(Part 01)
Gwen Quinton-Smith had lived in Sharpington her whole life and had no desire to live anywhere else.
Sharpington-by-Sea is a traditional seaside resort complete with a Victorian Pier, seafront hotels, crazy golf, The Palladium ballroom, well maintained gardens, promenade, theatre and illuminations, all the usual things to have a great time by the seaside, as well as amusement arcades and of course the Sharpington Fun Park.
Which was the first purpose built amusement park to open in Britain, which had an assortment of rides, like the Rotor and the Wild Mouse, The Cyclone and the Morehouse Galloper, all very tame compared to a 21st century roller coaster but it was still great fun.
It was also a popular resort for retirees and boasted a number of static caravan parks.
She was just the wrong side of 60 and by her own admission a rather plain looking woman, she was quite small and slim and choose to dress in the twin set and tweed style.
Her mode of dress was to most people a little old fashioned but she was always beautifully turned out.
Although she was of retiring age she wasn’t really retired as in truth she had no job to retire from.
She had never been employed because she had an inheritance from her grandmother which was left to her to ensure her independence and in her 30s she inherited her parents money.
But despite her unemployment she was not an idle person, in fact she worked more hours a week than most wage earners.
She did a surfeit of Charity work, fund raising, hospital volunteing, Womens Institute, Church Warden at St Lucys and she was Chairwoman of the Sharpington Day Parade committee to name but a few.
Gwen was imensely popular in Sharpington because she was filled with such great possitivity and she had an enormous heart.
Gwen was an only child and was also a spinster but the latter was mainly by design.
She did have a a great passion while at University but he let her down badly so she drew a line under such diversions.
Her decision was always a bone of contention between her and her mother and every three or four weeks she would be summoned to the family home like the prodigal daughter.
There would be a grand meal, no fatted calf, but no expense was spared, and served up as part of the meal was a totally unsuitable suitor.
This went on right up until her parents deaths and she went along with it with a happy heart because she loved her parents dearly.
The suitors, not so much, and except on very rare occasion she never saw them again.
Some of them she would meet again if it happened that they had a shared interest but not one of them inspired any romantic feelings on her part and given her plainness she always had the feeling they were trying too hard to please her because they had one eye on her monetary worth.
She had been raised as a Christian by her parents, but they were High Church which Gwen found a little too stiff and fussy.
So when she first stepped through the doors of St Lucy’s she felt immediately at home.
She wasn’t sure what prompted her to attend St Lucy’s rather than one of the other dozen or so churches in the town, maybe she was being guided, but whatever or whoever had influenced her compass she had never been disappointed with the chosen destination.
(Part 02)
On a beautiful day in June she had an early meeting with a Council Official, David Jamieson, regarding maintenance works on the Pier as they were trying to renege on their commitments.
Fortunately the Sharpington Pier, along with the yacht club, the Fun Park and the Seaview Hotel had all been saved and protected by the Mornington Estate, the head of which was Gabriel St John.
Very refreshingly, like his father before him, Gabriel conducted all of the estates affairs in the spirit of philanthropy and he was a man of honour and he had no truck with people who behaved dishonourably.
He was also a man with a sense of history and his stewardship of the Mornington Estate wasn’t restricted just to the land and properties within the Finchbottom Vale.
So when Gwen had phoned him to inform him of what was afoot he had no hesitation in volunteering himself and the estate solicitor, Rizalina Pugay, to attend the meeting with her.
When they got there they found that they were not meeting with one man as David Jamieson had told her and they were actually in front of the complete Council Finance Committee with assorted other minions on the periphery.
It turned out to be a very short meeting as Gabriel and Riza tied the council committee in knots and at the end there were a lot of red faces on the Council side and they were all looking daggers at Mr Jamieson.
After the meeting she had coffee with Gabriel and Riza before they returned to Mornington and then she had an hour to kill before her next meeting at St Lucy’s Church so she decided to take a walk on the very Pier that had been the subject of the first and kill time until her second.
About half way along she sat down on a bench and just enjoyed the view.
“That was very impressive in there” A man said
“Excuse me?” she asked when she turned to look at the lean upright figure in front of her
“You were very impressive in front of the committee”
He said
“Were you there then?” she asked
“I watched from the gallery” he confided conspiratorially
“Why?”
“Ok let me explain, May I?” he said indicating the empty seat beside her
“Of course”
“Thank you” he said “I’m Dennis by the way”
“Pleased to meet you” she replied and added “Gwen”
“I’m a retired police Inspector” he said “and just to keep my mind alert I do a bit of Security Consultancy, and I had a meeting at the council this morning myself”
“I see”
“Well afterwards I was using the facilities when two men entered the gents taking about you” he said
“How unsavory” she said and laughed “What were they saying?”
“Well I won’t give it to you verbatim but the gist of it was that they were expecting to bully “The frumpy middle aged busy body”” he said
“Charming” Gwen said
“Their words not mine I might add” Dennis said
“I certainly didn’t see you like that when you went into the chamber”
“Oh, thank you” Gwen said
“So I thought I would sneak into the gallery and see you in action, and I wasn’t disappointed” he said proudly
“And the looks on their faces will live with me forever”
They were both laughing when Gwen suddenly stiffened on hearing the Church clock and she realized she was late.
“I’m sorry I have to go” she said and meant it “but it was very nice to have met you”
(Part 03)
Gwen had really enjoyed their converse on the Pier but unfortunately Gwen had to leave for her next meeting.
It was only a short meeting but it was an important one but during it she found her mind wandering to the lean upright figure of the friendly and jovial ex police Inspector Dennis Simmons.
The meeting lasted about 35 minutes and when she emerged into the bright June sunshine she squinted and she was quite thoughtful and the thing that she was thinking about was primarily being referred to as a frump.
She would have to admit that she wasn’t trendy but she was stylish and she would rather be considered frumpy than be seen as mutton dressed as lamb.
She was a rather plain and middle-aged woman, the wrong side of 60, and she did generally choose to dress in the twin set and tweed style, with sensible shoes, but only because they were practical.
On that day in June she was wearing a lighter weight fabric dress and as she was quite small and slim she wore clothes well.
She was concerned however that someone had referred to her behind her back as a frump and it reminded her of a time she overheard a rival of hers for the Chair of a particular committee describe her as a prudish old spinster and then she and her friend laughed.
She was surprised that the laughter still hurt her after more than ten years.
Then with her eyes still becoming accustomed to the sunlight, she was making her way along the promenade when she was almost knocked off her feet by a figure in the glare.
“I’m so sorry” she said
“Oh that’s ok, I wasn’t watching where I was going” the man said and then added
“Oh hello again” Dennis said
“Oh hello” she said pleasantly surprised, she estimated he was a couple of years older than she was, and well turned out, a bit of a dandy in fact and she liked that.
“So are you all done?” he asked “Meeting wise”
“Oh yes”
“Perhaps we could go for a coffee then” he suggested
“That would be nice, but I’m expected at my friend’s” she said with real regret and added
“Another time though”
“I will hold you to that” Dennis said “In the meantime would you mind if I walked with you part of the way”
“Not at all” she said affably “That would be nice”
So they walked together congenially and chatted, generally about Sharpington and how much they loved it, for about 20 minutes until Dennis stopped.
“Well this is me I’m afraid” he said and pointed “My next appointment is that way”
“Oh what a shame” she said “Thank you for your company”
“It was a pleasure to accompany you and it was a pleasure meeting you” he said and kissed her hand
“How gallant” she thought
“I look forward to that coffee date you promised” he said and darted across the road.
“What a lovely man” she thought as she watched him disappear round the corner of an art deco edifice.
Not that she held any romantic notions of him, that ship had sailed long ago for her, but she did have a coffee date.
And the word “Date” caused her to blush and she was still blushing when she walked into Hemmings General Store.
(Part 04)
As she was going to Leslie Maher’s for coffee she had intended to pick up some pastries from Addison’s Bakery but after meeting Dennis it completely went out of her head so as Gwen didn’t want to arrive empty handed she decided to call in at Hemmings General Store to pick up a box of prepacked cakes.
One of her close friends and neighbour’s David Goodman was at the counter talking to Sabr Hemming, who was running the business while her mother was ill and as she reached them David raised the question of full time or part time work for a girl called Wendy Corney with the two of them.
Gwen had heard about Wendy and how David caught her in his garage, but he was an exceptionally good judge of character and if he thought she was worth helping then she was in.
She had always held the belief that no one was beyond redemption.
“I will certainly ask around the ladies at the Women’s Institute” Gwen said “but in the mean time I do have some odd jobs about the house that desperately need doing”
“You are a saint” David said and then Sabr also promised to give Wendy a few hours in the shop while her mum was ill.
Gwen bought a pack of Bakewell Tarts said her goodbyes and set off for Leslie’s house.
Gwen chose to live at the southern end of Sharpington, which was popular with retiree’s, because it was a quiet and peaceful place to live but was close to the town.
With a large proportion of her inheritances still providing her a healthy income she could easily have afforded to live in the grander neighbourhood of Granite Hill, which in a nod to San Francisco the locals nicknamed Nob Hill.
But Gwen was not an ostentatious person and she lived in a very nice four bedroom house, which was too big for her, so she liked where she lived among her good friends and neighbours
She walked the short distance to Leslie’s house and knocked on the front door.
“Sorry I’m late” she said and brandished the cakes
“Shop bought cake! What would the Women’s Institute say?”
Leslie teased
“Yes I’m sorry but I was distracted by a man”
Gwen said in her defence.
“Oh goody tell me everything”
So Gwen told her the tale of the morning’s events and was very forthcoming, but before she got to elaborate on the future coffee date they were interrupted by a knock at the door which turned out to be David Goodman, and his arrival heralded the end of her tale about Dennis as the conversation then revolved around his mornings work finding employment for Wendy Corney, not that she wasn’t interested.
It was a shame really because had she mentioned Dennis Simmons name in David’s presence she would have found out he was his brother in law and she would have had a way in which to contact him which would have spared her the frustration of the following month when he failed to materialise for the coffee date and over that month she repeated the mantra
“You should have got his number”
(Part 05)
There was a very good reason why Gwen hadn’t seen or heard from Dennis and that was because he had been out of the country.
His oldest friend who he had known since police training school had suffered a severe stroke.
He and his wife and moved to Spain when they retired and it was in a hospital there that he spent the first two weeks and then he stayed on for the funeral.
During the month following her meeeting with Dennis, Gwen had put Wendy to work helping her sort out the junk that had accumulated in the 38 years she had lived in the house.
And they got on like a house on fire, Wendy was willing and hardworking and very good company and over the weeks she became like a daughter to her and by extension due to the age difference, a granddaughter.
Dennis’s first day back in Sharpington was a Saturday morning, the first Saturday of July and furthermore the Gods had delivered to the folk of Sharpington a very hot day, the hottest day of the year so far in fact.
And while Gwen and Wendy were sorting out one of the spare bedrooms Dennis was walking along the beach and when he looked up he saw his brother in law David standing on the Pier looking over the railings so he gave him a wave and he received a wave in return and then both men continued on their way.
When he left the beach he walked along the promenade for a while and looked at some of the attractions and finally decided to take a stroll along the seafront in the same direction he took with Gwen the month before.
After walking up to the point that they said goodbye he decided to go and have a pint at The Ancient Mariner across the road before he returned home.
As he walked through the beer garden he spotted his brother in law again sat alone, people watching, while enjoying a pint of Mornington Ale.
“Well bless me, I thought you were dead” he said
“You knew very well I’m not dead you saw me on the pier this morning Dennis”
“I know but you did look a bit pasty” he said
“Do you want another?”
“Yes I will, thanks”
Dennis went to the bar and was surprised by the amount of people he knew in there but alas Gwen wasn’t one of them and while he waited for his order he muttered
“I wish I’d got her number”
As they sat quietly enjoying their beer David asked.
“Are you going to the Yacht Club Dinner Dance?”
“I wasn’t planning on it” he replied “Are you?”
“Yes, you could come as my plus one” David suggestion
“Why don’t you take a lady instead?” Dennis asked
“The lady I would choose to take is going with someone else” David explained
“Don’t tell me you’re still carrying a torch for that neighbour of yours?” Dennis asked and David nodded
“I don’t blame you though she’s a lovely woman”
“That she is” David said wistfully
“Ok” he said “I’ll be your wingman”
“Thanks mate” he said
It was no hardship he liked to dance in fact he was an exceptional dancer and there was always the chance he might see Gwen there.
(Part 06)
The Yacht Club Dinner Dance was on the 18th of July and as Dennis
dried, perfumed and powdered himself before he changed into his dinner suit, complete with cummerbund and bow tie, he was feeling rather nervous as he stood before his reflection and tied his tie for the fourth time and wished he worn a clip on.
“She probably won’t be there anyway” He said to himself “and you’re a confirmed bachelor for God’s sake”.
David arrived in a taxi to pick him up and they made it to the Yacht Club with minutes to spare.
The ante room was jammed with an array of stunningly turned out women but he couldn’t see Gwen anywhere.
However while he and David stood on the periphery of the throng Gwen Quinton-Smith appeared looking anything but plain and frumpy and was in fact looking very presentable indeed in a rather elegant retro fashion way.
Her heart skipped a beat when she first saw Dennis’s dapper upright figure walk in with David she didn’t know they knew each other.
“Hello David” She said warmly “thank you so much for finding Wendy for me, she’s been an absolute Godsend”
“I’m glad she’s been useful” he said and then he noticed she was no longer making eye contact with him but was looking at Dennis instead.
“Gwen, this is my brother in law Dennis” he said
“Hello Dennis” Gwen said
Just then a waitress arrived with a tray of drinks, Dennis took one and handed it to Gwen and then took one for himself and David grabbed a glass just in time before the waitress snatched the tray away.
And as she left Leslie joined them, looking very shapely and David’s heart skipped a beat.
“What are you lot talking about?” she said
“Gwen was just telling me what a little gem Wendy Corney is weren’t you Gwen” he said but she and Dennis appeared to be oblivious to their presence and then the waitress stepped through the crowd to offer Leslie a drink
Gwen and Dennis suddenly became aware they were not alone and then the small talk ebbed and flowed before they wandered over to the seating plan to find out who their dining companions were.
“Great we’re on the same table” David said
“Really?” Leslie said “how funny, who else have we got?”
They studied the plan for a few minutes and then David said
“Well that’s probably the best table in the room”
“I agree” Leslie said proudly
“So who do you think we need to thank?” he asked her
“Gwen obviously” Leslie scoffed “She always does the tables”
Then she stuck her arm through his and said
“You may escort me to my table peasant”
“Yes’m” he said tugging his forelock
David and Leslie were right about it being the best table in the room, they had a good mix and there was a lot of jovial banter although for the most part Dennis and Gwen were happy with only each other’s company and didn’t pick up on the tension between Leslie and her husband Frank.
Frank made no secret of the fact that he was totally bored with the whole affair and Leslie made no secret of that fact that she was displeased with him.
When the dancing started Dennis and Gwen headed straight for the dancefloor so they didn’t notice Frank Maher deserting his wife to go and drink with his mates at the bar.
Nor did they witness Leslie storming out muttering “Intolerable, completely intolerable”
They were also oblivious to David following hot on her heels.
(Part 07)
At the Yacht Club Dinner Dance, Dennis and Gwen were on the dancefloor from the first dance to the last and were oblivious to what was happening around them until just after midnight David tapped him on the shoulder and told him that he and Leslie were heading off.
But they returned to the dancing again and he didn’t see David and Leslie leave and nor did Gwen and when the music stopped and the lights went on Gwen said
“Is it that time already?”
“It must be” he replied
“Well that’s disappointing” she said
“Yes it is”
Gwen and David ambled disconsolately outside into the balmy night air with the other hangers on and then Dennis said
“I’ll go and get us a taxi”
“Oh no” Gwen said
“You don’t want a Taxi?” He asked and she shook her head.
“Would you mind if we walked?” Gwen asked “I’m in no hurry to get home”
“Nor am I” he said “and it’s such a beautiful night”
They walked arm in arm along the promenade in their finery with a gentle breeze blowing off the sea and reminisced about places in the town that held special memories for them.
Dennis had his first kiss on the Pier with Katie Pomery who wore a red dress with white dots.
Gwen had hers with Owen Collier on the Ghost Train in the Fun Park.
Sharpington Day Parades, Halloween Fright Nights, Firework displays, Candy Floss, Ice creams, chip suppers and kiss me quick hats.
But they were all individual memories of times before they met and they would have preferred to have had shared memories to talk about.
But that night at the Yacht Club Dinner Dance dancing the night away would live long in both their memories.
But they enjoyed the slow walk home and were in no hurry for it too end.
As they reached The Ancient Mariner, Gwen said wistfully
“This is where you kissed my hand”
“Yes it was” he agreed “but that was in the bright glare of the sun”
“Yes it was a beautiful day” she mused
“However…” he began
“However?”
“However I think I can do better in the moonlight” he said
“Really?” Gwen said and then he kissed her and the most perfect night was made more so by the most perfect kiss.
When the kiss had ended they sat on the sea wall at the Southern end of the promenade with their arms around each other and watched the sunrise and they felt like teenagers again.
And that dawn was symbolic, it was a new dawn and a new beginning for a confirmed bachelor and a frumpy spinster.
Reluctantly with the dawn fully broken they continued on their journey this time holding hands like a pair of school kids.
He walked her to her front door still holding her hand
“I really enjoyed tonight” Dennis said
“Me too” she said
“I will never forget tonight, thank you”
“And nor will I” he said and he added “and I think we should make another memory” then he kissed her once again.
Wednesday, 5 April 2017
Mornington-By-Mere – (37) Three Days of Christmas
(Christmas Eve)
On Christmas Eve Siobhan Chapman and Bryan Williams were stood in the old wooden bus shelter on the Shallowfield road opposite the Old East Windmill just after the last bus had gone in the depths of a passionate kiss.
They both lived in the village of Mornington-By-Mere which is a small country village lying in the Finchbottom Vale nestled between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest and the rolling Pepperstock Hills.
It is a quaint picturesque village, a proper chocolate box picturesque idyll, with a Manor House, 12th Century Church, a Coaching Inn, Windmills, an Old Forge, a Schoolhouse, a River, a Mere and of course at least one bus shelter.
Siobhan and Bryan had only met recently at a mutual friends 18th birthday party at the end of November although they were not strangers as they had both gone to the village school but at the age of 11 Bryan had gone to Shallowfield Grammar School.
Siobhan and Victoria Crockford had been right through the school system together and had been friends since forever.
Bryan on the other hand knew Victoria from University which was why he got his invite to her party.
When Cass introduced them at the party they hit it off from the very first second and from that night on they were virtually inseparable.
On Christmas Eve they had been at the Williams house for the evening and it was as he was walking her home to Windmill Cottages that they diverted into the seclusion of the bus shelter.
“I have a confession to make” Siobhan said a few minutes after Bryan had un-cupped her breasts.
“What’s that?” he asked her without relinquishing his hold on her pliant breasts.
“My uncle is the village policeman” she said
“Really?” he asked
“Really” she confirmed
“Well it’s a fair cop” he said and gave her breast a squeeze and then laughed uncontrollably because he was copping a feel of the village Copper’s niece.
“So you think they’re fair do you?” she said
“Yes” he replied “I mean no, er I don’t know”
Inexplicably, to Bryan’s way of thinking, she put her breasts away and slapped at his hand as he tried to free them again.
“They are better than fair” she said sharply “by a long way”
“You’re absolutely right” he said grovelingly “They’re fabulous”
“Humph” she exclaimed and zipped up her coat
“Oh come on Siobhan” Bryan said “Don’t hide your lovely boobs away”
And he tried again to regain access to her goodies but Siobhan sidestepped his lunge and snapped a pink fluffy handcuff on his wrist.
“Bryan Williams I am arresting you for inappropriate laughter during a sexual act”
Bryan’s reaction was to try and escape but Siobhan’s Uncle had trained her in self-defense and restraint techniques and she applied the latter on his wrist and almost made him cry out in pain.
“Ok, ok” he begged “I surrender”
“Good boy” she said patronizingly
“Where are you taking me?” Bryan asked
“To my house of course” she replied
“Can’t we stay here instead?” he asked
“No we can’t” she replied
“Why?” he simpered
“Because my Mum and Dad have gone to midnight mass so you don’t need to be groping me in a bus shelter” Siobhan replied
“When you could be doing it in my bedroom”
“So why did you tell me about your uncle being a policeman?” he asked
“Oh that was just to give me an excuse to use the handcuffs” she replied with a giggle.
“So are you going to come quietly sir?” she asked and kissed his cheek
“It depends on what you plan to do” he said hesitantly
“Well if I tell you it will spoil the surprise” Siobhan said
“Ok I promise that I won’t offer any resistance” he confessed
(Christmas Day)
On Christmas Day Bryan and Siobhan woke up with more than the normal joy of a Christmas morning after having made love for the first time the night before.
Brian thought it was a very special night even though he had to climb out of her bedroom window in the small hours and nearly broke his neck in the process while Siobhan watched him all the way and giggled.
Christmas morning began with a frosty glaze decorating the rooftops and lightly dusting the evergreens and as the bells rang out to celebrate the birth of the Lord the joyous faithful of the village arrived under a clear blue sky.
It was a most glorious Christmas morning and Bryan’s spirits were high after the early exchange of Christmas presents in Siobhan bedroom.
He was with the rest of the Williams clan as the faithful answered the call of the bells, but he waited outside the church while the others took their places until Siobhan and the rest of the Chapman family arrived and he met Siobhan outside St Winifred’s
“Happy Christmas” he said
“Happy Christmas” she replied and then the two of them just stood and looked at each other with inane grins on their faces and then they were only brought back to the moment by a shout from Siobhan’s Dad telling her to get a move on.
So Bryan kissed her lovingly in the sunshine on the steps of the Church before they both went inside to join the rest of their families.
It was an excellent service with Peter Cockcroft on his very best form, but Bryan and Siobhan didn’t really follow preceding’s very closely as their minds and eyes were elsewhere.
Afterwards it took some while for the Church to empty as everyone wanted to share their best wishes with each other.
After they eventually left the church Bryan walked with her to Windmill Bridge where they shared a Christmas kiss, said their goodbyes before they went their separate ways.
As they had become inseparable in the weeks since they had first met, the days preceding Christmas there had been much debate as to where the couple would spend Christmas day but in the end they decided to have Christmas dinner at their respective homes with their own families and met up at hers in the evening although there was no repeat of the previous night’s excitements.
Instead they ate too much and drank too much and when he left the Chapman’s it was quite late.
(Boxing Day)
On Boxing Day Siobhan and Bryan were once again in the Shallowfield Road bus shelter sharing a kiss when she suddenly said
“I have a confession to make,”
“Not another one?” he said “I’ve still got the bruises from the last one”
“No not that kind of confession” she said
“Oh, what then?” he asked her “You’re not married are you?”
“Not that I remember” she replied “and I would hope if I were married I wouldn’t be standing in a bus shelter kissing another man”
“No, that’s a very good point” he said
“And furthermore if I was married I don’t think I would have handcuffed you to my bed on Christmas Eve, would I”
“No” he admitted and wondered what the confession might be on that boxing.
They were on their way to the Old Mill Inn and the reason they were on their way there was because they showed live football in the bar and Abbottsford Town were playing Abbeyvale Borough and Bryan was an Abbottsford fan and not only was it a derby match but it was important match because it was a top of the table clash.
Although to be honest it was always an important match when Town played Borough.
But despite the importance of the game they still stopped in the bus stop where she was making another confession.
Bryan was pleased that she wasn’t married, she could have been married for all he knew, he hadn’t known her long and they’d only been dating for a month so there was a lot he still didn’t know about her, but she was only 17.
Her name was Siobhan Chapman and she was born and bred in the village, he also knew where she went to school and who her parents and siblings were.
He knew that he liked the look of her from the first minute and asked her out a minute later and he had seen her every day since.
So as they were on their way to the pub on Boxing Day to watch the football and she suggested they stopped for an intimate interlude in the bus shelter, how could he resist.
It was kind of an instant attraction thing, certainly for her, and since the first attraction it had gradually deepened and now he was head over heels in love with her.
“What then?” he asked still unaware what her confession was.
“Oh God I’ve been dreading saying this” she said and he was really worried, she may not have been married but she could still have been engaged or had a boyfriend.
But as worried as he was he wasn’t sure if he really wanted to know.
But Siobhan took a deep breath and he braced himself
“I’m an Abbeyvale supporter” she said and closed her eyes and grimaced but it took a moment for the full implications of her statement to sink in.
“I think I would have preferred it if you were married” he said and Siobhan moved close in to him and asked
“Do you mean you would prefer it if a married woman was in love with you rather than an Abbeyvale supporter?”
“She loves me” he said to himself and he wasn’t sure if that shocked him more than the fact she supported Abbeyvale Borough.
“I'm sorry,” she said “Not much of a Christmas present for my new boyfriend I’m afraid”
But she couldn't have been more wrong about that it was the perfect Christmas present.
Siobhan Chapman loved him and everything else paled into insignificance compared to that and he made sure she knew that.
On Christmas Eve Siobhan Chapman and Bryan Williams were stood in the old wooden bus shelter on the Shallowfield road opposite the Old East Windmill just after the last bus had gone in the depths of a passionate kiss.
They both lived in the village of Mornington-By-Mere which is a small country village lying in the Finchbottom Vale nestled between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest and the rolling Pepperstock Hills.
It is a quaint picturesque village, a proper chocolate box picturesque idyll, with a Manor House, 12th Century Church, a Coaching Inn, Windmills, an Old Forge, a Schoolhouse, a River, a Mere and of course at least one bus shelter.
Siobhan and Bryan had only met recently at a mutual friends 18th birthday party at the end of November although they were not strangers as they had both gone to the village school but at the age of 11 Bryan had gone to Shallowfield Grammar School.
Siobhan and Victoria Crockford had been right through the school system together and had been friends since forever.
Bryan on the other hand knew Victoria from University which was why he got his invite to her party.
When Cass introduced them at the party they hit it off from the very first second and from that night on they were virtually inseparable.
On Christmas Eve they had been at the Williams house for the evening and it was as he was walking her home to Windmill Cottages that they diverted into the seclusion of the bus shelter.
“I have a confession to make” Siobhan said a few minutes after Bryan had un-cupped her breasts.
“What’s that?” he asked her without relinquishing his hold on her pliant breasts.
“My uncle is the village policeman” she said
“Really?” he asked
“Really” she confirmed
“Well it’s a fair cop” he said and gave her breast a squeeze and then laughed uncontrollably because he was copping a feel of the village Copper’s niece.
“So you think they’re fair do you?” she said
“Yes” he replied “I mean no, er I don’t know”
Inexplicably, to Bryan’s way of thinking, she put her breasts away and slapped at his hand as he tried to free them again.
“They are better than fair” she said sharply “by a long way”
“You’re absolutely right” he said grovelingly “They’re fabulous”
“Humph” she exclaimed and zipped up her coat
“Oh come on Siobhan” Bryan said “Don’t hide your lovely boobs away”
And he tried again to regain access to her goodies but Siobhan sidestepped his lunge and snapped a pink fluffy handcuff on his wrist.
“Bryan Williams I am arresting you for inappropriate laughter during a sexual act”
Bryan’s reaction was to try and escape but Siobhan’s Uncle had trained her in self-defense and restraint techniques and she applied the latter on his wrist and almost made him cry out in pain.
“Ok, ok” he begged “I surrender”
“Good boy” she said patronizingly
“Where are you taking me?” Bryan asked
“To my house of course” she replied
“Can’t we stay here instead?” he asked
“No we can’t” she replied
“Why?” he simpered
“Because my Mum and Dad have gone to midnight mass so you don’t need to be groping me in a bus shelter” Siobhan replied
“When you could be doing it in my bedroom”
“So why did you tell me about your uncle being a policeman?” he asked
“Oh that was just to give me an excuse to use the handcuffs” she replied with a giggle.
“So are you going to come quietly sir?” she asked and kissed his cheek
“It depends on what you plan to do” he said hesitantly
“Well if I tell you it will spoil the surprise” Siobhan said
“Ok I promise that I won’t offer any resistance” he confessed
(Christmas Day)
On Christmas Day Bryan and Siobhan woke up with more than the normal joy of a Christmas morning after having made love for the first time the night before.
Brian thought it was a very special night even though he had to climb out of her bedroom window in the small hours and nearly broke his neck in the process while Siobhan watched him all the way and giggled.
Christmas morning began with a frosty glaze decorating the rooftops and lightly dusting the evergreens and as the bells rang out to celebrate the birth of the Lord the joyous faithful of the village arrived under a clear blue sky.
It was a most glorious Christmas morning and Bryan’s spirits were high after the early exchange of Christmas presents in Siobhan bedroom.
He was with the rest of the Williams clan as the faithful answered the call of the bells, but he waited outside the church while the others took their places until Siobhan and the rest of the Chapman family arrived and he met Siobhan outside St Winifred’s
“Happy Christmas” he said
“Happy Christmas” she replied and then the two of them just stood and looked at each other with inane grins on their faces and then they were only brought back to the moment by a shout from Siobhan’s Dad telling her to get a move on.
So Bryan kissed her lovingly in the sunshine on the steps of the Church before they both went inside to join the rest of their families.
It was an excellent service with Peter Cockcroft on his very best form, but Bryan and Siobhan didn’t really follow preceding’s very closely as their minds and eyes were elsewhere.
Afterwards it took some while for the Church to empty as everyone wanted to share their best wishes with each other.
After they eventually left the church Bryan walked with her to Windmill Bridge where they shared a Christmas kiss, said their goodbyes before they went their separate ways.
As they had become inseparable in the weeks since they had first met, the days preceding Christmas there had been much debate as to where the couple would spend Christmas day but in the end they decided to have Christmas dinner at their respective homes with their own families and met up at hers in the evening although there was no repeat of the previous night’s excitements.
Instead they ate too much and drank too much and when he left the Chapman’s it was quite late.
(Boxing Day)
On Boxing Day Siobhan and Bryan were once again in the Shallowfield Road bus shelter sharing a kiss when she suddenly said
“I have a confession to make,”
“Not another one?” he said “I’ve still got the bruises from the last one”
“No not that kind of confession” she said
“Oh, what then?” he asked her “You’re not married are you?”
“Not that I remember” she replied “and I would hope if I were married I wouldn’t be standing in a bus shelter kissing another man”
“No, that’s a very good point” he said
“And furthermore if I was married I don’t think I would have handcuffed you to my bed on Christmas Eve, would I”
“No” he admitted and wondered what the confession might be on that boxing.
They were on their way to the Old Mill Inn and the reason they were on their way there was because they showed live football in the bar and Abbottsford Town were playing Abbeyvale Borough and Bryan was an Abbottsford fan and not only was it a derby match but it was important match because it was a top of the table clash.
Although to be honest it was always an important match when Town played Borough.
But despite the importance of the game they still stopped in the bus stop where she was making another confession.
Bryan was pleased that she wasn’t married, she could have been married for all he knew, he hadn’t known her long and they’d only been dating for a month so there was a lot he still didn’t know about her, but she was only 17.
Her name was Siobhan Chapman and she was born and bred in the village, he also knew where she went to school and who her parents and siblings were.
He knew that he liked the look of her from the first minute and asked her out a minute later and he had seen her every day since.
So as they were on their way to the pub on Boxing Day to watch the football and she suggested they stopped for an intimate interlude in the bus shelter, how could he resist.
It was kind of an instant attraction thing, certainly for her, and since the first attraction it had gradually deepened and now he was head over heels in love with her.
“What then?” he asked still unaware what her confession was.
“Oh God I’ve been dreading saying this” she said and he was really worried, she may not have been married but she could still have been engaged or had a boyfriend.
But as worried as he was he wasn’t sure if he really wanted to know.
But Siobhan took a deep breath and he braced himself
“I’m an Abbeyvale supporter” she said and closed her eyes and grimaced but it took a moment for the full implications of her statement to sink in.
“I think I would have preferred it if you were married” he said and Siobhan moved close in to him and asked
“Do you mean you would prefer it if a married woman was in love with you rather than an Abbeyvale supporter?”
“She loves me” he said to himself and he wasn’t sure if that shocked him more than the fact she supported Abbeyvale Borough.
“I'm sorry,” she said “Not much of a Christmas present for my new boyfriend I’m afraid”
But she couldn't have been more wrong about that it was the perfect Christmas present.
Siobhan Chapman loved him and everything else paled into insignificance compared to that and he made sure she knew that.
Downshire Diary – (37) Age Appropriate
(Part 01)
The Finchbottom Vale nestles comfortably between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest to the south and the rolling Pepperstock Hills in the north and those who were lucky enough to live there think of it as the rose between two thorns and at the eastern end of the Vale were the Dulcets which were a collection of villages and hamlets comprising of Dulcet Meadow, Dulcet-on-Willow, Dulcet Green and Dulcet-on-Brooke, to name but a few, and of course Dulcet St Mary which was where the chair of the Sharpington Day Parade Fundraising Committee, Jayne Keeling, lived.
Jayne Keeling was a tall elegant woman in her late fifties and spent a lot of money on, Spa’s, beauty treatments and manicures and the like to keep herself looking that way.
She lived alone in a large detached Georgian country cottage in a well-heeled leafy corner of the village and it was a bright early autumn morning when she lay cosily beneath her duvet and reflected on what had been a very interesting and eventful summer.
Jayne was over fifty, well, well over fifty actually, in fact she was not only the wrong side of that particular milestone she was fast approaching the next one and she was divorced to boot.
But she wasn’t a lonely divorcee, because she had a wide circle of friends, but no special someone.
Although five years earlier there was someone, she had a lover, a young lover, more than 30 years younger to be precise which she supposed made her a cougar.
Jayne had just come through a rather bitter divorce when they got together, not that she was particularly heartbroken by the ordeal or needed picking up from it.
In fact she didn’t really mind being divorced, she hardly ever saw her husband Graham when they were together anyway, he was always on the golf course or in the 19th or more often than not he was with his secretary.
But when the affair began with her young lover, Kenny, it opened her eyes and showed her that she was still an attractive woman, still a sexy woman for that matter, still a desirable woman and her ex-husband Graham clearly never appreciated that.
Her lover was her next door neighbour’s son, 25 years old with the body of an Adonis, the face of a catalogue model and a brain the size of an avocado and incredible stamina.
She was immensely flattered to still attract male attention at her age, she had had so little attention paid to her by her ex-husband that she had forgotten how attractive she was and Kenny was very attentive, very considerate and extremely vigorous.
A session with him was like Zumba and Pilates combined with mild electrocution.
After a weekend with him she was quite literally shagged out and needed the best part of a week to recover.
Not that she wanted to seem ungrateful, as many women in her position, or positions, would have been quite envious if she’d ever told anyone about him and what he did to her and how often, they certainly would not have been sympathetic if she enlightened them.
After all there was a lot to be said for being orgasmed to the point of unconsciousness at any age, but for a very much over fifty even more so.
It was just that sometimes she would have been quite happy with an early night and a cuddle.
(Part 02)
If her affair with Kenny went on too long she wasn’t at all sure that his vital and sustained attention wouldn’t shag her into an early grave.
Plus the fact she was no teenager anymore and getting ready for a date that would end with her being stripped naked and well and truly ravished took a lot longer than it used to do.
As a teen, a squirt of perfume and some lippy and she was good to go.
Now she needed 24 hours’ notice a good night sleep and five hours to prepare.
At the time she and Kenny got together she wasn’t looking for a man of any description and she certainly wasn’t looking for a toy boy, she hadn’t even asked to have her grass cut, he had volunteered, so she truly was an accidental Cougar.
It all began one early summer’s day when Kenny’s mother, Emily, volunteered her Estate Agent son to spend his day off cutting her not insubstantial lawns.
It was a very hot day, which got all the hotter for Jayne when Kenny took off his shirt and his muscular well-toned torso glistened with sweat and by the end of the day she was at boiling point and when he had finished all the lawns and was ready to abandon his horticultural endeavours and focus his prowess towards attending to her.
Jayne was in the kitchen getting him a beer from the fridge when he walked up behind her and slipped his arms around her waist and began kissing her neck.
And before she could even protest he had turned her around and kissed her mouth and then she didn’t want to protest anymore.
Jayne was still holding the beer in one hand and a glass in the other and then the next thing she knew they were in her bed.
She knew it was wrong but she hadn’t had a man’s hands on her for two years and all she could do was hope he didn’t stop.
That early summer afternoon was the first of many such occasions when she was on the receiving end of some youthful loving.
But as Jayne lay beneath her duvet one morning she wondered if it was worth it, well obviously when she was in her bed it was clearly worth it.
But sex with Kenny, although really marvellous, was also very exhausting.
What she really wanted was someone of her own age, who would appreciate her for what she was when she wasn’t glammed up, someone she could be herself with.
Not that useless article of an ex-husband though, someone kind and considerate.
But what Kenny had done more than anything that summer, was to remind her how much she enjoyed sex and once she had tasted the sweet sensual nectar of lust once again she had an appetite for it that she needed to quench.
So as she lay beneath the duvet she made an important decision, she wouldn’t see Kenny again, because his stamina really could have been the death of her so she would instead seek out a less vigorous partner and with the momentous decision made she snuggled down beneath the duvet and went back to sleep and dreamed of someone to cuddle.
(Part 03)
The Vale was once a great wetland that centuries earlier stretched from Mornington in the East to Childean in the west and from Shallowfield in the south to Purplemere in the north.
But over the many centuries the vast majority had been drained for agriculture, a feat achieved largely by the efforts of famous Mornington Mills, of which only three had survived to the present day and even those were no longer functional and were in various states of repair but in one of them, Dulcet’s Mill, was where Robin Jeffrey lived.
He was one of the two senior partners of Jeffrey and Teague veterinary practice but he was now retired.
The 64 year old widow, whose children were all living independent lives chose the solitary existence where he could spend his time enjoying the two thing that gave him the most pleasure, birdwatching, which he could do from his vantage point in the top of the mill and fishing which he could do in the River Brooke which ran no more than twenty yards from his front door.
He was fifty seven years old when he was widowed, living in Purplemere, and immediately after his wife’s death he seemed to suddenly appear on the radar of the local spinster’s, widows and divorcees in and around his own age.
In fact it all started at his wife’s funeral where he was buttonholed by two well-presented mourners who made it perfectly clear he could avail himself of them if he chose to do so.
But it was many months after his dear wife was laid to rest and only after repeatedly rebuffing the endless advances of even the most attractive of the local pursuing vamps that he finally decided out of desperation and loneliness to dip his toe in the water and began dating but his heart was never really in it.
But he would probably have continued trying nonetheless but for a providential collision.
When quite by chance on one damp miserable day he met Wendy in Stephenson’s Supermarket car park after a minor fender bender.
She was a very beautiful woman, tall and willowy with long light ginger hair, and a smiling freckled face.
Wendy was a much younger woman than Tom had of late been involved with, in fact she was a considerably younger woman than he, whom at the time he looked upon her merely as a casual observer, although he thought she was attractive and shapely with her Lycra outfit doing nothing to hide her assets, he completely overlooked the fact that he was a man and she was a woman, because he believed she couldn’t possibly be interested in an old man like him.
And although they laughed and joked and she flicked at her hair flirtatiously he was flattered but for him it was a nonstarter, the stuff of cheap fiction, or so he thought at least, but in time he was to find out that he was wrong.
(Part 04)
It was a warm summer Saturday afternoon a few days after the accident when Wendy knocked on his door.
“Oh hello” he said doing a double take when he recognised the beautiful smiling young woman, not dressed in Lycra or with her hair up this time, but her ginger tresses flowed free and she was wearing a summer dress, and very little else as far as he could tell.
“Hi Robin” she said and flicked her wayward hair off her face.
“This is a surprise” he said
“I wanted to make sure you were ok” Wendy said and proffered to him a bottle of wine “And apologize again”
“There really is no need” Robin insisted
“I thought there was” Wendy retorted
“Well this is very kind of you” he said “but I can’t accept it unless you join me in drinking it”
“I thought you would never ask” she said
“Well you make yourself comfortable on the patio and I’ll get some glasses” he said
So Wendy walked out through the French doors while he went into the kitchen and got two glasses from the cupboard and after opening the bottle of Pinot he poured two generous glasses of the wine and headed towards the patio.
He stepped outside with a glass in each hand but his uninvited guest was nowhere to be seen, at least not at first.
Robin had assumed she had just taken a turn around the garden while she was waiting and was about to put the glasses down and go in search of her when she suddenly came into view.
“You see I made myself comfortable” she said as she stood on the edge of the patio with the greenery of the garden behind her wearing a bracelet on her wrist, rings on her fingers and a smile on her face and absolutely nothing else.
He returned her smile and then his eyes began to view her in detail beginning with her ginger tresses, streaked with gold from the sun which he followed as they hung down to her naked white shoulders and then every inch of her topography down to the ground.
“So I can see” he replied still holding the wine glasses, and then she began to walk towards him.
Well if the vision of her standing naked had mesmerised him it was nothing in comparison to the view of the naked Wendy when she set her gorgeous body in motion as she walked slowly and deliberately getting the maximum movement into each delicious step until they were standing nose to nose and she kissed him.
And so began a long and torrid relationship between the 57 year old vet and the 23 years old fitness instructor.
He felt faintly ridiculous having a 23 year old girlfriend and had a feeling of extreme amazement and delight, though more amazement if he was completely honest.
His wife Mary would have laughed like a drain if she could have seen him with a girl whom she would have considered a child, he really missed his wife.
(Part 05)
Robin thought that the sex with Wendy was amazing and it made his toes curl, she was supple, agile and pliable in fact she was really quite exceptionally bendy, he even called her bendy Wendy, and she had near inexhaustible stamina.
But even though Wendy was really sexy and a more than accomplished sexual partner she was unfortunately duller than ditch water.
She was “fun” to be with when he was benefiting from her expertise, but her company wasn’t stimulating other than in the obvious way.
Any red bloodied man not in his position would have thought him quite mad for wanting to end it.
But she had no conversation and was the very definition of vacuous.
Gorgeous, sexy, horny as hell and truly accomplished in the sexual arts, but as dumb as a stick.
The truth was that Wendy did not meet all his needs other than the physical.
What Robin wanted was someone like his wife, someone who loved him and who he could love and more importantly talk too.
Someone who knew that Muffin the Mule wasn’t a sexual offence, someone who didn’t think Mr Pastry was a 1960 version of Paul Hollywood and a woman who remembered a time when you had to get up to change the TV channel.
Wendy was not the answer to this want.
Nor could she fill his desire for some nice gentle love making and an affectionate cuddle, some grown up conversation.
Wendy was not someone he could fall asleep in front of the TV with so he decided to end it.
It was a difficult conversation when Robin ended the short breathless affair with the 23 year old fitness instructor.
What he couldn’t tell her was that one of his biggest gripes about having such a young girlfriend was the dullness of her pillow talk.
Wendy was born into a generation that had so many means of communication at their disposal yet she still had nothing meaningful to say.
There was a lot to be said for being with a woman who was wrinkle free and supple, but it was what was said afterwards that he craved.
So in the time post Wendy, and being on his own, truly on his own he had harked back to his youth and the days before his six pack became victim to too many six packs.
His middle aged physique tended more towards the party seven than a six pack.
He smiled at the thought of the party seven, because Wendy wouldn’t have got the joke, it would have gone right over her head.
He also reflected on his old girlfriends of the day with their firm buttocks, flat stomachs and gravity defying breasts which stirred his loins in his lustful nostalgia.
Part of him wanted to return to those carefree days of youth.
When all that teenage sex was so wonderful, when he had such limited sexual experience, and so much of the fun was in the learning.
All the reminiscing left him with a certain longing but he knew the past could not be relived or recaptured.
(Part 06)
There had been no one else after her toy boy, her dreams of having someone to cuddle had not come to fruition.
So Jayne Keeling lived alone in her large detached Georgian country cottage in a well-heeled leafy corner of the village of Dulcet St Mary.
Five years had passed since Jayne had gone through a long exhausting affair with an estate agent 30 years her junior.
And although he stimulated every cell in her body with monotonous regularity for the sake of her health and sanity she decided she would look after her own wants and needs and kicked him into touch.
What she craved was something he couldn’t give her.
She was looking for a companion, a confidant and a friend and not just someone to have sex with, as nice as the sex had been.
Jayne was immensely flattered at her age to attract the attentions of such a young lover, but the price for such toe curling sexual encounters was too high to pay.
What she longed for was to be with someone with life experience, someone she could have a proper conversation with in between the love making or even instead of it.
It didn’t have to be deep and meaningful converse just a bit more intellectual than he said/she said.
So what Jayne wanted was the same thing that Robin Jeffrey craved, someone they could talk too, not about anything earth shattering, it could be as simple as a common history or shared knowledge, someone who knew the name of the dragon in Ivor the Engine, or someone who watched Brief Encounter and didn’t think it was funny, someone who had heard of Biafra, Aberfan and the Torrey Canyon or remembered when there were only three TV channels.
Someone who remembered being able to play music at the wrong speed on a gramophone and who remembered having to wait for the black and white TV set to warm up.
Just someone who understood what the other was saying and wouldn’t stare vacantly at you when you mentioned an event that happened pre 1990.
Both of them had put a stop to their respective cradle snatching relationships and put their hopes in something more age appropriate and eventually their wishes were answered when one day, after five fallow years, a mutual friend introduced them to each other at a dinner party.
The friend was Lynn Cooper who lived on Teardrop Lake, and her daughter Jane did the cooking.
During the course of the evening in between the main course and desert Robin leant over and asked
“Do you remember 8 track stereo?”
Jayne smiled and nodded and all at once realised the significance of the question.
(Part 07)
So Jayne and Robin, at the age of 59 and 64 respectively, finally both got their wish answered and they had their first date a week later which presented them both with more concerns.
Whenever you reach a certain age in life you will have acquired to a greater or lesser degree an unfortunate body shape and gravity becomes your enemy and a simple mirror becomes something to be avoided.
He never had doubts when he was dating the local widows and spinsters in Purplemere or even during his torrid affair with Bendy Wendy, not that she gave him time to think.
But on that occasion the image in the mirror dented his self-confidence, because that time it really mattered.
It was completely irrational, after all it was the same out of shape middle-aged body that had served him well enough.
His face had stood the test of time and he was genuinely quite presentable for his age when dressed in an expensive suit, it was just when he was out of it he was likely to scare the animals.
He really liked Jayne and he was hoping that would be reciprocated by the not unattractive divorcée Jayne Keeling.
Jayne had been having much the same internal discussion as she stood before her own mirror the only difference was that she had been doing it for three hours longer.
Her body was in quite good shape she hadn’t given birth or had a hysterectomy so her body had not reached the level of decline that some of her contemporary’s had.
Plus since she had been put through a long intimate summer workout by the gardening Estate Agent five years earlier which had kept her well limbered up, she had maintained a strict workout regime.
Finally she deemed herself satisfied with the final look, she just hoped it would suffice for him.
She had high hopes of Robin Jeffrey, she was hopeful he might fill the hole in her life.
Jayne had spent five hours getting ready which involved applying endless lotions, potions, creams and balms as well as expensive underwear.
And all the time she was dressing she was imagining Robin undressing her.
And when she looked at the final result of her efforts in the mirror she had no doubts at that moment she would get her man.
The date went very well, dinner at the Cloche Hat in Dulcet-on-Brooke and then back to Jayne’s for coffee.
The kiss came while they waited for the kettle to boil and the moment their lips met Robin was more concerned about bringing Jayne to the boil.
They were both strangely nervous so Jayne went upstairs on her own to prepare herself and Robin followed ten minutes later.
“That’s more like it” Robin said to himself as they lay cuddling in the afterglow and Jayne thought to herself
“That was very acceptable”
They had made love for the first time, and that was the difference, making love was so much nicer than just having sex.
And as they lay in the darkness they had the most banal and trivial conversations which lasted into the small hours and when they had finished instead of making love again they just cuddled up and went to sleep.
There would be plenty of time for more love making and many other interesting conversations.
The Finchbottom Vale nestles comfortably between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest to the south and the rolling Pepperstock Hills in the north and those who were lucky enough to live there think of it as the rose between two thorns and at the eastern end of the Vale were the Dulcets which were a collection of villages and hamlets comprising of Dulcet Meadow, Dulcet-on-Willow, Dulcet Green and Dulcet-on-Brooke, to name but a few, and of course Dulcet St Mary which was where the chair of the Sharpington Day Parade Fundraising Committee, Jayne Keeling, lived.
Jayne Keeling was a tall elegant woman in her late fifties and spent a lot of money on, Spa’s, beauty treatments and manicures and the like to keep herself looking that way.
She lived alone in a large detached Georgian country cottage in a well-heeled leafy corner of the village and it was a bright early autumn morning when she lay cosily beneath her duvet and reflected on what had been a very interesting and eventful summer.
Jayne was over fifty, well, well over fifty actually, in fact she was not only the wrong side of that particular milestone she was fast approaching the next one and she was divorced to boot.
But she wasn’t a lonely divorcee, because she had a wide circle of friends, but no special someone.
Although five years earlier there was someone, she had a lover, a young lover, more than 30 years younger to be precise which she supposed made her a cougar.
Jayne had just come through a rather bitter divorce when they got together, not that she was particularly heartbroken by the ordeal or needed picking up from it.
In fact she didn’t really mind being divorced, she hardly ever saw her husband Graham when they were together anyway, he was always on the golf course or in the 19th or more often than not he was with his secretary.
But when the affair began with her young lover, Kenny, it opened her eyes and showed her that she was still an attractive woman, still a sexy woman for that matter, still a desirable woman and her ex-husband Graham clearly never appreciated that.
Her lover was her next door neighbour’s son, 25 years old with the body of an Adonis, the face of a catalogue model and a brain the size of an avocado and incredible stamina.
She was immensely flattered to still attract male attention at her age, she had had so little attention paid to her by her ex-husband that she had forgotten how attractive she was and Kenny was very attentive, very considerate and extremely vigorous.
A session with him was like Zumba and Pilates combined with mild electrocution.
After a weekend with him she was quite literally shagged out and needed the best part of a week to recover.
Not that she wanted to seem ungrateful, as many women in her position, or positions, would have been quite envious if she’d ever told anyone about him and what he did to her and how often, they certainly would not have been sympathetic if she enlightened them.
After all there was a lot to be said for being orgasmed to the point of unconsciousness at any age, but for a very much over fifty even more so.
It was just that sometimes she would have been quite happy with an early night and a cuddle.
(Part 02)
If her affair with Kenny went on too long she wasn’t at all sure that his vital and sustained attention wouldn’t shag her into an early grave.
Plus the fact she was no teenager anymore and getting ready for a date that would end with her being stripped naked and well and truly ravished took a lot longer than it used to do.
As a teen, a squirt of perfume and some lippy and she was good to go.
Now she needed 24 hours’ notice a good night sleep and five hours to prepare.
At the time she and Kenny got together she wasn’t looking for a man of any description and she certainly wasn’t looking for a toy boy, she hadn’t even asked to have her grass cut, he had volunteered, so she truly was an accidental Cougar.
It all began one early summer’s day when Kenny’s mother, Emily, volunteered her Estate Agent son to spend his day off cutting her not insubstantial lawns.
It was a very hot day, which got all the hotter for Jayne when Kenny took off his shirt and his muscular well-toned torso glistened with sweat and by the end of the day she was at boiling point and when he had finished all the lawns and was ready to abandon his horticultural endeavours and focus his prowess towards attending to her.
Jayne was in the kitchen getting him a beer from the fridge when he walked up behind her and slipped his arms around her waist and began kissing her neck.
And before she could even protest he had turned her around and kissed her mouth and then she didn’t want to protest anymore.
Jayne was still holding the beer in one hand and a glass in the other and then the next thing she knew they were in her bed.
She knew it was wrong but she hadn’t had a man’s hands on her for two years and all she could do was hope he didn’t stop.
That early summer afternoon was the first of many such occasions when she was on the receiving end of some youthful loving.
But as Jayne lay beneath her duvet one morning she wondered if it was worth it, well obviously when she was in her bed it was clearly worth it.
But sex with Kenny, although really marvellous, was also very exhausting.
What she really wanted was someone of her own age, who would appreciate her for what she was when she wasn’t glammed up, someone she could be herself with.
Not that useless article of an ex-husband though, someone kind and considerate.
But what Kenny had done more than anything that summer, was to remind her how much she enjoyed sex and once she had tasted the sweet sensual nectar of lust once again she had an appetite for it that she needed to quench.
So as she lay beneath the duvet she made an important decision, she wouldn’t see Kenny again, because his stamina really could have been the death of her so she would instead seek out a less vigorous partner and with the momentous decision made she snuggled down beneath the duvet and went back to sleep and dreamed of someone to cuddle.
(Part 03)
The Vale was once a great wetland that centuries earlier stretched from Mornington in the East to Childean in the west and from Shallowfield in the south to Purplemere in the north.
But over the many centuries the vast majority had been drained for agriculture, a feat achieved largely by the efforts of famous Mornington Mills, of which only three had survived to the present day and even those were no longer functional and were in various states of repair but in one of them, Dulcet’s Mill, was where Robin Jeffrey lived.
He was one of the two senior partners of Jeffrey and Teague veterinary practice but he was now retired.
The 64 year old widow, whose children were all living independent lives chose the solitary existence where he could spend his time enjoying the two thing that gave him the most pleasure, birdwatching, which he could do from his vantage point in the top of the mill and fishing which he could do in the River Brooke which ran no more than twenty yards from his front door.
He was fifty seven years old when he was widowed, living in Purplemere, and immediately after his wife’s death he seemed to suddenly appear on the radar of the local spinster’s, widows and divorcees in and around his own age.
In fact it all started at his wife’s funeral where he was buttonholed by two well-presented mourners who made it perfectly clear he could avail himself of them if he chose to do so.
But it was many months after his dear wife was laid to rest and only after repeatedly rebuffing the endless advances of even the most attractive of the local pursuing vamps that he finally decided out of desperation and loneliness to dip his toe in the water and began dating but his heart was never really in it.
But he would probably have continued trying nonetheless but for a providential collision.
When quite by chance on one damp miserable day he met Wendy in Stephenson’s Supermarket car park after a minor fender bender.
She was a very beautiful woman, tall and willowy with long light ginger hair, and a smiling freckled face.
Wendy was a much younger woman than Tom had of late been involved with, in fact she was a considerably younger woman than he, whom at the time he looked upon her merely as a casual observer, although he thought she was attractive and shapely with her Lycra outfit doing nothing to hide her assets, he completely overlooked the fact that he was a man and she was a woman, because he believed she couldn’t possibly be interested in an old man like him.
And although they laughed and joked and she flicked at her hair flirtatiously he was flattered but for him it was a nonstarter, the stuff of cheap fiction, or so he thought at least, but in time he was to find out that he was wrong.
(Part 04)
It was a warm summer Saturday afternoon a few days after the accident when Wendy knocked on his door.
“Oh hello” he said doing a double take when he recognised the beautiful smiling young woman, not dressed in Lycra or with her hair up this time, but her ginger tresses flowed free and she was wearing a summer dress, and very little else as far as he could tell.
“Hi Robin” she said and flicked her wayward hair off her face.
“This is a surprise” he said
“I wanted to make sure you were ok” Wendy said and proffered to him a bottle of wine “And apologize again”
“There really is no need” Robin insisted
“I thought there was” Wendy retorted
“Well this is very kind of you” he said “but I can’t accept it unless you join me in drinking it”
“I thought you would never ask” she said
“Well you make yourself comfortable on the patio and I’ll get some glasses” he said
So Wendy walked out through the French doors while he went into the kitchen and got two glasses from the cupboard and after opening the bottle of Pinot he poured two generous glasses of the wine and headed towards the patio.
He stepped outside with a glass in each hand but his uninvited guest was nowhere to be seen, at least not at first.
Robin had assumed she had just taken a turn around the garden while she was waiting and was about to put the glasses down and go in search of her when she suddenly came into view.
“You see I made myself comfortable” she said as she stood on the edge of the patio with the greenery of the garden behind her wearing a bracelet on her wrist, rings on her fingers and a smile on her face and absolutely nothing else.
He returned her smile and then his eyes began to view her in detail beginning with her ginger tresses, streaked with gold from the sun which he followed as they hung down to her naked white shoulders and then every inch of her topography down to the ground.
“So I can see” he replied still holding the wine glasses, and then she began to walk towards him.
Well if the vision of her standing naked had mesmerised him it was nothing in comparison to the view of the naked Wendy when she set her gorgeous body in motion as she walked slowly and deliberately getting the maximum movement into each delicious step until they were standing nose to nose and she kissed him.
And so began a long and torrid relationship between the 57 year old vet and the 23 years old fitness instructor.
He felt faintly ridiculous having a 23 year old girlfriend and had a feeling of extreme amazement and delight, though more amazement if he was completely honest.
His wife Mary would have laughed like a drain if she could have seen him with a girl whom she would have considered a child, he really missed his wife.
(Part 05)
Robin thought that the sex with Wendy was amazing and it made his toes curl, she was supple, agile and pliable in fact she was really quite exceptionally bendy, he even called her bendy Wendy, and she had near inexhaustible stamina.
But even though Wendy was really sexy and a more than accomplished sexual partner she was unfortunately duller than ditch water.
She was “fun” to be with when he was benefiting from her expertise, but her company wasn’t stimulating other than in the obvious way.
Any red bloodied man not in his position would have thought him quite mad for wanting to end it.
But she had no conversation and was the very definition of vacuous.
Gorgeous, sexy, horny as hell and truly accomplished in the sexual arts, but as dumb as a stick.
The truth was that Wendy did not meet all his needs other than the physical.
What Robin wanted was someone like his wife, someone who loved him and who he could love and more importantly talk too.
Someone who knew that Muffin the Mule wasn’t a sexual offence, someone who didn’t think Mr Pastry was a 1960 version of Paul Hollywood and a woman who remembered a time when you had to get up to change the TV channel.
Wendy was not the answer to this want.
Nor could she fill his desire for some nice gentle love making and an affectionate cuddle, some grown up conversation.
Wendy was not someone he could fall asleep in front of the TV with so he decided to end it.
It was a difficult conversation when Robin ended the short breathless affair with the 23 year old fitness instructor.
What he couldn’t tell her was that one of his biggest gripes about having such a young girlfriend was the dullness of her pillow talk.
Wendy was born into a generation that had so many means of communication at their disposal yet she still had nothing meaningful to say.
There was a lot to be said for being with a woman who was wrinkle free and supple, but it was what was said afterwards that he craved.
So in the time post Wendy, and being on his own, truly on his own he had harked back to his youth and the days before his six pack became victim to too many six packs.
His middle aged physique tended more towards the party seven than a six pack.
He smiled at the thought of the party seven, because Wendy wouldn’t have got the joke, it would have gone right over her head.
He also reflected on his old girlfriends of the day with their firm buttocks, flat stomachs and gravity defying breasts which stirred his loins in his lustful nostalgia.
Part of him wanted to return to those carefree days of youth.
When all that teenage sex was so wonderful, when he had such limited sexual experience, and so much of the fun was in the learning.
All the reminiscing left him with a certain longing but he knew the past could not be relived or recaptured.
(Part 06)
There had been no one else after her toy boy, her dreams of having someone to cuddle had not come to fruition.
So Jayne Keeling lived alone in her large detached Georgian country cottage in a well-heeled leafy corner of the village of Dulcet St Mary.
Five years had passed since Jayne had gone through a long exhausting affair with an estate agent 30 years her junior.
And although he stimulated every cell in her body with monotonous regularity for the sake of her health and sanity she decided she would look after her own wants and needs and kicked him into touch.
What she craved was something he couldn’t give her.
She was looking for a companion, a confidant and a friend and not just someone to have sex with, as nice as the sex had been.
Jayne was immensely flattered at her age to attract the attentions of such a young lover, but the price for such toe curling sexual encounters was too high to pay.
What she longed for was to be with someone with life experience, someone she could have a proper conversation with in between the love making or even instead of it.
It didn’t have to be deep and meaningful converse just a bit more intellectual than he said/she said.
So what Jayne wanted was the same thing that Robin Jeffrey craved, someone they could talk too, not about anything earth shattering, it could be as simple as a common history or shared knowledge, someone who knew the name of the dragon in Ivor the Engine, or someone who watched Brief Encounter and didn’t think it was funny, someone who had heard of Biafra, Aberfan and the Torrey Canyon or remembered when there were only three TV channels.
Someone who remembered being able to play music at the wrong speed on a gramophone and who remembered having to wait for the black and white TV set to warm up.
Just someone who understood what the other was saying and wouldn’t stare vacantly at you when you mentioned an event that happened pre 1990.
Both of them had put a stop to their respective cradle snatching relationships and put their hopes in something more age appropriate and eventually their wishes were answered when one day, after five fallow years, a mutual friend introduced them to each other at a dinner party.
The friend was Lynn Cooper who lived on Teardrop Lake, and her daughter Jane did the cooking.
During the course of the evening in between the main course and desert Robin leant over and asked
“Do you remember 8 track stereo?”
Jayne smiled and nodded and all at once realised the significance of the question.
(Part 07)
So Jayne and Robin, at the age of 59 and 64 respectively, finally both got their wish answered and they had their first date a week later which presented them both with more concerns.
Whenever you reach a certain age in life you will have acquired to a greater or lesser degree an unfortunate body shape and gravity becomes your enemy and a simple mirror becomes something to be avoided.
He never had doubts when he was dating the local widows and spinsters in Purplemere or even during his torrid affair with Bendy Wendy, not that she gave him time to think.
But on that occasion the image in the mirror dented his self-confidence, because that time it really mattered.
It was completely irrational, after all it was the same out of shape middle-aged body that had served him well enough.
His face had stood the test of time and he was genuinely quite presentable for his age when dressed in an expensive suit, it was just when he was out of it he was likely to scare the animals.
He really liked Jayne and he was hoping that would be reciprocated by the not unattractive divorcée Jayne Keeling.
Jayne had been having much the same internal discussion as she stood before her own mirror the only difference was that she had been doing it for three hours longer.
Her body was in quite good shape she hadn’t given birth or had a hysterectomy so her body had not reached the level of decline that some of her contemporary’s had.
Plus since she had been put through a long intimate summer workout by the gardening Estate Agent five years earlier which had kept her well limbered up, she had maintained a strict workout regime.
Finally she deemed herself satisfied with the final look, she just hoped it would suffice for him.
She had high hopes of Robin Jeffrey, she was hopeful he might fill the hole in her life.
Jayne had spent five hours getting ready which involved applying endless lotions, potions, creams and balms as well as expensive underwear.
And all the time she was dressing she was imagining Robin undressing her.
And when she looked at the final result of her efforts in the mirror she had no doubts at that moment she would get her man.
The date went very well, dinner at the Cloche Hat in Dulcet-on-Brooke and then back to Jayne’s for coffee.
The kiss came while they waited for the kettle to boil and the moment their lips met Robin was more concerned about bringing Jayne to the boil.
They were both strangely nervous so Jayne went upstairs on her own to prepare herself and Robin followed ten minutes later.
“That’s more like it” Robin said to himself as they lay cuddling in the afterglow and Jayne thought to herself
“That was very acceptable”
They had made love for the first time, and that was the difference, making love was so much nicer than just having sex.
And as they lay in the darkness they had the most banal and trivial conversations which lasted into the small hours and when they had finished instead of making love again they just cuddled up and went to sleep.
There would be plenty of time for more love making and many other interesting conversations.
Tuesday, 4 April 2017
Tales from the Finchbottom Vale – (36) The Insomniac Muse
(Part 01)
Alex Farrell first met Gloria Barber on a grey murky day in October when he had been into the village of Highfinch to buy some essential supplies, coffee, milk and bread amongst other things.
He was staying in the sleepy hamlet of Kingfisherbridge which sat quietly between Purplemere and Sharpington nettled comfortably on the edge of the Pepperstock Hills.
It had been sunny and bright when he had left Honeysuckle Cottage that morning so he decided to walk the two miles or so into the village and he took one of the many paths through the Hawks Wood, which separated Highfinch and Kingfisherbridge.
However by the time he was leaving the village store with his essential purchases, it was raining, and it was that fine drizzly rain that soaked you in an instant and from a distance it gave the illusion of being a heavy mist.
In fact due to its inherent ability to obscure landmarks it was to all intents and purposes a mist.
His name was Alex Farrell and he was a writer, although no one in the Finchbottom Vale would have heard of him, but under his nom de plume of Harold Kloser he would have been hard pressed to find anyone who hadn’t, because under that name he had written a series of very successful thrillers, six in all and a seventh was now well over due.
He was recently divorced, though not by his own choice however, but his darling wife had cheated on him, with his best friend to boot so divorce couldn’t be avoided.
But since the divorce he had struggled with the seventh book in the series, it didn’t even have a title at that point and he was fast approaching a crucial deadline.
So he decided that the best thing to do was to get away, right away where no one knew him and where there were no distractions such as the constant nagging from his publishers and his agent demanding another chapter, and another and another.
So he rented a house in the country, a holiday cottage in fact almost a mile from the nearest neighbour.
As it was out of season he managed to book it from October to March although he only planned to stay there until he completed the book, which he thought he would manage in a month, two at the most, away from all the everyday distractions of a town.
So that was why he found himself living in the sickly sweet named Honeysuckle Cottage which was as the name might suggest a pretty little cottage.
It would have originally have been a two up two down but it now had a single story extension which housed the kitchen.
Upstairs was a small bedroom and the bathroom which was equipped with a good old fashioned man sized bath.
While downstairs in addition to the kitchen there was a sitting room and another bedroom.
It was absolutely perfect for his needs and should it turn out that he would have to stay there until the spring then that would be no hardship.
Alex thought he would be very happy there, providing of course he could find his way back to Honeysuckle Cottage through the mist and the murk of Hawks Wood which he was very eager to do.
(Part 02)
Alex had been walking back towards the cottage with his head down to protect his face from the slanting rain and was making slow progress on the woodland path in his totally unsuitable shoes.
When he eventually lifted his head up he didn’t recognise a single tree and he was completely disorientated and as he wasn’t that familiar with the woods in the first place he didn’t recognise anything.
So as the rain continued to fall and the mistiness showed no sign of clearing, he was starting to panic and thought he would wander the woods until exhaustion over took him and he died, such was a writers imagination.
Then he had a “Deliverance” moment and imagined he could hear banjo music and thought he would end up being brutalised by hillbillies.
His mind was about to go off on another scenario of doom when a voice behind him asked
“Are you alright?”
He turned around and saw a small figure of indeterminate age in a parka with a fur trimmed hood.
“I am embarrassed to say it but I appear to be lost” Alex said
The figure stepped forward and pushed the hood back from her face to reveal a young woman in her mid-twenties no more than five foot tall.
“You’re lost?” she asked in disbelief and smiled broadly
“Yes” he said even more embarrassed when he saw his saviour
“Where were you going?” She asked
“Honeysuckle Cottage” he replied
“Oh you’re the writer” she said
“Yes that’s right” he said “Alex Farrell”
“I’m Gloria Barber, and we’re neighbours”
“Are we?” he asked
“Yes” She replied “I live in Cherry Tree House, just along the lane from you”
“Well I am very pleased to meet you Gloria” Alex said
“Come on I’m going your way” She said and she walked with him all the way to the cottage, she wasn’t the chattiest person he had ever met but he rather liked her.
“Here you are, safe home” she said smiling.
“Thank you for rescuing me and for walking me home” he said “come in for a coffee”
“I can’t I have to be somewhere” she replied
“Another time perhaps” he suggested
“Yes” she replied and hurried off.
A few days later after he had been rescued he had to drive into Purplemere to do a more substantial shop to stock the cupboards as he had exhausted the meagre supplies he brought with him when he moved in, plus he needed some more appropriate footwear for the country if he was going to walk into Highfinch again.
When he drove away from Honeysuckle Cottage, Instead of going in the direction of Highfinch he drove the opposite way down the lane which would eventually take him to Lily Green and as he did he drove past Cherry Tree House, where his nearest neighbour lived.
It was roughly two miles from his cottage and despite being called a house it was very much a cottage though it was much bigger than his, and as he drove slowly by it he found that he was surprised to find himself disappointed that there was no sign of life.
Beyond Cherry Tree House were another three houses before the lane reached the Hollows road, one of which was the home of his landlady, or at least the woman he was renting the Cottage from, Kate McEwan, who right on cue came out of her front door and waved.
He slowed down and waved back and Alex was about to drive on when she flagged him down.
“How are you settling in?” Kate asked
“Fine” he replied “I’m just going into Purplemere to stock up on groceries”
“I won’t keep you then, but Pop in for tea on the way back” she said
(Part 03)
With a boot full of Stephenson’s Supermarkets finest tinned and dried goods he returned to Kingfisherbridge and didn’t really feel like stopping for tea with Mrs McEwan but she had invited him and he thought it would have been rude not to, so he pulled up outside The Villa.
As they sat in her lounge drinking from her best China, Alex related the story of his getting lost in the woods and being rescued by a young woman called Gloria.
“Oh Gloria! She’s my niece” Kate said with a mixture of pride and a little sadness “I worry about her”
“She seemed very sound when I met her” he said
“Oh she is but the poor girl is an insomniac, she hasn’t slept properly for four years or so” she said “She only ever cat naps”
“Why is that?” he asked
She was thoughtful for a moment and then she said
“More tea?”
“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to pry” he said
“It’s ok Mr Farrell” she said “It just makes me sad”
“I understand but please call me Alex”
She nodded and went all thoughtful again before she said
“Gloria has always had a small problem with sleeping as a result of her grandmother dying in her sleep when she was 12, but she seemed to grow out of that in time” She said and then paused to take a sip of her tea.
“However when she was at University her best friend Gina suffered an embolism and died in her sleep one night.
Gloria was absolutely devastated but I think she would have come out the other side had it not been for what happened to the Newman’s”
“The Newman’s?” he asked
“Yes they were a family from Lily Green who died in a house fire”
Kate said
“It happened in the early hours as they slept, five of them, it was so tragic.
Gloria knew the family very well and she had even baby sat the children.
It was the final straw for her and ever since that night Gloria has had a morbid fear of sleeping”
He had noticed her passing the Cottage a few times since he had been there, at different times of the day and night and hadn’t until that moment appreciated the reason for her wanderings.
When Alex arrived home, or at least his temporary home he reflected on how candid Kate had been about her niece, after all she could just have said she suffered from insomnia and left it at that.
But he supposed not being honest might have failed to explain her irregular hours and her habit of walking the woods at all hours of the day and night.
He could relate to that in some ways as he himself was prone to keeping irregular hours.
But he was pleased Kate had told him everything, as a writer he was naturally nosy but there was something about Gloria that struck a chord with him.
Alex continued to see Gloria walking the lane or one of the many woodland paths but she never stopped to talk although she did occasionally wave.
In one of his many blocked moments he wondered what on earth she did with herself.
To his mind there had to be more to her life than walking the woods.
(Part 04)
One day towards the end of October Alex was in Highfinch on another milk and bread run when he bumped into his landlady Kate once again.
“Alex” she said “how’s the book coming along?”
“Hello Kate, very slowly I’m afraid”
“Well I won’t keep you from it then” she said and laughed
“Don’t worry I need to rest my brain for a bit” he replied “in fact why don’t you pop in later and I will return your hospitality, I have cake”
“Well in that case I would love to” she said amiably
On the way back to the cottage he wasn’t sure if he might have given Kate the wrong impression and his invite might have been misconstrued.
She was an attractive woman some ten years his senior but nonetheless she was still attractive and a ten year age gap wasn’t unheard of after all.
There was a knock at the door about 3 o’clock that afternoon and when he opened the door he saw it was Kate in a grubby Berber jacket, dirty wellies and mud spattered jeans which instantly put his mind at rest.
She was hardly in the mode of dress for a woman who thought she had been invited for a tryst.
“Is it alright if I leave the dog in the porch?” she asked as she slipped off her wellies.
“Bring him in” he said
“Are you sure?” she asked “there is nothing worse than the smell of wet dog”
“Nonsense bring him in” Alex insisted
“Come on Skipper” she called
Skipper was an American Cocker Spaniel, very wet, very muddy and very friendly.
He paused briefly for a stroke and then went straight to the hearth and made himself comfortable.
Alex made the tea and took it into the sitting room where Kate had made herself comfortable in an armchair.
“No china cups I’m afraid” he said
“That’s good I prefer a mug” she responded and Alex gave her a look because she had served tea to him on her best china.
“I know” she replied to his unasked question “I blame my mother”
“My mother was like that as well” he confided and they both laughed.
As they drank their tea he found himself quizzing her about her niece Gloria again, doubtless the nosy writer in him coming to the fore again.
“I see her in the woods or on the Lane a lot” he said
“Yes she has a lot of time on her hands” Kate replied
“She can’t hold down a job because she doesn’t sleep regularly and she is prone to nodding off from time to time”
Kate went on to say that financially she was set, her house was hers out right and she had an annuity from her parent’s estate which was enough for her to live on, and she led a very modest existence.
“So what does she do to fill her days?” he asked
“She’s an avid reader” she replied “She’s reading all of yours at the moment”
“Really?” he said
“Yes, and Gloria is also a bit of a movie buff especially classics” Kate said “and of course she likes to walk”
“Yes indeed” he agreed
“It’s silly isn’t it that she feels safer walking the woods in the middle of the night that she does in her own bed”
“It is” he said
“She doesn’t eat properly either” she added with a lump in her throat and he thought how wonderful it was to have someone care about you that much.
(Part 05)
It was Halloween and that time of the day when in his home town there would be a constant stream of expectant children knocking on the door.
But due to the remoteness of the cottage and the foulest weather he had seen for many a day, he wasn’t expecting even one.
So imagine his surprise when there was indeed a knock at his front door.
He opened the door not knowing what to expect on the other side of it and the sight that greeted him was as fearful a sight as you could imagine on any Halloween night.
It was a drowned rat, caked in mud, and looking very sorry for itself.
“Hello Gloria” he said “what on earth are you doing out in this?”
“It wasn’t this bad when I left home” she replied
She looked like she had been on manoeuvres with the SAS in the wilds of Herefordshire.
“Come in, come in” he said “what on earth happened?”
“Don’t laugh” she said “but I fell in a ditch”
“My God you are actually squelching” he said “get your coat and boots off”
And while she followed his instructions he left her and went to get a towel and when he came back she was walking towards the warmth of the fire and she was still audibly squelching.
She stood in front of the fire in her squelchy socks and shivered which was Alex’s signal to go upstairs and start the bath running, then he put fresh towels on the rail and went downstairs again.
“Right you need to get out of those wet things” he said in a fatherly tone
“I’ll be fine I just need to warm up a bit” she said
“Well you won’t warm up if you’re wearing wet clothes” he said “so do as you’re told, the bath is running”
Gloria tried to protest but he wouldn’t let her and then followed the squelching girl up the stairs.
“Throw your wet things on to the landing and I’ll put a change of clothes in the spare room for you”
“Ok Mr Farrell” she said like she was addressing a teacher.
He went downstairs again and turned his attention back to his dinner.
Alex tended to only cook from scratch once a week but he always made more than he needed and the extra would be frozen and ready to use whenever.
On that particular day he was cooking lamb stew, he gave it a stir and went to the airing cupboard in the spare room and looked for something that would be suitable for Gloria to wear.
It wasn’t easy choosing from a selection of clothes made for a six foot tall fifteen stone man and find something that would do for a tiny girl barely 5 foot tall and less than seven stone soaking wet.
The only thing he could find was a rugby shirt that was a bit long even on him so it would be like a dress on her and a pair of football sock that would reach her thighs.
He lay them on the bed and picked up the pile of wet clothes and carried them down stairs with him.
Once downstairs he set up the clothes drier in front of the fire and draped her things over it and almost immediately steam started to emanate from her socks.
Her boots were already on the hearth and her coat was draped over the back of a chair.
(Part 06)
About half an hour later Gloria appeared in her oversized Purplemere Diamonds Rugby shirt and black football socks fiddling with her tousled damp hair.
“Do you feel better now?” he asked
“Much better thank you” she replied
“I’m sorry about the wardrobe” he added “it was the best I could do I’m afraid”
“Its fine at least I won’t get cold” she said and laughed
“Well sit yourself down and I’ll get you some food”
“No don’t worry I’m really not hungry” she said and he gave her a look
“Ok I’ll have a little bit” she said
“A wise decision” he said and went out to the kitchen.
He returned a few minutes later with a steaming bowl on a tray.
“Lamb stew” he said
He thought back to the conversation he had with Kate about Gloria not eating properly and Gloria’s own statement not half an hour previously when she said “I’m really not hungry”
Well for someone who wasn’t really hungry she did extremely well to polish off three bowls of Lamb stew.
While they ate they watched an old Cary Grant movie called “Holiday” and when it was finished she said
“Well thank you for looking after me and entertaining me but I’d better change my clothes and get home”
Said Gloria
He got up and went to the front door and when he opened it the rain was still coming down like stair rods.
“Just put your coat and boots on and I’ll run you home” he said
“No you’ve been too kind already” she replied
“I’m not having you getting soaked to the skin again” he insisted
“You’re very bossy” she said with a smile
“I know” I said “That’s probably why I’m divorced”
She put her coat and boots on while Alex put her clothes in a carrier bag and then he drove her the two miles up the lane to her cottage and she thanked him again and got out, but before she closed the door she said
“Don’t get lost on your way home”
Then she laughed like it was the funniest thing she’d ever heard in her life.
It was a day later when Gloria “popped in” to Honeysuckle Cottage for the first time and which was to be the first of many times over the following weeks when they shared a conversation and a drink of coffee across the kitchen table.
The “pop ins” happened at any time of the day or night partly because of her insomnia and in part because he was a writer and kept irregular hours himself, and if she saw a light on she would knock.
Sometimes when the muse was with him he would just carry on writing until he couldn’t see straight, so he had no set time to go to bed or to get up in the morning.
According to his ex-wife it was one of the things that contributed to the breakup of their marriage, the other thing being her infidelity.
As they moved slowly through November the “pop ins” increased exponentially and as they raced headlong towards December he was disappointed on the days that he didn’t see her.
(Part 07)
Once they got into December he was no longer disappointed as he saw her every single day.
It began on the 1st of the month when she helped him to put up the Christmas decorations and as they were hanging the last of the garlands she said
“I love Christmas decorations”
“Me too” he said “I’ll help you put yours up when we’re done here”
“No thanks” Gloria replied
“Why not?” he asked
“I never put decorations up at home” she said
“Why ever not?”
“I don’t know really” she mused “it makes me feel sad I suppose, it reminds me of a happier time and I suppose it’s that which makes me sad”
“But you love decorations?” Alex said
“Oh yes, very much”
“And you love these decorations?” he asked
“Absolutely, Yes”
“Do they make you feel sad?” he asked her
“No not at all”
“Why not?”
“Because I wasn’t a child in this cottage I suppose” she replied
“That’s nuts” he said
“I know” Gloria said “what can I say I’m nuts”
Gloria visited him at the cottage every day after that to enjoy the decorations, watch classic Christmas movies and eat his stew, bolognaise, Chilli, shepherd pie or hot pot whatever was on the menu.
But she had made most of her visits during normal hours until Christmas Eve.
He was burning the midnight oil because he was stuck on a tricky chapter the first of three chapters which needed to be submitted to his publishers by New Year’s Day.
It was partly Gloria’s fault he had gotten behind but she was such a pleasant distraction he didn’t want to deter her from visiting.
But if he was perfectly honest she had become more of a distraction when she wasn’t there.
So it was just after eleven o’clock on Christmas Eve and he was rewriting the same troublesome section for the umpteenth time when Gloria knocked on the door.
He could tell it was her even before he opened the door by her unique knock.
“Hey” he said
“Hi, do you mind me popping in on Christmas Eve? I don’t want to upset your artistic flow” she said
“No flow to interrupt at the moment I’m afraid, this chapter is giving me a lot of trouble” he replied
“What is it, writers block?” Gloria asked
“No I’m not blocked, I’m writing ok, it’s just not very good” he said and laughed
“I could really use a break” he lied
They sat on the sofa watching an old movie that they found on cable, they chose it because it was a James Stewart classic, “The Philadelphia Story”.
About half an hour into it she yawned and rested her head on his shoulder and Alex assumed it must be one of her infamous cat naps but half an hour later she was still sleeping and he could tell by her breathing, even though he couldn’t see her, that she was properly asleep.
So he placed a cushion on his lap and gently lowered her head onto it.
Her legs were already on the sofa as she had been sitting in that side saddle fashion that only girls can achieve.
Alex then dragged the edge of the throw from the back of the sofa and draped it over her slender body.
(Part 08)
He watched the end of the movie and then switched off the TV.
Gloria was still sleeping so he reached for the A4 note pad he kept on the end table and resting it on the arm of the sofa he began writing and the words flowed from his pen like an inexhaustible stream and after three hours of furious writing he had put the troublesome chapter to bed.
He looked firstly at the sleeping girl with her head on his lap and saw she was still sleeping soundly and then up at the clock which told him it was 6.45am,
Not that the time was particularly relevant but he desperately needed to pee.
So he slowly extricated himself, being careful not to wake Gloria and settled her onto the sofa and then tucked the throw around her then he kissed her forehead and said
“Happy Christmas”
As soon as he was up he realised the temperature had dropped considerably so before he went to the loo he revived the fire in the grate and put some more wood on.
He then partly closed the door, he didn’t want her to wake up in a strange place and panic, but he didn’t want to disturb her either.
After having a much needed pee he went into the kitchen to make a drink which was when there was a knock at the door.
He couldn’t imagine who would possibly be knocking on his front door at 7 am on Christmas morning, apart from Gloria of course but she was already there.
So he opened the door and was surprised to find Gloria’s aunt, Kate standing there instead.
“Happy Christmas Kate” he said
“Happy Christmas Alex” Kate said but without any real conviction.
“Have you seen Gloria?” she asked with real concern “I saw her coming this way last night when I was out walking the dog”
“But I went to the cottage to wish her Happy Christmas and there’s no sign of her and her bed hasn’t been disturbed” she continued pacing the small hall way.
“All the lights are still on but there’s no sign of her and I’m really worried”
“Shhh” he said putting a finger to his lips and she looked confused
“Come here Kate” he said and led her to the lounge door
“She’s asleep on the sofa”
So she crept to the door and had a glance through gap into the sitting room.
“She’s asleep” she said in amazement “Properly asleep”
“Yes she is” he said proudly
“How long?” she asked
“Over six hours” he replied
“Six hours? That’s amazing” Kate said “She obviously feels safe with you”
“Do you think so?” he asked
“Definitely” Kate replied
“I won’t wake her” he said and pulled the door to
“I’m sorry you have been disturbed like this” Kate added
“Nonsense, I’ve enjoyed having a beautiful girl for company at Christmas”
“You think she’s beautiful?” she asked
“Of course, doesn’t everybody?” he asked
Kate smiled at him and kissed his cheek
“Happy Christmas Alex” she said
“Christmas Dinner is at 3 o’clock”
(Part 09)
After Kate had left he finished his drink and the lack of sleep suddenly caught up with him and he knew he had to sleep.
But he didn’t want to leave Gloria to wake up on her own, but he was too tired to sleep in an armchair.
So he thought for a moment and then went into the bedroom and got out the spare duvet before returning to the lounge.
Alex then carefully drew back the throw from around her small frail frame and then picked her up.
“Hmmm” she murmured as he held her, then he carefully carried the beautiful featherweight young woman into the bedroom where he laid her on top of the duvet and covered her with the spare one.
He then went out and turned off the lights and locked the front door before returning to the bedroom and gently slipping between the duvets to lay down beside Gloria.
“Hmmm” she murmured as she snuggled in against him, so he put his arm around her and drifted off into a contented sleep.
It was remarkable how life can surprise you, when he rented Honeysuckle Cottage it was only ever intended as a short term let.
But he knew when he woke up in bed next to a smiling Gloria on Christmas morning that he would never leave the village.
The book was well under way and he could easily have moved back to civilization to complete it but while he had struggled with a particularly troublesome chapter she had become his muse and his love.
And for Gloria, who had for so long held the world at arm’s length and avoided forming emotional attachments of any kind for fear they might lead to her heart being broken again, never imagined the course events would take after she rescued the panicky man lost in the woods.
She certainly never imagined she would wake up in his bed three months later or that she would have fallen in love with him.
When they woke up they just lay beneath the cosy comforting warmth of the duvet and talked for an hour, all the unsaid things they had wanted to say in the weeks preceding Christmas when they knew they had lost their hearts.
Before they reluctantly agreed that they needed to move as they couldn’t disappoint her Aunt Kate.
Alex got up first and showered, shaved and dressed then Gloria showered while he warmed up the car.
When she had redressed he drove her to her house where she finished getting ready and he waited in the house.
It was the first time he had been in there and it had an almost museum feel to it, no wonder she was always wandering.
When she was ready they left the car outside Gloria’s house and prepared to walk the hundred yards or so to Aunt Kate’s when it began to snow.
“Wow this is the best Christmas ever” she said and took hold of his hand
“It’s a perfect Christmas” he concurred and kissed her
The moment they walked in through the front door of the Villa Alex realised the wisdom of leaving the car at Gloria’s because he knew he would not be using it anymore that day as Uncle Henry thrust a cocktail of gargantuan proportions and indeterminate strength into his hand and he had no reason to suppose it wasn’t to be the first of many.
It was a wonderful Christmas, the best one either of them had ever known and the one that set the benchmark for every subsequent Christmas that they were to share.
The following December his 7th Novel was published under the title “The Insomniac Muse”
Alex Farrell first met Gloria Barber on a grey murky day in October when he had been into the village of Highfinch to buy some essential supplies, coffee, milk and bread amongst other things.
He was staying in the sleepy hamlet of Kingfisherbridge which sat quietly between Purplemere and Sharpington nettled comfortably on the edge of the Pepperstock Hills.
It had been sunny and bright when he had left Honeysuckle Cottage that morning so he decided to walk the two miles or so into the village and he took one of the many paths through the Hawks Wood, which separated Highfinch and Kingfisherbridge.
However by the time he was leaving the village store with his essential purchases, it was raining, and it was that fine drizzly rain that soaked you in an instant and from a distance it gave the illusion of being a heavy mist.
In fact due to its inherent ability to obscure landmarks it was to all intents and purposes a mist.
His name was Alex Farrell and he was a writer, although no one in the Finchbottom Vale would have heard of him, but under his nom de plume of Harold Kloser he would have been hard pressed to find anyone who hadn’t, because under that name he had written a series of very successful thrillers, six in all and a seventh was now well over due.
He was recently divorced, though not by his own choice however, but his darling wife had cheated on him, with his best friend to boot so divorce couldn’t be avoided.
But since the divorce he had struggled with the seventh book in the series, it didn’t even have a title at that point and he was fast approaching a crucial deadline.
So he decided that the best thing to do was to get away, right away where no one knew him and where there were no distractions such as the constant nagging from his publishers and his agent demanding another chapter, and another and another.
So he rented a house in the country, a holiday cottage in fact almost a mile from the nearest neighbour.
As it was out of season he managed to book it from October to March although he only planned to stay there until he completed the book, which he thought he would manage in a month, two at the most, away from all the everyday distractions of a town.
So that was why he found himself living in the sickly sweet named Honeysuckle Cottage which was as the name might suggest a pretty little cottage.
It would have originally have been a two up two down but it now had a single story extension which housed the kitchen.
Upstairs was a small bedroom and the bathroom which was equipped with a good old fashioned man sized bath.
While downstairs in addition to the kitchen there was a sitting room and another bedroom.
It was absolutely perfect for his needs and should it turn out that he would have to stay there until the spring then that would be no hardship.
Alex thought he would be very happy there, providing of course he could find his way back to Honeysuckle Cottage through the mist and the murk of Hawks Wood which he was very eager to do.
(Part 02)
Alex had been walking back towards the cottage with his head down to protect his face from the slanting rain and was making slow progress on the woodland path in his totally unsuitable shoes.
When he eventually lifted his head up he didn’t recognise a single tree and he was completely disorientated and as he wasn’t that familiar with the woods in the first place he didn’t recognise anything.
So as the rain continued to fall and the mistiness showed no sign of clearing, he was starting to panic and thought he would wander the woods until exhaustion over took him and he died, such was a writers imagination.
Then he had a “Deliverance” moment and imagined he could hear banjo music and thought he would end up being brutalised by hillbillies.
His mind was about to go off on another scenario of doom when a voice behind him asked
“Are you alright?”
He turned around and saw a small figure of indeterminate age in a parka with a fur trimmed hood.
“I am embarrassed to say it but I appear to be lost” Alex said
The figure stepped forward and pushed the hood back from her face to reveal a young woman in her mid-twenties no more than five foot tall.
“You’re lost?” she asked in disbelief and smiled broadly
“Yes” he said even more embarrassed when he saw his saviour
“Where were you going?” She asked
“Honeysuckle Cottage” he replied
“Oh you’re the writer” she said
“Yes that’s right” he said “Alex Farrell”
“I’m Gloria Barber, and we’re neighbours”
“Are we?” he asked
“Yes” She replied “I live in Cherry Tree House, just along the lane from you”
“Well I am very pleased to meet you Gloria” Alex said
“Come on I’m going your way” She said and she walked with him all the way to the cottage, she wasn’t the chattiest person he had ever met but he rather liked her.
“Here you are, safe home” she said smiling.
“Thank you for rescuing me and for walking me home” he said “come in for a coffee”
“I can’t I have to be somewhere” she replied
“Another time perhaps” he suggested
“Yes” she replied and hurried off.
A few days later after he had been rescued he had to drive into Purplemere to do a more substantial shop to stock the cupboards as he had exhausted the meagre supplies he brought with him when he moved in, plus he needed some more appropriate footwear for the country if he was going to walk into Highfinch again.
When he drove away from Honeysuckle Cottage, Instead of going in the direction of Highfinch he drove the opposite way down the lane which would eventually take him to Lily Green and as he did he drove past Cherry Tree House, where his nearest neighbour lived.
It was roughly two miles from his cottage and despite being called a house it was very much a cottage though it was much bigger than his, and as he drove slowly by it he found that he was surprised to find himself disappointed that there was no sign of life.
Beyond Cherry Tree House were another three houses before the lane reached the Hollows road, one of which was the home of his landlady, or at least the woman he was renting the Cottage from, Kate McEwan, who right on cue came out of her front door and waved.
He slowed down and waved back and Alex was about to drive on when she flagged him down.
“How are you settling in?” Kate asked
“Fine” he replied “I’m just going into Purplemere to stock up on groceries”
“I won’t keep you then, but Pop in for tea on the way back” she said
(Part 03)
With a boot full of Stephenson’s Supermarkets finest tinned and dried goods he returned to Kingfisherbridge and didn’t really feel like stopping for tea with Mrs McEwan but she had invited him and he thought it would have been rude not to, so he pulled up outside The Villa.
As they sat in her lounge drinking from her best China, Alex related the story of his getting lost in the woods and being rescued by a young woman called Gloria.
“Oh Gloria! She’s my niece” Kate said with a mixture of pride and a little sadness “I worry about her”
“She seemed very sound when I met her” he said
“Oh she is but the poor girl is an insomniac, she hasn’t slept properly for four years or so” she said “She only ever cat naps”
“Why is that?” he asked
She was thoughtful for a moment and then she said
“More tea?”
“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to pry” he said
“It’s ok Mr Farrell” she said “It just makes me sad”
“I understand but please call me Alex”
She nodded and went all thoughtful again before she said
“Gloria has always had a small problem with sleeping as a result of her grandmother dying in her sleep when she was 12, but she seemed to grow out of that in time” She said and then paused to take a sip of her tea.
“However when she was at University her best friend Gina suffered an embolism and died in her sleep one night.
Gloria was absolutely devastated but I think she would have come out the other side had it not been for what happened to the Newman’s”
“The Newman’s?” he asked
“Yes they were a family from Lily Green who died in a house fire”
Kate said
“It happened in the early hours as they slept, five of them, it was so tragic.
Gloria knew the family very well and she had even baby sat the children.
It was the final straw for her and ever since that night Gloria has had a morbid fear of sleeping”
He had noticed her passing the Cottage a few times since he had been there, at different times of the day and night and hadn’t until that moment appreciated the reason for her wanderings.
When Alex arrived home, or at least his temporary home he reflected on how candid Kate had been about her niece, after all she could just have said she suffered from insomnia and left it at that.
But he supposed not being honest might have failed to explain her irregular hours and her habit of walking the woods at all hours of the day and night.
He could relate to that in some ways as he himself was prone to keeping irregular hours.
But he was pleased Kate had told him everything, as a writer he was naturally nosy but there was something about Gloria that struck a chord with him.
Alex continued to see Gloria walking the lane or one of the many woodland paths but she never stopped to talk although she did occasionally wave.
In one of his many blocked moments he wondered what on earth she did with herself.
To his mind there had to be more to her life than walking the woods.
(Part 04)
One day towards the end of October Alex was in Highfinch on another milk and bread run when he bumped into his landlady Kate once again.
“Alex” she said “how’s the book coming along?”
“Hello Kate, very slowly I’m afraid”
“Well I won’t keep you from it then” she said and laughed
“Don’t worry I need to rest my brain for a bit” he replied “in fact why don’t you pop in later and I will return your hospitality, I have cake”
“Well in that case I would love to” she said amiably
On the way back to the cottage he wasn’t sure if he might have given Kate the wrong impression and his invite might have been misconstrued.
She was an attractive woman some ten years his senior but nonetheless she was still attractive and a ten year age gap wasn’t unheard of after all.
There was a knock at the door about 3 o’clock that afternoon and when he opened the door he saw it was Kate in a grubby Berber jacket, dirty wellies and mud spattered jeans which instantly put his mind at rest.
She was hardly in the mode of dress for a woman who thought she had been invited for a tryst.
“Is it alright if I leave the dog in the porch?” she asked as she slipped off her wellies.
“Bring him in” he said
“Are you sure?” she asked “there is nothing worse than the smell of wet dog”
“Nonsense bring him in” Alex insisted
“Come on Skipper” she called
Skipper was an American Cocker Spaniel, very wet, very muddy and very friendly.
He paused briefly for a stroke and then went straight to the hearth and made himself comfortable.
Alex made the tea and took it into the sitting room where Kate had made herself comfortable in an armchair.
“No china cups I’m afraid” he said
“That’s good I prefer a mug” she responded and Alex gave her a look because she had served tea to him on her best china.
“I know” she replied to his unasked question “I blame my mother”
“My mother was like that as well” he confided and they both laughed.
As they drank their tea he found himself quizzing her about her niece Gloria again, doubtless the nosy writer in him coming to the fore again.
“I see her in the woods or on the Lane a lot” he said
“Yes she has a lot of time on her hands” Kate replied
“She can’t hold down a job because she doesn’t sleep regularly and she is prone to nodding off from time to time”
Kate went on to say that financially she was set, her house was hers out right and she had an annuity from her parent’s estate which was enough for her to live on, and she led a very modest existence.
“So what does she do to fill her days?” he asked
“She’s an avid reader” she replied “She’s reading all of yours at the moment”
“Really?” he said
“Yes, and Gloria is also a bit of a movie buff especially classics” Kate said “and of course she likes to walk”
“Yes indeed” he agreed
“It’s silly isn’t it that she feels safer walking the woods in the middle of the night that she does in her own bed”
“It is” he said
“She doesn’t eat properly either” she added with a lump in her throat and he thought how wonderful it was to have someone care about you that much.
(Part 05)
It was Halloween and that time of the day when in his home town there would be a constant stream of expectant children knocking on the door.
But due to the remoteness of the cottage and the foulest weather he had seen for many a day, he wasn’t expecting even one.
So imagine his surprise when there was indeed a knock at his front door.
He opened the door not knowing what to expect on the other side of it and the sight that greeted him was as fearful a sight as you could imagine on any Halloween night.
It was a drowned rat, caked in mud, and looking very sorry for itself.
“Hello Gloria” he said “what on earth are you doing out in this?”
“It wasn’t this bad when I left home” she replied
She looked like she had been on manoeuvres with the SAS in the wilds of Herefordshire.
“Come in, come in” he said “what on earth happened?”
“Don’t laugh” she said “but I fell in a ditch”
“My God you are actually squelching” he said “get your coat and boots off”
And while she followed his instructions he left her and went to get a towel and when he came back she was walking towards the warmth of the fire and she was still audibly squelching.
She stood in front of the fire in her squelchy socks and shivered which was Alex’s signal to go upstairs and start the bath running, then he put fresh towels on the rail and went downstairs again.
“Right you need to get out of those wet things” he said in a fatherly tone
“I’ll be fine I just need to warm up a bit” she said
“Well you won’t warm up if you’re wearing wet clothes” he said “so do as you’re told, the bath is running”
Gloria tried to protest but he wouldn’t let her and then followed the squelching girl up the stairs.
“Throw your wet things on to the landing and I’ll put a change of clothes in the spare room for you”
“Ok Mr Farrell” she said like she was addressing a teacher.
He went downstairs again and turned his attention back to his dinner.
Alex tended to only cook from scratch once a week but he always made more than he needed and the extra would be frozen and ready to use whenever.
On that particular day he was cooking lamb stew, he gave it a stir and went to the airing cupboard in the spare room and looked for something that would be suitable for Gloria to wear.
It wasn’t easy choosing from a selection of clothes made for a six foot tall fifteen stone man and find something that would do for a tiny girl barely 5 foot tall and less than seven stone soaking wet.
The only thing he could find was a rugby shirt that was a bit long even on him so it would be like a dress on her and a pair of football sock that would reach her thighs.
He lay them on the bed and picked up the pile of wet clothes and carried them down stairs with him.
Once downstairs he set up the clothes drier in front of the fire and draped her things over it and almost immediately steam started to emanate from her socks.
Her boots were already on the hearth and her coat was draped over the back of a chair.
(Part 06)
About half an hour later Gloria appeared in her oversized Purplemere Diamonds Rugby shirt and black football socks fiddling with her tousled damp hair.
“Do you feel better now?” he asked
“Much better thank you” she replied
“I’m sorry about the wardrobe” he added “it was the best I could do I’m afraid”
“Its fine at least I won’t get cold” she said and laughed
“Well sit yourself down and I’ll get you some food”
“No don’t worry I’m really not hungry” she said and he gave her a look
“Ok I’ll have a little bit” she said
“A wise decision” he said and went out to the kitchen.
He returned a few minutes later with a steaming bowl on a tray.
“Lamb stew” he said
He thought back to the conversation he had with Kate about Gloria not eating properly and Gloria’s own statement not half an hour previously when she said “I’m really not hungry”
Well for someone who wasn’t really hungry she did extremely well to polish off three bowls of Lamb stew.
While they ate they watched an old Cary Grant movie called “Holiday” and when it was finished she said
“Well thank you for looking after me and entertaining me but I’d better change my clothes and get home”
Said Gloria
He got up and went to the front door and when he opened it the rain was still coming down like stair rods.
“Just put your coat and boots on and I’ll run you home” he said
“No you’ve been too kind already” she replied
“I’m not having you getting soaked to the skin again” he insisted
“You’re very bossy” she said with a smile
“I know” I said “That’s probably why I’m divorced”
She put her coat and boots on while Alex put her clothes in a carrier bag and then he drove her the two miles up the lane to her cottage and she thanked him again and got out, but before she closed the door she said
“Don’t get lost on your way home”
Then she laughed like it was the funniest thing she’d ever heard in her life.
It was a day later when Gloria “popped in” to Honeysuckle Cottage for the first time and which was to be the first of many times over the following weeks when they shared a conversation and a drink of coffee across the kitchen table.
The “pop ins” happened at any time of the day or night partly because of her insomnia and in part because he was a writer and kept irregular hours himself, and if she saw a light on she would knock.
Sometimes when the muse was with him he would just carry on writing until he couldn’t see straight, so he had no set time to go to bed or to get up in the morning.
According to his ex-wife it was one of the things that contributed to the breakup of their marriage, the other thing being her infidelity.
As they moved slowly through November the “pop ins” increased exponentially and as they raced headlong towards December he was disappointed on the days that he didn’t see her.
(Part 07)
Once they got into December he was no longer disappointed as he saw her every single day.
It began on the 1st of the month when she helped him to put up the Christmas decorations and as they were hanging the last of the garlands she said
“I love Christmas decorations”
“Me too” he said “I’ll help you put yours up when we’re done here”
“No thanks” Gloria replied
“Why not?” he asked
“I never put decorations up at home” she said
“Why ever not?”
“I don’t know really” she mused “it makes me feel sad I suppose, it reminds me of a happier time and I suppose it’s that which makes me sad”
“But you love decorations?” Alex said
“Oh yes, very much”
“And you love these decorations?” he asked
“Absolutely, Yes”
“Do they make you feel sad?” he asked her
“No not at all”
“Why not?”
“Because I wasn’t a child in this cottage I suppose” she replied
“That’s nuts” he said
“I know” Gloria said “what can I say I’m nuts”
Gloria visited him at the cottage every day after that to enjoy the decorations, watch classic Christmas movies and eat his stew, bolognaise, Chilli, shepherd pie or hot pot whatever was on the menu.
But she had made most of her visits during normal hours until Christmas Eve.
He was burning the midnight oil because he was stuck on a tricky chapter the first of three chapters which needed to be submitted to his publishers by New Year’s Day.
It was partly Gloria’s fault he had gotten behind but she was such a pleasant distraction he didn’t want to deter her from visiting.
But if he was perfectly honest she had become more of a distraction when she wasn’t there.
So it was just after eleven o’clock on Christmas Eve and he was rewriting the same troublesome section for the umpteenth time when Gloria knocked on the door.
He could tell it was her even before he opened the door by her unique knock.
“Hey” he said
“Hi, do you mind me popping in on Christmas Eve? I don’t want to upset your artistic flow” she said
“No flow to interrupt at the moment I’m afraid, this chapter is giving me a lot of trouble” he replied
“What is it, writers block?” Gloria asked
“No I’m not blocked, I’m writing ok, it’s just not very good” he said and laughed
“I could really use a break” he lied
They sat on the sofa watching an old movie that they found on cable, they chose it because it was a James Stewart classic, “The Philadelphia Story”.
About half an hour into it she yawned and rested her head on his shoulder and Alex assumed it must be one of her infamous cat naps but half an hour later she was still sleeping and he could tell by her breathing, even though he couldn’t see her, that she was properly asleep.
So he placed a cushion on his lap and gently lowered her head onto it.
Her legs were already on the sofa as she had been sitting in that side saddle fashion that only girls can achieve.
Alex then dragged the edge of the throw from the back of the sofa and draped it over her slender body.
(Part 08)
He watched the end of the movie and then switched off the TV.
Gloria was still sleeping so he reached for the A4 note pad he kept on the end table and resting it on the arm of the sofa he began writing and the words flowed from his pen like an inexhaustible stream and after three hours of furious writing he had put the troublesome chapter to bed.
He looked firstly at the sleeping girl with her head on his lap and saw she was still sleeping soundly and then up at the clock which told him it was 6.45am,
Not that the time was particularly relevant but he desperately needed to pee.
So he slowly extricated himself, being careful not to wake Gloria and settled her onto the sofa and then tucked the throw around her then he kissed her forehead and said
“Happy Christmas”
As soon as he was up he realised the temperature had dropped considerably so before he went to the loo he revived the fire in the grate and put some more wood on.
He then partly closed the door, he didn’t want her to wake up in a strange place and panic, but he didn’t want to disturb her either.
After having a much needed pee he went into the kitchen to make a drink which was when there was a knock at the door.
He couldn’t imagine who would possibly be knocking on his front door at 7 am on Christmas morning, apart from Gloria of course but she was already there.
So he opened the door and was surprised to find Gloria’s aunt, Kate standing there instead.
“Happy Christmas Kate” he said
“Happy Christmas Alex” Kate said but without any real conviction.
“Have you seen Gloria?” she asked with real concern “I saw her coming this way last night when I was out walking the dog”
“But I went to the cottage to wish her Happy Christmas and there’s no sign of her and her bed hasn’t been disturbed” she continued pacing the small hall way.
“All the lights are still on but there’s no sign of her and I’m really worried”
“Shhh” he said putting a finger to his lips and she looked confused
“Come here Kate” he said and led her to the lounge door
“She’s asleep on the sofa”
So she crept to the door and had a glance through gap into the sitting room.
“She’s asleep” she said in amazement “Properly asleep”
“Yes she is” he said proudly
“How long?” she asked
“Over six hours” he replied
“Six hours? That’s amazing” Kate said “She obviously feels safe with you”
“Do you think so?” he asked
“Definitely” Kate replied
“I won’t wake her” he said and pulled the door to
“I’m sorry you have been disturbed like this” Kate added
“Nonsense, I’ve enjoyed having a beautiful girl for company at Christmas”
“You think she’s beautiful?” she asked
“Of course, doesn’t everybody?” he asked
Kate smiled at him and kissed his cheek
“Happy Christmas Alex” she said
“Christmas Dinner is at 3 o’clock”
(Part 09)
After Kate had left he finished his drink and the lack of sleep suddenly caught up with him and he knew he had to sleep.
But he didn’t want to leave Gloria to wake up on her own, but he was too tired to sleep in an armchair.
So he thought for a moment and then went into the bedroom and got out the spare duvet before returning to the lounge.
Alex then carefully drew back the throw from around her small frail frame and then picked her up.
“Hmmm” she murmured as he held her, then he carefully carried the beautiful featherweight young woman into the bedroom where he laid her on top of the duvet and covered her with the spare one.
He then went out and turned off the lights and locked the front door before returning to the bedroom and gently slipping between the duvets to lay down beside Gloria.
“Hmmm” she murmured as she snuggled in against him, so he put his arm around her and drifted off into a contented sleep.
It was remarkable how life can surprise you, when he rented Honeysuckle Cottage it was only ever intended as a short term let.
But he knew when he woke up in bed next to a smiling Gloria on Christmas morning that he would never leave the village.
The book was well under way and he could easily have moved back to civilization to complete it but while he had struggled with a particularly troublesome chapter she had become his muse and his love.
And for Gloria, who had for so long held the world at arm’s length and avoided forming emotional attachments of any kind for fear they might lead to her heart being broken again, never imagined the course events would take after she rescued the panicky man lost in the woods.
She certainly never imagined she would wake up in his bed three months later or that she would have fallen in love with him.
When they woke up they just lay beneath the cosy comforting warmth of the duvet and talked for an hour, all the unsaid things they had wanted to say in the weeks preceding Christmas when they knew they had lost their hearts.
Before they reluctantly agreed that they needed to move as they couldn’t disappoint her Aunt Kate.
Alex got up first and showered, shaved and dressed then Gloria showered while he warmed up the car.
When she had redressed he drove her to her house where she finished getting ready and he waited in the house.
It was the first time he had been in there and it had an almost museum feel to it, no wonder she was always wandering.
When she was ready they left the car outside Gloria’s house and prepared to walk the hundred yards or so to Aunt Kate’s when it began to snow.
“Wow this is the best Christmas ever” she said and took hold of his hand
“It’s a perfect Christmas” he concurred and kissed her
The moment they walked in through the front door of the Villa Alex realised the wisdom of leaving the car at Gloria’s because he knew he would not be using it anymore that day as Uncle Henry thrust a cocktail of gargantuan proportions and indeterminate strength into his hand and he had no reason to suppose it wasn’t to be the first of many.
It was a wonderful Christmas, the best one either of them had ever known and the one that set the benchmark for every subsequent Christmas that they were to share.
The following December his 7th Novel was published under the title “The Insomniac Muse”
Mornington-By-Mere – (36) Returning Angel
(Part 01)
Twenty eight year old Matthew Burnham lives alone in the village of Mornington-By-Mere which is a small country village lying in the Finchbottom Vale nestled between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest and the rolling Pepperstock Hills.
It is a quaint picturesque village, a proper chocolate box picturesque idyll, with a Manor House, 12th Century Church, a Coaching Inn, Windmills, an Old Forge, a Schoolhouse, a River and a Mere.
But Mornington-By-Mere is not just a quaint chocolate box English Village it is the beating heart of the Finchbottom Vale and there were a number of cottages and small houses on the Purplemere road and Dulcets Lane which form the part of Mornington Village known as Manorside where Matthew lived in a small two bedroom cottage in the row of West Gate Cottages on the banks of the River Brooke.
He had only lived there for around 9 months when he moved there from Purplemere.
Matthew made the move because the company he worked for, Bespoke Furniture, had decided to up sticks, so he decided to pick up sticks along with them because it was a well-paid job and he was good at it, and he enjoyed working with his hands.
On a Friday morning, at the end of November, he was staring out through the window, he wasn’t watching anything in particular in the garden, leaves blowing across the lawn, a squirrel on the bird table, that kind of thing, it was just something to do as he sipped at his coffee.
But he was soon snapped back to the moment when the phone rang and when he viewed the caller ID he could see it was his mum.
“Hi mum, what a lovely surprise” he said
“Hello Matthew, you say that every time I phone you, and you still manage to sound insincere even after all these years, and you really should be getting better at it, but you’re not are you?” she chastised
“So what have I done wrong?”
“You say that every time I phone you as well” she said “I don’t just phone you when you’ve done something wrong”
“So you want me to do something for you then instead” he said
“You make me sound awful” she chastised him and then she laughed
“So you don’t want me to do something for you?”
“Well on this occasion it just so happens that I do need a favour” she confessed
“Aha” he said triumphantly “Go on then ask away”
“Ok then I’ll get straight to the point” she said
She liked getting straight to the point and then generally waffled on for an eternity but on this occasion she did get straight to the point.
“Angela Goodwin is back in the country” She said
“You remember Angela?”
Angela was an old family friend; she was actually the daughter of his mum’s best friend Sharon.
“Yes of course I do” he replied
“Angela would like to know if you could put her up for a few days while she’s in the area” Mum continued
“She actually asked if she could stay here.” Matthew asked
“Well no, I offered on your behalf” she admitted
(Part 02)
“She actually asked if she could stay here.” Matthew asked
“Well no, I offered on your behalf” she admitted
“She’s back from the missions for about a month, catching up with old friends before she returns to China”
“Then of course she can stay” he said
“I seem to remember you were quite taken with her when you were younger” she continued
“Yes I was, but that was a very long time ago” he agreed
“You will look after her though won’t you?” his mum said firmly
“She’s one of the angels”
“I will treat her like a princess” he said
“I would rather you treated her like a nun” Mum commanded
“Angela is a holy person”
“Message received and understood” he said obediently
“I will ring in the morning to say what train she will be on, can you meet her at Shallowfield station?”
“Yes of course”
“Well thank you Matthew” she said “I knew I could rely on you”
His family were very active in the church and it wasn’t unusual for him to put up visitors.
He was a Christian and a regular attendee but he wasn’t as active in “the good works” area of the church as he would have liked to be but housing the occasional stray was something he could do without it impacting his working life.
“I’ll call tomorrow then, bye” his mum said and then she was gone and he released a long slow exhale of breath.
“Well that’s an interesting turn of events” he said to himself “Angela Goodwin is coming to stay”
Angela was his first crush and she was going to be staying under his roof and Angela had a lot to answer for, Matthew got his first arousal thinking about her and furthermore he had his first wet dream over Angela, well not exactly over her obviously, but she was in his dream when he creamed his PJs.
Angela was, is, six years older than him and he was smitten with her, and she with him, from the first moment he saw her, but nothing happened, apart from a kiss, one single solitary kiss that simply blew his mind.
However Angela shied away after that moment of passion and the relationship was as a result unresolved but whenever they were together the air was always thick with sexual tension.
But she thought it would be a sin and a betrayal if they did anything about the way they felt.
He was too young to know at the time exactly what her issue was with them kissing but then he was only 16.
So he used to track her around the house like a stalker hoping to catch just a glimpse of her.
As a 16 year old he had wanted her with every fiber of his being, not that he would have known what to do with her one little bit, after all he was a naïve and inexperience schoolboy, a callow youth, but he still wanted her what ever that meant and he’d always wanted her ever since.
“Well now I might finally get my chance” he said to himself and his head was full of very unchristian thoughts.
(Part 03)
His Mum phoned again on Saturday morning as promised, but as it turned out he didn’t need to meet Angela’s train at Shallowfield station after all.
In fact she didn’t even catch the train, the Christian fraternity had rallied round, as they do, and a rather frumpy middle-aged woman called Lily Mumford delivered her to his door in her Morris Minor.
Mathew invited them in and the rather frosty Ms. Mumford cast an unsatisfactory and critical eye over everything before coldly taking her leave.
He had suspected that there would be a distinct awkwardness between him and Angela after all the years that had passed because of the unresolved sexual tension that had surrounded them, but he was pleasantly surprised.
He got the distinct impression that she was just as surprised as he was and she seemed equally as relaxed as he.
Angela was still every bit as pretty as he remembered, a few more lines on her pretty face perhaps, and she wore her hair shorter, but she had lost none of her beauty or allure.
She didn’t seem as tall as she had the last time he saw her, but that was merely his memory playing tricks on him because she was 5ft 3 as she always was.
He couldn’t really ascertain her physical dimensions, to see if they had altered in anyway because of the loose and shapeless clothes she was wearing, but his extremely vivid imagination filled in the blanks.
They spent the rest of the day just talking, catching up and reminiscing.
Their paths had been very different since they last met, hers had been one of pious devotion in the missions and had taken her to the other side of the world while his could best be summed up as cautious and unadventurous.
But despite the differences the years had just seemed to have melted away.
“Its very kind of you to put me up Matthew” she said “Thank you”
“No problem at all” he said honestly “Are you hungry?”
“Yes I am rather” she replied
“Well let me give you a quick tour, which won’t take long, and I’ll show you where everything is, settle you in to your room and while you’re freshening up I’ll cook us something” Matthew suggested.
“That would be really lovely” Angela said with conviction.
“Thank you again”
After he took her up he found himself behaving like his 16 year former self sneaking around trying to catch her in intimate moments and get a glimpse of forbidden flesh.
But he failed miserably, so he went back downstairs to the kitchen.
After they had eaten, they sat and talked some more until after about an hour Angela was suddenly overcome with tiredness and had to excuse herself.
“I’m so sorry” she said “But my body clock is all over the place at the moment”
Matthew had to admit he was quite tired himself and the only traveling he had done recently was to Sharpington and back, so he decide to turn in as well.
(Part 04)
Inconveniently Matthew had to get up for a pee at about 3.00am and as he was just getting back into his bed he thought he heard a noise downstairs so he slipped on his bathrobe and cautiously crept down the stairs.
He could definitely hear someone in the kitchen, so he gingerly crept to the kitchen door, which was slightly ajar, and then he breathed a sigh of relief.
The source of the noise was Angela, who was standing by the counter making herself a hot drink and she was wearing blue and white-stripped pajamas several sizes too big, the old fashioned ones with a drawstring around the waist.
So he still couldn’t ascertain her physical dimensions because of the loose fitting PJ’s.
The sight of her standing in his kitchen in her pajamas was such a delight to see and all the deep seated and unfulfilled feelings of love and lust overwhelmed him and he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
How often he had dreamed of her over the years in just such a pose of domesticity around his house.
And there she was in his kitchen in the wee small hours wearing old fashioned pajamas.
Matt stood in the hall spying through the crack in the door for a long time because he knew that if he went into the kitchen right at that moment he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from consuming her with his eyes.
But he couldn’t stay out in the hall indefinitely and he couldn’t sneak back upstairs in case she spotted him and he would have to explain why he hadn’t wanted to go in the kitchen.
So he took a deep breath and pushed open the door.
“Hey Angela” he said “can’t sleep eh”
“No” she replied, “like I said before my body clock is all askew”
The way she looked up at him was cuteness personified so he focused his eyes on the cupboards behind her head, and thought to himself
“I must not look at her, I must not look at her”
“I thought a hot drink might help” she continued as she checked the milk boiling on the hob.
Matthew wanted to look at her so badly, and as she turned back towards him he finally gave in and stared at her beautiful face, but he must have stared more intently than he imagined because she suddenly looked directly at him and she couldn’t help but notice he was looking at her with acute longing and she blushed a brilliant red.
“Oh” she exclaimed in surprised
“I’m so sorry” he said, apologizing for staring at her.
“I thought you would have gotten over your crush after twelve years” she said pouring hot milk into her mug
“It was never a crush” Matt said
“Of course it was” she said forcefully.
“I really am sorry but I can’t help it” Matt said feebly
“Well you need to learn” she snapped and bustled past him and went out the door.
“Oh bugger” he said and sat down at the kitchen table “I’ve blown it”
(Part 05)
It was 4.00am and Matt was still sitting at the kitchen table having drunk two mugs of Milo made with boiled milk and he was very wide awake and cursing his behaviour.
“Why couldn’t you just look away” he said to himself “This is going to make the atmosphere very strained for the next two days”
As he sat at the kitchen table it was apparent that Angela still couldn’t sleep either as he could clearly hear her in the shower.
Matt put his head in his hands and he couldn’t believe what had happened, he couldn’t believe what he had done, he couldn’t believe he had been so stupid.
“You are a total idiot” he said lifting his head from his hands momentarily.
Which was when the kitchen door opened and as he looked up Angela walked in still wearing the blue and white stripped pajamas.
She was biting her lip and kept looking at the floor, he smiled at her and she gave a weak smile back and then despite everything that had already happened he looked at her and what was supposed to be a quick glance became more prolonged as his gaze lingered and to his great surprise she held his gaze and although Angela blushed a vivid scarlet she made no attempt to look away, in fact she continued to look at him as she walked towards him and she sat at the table next to him and said
“I’ve never gotten over you either” and then she leant towards him and kissed him.
Matt couldn’t recall the exact number of times, as a young man he had imagined that long awaited second kiss and as it was happening and it was every bit as sensual as he imagined it would be.
Angela’s arms enveloped him as her embrace became more urgent and she slid off her chair and on his lap.
It was early Sunday afternoon when Matthew awoke and Angela was still asleep in bed beside him.
He leant over and kissed her neck and as she stirred he cuddled up behind her and then he dozed off again pressed up close behind her and when he woke again her shoulders were shaking,
“Are you crying” he asked
“Yes” she sobbed
“Why?” he asked “what’s wrong?”
“We did a terrible thing” she replied
“I thought we did a wonderful thing”
“But it was a sinful” she sobbed
“We did something we’ve wanted to do for 12 years” he pointed out “it’s not like we rushed blindly into it”
“I know but I still feel guilty” Angela said “the guilt of falling from grace”
“But it was born of love” he assured her “An enduring love, a love that was meant to be”
“Do you truly love me?” she asked as she turned to face him
“Did I not make you feel loved?”
“Every second” Angela replied “But will I be forgiven?”
“Listen Angel, you have spent your whole life denying yourself, a life spent helping others, putting others first, do you really think God would punish you, a good person, a godly person, for one time in your good sweet life, putting your own feelings first”
Angela held him tightly and kissed his neck in the dark and then they made love again.
(Part 06)
After making love for the second time on that momentous Sunday, Matthew and Angela drifted off to asleep again.
When they eventually awoke and they emerged from his bedroom they went downstairs and he cooked them a fried breakfast, although technically it wasn’t really breakfast but Matt called it that because he didn’t know what else to call a fry up at 4 o’clock in the afternoon.
Whatever the proper name for it was, they devoured it heartily and after their repast Angela said she wanted them to attend the evening service at St Winifred’s.
Matt agreed so Angela went up to have a bath while he cleared up in the kitchen.
Matthew was sitting downstairs in the lounge wearing his Sunday best when Angela walked in wearing her best “Sunday go to Meeting” outfit and he thought she looked lovely.
“What do you think” she asked “Do I look suitably chaste like a Christian Missionary should or more like a fallen woman with a satisfied look on her face?”
“Oh I think you look like a Christian Missionary with a satisfied look on her face” he replied
“That will have to suffice then” she said with a smile.
He had never attended the Sunday Evening service at St Winifred’s before so he wasn’t sure what to expect but when they walked in there was a surprisingly large congregation.
Matthew rather enjoyed it, there was no sermonizing it was all songs and psalms.
Reverend Cockcroft asked Angela if she would do a reading and give a brief testimony about her Missionary work, she agreed and held the congregation captivated and at the end of the service the collection plate went around and was greeted with generosity and was pledged to the Mission.
However just because the service had concluded it wasn’t the end of the evening as it took her more than half an hour to leave because everyone wanted to talk to her.
Once they got back to his house Angela was on cloud nine and having reconnected with God at St Winifred’s she reconnected with the love of her life.
The next morning they rose early, and it was time for a difficult conversation.
Angela was only in the UK until the end of December and she had a fairly hectic schedule taking her all-round the country giving talks to raise awareness and hopefully some much needed funds but as much as she loved Matthew she couldn’t stay with him.
“I can’t let people down” she sobbed
“I know angel” he said
“I’d like to see you again before I leave for the missions” she said
“You’d better” he said and kissed her before a tearful farewell.
In preparation of the early arrival of the redoubtable Ms Mumford who was collecting Angela in her Morris Minor at 8 o’clock and whisking her away from him and his heart almost broke as the car drove away.
Twenty eight year old Matthew Burnham lives alone in the village of Mornington-By-Mere which is a small country village lying in the Finchbottom Vale nestled between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest and the rolling Pepperstock Hills.
It is a quaint picturesque village, a proper chocolate box picturesque idyll, with a Manor House, 12th Century Church, a Coaching Inn, Windmills, an Old Forge, a Schoolhouse, a River and a Mere.
But Mornington-By-Mere is not just a quaint chocolate box English Village it is the beating heart of the Finchbottom Vale and there were a number of cottages and small houses on the Purplemere road and Dulcets Lane which form the part of Mornington Village known as Manorside where Matthew lived in a small two bedroom cottage in the row of West Gate Cottages on the banks of the River Brooke.
He had only lived there for around 9 months when he moved there from Purplemere.
Matthew made the move because the company he worked for, Bespoke Furniture, had decided to up sticks, so he decided to pick up sticks along with them because it was a well-paid job and he was good at it, and he enjoyed working with his hands.
On a Friday morning, at the end of November, he was staring out through the window, he wasn’t watching anything in particular in the garden, leaves blowing across the lawn, a squirrel on the bird table, that kind of thing, it was just something to do as he sipped at his coffee.
But he was soon snapped back to the moment when the phone rang and when he viewed the caller ID he could see it was his mum.
“Hi mum, what a lovely surprise” he said
“Hello Matthew, you say that every time I phone you, and you still manage to sound insincere even after all these years, and you really should be getting better at it, but you’re not are you?” she chastised
“So what have I done wrong?”
“You say that every time I phone you as well” she said “I don’t just phone you when you’ve done something wrong”
“So you want me to do something for you then instead” he said
“You make me sound awful” she chastised him and then she laughed
“So you don’t want me to do something for you?”
“Well on this occasion it just so happens that I do need a favour” she confessed
“Aha” he said triumphantly “Go on then ask away”
“Ok then I’ll get straight to the point” she said
She liked getting straight to the point and then generally waffled on for an eternity but on this occasion she did get straight to the point.
“Angela Goodwin is back in the country” She said
“You remember Angela?”
Angela was an old family friend; she was actually the daughter of his mum’s best friend Sharon.
“Yes of course I do” he replied
“Angela would like to know if you could put her up for a few days while she’s in the area” Mum continued
“She actually asked if she could stay here.” Matthew asked
“Well no, I offered on your behalf” she admitted
(Part 02)
“She actually asked if she could stay here.” Matthew asked
“Well no, I offered on your behalf” she admitted
“She’s back from the missions for about a month, catching up with old friends before she returns to China”
“Then of course she can stay” he said
“I seem to remember you were quite taken with her when you were younger” she continued
“Yes I was, but that was a very long time ago” he agreed
“You will look after her though won’t you?” his mum said firmly
“She’s one of the angels”
“I will treat her like a princess” he said
“I would rather you treated her like a nun” Mum commanded
“Angela is a holy person”
“Message received and understood” he said obediently
“I will ring in the morning to say what train she will be on, can you meet her at Shallowfield station?”
“Yes of course”
“Well thank you Matthew” she said “I knew I could rely on you”
His family were very active in the church and it wasn’t unusual for him to put up visitors.
He was a Christian and a regular attendee but he wasn’t as active in “the good works” area of the church as he would have liked to be but housing the occasional stray was something he could do without it impacting his working life.
“I’ll call tomorrow then, bye” his mum said and then she was gone and he released a long slow exhale of breath.
“Well that’s an interesting turn of events” he said to himself “Angela Goodwin is coming to stay”
Angela was his first crush and she was going to be staying under his roof and Angela had a lot to answer for, Matthew got his first arousal thinking about her and furthermore he had his first wet dream over Angela, well not exactly over her obviously, but she was in his dream when he creamed his PJs.
Angela was, is, six years older than him and he was smitten with her, and she with him, from the first moment he saw her, but nothing happened, apart from a kiss, one single solitary kiss that simply blew his mind.
However Angela shied away after that moment of passion and the relationship was as a result unresolved but whenever they were together the air was always thick with sexual tension.
But she thought it would be a sin and a betrayal if they did anything about the way they felt.
He was too young to know at the time exactly what her issue was with them kissing but then he was only 16.
So he used to track her around the house like a stalker hoping to catch just a glimpse of her.
As a 16 year old he had wanted her with every fiber of his being, not that he would have known what to do with her one little bit, after all he was a naïve and inexperience schoolboy, a callow youth, but he still wanted her what ever that meant and he’d always wanted her ever since.
“Well now I might finally get my chance” he said to himself and his head was full of very unchristian thoughts.
(Part 03)
His Mum phoned again on Saturday morning as promised, but as it turned out he didn’t need to meet Angela’s train at Shallowfield station after all.
In fact she didn’t even catch the train, the Christian fraternity had rallied round, as they do, and a rather frumpy middle-aged woman called Lily Mumford delivered her to his door in her Morris Minor.
Mathew invited them in and the rather frosty Ms. Mumford cast an unsatisfactory and critical eye over everything before coldly taking her leave.
He had suspected that there would be a distinct awkwardness between him and Angela after all the years that had passed because of the unresolved sexual tension that had surrounded them, but he was pleasantly surprised.
He got the distinct impression that she was just as surprised as he was and she seemed equally as relaxed as he.
Angela was still every bit as pretty as he remembered, a few more lines on her pretty face perhaps, and she wore her hair shorter, but she had lost none of her beauty or allure.
She didn’t seem as tall as she had the last time he saw her, but that was merely his memory playing tricks on him because she was 5ft 3 as she always was.
He couldn’t really ascertain her physical dimensions, to see if they had altered in anyway because of the loose and shapeless clothes she was wearing, but his extremely vivid imagination filled in the blanks.
They spent the rest of the day just talking, catching up and reminiscing.
Their paths had been very different since they last met, hers had been one of pious devotion in the missions and had taken her to the other side of the world while his could best be summed up as cautious and unadventurous.
But despite the differences the years had just seemed to have melted away.
“Its very kind of you to put me up Matthew” she said “Thank you”
“No problem at all” he said honestly “Are you hungry?”
“Yes I am rather” she replied
“Well let me give you a quick tour, which won’t take long, and I’ll show you where everything is, settle you in to your room and while you’re freshening up I’ll cook us something” Matthew suggested.
“That would be really lovely” Angela said with conviction.
“Thank you again”
After he took her up he found himself behaving like his 16 year former self sneaking around trying to catch her in intimate moments and get a glimpse of forbidden flesh.
But he failed miserably, so he went back downstairs to the kitchen.
After they had eaten, they sat and talked some more until after about an hour Angela was suddenly overcome with tiredness and had to excuse herself.
“I’m so sorry” she said “But my body clock is all over the place at the moment”
Matthew had to admit he was quite tired himself and the only traveling he had done recently was to Sharpington and back, so he decide to turn in as well.
(Part 04)
Inconveniently Matthew had to get up for a pee at about 3.00am and as he was just getting back into his bed he thought he heard a noise downstairs so he slipped on his bathrobe and cautiously crept down the stairs.
He could definitely hear someone in the kitchen, so he gingerly crept to the kitchen door, which was slightly ajar, and then he breathed a sigh of relief.
The source of the noise was Angela, who was standing by the counter making herself a hot drink and she was wearing blue and white-stripped pajamas several sizes too big, the old fashioned ones with a drawstring around the waist.
So he still couldn’t ascertain her physical dimensions because of the loose fitting PJ’s.
The sight of her standing in his kitchen in her pajamas was such a delight to see and all the deep seated and unfulfilled feelings of love and lust overwhelmed him and he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
How often he had dreamed of her over the years in just such a pose of domesticity around his house.
And there she was in his kitchen in the wee small hours wearing old fashioned pajamas.
Matt stood in the hall spying through the crack in the door for a long time because he knew that if he went into the kitchen right at that moment he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from consuming her with his eyes.
But he couldn’t stay out in the hall indefinitely and he couldn’t sneak back upstairs in case she spotted him and he would have to explain why he hadn’t wanted to go in the kitchen.
So he took a deep breath and pushed open the door.
“Hey Angela” he said “can’t sleep eh”
“No” she replied, “like I said before my body clock is all askew”
The way she looked up at him was cuteness personified so he focused his eyes on the cupboards behind her head, and thought to himself
“I must not look at her, I must not look at her”
“I thought a hot drink might help” she continued as she checked the milk boiling on the hob.
Matthew wanted to look at her so badly, and as she turned back towards him he finally gave in and stared at her beautiful face, but he must have stared more intently than he imagined because she suddenly looked directly at him and she couldn’t help but notice he was looking at her with acute longing and she blushed a brilliant red.
“Oh” she exclaimed in surprised
“I’m so sorry” he said, apologizing for staring at her.
“I thought you would have gotten over your crush after twelve years” she said pouring hot milk into her mug
“It was never a crush” Matt said
“Of course it was” she said forcefully.
“I really am sorry but I can’t help it” Matt said feebly
“Well you need to learn” she snapped and bustled past him and went out the door.
“Oh bugger” he said and sat down at the kitchen table “I’ve blown it”
(Part 05)
It was 4.00am and Matt was still sitting at the kitchen table having drunk two mugs of Milo made with boiled milk and he was very wide awake and cursing his behaviour.
“Why couldn’t you just look away” he said to himself “This is going to make the atmosphere very strained for the next two days”
As he sat at the kitchen table it was apparent that Angela still couldn’t sleep either as he could clearly hear her in the shower.
Matt put his head in his hands and he couldn’t believe what had happened, he couldn’t believe what he had done, he couldn’t believe he had been so stupid.
“You are a total idiot” he said lifting his head from his hands momentarily.
Which was when the kitchen door opened and as he looked up Angela walked in still wearing the blue and white stripped pajamas.
She was biting her lip and kept looking at the floor, he smiled at her and she gave a weak smile back and then despite everything that had already happened he looked at her and what was supposed to be a quick glance became more prolonged as his gaze lingered and to his great surprise she held his gaze and although Angela blushed a vivid scarlet she made no attempt to look away, in fact she continued to look at him as she walked towards him and she sat at the table next to him and said
“I’ve never gotten over you either” and then she leant towards him and kissed him.
Matt couldn’t recall the exact number of times, as a young man he had imagined that long awaited second kiss and as it was happening and it was every bit as sensual as he imagined it would be.
Angela’s arms enveloped him as her embrace became more urgent and she slid off her chair and on his lap.
It was early Sunday afternoon when Matthew awoke and Angela was still asleep in bed beside him.
He leant over and kissed her neck and as she stirred he cuddled up behind her and then he dozed off again pressed up close behind her and when he woke again her shoulders were shaking,
“Are you crying” he asked
“Yes” she sobbed
“Why?” he asked “what’s wrong?”
“We did a terrible thing” she replied
“I thought we did a wonderful thing”
“But it was a sinful” she sobbed
“We did something we’ve wanted to do for 12 years” he pointed out “it’s not like we rushed blindly into it”
“I know but I still feel guilty” Angela said “the guilt of falling from grace”
“But it was born of love” he assured her “An enduring love, a love that was meant to be”
“Do you truly love me?” she asked as she turned to face him
“Did I not make you feel loved?”
“Every second” Angela replied “But will I be forgiven?”
“Listen Angel, you have spent your whole life denying yourself, a life spent helping others, putting others first, do you really think God would punish you, a good person, a godly person, for one time in your good sweet life, putting your own feelings first”
Angela held him tightly and kissed his neck in the dark and then they made love again.
(Part 06)
After making love for the second time on that momentous Sunday, Matthew and Angela drifted off to asleep again.
When they eventually awoke and they emerged from his bedroom they went downstairs and he cooked them a fried breakfast, although technically it wasn’t really breakfast but Matt called it that because he didn’t know what else to call a fry up at 4 o’clock in the afternoon.
Whatever the proper name for it was, they devoured it heartily and after their repast Angela said she wanted them to attend the evening service at St Winifred’s.
Matt agreed so Angela went up to have a bath while he cleared up in the kitchen.
Matthew was sitting downstairs in the lounge wearing his Sunday best when Angela walked in wearing her best “Sunday go to Meeting” outfit and he thought she looked lovely.
“What do you think” she asked “Do I look suitably chaste like a Christian Missionary should or more like a fallen woman with a satisfied look on her face?”
“Oh I think you look like a Christian Missionary with a satisfied look on her face” he replied
“That will have to suffice then” she said with a smile.
He had never attended the Sunday Evening service at St Winifred’s before so he wasn’t sure what to expect but when they walked in there was a surprisingly large congregation.
Matthew rather enjoyed it, there was no sermonizing it was all songs and psalms.
Reverend Cockcroft asked Angela if she would do a reading and give a brief testimony about her Missionary work, she agreed and held the congregation captivated and at the end of the service the collection plate went around and was greeted with generosity and was pledged to the Mission.
However just because the service had concluded it wasn’t the end of the evening as it took her more than half an hour to leave because everyone wanted to talk to her.
Once they got back to his house Angela was on cloud nine and having reconnected with God at St Winifred’s she reconnected with the love of her life.
The next morning they rose early, and it was time for a difficult conversation.
Angela was only in the UK until the end of December and she had a fairly hectic schedule taking her all-round the country giving talks to raise awareness and hopefully some much needed funds but as much as she loved Matthew she couldn’t stay with him.
“I can’t let people down” she sobbed
“I know angel” he said
“I’d like to see you again before I leave for the missions” she said
“You’d better” he said and kissed her before a tearful farewell.
In preparation of the early arrival of the redoubtable Ms Mumford who was collecting Angela in her Morris Minor at 8 o’clock and whisking her away from him and his heart almost broke as the car drove away.
Downshire Diary – (36) At the Church Weekend
(Part 01)
It was springtime and the sap was rising and so were Anthony Flood’s spirits.
He and his sister Jane were driving through the countryside of the Finchbottom Vale to the Dancingdean Spa Hotel in Childean for a church weekend.
But it wasn’t the thought of seminars and inspirational talks that had 44 year old Anthony full of vim and vigour.
It was the thought of Fiona Fortson that had him loaded and ready to fire.
She was 12 years younger than he and they had recently declared their love for each other.
It had begun in the St Dunstan’s church stationary cupboard one Sunday morning with a prolonged kiss and was continued two weeks later on her sofa where she was nursing a badly sprained ankle.
He wasn’t a womaniser by nature, but Anthony had always had a roving eye, and quite unashamedly ogled woman at every opportunity but he was never a player just a lustful voyeur.
But once he had tasted the forbidden fruit of Fiona Fortson lips he was hooked and he wanted more.
Fiona stood a towering 4 feet 11 in her stocking feet and when he saw her face with those large saucer eyes and a warm mesmerizing smile it was a pivotal moment for him.
They hit it off immediately and he was instantly attracted to her, a love at first sight kind of thing, and that was before he’d even heard her speak in her posh Carrington Chase educated voice.
Carrington Chase being Downshire’s version of Roedean, although those in Downshire thought it was the other way around.
He’d always been turned on by well-spoken women and turned off by common ones.
For him there was no greater turn off than to see a spectacularly beautiful woman open her mouth and speak in a rough colloquial accent.
But sexy as her accent might have been and as remarkably beautiful as Fiona’s face was, her figure on the other hand was singularly unremarkable.
She had short chubby legs, a flat chest and a barely distinguishable waist.
Although her bum was an altogether different proposition and each buttock was beautifully defined inside her khaki cargo pants and
Fiona dressed like a tomboy in cargo pants, t-shirt and plaid shirts and he loved every inch of her.
Unfortunately since the afternoon they kissed on her sofa while she was in her pyjamas while she was laid up with a sprained ankle they hadn’t been able to repeat the experience and he didn’t hold out much hope for that weekend either.
Fiona would be there but she was sharing a room with her flatmate Judith and Anthony was with his sister Jane and the Hotel would be full of people they knew so the chances were slim of them being able to sneak a kiss.
It had occurred to him that it was the chance of being caught that heightened the state of excitement, such was the side effect that came with liaisons dangereuses but he would have been happier if everyone had known.
And he had a cunning plan.
(Part 02)
Anthony and his sister Jane checked into the Hotel just after 4pm on Thursday afternoon and they were the first of their party to arrive.
It was a nice place, well equipped, something for everyone, swimming pool, golf course, spa treatments, gym, sauna and country walks.
After depositing their bags in their room and unpacking they returned downstairs to have coffee in the lounge and spent a pleasant hour watching the comings and goings of their fellow guests.
Where he gleaned the information that, Fiona and her roommate Judith were only booked in for the Friday and Saturday night and wouldn’t be arriving until Friday morning.
This was disappointing news for Anthony as it severely narrowed the window of opportunity for him to have some stolen moments with Fiona.
The next day Anthony breakfasted early and then loitered in reception hoping to see Fiona’s arrival.
His vigil ended abruptly when Jane came down with a detailed itinerary of their day and so his chance had gone.
It was late morning when he and Jane next passed through reception and there Fiona was sat in one of the huge chairs with her stocking feet on the table reading her kindle.
Jane went upstairs to her room to freshen up before lunch and Anthony sat down opposite Fiona
“Hello” he said “you look comfortable”
“Hi Anthony” she replied “I am”
“Do you have any plans for the afternoon?” he asked
The mornings were structured, with seminars and study groups and the like but every afternoon was a free period and there were a range of activities for guests to do.
“No I’m not signed up for anything” she replied
“Good, meet me by the car at 2 o’clock” he said and then he squeezed her knee and added “wear your girl clothes”
A group of Fiona’s friends arrived and so Anthony excused himself and went upstairs.
He and his sister arrived back down and walked briskly into the restaurant.
The restaurant was a self-service buffet affair, so they queued up and Jane was very enthused throughout, even during lunch as they both ate a very palatable Mushroom Stroganoff.
“So what are you going to do in the free period?” he asked Jane as they finished their desert.
“I’m going to annihilate the vicar’s wife on the croquet lawn” she replied and guffawed “What about you?”
“Nothing quite so brutal, something more suitable for a man of sensibilities” he said and chuckled
“Something wimpy you mean” she replied and guffawed again
At two o’clock on the dot Fiona was standing by his car wearing a blouse, skirt, tights and smart shoes and Anthony arrived a minute later and he was smartly dressed and carrying a large brown envelope.
“Where are we going?” she asked “and why have you made me dress like a girl in the daylight?”
“Get in the car and explain on the way” he said
“On the way where?” Fiona asked
“Get in sweetheart and I’ll explain” he said
“So where are we going?” she asked as they drove out of the car park and in response he handed her the brown envelope.
“Look in there and then you’ll know”
Fiona tipped the contents of the envelope onto her lap and a minute later she looked and him and asked
“Are you sure?”
(Part 03)
It was late afternoon when Anthony and Fiona returned and he parked in the most private part of the car park where he could kiss her goodbye with no on lookers and then he drove her to the quietest entrance so she could slip into the Hotel relatively unnoticed.
They didn’t see each other for the rest of the day because some bright spark thought it would be a good idea to divide the guests into four groups for the evening activities and they put Anthony and Fiona in different groups.
The next morning Anthony breakfasted early and then loitered at his table in the restaurant hoping to see Fiona arriving for her full English.
His vigil ended abruptly when his sister Jane appeared instead with another one of her detailed itineraries of their day and so his chance had gone.
It was such a very full itinerary that it was late afternoon when he and Jane passed through reception and he was delighted to see Fiona sitting there in one of the huge chairs with her stocking feet on the table and she was chatting with friends.
“Order some coffee Anthony” Jane said “I just need to take a tablet”
Anthony knew that “A tablet” meant she was getting one of her heads which if she could catch early enough would not become a migraine.
“Ok” he said
He ordered coffee and then went over to where Fiona was sitting.
“Hello” he said “you look comfortable”
“Hi Anthony” she replied and gave him a beaming smile
“We walked too far and now my feet are sore”
One or two of her friends had already made a move so there were some empty seats, so he took the nearest one to Fiona.
“You need a hot bath” her friend Judith suggested
“Yes I’ll have one when I go up” she said
“Well I’m going for one now” Judith said and picked up the key card from the table.
“Ok I’ll see you up there” Fiona replied
“Goodbye Mr Flood” she said
“Bye Judith”
“Do you want me to rub your feet?” he asked when they were alone
“Perhaps I can rub the ache away”
“Yes please” she said and put her feet on his lap
“But you know very well that’s not where the ache is” she whispered
“And it’s a long way away from where I want your hands to be”
Before he had a chance to answer Jane arrived.
“Ah there you are Anthony” she said “Hello Fiona, have you been walking?”
“Yes” she replied
“Sore feet?” Jane added, to which Fiona responded with a nod and Jane was in complete simpatico without further explanation.
He didn’t participate in the conversation which allowed Anthony took the time to rerun their conversation in his head, particularly the last part.
He liked it when Fiona talked dirty, he always thought things sounded twice as dirty when a posh girl said it, and it was doubly dirty when a posh Christian girl said it.
It aroused him greatly as her words echoed inside his head despite the fact he was sat in between his sister and the woman he loved.
After a few minutes Fiona picked up her shoes and stood up.
“Well I’m for the bath” she said “Hopefully I’ll see you later”
“Yes indeed” Jane replied although Anthony knew it was directed at him.
(Part 04)
When they came down for dinner that evening he didn’t see Fiona anywhere, although in truth she was so tiny she was easy to miss in a crowd.
On the pretence of mingling Anthony wandered around the reception looking for her in every nook and cranny but there was no sign.
When it came time to go through to the restaurant he positioned himself in proximity to the door so he could check the faces in the crowd but she wasn’t there.
After a very enjoyable dinner, Jane had to excuse herself as her headache of earlier had indeed become a migraine.
Anthony accompanied her up to the room as when she got a bad migraine she got visual distortion one she was safely in the room he returned to the dining room for the after dinner speeches after which he discreetly searched for the lovely Fiona in the many rooms and lounges.
Anyway when he had looked everywhere twice he made his way upstairs.
“About bloody time” she said as he walked down the corridor causing him to almost jump out of his skin.
When he regained his composure he turned around to find Fiona standing by an open door and she was wearing girl’s clothes, but not from her wardrobe it was clearly something she had borrowed for the occasion.
“I’ve been looking everywhere for you” he said
“I fell asleep” she confessed “and I missed dinner”
“You must be starving” Anthony said sympathetically “do you want to get something to eat”
“Hunger isn’t the appetite I need to satisfy” she said and took his hand
“Where’s Judith?” he asked
“She’s in her boyfriend Roger’s room getting a rogering” she said and giggled at her joke
“So are you inviting me in?” he asked
“Do you need an invitation?” she asked nonchalantly raising the hem of her skirt tantalizingly up one thigh, leaving him in no doubt what was on the menu.
“Well it’s nice to be asked” Anthony responded
“Well come and get it then” Fiona said and dragged him into her room.
It was five o’clock when he reluctantly slipped out of the sleeping Fiona’s bed and crept back to his own room.
But he was seen leaving by Mrs Patmore who was just leaving her room to go for an early morning swim and by 8 o’clock when he walked into the restaurant Mrs P had spread the word so that everyone present was privy to the information and the room went absolutely silent.
“Good morning” Anthony said, completely un phased by his reception and went straight to the hot breakfast buffer counter and put together a plate of hot food and went and sat down at a vacant table.
“You should be absolutely ashamed of yourself” Mrs Patmore said “And what poor Jane will think when she hears about your antics”
“She already knows” he said and just at that moment Fiona walked in and made a bee line for Anthony
“Morning everyone” she said brightly
“And look at you, you brazen hussy” Mrs P said
“Our secret is out” Anthony said
“So it would appear” she said and kissed him “Judith gave me the heads up”
“You’re absolutely shameless” Mrs Patmore expressed and Fiona drew herself up to her maximum of 4 foot 11 inches and retorted
“I’ve done nothing to be ashamed Mrs. Patmore, I merely shared my bed with my husband”
And she punctuated her statement by thrusting her left hand under Mrs P’s nose so she could see her wedding ring and the whole mood of the room changed and Mrs Patmore got lost in the crowd of well-wishers with a barrage of blessings and questions.
It was springtime and the sap was rising and so were Anthony Flood’s spirits.
He and his sister Jane were driving through the countryside of the Finchbottom Vale to the Dancingdean Spa Hotel in Childean for a church weekend.
But it wasn’t the thought of seminars and inspirational talks that had 44 year old Anthony full of vim and vigour.
It was the thought of Fiona Fortson that had him loaded and ready to fire.
She was 12 years younger than he and they had recently declared their love for each other.
It had begun in the St Dunstan’s church stationary cupboard one Sunday morning with a prolonged kiss and was continued two weeks later on her sofa where she was nursing a badly sprained ankle.
He wasn’t a womaniser by nature, but Anthony had always had a roving eye, and quite unashamedly ogled woman at every opportunity but he was never a player just a lustful voyeur.
But once he had tasted the forbidden fruit of Fiona Fortson lips he was hooked and he wanted more.
Fiona stood a towering 4 feet 11 in her stocking feet and when he saw her face with those large saucer eyes and a warm mesmerizing smile it was a pivotal moment for him.
They hit it off immediately and he was instantly attracted to her, a love at first sight kind of thing, and that was before he’d even heard her speak in her posh Carrington Chase educated voice.
Carrington Chase being Downshire’s version of Roedean, although those in Downshire thought it was the other way around.
He’d always been turned on by well-spoken women and turned off by common ones.
For him there was no greater turn off than to see a spectacularly beautiful woman open her mouth and speak in a rough colloquial accent.
But sexy as her accent might have been and as remarkably beautiful as Fiona’s face was, her figure on the other hand was singularly unremarkable.
She had short chubby legs, a flat chest and a barely distinguishable waist.
Although her bum was an altogether different proposition and each buttock was beautifully defined inside her khaki cargo pants and
Fiona dressed like a tomboy in cargo pants, t-shirt and plaid shirts and he loved every inch of her.
Unfortunately since the afternoon they kissed on her sofa while she was in her pyjamas while she was laid up with a sprained ankle they hadn’t been able to repeat the experience and he didn’t hold out much hope for that weekend either.
Fiona would be there but she was sharing a room with her flatmate Judith and Anthony was with his sister Jane and the Hotel would be full of people they knew so the chances were slim of them being able to sneak a kiss.
It had occurred to him that it was the chance of being caught that heightened the state of excitement, such was the side effect that came with liaisons dangereuses but he would have been happier if everyone had known.
And he had a cunning plan.
(Part 02)
Anthony and his sister Jane checked into the Hotel just after 4pm on Thursday afternoon and they were the first of their party to arrive.
It was a nice place, well equipped, something for everyone, swimming pool, golf course, spa treatments, gym, sauna and country walks.
After depositing their bags in their room and unpacking they returned downstairs to have coffee in the lounge and spent a pleasant hour watching the comings and goings of their fellow guests.
Where he gleaned the information that, Fiona and her roommate Judith were only booked in for the Friday and Saturday night and wouldn’t be arriving until Friday morning.
This was disappointing news for Anthony as it severely narrowed the window of opportunity for him to have some stolen moments with Fiona.
The next day Anthony breakfasted early and then loitered in reception hoping to see Fiona’s arrival.
His vigil ended abruptly when Jane came down with a detailed itinerary of their day and so his chance had gone.
It was late morning when he and Jane next passed through reception and there Fiona was sat in one of the huge chairs with her stocking feet on the table reading her kindle.
Jane went upstairs to her room to freshen up before lunch and Anthony sat down opposite Fiona
“Hello” he said “you look comfortable”
“Hi Anthony” she replied “I am”
“Do you have any plans for the afternoon?” he asked
The mornings were structured, with seminars and study groups and the like but every afternoon was a free period and there were a range of activities for guests to do.
“No I’m not signed up for anything” she replied
“Good, meet me by the car at 2 o’clock” he said and then he squeezed her knee and added “wear your girl clothes”
A group of Fiona’s friends arrived and so Anthony excused himself and went upstairs.
He and his sister arrived back down and walked briskly into the restaurant.
The restaurant was a self-service buffet affair, so they queued up and Jane was very enthused throughout, even during lunch as they both ate a very palatable Mushroom Stroganoff.
“So what are you going to do in the free period?” he asked Jane as they finished their desert.
“I’m going to annihilate the vicar’s wife on the croquet lawn” she replied and guffawed “What about you?”
“Nothing quite so brutal, something more suitable for a man of sensibilities” he said and chuckled
“Something wimpy you mean” she replied and guffawed again
At two o’clock on the dot Fiona was standing by his car wearing a blouse, skirt, tights and smart shoes and Anthony arrived a minute later and he was smartly dressed and carrying a large brown envelope.
“Where are we going?” she asked “and why have you made me dress like a girl in the daylight?”
“Get in the car and explain on the way” he said
“On the way where?” Fiona asked
“Get in sweetheart and I’ll explain” he said
“So where are we going?” she asked as they drove out of the car park and in response he handed her the brown envelope.
“Look in there and then you’ll know”
Fiona tipped the contents of the envelope onto her lap and a minute later she looked and him and asked
“Are you sure?”
(Part 03)
It was late afternoon when Anthony and Fiona returned and he parked in the most private part of the car park where he could kiss her goodbye with no on lookers and then he drove her to the quietest entrance so she could slip into the Hotel relatively unnoticed.
They didn’t see each other for the rest of the day because some bright spark thought it would be a good idea to divide the guests into four groups for the evening activities and they put Anthony and Fiona in different groups.
The next morning Anthony breakfasted early and then loitered at his table in the restaurant hoping to see Fiona arriving for her full English.
His vigil ended abruptly when his sister Jane appeared instead with another one of her detailed itineraries of their day and so his chance had gone.
It was such a very full itinerary that it was late afternoon when he and Jane passed through reception and he was delighted to see Fiona sitting there in one of the huge chairs with her stocking feet on the table and she was chatting with friends.
“Order some coffee Anthony” Jane said “I just need to take a tablet”
Anthony knew that “A tablet” meant she was getting one of her heads which if she could catch early enough would not become a migraine.
“Ok” he said
He ordered coffee and then went over to where Fiona was sitting.
“Hello” he said “you look comfortable”
“Hi Anthony” she replied and gave him a beaming smile
“We walked too far and now my feet are sore”
One or two of her friends had already made a move so there were some empty seats, so he took the nearest one to Fiona.
“You need a hot bath” her friend Judith suggested
“Yes I’ll have one when I go up” she said
“Well I’m going for one now” Judith said and picked up the key card from the table.
“Ok I’ll see you up there” Fiona replied
“Goodbye Mr Flood” she said
“Bye Judith”
“Do you want me to rub your feet?” he asked when they were alone
“Perhaps I can rub the ache away”
“Yes please” she said and put her feet on his lap
“But you know very well that’s not where the ache is” she whispered
“And it’s a long way away from where I want your hands to be”
Before he had a chance to answer Jane arrived.
“Ah there you are Anthony” she said “Hello Fiona, have you been walking?”
“Yes” she replied
“Sore feet?” Jane added, to which Fiona responded with a nod and Jane was in complete simpatico without further explanation.
He didn’t participate in the conversation which allowed Anthony took the time to rerun their conversation in his head, particularly the last part.
He liked it when Fiona talked dirty, he always thought things sounded twice as dirty when a posh girl said it, and it was doubly dirty when a posh Christian girl said it.
It aroused him greatly as her words echoed inside his head despite the fact he was sat in between his sister and the woman he loved.
After a few minutes Fiona picked up her shoes and stood up.
“Well I’m for the bath” she said “Hopefully I’ll see you later”
“Yes indeed” Jane replied although Anthony knew it was directed at him.
(Part 04)
When they came down for dinner that evening he didn’t see Fiona anywhere, although in truth she was so tiny she was easy to miss in a crowd.
On the pretence of mingling Anthony wandered around the reception looking for her in every nook and cranny but there was no sign.
When it came time to go through to the restaurant he positioned himself in proximity to the door so he could check the faces in the crowd but she wasn’t there.
After a very enjoyable dinner, Jane had to excuse herself as her headache of earlier had indeed become a migraine.
Anthony accompanied her up to the room as when she got a bad migraine she got visual distortion one she was safely in the room he returned to the dining room for the after dinner speeches after which he discreetly searched for the lovely Fiona in the many rooms and lounges.
Anyway when he had looked everywhere twice he made his way upstairs.
“About bloody time” she said as he walked down the corridor causing him to almost jump out of his skin.
When he regained his composure he turned around to find Fiona standing by an open door and she was wearing girl’s clothes, but not from her wardrobe it was clearly something she had borrowed for the occasion.
“I’ve been looking everywhere for you” he said
“I fell asleep” she confessed “and I missed dinner”
“You must be starving” Anthony said sympathetically “do you want to get something to eat”
“Hunger isn’t the appetite I need to satisfy” she said and took his hand
“Where’s Judith?” he asked
“She’s in her boyfriend Roger’s room getting a rogering” she said and giggled at her joke
“So are you inviting me in?” he asked
“Do you need an invitation?” she asked nonchalantly raising the hem of her skirt tantalizingly up one thigh, leaving him in no doubt what was on the menu.
“Well it’s nice to be asked” Anthony responded
“Well come and get it then” Fiona said and dragged him into her room.
It was five o’clock when he reluctantly slipped out of the sleeping Fiona’s bed and crept back to his own room.
But he was seen leaving by Mrs Patmore who was just leaving her room to go for an early morning swim and by 8 o’clock when he walked into the restaurant Mrs P had spread the word so that everyone present was privy to the information and the room went absolutely silent.
“Good morning” Anthony said, completely un phased by his reception and went straight to the hot breakfast buffer counter and put together a plate of hot food and went and sat down at a vacant table.
“You should be absolutely ashamed of yourself” Mrs Patmore said “And what poor Jane will think when she hears about your antics”
“She already knows” he said and just at that moment Fiona walked in and made a bee line for Anthony
“Morning everyone” she said brightly
“And look at you, you brazen hussy” Mrs P said
“Our secret is out” Anthony said
“So it would appear” she said and kissed him “Judith gave me the heads up”
“You’re absolutely shameless” Mrs Patmore expressed and Fiona drew herself up to her maximum of 4 foot 11 inches and retorted
“I’ve done nothing to be ashamed Mrs. Patmore, I merely shared my bed with my husband”
And she punctuated her statement by thrusting her left hand under Mrs P’s nose so she could see her wedding ring and the whole mood of the room changed and Mrs Patmore got lost in the crowd of well-wishers with a barrage of blessings and questions.
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