(Part 01)
Steve Berry had always had a distinct dislike for Christmas, in fact he hated everything about it, despite all the jollity and faux fun because unlike many of his Christmas mad friends he had no happy Christmas memories to anesthetise him against the season.
His parents were chronic alcoholics and each year their Christmas came in a bottle and thanks to his ill-tempered father, Steve’s came with a slap, so his childhood Christmases were festive memories he would rather have forgotten.
But adulthood brought no relief from the season and it always seemed to him that when shit happened Christmas just magnified the misery.
If someone died at Christmas the very season makes it more keenly felt and he could testify to that fact as his own mother died on Christmas Eve when he was 19.
He had no idea where his father was and quite frankly he didn’t care he never bothered to show up for the funeral and for all he knew he could have been dead as well.
So as a result he had never trusted Christmas, because he knew that shit lurks beneath the coloured lights and paper chains.
He used to dream of getting away at Christmas and going somewhere that didn’t celebrate it in any way, shape or form, but where exactly is that place?
Answers on a postcard please to Steve Berry if anyone has any suggestions.
So each year like the rest of the populous he was subjected to all the usual false jollity, Christmas Parties, Secret Santa’s and Christmas Lunch, Paper hats, crackers and all that shit.
And everywhere he would go from October onwards was bedecked with tinsel, garlands, bells, baubles and Led lights.
And it was impossible to avoid it as each and every shop played endless spools of regurgitated Christmas tunes and if that wasn’t enough there were the morons possessed of more money than sense who decorated the outside of their houses with every conceivable adornment of light emitting decorations to create an Led hell.
Steve never had a girlfriend at Christmas he always dumped them, or got himself dumped, when they started to get too jolly.
So when he was 21 he developed the perfect anti Christmas strategy.
He would always save a chunk of annual leave and finish work at least one week before the big day and return after the New Year debacle.
He would stock up with food along with the other festive numpties and armed with a stack of DVD box sets he became a Christmas recluse until the year turned and that strategy had served him well for nine 9 years and he believed it would serve him another ninety.
He had found it had become easier over the years with the advent of catch up TV, he just needed to avoid the adverts that remind him that it was Christmas and that he couldn’t afford a holiday.
His strategy was however tried and tested and it had managed to save his sanity over the years.
(Part 02)
Steve was in the Pig and Whistle, not exactly a real shit hole of a pub but not the most attractive or ambient but more importantly the only pub in town guaranteed not to play Christmas stuff because the landlord Phil hated the season almost as much as Steve did.
It was his last night out before his Christmas exile and it was his intention to get totally shitfaced as he had almost three weeks to recover.
He was not a social animal, he liked his own company and if he ever engaged in conversation with fellow patrons it was because he had initiated it.
He was also not averse to being rude if someone else spoke first.
So he was just enjoying his third pint as he sat in the furthest most corner of the bar reading his book when it happened.
“Hello” she said
Steve ignored her, normally if he didn’t respond they’d get the message and go away
“Hello” she said louder “Are you ok?”
“I was” he sighed
“Oh dear Mr Grinch” she said “what you need is some Christmas spirit”
“I’m fine” he insisted
“I don’t think you are sitting on your own in the furthest most corner” she said
Steve looked at her for the first time, she was roughly his age, maybe a little younger, and she was wearing a red dress, red and white striped stockings and had tinsel in her mousy hair.
“Who are you? The Christmas fairy?” he asked gruffly
He wanted to tell her to fuck off but she was quite cute.
“No I’m Holly, Phil’s niece” she said
“Holly? How very festive” He said sarcastically
“Yes I’m going to instil a little Christmas spirit” Holly said
“But Phil hates Christmas” Steve informed her
“I know” she said “which is why he’s going to Las Vegas until the New Year”
“When?” He asked
“Half an hour ago” she replied
“So are you going to come and join the rest of us?”
“No thanks I don’t do Christmas” he said and returned to his book
“Oh well perhaps some Christmas music will get you in the mood” she said resolutely
“Oh God” he responded
The Christmas party mix was really grating on him but he was too far along with his Christmas strategy to go off hunting for another Christmas free pub so he had to put up with it.
As the evening wore on she persisted in trying to draw him out of his corner, but to no avail.
He left his corner only to go to the bar and get another drink and then returned to his solitude.
Apart from the music upsetting his plans there was the added annoyance of customers, more arriving every hour, word had got out that Phil “The Grinch who stole Christmas” had gone for the duration, and that there was a new Santa in town.
This only became a problem however when, while he was at the bar, somebody took over his corner.
So he had to return to the bar again.
“Back again already Steve?” Holly asked
“Someone is in my seat” he said
“Well pull up a stool” she suggested
“Do I have a choice?” he said grumpily
“You’re just a little ray of sunshine” she said and laughed
“I can see I’m going to have to use all my Christmas magic on you”
He sighed as he settled himself down on a stool and said
“I’ve never seen it so busy in here”
“I know” Holly said “I’m going to need more staff at this rate”
“Good luck with that” he said with a sneer
Downshire Diary – (13) The Girl in the Red Dress (Part 03)
Steve Berry woke up the morning after he met The Girl in the Red Dress, with his face stuck to the mock leather of a bench seat and when he painfully sat himself up he saw he was in the lounge bar of the Pig and Whistle.
Well he had intended getting shit faced the night before, so mission accomplished there, and he had expected to wake up with a hangover, so another box ticked, but it was never part of the plan to wake up with a hangover at the pub.
“Good morning sunshine” Holly called as she crashed through the door wearing a dressing gown and slippers.
“Ow” he said “have some respect for the dead”
She put a mug of black coffee on the table in front of him and peered at his bloodshot eyes
“Blimey! Can you actually see through those?” she asked
“I hope you don’t drink like that when you’re working”
“Well I don’t need to worry about work until January” he said and sipped at his coffee
“Don’t you remember anything about last night?” Holly asked with a wry smile on her lips
He closed his eyes and replied
“I remember I don’t like Christmas”
“Anything else?” Holly persisted
“It was very busy, very noisy” Steve said but could remember nothing else
“Do you remember me saying I needed more staff?” she asked
“Yes I do remember that” he replied
“Good” she said “because your it”
“What?” he said loudly and then winced
“You volunteered to work right through till New Year’s Eve”
“I can’t have” Steve said
“Well you did” She insisted and showed him a piece of paper detailing the fore mentioned offer signed by Steve.
“That doesn’t count” he said “I was pissed”
“It’s legally binding” Holly stated “It’s notarized by a solicitor”
Steve stared at the signature
“Sam Culver?” he said “he’s not a solicitor he’s a forklift driver”
“Be that as it may he has still witnessed your signature on this contract” she said coolly
“Contract?” he said in disbelieve
“Contract” she confirmed
“Oh please you’re not really going to hold me to this?” Steve said waving the “contract” in her direction
“You start tonight” she informed him
“Oh God I’ve sold my soul to the Christmas fairy” he said with his head in his hands
“I prefer Christmas angel” she said “But I’m not the one with tinsel in my hair”
“Oh shit” he exclaimed and felt his head
“Get yourself a hair of the dog, I’m going to get dressed” Holly said smiling
“Oh and there’s no drinking on the job, by the way”
He didn’t bother with the hair of the dog but he did drink another coffee before he left to go home and after a bath, a sleep and something to eat he felt revived by the time he left home again to report for his first shift although he still couldn’t figure out how the Christmas Angel had tricked him into working for her.
(Part 04)
Over the week and a half that followed Steve’s press ganging by Holly, the Christmas Angel, between his first shift and Christmas Eve, Holly had done her level best to elicit the full details of why it was that Steve hated Christmas and everything about it quite so much.
Holly had noticed right at the beginning that he was not the miserable git that she first thought or that he wanted people to think.
In fact that first night when he was forced to sit at the bar he had been very funny, once he managed to forget it was Christmas.
But every time he heard someone utter the words happy Christmas it was like he’d been stabbed.
So she relentlessly picked away at the scab every day, but she couldn’t get him to open up, no matter how hard she tried, but she wasn’t prepared to give up under any circumstances.
Steve would never have admitted it but despite his initial protests he had rather enjoyed working behind a bar again.
He hadn’t done it since he left University and started working as an accountant.
The repetitive festive music still grated on him, though less so than before, even the Christmas t-shirts and jumpers that Holly made him wear had become less onerous.
Holly herself led by example and wore an almost inexhaustible supply of festive outfits and he had to admit she still looked cute in which ever one she was wearing.
She was a nosy cow though and kept poking and prodding at him trying to find out what made him tick.
But it amused him that his not playing ball was driving her crackers, Christmas crackers even.
On Christmas Eve he drove to the pub, arriving at 9.30am, and thought to himself
“This is going to be a very long day”
It was bitterly cold day and the sky was slate grey and overcast, he sniffed the air and then knocked on the front door which Holly opened within a couple of minutes and she was already dressed in her Christmas outfit, namely Mrs. Clause.
“Morning Steve” she said “Happy Christmas Eve”
“Why are you always so cheerful?” he asked in response
“Because “it’s a wonderful life”” she said
“Oh God are you going to throw festive film titles at me all day?”
“I hadn’t thought of that” she said “but it sounds like fun”
He took his coat off and revealed his jumper of the day adorned with a reindeers head.
“There’s snow in the air” he said hanging up his coat
“Lovely” she replied with a chuckle “White Christmas”
“Stop it” Steve said
Holly had walked to the bar and picked something up and then returned to him with it behind her back.
“What’s that?” he asked suspiciously
“Antlers” she said triumphantly and put them on his head
“Please no” he said “that’s too much”
“Stop whining Grinch or I’ll put the Christmas tape on” she threatened
“That’s dirty fighting” he said
(Part 05)
With it being Christmas Eve they knew it was going to be busy in the pub that day so in addition to Holly and Steve there were barmaids Clare and Petra and in the kitchen were Stefano and Ausra.
It wasn’t manically busy but there was a steady flow all day, shoppers popping in for a warm, that kind of thing, and as it was such a bitter cold day the kitchen did a roaring trade in warming chili, soups, casseroles and stews, so much so that they kept the kitchen going right through the afternoon.
It was not however a day for cold desserts.
By five o’clock they had sold out of hot food and the till drawers were stuffed despite the fact that Holly kept taking them away to the office, but they kept filling up.
While Holly counted the takings in the office, Steve and Petra manned the bar and Clare helped Steph and Ausra clear away.
Job done they joined Steve at the bar and were enjoying a well-earned drink when Holly came out.
“Well done you lot” she said “I hope that drink is on the house”
“It is” Steve said
“We have had a phenomenal day” she said handing out pay packets “so there’s a little something extra in there”
“Thanks boss” Stephanos said
“Cheers Hol” said Petra
“Thanks Holly” Clare and Ausra said simultaneously
What she didn’t tell them was that the little extra was 100 pounds per head, they wouldn’t find that out until later.
“Where’s mine?” Steve asked
“Grinch tax” Holly said to the great amusement of the others and patted his cheek
“Charming” he replied but he was laughing when he said it and he knew that the others were finished until after Christmas whereas he still had the evening shift.
Although he wasn’t bothered about the money particularly he knew he would get it, he had actually enjoyed Christmas Eve for the first time ever.
They all finished their drinks and it was the moment that Steve hated most, the final farewell when Christmas wishes were exchanged.
“Merry Christmas” Clare said and kissed Steve
“And you” he replied
“Happy Christmas Stevie” Ausra said kissing him
“Yes you too” said Steve
“Happy, Happy Christmas” Petra said planting a very exuberant kiss on his mouth
“Ditto” he replied
“A very happy Christmas my friend” Stephanos said extravagantly and feigned to kiss him but shook his hand instead and roared with laughter.
“Have a good one” Steve said and also laughed.
When they had gone Steve noticed it had started snowing lightly.
“So why can’t you say Happy Christmas?” Holly asked
“I told you it was going to snow” he said
“Don’t change the subject” Holly persisted “why can’t you say Happy Christmas?”
“I can say it, I just didn’t need to as everyone else said it”
He answered “I didn’t want to wear the phrase out”
“Baubles” Holly said
(Part 06)
Holly disappeared upstairs for half an hour and when she came back down she had changed outfits again.
She wore a different red Dress but this time it had white trim and a much more daring neckline
But instead of the customary stripy tights on her lovely legs she was wearing black tights with holly motifs, which Steve thought was very appropriate as he watched her as he wiped down the tables in readiness for the next wave of festive punters.
Steve thought from the first time he saw her that she was quite cute but he thought he would have to separate her from the Christmas paraphernalia if she was ever to progress in his eyes any further than cute.
“I wish I’d asked Steph to keep some Chili back” Holly said “I’m absolutely starving”
“Don’t worry” he said “when Debbie arrives I’ll go over the road and get a take away”
“Ok Steve” she concurred “but what takeaway”
“Your choice boss, my treat” he replied
“What? Would that be a Christmas treat?” Holly asked
“No just a treat” he replied and smiled
Despite the weather Debbie arrived right on time.
“Hi everyone” she said as she went behind the bar
“The snows settling”
“Hi Debbie” Holly said
“So what’s your poison?” Steve asked
“Pizza” She replied very definitely “Pepperoni”
“Is that your final answer?” he asked
“It is” she confirmed
“Have you eaten Debbie?” he shouted
“Yes but I can eat a slice or two” she replied
As he walked across the road to the Vale Farm Pizza House he noticed the snow was falling faster and would lay quite deep if it persisted.
Despite Debbie saying she would only eat a piece or two he decided to get a pizza each, he’d seen Debbie eat before and for a skinny bird she could really pack it away.
He had a long wait as it seemed most of Abbeyvale were having pizza for tea.
When he got back to the pub the clientele had almost doubled so he thought it was the beginning of the evening rush and wasn’t sure if they’d have time to enjoy the pizzas, but he needn’t have worried as it proved to be a false dawn because the rush never materialized.
He was right about one thing though, Debbie demolished a whole pizza.
By seven o’clock the numbers hadn’t really changed even if most of the faces had.
And by eight o’clock with the snow falling thick and fast in near blizzard conditions it was fairly obvious punters weren’t going to be venturing out in any significant numbers.
Knowing that Debbie had a three mile journey home Holly said
“I think you’d better get off hon or you won’t get home at all”
“Are you sure Hol?” Debbie asked
“Absolutely” She said and handed Debbie her coat and her pay packet and gave her a kiss.
“Thanks Holly” she said “Happy Christmas”
“Happy Christmas and drive safely” she said “Text me when your home”
“Ok, happy Christmas Steve” she said
“And you Deb” he replied
(Part 07)
Holly had walked to the door with Debbie to see her off and wished her a Happy Christmas again and then stared out the window for a long time as she watched Debbie get underway.
When she returned to the bar she said
“You’d better get off as well Steve”
“No I’ll stay a bit longer” he replied
“This might be your last chance” she said “it’s coming down like billy-o”
“That’s ok” he said “I can always kip in the lounge bar again if it comes to that”
It was a very strange night because although there weren’t many customers they still managed to sell quite a lot of beer because they had a succession of punter coming in for jugs of ale, so much so that they ran out of jugs so they sold bottles instead.
But all in all it was very quiet Christmas Eve so by 9 o’clock Holly said
“Right let’s have a drink”
“I thought you didn’t like the staff drinking on duty” he said
“What the hell its Christmas” she replied and noticed that he visibly tensed at the word Christmas
She pulled him a pint and poured a glass of wine for herself and then they sat on stools on the punters side of the bar to drink them.
“Would you mind if I crash here tonight Holly?” He asked
“Of course not, I’d rather you crashed here than out there” She replied
“And it looks like my plans for tomorrow will need to be revised, so we can spend the day together, if you like”
“Ok thanks” he said “that would be great”
They were well into their second drink when Holly asked
“So what exactly is the deal with you and Christmas?”
“Do we have to go there?” he asked
“Yes we do” she said “I’ve been watching you all this week and every time someone wishes you a happy Christmas you react as if you’ve had an electric shock”
“Well I wouldn’t go that far” Steve responded
“I would” she said but he just shrugged
“Come on Steve” she insisted “You are such an infuriating man, cough it up”
“Can’t you just leave it alone?” he said
“You can’t tell me you haven’t enjoyed working here this week” she said “or that you would have preferred to be locked away in your flat pretending that Christmas was just a bad dream”
Steve drained his glass and went through the hatch and pulled himself another one.
“I don’t want to go into all the details, suffice is to say that for me there was no happy little boy waiting for Santa on Christmas Eve” he said painfully
“My childhood was unbearable and Christmas was even more so”
Holly didn’t speak but sat with head sympathetically inclined
“Not everyone was raised by Mary Poppins” he said factiously
“That’s not very fare” Holly said hurtfully
(Part 08)
“Not everyone was raised by Mary Poppins” Steve said factiously
“That’s not very fare” Holly said hurtfully
“And I suppose you think my Christmases were happy?” she asked forcefully but Steve merely snorted
“I had a succession of lousy Christmases when I was a child, my parents didn’t believe in it and so we didn’t celebrate it,” she said vehemently but Steve still looked unconvinced
“My parents are hippies, new age pagan hippies” She stated
“So Christmases for me were spent in a VW Camper van on Salisbury plain, don’t get me wrong, I love my parents and for me at the time it seemed perfectly normal and so I was perfectly happy, it was only when my school friends told me what they did at Christmas that I realized what I was missing out on”
Holly paused to gather herself
“When I was older I would at least get a present, though it was never wrapped in Christmas paper, there was no Christmas tree, no baubles or tinsel, no garlands or colored lights, and no Christmas magic, so in my childhood Christmas just didn’t exist”
“So now you’re over compensating” Steve said and took another drink “Majorly”
“Not at all, I just decided that feeling sorry for myself was not an option, and I refused to be dictated to by the past” she said “I decided that instead of regretting the Happy Christmas memories I missed out on as a child, I decided would make new memories and stop looking back”
“I was 17 when I first experience a proper Christmas, and I thought it was the most wonderful and magical experience I had ever had and I’ve made sure I’ve enjoyed every single Christmas since and I look forward to all the ones to come”
“There is no similarity between our childhoods” he said bitterly
“Your childhood was a happy one, it just didn’t include Christmas,
Whereas mine was desperately unhappy and did”
“And you blame Christmas for it being unhappy” Holly said
“I know that for you life was very different, but I want to squeeze the most joy I can from every moment of my life”
Steve just looked at her as she took a brief pause
“Just as you should” She said and put her hand on his knee and then at that moment the doors opened and a new group of punters came through the door their heads and shoulders dusted with snow.
He stood behind the bar drying glasses as he watched Holly as she chatted to the new intake of clientele in turn.
He liked it as she walked from table to table, she had a gait that was easy on the eye and the way the flared skirt moved across her lovely legs was quite sensual and then one by one the meagre band of customers disappeared into the snowy night amidst a peel of Happy Christmas wishes.
It was midnight and as the last customer left for the night, Holly wished them a happy Christmas and locked the front doors behind them and as she slipped the last bolt across and drew the curtain.
Steve appeared behind her just as the church bells at St Mary’s chimed midnight and Holly turned and faced him.
“Merry Christmas Holly” he said and kissed her
Sunday, 12 March 2017
Saturday, 11 March 2017
Tales from the Finchbottom Vale – (12) The Girl in the Poppy Print Dress
(Part 01)
The day began very early for Jerry as he reluctantly prepared to leave the arms of his lover, it was first light and the dawn chorus was in full voice.
His real name was Julius Jeremiah Damien Quinton-Snape, which he always thought was like something out of Charles Dickens novel with a hint of Hogwarts thrown in for good measure, he thought he would probably be a villain though knowing his luck.
He hated his name, Julius was so old fashioned, and he also hated Damien because of its association with the antichrist, so he used his middle name Jeremiah which he didn’t like very much better but he shortened it to Jerry and everyone assumed falsely that it was short for Jeremy, but he didn’t enlighten them.
As he prepared to slip out of her bed she rolled over and put her arm across his chest.
“Don’t go Jez” she implored
“I have to Marti” he replied “I’ve got a long drive ahead of me”
They were in her room at the Seaview Hotel in Sharpington-By-Sea where she was staying for the Easter Weekend with a group of friends.
“Oh stay a bit longer” she begged and she kissed his chest
“I wish I could honey” he said as he kissed her on the forehead.
He really did want to stay with her but he had a wedding to go to in Abbottsford, a family wedding to boot, that required his attendance, on pain of death according to his mother.
He picked up her phone from the bedside table and tapped in his own number, and sent a text to himself so they then both had each other’s numbers.
Although he had to leave she and her friend’s weren’t leaving until Monday.
He had only met her the day before and he’d fallen head over heels for her at first sight.
Jerry arrived in Sharpington-By-Sea on Thursday for a stag do and he had met Marti, the girl in the poppy print dress on Friday morning at a coffee shop on the pier.
He was preparing for the long drive home with an Americana to go and she was in front of him ordering a Macchiato but they got talking and sat and drank their coffees at a table outside and ended up spending the whole day together, and the night.
They hit it off immediately and it was like they’d known each other all their lives.
It was funny how thing worked out he hadn’t gone to Sharpington to meet someone, in fact if truth be told he hadn’t really wanted to go at all, he wasn’t particularly close to the groom, but he was family and according to his mother that was what counted.
But having met someone, which was unexpected in itself, everything that followed was not only unexpected in was completely out of character.
He was not the sort of person to do things on a whim, he was an accountant and therefore by definition a planner.
Very definitely not a make it up as you go along kind of guy.
Nor was he the sleep with the first girl you meet type of guy so the event’s in Sharpington on the Good Friday were quite significant for him, and he hoped for her also.
(Part 02)
On the long drive home Jerry couldn’t get Marti out of his thoughts and by the time he reached his flat in Abbottsford he was convinced that she was the one, she fitted the template perfectly, so logically she had to be the one.
He had carried the “template” with him, etched into his brain almost since the moment of his sexual awakening.
Long brown hair falling across her shoulders in generous waves, hazel eyes, intelligent, warm and full of familiarity that screwed tight shut when she laughed.
A pretty face, which hers was, pretty but at the same time full of imperfections, an aquiline nose, a small scar above her right eye, a lopsided smile and freckled cheeks.
An exquisitely defined jawline as if chiselled from marble and a strong and resolute chin.
She was also very tall, as tall as him in her heels and he was six-foot two, and slim as a willow and lithe as a dancer.
But all of that was purely superficial, just an accident of heritage, what made Marti special and by extension “the one” was that she was funny, intelligent, insightful, caring, romantic and grounded.
In fact she was so obviously the one because she ticked every single box, plus numerous other boxes that he hadn’t even known existed until he met her.
Jerry wasn’t exactly sure where that template came from but he had always had it and he had begun in recent years to wonder if he would ever meet the girl to fit it or if indeed such a girl even existed but that was before he met the girl in the poppy print dress.
He got back to his flat in plenty of time to change for the wedding and drive to Childean to pick up his mum who was wearing a spectacularly ridiculous hat.
The wedding at St Andrew’s Church passed off without a hitch and the reception at the Dancingdean Spa Hotel was very lavish but he spent much of that happy day in Childean wishing he was somewhere else and he cursed his luck at having to be there.
“Why did I have to meet her this weekend of all weekends” he pondered, but then if it hadn’t been that weekend he wouldn’t have been in Sharpington in the first place.
“Why didn’t I invite her to the wedding?” he asked himself
“No that wouldn’t have worked” he concluded “He wasn’t ready to introduce her to his mum, that would just frighten her away”
He decided to just feel grateful that he had met her and to look forward to the moment he would see her again.
However there was a fly in the ointment because although the wedding all went off according to plan there was from his point of view a distinct downside on the whole day and that was that he couldn’t get a phone signal which drove him crazy so he wasn’t able to get through to Marti at all.
(Part 03)
On Sunday and Monday there were a succession of family farewells and hug fests as Jerry waved goodbye to three generations of his extended family and after the four day weekend was over it was back to work in the thrilling world of accountancy.
It seemed especially tedious on that particular Tuesday because his mind was elsewhere.
He began the day by trying to get hold of Marti on the phone again but he had no more good fortune than he done at the weekend.
All week long they kept missing each other on the phone and for the first half of it they communicated solely by voice mail if you can call it communication.
Marti was in lectures at Abbottsford University all week and had several approaching deadlines and for Jerry it was the financial year end for the company he worked for so Jerry was having to work late every night and spend a disproportionate amount of time in meetings with department managers, accountants and auditors.
He was reassured however that she seemed to be every bit as anxious to talk to him as he was to talk to her.
If it hadn’t been such a hellish week at work he would have driven back down to Sharpington to see her, but that wasn’t an option, firstly because he was just too busy but the main reason was because she wasn’t there.
Unfortunately he didn’t know where she was living in Abbottsford so he couldn’t go and see her there.
So they both kept ringing one another and they both kept missing each other so by Thursday he was getting increasingly frustrated by his failure to make contact with her and he could tell by her tone that she was too.
Then he had a brain wave and he texted her his email address and then he cursed himself and his stupidity for not thinking of it earlier.
He just hoped she would see it in the same light as he did and they could finally converse and makes plans that didn’t consist of talking to each other’s voice mail.
Luckily he needn’t have worried, Marti thought it was a great idea and wished that she had thought of it and then the email traffic flowed between them and the volume and content was quite epic and were tantamount to love letters and woven amongst the sentimental words of love were the minutiae of the everyday, the mundane and the ordinary that would make up the fabric of their budding relationship.
But despite the fluidity of the email traffic they were still no nearer actually seeing each other face to face.
(Part 04)
On Saturday Jerry had to work a 12 hour day to put the finishing touches to the yearend accounts and on Sunday it was his mum’s birthday so he had planned to spend the whole day with her.
However he had at least finally succeeded in talking to Marti and it turned out that she was tied up all weekend as well.
But they were both hopeful that the following week would offer an opportunity for them to actually get together.
Jerry picked his mum up from Childean on Sunday morning and took her to St Andrew’s Church and afterwards out for lunch to The Huntsman’s Lodge restaurant and from there he drove her home and then went inside to have tea with her.
“Put the kettle on Julius” she said and he winced at the sound of his name said out loud but he duly obliged and while he was in the kitchen there was a knock at the door.
His mum answered the knock and an exchange of exited chatter ensued.
He recognised the other voice to be that of Aunty Erin, she wasn’t really an auntie just a long standing family friend who was particularly close to his mum.
Jerry hadn’t seen her since he was at school, but throughout his childhood she and her family had featured extensively in his life.
“I thought I would just pop in and wish you a happy birthday dear” Erin said
“And I brought Sonja along to say hello, she’s just back from University for the weekend”
Jerry’s heart sank, he remembered Sonja very well, she was younger than him by about 4 years and she was a clumsy gawky girl who used to trail around after him.
She was a blight on his childhood summer holidays.
“Oh it’s so lovely to see you Sonja” his mum said
“Julius is in the kitchen”
He winced again at the use of his name and a moment later Jerry got his first sight of the young woman called Sonja, narrow hipped, round pert buttocks, small breasts, firm to the touch and soft-silky skin.
And that last part wasn’t wishful thinking either, he knew this to be true and not merely a fanciful notion, because it was her bed he had reluctantly vacated the previous weekend and as if to dispel any doubts she was wearing the same poppy print dress she wore when they first met.
“I thought it would be nice for them to see each other again” Erin said
It was nice to see her, he thought but not as nice as it was the last time they met.
So Marti was actually Sonja Martl, he didn’t realise the clumsy gawky girl Sonja of his childhood as the same girl who called herself Marti who he’d made love to in Sharpington.
She went by the name of Marti because so many people misread or misspoke her surname and so that name stuck.
So it turned out they really had known each other for ever, that’s why she seemed to fit the template, because she was the template.
“So you’re Julius” Marti said
“And you’re Sonja” Jerry responded
“It’s nice to see you again” she said formally “After all these years”
“Yes, perhaps we might go out while you’re home and catch up” he replied and then he whispered
“Did you know?”
Marti just shook her head in the negative and said
“Yes that would be nice”
The day began very early for Jerry as he reluctantly prepared to leave the arms of his lover, it was first light and the dawn chorus was in full voice.
His real name was Julius Jeremiah Damien Quinton-Snape, which he always thought was like something out of Charles Dickens novel with a hint of Hogwarts thrown in for good measure, he thought he would probably be a villain though knowing his luck.
He hated his name, Julius was so old fashioned, and he also hated Damien because of its association with the antichrist, so he used his middle name Jeremiah which he didn’t like very much better but he shortened it to Jerry and everyone assumed falsely that it was short for Jeremy, but he didn’t enlighten them.
As he prepared to slip out of her bed she rolled over and put her arm across his chest.
“Don’t go Jez” she implored
“I have to Marti” he replied “I’ve got a long drive ahead of me”
They were in her room at the Seaview Hotel in Sharpington-By-Sea where she was staying for the Easter Weekend with a group of friends.
“Oh stay a bit longer” she begged and she kissed his chest
“I wish I could honey” he said as he kissed her on the forehead.
He really did want to stay with her but he had a wedding to go to in Abbottsford, a family wedding to boot, that required his attendance, on pain of death according to his mother.
He picked up her phone from the bedside table and tapped in his own number, and sent a text to himself so they then both had each other’s numbers.
Although he had to leave she and her friend’s weren’t leaving until Monday.
He had only met her the day before and he’d fallen head over heels for her at first sight.
Jerry arrived in Sharpington-By-Sea on Thursday for a stag do and he had met Marti, the girl in the poppy print dress on Friday morning at a coffee shop on the pier.
He was preparing for the long drive home with an Americana to go and she was in front of him ordering a Macchiato but they got talking and sat and drank their coffees at a table outside and ended up spending the whole day together, and the night.
They hit it off immediately and it was like they’d known each other all their lives.
It was funny how thing worked out he hadn’t gone to Sharpington to meet someone, in fact if truth be told he hadn’t really wanted to go at all, he wasn’t particularly close to the groom, but he was family and according to his mother that was what counted.
But having met someone, which was unexpected in itself, everything that followed was not only unexpected in was completely out of character.
He was not the sort of person to do things on a whim, he was an accountant and therefore by definition a planner.
Very definitely not a make it up as you go along kind of guy.
Nor was he the sleep with the first girl you meet type of guy so the event’s in Sharpington on the Good Friday were quite significant for him, and he hoped for her also.
(Part 02)
On the long drive home Jerry couldn’t get Marti out of his thoughts and by the time he reached his flat in Abbottsford he was convinced that she was the one, she fitted the template perfectly, so logically she had to be the one.
He had carried the “template” with him, etched into his brain almost since the moment of his sexual awakening.
Long brown hair falling across her shoulders in generous waves, hazel eyes, intelligent, warm and full of familiarity that screwed tight shut when she laughed.
A pretty face, which hers was, pretty but at the same time full of imperfections, an aquiline nose, a small scar above her right eye, a lopsided smile and freckled cheeks.
An exquisitely defined jawline as if chiselled from marble and a strong and resolute chin.
She was also very tall, as tall as him in her heels and he was six-foot two, and slim as a willow and lithe as a dancer.
But all of that was purely superficial, just an accident of heritage, what made Marti special and by extension “the one” was that she was funny, intelligent, insightful, caring, romantic and grounded.
In fact she was so obviously the one because she ticked every single box, plus numerous other boxes that he hadn’t even known existed until he met her.
Jerry wasn’t exactly sure where that template came from but he had always had it and he had begun in recent years to wonder if he would ever meet the girl to fit it or if indeed such a girl even existed but that was before he met the girl in the poppy print dress.
He got back to his flat in plenty of time to change for the wedding and drive to Childean to pick up his mum who was wearing a spectacularly ridiculous hat.
The wedding at St Andrew’s Church passed off without a hitch and the reception at the Dancingdean Spa Hotel was very lavish but he spent much of that happy day in Childean wishing he was somewhere else and he cursed his luck at having to be there.
“Why did I have to meet her this weekend of all weekends” he pondered, but then if it hadn’t been that weekend he wouldn’t have been in Sharpington in the first place.
“Why didn’t I invite her to the wedding?” he asked himself
“No that wouldn’t have worked” he concluded “He wasn’t ready to introduce her to his mum, that would just frighten her away”
He decided to just feel grateful that he had met her and to look forward to the moment he would see her again.
However there was a fly in the ointment because although the wedding all went off according to plan there was from his point of view a distinct downside on the whole day and that was that he couldn’t get a phone signal which drove him crazy so he wasn’t able to get through to Marti at all.
(Part 03)
On Sunday and Monday there were a succession of family farewells and hug fests as Jerry waved goodbye to three generations of his extended family and after the four day weekend was over it was back to work in the thrilling world of accountancy.
It seemed especially tedious on that particular Tuesday because his mind was elsewhere.
He began the day by trying to get hold of Marti on the phone again but he had no more good fortune than he done at the weekend.
All week long they kept missing each other on the phone and for the first half of it they communicated solely by voice mail if you can call it communication.
Marti was in lectures at Abbottsford University all week and had several approaching deadlines and for Jerry it was the financial year end for the company he worked for so Jerry was having to work late every night and spend a disproportionate amount of time in meetings with department managers, accountants and auditors.
He was reassured however that she seemed to be every bit as anxious to talk to him as he was to talk to her.
If it hadn’t been such a hellish week at work he would have driven back down to Sharpington to see her, but that wasn’t an option, firstly because he was just too busy but the main reason was because she wasn’t there.
Unfortunately he didn’t know where she was living in Abbottsford so he couldn’t go and see her there.
So they both kept ringing one another and they both kept missing each other so by Thursday he was getting increasingly frustrated by his failure to make contact with her and he could tell by her tone that she was too.
Then he had a brain wave and he texted her his email address and then he cursed himself and his stupidity for not thinking of it earlier.
He just hoped she would see it in the same light as he did and they could finally converse and makes plans that didn’t consist of talking to each other’s voice mail.
Luckily he needn’t have worried, Marti thought it was a great idea and wished that she had thought of it and then the email traffic flowed between them and the volume and content was quite epic and were tantamount to love letters and woven amongst the sentimental words of love were the minutiae of the everyday, the mundane and the ordinary that would make up the fabric of their budding relationship.
But despite the fluidity of the email traffic they were still no nearer actually seeing each other face to face.
(Part 04)
On Saturday Jerry had to work a 12 hour day to put the finishing touches to the yearend accounts and on Sunday it was his mum’s birthday so he had planned to spend the whole day with her.
However he had at least finally succeeded in talking to Marti and it turned out that she was tied up all weekend as well.
But they were both hopeful that the following week would offer an opportunity for them to actually get together.
Jerry picked his mum up from Childean on Sunday morning and took her to St Andrew’s Church and afterwards out for lunch to The Huntsman’s Lodge restaurant and from there he drove her home and then went inside to have tea with her.
“Put the kettle on Julius” she said and he winced at the sound of his name said out loud but he duly obliged and while he was in the kitchen there was a knock at the door.
His mum answered the knock and an exchange of exited chatter ensued.
He recognised the other voice to be that of Aunty Erin, she wasn’t really an auntie just a long standing family friend who was particularly close to his mum.
Jerry hadn’t seen her since he was at school, but throughout his childhood she and her family had featured extensively in his life.
“I thought I would just pop in and wish you a happy birthday dear” Erin said
“And I brought Sonja along to say hello, she’s just back from University for the weekend”
Jerry’s heart sank, he remembered Sonja very well, she was younger than him by about 4 years and she was a clumsy gawky girl who used to trail around after him.
She was a blight on his childhood summer holidays.
“Oh it’s so lovely to see you Sonja” his mum said
“Julius is in the kitchen”
He winced again at the use of his name and a moment later Jerry got his first sight of the young woman called Sonja, narrow hipped, round pert buttocks, small breasts, firm to the touch and soft-silky skin.
And that last part wasn’t wishful thinking either, he knew this to be true and not merely a fanciful notion, because it was her bed he had reluctantly vacated the previous weekend and as if to dispel any doubts she was wearing the same poppy print dress she wore when they first met.
“I thought it would be nice for them to see each other again” Erin said
It was nice to see her, he thought but not as nice as it was the last time they met.
So Marti was actually Sonja Martl, he didn’t realise the clumsy gawky girl Sonja of his childhood as the same girl who called herself Marti who he’d made love to in Sharpington.
She went by the name of Marti because so many people misread or misspoke her surname and so that name stuck.
So it turned out they really had known each other for ever, that’s why she seemed to fit the template, because she was the template.
“So you’re Julius” Marti said
“And you’re Sonja” Jerry responded
“It’s nice to see you again” she said formally “After all these years”
“Yes, perhaps we might go out while you’re home and catch up” he replied and then he whispered
“Did you know?”
Marti just shook her head in the negative and said
“Yes that would be nice”
Mornington-By-Mere – (12) Backwards in Coming Forward
(Part 01)
Alex, at 21 years of age, was the baby of the Kincaid-Smith family, and he lived in the house he was born in, at 4, Windmill Cottages with his parents Dane and Hazel and two older sisters Roxie and Lisa.
He had never lived anywhere else until he went to University and now he had his degree and was back in Mornington he had no desire to leave again, everything he wanted was in Mornington.
He wasn’t quite sure what he was going to do with his English degree or how he was going to make a living but for the summer at least he was staying put.
And the reason for that very definite mind set was Caz Williamson who lived a couple of doors away at number 2, with her mum Jo.
He’d had a crush on Cassandra since they were at the village school together and he’d been in love with her since college.
She was the year below him at Childean College and they used to sit next to each other on the bus but he’d never managed to pluck up enough courage to ask her out.
He had always been a painfully shy person and when they were at school she was the only one who understood his predicament.
When he first went to University he found it very difficult and had it not been for Caz and her supportive emails he wouldn’t have got through the year.
The second year she was at University herself, though not the same one and emailing each other helped keep them both sane.
But he was finished now and she still had a year to go and he was worried that she wouldn’t need him during her third year and someone else would snap her up.
He had only got back to the village the day before and it was quite late so he hadn’t seen her.
He spent an extraordinary time in the bathroom getting ready and more importantly rehearsing in the bathroom mirror exactly what he wanted to say to her.
Taking a deep breath and in a state of acute anticipation he knocked on the door of number 2 and when the door opened he felt a sense of anti-climax as her mum Jo answered the door.
“Hello Alex, when did you get back?”
“Late last night” he replied
“If you’re looking for Caz she’s not here” she said and smiled at the crestfallen look on his face.
“Oh ok”
“She’s working in the main beer tent at the Beer Festival”
Josephine said
“I might see her there then” he replied “Thanks”
“There’s no might about it” she thought to herself as she watched him walk away.
She could never understand why those two weren’t a couple he was besotted with her and she had carried a torch for him since primary school.
She got why Alex hadn’t asked her out, he was very shy but it was the 21st century and girls don’t have to wait to be asked anymore so why hadn’t she asked him? Caz never had been backwards in coming forwards except apparently where Alex was concerned.
As was the norm The Beer Festival was being held in the grounds of Mornington Manor which was only half a mile from the Windmill cottages so Alex hurried off in that direction to find Cassandra.
(Part 02)
Josephine Williamson was right on the money about her daughter carrying a torch for Alex and she wished she could wave a magic wand and make them a couple but she couldn’t.
Alex had been a rock for Caz after her father left, and was a shoulder to cry on all through the divorce.
Jo and Caz were very close and she was worried that her daughter was holding back for her sake.
It was tough for them both after the divorce and they struggled financially and they both had to work hard doing part time jobs to make ends meet but they had managed and Caz had made it to University as well, which was a bonus.
But at the age of 42, Jo was ready to stand on her own two feet, she had managed to get a full time job with one of the new firms up at Mornington Field, Paige Turners, and she was worried that Caz was holding herself in check regarding Alex because she didn’t want to leave her mum with no one.
So she decided that she would need to have a talk with her.
However that wasn’t what was holding Cassandra back at all, her problem was fear.
The confident bubbly redhead was afraid that if she asked him out and he said no it would ruin what they had and create an awkwardness between them and then she wouldn’t even have the emails that she looked forward to so much.
She would just have to remain patient and wait for him to make his move.
The festival was well under way so Cassandra looked at her watch and wondered why she hadn’t seen him.
Every time she went out collecting glasses she craned her neck and scanned the faces in the crowd but to no avail because no sooner had Alex stepped through the Manor gates than his dad shouted to him.
“Alex!”
He tried to ignore it but it got louder
“Alex!!” his dad called “Over here son”
It was no use he couldn’t ignore him so he turned towards the direction of his father’s call and waved.
But it became apparent that a wave was not sufficient because he repeated his call
“Over here”
By the time he had been introduced to all his Dads workmates and cronies or perhaps reintroduced would be more accurate and he’d had a pint of Mornington Ale with them an hour had slipped by.
He arrived later at the main beer tent than he had intended and after the beer he felt a little light headed as he hadn’t eaten since the night before.
But as he made his way to the bar he was very pleased to see the gorgeous Cassandra was serving.
She was five foot eight with Luscious thick ginger curls tumbling down onto her shoulders and mesmerizing green eyes and ever since he got back he’d been longing to see her again.
Her figure was as lovely as he pictured it in his dreams each night full and curvaceous and perfectly proportioned.
As she was working the bar for the festival she was dressed in a uniform of short black skirt and crisp white blouse and he envied every inch of the fabric she was wearing as it clung to her every undulation.
“Hello stranger” She said smiling broadly
(Part 03)
“Hello stranger” Caz said smiling broadly
“I was beginning to think you weren’t coming”
“Hi Caz” he replied, “I only got back last night”
“I know I saw you” she retorted and he raised an enquiring eyebrow
“I was just closing my bedroom curtains when your dad’s car pulled up” she replied and felt herself blush at the lie.
What she had actually been doing was staring out of her bedroom window waiting for him to arrive.
“Do you want a drink?” she asked trying to cover her embarrassment
“Yes please” he replied “Make it a half as I haven’t eaten anything yet, oh and have one yourself”
“I’d rather have one with you later when I’m on my break, if that’s ok?” she said
“No problem, when’s your break?”
“In an hour” she replied just as a large group of punters arrived at the bar demanding her attention.
“I’ll see you later then” he said and took his beer and went in search of a burger.
Even after the burger a combination of too much beer and an empty stomach still left him a little light headed so he decided to find somewhere to sit while he waited for Caz to take her break and for the burger to reach his stomach.
He had just begun to head for an empty bench when he was hailed by Elsa and Dee Larsen and he turned to see them tottering towards him across the grass, shoes in hand, ever so slightly tipsy.
The girls were twins, quite inseparable, blue eyed blondes and very gorgeous but alas they were only 17 so they shouldn’t have even been drinking.
But they were both lovely girls and he liked them a lot though not in that way.
He’d only met them once before at a BBQ at Caz’s, their parents worked at Paige Turners with her mum.
Elsa was the younger of the two by a few minutes, standing five foot two while Dee was an inch shorter they were both stunningly beautiful though and wearing low cut tops.
They tottered up alongside him each taking an arm and began flirting with him outrageously.
“Can we come back to yours Alex?” Dee said
“They won’t let us have another drink”
“It’s not like we’re drunk or anything” Elsa chipped in
“Can we?” Dee said again
“Please Alex?” Jenny added
“No” he said, “Sit down there and behave”
“If we don’t will you spank us?” asked Dee
“Yes will you spank us?” Elsa repeated and giggled
“You’ll get me arrested,” he said
Being over six foot tall and with the two girls seated on the bench, he was afforded an uninterrupted view down the front of their low cut tops which made him blush to his roots.
Dee noticed his discomfiture and thrust her chest out at him and giggled.
This was not the kind of behaviour that sat well with Alex, being such a shy man so he was extremely embarrassed so much so that he wanted to just walk away and leave them but in their condition someone was likely to take advantage of them.
While he tried to think of his best course of action and much to his annoyance they got up and started dancing around him flirting and flaunting and flashing their skimpy knickers at him, whether knowingly or otherwise was immaterial.
“Just sit yourself down” he said sternly
“But we’re having fun” Dee protested
“We don’t mind a bit of sexy fun” Elsa added and then blushed and both girls giggled
“Just sit” he said sharply
“Oh you’re so masterful” Elsa said
Just at that moment just in the nick of time he caught site of Glen and Shelley, the twin’s parents and they did not look happy, someone had clearly called and alerted them to the girl’s condition.
He gave them a wave and managed to catch Glen’s eye.
“They’re here” he called
“Thank you for watching over them Alex” Shelly said
“You two are in so much trouble” Glen said
“Now straight home”
(Part 04)
As he watched the drunken twins walk away with their parents, heads bowed he heard a voice behind him say
“I’m on my break now so I’m ready for that drink”
“Ok let’s go” he said
He left Cassandra sitting at a table while he went to the bar for the drinks and when he returned and sat down beside her she said a little bitterly
“I saw you with the pretty Larsen twins, I suppose everyone loves the pretty girls”
“Yes” he said thoughtfully “I rather like pretty girls myself”
He was surprised by his boldness but still couldn’t say the next part out loud and continued in his head
“Which is why I asked you to join me for a drink”
“Well it’s a shame you’re stuck with someone who’s not pretty then” She snorted
“Don’t you think you’re pretty?” he asked
“No” she snapped “I’m not pretty”
“Perhaps you’re right” he agreed “I think you’re beautiful”
She turned her head away coyly and thought.
“Oh my God he’s finally going to do it”
He was so close to her that her intoxicating perfume enveloped him as she turned to face him and he was poised, and he had the question framed in his head as he stared into her beautiful hypnotic green eyes, and he opened his mouth to speak but before the words came out the two of them were engulfed by a group of exited and slightly inebriated friends who surrounded them and the moment was gone.
After about ten minutes of hearty hello’s Cassandra excused herself from the melee.
“Sorry but I have to get back to work” she said and without a glance backwards she was gone and the tears immediately began to sting her eyes which was when she bumped into her mum
“What’s the matter love?” Jo asked and she threw herself into her arms and sobbed.
Once Jo had calmed her down sufficiently that she could speak and having determined that no one had died, she tried to get to the bottom of what had upset her daughter.
“I love him mum” she said “I love Alex”
“Well I knew that much” she said
“You did?”
“I’ve known for years” she explained “I just don’t know why you didn’t do something about it”
“Oh”
“I thought you were holding back because of me” Jo admitted
“I see that I was wrong now”
“No that wasn’t it” Caz said
“So why haven’t you done anything about it?” Joe asked
“Because I’m worried I’ll scare him away, if he doesn’t like me that way I’ll lose him as a friend for ever”
“What do you mean if he likes you that way?” Jo asked “He’s soppy about you”
“What should I do mum?”
“Ask him” Jo said “He’s never going to ask, he’s too shy”
“I thought he was going to ask me out just now and then we got interrupted and now I don’t know what he was going to say, I’ll never know” Caz explained
“Then ask him love” her mum repeated
“Really?”
“Yes, just get him on his own and ask him”
(Part 05)
Cassandra’s eyes were red and her cheeks were stained with tears though she was much calmer, it had taken Jo about half an hour of soothing words to get Caz to the point where she could tell her what was wrong without bursting into tears again.
But at the end of the 30 minutes they had a plan.
She was afraid that with all the new influx of people to the village she would lose him to some flighty townie girl like one of the Larsen twins, so the plan had to be actioned sooner rather than later.
Jo spotted Alex with a group of half a dozen lads chatting by the gates.
“Alex!” she called “have you got a minute?”
“Sure”
“Listen, I have to shoot off now but Cassandra has a couple of boxes to bring home with her” she explained
“Would you be a love and help her with them?”
“Of course” he replied
“Great, meet her in the beer tent in an hour”
“Ok”
“Thanks Alex you’re a star” she said and walked towards home smiling broadly and when she got out of sight she said a text to her daughter
“It’s up to you now”
He could see Cassandra as he walked into the beer tent and he thought she’d seen him but she just kept walking, they were quite busy and he was by the bar for 5 minutes or more and still didn’t have a clue where she had gone and the crowd of expectant punters was getting bigger.
Suddenly Caz was stood next to him.
“Hi” he said “Shouldn’t you be serving its awfully busy”
“It’s my break,” she answered curtly
“Your mum said you needed some help” he explained but he didn’t think she looked particularly pleased to see him.
“Come with me” Cassandra said brusquely and strode off
“Ok”
She led him down a kind of corridor between two huge marquees, passed the Manor steps and through a door that said private, down a long dark corridor, finally arriving at another door.
“In here” she said abruptly
“She’s a bit moody” he thought “I hope it wasn’t something I did”
Just in case he did what she said without protest and as the door closed the light went on to reveal it was a storage cupboard, and all at once Cassandra wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately on the mouth.
“Did you want to ask me a question?” she asked after breaking away from his mouth
“Er, yes I did” he replied
“And?”
“And what?”
“What was the question?” Caz asked
“Well er, it was er, kind of um” he burbled so she kissed him hard on the mouth again.
“Try again” she said
“Will you er, I mean would you”
“Oh for god’s sake” she snapped and kissed him languidly and when he escaped her lips he asked
“Will you go out with me?”
“Oh I don’t know this is all so sudden” she replied and stepped towards the door
“Oh no you don’t” he said and pulled her back into his arms.
Alex, at 21 years of age, was the baby of the Kincaid-Smith family, and he lived in the house he was born in, at 4, Windmill Cottages with his parents Dane and Hazel and two older sisters Roxie and Lisa.
He had never lived anywhere else until he went to University and now he had his degree and was back in Mornington he had no desire to leave again, everything he wanted was in Mornington.
He wasn’t quite sure what he was going to do with his English degree or how he was going to make a living but for the summer at least he was staying put.
And the reason for that very definite mind set was Caz Williamson who lived a couple of doors away at number 2, with her mum Jo.
He’d had a crush on Cassandra since they were at the village school together and he’d been in love with her since college.
She was the year below him at Childean College and they used to sit next to each other on the bus but he’d never managed to pluck up enough courage to ask her out.
He had always been a painfully shy person and when they were at school she was the only one who understood his predicament.
When he first went to University he found it very difficult and had it not been for Caz and her supportive emails he wouldn’t have got through the year.
The second year she was at University herself, though not the same one and emailing each other helped keep them both sane.
But he was finished now and she still had a year to go and he was worried that she wouldn’t need him during her third year and someone else would snap her up.
He had only got back to the village the day before and it was quite late so he hadn’t seen her.
He spent an extraordinary time in the bathroom getting ready and more importantly rehearsing in the bathroom mirror exactly what he wanted to say to her.
Taking a deep breath and in a state of acute anticipation he knocked on the door of number 2 and when the door opened he felt a sense of anti-climax as her mum Jo answered the door.
“Hello Alex, when did you get back?”
“Late last night” he replied
“If you’re looking for Caz she’s not here” she said and smiled at the crestfallen look on his face.
“Oh ok”
“She’s working in the main beer tent at the Beer Festival”
Josephine said
“I might see her there then” he replied “Thanks”
“There’s no might about it” she thought to herself as she watched him walk away.
She could never understand why those two weren’t a couple he was besotted with her and she had carried a torch for him since primary school.
She got why Alex hadn’t asked her out, he was very shy but it was the 21st century and girls don’t have to wait to be asked anymore so why hadn’t she asked him? Caz never had been backwards in coming forwards except apparently where Alex was concerned.
As was the norm The Beer Festival was being held in the grounds of Mornington Manor which was only half a mile from the Windmill cottages so Alex hurried off in that direction to find Cassandra.
(Part 02)
Josephine Williamson was right on the money about her daughter carrying a torch for Alex and she wished she could wave a magic wand and make them a couple but she couldn’t.
Alex had been a rock for Caz after her father left, and was a shoulder to cry on all through the divorce.
Jo and Caz were very close and she was worried that her daughter was holding back for her sake.
It was tough for them both after the divorce and they struggled financially and they both had to work hard doing part time jobs to make ends meet but they had managed and Caz had made it to University as well, which was a bonus.
But at the age of 42, Jo was ready to stand on her own two feet, she had managed to get a full time job with one of the new firms up at Mornington Field, Paige Turners, and she was worried that Caz was holding herself in check regarding Alex because she didn’t want to leave her mum with no one.
So she decided that she would need to have a talk with her.
However that wasn’t what was holding Cassandra back at all, her problem was fear.
The confident bubbly redhead was afraid that if she asked him out and he said no it would ruin what they had and create an awkwardness between them and then she wouldn’t even have the emails that she looked forward to so much.
She would just have to remain patient and wait for him to make his move.
The festival was well under way so Cassandra looked at her watch and wondered why she hadn’t seen him.
Every time she went out collecting glasses she craned her neck and scanned the faces in the crowd but to no avail because no sooner had Alex stepped through the Manor gates than his dad shouted to him.
“Alex!”
He tried to ignore it but it got louder
“Alex!!” his dad called “Over here son”
It was no use he couldn’t ignore him so he turned towards the direction of his father’s call and waved.
But it became apparent that a wave was not sufficient because he repeated his call
“Over here”
By the time he had been introduced to all his Dads workmates and cronies or perhaps reintroduced would be more accurate and he’d had a pint of Mornington Ale with them an hour had slipped by.
He arrived later at the main beer tent than he had intended and after the beer he felt a little light headed as he hadn’t eaten since the night before.
But as he made his way to the bar he was very pleased to see the gorgeous Cassandra was serving.
She was five foot eight with Luscious thick ginger curls tumbling down onto her shoulders and mesmerizing green eyes and ever since he got back he’d been longing to see her again.
Her figure was as lovely as he pictured it in his dreams each night full and curvaceous and perfectly proportioned.
As she was working the bar for the festival she was dressed in a uniform of short black skirt and crisp white blouse and he envied every inch of the fabric she was wearing as it clung to her every undulation.
“Hello stranger” She said smiling broadly
(Part 03)
“Hello stranger” Caz said smiling broadly
“I was beginning to think you weren’t coming”
“Hi Caz” he replied, “I only got back last night”
“I know I saw you” she retorted and he raised an enquiring eyebrow
“I was just closing my bedroom curtains when your dad’s car pulled up” she replied and felt herself blush at the lie.
What she had actually been doing was staring out of her bedroom window waiting for him to arrive.
“Do you want a drink?” she asked trying to cover her embarrassment
“Yes please” he replied “Make it a half as I haven’t eaten anything yet, oh and have one yourself”
“I’d rather have one with you later when I’m on my break, if that’s ok?” she said
“No problem, when’s your break?”
“In an hour” she replied just as a large group of punters arrived at the bar demanding her attention.
“I’ll see you later then” he said and took his beer and went in search of a burger.
Even after the burger a combination of too much beer and an empty stomach still left him a little light headed so he decided to find somewhere to sit while he waited for Caz to take her break and for the burger to reach his stomach.
He had just begun to head for an empty bench when he was hailed by Elsa and Dee Larsen and he turned to see them tottering towards him across the grass, shoes in hand, ever so slightly tipsy.
The girls were twins, quite inseparable, blue eyed blondes and very gorgeous but alas they were only 17 so they shouldn’t have even been drinking.
But they were both lovely girls and he liked them a lot though not in that way.
He’d only met them once before at a BBQ at Caz’s, their parents worked at Paige Turners with her mum.
Elsa was the younger of the two by a few minutes, standing five foot two while Dee was an inch shorter they were both stunningly beautiful though and wearing low cut tops.
They tottered up alongside him each taking an arm and began flirting with him outrageously.
“Can we come back to yours Alex?” Dee said
“They won’t let us have another drink”
“It’s not like we’re drunk or anything” Elsa chipped in
“Can we?” Dee said again
“Please Alex?” Jenny added
“No” he said, “Sit down there and behave”
“If we don’t will you spank us?” asked Dee
“Yes will you spank us?” Elsa repeated and giggled
“You’ll get me arrested,” he said
Being over six foot tall and with the two girls seated on the bench, he was afforded an uninterrupted view down the front of their low cut tops which made him blush to his roots.
Dee noticed his discomfiture and thrust her chest out at him and giggled.
This was not the kind of behaviour that sat well with Alex, being such a shy man so he was extremely embarrassed so much so that he wanted to just walk away and leave them but in their condition someone was likely to take advantage of them.
While he tried to think of his best course of action and much to his annoyance they got up and started dancing around him flirting and flaunting and flashing their skimpy knickers at him, whether knowingly or otherwise was immaterial.
“Just sit yourself down” he said sternly
“But we’re having fun” Dee protested
“We don’t mind a bit of sexy fun” Elsa added and then blushed and both girls giggled
“Just sit” he said sharply
“Oh you’re so masterful” Elsa said
Just at that moment just in the nick of time he caught site of Glen and Shelley, the twin’s parents and they did not look happy, someone had clearly called and alerted them to the girl’s condition.
He gave them a wave and managed to catch Glen’s eye.
“They’re here” he called
“Thank you for watching over them Alex” Shelly said
“You two are in so much trouble” Glen said
“Now straight home”
(Part 04)
As he watched the drunken twins walk away with their parents, heads bowed he heard a voice behind him say
“I’m on my break now so I’m ready for that drink”
“Ok let’s go” he said
He left Cassandra sitting at a table while he went to the bar for the drinks and when he returned and sat down beside her she said a little bitterly
“I saw you with the pretty Larsen twins, I suppose everyone loves the pretty girls”
“Yes” he said thoughtfully “I rather like pretty girls myself”
He was surprised by his boldness but still couldn’t say the next part out loud and continued in his head
“Which is why I asked you to join me for a drink”
“Well it’s a shame you’re stuck with someone who’s not pretty then” She snorted
“Don’t you think you’re pretty?” he asked
“No” she snapped “I’m not pretty”
“Perhaps you’re right” he agreed “I think you’re beautiful”
She turned her head away coyly and thought.
“Oh my God he’s finally going to do it”
He was so close to her that her intoxicating perfume enveloped him as she turned to face him and he was poised, and he had the question framed in his head as he stared into her beautiful hypnotic green eyes, and he opened his mouth to speak but before the words came out the two of them were engulfed by a group of exited and slightly inebriated friends who surrounded them and the moment was gone.
After about ten minutes of hearty hello’s Cassandra excused herself from the melee.
“Sorry but I have to get back to work” she said and without a glance backwards she was gone and the tears immediately began to sting her eyes which was when she bumped into her mum
“What’s the matter love?” Jo asked and she threw herself into her arms and sobbed.
Once Jo had calmed her down sufficiently that she could speak and having determined that no one had died, she tried to get to the bottom of what had upset her daughter.
“I love him mum” she said “I love Alex”
“Well I knew that much” she said
“You did?”
“I’ve known for years” she explained “I just don’t know why you didn’t do something about it”
“Oh”
“I thought you were holding back because of me” Jo admitted
“I see that I was wrong now”
“No that wasn’t it” Caz said
“So why haven’t you done anything about it?” Joe asked
“Because I’m worried I’ll scare him away, if he doesn’t like me that way I’ll lose him as a friend for ever”
“What do you mean if he likes you that way?” Jo asked “He’s soppy about you”
“What should I do mum?”
“Ask him” Jo said “He’s never going to ask, he’s too shy”
“I thought he was going to ask me out just now and then we got interrupted and now I don’t know what he was going to say, I’ll never know” Caz explained
“Then ask him love” her mum repeated
“Really?”
“Yes, just get him on his own and ask him”
(Part 05)
Cassandra’s eyes were red and her cheeks were stained with tears though she was much calmer, it had taken Jo about half an hour of soothing words to get Caz to the point where she could tell her what was wrong without bursting into tears again.
But at the end of the 30 minutes they had a plan.
She was afraid that with all the new influx of people to the village she would lose him to some flighty townie girl like one of the Larsen twins, so the plan had to be actioned sooner rather than later.
Jo spotted Alex with a group of half a dozen lads chatting by the gates.
“Alex!” she called “have you got a minute?”
“Sure”
“Listen, I have to shoot off now but Cassandra has a couple of boxes to bring home with her” she explained
“Would you be a love and help her with them?”
“Of course” he replied
“Great, meet her in the beer tent in an hour”
“Ok”
“Thanks Alex you’re a star” she said and walked towards home smiling broadly and when she got out of sight she said a text to her daughter
“It’s up to you now”
He could see Cassandra as he walked into the beer tent and he thought she’d seen him but she just kept walking, they were quite busy and he was by the bar for 5 minutes or more and still didn’t have a clue where she had gone and the crowd of expectant punters was getting bigger.
Suddenly Caz was stood next to him.
“Hi” he said “Shouldn’t you be serving its awfully busy”
“It’s my break,” she answered curtly
“Your mum said you needed some help” he explained but he didn’t think she looked particularly pleased to see him.
“Come with me” Cassandra said brusquely and strode off
“Ok”
She led him down a kind of corridor between two huge marquees, passed the Manor steps and through a door that said private, down a long dark corridor, finally arriving at another door.
“In here” she said abruptly
“She’s a bit moody” he thought “I hope it wasn’t something I did”
Just in case he did what she said without protest and as the door closed the light went on to reveal it was a storage cupboard, and all at once Cassandra wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately on the mouth.
“Did you want to ask me a question?” she asked after breaking away from his mouth
“Er, yes I did” he replied
“And?”
“And what?”
“What was the question?” Caz asked
“Well er, it was er, kind of um” he burbled so she kissed him hard on the mouth again.
“Try again” she said
“Will you er, I mean would you”
“Oh for god’s sake” she snapped and kissed him languidly and when he escaped her lips he asked
“Will you go out with me?”
“Oh I don’t know this is all so sudden” she replied and stepped towards the door
“Oh no you don’t” he said and pulled her back into his arms.
Downshire Diary – (12) Marrying Dorcas
(Part 01)
Ben and Dorcas had been living together for just over a month and he found it difficult to remember the time he lived alone.
It had been a bit of whirlwind romance and in just a few short months Bens cozy little life had been completely turned upside down.
From the moment Dorcas breezed into his life on a bright June day when she almost sent him into the afterlife from behind the wheel of her car.so they met in June, he proposed in August and they officially moved in together in November, although they were together virtually all the time from the moment of the proposal.
It was the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to him and she changed his life in a heartbeat.
The only blot on the landscape for them was “The Wedding” and that didn’t mean in any way shape or form that he didn’t want to get married to her, he did, very much so, and she felt exactly the same way, it was just the subject of “The Wedding” that was getting them down.
It had become all consuming, they thought they had been quite canny, leaving it in the hands of their parents but they were driving them mad.
And the wedding had taken on a life of its own, and it was not a life form that they recognized or wished to embrace.
They were constantly being pressed for a date and being told that the plans couldn’t proceed any further without knowing the date.
They had thought that once they got into December their focus would shift from the wedding to Christmas but no it seemed to get worse if anything and it was only the 1st day of the month.
They were both sitting in the lounge at the cottage having both come off the phone with their respective parents engulfed in gloom.
After about ten minutes Ben had a light bulb moment and he said
“Why don’t we get away?”
“Get away?” Dorcas replied
“Yes, let’s get away for a week and escape the harassment”
Get away?” Dorcas repeated
“We’ll be back in time for Christmas” he continued “but until then we can avoid all the talk of wedding plans”
Dorcas just sat looking thoughtful so he pressed on
“We’ve both got holiday to use up and we could do some Christmas shopping while we’re away”
She said nothing for a full minute and then suddenly she excitedly said
“Let’s go on line and see what’s available”
He switched on the laptop and she sat next to him as he opened the browser
“Do you want sun?” he asked
“No I’m not fussed about the sun” she said
“Ok, do you want activity?”
“Nah”
“America?”
“No, to America and nowhere that’s more than two hours flying time” she said decisively
“So Europe then” he said
“I think so”
“So how about Natural beauty?” he asked
“Nah”
“Well present company accepted” Ben added and kissed her
“You’re so sweet” She said and kissed him back
“Historic?” he asked
“Hmm” she responded thoughtfully
“Romantic?”
“Definitely” she replied
“City break then”
“Oh yes a city break” she said excitedly “but it must be a city I’ve not been to before”
“How about….” he pondered he knew she had been to the usual places, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels etc. so he cast his net a bit further.
“Berlin” he suggested
(Part 02)
They had decided on a city break somewhere in Europe.
“How about….” he pondered he knew she had been to the usual places, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels etc. so he cast his net a bit further.
“Berlin” he suggested
“Berlin?” she repeated “Oooh I haven’t been there”
“It has history, romance and a Christmas market to boot” he added
“Oooh a Christmas market” she said enthusiastically
“Ok then Berlin it is” Ben said
“Let’s find somewhere to stay” Dorcas added
An hour later they had a 10 night booking at the Regent Hotel and flights booked for the following Thursday, St Nicholas Day, the 6th December.
And a return flight on the 16th, which would give them a full week to do all the last minute stuff and enjoy the run in to their first Christmas together.
So on the Monday morning they put in their holiday forms to their respective employers and the wheels were set in motion.
They did however have a minor panic when Dorcas couldn’t find her passport.
She thought she had it last when she lived in Finchbottom but after an extensive search of the cottage and her unpacked boxes proved fruitless the realization that it must be at her parents’ house dawned on them.
The simple thing would have been to ask her mum but that would have alerted her to their plans and would have led to increased wedding questioning that would have to be answered before they departed and they didn’t plan on telling anyone they were going away until the last minute.
Dorcas had to leave it until Wednesday afternoon, when she knew her mum would be at the Women’s Institute, when she could sneak into the house and search unmolested.
It was cutting it very fine as they were due to leave the next day, but all the sneaky subterfuge and stealth paid off and she phoned him from the house to say she had it.
That evening they asked John and Carole from next door to pop in and feed Pandora while they were away and then they were all set.
At that stage they were the only two, outside of work colleagues, that knew they were going away.
So they were feeling very pleased with themselves when they reached the airport on Thursday morning and they had shown the family a clean pair of heels.
However once they got through passport control they phoned Helen to let her know what they were doing.
“Good for you” she said “I wouldn’t blame you if you got married while you’re away, Have a great time”
They flew into Tegel Airport just after 11.00am and arrived at the Hotel Regent about an hour and a half later and they were not disappointed by their choice, it was absolutely beautiful and very luxurious.
They had a beautiful room and from the main window there was a wonderful view of the imposing dome of, what they found out later was the French Cathedral.
Ben and Dorcas were so very pleased with their lovely room that they didn’t leave it all afternoon.
In fact they only left it in order to go and eat and then they went back to the room and had an early night.
(Part 03)
On Friday the weather was very English and it bucketed down with rain so they decided to make use of the Hotel facilities for the day and they began their holiday proper on Saturday morning after an early breakfast and they crammed in a lot on their first day out and about.
They took full advantage of the unseasonably mild weather and did the Brandenburg Gate, the Checkpoint Charlie Museum and the Glienicke Bridge in the morning and the Christmas Market at Charlottenburg Palace after lunch and into the evening.
When they woke up on Sunday morning they were exhausted after packing so much into their day, so they decided that they should perhaps have a more relaxing day beginning with breakfast to be followed by Church.
After speaking to the waiter the pair took his advice and got a taxi to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on the Kurfürstendamm.
And when the driver turned onto the very broad, long boulevard full of shops, houses, hotels and restaurants he said proudly
“This is the Champs-Élysées of Berlin”
“Oh look” Dorcas said excitedly as they pulled up outside the beautiful blue church “they have a Christmas market here too”
As Ben handed the driver his money he said
“They have Christmas markets everywhere”
“Oh goody” she responded and he laughed
The service was lovely and the new part of the Church with the blue glass was spectacular with the winter sun shining through.
Afterwards they ate lunch of Frickadellen with fries and mayo from a “Schnellie” at the roadside.
Ben and Dorcas went to Wannsee After lunch and walked around the lakes in the sunshine enjoying the scenery until the evening fell and so did the temperature.
From Monday onwards there was very little sun to speak of and it was bitterly cold but they really didn’t mind as for the rest of the week they got to spend lots of time hugging.
But it was an action packed few days, they shopped at Potsdamer Platz, spent hours at Museums Island, had lunch at the rotating restaurant at the TV tower on Alexanderplatz, climbed the victory column in the Tiergarten, visited the Berlin Zoo, went Christmas shopping at the big department store, KaDeWe, and a attended a liberal sprinkling of Christmas markets, in fact you name it and they did it.
It was when they were at the Gendarmenmarkt Christmas Market that life got very interesting.
It was an incredibly cold afternoon and they had both over indulged on Gluwein when her phone rang.
Dorcas looked at the phone and pulled a face, it was not the first call that week to have caused that reaction.
“My mum just doesn’t give up” she said and rejected the call.
“I suppose that’s the price we have to pay” Ben said “if we want to get married and have the big wedding”
“But I don’t want to” she retorted
(Part 04)
“I suppose that’s the price we have to pay” Ben said “if we want to get married and have the big wedding”
“But I don’t want to” she retorted
“You don’t want to get married?” he asked with alarm
“Of course I want to marry you hon” she said reassuringly
“But I don’t want a big wedding” Dorcas said
“I just want me and you” and then she kissed him
“Let’s do it then” he suggested “let’s do it today, right now”
“What about the family?” she mused “Oooh my Mum will be so mad”
“And mine” he said “But what are they going to do? Ground us?”
Dorcas looked thoughtful as she drank another Gluwein
“And we can have a blessing at St Lucy’s later for family and friends” he added
“Ok let’s do it” Dorcas said and hugged him tightly
“Are you sure?” Ben asked
“Well I’m sure that I love you,” she said in reply “and I’m sure that you love me, so yes I’m sure”
Having made the decision to usurp their parents and have a quiet wedding of their own, on their own terms, the first thing the next morning they went to the British embassy to get the relevant forms required to marry in Germany, which was surprisingly easy.
After they left the embassy they went to a variety of bureaucratic offices and queued up to sit in front of a variety of bureaucrats until in true German style every forms had all the relative stamps and seals.
However when they went to the registry office they came up against a brick wall.
“You must wait for 6 weeks” the registrar said
“But we’ll be back in England in six weeks” he retorted
“I’m sorry” he said “but it’s the rule”
“but we’ve spent most of the day queuing in dreary offices getting seemingly endless forms endorsed with many and varied stamps and seals and none of the faceless bureaucrats once mentioned a six week rule” Dorcas stated angrily
“I really am sorry” he repeated “but I can’t help you”
Dorcas was about to go again but Ben intervened
“Thank you anyway” he said and guided an unhappy Dorcas towards the door
“However” the registrar called “I know someone who could possible help”
“Oh?” Dorcas exclaimed
“It would be conditional” he continued
“On what” Ben asked
“On you being Christians” he replied
Claus, the registrar, directed them to St Georges Anglican Episcopal Church in Westend and they were soon in a cab driving along Bismarkstrasse through Charlottenburg in the direction of Spandau.
It was a very pretty little church, modern looking with a high sloping tiled roof, but very pretty.
After exiting the cab Ben and Dorcas looked at each other and both nodded their approval simultaneously and walked up the path to the doors.
Claus, had phoned ahead and made them an appointment with Pastor James Morgan, who turned out to be a very jovial Welshman not at all dissimilar to the late great Harry Seacombe.
“Welcome, welcome” he said when they walked through the doors,
“You must be Ben and Dorcas?”
If they were impressed with the outside of the church then they were doubly so with the interior.
It was light and modern but in a traditional way and was as far removed from St Lucy’s in Bushy Down as it was possible to get.
After the introductions were made they sat in the pews and the Pastor said
“Well I’m not sure I can be of any more help than Claus was, it’s just a bit short notice”
(Part 05)
Despite Pastor Morgan informing them that he couldn’t help Ben and Dorcas went on to explain why they had come to the decision that they had and the pressures of the big family wedding that had built and built and finally led them to take the course of action they were proposing.
“We haven’t made our decision lightly”
Dorcas said
“Oh I’m not questioning your motives” he said “but it’s just not something we do, its Thursday now and I understand you’re going home on Sunday, it’s just such terribly short notice”
Dorcas and Ben were both crestfallen.
“Come on both of you let’s have a coffee” he said
They were sitting in quietly in his office drinking a very decent coffee when he asked
“Where is home anyway?”
“We live in Bushy Down, it’s a small…..” I began
“Oh I know Bushy Down” the pastor said with delight “and St Lucy’s”
“Really?” he said “I normally have to explain where it’s near”
“I’ve been there many times, the Reverend Oliver was my Verger for five years before she got St Lucy’s” he said “we remained friends until the end”
“She was well loved” He said “and very much missed”
Katie Oliver had passed away earlier that year after a short illness.
“So sad” he said with melancholy
“She was such a lovely person, I was in the Village for the funeral” He paused in order to gather himself
“Listen why don’t you both stay and have dinner with me and my wife Clair? She’s from Finchbottom by the way” he said his joviality fully restored
“So am I” Dorcas chipped in
“Excellent” he said “you’ll have lots to talk about then, let’s go and surprise her”
They had a marvelous evening with the Morgan’s, good company, excellent food and a liberal amount of alcohol thrown in for good measure the pair of them were fair steaming by the time they got in the taxi to go back to the hotel.
But amidst the friendly banter, reminiscence and over indulgence Pastor Morgan agreed to marry them on Saturday morning.
When they woke up the next morning cuddled up cozily together the realization of what they had done suddenly dawned on them as they lay comfortably beneath the duvet.
“We’re really doing it aren’t we?” Dorcas said as she hugged him
“Yes I think we are” he replied
“Cool” she said
After a few minutes she suddenly went rigid.
“What about witnesses?” she said with real alarm in her voice “or a bridesmaid?”
“Well…..” Ben began but she was already making a call and heading for the bathroom.
“Helen!” she said
After half an hour sitting in the bathroom with the door shut talking to Helen, Dorcas emerged and was much calmer.
“Helen was a great help” she said “I feel much better now, but we need to go shopping”
So he took her to the Europa Centre where he sat watching the Water Clock as he drank a pint of Guinness outside the Irish Pub.
Ben watched the glass bowls empty over and over again while she was buying a dress for the wedding which he wasn’t allowed to see and then she chose a suit for him which he wasn’t allowed an opinion on.
(Part 06)
On Saturday morning they were up early and got downstairs for breakfast as soon as they started serving and all the time they were there breakfasting Dorcas kept fidgeting and looking at her watch or fiddling with her phone and she hardly ate a thing in fact Ben ate most of hers as well.
He assumed that it was just pre wedding nerves so he didn’t say anything and just enjoyed the extra helping.
They had been in the breakfast room for about an hour and he had just poured himself another coffee when all of a sudden Dorcas leapt up and said
“Come along, things to do”
“What?” Ben replied “I haven’t finished my coffee”
“No time for that” she insisted “Let’s go”
Well, a lesser man may have thought that if that was a sample of what was to come he might have been making a mistake, but not him, he just attributed her demeanor and tone to the same nerves that provided him with two breakfasts so he trotted out after the beautiful and excitable little minx.
When he caught up with her in the reception he was just about to make himself comfortable on a luxurious sofa when his sister Helen and his best friend Gary came bustling through the front doors.
Dorcas squealed and ran to embrace Helen.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you”
She screamed as she kissed and hugged Ben’s sister
In the meantime he went over to Gary and asked
“What are you doing here? How did you….”
Then it dawned on me, the previous day’s long conversation in the bathroom between Dorcas and Helen when they had obviously hatched this plan.
“We couldn’t miss it mate” Gary said accompanied by a man hug
“I even suffered the budget air redeye just to be here”
And much to his chagrin he would be returning that night by the same mode.
With all the squealing and giggling from Dorcas and Helen the group had attracted the attention of Christophe, the hotel manager, who they had come to know quite well over the previous week.
Ben caught his eye and he had that look on his face that all Hotel Managers wear when something has occurred that they was not expecting.
So he spent the next five minutes explaining the circumstances of how they came to be in his reception and causing a commotion.
“You are getting married today?” he asked and vigorously shook his hand and then kissed Dorcas on both cheeks
“That is wonderful news”
Then he repeated the process with Helen and Gary, he couldn’t have been happier if they had been his own kith and kin.
Ben went on to explain that his sister and his best friend had only flown in that morning and would be returning to England that evening.
“Ach so” he exclaimed and raised a finger “Ein moment” and went over to the desk.
After a few moments converse with the receptionist he returned to him brandishing a key card.
“The groom must not see the bride before the Church, I think” he stated “So the gentlemen may use this room as a dressing room”
“Thank you so much Christophe” Dorcas said and kissed his cheek like he was a kindly uncle.
(Part 07)
Gary and Ben left the hotel at 11.30am in one of the two cabs Christophe had secured on their behalf and made their way to St Georges Church in Westend.
When they walked in to the Church it was as he expected, largely empty.
Pastor Morgan and his wife Clair were standing by the altar, and there was an elderly man, who he presumed was the organist as he was seated at the organ, other than that there was only Gary and the groom.
Ben stopped suddenly and said
“Rings? I haven’t got any rings”
“Don’t panic” Gary said “I’ve got them, Helen picked them up from your house last night”
He relaxed again and then they continued up to the altar where James and Clair welcomed them and then a tall gangly young man then came to join them
“Ah Sebastian” The pastor said “come and meet the groom and best man”
Then he turned to Ben and said accompanied by an inclination of the head
“Sebastian is going to video the service so you have something to show your parents”
By the time the organ started playing the bridal march a small congregation had assembled and he recognized a handful of familiar faces among them as being from the Hotel, one of them was the Hotel manager Christophe, even the registrar Claus was there.
But his eyes were quickly drawn to his bride to be, Dorcas, and she looked absolutely stunning.
The ceremony itself seemed to pass by in an instant but at the moment they said I do, they both felt complete.
After the wedding breakfast in the Hotel restaurant Helen and Gary had to leave for the airport which despite the fact they would be home the next day was a tearful farewell.
The newlyweds returned to the bar for another drink before they decided to retire and when they reached the reception desk Christophe was there waiting for them and said
“Mr. and Mrs. Overton, please accept with our compliments an upgrade to one of our deluxe suites for your wedding night, I have already taken the liberty of having your personal belongings transferred from your old room” and handed him a key card
“Oh wow” Dorcas said and planted another kiss on the cheek of the “kindly uncle” before they went upstairs to consummate their union in a luxury suite.
He awoke first in the pale winter light of dawn with Dorcas cuddled into him with her head on his chest.
And when she eventually stirred he said
“Good morning Mrs. Overton”
“Oh I like how that sounds” she said and kissed his chest
“It doesn’t sound as classy as Fox-Martin” he suggested
“No” she agreed “but I like it a lot”
“I love you Dorcas” he said
“I love you too” she replied and they made love in the half light.
Later they reluctantly had to leave their luxurious suite and the comfort of their duvet and begin their journey home as Mr. and Mrs. Overton and break the news to their respective parents that there will be other things for them to talk about for the foreseeable future.
It was all going to make for a very interesting Christmas dinner at his mums but the two of them definitely thought it was worth it though.
Ben and Dorcas had been living together for just over a month and he found it difficult to remember the time he lived alone.
It had been a bit of whirlwind romance and in just a few short months Bens cozy little life had been completely turned upside down.
From the moment Dorcas breezed into his life on a bright June day when she almost sent him into the afterlife from behind the wheel of her car.so they met in June, he proposed in August and they officially moved in together in November, although they were together virtually all the time from the moment of the proposal.
It was the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to him and she changed his life in a heartbeat.
The only blot on the landscape for them was “The Wedding” and that didn’t mean in any way shape or form that he didn’t want to get married to her, he did, very much so, and she felt exactly the same way, it was just the subject of “The Wedding” that was getting them down.
It had become all consuming, they thought they had been quite canny, leaving it in the hands of their parents but they were driving them mad.
And the wedding had taken on a life of its own, and it was not a life form that they recognized or wished to embrace.
They were constantly being pressed for a date and being told that the plans couldn’t proceed any further without knowing the date.
They had thought that once they got into December their focus would shift from the wedding to Christmas but no it seemed to get worse if anything and it was only the 1st day of the month.
They were both sitting in the lounge at the cottage having both come off the phone with their respective parents engulfed in gloom.
After about ten minutes Ben had a light bulb moment and he said
“Why don’t we get away?”
“Get away?” Dorcas replied
“Yes, let’s get away for a week and escape the harassment”
Get away?” Dorcas repeated
“We’ll be back in time for Christmas” he continued “but until then we can avoid all the talk of wedding plans”
Dorcas just sat looking thoughtful so he pressed on
“We’ve both got holiday to use up and we could do some Christmas shopping while we’re away”
She said nothing for a full minute and then suddenly she excitedly said
“Let’s go on line and see what’s available”
He switched on the laptop and she sat next to him as he opened the browser
“Do you want sun?” he asked
“No I’m not fussed about the sun” she said
“Ok, do you want activity?”
“Nah”
“America?”
“No, to America and nowhere that’s more than two hours flying time” she said decisively
“So Europe then” he said
“I think so”
“So how about Natural beauty?” he asked
“Nah”
“Well present company accepted” Ben added and kissed her
“You’re so sweet” She said and kissed him back
“Historic?” he asked
“Hmm” she responded thoughtfully
“Romantic?”
“Definitely” she replied
“City break then”
“Oh yes a city break” she said excitedly “but it must be a city I’ve not been to before”
“How about….” he pondered he knew she had been to the usual places, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels etc. so he cast his net a bit further.
“Berlin” he suggested
(Part 02)
They had decided on a city break somewhere in Europe.
“How about….” he pondered he knew she had been to the usual places, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels etc. so he cast his net a bit further.
“Berlin” he suggested
“Berlin?” she repeated “Oooh I haven’t been there”
“It has history, romance and a Christmas market to boot” he added
“Oooh a Christmas market” she said enthusiastically
“Ok then Berlin it is” Ben said
“Let’s find somewhere to stay” Dorcas added
An hour later they had a 10 night booking at the Regent Hotel and flights booked for the following Thursday, St Nicholas Day, the 6th December.
And a return flight on the 16th, which would give them a full week to do all the last minute stuff and enjoy the run in to their first Christmas together.
So on the Monday morning they put in their holiday forms to their respective employers and the wheels were set in motion.
They did however have a minor panic when Dorcas couldn’t find her passport.
She thought she had it last when she lived in Finchbottom but after an extensive search of the cottage and her unpacked boxes proved fruitless the realization that it must be at her parents’ house dawned on them.
The simple thing would have been to ask her mum but that would have alerted her to their plans and would have led to increased wedding questioning that would have to be answered before they departed and they didn’t plan on telling anyone they were going away until the last minute.
Dorcas had to leave it until Wednesday afternoon, when she knew her mum would be at the Women’s Institute, when she could sneak into the house and search unmolested.
It was cutting it very fine as they were due to leave the next day, but all the sneaky subterfuge and stealth paid off and she phoned him from the house to say she had it.
That evening they asked John and Carole from next door to pop in and feed Pandora while they were away and then they were all set.
At that stage they were the only two, outside of work colleagues, that knew they were going away.
So they were feeling very pleased with themselves when they reached the airport on Thursday morning and they had shown the family a clean pair of heels.
However once they got through passport control they phoned Helen to let her know what they were doing.
“Good for you” she said “I wouldn’t blame you if you got married while you’re away, Have a great time”
They flew into Tegel Airport just after 11.00am and arrived at the Hotel Regent about an hour and a half later and they were not disappointed by their choice, it was absolutely beautiful and very luxurious.
They had a beautiful room and from the main window there was a wonderful view of the imposing dome of, what they found out later was the French Cathedral.
Ben and Dorcas were so very pleased with their lovely room that they didn’t leave it all afternoon.
In fact they only left it in order to go and eat and then they went back to the room and had an early night.
(Part 03)
On Friday the weather was very English and it bucketed down with rain so they decided to make use of the Hotel facilities for the day and they began their holiday proper on Saturday morning after an early breakfast and they crammed in a lot on their first day out and about.
They took full advantage of the unseasonably mild weather and did the Brandenburg Gate, the Checkpoint Charlie Museum and the Glienicke Bridge in the morning and the Christmas Market at Charlottenburg Palace after lunch and into the evening.
When they woke up on Sunday morning they were exhausted after packing so much into their day, so they decided that they should perhaps have a more relaxing day beginning with breakfast to be followed by Church.
After speaking to the waiter the pair took his advice and got a taxi to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on the Kurfürstendamm.
And when the driver turned onto the very broad, long boulevard full of shops, houses, hotels and restaurants he said proudly
“This is the Champs-Élysées of Berlin”
“Oh look” Dorcas said excitedly as they pulled up outside the beautiful blue church “they have a Christmas market here too”
As Ben handed the driver his money he said
“They have Christmas markets everywhere”
“Oh goody” she responded and he laughed
The service was lovely and the new part of the Church with the blue glass was spectacular with the winter sun shining through.
Afterwards they ate lunch of Frickadellen with fries and mayo from a “Schnellie” at the roadside.
Ben and Dorcas went to Wannsee After lunch and walked around the lakes in the sunshine enjoying the scenery until the evening fell and so did the temperature.
From Monday onwards there was very little sun to speak of and it was bitterly cold but they really didn’t mind as for the rest of the week they got to spend lots of time hugging.
But it was an action packed few days, they shopped at Potsdamer Platz, spent hours at Museums Island, had lunch at the rotating restaurant at the TV tower on Alexanderplatz, climbed the victory column in the Tiergarten, visited the Berlin Zoo, went Christmas shopping at the big department store, KaDeWe, and a attended a liberal sprinkling of Christmas markets, in fact you name it and they did it.
It was when they were at the Gendarmenmarkt Christmas Market that life got very interesting.
It was an incredibly cold afternoon and they had both over indulged on Gluwein when her phone rang.
Dorcas looked at the phone and pulled a face, it was not the first call that week to have caused that reaction.
“My mum just doesn’t give up” she said and rejected the call.
“I suppose that’s the price we have to pay” Ben said “if we want to get married and have the big wedding”
“But I don’t want to” she retorted
(Part 04)
“I suppose that’s the price we have to pay” Ben said “if we want to get married and have the big wedding”
“But I don’t want to” she retorted
“You don’t want to get married?” he asked with alarm
“Of course I want to marry you hon” she said reassuringly
“But I don’t want a big wedding” Dorcas said
“I just want me and you” and then she kissed him
“Let’s do it then” he suggested “let’s do it today, right now”
“What about the family?” she mused “Oooh my Mum will be so mad”
“And mine” he said “But what are they going to do? Ground us?”
Dorcas looked thoughtful as she drank another Gluwein
“And we can have a blessing at St Lucy’s later for family and friends” he added
“Ok let’s do it” Dorcas said and hugged him tightly
“Are you sure?” Ben asked
“Well I’m sure that I love you,” she said in reply “and I’m sure that you love me, so yes I’m sure”
Having made the decision to usurp their parents and have a quiet wedding of their own, on their own terms, the first thing the next morning they went to the British embassy to get the relevant forms required to marry in Germany, which was surprisingly easy.
After they left the embassy they went to a variety of bureaucratic offices and queued up to sit in front of a variety of bureaucrats until in true German style every forms had all the relative stamps and seals.
However when they went to the registry office they came up against a brick wall.
“You must wait for 6 weeks” the registrar said
“But we’ll be back in England in six weeks” he retorted
“I’m sorry” he said “but it’s the rule”
“but we’ve spent most of the day queuing in dreary offices getting seemingly endless forms endorsed with many and varied stamps and seals and none of the faceless bureaucrats once mentioned a six week rule” Dorcas stated angrily
“I really am sorry” he repeated “but I can’t help you”
Dorcas was about to go again but Ben intervened
“Thank you anyway” he said and guided an unhappy Dorcas towards the door
“However” the registrar called “I know someone who could possible help”
“Oh?” Dorcas exclaimed
“It would be conditional” he continued
“On what” Ben asked
“On you being Christians” he replied
Claus, the registrar, directed them to St Georges Anglican Episcopal Church in Westend and they were soon in a cab driving along Bismarkstrasse through Charlottenburg in the direction of Spandau.
It was a very pretty little church, modern looking with a high sloping tiled roof, but very pretty.
After exiting the cab Ben and Dorcas looked at each other and both nodded their approval simultaneously and walked up the path to the doors.
Claus, had phoned ahead and made them an appointment with Pastor James Morgan, who turned out to be a very jovial Welshman not at all dissimilar to the late great Harry Seacombe.
“Welcome, welcome” he said when they walked through the doors,
“You must be Ben and Dorcas?”
If they were impressed with the outside of the church then they were doubly so with the interior.
It was light and modern but in a traditional way and was as far removed from St Lucy’s in Bushy Down as it was possible to get.
After the introductions were made they sat in the pews and the Pastor said
“Well I’m not sure I can be of any more help than Claus was, it’s just a bit short notice”
(Part 05)
Despite Pastor Morgan informing them that he couldn’t help Ben and Dorcas went on to explain why they had come to the decision that they had and the pressures of the big family wedding that had built and built and finally led them to take the course of action they were proposing.
“We haven’t made our decision lightly”
Dorcas said
“Oh I’m not questioning your motives” he said “but it’s just not something we do, its Thursday now and I understand you’re going home on Sunday, it’s just such terribly short notice”
Dorcas and Ben were both crestfallen.
“Come on both of you let’s have a coffee” he said
They were sitting in quietly in his office drinking a very decent coffee when he asked
“Where is home anyway?”
“We live in Bushy Down, it’s a small…..” I began
“Oh I know Bushy Down” the pastor said with delight “and St Lucy’s”
“Really?” he said “I normally have to explain where it’s near”
“I’ve been there many times, the Reverend Oliver was my Verger for five years before she got St Lucy’s” he said “we remained friends until the end”
“She was well loved” He said “and very much missed”
Katie Oliver had passed away earlier that year after a short illness.
“So sad” he said with melancholy
“She was such a lovely person, I was in the Village for the funeral” He paused in order to gather himself
“Listen why don’t you both stay and have dinner with me and my wife Clair? She’s from Finchbottom by the way” he said his joviality fully restored
“So am I” Dorcas chipped in
“Excellent” he said “you’ll have lots to talk about then, let’s go and surprise her”
They had a marvelous evening with the Morgan’s, good company, excellent food and a liberal amount of alcohol thrown in for good measure the pair of them were fair steaming by the time they got in the taxi to go back to the hotel.
But amidst the friendly banter, reminiscence and over indulgence Pastor Morgan agreed to marry them on Saturday morning.
When they woke up the next morning cuddled up cozily together the realization of what they had done suddenly dawned on them as they lay comfortably beneath the duvet.
“We’re really doing it aren’t we?” Dorcas said as she hugged him
“Yes I think we are” he replied
“Cool” she said
After a few minutes she suddenly went rigid.
“What about witnesses?” she said with real alarm in her voice “or a bridesmaid?”
“Well…..” Ben began but she was already making a call and heading for the bathroom.
“Helen!” she said
After half an hour sitting in the bathroom with the door shut talking to Helen, Dorcas emerged and was much calmer.
“Helen was a great help” she said “I feel much better now, but we need to go shopping”
So he took her to the Europa Centre where he sat watching the Water Clock as he drank a pint of Guinness outside the Irish Pub.
Ben watched the glass bowls empty over and over again while she was buying a dress for the wedding which he wasn’t allowed to see and then she chose a suit for him which he wasn’t allowed an opinion on.
(Part 06)
On Saturday morning they were up early and got downstairs for breakfast as soon as they started serving and all the time they were there breakfasting Dorcas kept fidgeting and looking at her watch or fiddling with her phone and she hardly ate a thing in fact Ben ate most of hers as well.
He assumed that it was just pre wedding nerves so he didn’t say anything and just enjoyed the extra helping.
They had been in the breakfast room for about an hour and he had just poured himself another coffee when all of a sudden Dorcas leapt up and said
“Come along, things to do”
“What?” Ben replied “I haven’t finished my coffee”
“No time for that” she insisted “Let’s go”
Well, a lesser man may have thought that if that was a sample of what was to come he might have been making a mistake, but not him, he just attributed her demeanor and tone to the same nerves that provided him with two breakfasts so he trotted out after the beautiful and excitable little minx.
When he caught up with her in the reception he was just about to make himself comfortable on a luxurious sofa when his sister Helen and his best friend Gary came bustling through the front doors.
Dorcas squealed and ran to embrace Helen.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you”
She screamed as she kissed and hugged Ben’s sister
In the meantime he went over to Gary and asked
“What are you doing here? How did you….”
Then it dawned on me, the previous day’s long conversation in the bathroom between Dorcas and Helen when they had obviously hatched this plan.
“We couldn’t miss it mate” Gary said accompanied by a man hug
“I even suffered the budget air redeye just to be here”
And much to his chagrin he would be returning that night by the same mode.
With all the squealing and giggling from Dorcas and Helen the group had attracted the attention of Christophe, the hotel manager, who they had come to know quite well over the previous week.
Ben caught his eye and he had that look on his face that all Hotel Managers wear when something has occurred that they was not expecting.
So he spent the next five minutes explaining the circumstances of how they came to be in his reception and causing a commotion.
“You are getting married today?” he asked and vigorously shook his hand and then kissed Dorcas on both cheeks
“That is wonderful news”
Then he repeated the process with Helen and Gary, he couldn’t have been happier if they had been his own kith and kin.
Ben went on to explain that his sister and his best friend had only flown in that morning and would be returning to England that evening.
“Ach so” he exclaimed and raised a finger “Ein moment” and went over to the desk.
After a few moments converse with the receptionist he returned to him brandishing a key card.
“The groom must not see the bride before the Church, I think” he stated “So the gentlemen may use this room as a dressing room”
“Thank you so much Christophe” Dorcas said and kissed his cheek like he was a kindly uncle.
(Part 07)
Gary and Ben left the hotel at 11.30am in one of the two cabs Christophe had secured on their behalf and made their way to St Georges Church in Westend.
When they walked in to the Church it was as he expected, largely empty.
Pastor Morgan and his wife Clair were standing by the altar, and there was an elderly man, who he presumed was the organist as he was seated at the organ, other than that there was only Gary and the groom.
Ben stopped suddenly and said
“Rings? I haven’t got any rings”
“Don’t panic” Gary said “I’ve got them, Helen picked them up from your house last night”
He relaxed again and then they continued up to the altar where James and Clair welcomed them and then a tall gangly young man then came to join them
“Ah Sebastian” The pastor said “come and meet the groom and best man”
Then he turned to Ben and said accompanied by an inclination of the head
“Sebastian is going to video the service so you have something to show your parents”
By the time the organ started playing the bridal march a small congregation had assembled and he recognized a handful of familiar faces among them as being from the Hotel, one of them was the Hotel manager Christophe, even the registrar Claus was there.
But his eyes were quickly drawn to his bride to be, Dorcas, and she looked absolutely stunning.
The ceremony itself seemed to pass by in an instant but at the moment they said I do, they both felt complete.
After the wedding breakfast in the Hotel restaurant Helen and Gary had to leave for the airport which despite the fact they would be home the next day was a tearful farewell.
The newlyweds returned to the bar for another drink before they decided to retire and when they reached the reception desk Christophe was there waiting for them and said
“Mr. and Mrs. Overton, please accept with our compliments an upgrade to one of our deluxe suites for your wedding night, I have already taken the liberty of having your personal belongings transferred from your old room” and handed him a key card
“Oh wow” Dorcas said and planted another kiss on the cheek of the “kindly uncle” before they went upstairs to consummate their union in a luxury suite.
He awoke first in the pale winter light of dawn with Dorcas cuddled into him with her head on his chest.
And when she eventually stirred he said
“Good morning Mrs. Overton”
“Oh I like how that sounds” she said and kissed his chest
“It doesn’t sound as classy as Fox-Martin” he suggested
“No” she agreed “but I like it a lot”
“I love you Dorcas” he said
“I love you too” she replied and they made love in the half light.
Later they reluctantly had to leave their luxurious suite and the comfort of their duvet and begin their journey home as Mr. and Mrs. Overton and break the news to their respective parents that there will be other things for them to talk about for the foreseeable future.
It was all going to make for a very interesting Christmas dinner at his mums but the two of them definitely thought it was worth it though.
Friday, 10 March 2017
Tales from the Finchbottom Vale – (11) The Highfinch Summer Ball
(Part 01)
George Vineyard lived in a 19th Century cottage in the Hamlet of Lily Green but it was about to be relegated in status to his weekend home as his clock restoration business was moving from Purplemere to Mornington Field.
“Time and Time Again”, as it was now called, was the latest manifestation of the family business that had been at the same premises in Purplemere for over a hundred years and the Vineyards had been in Purplemere since before the Civil War, almost as long as the St Georges had been at Mornington Manor.
But things were changing in the county and the only place left in Downshire that had any respect or deference to tradition was Mornington and that was thanks to the St George family.
When the Old RAF Base became defunct and the land returned to the stewardship of the Mornington Estate plans were set in motion to convert the old Ministry of Defense buildings into commercial or residential properties.
Time and Time Again was moving into the former and the Vineyard Family were moving into one of the latter.
His home would remain in the Hamlet of Lily Green, which he would return to on the weekends, but Monday to Friday he would live with his sister Rebecca and her family, who had moved into one of the Military Row Houses in Mornington.
He planned to spend weekends in Lily Green for two reasons firstly to give Rebecca family time without a lodger under her feet and secondly in order to indulge his passion for Golf.
Situated in Mornington he was actually closer to Forest Ridge in Forestdean and it was an ok course but it wasn’t Lily Green Hollows.
His other great passion besides Golf was Tallulah St George.
Tallulah was among other things the property manager for the Morning Estate, a role that had got increasingly busier with the reacquisition of the Mornington Field.
Her elder brother Gabriel was the Lord of the Manor but she and her three sisters, Elspeth, Cordelia and Corliss all played a part in the Estates running along with Philomena Cruickshank better known as Aunty Phil.
They met during the previous summer when she was staying at her brother’s house in Highfinch for a week in August.
Tally also had a passion for Golf and although neither of them were looking for it they fell in love on the Lily Green Hollows Golf Course.
However the following few months had been quite tricky for the couple and their burgeoning relationship, living in different villages and only seeing each other every other weekend.
The maxim that absence made the heart grow fonder was certainly wearing thin.
Her days at Mornington were long and busy, with new tenants moving in almost every week and the new business units were filling up fast.
Georges life consisted of maintaining normal service during business hours and then spending seemingly endless additional hours sorting through over a hundred years’ worth of clutter.
One of the families to move into Mornington effected both Tally and George as his sister in law Rebecca Vineyard and her family moved into number 17 Military Row in December.
Their lodger, George moved in to Rebecca’s at the end of January when he moved his business, “Time and Time Again”, into what used to be the old West Guard House.
(Part 02)
“Time and Time Again” opened for business at Mornington Field on the 2nd of February, not that the majority of their customers would have even been aware that they had moved.
At least the timepiece owners anyway, most of their work came from Jeweller’s shops all over Downshire and even beyond.
Although an increasing amount of work was coming their way via the internet.
George Vineyard employed two full time staff, Dennis Thorpe, who was approaching retirement, although nobody expected him to ever retire, and Brian Brushwood who was twenty years his junior.
In addition he also employed his niece Erica as an apprentice, she was a natural and would fill the position that would be left if Dennis ever did hang up his tools and Erica’s younger sister, Donna, also worked for him during her free time from University.
If George and Tally thought that finally living in the same village would give them more time to spend together, they were sadly mistaken.
George and his staff were inundated with a sudden influx of new business and they had to pull out all the stops just to keep up.
What he didn’t realise was that Lord of the Manor Gabriel St George, elder brother of Tallulah, had made some calls to drum up some extra business, meaning well but unaware that it would have adverse effect it had on his sister’s relationship.
It wasn’t solely born out of nepotism he did it for all the businesses that began trading from Mornington Field.
When the properties in Mornington first became available Gabriel instructed Lyndon-Sanders Properties of Shallowfield to find tenants, within his strict guidelines stating that priority was to be given to local people or to people with ties to the area.
Lyndon-Sanders managed properties for the Estate all over the Vale but those in close proximity to the village were managed directly by the Estate, namely Tallulah.
Her contact with the agents was Michele Johnson Higham who had done a sterling job finding tenants for the commercial properties as well as some of the accommodation but as property manager for the Estate, Tallulah formally took over the administration from January 1st but Vicki continued to work closely with Tally for the rest of January for continuity and then she was on her own.
So with their combined workloads February was a wash out romantically speaking.
There was no point in trying to catch a moment together at the Manor because there were always people coming and going and there was a houseful at Rebecca’s.
They did manage to squeeze in a round of Golf at Forest Ridge, an inferior course compared to Lily Green but the company was of the highest quality, but that was as good as it got.
And that was what they had to settle for, quality rather than quantity, which they reluctantly had to accept but they knew it was only a matter of time before things would change and they were right because by the time March came around they were able to get back to the Cottage almost every weekend and on occasion they even left it to play Golf.
(Part 03)
March also brought good news for Rebecca Vineyard, it was a big step for her moving the whole family to Mornington but she understood it was for the best.
George greatly admired his sister in law and he couldn’t have loved her more if she were his own flesh and blood.
Her husband, Bill, his older brother, dismayed the whole family when he went off to find himself before their third child was born and he hadn’t been heard from for the 17 years since.
Being abandoned with two children under four and the arrival of a third imminent, would have broken a lesser mortal, but Rebecca was made of sterner stuff.
Fortunately Rebecca controlled the purse strings so when Bill went all hippy on her to find himself he had to do so without her financial contribution.
That isn’t to say that it wasn’t a struggle she had to work for a living.
George was only 14 when Bill did a runner but as soon as he was able he helped her out financially, but she was not a charity case so he couldn’t do it with her knowledge, he had to help her by getting her paid work.
But that was in Purplemere, where he knew people, in Mornington he was the new kid on the block.
However his girlfriend wasn’t and she was able to get her temp work at one of the new businesses, Paige Turner’s.
And as many of her temp jobs had in the past it soon became permanent because of her hard work.
In April, Tallulah and George manage even more time together with extended trips to Lily Green, especially over the Easter Holiday and with two bank holiday weekends in May the trend continued and their relationship was going from strength to strength and the love between them was deepening.
Which was what made the events of the 10th of June a few days before the Summer Ball all the more baffling.
They were due to meet for lunch at the Old Mill Inn as they did every day, which was the highlight of the day for both of them, an oasis in a desert of longing.
But instead of him receiving the usual text message to say she was on her way his phone rang instead.
“Hey Hon” he said “I’m just about to leave”
“I can’t make it” she said flatly
“How come?” he asked.
“I need to go up to Michael’s this afternoon” she replied
“Is everything ok?”
“Yes everything’s fine it’s just some family business” she lied
“Can’t we have lunch before you go?” he asked
“No I need to leave straight away”
“I could take the afternoon off and come with you if you like” he offered
“No there’s no need” she said forcefully
“Oh ok” he said “When will you be back?”
“I won’t be, I’ll just stay up there until after the Ball” she replied
“Oh” he said with surprise “I’ll see you at the cottage on Friday then”
“I’m not staying at the cottage, I’ll be staying at Michael’s” Tally said matter of factly
“I’ll see you on Saturday”
And with that she hung up.
(Part 04)
The countryside of the Vale was very beautiful but as he got closer to the Pepperstock Hills it got even more so.
Unfortunately it was all wasted on George Vineyard.
He had made that trip to the Hamlet of Lily Green on the edge of the Pepperstock Hills many times before, but on that Friday afternoon in June his mind was otherwise occupied.
He wasn’t expected in Highfinch until Saturday but he was anxious to see Tallulah and couldn’t wait.
The Highfinch Summer Ball at the Lily Green Hollows Golf Club was one of the “jewels in the crown” of Downshire events, second only to the Lord Lieutenant’s Ball but it paled into insignificance compared to seeing the love of his life.
It was the Summer Ball the next day and he still had no idea what he had done to upset Tallulah or why she had decided to stay at Michaels.
But as he crossed the 3rd fairway he caught sight of Tally standing alone by the trees that separated Michael’s House and the course and she was wearing a thoughtful expression.
He quickened his stride and as luck would have it, or so he thought, he caught her eye and gave her a wave, but instead of waving back she ignored him and hurried away.
“That’s very odd” he thought and quickened his pace even more but when he got to Michael’s there was no sign of her.
He went inside and spoke to Michael but he told George he hadn’t seen her, but he invited George inside and went to check upstairs.
It was half an hour later when he stepped back out into the sun and he spotted Tallulah again this time by the 3rd green.
So he approached her on her blindside so she couldn’t run off again before he reached her.
When he was a few feet away he said
“I think you’ve been avoiding me”
Tallulah jumped and immediately became flustered
“No, no not at all” she corrected him
“I think you have,” he repeated “why?”
Tally didn’t say anything for about a minute
“Please tell me Tally,” he entreated
“You’re imagining it,” She snapped
“But I’m not” he said “And I don’t understand, have I done something wrong? If I have, then tell me what it is”
“How like a man” She shouted and hurried away but stopped and turned after a few paces and said
“Believe it or not, not everything is about you, George”
And then she was gone, he thought for a moment before he hurried after her
“Tally?” he called after her but she kept going so he pressed on after her instead.
When he caught up to her Tallulah was stood by the trees at the end of Michael’s garden.
“What on earth is going on?” he asked and took hold of her hand
“Why can’t you tell me what’s wrong?”
“Because I need to think” she replied and squeezed his hand
“Just give me some time to think”
“Ok” he said reluctantly
“But you can’t avoid me Tally, or exclude me”
“I won’t” she said, “and I promise we’ll talk after the Ball”
Then she kissed him and turned away and a black cloud followed him as he walked back to his cottage.
On Saturday he spent the whole day on the course taking his frustrations out on the ball and after 36 holes he had carded his worst scores ever on the Lily Green Hollows course.
(Part 05)
George was very anxious to get to the club and more importantly he was very anxious to see Tallulah so he arrived at 7.15pm.
In his dinner suit, complete with cummerbund and bow tie, although he was so nervous about the evening that he had to wear a clip on bow tie.
He was greeted by the sight of an array of stunningly turned out women, not one of whom was Tallulah St George.
So while killing time he mingled with the assembled group.
The guest list for the Ball was very exclusive, and was by invitation only, so subsequently every one made the best of the opportunity to dress up to the nines.
He bumped into one stunner after another, beginning with Willow, the pretty young daughter of the family who lived next to him in Lily Green, and her best friend Karen.
They were both stunningly beautiful and wearing the expensive designer evening dresses.
“Hello Willow” he said, “you look beautiful”
She blushed terribly and he turned his attention to her friend
“You’re also looking stunning Karen”
Next he ran into the Braithwaite’s, the Callan’s, and the Drake’s which was when Jo Hazelton joined him, she was the next-door neighbour of William St George, and was a hugely popular character in fact she was the original all round good egg and she was looking very shapely, in an expensive gown, but he suspected a body shaper was being manfully employed but none the less she looked very nice.
“Hello George” she said “You look lost”
“I was looking for Tally” He said
“I haven’t seen her yet” she confessed and then they moved onto the small talk which ebbed and flowed until he spotted Tally in a dark blue dress heading towards the ladies so he made his excuses and left the group he was chatting with and positioned himself on the side of the room nearest to the ladies room that Tallulah had frequented and drifted around on the fringes of growing groups of guests, not really following the conversation until she reappeared and when she did he intercepted her.
“Tallulah!” he called
“Hello darling” she said unconvincingly and there was an awkward kiss.
“So have you done your thinking?”
“Not really” she replied and then added
“I’ll see you at the table”
And with that she disappeared into the melee.
That was not what he was hoping to hear and it seemed as if his worst fears were being realized.
George wandered over to the seating plan to find out what table he was on and who his dining companions were and when he got there he found a familiar face standing there, Jo Hazelton
“Hello Jo we’re going to have to stop meeting like this you know”
“No chance of that I’m afraid” she said laughing “we’re on the same table”
“Really?” he said “how funny”
“Who else have we got?”
“Well there’s Laura and Geoffrey Hunt, Shirley and Mick Collins, me and Phil, Michele and Victor Braithwaite, and you and Tally” she said
“Well that’s probably the best table in the room” George said
“I agree” Jo said proudly
Then she stuck her arm through his and said
“You may escort me to my table good sir”
“My pleasure madam” he responded
(Part 06)
Tallulah didn’t arrive at the table until a few moments before service began and sat silently next to him.
It turned out to be a very lively table with the exception of George and Tallulah who barely said a word.
Though as the evening wore on, under the table she was being very tactile, every opportunity she got she was squeezing his thigh or brushing his leg with hers even holding his hand under the table.
The only people from on their table who didn’t seem to enjoy it were Michele’s husband Victor and Phil Hazelton who seemed totally bored with the whole affair.
Victor complained about everything and Phil refused to join in and communicated in monosyllables.
Jo was not at all pleased with Phil and made no secret of it and he soon deserted Jo to go and celebrate with Victor with their cronies in the member’s bar.
As a result Jo got shit-faced drunk, quite untypical behaviour and Michele, in order to give moral support got ratted as well.
So by 12.15am Jo was in trouble, she had gone to the loo sometime earlier and was found in the ladies and could barely walk.
Word was sent to the member’s bar for Phil to come but he just brushed it off and continued drinking in the same vein.
So it was decided that she should be taken home, Michele volunteered but could hardly stand herself so Tally suggested to George that as they were both relatively sober and Michele and Jo’s houses both backed on to the 18th Fairway they could take them home on a Golf buggy.
So as discreetly as possible and with the aid of one of the waitress’s they sneaked the casualties out the back door nearest to where the buggies were parked.
They put Michele in the front passenger seat and Tallulah got in the driver’s seat then he put Jo behind her and he sat behind Michele so he was in the best position to prevent either of them from falling off.
“Ok let’s go,” George said
“George? I’ve never actually driven one of these before”
“Why did you get behind the wheel then?” he asked
“I don’t know” she said “I didn’t think”
“Ok well you’re there now so turn the key” he instructed
“Check” Tally said in a deep simulated pilot’s voice
“Now select forward”
“Check”
“Hand brake off”
“Check”
“Depress accelerator”
“Cheeeeeck” she shouted and the buggy shot forward
“Wow this is great,” she said while George was so concentrated on preventing the ladies from falling off that he was nearly ejected himself.
“Steady Jensen” He said
“Sorry” she said “but this is fun”
About half way along that part of the 18th fairway there was a wide opening that allowed egress through the woods, which eventually arrived at the end of an old cart lane.
This in turn led between two cottages; one of them being Jo’s.
We had to go that way because the woods were too thick to fit the buggy through anywhere else.
“Head towards the lane Tal” he said “and put your lights on”
“I have lights?” Tally asked, “Cool”
“Where’s the switch?”
“Next to the key” he said
“Got it”
It was a bright moonlit night so out on the open fairway they could manage without lights, but once amongst the trees it would be a different story.
Tallulah drove through the trees and stopped in the lane at the back of the Hazelton’s home.
(Part 07)
“You hold onto Michele and I’ll take Jo in,” he told Tallulah
“Ok”
He didn’t want to take her to the front door in case any of the neighbours saw her in that condition as it was such untypical behaviour for her.
Now Jo wasn’t a big woman but she didn’t make life easy for him, she kept going limp so he had to keep grappling with her all of which took him longer than he anticipated getting her to the back door so in the end he picked her up and carried her.
The lights were still on downstairs so George put her down and pinned Jo between the wall and him while he knocked on the glass.
It was only a moment or two before the outside light went on and the door opened soon after.
It was one of her teenage sons, Callum,
“I’m sorry Callum she’s had a bit too much to drink”
“Who is it Cal?” Came another voice, this time it was David the oldest boy
“Its mum” Callum answered “come and help”
“Where’s my dad?” David asked
“We sent someone to find him…” George couldn’t think what else to say
“But he didn’t want to leave his cronies” David finished and George nodded
“Well thanks Mr Vineyard we appreciate it,” said Callum
“Not a problem really” he said, “She’s one of the angels you know?”
He nodded proudly
“Thanks” said David and shook his hand
When he got back to the buggy Tallulah was struggling to restrain Michele.
“She keeps saying she wants to go in the woods to find her lover”
“Is that you Quentin?” Michele slurred
“Who’s Quentin?” George asked
“I have no idea” Tally replied
“Ok back in the buggy and I’ll take you home” George instructed
“Yes Quentin you can take me anywhere any time” she slurred again.
Tallulah steered the buggy along the wooded track and headed towards the back of Michele’s cottage.
Tally turned the lights off and George picked Michele up in a fireman’s lift, there was nothing of her as she was a small slim
Woman.
Tally opened the gate and led the way down the path.
Michele didn’t have children so they had to get her inside.
“Where does she keep the key?” Tally asked
“Look under the statue” he suggested
So Tally moved the statue and the key was indeed beneath it
“How did you know?” she asked
“That’s where I would have put it”
Tallulah unlocked the door, stepped in and turned the light on.
“Take her straight to the bedroom” Tally ordered
“Ok”
Once they found the right room he laid her on the bed and asked
“Should we take her dress off?”
“No pervy” she replied with a giggle “I think I’ve got it from here thank you”
“Ok” he said and left her to it and went down to the kitchen.
He was sweating a bit so he undid his bow tie and tucked it in his jacket pocked then he attended to the top buttons on his dress shirt.
When Tally returned downstairs she turned off the kitchen light and as he opened the back door Tally shivered so he chivalrously gave her his jacket, which reached down to her knees and as she stepped out into the garden she kissed him gently, just once but incredibly tenderly.
Afterwards she held his hand as they walked back to the buggy.
(Part 08)
When George and Tally reached the buggy they kissed again before climbing on board and prepared to drive up the track with Tallulah in the driving seat again.
But before they set off she turned to him and smiled and then she kissed him once again.
They’d gone about a hundred yards before they realised she didn’t have the lights on.
“Put the lights on” he said
“I can see fine” she replied
“I’m like a cat” and then she made a little clawing gesture accompanied by a growl.
They emerged onto the fairway and she headed in entirely the wrong direction from the club.
“Where are we going?” he asked
“We’re going for a ride in the moonlight” Tally said
“Very romantic”
“Yes but where are we going?” George asked
“We’re going to the place where we had our near miss” Tally answered “We need to talk”
The previous year before they first got together they had a close encounter in the woods but neither of them had the courage of their convictions to take a chance.
Which was why they finished up by the 17th green where she parked the buggy right on the tree line close to the entrance to the clearing where they almost had their first kiss.
“So why here?” he asked “Why not in the woods by the 18th fairway where we actually kissed?”
“Because this was the place I first knew that I loved you” she replied and squeezed his hand and then they kissed in the moonlight.
“But do you still love me?” he asked
“Yes, yes” she said urgently “Of course I do”
“So why have you been avoiding me then?”
“Because something has happened” she said falteringly
“Something?” he said “Something? Good or bad?”
“Something that might drive a wedge between us” she replied
“Why what’s happened?” he said with concern, fearing the worst, was it an old flame, an affair or something even worse.
Tallulah looked at him and took a deep breath and blurted out
“I’m pregnant”
“What?” he exclaimed
“I’m pregnant” she repeated
“You’re pregnant?” he asked
“Yes” she replied looking at her hands
“You’re pregnant?” he repeated
“She’s pregnant” he shouted to the moon and then he kissed her
“You’re pregnant” he whispered to her so tenderly “That’s fantastic”
“Is it?” she asked doubtfully
“Don’t you think so?” he asked
“Yes, I do” she confirmed “I wasn’t sure you would think so”
“But it’s the most amazing thing” he said
“So you’re not angry?” Tally asked
“Why would I be angry?”
“Because we never talked about children” she said
“Well I am a little angry” he admitted
“I knew it” she said sadly
“I’m angry that you kept it from me” he said and kissed her softly “We are a couple, we share everything good or bad, ok?”
“Ok” she agreed
“So you’re not going to keep anything from me again are you?”
“No, never again” she promised
“From now on we share everything” he said “Because that’s what married people do”
“Ok” she said and then when the penny dropped she added
“What did you say?”
Still holding her hand George got off the buggy and knelt down
“Lady Tallulah St George, will you marry me?”
“Yes, yes, yes” she squealed as she slid along the seat and jumped down from the buggy and landed on top of him.
And they made love at the place she fell in love with him.
(Part 09)
Tallulah was laying on the grass covered by Georges Dinner Jacket, he had just finished redressing himself and was sitting on the back seat looking upon the figure of his beautiful fiancé with adoring eyes and she lay there sighing beneath his jacket for about twenty minutes before she began to stir.
“Turn your back,” Tallulah said
“Why?” he asked
“So I can get dressed of course”
“But I’ve already seen everything”
“That was when we were making love” she corrected him
“This is different”
“Ok” he said and turned his back to her
“And no peeking”
“Ok”
George thought it was rather cute that even after what they had just done in the moonlight she was still acting shy.
“Now you can look,” she said
When he turned around she was wearing his Dinner Jacket over her blue dress again.
Tallulah had been staying at her Cousin Michaels who lived at the other end of the course where his rather grand house backed onto the 3rd green.
Whereas George’s cottage was in Lily Green which was on the opposite side of the Golf Course,
“So where to milady?” he asked as they trundled across the course in the buggy, George driving this time with Tallulah next to him with her arm through his, wearing his jacket again.
“Will it be the big ‘ouse with the gentry or roughing it with the peasants?”
“I think I will rough it” she replied “With my peasant fiancé”
He stopped the buggy right in the trees by the seventh green and he walked her through the woods to the path that led to Lily Green.
“What are we going to do about the buggy?” she asked
“We’ll take it back tomorrow” he replied “If you’re up early enough, I know what you posh birds are like”
“Oh you’ve had a lot of experience with posh birds have you?”
Tally asked
“Modesty forbids me from answering that question” he replied and they paused in the darkness and enjoyed a long sensual kiss.
“Come on then Mrs Vineyard” he said “Let’s get you home”
“I’ve changed my mind” she said
“You want to go to Michaels after all?” he asked
“No I’ll come and rough it in the cottage” she said
“What then?” he asked
“It’s the engagement thing, Mrs Vineyard sounds really common” Tallulah said and laughed
“Ok good night then” he said
“What? Don’t leave me” she said with panic in her voice and ran after him and when she caught him he just smiled at her
“You bastard” she said and slapped him playfully
“Do you really think I would just leave you here?”
“No” she said hugging him “But you’re still a bastard”
They weren’t up early enough for breakfast in fact they were barely in time for lunch.
So it was late on Sunday morning when Tallulah and George emerged through the front door of his cottage, Tally carrying her previous days outfit in a carrier bag.
Tallulah kept some clothes at his Cottage which meant she didn’t have to navigate her way across the course in the previous night’s clothes.
Miraculously the buggy was still where they left it deep in the woods at the end of the path so they trundled their way to the 3rd green and walked excitedly up the garden of Michaels house to break both lots of happy news.
George Vineyard lived in a 19th Century cottage in the Hamlet of Lily Green but it was about to be relegated in status to his weekend home as his clock restoration business was moving from Purplemere to Mornington Field.
“Time and Time Again”, as it was now called, was the latest manifestation of the family business that had been at the same premises in Purplemere for over a hundred years and the Vineyards had been in Purplemere since before the Civil War, almost as long as the St Georges had been at Mornington Manor.
But things were changing in the county and the only place left in Downshire that had any respect or deference to tradition was Mornington and that was thanks to the St George family.
When the Old RAF Base became defunct and the land returned to the stewardship of the Mornington Estate plans were set in motion to convert the old Ministry of Defense buildings into commercial or residential properties.
Time and Time Again was moving into the former and the Vineyard Family were moving into one of the latter.
His home would remain in the Hamlet of Lily Green, which he would return to on the weekends, but Monday to Friday he would live with his sister Rebecca and her family, who had moved into one of the Military Row Houses in Mornington.
He planned to spend weekends in Lily Green for two reasons firstly to give Rebecca family time without a lodger under her feet and secondly in order to indulge his passion for Golf.
Situated in Mornington he was actually closer to Forest Ridge in Forestdean and it was an ok course but it wasn’t Lily Green Hollows.
His other great passion besides Golf was Tallulah St George.
Tallulah was among other things the property manager for the Morning Estate, a role that had got increasingly busier with the reacquisition of the Mornington Field.
Her elder brother Gabriel was the Lord of the Manor but she and her three sisters, Elspeth, Cordelia and Corliss all played a part in the Estates running along with Philomena Cruickshank better known as Aunty Phil.
They met during the previous summer when she was staying at her brother’s house in Highfinch for a week in August.
Tally also had a passion for Golf and although neither of them were looking for it they fell in love on the Lily Green Hollows Golf Course.
However the following few months had been quite tricky for the couple and their burgeoning relationship, living in different villages and only seeing each other every other weekend.
The maxim that absence made the heart grow fonder was certainly wearing thin.
Her days at Mornington were long and busy, with new tenants moving in almost every week and the new business units were filling up fast.
Georges life consisted of maintaining normal service during business hours and then spending seemingly endless additional hours sorting through over a hundred years’ worth of clutter.
One of the families to move into Mornington effected both Tally and George as his sister in law Rebecca Vineyard and her family moved into number 17 Military Row in December.
Their lodger, George moved in to Rebecca’s at the end of January when he moved his business, “Time and Time Again”, into what used to be the old West Guard House.
(Part 02)
“Time and Time Again” opened for business at Mornington Field on the 2nd of February, not that the majority of their customers would have even been aware that they had moved.
At least the timepiece owners anyway, most of their work came from Jeweller’s shops all over Downshire and even beyond.
Although an increasing amount of work was coming their way via the internet.
George Vineyard employed two full time staff, Dennis Thorpe, who was approaching retirement, although nobody expected him to ever retire, and Brian Brushwood who was twenty years his junior.
In addition he also employed his niece Erica as an apprentice, she was a natural and would fill the position that would be left if Dennis ever did hang up his tools and Erica’s younger sister, Donna, also worked for him during her free time from University.
If George and Tally thought that finally living in the same village would give them more time to spend together, they were sadly mistaken.
George and his staff were inundated with a sudden influx of new business and they had to pull out all the stops just to keep up.
What he didn’t realise was that Lord of the Manor Gabriel St George, elder brother of Tallulah, had made some calls to drum up some extra business, meaning well but unaware that it would have adverse effect it had on his sister’s relationship.
It wasn’t solely born out of nepotism he did it for all the businesses that began trading from Mornington Field.
When the properties in Mornington first became available Gabriel instructed Lyndon-Sanders Properties of Shallowfield to find tenants, within his strict guidelines stating that priority was to be given to local people or to people with ties to the area.
Lyndon-Sanders managed properties for the Estate all over the Vale but those in close proximity to the village were managed directly by the Estate, namely Tallulah.
Her contact with the agents was Michele Johnson Higham who had done a sterling job finding tenants for the commercial properties as well as some of the accommodation but as property manager for the Estate, Tallulah formally took over the administration from January 1st but Vicki continued to work closely with Tally for the rest of January for continuity and then she was on her own.
So with their combined workloads February was a wash out romantically speaking.
There was no point in trying to catch a moment together at the Manor because there were always people coming and going and there was a houseful at Rebecca’s.
They did manage to squeeze in a round of Golf at Forest Ridge, an inferior course compared to Lily Green but the company was of the highest quality, but that was as good as it got.
And that was what they had to settle for, quality rather than quantity, which they reluctantly had to accept but they knew it was only a matter of time before things would change and they were right because by the time March came around they were able to get back to the Cottage almost every weekend and on occasion they even left it to play Golf.
(Part 03)
March also brought good news for Rebecca Vineyard, it was a big step for her moving the whole family to Mornington but she understood it was for the best.
George greatly admired his sister in law and he couldn’t have loved her more if she were his own flesh and blood.
Her husband, Bill, his older brother, dismayed the whole family when he went off to find himself before their third child was born and he hadn’t been heard from for the 17 years since.
Being abandoned with two children under four and the arrival of a third imminent, would have broken a lesser mortal, but Rebecca was made of sterner stuff.
Fortunately Rebecca controlled the purse strings so when Bill went all hippy on her to find himself he had to do so without her financial contribution.
That isn’t to say that it wasn’t a struggle she had to work for a living.
George was only 14 when Bill did a runner but as soon as he was able he helped her out financially, but she was not a charity case so he couldn’t do it with her knowledge, he had to help her by getting her paid work.
But that was in Purplemere, where he knew people, in Mornington he was the new kid on the block.
However his girlfriend wasn’t and she was able to get her temp work at one of the new businesses, Paige Turner’s.
And as many of her temp jobs had in the past it soon became permanent because of her hard work.
In April, Tallulah and George manage even more time together with extended trips to Lily Green, especially over the Easter Holiday and with two bank holiday weekends in May the trend continued and their relationship was going from strength to strength and the love between them was deepening.
Which was what made the events of the 10th of June a few days before the Summer Ball all the more baffling.
They were due to meet for lunch at the Old Mill Inn as they did every day, which was the highlight of the day for both of them, an oasis in a desert of longing.
But instead of him receiving the usual text message to say she was on her way his phone rang instead.
“Hey Hon” he said “I’m just about to leave”
“I can’t make it” she said flatly
“How come?” he asked.
“I need to go up to Michael’s this afternoon” she replied
“Is everything ok?”
“Yes everything’s fine it’s just some family business” she lied
“Can’t we have lunch before you go?” he asked
“No I need to leave straight away”
“I could take the afternoon off and come with you if you like” he offered
“No there’s no need” she said forcefully
“Oh ok” he said “When will you be back?”
“I won’t be, I’ll just stay up there until after the Ball” she replied
“Oh” he said with surprise “I’ll see you at the cottage on Friday then”
“I’m not staying at the cottage, I’ll be staying at Michael’s” Tally said matter of factly
“I’ll see you on Saturday”
And with that she hung up.
(Part 04)
The countryside of the Vale was very beautiful but as he got closer to the Pepperstock Hills it got even more so.
Unfortunately it was all wasted on George Vineyard.
He had made that trip to the Hamlet of Lily Green on the edge of the Pepperstock Hills many times before, but on that Friday afternoon in June his mind was otherwise occupied.
He wasn’t expected in Highfinch until Saturday but he was anxious to see Tallulah and couldn’t wait.
The Highfinch Summer Ball at the Lily Green Hollows Golf Club was one of the “jewels in the crown” of Downshire events, second only to the Lord Lieutenant’s Ball but it paled into insignificance compared to seeing the love of his life.
It was the Summer Ball the next day and he still had no idea what he had done to upset Tallulah or why she had decided to stay at Michaels.
But as he crossed the 3rd fairway he caught sight of Tally standing alone by the trees that separated Michael’s House and the course and she was wearing a thoughtful expression.
He quickened his stride and as luck would have it, or so he thought, he caught her eye and gave her a wave, but instead of waving back she ignored him and hurried away.
“That’s very odd” he thought and quickened his pace even more but when he got to Michael’s there was no sign of her.
He went inside and spoke to Michael but he told George he hadn’t seen her, but he invited George inside and went to check upstairs.
It was half an hour later when he stepped back out into the sun and he spotted Tallulah again this time by the 3rd green.
So he approached her on her blindside so she couldn’t run off again before he reached her.
When he was a few feet away he said
“I think you’ve been avoiding me”
Tallulah jumped and immediately became flustered
“No, no not at all” she corrected him
“I think you have,” he repeated “why?”
Tally didn’t say anything for about a minute
“Please tell me Tally,” he entreated
“You’re imagining it,” She snapped
“But I’m not” he said “And I don’t understand, have I done something wrong? If I have, then tell me what it is”
“How like a man” She shouted and hurried away but stopped and turned after a few paces and said
“Believe it or not, not everything is about you, George”
And then she was gone, he thought for a moment before he hurried after her
“Tally?” he called after her but she kept going so he pressed on after her instead.
When he caught up to her Tallulah was stood by the trees at the end of Michael’s garden.
“What on earth is going on?” he asked and took hold of her hand
“Why can’t you tell me what’s wrong?”
“Because I need to think” she replied and squeezed his hand
“Just give me some time to think”
“Ok” he said reluctantly
“But you can’t avoid me Tally, or exclude me”
“I won’t” she said, “and I promise we’ll talk after the Ball”
Then she kissed him and turned away and a black cloud followed him as he walked back to his cottage.
On Saturday he spent the whole day on the course taking his frustrations out on the ball and after 36 holes he had carded his worst scores ever on the Lily Green Hollows course.
(Part 05)
George was very anxious to get to the club and more importantly he was very anxious to see Tallulah so he arrived at 7.15pm.
In his dinner suit, complete with cummerbund and bow tie, although he was so nervous about the evening that he had to wear a clip on bow tie.
He was greeted by the sight of an array of stunningly turned out women, not one of whom was Tallulah St George.
So while killing time he mingled with the assembled group.
The guest list for the Ball was very exclusive, and was by invitation only, so subsequently every one made the best of the opportunity to dress up to the nines.
He bumped into one stunner after another, beginning with Willow, the pretty young daughter of the family who lived next to him in Lily Green, and her best friend Karen.
They were both stunningly beautiful and wearing the expensive designer evening dresses.
“Hello Willow” he said, “you look beautiful”
She blushed terribly and he turned his attention to her friend
“You’re also looking stunning Karen”
Next he ran into the Braithwaite’s, the Callan’s, and the Drake’s which was when Jo Hazelton joined him, she was the next-door neighbour of William St George, and was a hugely popular character in fact she was the original all round good egg and she was looking very shapely, in an expensive gown, but he suspected a body shaper was being manfully employed but none the less she looked very nice.
“Hello George” she said “You look lost”
“I was looking for Tally” He said
“I haven’t seen her yet” she confessed and then they moved onto the small talk which ebbed and flowed until he spotted Tally in a dark blue dress heading towards the ladies so he made his excuses and left the group he was chatting with and positioned himself on the side of the room nearest to the ladies room that Tallulah had frequented and drifted around on the fringes of growing groups of guests, not really following the conversation until she reappeared and when she did he intercepted her.
“Tallulah!” he called
“Hello darling” she said unconvincingly and there was an awkward kiss.
“So have you done your thinking?”
“Not really” she replied and then added
“I’ll see you at the table”
And with that she disappeared into the melee.
That was not what he was hoping to hear and it seemed as if his worst fears were being realized.
George wandered over to the seating plan to find out what table he was on and who his dining companions were and when he got there he found a familiar face standing there, Jo Hazelton
“Hello Jo we’re going to have to stop meeting like this you know”
“No chance of that I’m afraid” she said laughing “we’re on the same table”
“Really?” he said “how funny”
“Who else have we got?”
“Well there’s Laura and Geoffrey Hunt, Shirley and Mick Collins, me and Phil, Michele and Victor Braithwaite, and you and Tally” she said
“Well that’s probably the best table in the room” George said
“I agree” Jo said proudly
Then she stuck her arm through his and said
“You may escort me to my table good sir”
“My pleasure madam” he responded
(Part 06)
Tallulah didn’t arrive at the table until a few moments before service began and sat silently next to him.
It turned out to be a very lively table with the exception of George and Tallulah who barely said a word.
Though as the evening wore on, under the table she was being very tactile, every opportunity she got she was squeezing his thigh or brushing his leg with hers even holding his hand under the table.
The only people from on their table who didn’t seem to enjoy it were Michele’s husband Victor and Phil Hazelton who seemed totally bored with the whole affair.
Victor complained about everything and Phil refused to join in and communicated in monosyllables.
Jo was not at all pleased with Phil and made no secret of it and he soon deserted Jo to go and celebrate with Victor with their cronies in the member’s bar.
As a result Jo got shit-faced drunk, quite untypical behaviour and Michele, in order to give moral support got ratted as well.
So by 12.15am Jo was in trouble, she had gone to the loo sometime earlier and was found in the ladies and could barely walk.
Word was sent to the member’s bar for Phil to come but he just brushed it off and continued drinking in the same vein.
So it was decided that she should be taken home, Michele volunteered but could hardly stand herself so Tally suggested to George that as they were both relatively sober and Michele and Jo’s houses both backed on to the 18th Fairway they could take them home on a Golf buggy.
So as discreetly as possible and with the aid of one of the waitress’s they sneaked the casualties out the back door nearest to where the buggies were parked.
They put Michele in the front passenger seat and Tallulah got in the driver’s seat then he put Jo behind her and he sat behind Michele so he was in the best position to prevent either of them from falling off.
“Ok let’s go,” George said
“George? I’ve never actually driven one of these before”
“Why did you get behind the wheel then?” he asked
“I don’t know” she said “I didn’t think”
“Ok well you’re there now so turn the key” he instructed
“Check” Tally said in a deep simulated pilot’s voice
“Now select forward”
“Check”
“Hand brake off”
“Check”
“Depress accelerator”
“Cheeeeeck” she shouted and the buggy shot forward
“Wow this is great,” she said while George was so concentrated on preventing the ladies from falling off that he was nearly ejected himself.
“Steady Jensen” He said
“Sorry” she said “but this is fun”
About half way along that part of the 18th fairway there was a wide opening that allowed egress through the woods, which eventually arrived at the end of an old cart lane.
This in turn led between two cottages; one of them being Jo’s.
We had to go that way because the woods were too thick to fit the buggy through anywhere else.
“Head towards the lane Tal” he said “and put your lights on”
“I have lights?” Tally asked, “Cool”
“Where’s the switch?”
“Next to the key” he said
“Got it”
It was a bright moonlit night so out on the open fairway they could manage without lights, but once amongst the trees it would be a different story.
Tallulah drove through the trees and stopped in the lane at the back of the Hazelton’s home.
(Part 07)
“You hold onto Michele and I’ll take Jo in,” he told Tallulah
“Ok”
He didn’t want to take her to the front door in case any of the neighbours saw her in that condition as it was such untypical behaviour for her.
Now Jo wasn’t a big woman but she didn’t make life easy for him, she kept going limp so he had to keep grappling with her all of which took him longer than he anticipated getting her to the back door so in the end he picked her up and carried her.
The lights were still on downstairs so George put her down and pinned Jo between the wall and him while he knocked on the glass.
It was only a moment or two before the outside light went on and the door opened soon after.
It was one of her teenage sons, Callum,
“I’m sorry Callum she’s had a bit too much to drink”
“Who is it Cal?” Came another voice, this time it was David the oldest boy
“Its mum” Callum answered “come and help”
“Where’s my dad?” David asked
“We sent someone to find him…” George couldn’t think what else to say
“But he didn’t want to leave his cronies” David finished and George nodded
“Well thanks Mr Vineyard we appreciate it,” said Callum
“Not a problem really” he said, “She’s one of the angels you know?”
He nodded proudly
“Thanks” said David and shook his hand
When he got back to the buggy Tallulah was struggling to restrain Michele.
“She keeps saying she wants to go in the woods to find her lover”
“Is that you Quentin?” Michele slurred
“Who’s Quentin?” George asked
“I have no idea” Tally replied
“Ok back in the buggy and I’ll take you home” George instructed
“Yes Quentin you can take me anywhere any time” she slurred again.
Tallulah steered the buggy along the wooded track and headed towards the back of Michele’s cottage.
Tally turned the lights off and George picked Michele up in a fireman’s lift, there was nothing of her as she was a small slim
Woman.
Tally opened the gate and led the way down the path.
Michele didn’t have children so they had to get her inside.
“Where does she keep the key?” Tally asked
“Look under the statue” he suggested
So Tally moved the statue and the key was indeed beneath it
“How did you know?” she asked
“That’s where I would have put it”
Tallulah unlocked the door, stepped in and turned the light on.
“Take her straight to the bedroom” Tally ordered
“Ok”
Once they found the right room he laid her on the bed and asked
“Should we take her dress off?”
“No pervy” she replied with a giggle “I think I’ve got it from here thank you”
“Ok” he said and left her to it and went down to the kitchen.
He was sweating a bit so he undid his bow tie and tucked it in his jacket pocked then he attended to the top buttons on his dress shirt.
When Tally returned downstairs she turned off the kitchen light and as he opened the back door Tally shivered so he chivalrously gave her his jacket, which reached down to her knees and as she stepped out into the garden she kissed him gently, just once but incredibly tenderly.
Afterwards she held his hand as they walked back to the buggy.
(Part 08)
When George and Tally reached the buggy they kissed again before climbing on board and prepared to drive up the track with Tallulah in the driving seat again.
But before they set off she turned to him and smiled and then she kissed him once again.
They’d gone about a hundred yards before they realised she didn’t have the lights on.
“Put the lights on” he said
“I can see fine” she replied
“I’m like a cat” and then she made a little clawing gesture accompanied by a growl.
They emerged onto the fairway and she headed in entirely the wrong direction from the club.
“Where are we going?” he asked
“We’re going for a ride in the moonlight” Tally said
“Very romantic”
“Yes but where are we going?” George asked
“We’re going to the place where we had our near miss” Tally answered “We need to talk”
The previous year before they first got together they had a close encounter in the woods but neither of them had the courage of their convictions to take a chance.
Which was why they finished up by the 17th green where she parked the buggy right on the tree line close to the entrance to the clearing where they almost had their first kiss.
“So why here?” he asked “Why not in the woods by the 18th fairway where we actually kissed?”
“Because this was the place I first knew that I loved you” she replied and squeezed his hand and then they kissed in the moonlight.
“But do you still love me?” he asked
“Yes, yes” she said urgently “Of course I do”
“So why have you been avoiding me then?”
“Because something has happened” she said falteringly
“Something?” he said “Something? Good or bad?”
“Something that might drive a wedge between us” she replied
“Why what’s happened?” he said with concern, fearing the worst, was it an old flame, an affair or something even worse.
Tallulah looked at him and took a deep breath and blurted out
“I’m pregnant”
“What?” he exclaimed
“I’m pregnant” she repeated
“You’re pregnant?” he asked
“Yes” she replied looking at her hands
“You’re pregnant?” he repeated
“She’s pregnant” he shouted to the moon and then he kissed her
“You’re pregnant” he whispered to her so tenderly “That’s fantastic”
“Is it?” she asked doubtfully
“Don’t you think so?” he asked
“Yes, I do” she confirmed “I wasn’t sure you would think so”
“But it’s the most amazing thing” he said
“So you’re not angry?” Tally asked
“Why would I be angry?”
“Because we never talked about children” she said
“Well I am a little angry” he admitted
“I knew it” she said sadly
“I’m angry that you kept it from me” he said and kissed her softly “We are a couple, we share everything good or bad, ok?”
“Ok” she agreed
“So you’re not going to keep anything from me again are you?”
“No, never again” she promised
“From now on we share everything” he said “Because that’s what married people do”
“Ok” she said and then when the penny dropped she added
“What did you say?”
Still holding her hand George got off the buggy and knelt down
“Lady Tallulah St George, will you marry me?”
“Yes, yes, yes” she squealed as she slid along the seat and jumped down from the buggy and landed on top of him.
And they made love at the place she fell in love with him.
(Part 09)
Tallulah was laying on the grass covered by Georges Dinner Jacket, he had just finished redressing himself and was sitting on the back seat looking upon the figure of his beautiful fiancé with adoring eyes and she lay there sighing beneath his jacket for about twenty minutes before she began to stir.
“Turn your back,” Tallulah said
“Why?” he asked
“So I can get dressed of course”
“But I’ve already seen everything”
“That was when we were making love” she corrected him
“This is different”
“Ok” he said and turned his back to her
“And no peeking”
“Ok”
George thought it was rather cute that even after what they had just done in the moonlight she was still acting shy.
“Now you can look,” she said
When he turned around she was wearing his Dinner Jacket over her blue dress again.
Tallulah had been staying at her Cousin Michaels who lived at the other end of the course where his rather grand house backed onto the 3rd green.
Whereas George’s cottage was in Lily Green which was on the opposite side of the Golf Course,
“So where to milady?” he asked as they trundled across the course in the buggy, George driving this time with Tallulah next to him with her arm through his, wearing his jacket again.
“Will it be the big ‘ouse with the gentry or roughing it with the peasants?”
“I think I will rough it” she replied “With my peasant fiancé”
He stopped the buggy right in the trees by the seventh green and he walked her through the woods to the path that led to Lily Green.
“What are we going to do about the buggy?” she asked
“We’ll take it back tomorrow” he replied “If you’re up early enough, I know what you posh birds are like”
“Oh you’ve had a lot of experience with posh birds have you?”
Tally asked
“Modesty forbids me from answering that question” he replied and they paused in the darkness and enjoyed a long sensual kiss.
“Come on then Mrs Vineyard” he said “Let’s get you home”
“I’ve changed my mind” she said
“You want to go to Michaels after all?” he asked
“No I’ll come and rough it in the cottage” she said
“What then?” he asked
“It’s the engagement thing, Mrs Vineyard sounds really common” Tallulah said and laughed
“Ok good night then” he said
“What? Don’t leave me” she said with panic in her voice and ran after him and when she caught him he just smiled at her
“You bastard” she said and slapped him playfully
“Do you really think I would just leave you here?”
“No” she said hugging him “But you’re still a bastard”
They weren’t up early enough for breakfast in fact they were barely in time for lunch.
So it was late on Sunday morning when Tallulah and George emerged through the front door of his cottage, Tally carrying her previous days outfit in a carrier bag.
Tallulah kept some clothes at his Cottage which meant she didn’t have to navigate her way across the course in the previous night’s clothes.
Miraculously the buggy was still where they left it deep in the woods at the end of the path so they trundled their way to the 3rd green and walked excitedly up the garden of Michaels house to break both lots of happy news.
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