door, so she could get in.
“I will see you later” he said and
squeezed her hand before he closed the door on the Taxi’s precious cargo.
He knew she would get home safely, but he
still said
“Look after her Dan”
“No sweat” he replied then Simon blew
Clare a kiss and the cab drove away.
When he went back inside Chantelle was
still there and after watching him kiss Clare she wasn’t smirking anymore, and
she turned on her heels and stomped off.
Also assembled in reception were a group
of half a dozen supervisors who had all had been part of Clare’s probationary
training and they were as perplexed as Simon had been when he first heard that
the firm was letting her go.
Having seen Chantelle’s delight at Clare’s
sobbing figure he was pretty sure that she had reported something to HR to paint
her in a bad light.
After sharing his suspicions with the
assembled group, they decided that they should pay a visit to HR and set the
record straight.
The delegation to HR met with Claudia
Strohmeier who was at first bemused, then confused, followed by horrified and
then finally deeply apologetic.
Frantic meetings between upper management
and the whole HR department followed which resulted in the reinstatement of
Clare, providing she would accept it, and to that end Simon was asked to
deliver the news to her.
After the taxi dropped Clare at her
parents house she had an up and down kind of day where she would be in tears
one moment because of the loss of her job, because she loved working up at Martlesham’s,
and then total elation because Simon Moore had hugged and kissed her, and in
between the two extremes she dared to dream that she had imagined her dismissal
but not the kiss.
She had a vague recollection that he had
said that he would see her later, but she wasn’t sure if it was the traditional
farewell “see you later” or that she would actually see him later.
It was during one of her periods of
reflection that there was a knock at the door, she was going to ignore it,
because she didn’t want to see anyone, and when she looked in the mirror she
thought it more likely that no one would want to see her, but she took a deep
breath and opened it and to her surprise it was Simon, and she instantly forgot
how she looked and kissed him.
They were sitting on the sofa after he had
given her the news about her reinstatement
“So, if I come back will I still be on
probation?”
“No” he replied “And you will be working
full time in Goods in”
“So, I’ll see you every day?”
“Yes, every day”
“Oh”
“Well you don’t have to” he said “you can choose
whichever department you want”
“No, I want to but….”
“But what?”
“Well if I see you every day, does that
mean I won’t get to see you in the evenings?”
“No” he said and smiled “it doesn’t mean
that”
“Oh good” she said, and she kissed him
again
The beautiful Downshire village of
Clerembeax St Giles was situated to the west of Abbeyvale located between Grace
Hill and Bushy Down and on the outskirts was the
Clerembeax Palace Hotel and Spa.
It was once the home the Clerembeax’s, who
arrived in Downshire following the Norman conquests and stayed for a thousand
years before the name died out following the death of the reclusive Marcus
Clerembeax at the age of 96.
The current owner was Yvonne Labuschagne,
who decided to open it as a Hotel and Spa.
The Spa was a good attraction, but it was
crucial for them to maintain a high occupancy rate, however things were tough
in the Hotel trade with the success of Travelodge, Premier Inn and Holiday Inn Express
and so places like the Palace needed to offer something extra to attract the
guests, apart from the Spa.
So, they put on novelty weekends, such as
“Murder Mysteries” and in addition, they had a sizable Ballroom which was used
for special occasions, high days and holidays, which boosted occupancy and Spa
numbers at the same time, Christmas being a prime example, when there was great
demand and grand Christmas function took place.
However, things had got tough in the Hotel
trade with the success of Travelodge, Premier Inn and Holiday Inn Express and
so places like the Claremont needed to offer something extra to attract the
guests, but often guests made their own entertainment.
Guests like Mike Saunders, who woke up with
the sun streaming in through the gap in the curtain which illuminated the naked
body of Jay Powell on the bed beside him.
She had her back to him and was lying on
her side and the sun highlighted the curve of her hip, he leant over and kissed
her shoulder, then he slipped out of bed and went to the bathroom.
When he returned he went back to bed and
cuddled up behind her and spooned her.
“Mmmm” she murmured as he nuzzled her neck
and slid his hand on to her belly.
“Oh no you don’t” she said as his hand
moved upwards
“I’m hungry, I want breakfast”
“We can eat later” he said and kissed
“But I’m famished” she protested
“Wouldn’t you prefer to be ravished?” he
asked as he nibbled her ear lobe.
“Breakfast first” she said and wriggled
free of his embrace and got out of bed.
“You can’t go yet,” he said as she put on
her shoes.
“Yes, I can” she said adamantly as she put
her hand on the door knob
“You really can’t”
“Why not?” she asked as she opened the
door
“I am my own woman”
“You’re also naked” he pointed out
“What?”
“You have no clothes on” he said
“What?” she responded and then caught
sight of her own reflection in the mirror and screamed
“I told you so” he said as she slammed the
door and ran into the bathroom
“You could have told me” she protested as
she wrapped herself in towels
“I didn’t think it was a problem until you
tried to leave” he told her
She emerged from the bathroom and began
picking up the remnants of the previous night’s outfit
“And you are gorgeous” he said
“Flatterer” she retorted and then added with
a giggle
“But get your pants on because I still
want breakfast first”
