(Part 01)
When Thirty year old Emma Jackson left her flat in Abbey View Mews she was in a pensive mood and as she set off in her car she was full of apprehension.
On the passenger seat was a large manila envelope from Stanislas, Boivin and Champeaux who were the Mornington Estate solicitors and the receipt of that envelope was the reason she was in the car and full of apprehension.
She had been born and raised in Mornington but as she drove from Abbottsford on the bright and sunny morning in September she was returning to the place of her birth for the first time in fifteen years.
Mornington-By-Mere was a small country village lying in the Finchbottom Vale nestled between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest and the rolling Pepperstock Hills.
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.
As she drove past the Old Forge she was immediately struck by how little the Village had changed in her 15 year absence.
Everything was exactly as she had left it but there did appear to be more people in the village than she remembered.
She drove through the village along The Street, with Boddington’s Estate Butcher’s, Addison’s Bakery, Norman’s Post Office & General Store and The Old Mill Inn, on the left and on the opposite side of the road were Jeffrey and Teague Vets, Mazzone’s Hairdressers, the Dental & Orthodontic Surgery, Doctors Surgery, Pharmacy, and Legg’s Farm Shop.
Immediately opposite Legg’s, on the other side of the river was St Winifred’s church and the vicarage.
At the roundabout, at the end of The Street, she could see her old school directly ahead, but she turned left and went over Church Bridge and followed Purplemere road between Manor Wood and the Police Station and on towards Manorside.
Mornington-By-Mere was 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 formed the part of Mornington Village known as Manorside which was where Emma spent the first 15 years of her life.
Emma continued along Purplemere Road as it skirted Manor Wood until she saw the brewery ahead on the left, with Dulcets Mill, one of the last three remaining Mornington Mills, across the road and just beyond the brewery, on the same side of the road was a row of terraced brewery cottages and Emma pulled up outside number 9 where she had been raised along with two younger sisters and an older brother.
The moment she switched off the engine and looked at the house she was assailed with a flood of memories of the happy days she spent there.
Emma sat outside her former home for over an hour and as she sat there reminiscing, but the reason she sat there for so long was that she was afraid to go inside because of the unhappier times that preceded the hasty departure with her mum and her sisters.
(Part 02)
Emma Jackson sat outside her former home in the part of Mornington known as Manorside for over an hour as she sat there reminiscing, but the reason she sat there for so long was that she was afraid to go inside because of the unhappier times that preceded the hasty departure from the house with her mum and her sisters.
She had spent the first fifteen years of her life in the house and for fourteen and a half of those she was extremely happy.
The Jackson children had had an idyllic childhood in the village and their parents were happily married and overall they had a good life and lived their lives as a very happy family.
That is until tragedy struck.
Alan and Mary Jackson had lived at number 9 Brewery Cottages all their married life, where they raised 4 children, firstly a son Steven, then two years later Emma, followed 18 months after that by Lisa and finally the baby of the family Claire.
Alan worked at the Brewery, as his father had before him, and after the children started school, Mary worked part time at the Old Mill Inn.
In time Alan was promoted to Brew Master and everything in the Jacksons world was wonderful but as their children were growing up their world suddenly fell apart.
Everything went wrong when their eldest child, Steven, was all set to go to Abbottsford University in the autumn and as his parents were immensely proud of him they were fully supportive when he said he wanted to spend the summer travelling around Europe with a group of friends.
The last port of call before returning to Downshire for Steven and his friends was Amsterdam where they spent a very enjoyable but very boozy two days and they were all very hungover when they boarded the ferry to Pepperstock Bay.
But they planned to stretch out on the bench seats in the lounge and sleep it off on the crossing, however a late summer storm put paid to that plan as rough seas prevented all but the most hardened sailors from resting.
Everyone in Stevens’s group suffered from sea sickness on the voyage home and had to make constant visits to either the toilets or the ships rails to throw up.
It was on one of those visits that Steven lost his footing on the companion way and fell to the bottom in a crumpled heap.
When he was discovered a few minutes later he was already dead having broken his neck.
The effect on the family was profound, the girls all adored their big brother, and his mother Mary was heartbroken at the loss of her first born, but Alan took it the hardest of all and was so devastated by the death of his one and only son it set him on a path of self-destruction from which he never returned.
At first the grief was numbing and all five of them were only able to go through the motions of life in between the endless tears, but Mary pulled the girls through with her typical stoicism and tried to impose some form of normality to their lives but Alan just crawled into a bottle and never re-emerged.
(Part 03)
Alan Jackson coped with the grief of losing his son by seeking the solace and comfort of alcohol, which managed at times to drown his sorrows but merely heaped more misery on his family as a consequence.
Mary tried to keep thing on an even keel, the girls occupied themselves with their schoolwork, which kept them later at school each day as they didn’t really want to go home.
The Brewery were sympathetic at first to Alan’s loss but after three months of drunkenness and his resulting inability to work they had to let him go.
Losing his job heaped yet more unhappiness onto Mary’s shoulders but didn’t slow down his drinking to any great degree and in his more sober moments he became increasingly belligerent and argumentative but it was six months after Stevens’s death that it all came to a head.
Mary was at the end of her tether, she was working more and more hours in the pub only for Andrew to spend it on booze, so she launched into a tirade of frank and honest comments about what she thought of the drunken self-pitying shell of a man he had become, which was when he turned violent.
He rounded on her and swung a fist, fortunately because of a lack of coordination he only caught her with a glancing blow to the side of her head, but it was sufficient to knock her backwards onto the sofa and then he jumped on her and had his hands around her throat and began choking her.
Emma walked into the room just in time to witness the untidy blow and was yelling at him to stop when he began to choke her mother.
She tried as hard as she could to pull her drunken father off her mum but to no avail.
He did release his grip momentarily, but only long enough for him to flailed an arm at her which knocker her backwards onto the floor and bloodied her nose.
Emma picked herself up and looked around the room for something to aid her and picked up the yellow pages.
Emma stood behind him and with all the strength she could muster and hit him hard on the side of the head with the directory sufficiently hard for him to release his hold from around Mary’s throat.
But the blow had only knocked him off balance and he was still on his knees astride Mary’s dazed body, but had turned to look at his daughter, so Emma looked at her mum and then she swung the Yellow Pages again hitting him square in the face hard enough to draw blood.
Then remembering all the misery the family had been dealt by her drunken father since Stevens’s death she gave him another whack in the face for good measure.
The third blow enabled Mary to push Alan away and allowed her to get up and once she was upright she took the Yellow Pages from her daughters hand and hit Alan with it again as he tried to get to his feet.
Mary hugged Emma and said
“Take your sisters across the road to Corner House”
“What about you?” Emma asked with concern
“I’ll be fine” Mary said “Just look after your sisters, and ask Kay to phone PC Jones”
(Part 04)
Mary hugged Emma and said
“Take your sisters across the road to Corner House”
“What about you?” Emma asked with concern
“I’ll be fine” Mary said “Just look after your sisters, and ask Kay to phone PC Jones”
Corner House aptly stood on the corner of Purplemere Road and West Gate Road in the part of Mornington Village known as Manorside where there were a number of cottages and small houses on the Purplemere road and Dulcets Lane, but Corner House was a large 8 bedroom Victorian monstrosity which had at one time been the home of the master brewer of the Mornington Brewery.
It was now the Corner House Guest House run by affable landlady Kay Richardson.
When Kay opened the door and saw Emma Jackson and her sisters on the doorstep in some distress, she was understandably concerned.
The two younger girls were in tears and Emma had a bloody nose.
“What’s happened?” she asked
“Its dad” Emma replied with tears welling up in her eyes “He’s hit mum, she told me to bring the girls here and we need to phone PC Jones”
“Ok come in” Kay said and picked up the phone
“Tell him to hurry because mum’s still there”
Kay’s son Paul and his sister Stephanie took the Jackson girls into the lounge while their mum phoned the police.
When Emma saw the eerie blue glow of the police light she got up and said to her sisters
“You two stay here”
“No we want to come” they said in unison
“No, you need to stay put” Emma said sharply and rushed out the door and past Kay and straight out the front door before Kay had a chance to speak, so she asked one of her regular guests .
“Nathan would you go after her and make sure she’s ok?”
Emma arrived at the house just in time to see PC Jones leading her dad out of the house in handcuffs and when she made eye contact with him there was real hatred staring back at her.
As she watched him being led away she was joined by her sisters, Emma was going to chastise them but before she could her mum stepped out through the front door of the house and the three of them ran over to her and they all embraced.
It was while the four of them stood in a huddle that Alan struggled free of PC Jones’s control as he tried to get him in the car and he began shouting.
“That’s it, stick together you bunch of witches, you deserve each other, my Steven would have been loyal, you’re just a bunch of bitches, I wish all of you were dead, I wish all of you were dead and my Steven was still alive”
They were spared any further rantings as PC Jones got him back under control and bundled him into the car.
As his venomous ranting still rang in her ears Emma felt nothing for the man the police were taking away.
After all it wasn’t her father shouting abuse at them, it was a stranger, her father, the kind and gentle man whom she loved, had died six months earlier when he heard the tragic news about Steven.
(Part 05)
After the incident at the Jacksons house Alan was arrested and taken to Sharpington Police Station where he was detained for 48 hours.
Mary didn’t press charges against her husband she just needed him safely out of the way while she got the girls safely away from Mornington.
Unfortunately she wasn’t aware of just how much time they had so they packed up as much as they could along with the Downshire and District Building Society savings book and piled it into the Passat and after some brief farewells they left.
Having no family to run to they were short on options as to where they should go but she decided that Abbottsford would be a good place to lose themselves in.
After a few weeks in a dingy one bed flat she managed to find a nice 3 bed house to rent, paid for with the contents of the savings account and they began again.
There was nothing left of the savings after the deposit on the house was paid, just enough to do a week’s shop so she couldn’t rest on her laurels, she needed work which she found at the nearby Stephenson’s Supermarket and she was still working there 15 years later and Mary was happy, she had a new man in her life, Owen, though they were not married, but only because she had never divorced Alan.
The girls quickly settled into life in Abbottsford and with their mum’s help and support they all did well at school and all went on to University.
After University everyone drifted away from home leaving Mary and Owen to a quieter life.
Emma bought her own flat and worked as the marketing director for the Abbottsford Knights Football Club.
Lisa was a marine biologist and was somewhere in the Southern Oceans on a research vessel and the baby of the family, Claire was working in Brussels at the European Parliament.
Mary was happily cohabiting with Owen, Lisa was married to an Australia climate scientist, and Claire was engaged to a Belgian lawyer, so the whole family were happy and settled, well almost, Emma was the only singleton, though not for the want of trying.
But as a result of being young free and single she was in a position to act when a large manila envelope was delivered to the offices Abbottsford Knights.
It was from Stanislas, Boivin and Champeaux who were the Mornington Estate solicitors and the reason it was delivered to her work address was because she went to University with Tallulah St George, sister to the present Baron, and property manager for the estate and Tally knew that she worked for the Knights.
The envelope contained a set of keys and a letter explaining that her father had died.
And as he had died intestate they had no instruction as to the disposition of his worldly goods, such as they were, but as the property was needed because accommodation was always in short supply in the village, they had to clear the house and redecorate.
But she was welcome to go in and take anything she wanted, particularly if there was something of sentimental value.
(Part 06)
Emma Jackson didn’t attend the funeral of her father, in fact the first thing she knew about her father’s death was when she received the letter from the Mornington Estate solicitors, Stanislas, Boivin and Champeaux, but had she known, she wouldn’t have gone anyway.
She sat outside her former home in the part of Mornington known as Manorside for over an hour as she sat there reminiscing, but the reason she sat there for so long was that she was afraid to go inside because of the unhappier times that preceded the hasty departure from the house with her mum and her sisters.
She had spent the first fifteen years of her life in the house and for fourteen and a half of those she was extremely happy.
The Jackson children had had an idyllic childhood in the village and their parents were happily married and overall they had a good life and lived their lives as a very happy.
After sitting in the car for an hour reliving her childhood she decided she couldn’t go in so she decided to go across the road to Corner House.
Corner House aptly stood on the corner of Purplemere Road and Smithfield Farm Lane in the part of Mornington Village known as Manorside where there were a number of cottages and small houses on the Purplemere road and Dulcets Lane, but Corner House was a large 8 bedroom Victorian monstrosity which had at one time been the home of the master brewer of the Mornington Brewery.
It was now the Corner Guest House run by affable landlady Kay Richardson.
Emma walked across the road and along to the Guest House and knocked on the door and when it was opened she said
“Hello Kay, do you have a room?”
When Kay opened the door and saw Emma Jackson on the doorstep she could hardly believe her eyes
“My goodness, the last time I saw you, you had a bloody nose”
Kay said and hugged her
“Come in, come in”
They sat in Kay’s private lounge and drank tea while they exchanged the news of all the events in their lives over the 15 years since they last met.
Eventually they got down to talking about the elephant in the room.
“So how did it happen?” Emma asked
“He died in his sleep, his organs just gave out” Kay replied
Kay went on to explain that once he had been barred from the pub, and the Normans refused to sell him alcohol he took to brewing his own beer in dustbins in the kitchen.
“He barely ate, and only left the house once or twice a month” Kay said “He’s buried at St Winifred’s…. Next to Steven”
Emma explained about how she received the letter and how she sat outside the house for an hour.
“I couldn’t go in” she said
“Why not?”
“I don’t know, ghosts I suppose” Emma replied
“Would it help if I came in with you?” Kay asked
“Oh yes it would” Emma said with gratitude “Would you mind?”
“Not at all, we’ll go tomorrow morning” she responded “Now let’s get you settled in your room”
“I wasn’t expecting to stay the night so I don’t have anything with me” Emma explained
“Not to worry” Kay replied brightly “you look about the same size as Steph, you can borrow something of hers and I’ll wash your things tonight”
Steph was Kay’s daughter and the last time Emma saw her she was 10 so she had trouble picturing herself in her clothes but she said thanks anyway.
(Part 07)
Good to her word Kay had washed Emma’s entire outfit from the previous day and returned it to her freshly pressed.
And after breakfast Kay and an apprehensive Emma crossed the road and walked along to number 9 Brewery Cottages.
She wasn’t sure what to expect when she opened the door and stepped in, but it certainly wasn’t what greeted her.
The room was the same layout as the last time she saw it, with the same carpet, curtains and wallpaper, it was just dirty and faded and an unpleasant odour assailed her nostrils.
It didn’t take long to decide what to take from the house because the living room was devoid of any personal possessions, no ornaments, knickknacks or pictures, just dirt, dust and grime and it was the same story throughout the house.
“Well it looks like it’s time to roll up the sleeves and get stuck in” Kay said enthusiastically
She had come armed with rubber gloves and a roll of heavy duty black sacks so she quickly got started in the living room while Emma tackled the kitchen.
There wasn’t a piece of crockery that wasn’t chipped or cracked so she just pilled it all up on the counter, the drawers were more interesting and she unearthed one of two mementoes from her childhood which she put to one side, the rest of the contents of the drawers went into one of the dustbins her father had used for brewing.
By the time she was finished the drawers and cupboards she had filled two dustbins.
Everything upstairs went in black sacks with the exception of the box room which was obviously the contents of the loft, because there was a large white label which read “Contents of Loft”.
The room was full of memories because it contained the stash of family photos.
Alan Jackson was a keen photographer and was a proud owner of a 35mm Single Lens Reflect camera and he had the resulting photos either printed or made into slides.
The spare room was an absolute treasure trove of memories, there was album after album of family photos which most importantly contained pictures of her dead brother Steven.
In addition to the albums there were boxes of slides and packets of prints and countless negatives.
And as she sat and looked at the pile of memories she had tears in her eyes, but they were happy tears.
When she was done she and Kay loaded the boxes of goodies into her car.
“Thanks Kay, I couldn’t have done it on my own” she said
“Let’s get cleaned up and then I’ll buy you lunch”
“It seems much more vibrant than I remember it” Emma said as they walked through the village to the pub.
“That’s down to Mornington Field” Kay replied
“The businesses have bought more people in and there are a lot of new apartment’s up there as well”
They had a very nice lunch in the Old Mill Inn and afterwards Kay returned to Corner House while Emma went up to the Manor to hand over the keys to Tallulah, unfortunately she was out for the day so she left her a message and her mobile number so she could call her and then on the way past the Church she stopped and went in the graveyard and paused by a particular headstone.
“Sorry it’s been a while Stevie”
(Part 08)
Emma spent an hour talking to her brother in St Winifred’s churchyard and then walked slowly back to the guesthouse as she decided to walk back via Mornington Field so she could see what had happened since the Mornington Estate exercised its option to purchase Mornington Field back from the MOD.
It had acquired all the buildings and infrastructure on the airfield itself as well as 29 houses in the village, formally used as quarters for military personnel.
The guardians of the estate were the St George family and the head of which is Baron Gabriel St George made immediate plans to optimize the newly acquired assets the moment the property was formally handed over on the 1st of June 2014.
There was an acute shortage of family properties in the village so while his architect Scott Collier was tasked with designing appropriate conversions to maximize the potential returns and Ray Walker who dealt with all things estate maintenance wise was responsible for getting the old Air force housing stock occupied ASAP.
To that end Ray worked tirelessly to have not just the first six houses ready within the month as originally promised, but eight, which were handed over on the 6th of July, two days earlier than forecast.
Gabriel was then able to instruct Lyndon-Sanders Properties of Shallowfield to find appropriate tenants and by that he meant that priority was to be given to local people or people with ties to the area or those who worked in some capacity for the estate such as agriculture and the brewery.
Other than that they were to be rented out with the only condition being that it had to be the tenant’s primary residence.
Gabriel was always conscious of creating a ghost town of professionals who live and work in Town all week and only return to the village on the weekend and he was determined that that wouldn’t happen and as a result of that policy the village was thriving.
Emma walked up Military Row to the South Gate and she paused by the gate and looked at the board which had a map of the redeveloped Airfield and a list of residential and commercial premises.
The Apartment blocks, were Lancaster House and Dowding House and then she read the list of businesses
She recognised a few of them,
O’Sullivan and Springthorpe,
Paige Turners,
Crazy Chocolatiers and Bejewels Jewellery
And there were quite a few that she hadn’t heard of but it was obvious what they did, such as
Topliss Engineering
Railway Enthusiast
Gregory’s Handmade Toyz
Periodicity Costumers
Bespoke Furniture
And Premier Lace
But
Time and Time Again -
Light of Day,
Digitize Image Lab
And Bygone Dayz she had neither heard of or could hazard a guess at what they did.
As she looked down the list she didn’t believe she would have any reason to visit any of the businesses.
“Apart that is for Crazy Chocolatiers” she thought and smiled she loved handmade chocolates.
She walked through the South Gate and followed the road around the Commercial Park and then left via the West Gate and crossed the bridge over the River Brooke and down West Gate Road and returned to Corner House.
After tea and cake with the Richardson’s Emma then drove home to Abbottsford and the next morning she drove to her mum’s house and gave her the news about her father’s death and showed her what she had rescued from the house.
(Part 09)
Emma was really worried when she went to see her mum to tell her the news about her dads death and about going to Mornington to the old family home, in case she was angry about being kept in the dark, or thought she had gone behind her back, but she needn’t have worried because Mary thanked her for sparing her from what would have been an ordeal.
“I wouldn’t have been able to face it” she confessed
Mary Jackson was both sad and relieved when she heard about her husband’s death, sad for the loss of the man he once was, the man she had loved so completely, and relieved that he had now finally been put out of his misery and was at peace.
But she felt no other emotions other than pity and relief.
Tears were shed however when Emma told her about visiting Steven’s grave at St Winifred’s and standing by his grave for an hour while she told him all of their news.
“That is something I would have liked to have done” Mary said
“We can go whenever you want” Emma said and hugged her mother.
They then spent the next hour going through the small box of mementoes she had recovered from the house and laughed and cried at the memories they provoked.
“These are the real treasures” Emma said as she opened a bigger box and took out an album and Mary cried again as she opened the volume.
Unfortunately After 15 years of being stored up in the loft space some of the photos had suffered but that didn’t detract from the enjoyment of them.
Mother and daughter were still going through the albums when Mary’s partner Owen came home.
“Hello you two, what are you up to?” he said and kissed them both.
Emma then quickly ran through the events of the previous two days up to the point they began to look at the photos.
“It’s so wonderful to see them again” Mary said gleefully
“And there are so many”
“So I can see” Owen added
“There are a lot of albums but some of the photos are water damaged and a bit ropey” Emma said
“There are also a lot more in wallets plus the box of negatives and there are hundreds of slides, but we can’t look at them because we don’t have a projector”
“Well you can get the slides digitally transferred” Owen suggested
“Really?” Emma asked
“That would be good then we could share them with your sisters” Mary said
“There’s a very good outfit called Digitize Image Lab, they used to be in Northchapel but I think they have moved to Mornington now”
“Yes I remember seeing them when I was there”
Emma said “But I didn’t know what they did”
“And they will also be able to clean up the images on some of the damaged photos” Owen added
“I’m not sure how much it will cost though”
“I don’t care” Emma said “it will be worth every penny to get our childhood memories back”
After Emma had packed the photos away again she prepared to go home when something wonderful happened
“I don’t like to be insensitive” Owen began “but does this mean you can marry me now Mary?”
“Are you proposing?” Mary asked
“Of course I am” he replied
“Then yes it does indeed mean that” she said and kissed him
(Part 10)
The day after Emma had shared the photos with her mum she was sitting in her flat and googled the phone number for Digitize Image Lab while she was drinking her morning coffee.
She spoke to a man called Brian at length about transferring the slides to a digital format and also the problem with the damaged photos.
He was very helpful, he suggested going through the photographs and decide which ones they wanted digitizing and likewise with the slides but when she pointed out they had no means of viewing them he suggested they do it on the premises, but to be prepared for it to take a lot longer than she might think.
Then when they had decided what they wanted copying their work could begin.
They pencilled in two days of the following week and then after she had hung up she called her mother and filled her in on the conversation and suggested an outing to Mornington.
Mary agreed instantly so Emma’s next phone call was to Kay Richardson at Corner House.
“Corner House good morning”
“Kay! I’m coming back for another visit” Emma said “And I’m bringing mum with me”
“Wonderful news” Kay replied with obvious delight “When did you have in mind?”
“Next week, can you put us up for a couple of nights?”
“I think it might have to be the end of the week” Kay said as she looked at the diary “no, I tell a lie I can do two rooms, Wednesday and Thursday night. Does that work for you?”
“Perfect” Emma replied
Over the next week Emma and Mary went through all the albums and took out the photos they wanted digitizing, likewise with the wallets and what was left were sorted into categories, Emma, Lisa, Claire and Family and put into envelopes, the albums were then thrown away.
As a result of their diligence Mary and Emma had a much more compact collection when they arrived at Digitize Image Lab.
They had arrived in Mornington late on Wednesday afternoon and went straight to Corner House where they were warmly welcomed by Kay Richardson and they ate dinner in Kay’s private dining room and reminisced about earlier times.
The next morning Emma and Mary indulged themselves with a cooked breakfast at the guest house and then made the short walk up to Mornington Field.
The Digitize Image Lab was housed in what used to be the old Crew Quarters which they shared with another company, Premier Lace.
They sat in reception after signing in on the touchscreen and sat for about five minutes before a tall good looking man appeared and headed towards them and produced a beaming smile as they stood up to greet him.
“Emma Jackson, it is you and you haven’t changed a bit” he said and shook her hand
“Um hello… have we met before then?” she asked doubtfully
“Oh my poor wounded heart” he responded and held his chest before he turned his attention on her mum and shook her hand
“Nice to see you Mrs. Jackson, I suppose you don’t remember me either?”
Mary looked at him closely and smiled
“It’s Brian”
“Right so far” he said
“Brian…. Don’t tell me I’ll get there… Brian Brian…. Brushwood” Mary said triumphantly
“Brian Brushwood?” Emma said “from school?”
“My goodness you’ve changed for the better” she thought as she remembered his very spotty 15 year old former self.
(Part 11)
As they stood in the reception area of the Digitize Image Lab Emma Jackson thought the 30 year old version of the spotty 15 year old Brian Brushwood she had known at school, was gorgeous, with an open smiling face, brown hair, green eyes, clear skin, a muscular physique and he was charming and funny, plus he smelt good enough to eat.
“Come on I’ll show you around and dazzle you with my brilliance” Brian said and laughed and the two women couldn’t help but smile.
As Brian held open the door from reception Mary and Emma couldn’t believe their eyes.
Everything was shinny chrome and bright lights and there was hi-tech equipment everywhere, it was so unexpected after the rather Spartan and mundane reception area.
In one of the offices there was a small young woman in her mid-twenties, who was about 4ft 10” and quite slim, she was standing over some kind of scanner, but looked up from what she was doing and smiled.
The next office was much more like an office, inhabited by a middle-aged man dressed like a used car salesman who was deeply engrossed in a skype conversation.
Across the corridor from “Mr Car Boot Sale” was the server room and next to that was a meeting room and all along the corridor were rooms full of hi-tech equipment.
In fact the machines seemed to far outnumber the people.
But as impressive as her surrounding were Emma failed to notice any of it because she couldn’t take her eyes off Brian Brushwood.
At the far end of the corridor was a room which was, according to a sign on the door, the viewing room.
When he opened the door they could see what looked like mixing desks, as well as computers and every gadget imaginable, and the walls were covered in screens and sitting at a console was a young woman wearing headphones.
“Louise?” Brian shouted and she looked up, and smiled and then took off her headphones.
Emma suspiciously viewed her with a jaundiced eye, she was a tall girl, stick thin, with no visible bust line at all, clearly at the back of that particular queue, and she had no hips and Emma unkindly thought she looked like a boy, but a very pretty boy.
She warmed to the young woman however when she detected no body language between her and Brian to suggest they were anything other than colleagues.
Emma ascertained she was probably mid to late twenties; she had a pretty face, and an even prettier smile which she employed as they approached.
“Louise, these are the Jacksons” Brian said to her and then addressing Emma and Mary “and this is Louise Kilbourne, it’s her and her sister Violet who do all the really clever stuff”
They all shook hands and then much to Emma’s disgust Brian excused himself leaving her and her mum with skinny Minnie.
Who turned out to be every bit as pleasant as she appeared.
Brian had already had all the slides brought to the viewing room while he was showing them round so Louise already had them unpacked and loaded into a huge multi-level carousel.
So when Brian excused himself she ran through what to do.
She switched on the machine and the first image appeared
“It’s all controlled on this touch screen” Louise began “Swipe right to keep, left to discard and up to skip, you can look at the skipped ones again at the end, and even the discarded ones as well if you like, the robot will automatically separate the keepers from the discards”
(Part 12)
“It’s all controlled on this touch screen” Louise began “Swipe right to keep, left to discard and up to skip, you can look at the skipped ones again at the end, and even the discarded ones as well if you like, the robot will automatically separate the keepers from the discards”
When Louise was happy that they had taken in everything she had outlined, she said
“Why don’t you look at a few, I’ll stay around until you’ve got the hang of it and then I’ll go and rustle up some coffee”
“Lovely” Emma said but Mary was already engrossed in what she was seeing and didn’t respond.
Emma Jackson and her mum spent all morning looking through the slides and they only discarded about a dozen, when they were done Brian and Louise took them to the Old Mill Inn for lunch.
“So what happens now?” Mary asked as they sat in the pub
“Well now we convert the images into a digital format where we can sharpen the definition and restore the colour and get rid of any blemishes” Brian said
“Is it safe?” Mary asked
“In what way?” Louise replied
“The slides? Will they be safe” Mary asked with concern
“They are very precious”
Brian and Louise looked a little confused in response to Mary’s statement, which was when Emma, who had just been a spectator up until then as she had been focusing all her attentions on Brian, joined in.
“They are the only pictures we have of our lives before my brother died” Emma said
“I understand” Brian said reassuringly as he took hold of her hand.
“We will treat them like the treasures they are”
Mary was still a little uneasy and replied
“It’s just that these pictures are priceless”
“I promise,” Louise said “that no harm will come to them”
So they took them at their word and gave them permission to continue.
Anyway after they had enjoyed a nice lunch and had covered the thorny problem of permission to proceed, they prepared to return to the task in hand, but because they had lunched in the Old Mill Inn word soon got around that the village the Mary Jackson was in “town” and as a result everyone that knew her wanted to chat so Emma left her mum at the pub and returned to Digitize with Louise and Brian.
“I just need to lose the skinny bird now and I can have him all to myself” she thought to herself and glanced over at Louise and she was smiling at her.
This caused her to panic because she thought she had either thought out loud or the skinny bint could read her mind.
But she needn’t have worried Louise was actually looking past her and smiling at her sister.
Emma turned around and saw another gorgeous stick insect approaching, who she assumed was Violet.
“You missed lunch” Louise said
“I couldn’t eat anyway” she replied “I had to have three fillings”
Violet was introduced to Emma and some informal chatter accompanied the rest of the walk up to Mornington Filed and once they were back at Digitize the sisters went off to their lab to start work on the slides and Brian showed Emma into the meeting room where the photos and negatives were already waiting for them on the table.
“Oh goody I do have him all to myself” she thought to herself
(Part 13)
Emma and Brian spent virtually the whole afternoon in the meeting room though it wasn’t until almost 4.30pm that they actually got around to talking about the job in hand.
“So how come you’re still single?” Brian asked
“Gosh you sound like my mum” she said trying to deflect,
“I might ask you the same thing”
“That’s easy” he replied “I’m fussy, and I haven’t met the right girl yet”
“So what’s your reason?” he persisted
“Oh God” she winced “you are like my mum”
“Is it such a terrible question?” he asked
“Yes it really is” she replied and buried her face in her hands
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry” Brian said
“That’s ok” she said emerging from her hands and straightening up “I was jilted once, when I was 19, not at the altar, but a few weeks before the day and…”
“And now you are over cautious” he suggested
“That’s about the size of it” she agreed
“Well we’re not all like him” Brian said “He was an idiot”
“But I didn’t think he was at the time” she said “I trusted him completely”
So having discussed their school days at length and each other’s marital and relationship status they turned their attention to the photos.
However when they eventually got to the purpose of the meeting Emma explained that she was still a little uneasy about handing over the photos, as they were so valuable to her but Brian explained what process they would follow.
“The photos will be quite safe” he assured her “The very first step is to scan them all so we have a digital copy that we can manipulate and then we no longer need the original”
“Oh ok” she said and handed over the photos and he began looking through them.
“Is that all of them?” he queried, “I understood there were a lot more”
“There are” she replied
“But you don’t trust me” Brian said feigning injury
“No it’s not that” she said laughing “it’s just that the others are badly damaged”
“I see, well you clearly don’t know what I am capable of” he said
“Clearly” she responded
“But I wouldn’t mind finding out” she thought to herself
“Well if any of the pictures are so bad that we can’t improve them by just scanning and editing then we can see what we can do from the negatives”
“Oh ok” Emma said “I will bring them next time then”
“So there will be a next time?” Brian said
“I think there may be” she said flirtatiously
“Promise?” he said playfully
“Promise” she repeated and there was a momentary silence before she said
“Well I suppose I had better go and track down my mother”
“Yes it is getting late” he said as he looked at his watch then he added casually
“Are you going to be in Mornington for long?”
“No we’re driving back to Abbottsford in the morning” she replied
“That’s a shame” he said a little too frankly and began flicking through his note pad to cover his embarrassment
“I see we have your contact details though, so I can keep you updated on our progress”
“It’s been lovely to see you again” he said as he shook her hand in reception
“And you” she said and Brian held the door open for her and she slipped out
“Goodbye”
(Part 14)
Brian Brushwood stood at the door and watched Emma Jackson walk away from the building and was joined by the Kilbourne sisters
“Is she the one you had a crush on when you were at school?” Violet asked
“Yes”
“She’s nice” Violet said
“Pretty too” Louise added
“Yes she is” he agreed
“So did you ask her out?” Vi asked
“Of course not” he replied
“Why exactly?” Louise queried
“It wasn’t the right time” Brian retorted
“When will be the right time?” Lou asked “After another 15 years have gone by?”
“It’s not that simple” he pointed out and turned to walk away
“Well I hope she has more gumption than you do” Violet shouted after him and then she and Louise laughed at his discomfiture.
He walked back to the meeting room with the girls laughter ringing in his ears and he was extremely cross, though not with the girls, he was cross with himself, because they were right, he should have asked her out, he should have taken his opportunity, after all he had all afternoon to ask her, he had her to himself all afternoon and there were a number of times when he could have done so easily.
He was cross because the girls had hit the nail on the head, it probably would be another 15 years before he got another chance if he wasn’t bolder.
Brian had adored Emma since the day he realised that girls weren’t just funny shaped boys, when he was just short of his thirteenth birthday and for two years he watched her and dreamed about her.
But he knew she was way out of his league, he had a skinny weedy physique, a face that comprised of more spots than skin and the way he wore his clothes made him look like he’d slept in them.
She on the other hand was perfection personified, beautiful hair, clear complexion, a nice figure, and always immaculately dressed.
However despite the differences between them, she was always nice to him, which kept his hopes alive right up until the point she disappeared from his life.
He went home from school one day expecting to see her the next day but instead he didn’t see her for fifteen years.
In the years that followed her surprise departure his weedy physique filled out and his complexion cleared up and he wore his clothes like they belonged to him, so he was an altogether more attractive proposition and was never short of female admirers, and he had tried some of them on for size, but they didn’t suit, because they didn’t live up to his ideal.
Emma Jackson was still in his head and every woman he ever got close to he compared to Emma and they always came up short.
Which was why he was still single and unattached and had contented himself with that, he still had a good life, his own company and a comfortable future.
However when he walked into reception that morning and saw Emma again, looking as gorgeous as she was the last time he saw her, all the old feelings for her came flooding back.
But even being gifted with the opportunity to ask her out he lost his bottle because although he was anything but, he still felt like the weedy and spotty callow youth and he felt unworthy.
(Part 15)
Mary had had a wonderful time the previous afternoon and evening catching up with old friends in the village but it had left her drained so once they had breakfasted at Corner House they said their goodbyes and set off.
But instead of driving through the village Emma drove up West Gate Road and into Mornington Field.
“Why are you going this way?” Mary asked with a smile
“I wasn’t sure if you wanted to pop into Digitize as we’re passing”
“No I’m fine” she replied “But there’s no reason why you shouldn’t pop in and see him”
“What? No there’s no need for that, I don’t need to see him” Emma said and blushed
They were both very quiet on the way home, both lost in their own thoughts but by the time she reached the outskirts of Abbottsford Emma had made a decision.
She dropped her mum off at home at midday and went to her flat to get herself ready for what she hoped would not be the biggest mistake of her life, although she thought it would almost certainly be a bigger mistake if she didn’t.
So when she left Abbey View Mews she was wearing a knee length yellow summer dress that suited her figure, and made the most of what she had, and her shoulder length brunette hair was down so it danced around her nape as she walked.
Unfortunately because she wanted to make sure she was as well presented as possible, she was later leaving than she had hoped, and firstly got caught in all the local school traffic and then had to battle the rush hour virtually all the way to Mornington.
Consequently it was almost 5.30pm when she drove through the South Gate Entrance to Mornington Field.
She pulled up outside the Digitize Image Lab which was housed in what used to be the old Crew Quarters which they shared with Premier Lace and turned off the engine.
Emma got out of the car and walked up to the door wearing yellow shoes to match her dress and because she wanted to make the best of herself she was tottering along on heels.
When she reached the front door she was just about to ring the buzzer when the Kilbourne sisters emerged.
“Hello again” Louise said
“Hi” she replied “I was looking for Brian”
“So we can see” Violet added as she looked her up and down
“Is it too much?” Emma asked despairingly
“No not at all” Louise reassured her “But…”
“But?”
“He’s left for the day” Violet said “You just missed him”
“Oh” she responded and was clearly crestfallen
“Oh dear” Lou said “Don’t despair he only lives 5 minutes away”
“Really?”
“Yes he lived in Lancaster House, which you passed on the way in, Apartment 5” Violent said.
“I think I’d better just leave it until another time” Emma said “Thanks”
“Nonsense” Violet said and took hold of her arm
“Yes, we’ll show you the way” Louise added and took her other arm and they escorted her to Lancaster House, which used to be the old Officers Mess but it had been converted into Apartments.
The girls wanted Brian to be happy and they knew from experience that he would not take decisive action for himself and as they knew that he liked her and vice versa they were determined to get them together which was why they took their opportunity for an intervention.
So they escorted her into the lobby and up the stairs to Brian floor and then stood and watched from a safe distance along the corridor to make sure she knocked on the door.
When she reached the door to Brian’s Apartment she knocked on it and it opened after about 30 seconds.
“Wow this is a nice surprise” he said and it was a surprise because he wasn’t expecting to see her for a couple of weeks at least.
“You look lovely” he said “are you going out?”
“Well I hope so” she replied “I didn’t dress like this for nothing”
He thought she must have a hot date because she’d really gone to town and she had been very liberal with the perfume which was very exotic.
“So where are you going?” he asked suddenly feeling jealous,
“I don’t know, where did you have in mind?” she replied coyly
“Oh” he said delighted that she had dressed up for his benefit
“Come in and we can discuss it” he replied
“Great idea” she said and as she stepped forward she ceased the moment and kissed him and the Kilbourne sisters watched the prolonged embrace from along the corridor.
“Job done sis” Vi said
“Well done us” Louise added
Wednesday, 19 April 2017
Mornington-By-Mere – (45) Falling in Love with Aunty
(Part 01)
In the 1990’s the Dawkins Family lived in the village of Pangmere situated on the Finchbottom Road between Mornington and Finchbottom.
Julian and Sheila were the Licensees of the Red Lion and their children, twins Brian and Karen, went to college in Purplemere.
The family had lived at the Red Lion since 1990, when the children were little and they were very happy there, it was a run-down dump when they took it over and Julian and Sheila had really turned the place around.
And all during that time they had a number of regular visitors, friends and family alike, but the most regular of them all was Annette West, or Aunty Annette as the children had always called her, although she wasn’t their real Aunty, she was the daughter of their mum’s best and oldest friend who was a few years older than Sheila.
In the early days when she first started to visit Pangmere she was with her husband Paul, but the West’s divorced when the twins were 12 years old, but prior to her marriage she regularly babysat for the children.
Annette was a real beauty and oozed sexuality and by the time the twins reached their teens Brian had started to see her as something other than his aunty and Aunty Annette regularly frequented his dreams.
For a young adolescent during his sexual awakening she was manna from heaven.
What a sight she was, with her long blond hair and generous bosom and with the flattering sweep of her hips and the roundness of her magnificent buttocks and long shapely legs, who wouldn’t be impressed at the sight of her.
For Brian the whole package made a most wonderful vision of sexuality which gladdened his young man’s eye and stirred his ardour.
Annette was totally oblivious of the situation until around about the time Brian turned 16 that was when she first became aware of the effect she was having on him and she had mixed feelings about it.
She was incredibly flattered of course but she was also troubled by it, so she cut down her visit’s to Pangmere over the following couple of years in the hope that he would grow out of it.
And when she did visit she made sure it was at times when Brian wasn’t around and if it couldn’t be avoided then she would dress down, no cleavage, short skirts or tight sweaters.
However her avoidance of him came to an end when it was the twins 18th birthday, an event which she could not ignore or avoid as she was their godmother.
She approached the day with some trepidation and as had become her habit she dressed in a shapeless outfit so as not to gain his attraction.
But it didn’t seem work, he seemed more enamoured of her than ever.
It appeared that by her distancing herself from him it had only served to make her even more desirable.
That situation was made all the worse when the callow youth with the unnatural and unhealthy infatuation had turned into a gorgeous man.
(Part 02)
It appeared that by, 30 year old Annette, distancing herself from 18 year old Brian, in the two years since she discovered he was infatuated with her, it had only served to make her even more desirable.
That situation was made all the worse when the callow youth with the unnatural and unhealthy infatuation had turned into a gorgeous man.
While she was giving him a wide birth she made sure that she dressed demurely but when she saw him on his 18th birthday she began something which would have far reaching consequences, she started to dress provocatively and rather than distance herself she actively flirted with him.
Brian had always looked forward to her visits but after his 18th birthday he looked forward to them even more and as he was older and Annette realised she was still able to affect him she began visiting more and more often because the truth of the matter was that it really excited her to think she was able to make him squirm in his seat and blush to his roots and even cause him to quiver.
She would show him a generous expanse of shapely stockinged leg or bend over in front of him and rise slowly to give him the full benefit of her shapely derriere or present him with the vision of her gaping blouse and its tempting contents.
Annette wasn’t excited by arousing a young man because she was frustrated or anything of that nature, looking as she did she was not short of male attention and her generous heart was fulfilled although romantically and emotionally she was less well served.
Apart from the flirting and the flaunting she spent a lot of time in his company both at the Dawkins pub as well as on excursions into the real world, with and without the rest of the family, given their attraction, the amount of time spent in each other’s company, her generous heart and his youth, they soon fell in love.
But it wasn’t until shortly before his 19th birthday that they took it to the next level.
It was just over eleven months after she returned his infatuation and around six months after lust had turned to love.
It was a Friday afternoon when Brian arrived home alone from college, because his twin sister Karen was staying in Childean at a friend’s house.
Neither he nor his sister were particularly academic, but they were both good with their hands, so they went to a technical college three days a week.
As he approached the pub he noticed Annette’s car in the car park and he felt instant excitement and quickened his step towards the door.
His mum Sheila was in the crowded bar of the Red Lion and his dad was at the Cash and Carry.
“Hi love” Sheila said as he walked in.
“Hi Mum” he replied “I’ll get changed and give you a hand”
“No rush love” She said to him, and he smiled because that was precisely the answer he was hoping for, so he went upstairs to his room to get changed out of his college clothes, but he knew he wasn’t the only one upstairs.
When he passed the living room he looked in and saw Annette standing in the middle of the room adjusting her stocking, and Brian couldn’t take his eyes off her.
(Part 03)
When Brian passed the living room he looked in and saw Annette standing in the middle of the room adjusting her stocking, and Brian couldn’t take his eyes off her.
Annette had waited for the precise moment when he appeared at the top of the stairs to adjust her suspender and she had timed it to perfection and as she looked at the expression on his face she was very pleased with the result and because of that she was wearing a seductive smile.
But, however pleased she may have been with her effect on him she was not expecting what happened next to transpire.
Seeing Annette with her stocking tops on display, although extremely titillating in itself, which would have been to any red bloodied man in his late teens, it prompted him to cross the room and kiss her.
The kiss had been long imagined by them both, and when it came it did not disappoint and it was long and lingering and far surpassed their expectations, and marked the transition from lustful flirtation to a full blown physical expression of their feelings, it was of course conducted in secret and it was an affair which lasted for over two years.
It was breathless and passionate and was the fulfilment of years of lusty flirtation made manifest, and from the first time they made love it was an electric nerve tingling experience which they never tired of.
The breathless passionate affair however came to an abrupt end when they were discovered in flagrante in his parent’s bed.
The resulting fallout of their exposure tore the Dawkins family apart and their discovery split the lovers up.
The guilt of betraying Julian and Sheila was too much for her to bear, after all she was the daughter of Sheila’s best and oldest friend, and she was like a second mother to Annette.
In the year following 21 year old Brian Dawkins and 33 year old Annette West being discovered in his parent’s marital bed Annette’s world fell apart as her love affair with Brian came to an abrupt end and then the total disintegration of her life long relationship with her mother’s best friend Sheila Dawkins.
But apart from breaking up the lovers and it causing an irrevocable rift between Annette and Sheila it also caused a deep rift in the Dawkins family itself.
So unable to see the young man she had fallen in love with and being estranged from the woman she had looked upon as her second mother she decided to cut and run.
Her initial response was to sell her flat and get as far away from Pangmere and the Finchbottom Vale as possible.
So she quit her job, sold her flat and spent the next twelve months working at her sister, Annabel’s, bar in Benidorm while she got her head straight.
However she soon realised that running away and hiding was not the answer.
She wasn’t sure what the answer was by any measure but she did know that hiding away in Spain wasn’t it.
(Part 04)
Annette soon realised that running away and hiding was not the answer.
She wasn’t sure what the answer was by any measure but she did know that hiding away in Spain wasn’t it.
Her Sister Annabel thought the answer was to throw a succession of unsuitable men in Annette’s direction but she managed to side step them all quite successfully.
However she eventually tired of her sister’s good intentions and returned to Downshire but she could not allow herself to fall back into the same social circle that she had left so abruptly, but she didn’t want to remove herself entirely from her former life so she settled in Finchbottom while keeping her former life at arm’s length.
Annette did a succession of jobs, all of which were beneath her capabilities until she finally ended up working for a second hand book business, Paige Turners.
The owner of Paige Turners was a women called Paige Edwards who had owned a very successful book shop in Finchbottom but changes in the business caused her to sell the book shop in Finchbottom, but it wasn’t the end of Paige Turner’s and Paige stayed very much in the book business.
When she closed the door for the very last time on the shop she had mixed feelings.
Even before the shop closed it had become primarily an internet business and because the bookshop was in a prime location in Finchbottom it brought a very good price.
So she sold the shop, but didn’t sell up, instead she leased the old Finchbottom Library and ran the business from there.
It was a perfect location and she was able to utilize the Library book shelves as well as the ones from the old shop and it was to that business that Annette West joined.
Annette worked for the company for four years and was blissfully unaware that unseen fates were busily pulling the strings in her life when in Mid-December Paige Edwards received a letter from her landlord to say that the lease was up on the old library premises in Finchbottom and there would be no option to renew.
So as a result she had to begin looking for a new home for Paige Turner’s and Paige was directed to Mornington by a solicitor friend, Rizalina Pugay.
After having met with agents and potential landlords in Mornington Paige was dreading the first day back at work because she had to tell the staff that Paige Turner’s were moving lock stock and barrel to Mornington within 2 months.
Because she was so nervous about it she decided to take everyone to lunch at the local pub, the White Horse Inn, on the basis that they probably wouldn’t kill her in a public place.
As it turned out the news was received quite favourably as they were all expecting something as they had heard about the proposed development of the Library Site.
Of her 14 staff 7 of them said immediately they were prepared to move with her while of the other seven, 4 were definite no’s and the other three wanted to see Mornington and the accommodation before deciding, and Annette was one of those.
So the next day Paige, Riza and the three doubting Thomas’s, Annette, Carole Beverley and Jennifer Bardsley, drove over to Mornington.
(Part 05)
Paige, Riza and the three doubting Thomas’s, Annette, Carole Beverley and Jennifer Bardsley, drove over to Mornington.
While they were there they met with Victoria Johnson Higham, and Tallulah St George.
Victoria was from Lyndon-Sanders Properties, who were tasked with finding tenants for the commercial properties as well as some of the accommodation and Tally was the property manager for the Estate, which formally took over the administration from January 1st.
Mornington-By-Mere 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.
There is a very good reason why it has retained its old English quaintness and its heart and soul into the 21st Century and that’s simply because everything in the village is owned by the Mornington Estate, and under their stewardship the village has remained a traditionally English oasis and has not been allowed to become a soulless haven for hooray Henrys and weekenders with their second homes and country getaways.
Throughout its history the Village of Mornington was largely dependent on agriculture for its survival but shortly before the beginning of the Great War a large tract of land was compulsorily purchased by the War Office as a training base for the newly formed Royal Flying Corps which changed the dynamic to some extent with them loosing valuable farm land, this was offset partly by the fact that the Mornington Estate had the contract to provision the Airfield.
It remained as a training squadron when the RFC became the RAF and right through to the end of the nineteen thirty’s.
During World War Two it became a front line fighter base in the Battle of Britain and many sorties were flown from the field and many brave young men failed to return to it.
RAF Mornington remained an operational base beyond the end of the 1939-45 conflict and was a NATO base throughout the cold war.
However after the breakup of the USSR it played a much lesser role until the end of the century when it was mothballed and although the RAF maintained a presence it was only really used as storage facility for the last decade of its existence.
When the War office purchased Mornington Field in the summer of 1914 it was on a 100 year lease, with an option for them to extend when the lease expired.
However in 2014 the Ministry of Defence were in the midst of dramatic cutbacks in front line resources and Mornington was one of the first facilities to be axed.
This meant that the original owners, the St George family, had first refusal to buy it back for a peppercorn fee and when the Mornington Estate exercised its option to purchase Mornington Field from the MOD it also acquired all the buildings and infrastructure on the airfield itself, as well as 29 houses in the village formally used as quarters for military personnel and it was the Airfield buildings that would house the Paige Turner business and some of the accommodation for the staff.
(Part 06)
In the year following 21 year old Brian Dawkins and 33 year old Annette West being discovered in his parent’s marital bed Brian’s world fell apart as his love affair with Annette came to an abrupt end and then the total disintegration of his life.
But apart from breaking up the lovers and it causing an irrevocable rift between Annette and Brian’s mum Sheila it also caused a deep rift in the Dawkins family.
Brian never forgave his mother for driving her away or his father for calling her a cradle snatching tart.
So unable to see the woman he had fallen in love with and being estranged from his family he decided to throw himself into finishing his college course.
When he first left the Red Lion in Pangmere, his family home, he spent the next few months sofa surfing at some of his friends’ homes, until he managed to get himself a bedsit in Purplemere.
After Brian left home Karen was left behind and was very much stuck in the middle, not wanting to take sides but not wanting to lose contact with her twin brother, she spoke to him whenever possible outside of college, but when her parents found out she was in regular contact with her brother, they had an opportunity to use her as a conduit to move them towards a reconciliation, instead they told her she had to choose, them or Brian, so forced to choose, she chose Brian and they moved into a dingy flat together.
Brian finished his college course along with his sister Karen and they were fortunate enough in the year before they qualified, to get some part time work with a local company called Railway Enthusiast, working for a man called Dennis Thorpe.
He was a very gifted craftsman who among other things was a Model Engine Maker, as well as making rolling stock, buildings and infrastructure.
And when they both qualified from college with distinctions Dennis had no hesitation in offering them full time jobs.
While the two of them shared a flat in Purplemere and worked together Karen had had a succession of failed relationships and wished she could have found a man that not only loved her as she loved them, but someone she could love as much as Brian loved Annette.
Despite the depth of the love he felt for Annette, Brian did not live as a monk but he never had a relationship that was any more than physical.
Not just because he was reluctant to fall in love again but more significantly because he was still in love with Annette and every woman he met after they were driven apart was inevitably compared to his first love.
As a result of their abject failure to find a significant other, when Dennis Thorpe decided to move the model making business to Mornington, Brian and Karen decided that there was nothing holding them in Purplemere so they opted to move with him.
Mornington-By-Mere was not just a quaint chocolate box English Village it was 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 formed the part of Mornington Village known as Manorside and The Dawkins managed to rent number 4 Brooke Side Cottages, which was a considerable improvement on their dingy Purplemere flat.
(Part 07)
When the Mornington Estate exercised its option to purchase Mornington Field back from the MOD it also acquired all the buildings and infrastructure on the airfield itself as well as 29 houses in the village, formally used as quarters for military personnel and in February 2015 Paige Turners made the move from Finchbottom to Mornington Field and took up residence in what was formerly Hangar C.
Annette West also made the move and her new home was located in Apartment 8 of Lancaster House, which was once the Officers Mess and two months later Dennis Thorpe moved into Apartment 4.
Annette quickly settled in and as she was fast approaching her fortieth birthday she was resigned to the fact that she would continue to live a solitary existence and saw no sign of that changing in the foreseeable future but having fallen in love with Mornington she was struck by the thought that there were worse places to be alone.
Although he was only 27 years old, Brian had also resigned himself to living his life as a singleton.
He loved his job and the cottage he shared with his sister Karen was perfect, but unbeknown to him or anyone else for that matter everything was set to change on a sunny Wednesday in May after he had only been in the village for one month.
On that fateful morning some mail had been wrongly delivered to Paige Turners and the owner, Paige Edwards was going through it on her desk and there were eight pieces in all that were not theirs.
“Annette honey?” she called
“Yes Paige” she responded
“Would you be a darling and take these letters across to “Railway Enthusiast” The postman dropped them off here by mistake?”
Paige asked
“No problem” Annette replied “Which building are they in?”
“Block A, just the other side of the roundabout” she explained
“Ok, I won’t be long” Annette said as she took the letters from Paige.
It was a beautiful warm May morning as she walked along the pavement towards Block A but it did little to lift her spirits, she seemed to live her life on the same plain of existence, just going through the motions of life without actually living it.
When she reached the door to the Railway Enthusiast premises she knocked firmly on the glass and waited until her knock was answered and the moment the door was opened her heart began to beat again, and she felt alive for the first time in six long years and the reason for her sudden lease of life was because she saw Brian Dawkins standing there.
Brian opened the door expecting to see a courier driver standing the other side of it and he couldn’t believe the evidence of his own eyes as he stood looking into the eyes of the woman he loved.
Annette smiled at him and he smiled at her but neither of them spoke, neither daring to break the spell of what could surely only be a hallucination.
(Part 08)
Brian opened the door expecting to see a courier driver standing the other side of it and he couldn’t believe the evidence of his own eyes as he stood looking into the eyes of the woman he loved.
Annette smiled at him and he smiled at her but neither of them spoke, neither daring to break the spell of what could surely only be a hallucination.
It was a bright early summer morning yet it was not warm enough to sit by an open door,
“Who is it Brian?” Karen asked wondering why the door was still open and letting all the heat out when he didn’t appear to be talking to anyone.
Getting no response, Karen got up from her stool and walked towards the door repeating her question
“Who is it Brian?”
And when she saw who was standing on the threshold she did a double take before she rushed towards the smiling figure and hugged her.
“Annette, it’s really you”
“Yes” Annette sighed as she held Karen tightly to her and wished it were Brian in her arms, although she doubted it would ever happen and as he looked on as the two people he loved most in all the world embraced he thought the same.
When Karen and Annette finished embracing there was an awkward momentary silence, as neither of them knew what to say,
It was likely whatever mundanity they chose to express would undoubtedly have brought the meeting to an end, an neither of them wanted that.
A full minute of silence had passed before Annette handed the letters to Brian.
“These were delivered to Paige Turners by mistake” she said regretfully
“Oh ok thanks” he retorted and they both smiled again and Annette turned to leave.
“Is that it?” Karen snapped in disbelief and they both looked at each other before Brian said
“What do you mean?”
“Oh give me strength” she exclaimed but the couple still just stared blankly at her
“For goodness sake, you two have already wasted six precious years and now when fate has brought you together again, out of the blue you don’t seize the moment”
Brian opened his mouth to speak but Karen silenced him with a look and carried on
“Don’t you dare let her get away from you again and as for you don’t think for a moment I will let you run away and hide again”
At that point it was Annette who tried to speak and she was also struck dumb with a withering glance.
“You two were made for each other, and you love each other in a way that I can only dream of, and I’m so jealous, just to have a man look at me the way he looks at you would set me ablaze, and to see your love reflected back in her eyes is a precious, precious thing”
There was silence for a moment and the Brian said quietly
“It’s difficult to know what to say after so long”
“Who said anything about speaking you idiot” Karen said sharply “just take her in your arms and kiss her”
So he took her advice and held the yielding Annette in his arms and kissed her and it was as if it had only been the day before when they lay naked in his parent’s bed and he felt alive again and he could tell by Annette’s response to his embrace that she felt the same way.
After that day they became a proper couple, a proper relationship with no sneaking around, it wasn’t all plain sailing, there was still guilt and remorse on her part for tearing his family asunder and they both regretted the wasted six years but they weathered the storms and six months after the day the mail went astray, they married.
Julian and Sheila Dawkins were invited to the wedding at St Winifred’s, but they failed to show, in fact they didn’t even respond, but that didn’t dampen the occasion for the happy couple.
In the 1990’s the Dawkins Family lived in the village of Pangmere situated on the Finchbottom Road between Mornington and Finchbottom.
Julian and Sheila were the Licensees of the Red Lion and their children, twins Brian and Karen, went to college in Purplemere.
The family had lived at the Red Lion since 1990, when the children were little and they were very happy there, it was a run-down dump when they took it over and Julian and Sheila had really turned the place around.
And all during that time they had a number of regular visitors, friends and family alike, but the most regular of them all was Annette West, or Aunty Annette as the children had always called her, although she wasn’t their real Aunty, she was the daughter of their mum’s best and oldest friend who was a few years older than Sheila.
In the early days when she first started to visit Pangmere she was with her husband Paul, but the West’s divorced when the twins were 12 years old, but prior to her marriage she regularly babysat for the children.
Annette was a real beauty and oozed sexuality and by the time the twins reached their teens Brian had started to see her as something other than his aunty and Aunty Annette regularly frequented his dreams.
For a young adolescent during his sexual awakening she was manna from heaven.
What a sight she was, with her long blond hair and generous bosom and with the flattering sweep of her hips and the roundness of her magnificent buttocks and long shapely legs, who wouldn’t be impressed at the sight of her.
For Brian the whole package made a most wonderful vision of sexuality which gladdened his young man’s eye and stirred his ardour.
Annette was totally oblivious of the situation until around about the time Brian turned 16 that was when she first became aware of the effect she was having on him and she had mixed feelings about it.
She was incredibly flattered of course but she was also troubled by it, so she cut down her visit’s to Pangmere over the following couple of years in the hope that he would grow out of it.
And when she did visit she made sure it was at times when Brian wasn’t around and if it couldn’t be avoided then she would dress down, no cleavage, short skirts or tight sweaters.
However her avoidance of him came to an end when it was the twins 18th birthday, an event which she could not ignore or avoid as she was their godmother.
She approached the day with some trepidation and as had become her habit she dressed in a shapeless outfit so as not to gain his attraction.
But it didn’t seem work, he seemed more enamoured of her than ever.
It appeared that by her distancing herself from him it had only served to make her even more desirable.
That situation was made all the worse when the callow youth with the unnatural and unhealthy infatuation had turned into a gorgeous man.
(Part 02)
It appeared that by, 30 year old Annette, distancing herself from 18 year old Brian, in the two years since she discovered he was infatuated with her, it had only served to make her even more desirable.
That situation was made all the worse when the callow youth with the unnatural and unhealthy infatuation had turned into a gorgeous man.
While she was giving him a wide birth she made sure that she dressed demurely but when she saw him on his 18th birthday she began something which would have far reaching consequences, she started to dress provocatively and rather than distance herself she actively flirted with him.
Brian had always looked forward to her visits but after his 18th birthday he looked forward to them even more and as he was older and Annette realised she was still able to affect him she began visiting more and more often because the truth of the matter was that it really excited her to think she was able to make him squirm in his seat and blush to his roots and even cause him to quiver.
She would show him a generous expanse of shapely stockinged leg or bend over in front of him and rise slowly to give him the full benefit of her shapely derriere or present him with the vision of her gaping blouse and its tempting contents.
Annette wasn’t excited by arousing a young man because she was frustrated or anything of that nature, looking as she did she was not short of male attention and her generous heart was fulfilled although romantically and emotionally she was less well served.
Apart from the flirting and the flaunting she spent a lot of time in his company both at the Dawkins pub as well as on excursions into the real world, with and without the rest of the family, given their attraction, the amount of time spent in each other’s company, her generous heart and his youth, they soon fell in love.
But it wasn’t until shortly before his 19th birthday that they took it to the next level.
It was just over eleven months after she returned his infatuation and around six months after lust had turned to love.
It was a Friday afternoon when Brian arrived home alone from college, because his twin sister Karen was staying in Childean at a friend’s house.
Neither he nor his sister were particularly academic, but they were both good with their hands, so they went to a technical college three days a week.
As he approached the pub he noticed Annette’s car in the car park and he felt instant excitement and quickened his step towards the door.
His mum Sheila was in the crowded bar of the Red Lion and his dad was at the Cash and Carry.
“Hi love” Sheila said as he walked in.
“Hi Mum” he replied “I’ll get changed and give you a hand”
“No rush love” She said to him, and he smiled because that was precisely the answer he was hoping for, so he went upstairs to his room to get changed out of his college clothes, but he knew he wasn’t the only one upstairs.
When he passed the living room he looked in and saw Annette standing in the middle of the room adjusting her stocking, and Brian couldn’t take his eyes off her.
(Part 03)
When Brian passed the living room he looked in and saw Annette standing in the middle of the room adjusting her stocking, and Brian couldn’t take his eyes off her.
Annette had waited for the precise moment when he appeared at the top of the stairs to adjust her suspender and she had timed it to perfection and as she looked at the expression on his face she was very pleased with the result and because of that she was wearing a seductive smile.
But, however pleased she may have been with her effect on him she was not expecting what happened next to transpire.
Seeing Annette with her stocking tops on display, although extremely titillating in itself, which would have been to any red bloodied man in his late teens, it prompted him to cross the room and kiss her.
The kiss had been long imagined by them both, and when it came it did not disappoint and it was long and lingering and far surpassed their expectations, and marked the transition from lustful flirtation to a full blown physical expression of their feelings, it was of course conducted in secret and it was an affair which lasted for over two years.
It was breathless and passionate and was the fulfilment of years of lusty flirtation made manifest, and from the first time they made love it was an electric nerve tingling experience which they never tired of.
The breathless passionate affair however came to an abrupt end when they were discovered in flagrante in his parent’s bed.
The resulting fallout of their exposure tore the Dawkins family apart and their discovery split the lovers up.
The guilt of betraying Julian and Sheila was too much for her to bear, after all she was the daughter of Sheila’s best and oldest friend, and she was like a second mother to Annette.
In the year following 21 year old Brian Dawkins and 33 year old Annette West being discovered in his parent’s marital bed Annette’s world fell apart as her love affair with Brian came to an abrupt end and then the total disintegration of her life long relationship with her mother’s best friend Sheila Dawkins.
But apart from breaking up the lovers and it causing an irrevocable rift between Annette and Sheila it also caused a deep rift in the Dawkins family itself.
So unable to see the young man she had fallen in love with and being estranged from the woman she had looked upon as her second mother she decided to cut and run.
Her initial response was to sell her flat and get as far away from Pangmere and the Finchbottom Vale as possible.
So she quit her job, sold her flat and spent the next twelve months working at her sister, Annabel’s, bar in Benidorm while she got her head straight.
However she soon realised that running away and hiding was not the answer.
She wasn’t sure what the answer was by any measure but she did know that hiding away in Spain wasn’t it.
(Part 04)
Annette soon realised that running away and hiding was not the answer.
She wasn’t sure what the answer was by any measure but she did know that hiding away in Spain wasn’t it.
Her Sister Annabel thought the answer was to throw a succession of unsuitable men in Annette’s direction but she managed to side step them all quite successfully.
However she eventually tired of her sister’s good intentions and returned to Downshire but she could not allow herself to fall back into the same social circle that she had left so abruptly, but she didn’t want to remove herself entirely from her former life so she settled in Finchbottom while keeping her former life at arm’s length.
Annette did a succession of jobs, all of which were beneath her capabilities until she finally ended up working for a second hand book business, Paige Turners.
The owner of Paige Turners was a women called Paige Edwards who had owned a very successful book shop in Finchbottom but changes in the business caused her to sell the book shop in Finchbottom, but it wasn’t the end of Paige Turner’s and Paige stayed very much in the book business.
When she closed the door for the very last time on the shop she had mixed feelings.
Even before the shop closed it had become primarily an internet business and because the bookshop was in a prime location in Finchbottom it brought a very good price.
So she sold the shop, but didn’t sell up, instead she leased the old Finchbottom Library and ran the business from there.
It was a perfect location and she was able to utilize the Library book shelves as well as the ones from the old shop and it was to that business that Annette West joined.
Annette worked for the company for four years and was blissfully unaware that unseen fates were busily pulling the strings in her life when in Mid-December Paige Edwards received a letter from her landlord to say that the lease was up on the old library premises in Finchbottom and there would be no option to renew.
So as a result she had to begin looking for a new home for Paige Turner’s and Paige was directed to Mornington by a solicitor friend, Rizalina Pugay.
After having met with agents and potential landlords in Mornington Paige was dreading the first day back at work because she had to tell the staff that Paige Turner’s were moving lock stock and barrel to Mornington within 2 months.
Because she was so nervous about it she decided to take everyone to lunch at the local pub, the White Horse Inn, on the basis that they probably wouldn’t kill her in a public place.
As it turned out the news was received quite favourably as they were all expecting something as they had heard about the proposed development of the Library Site.
Of her 14 staff 7 of them said immediately they were prepared to move with her while of the other seven, 4 were definite no’s and the other three wanted to see Mornington and the accommodation before deciding, and Annette was one of those.
So the next day Paige, Riza and the three doubting Thomas’s, Annette, Carole Beverley and Jennifer Bardsley, drove over to Mornington.
(Part 05)
Paige, Riza and the three doubting Thomas’s, Annette, Carole Beverley and Jennifer Bardsley, drove over to Mornington.
While they were there they met with Victoria Johnson Higham, and Tallulah St George.
Victoria was from Lyndon-Sanders Properties, who were tasked with finding tenants for the commercial properties as well as some of the accommodation and Tally was the property manager for the Estate, which formally took over the administration from January 1st.
Mornington-By-Mere 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.
There is a very good reason why it has retained its old English quaintness and its heart and soul into the 21st Century and that’s simply because everything in the village is owned by the Mornington Estate, and under their stewardship the village has remained a traditionally English oasis and has not been allowed to become a soulless haven for hooray Henrys and weekenders with their second homes and country getaways.
Throughout its history the Village of Mornington was largely dependent on agriculture for its survival but shortly before the beginning of the Great War a large tract of land was compulsorily purchased by the War Office as a training base for the newly formed Royal Flying Corps which changed the dynamic to some extent with them loosing valuable farm land, this was offset partly by the fact that the Mornington Estate had the contract to provision the Airfield.
It remained as a training squadron when the RFC became the RAF and right through to the end of the nineteen thirty’s.
During World War Two it became a front line fighter base in the Battle of Britain and many sorties were flown from the field and many brave young men failed to return to it.
RAF Mornington remained an operational base beyond the end of the 1939-45 conflict and was a NATO base throughout the cold war.
However after the breakup of the USSR it played a much lesser role until the end of the century when it was mothballed and although the RAF maintained a presence it was only really used as storage facility for the last decade of its existence.
When the War office purchased Mornington Field in the summer of 1914 it was on a 100 year lease, with an option for them to extend when the lease expired.
However in 2014 the Ministry of Defence were in the midst of dramatic cutbacks in front line resources and Mornington was one of the first facilities to be axed.
This meant that the original owners, the St George family, had first refusal to buy it back for a peppercorn fee and when the Mornington Estate exercised its option to purchase Mornington Field from the MOD it also acquired all the buildings and infrastructure on the airfield itself, as well as 29 houses in the village formally used as quarters for military personnel and it was the Airfield buildings that would house the Paige Turner business and some of the accommodation for the staff.
(Part 06)
In the year following 21 year old Brian Dawkins and 33 year old Annette West being discovered in his parent’s marital bed Brian’s world fell apart as his love affair with Annette came to an abrupt end and then the total disintegration of his life.
But apart from breaking up the lovers and it causing an irrevocable rift between Annette and Brian’s mum Sheila it also caused a deep rift in the Dawkins family.
Brian never forgave his mother for driving her away or his father for calling her a cradle snatching tart.
So unable to see the woman he had fallen in love with and being estranged from his family he decided to throw himself into finishing his college course.
When he first left the Red Lion in Pangmere, his family home, he spent the next few months sofa surfing at some of his friends’ homes, until he managed to get himself a bedsit in Purplemere.
After Brian left home Karen was left behind and was very much stuck in the middle, not wanting to take sides but not wanting to lose contact with her twin brother, she spoke to him whenever possible outside of college, but when her parents found out she was in regular contact with her brother, they had an opportunity to use her as a conduit to move them towards a reconciliation, instead they told her she had to choose, them or Brian, so forced to choose, she chose Brian and they moved into a dingy flat together.
Brian finished his college course along with his sister Karen and they were fortunate enough in the year before they qualified, to get some part time work with a local company called Railway Enthusiast, working for a man called Dennis Thorpe.
He was a very gifted craftsman who among other things was a Model Engine Maker, as well as making rolling stock, buildings and infrastructure.
And when they both qualified from college with distinctions Dennis had no hesitation in offering them full time jobs.
While the two of them shared a flat in Purplemere and worked together Karen had had a succession of failed relationships and wished she could have found a man that not only loved her as she loved them, but someone she could love as much as Brian loved Annette.
Despite the depth of the love he felt for Annette, Brian did not live as a monk but he never had a relationship that was any more than physical.
Not just because he was reluctant to fall in love again but more significantly because he was still in love with Annette and every woman he met after they were driven apart was inevitably compared to his first love.
As a result of their abject failure to find a significant other, when Dennis Thorpe decided to move the model making business to Mornington, Brian and Karen decided that there was nothing holding them in Purplemere so they opted to move with him.
Mornington-By-Mere was not just a quaint chocolate box English Village it was 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 formed the part of Mornington Village known as Manorside and The Dawkins managed to rent number 4 Brooke Side Cottages, which was a considerable improvement on their dingy Purplemere flat.
(Part 07)
When the Mornington Estate exercised its option to purchase Mornington Field back from the MOD it also acquired all the buildings and infrastructure on the airfield itself as well as 29 houses in the village, formally used as quarters for military personnel and in February 2015 Paige Turners made the move from Finchbottom to Mornington Field and took up residence in what was formerly Hangar C.
Annette West also made the move and her new home was located in Apartment 8 of Lancaster House, which was once the Officers Mess and two months later Dennis Thorpe moved into Apartment 4.
Annette quickly settled in and as she was fast approaching her fortieth birthday she was resigned to the fact that she would continue to live a solitary existence and saw no sign of that changing in the foreseeable future but having fallen in love with Mornington she was struck by the thought that there were worse places to be alone.
Although he was only 27 years old, Brian had also resigned himself to living his life as a singleton.
He loved his job and the cottage he shared with his sister Karen was perfect, but unbeknown to him or anyone else for that matter everything was set to change on a sunny Wednesday in May after he had only been in the village for one month.
On that fateful morning some mail had been wrongly delivered to Paige Turners and the owner, Paige Edwards was going through it on her desk and there were eight pieces in all that were not theirs.
“Annette honey?” she called
“Yes Paige” she responded
“Would you be a darling and take these letters across to “Railway Enthusiast” The postman dropped them off here by mistake?”
Paige asked
“No problem” Annette replied “Which building are they in?”
“Block A, just the other side of the roundabout” she explained
“Ok, I won’t be long” Annette said as she took the letters from Paige.
It was a beautiful warm May morning as she walked along the pavement towards Block A but it did little to lift her spirits, she seemed to live her life on the same plain of existence, just going through the motions of life without actually living it.
When she reached the door to the Railway Enthusiast premises she knocked firmly on the glass and waited until her knock was answered and the moment the door was opened her heart began to beat again, and she felt alive for the first time in six long years and the reason for her sudden lease of life was because she saw Brian Dawkins standing there.
Brian opened the door expecting to see a courier driver standing the other side of it and he couldn’t believe the evidence of his own eyes as he stood looking into the eyes of the woman he loved.
Annette smiled at him and he smiled at her but neither of them spoke, neither daring to break the spell of what could surely only be a hallucination.
(Part 08)
Brian opened the door expecting to see a courier driver standing the other side of it and he couldn’t believe the evidence of his own eyes as he stood looking into the eyes of the woman he loved.
Annette smiled at him and he smiled at her but neither of them spoke, neither daring to break the spell of what could surely only be a hallucination.
It was a bright early summer morning yet it was not warm enough to sit by an open door,
“Who is it Brian?” Karen asked wondering why the door was still open and letting all the heat out when he didn’t appear to be talking to anyone.
Getting no response, Karen got up from her stool and walked towards the door repeating her question
“Who is it Brian?”
And when she saw who was standing on the threshold she did a double take before she rushed towards the smiling figure and hugged her.
“Annette, it’s really you”
“Yes” Annette sighed as she held Karen tightly to her and wished it were Brian in her arms, although she doubted it would ever happen and as he looked on as the two people he loved most in all the world embraced he thought the same.
When Karen and Annette finished embracing there was an awkward momentary silence, as neither of them knew what to say,
It was likely whatever mundanity they chose to express would undoubtedly have brought the meeting to an end, an neither of them wanted that.
A full minute of silence had passed before Annette handed the letters to Brian.
“These were delivered to Paige Turners by mistake” she said regretfully
“Oh ok thanks” he retorted and they both smiled again and Annette turned to leave.
“Is that it?” Karen snapped in disbelief and they both looked at each other before Brian said
“What do you mean?”
“Oh give me strength” she exclaimed but the couple still just stared blankly at her
“For goodness sake, you two have already wasted six precious years and now when fate has brought you together again, out of the blue you don’t seize the moment”
Brian opened his mouth to speak but Karen silenced him with a look and carried on
“Don’t you dare let her get away from you again and as for you don’t think for a moment I will let you run away and hide again”
At that point it was Annette who tried to speak and she was also struck dumb with a withering glance.
“You two were made for each other, and you love each other in a way that I can only dream of, and I’m so jealous, just to have a man look at me the way he looks at you would set me ablaze, and to see your love reflected back in her eyes is a precious, precious thing”
There was silence for a moment and the Brian said quietly
“It’s difficult to know what to say after so long”
“Who said anything about speaking you idiot” Karen said sharply “just take her in your arms and kiss her”
So he took her advice and held the yielding Annette in his arms and kissed her and it was as if it had only been the day before when they lay naked in his parent’s bed and he felt alive again and he could tell by Annette’s response to his embrace that she felt the same way.
After that day they became a proper couple, a proper relationship with no sneaking around, it wasn’t all plain sailing, there was still guilt and remorse on her part for tearing his family asunder and they both regretted the wasted six years but they weathered the storms and six months after the day the mail went astray, they married.
Julian and Sheila Dawkins were invited to the wedding at St Winifred’s, but they failed to show, in fact they didn’t even respond, but that didn’t dampen the occasion for the happy couple.
Monday, 17 April 2017
Mornington-By-Mere – (44) The Guilt of the Survivor
(Part 01)
When the Mornington Estate exercised its option to purchase Mornington Field from the MOD it also acquired all the buildings and infrastructure on the airfield itself as well as 29 houses in the village formally used as quarters for military personnel.
Plans were immediately drawn up to optimize the newly acquired assets the moment the property was formally handed over on the 1st of June 2014.
The guardians of the estate are the St George family and the head of which is Baron Gabriel St George.
His architect Scott Collier was tasked with designing appropriate conversions to maximize the potential returns, and Ray Walker, who dealt with all things estate maintenance wise, was responsible for getting the old Air force housing stock occupied ASAP,
Ray worked tirelessly to that end to have not just the first six houses ready within the month as originally promised, but eight, which were handed over on the 6th of July, two days earlier than forecast.
Gabriel was then able to instruct Lyndon-Sanders Properties of Shallowfield to find tenants.
Priority was to be given to local people or people with ties to the area or those who worked in some capacity for the estate such as agriculture and the brewery.
Other than that they were to be rented with the only condition being that it had to be the tenant’s primary residence.
Gabriel was always conscious of creating a ghost town of professionals who live and work in Town all week and only return to the village on the weekend.
One such family to benefit from Gabriel’s policy were the Boddingtons who moved into number 7, Military Row.
The Boddington’s had a number of butcher’s shops in the Vale, including the one in Mornington.
They also had a pig farm, Saddleback Farm, near the hamlet of Fallowacres, which was as near as damn it the center point of the Vale, though only geographically.
All of the Boddingtons were employed either at the pig farm or in one of the many Butchers Shops, with the exception of 20 year old Nicola who was in every respect a Boddington, the looks were unmistakable, classically good looking with thick black curly hair and wild gypsy eyes, dark, mysterious and sexy.
She had obviously worked in the family business’s at some point but not for a while and she differed from her kin in one fundamental respect and that was because she was unhappy with her life and was contemplating ending it, because six months earlier in the lanes around Fallowacres she was the sole survivor of a tragic car crash which claimed the lives of her boyfriend Tom Gramstadt, his brother Callum and her best friend Jenny Grillo.
It happened one Sunday afternoon about half an hour after the Gramstadt’s had picked the girls up from Shallowfield where they worked as bar staff at The Wheatsheaf where they had been working the lunchtime shift and they were less than a mile from Saddleback Farm when Tom took the corner on the approach to the village much too fast, lost control, clipped a wall, left the road and flew into a nearby field where the car rolled multiple times before coming to a halt.
It was an event that had haunted her day and night ever since because she survived the accident relatively unscathed.
Nicola suffered several rib fractures, a broken arm, a broken collar bone and extensive cuts and bruises and a concussion.
But the most overwhelming injury she suffered was psychological because she was plagued with the guilt of the survivor.
(Part 02)
Although her physical injuries had healed, the physiological ones had not, and she hadn’t been able to work since she left hospital and she also found talking to people extremely difficult.
So she spent much of her time in her own company and when the house was full she took herself away and wandered in the environs of Mornington and thought of all the ways she could end her miserable life.
Which was how she came to the attention of Craig Jones.
Craig was the younger brother of the village copper Sgt Dave Jones and he was spending a couple of months in Mornington at the Police House helping out while his sister in law Peta was recovering after breaking her leg.
Craig had just finished his third year at University and was looking forward to doing nothing for a few months only a few days before Peta fell down the stairs and broke her leg.
And without needing to be asked he volunteered to help out while she literally got back on her feet.
Despite the fact that there was a nine year age gap Craig and Dave had always been very close and he loved the kids and his sister in law Peta was like an actual sister to him.
So it was no hardship for him to help his family and he had been a very frequent visitor to Mornington and he could see himself living there once he had finished his Masters and determined what to do with his degrees.
His services weren’t required all the time as Dave insisted he bear the burden when he was off duty so there were plenty of opportunities for him to have time to himself and as he was a keen runner he often took himself off for a run out in the fresh country air.
So it was early one morning in the middle of May on Dave’s day off, while he was doing the breakfast routine that Craig left the police house to go for a run.
He turned left and set off along the rough path along the Northern Bank of the River Brooke with Mornington Field on his right and Manor Wood across the water on his left.
After the Wood stood the famous Mornington Brewery and immediately before the river changed direction, Dulcets Mill one of the last three remaining Mornington Mills.
There was only Mornington Field on his side of the river after Dulcets Mill while on the opposite bank was a row of five terraced dwellings, called Brooke Side Cottages, which were separated from another five terraced houses, called, West Gate Cottages, by the recently rebuilt West Gate Bridge.
But after that it was countryside and farm land for mile after mile until he reached the Dulcets Road Bridge.
He crossed the bridge and headed back to the village on the opposite side of the river and it was after about a mile when it happened.
He was running at a steady pace while enjoying the scenery when he saw a dark haired figure jump into the full flowing river.
The river was swollen with the abundant spring rains but fortunately it wasn’t particularly deep or fast flowing but she was clearly struggling so he broke into a sprint and dived in after her.
(Part 03)
He could see her thrashing about and could hear her screams and as he reached the spot where she went in he jumped in without hesitation and swam towards her.
He wasn’t sure what had possessed her to jump in, in the first place but by the way she was splashing around in such distress, she clearly couldn’t swim and she certainly didn’t appear to want to drown.
Craig was in no doubt that she had tried to kill herself, it was perfectly obvious to him, but judging by her frantic struggling she had had a change of heart.
He was breathing hard from the running as he closed the distance between them and as she struggled to stay afloat the water splashed all around her.
He swam as fast as he could, but even though he was a strong swimmer he seemed to be going too slowly, but despite that he managed to reach her just in time.
But that proved to be only half the problem as reaching his initial goal only brought fresh problems, the first was having to avoid her flailing arms and the second was getting her to the bank.
He got a good hold on her but as she was fully clothed she was heavy, so it was with some difficulty that he swam her to the bank.
When he eventually got her to the riverbank the weeds on the river bed clutched at his ankles and he nearly lost his grip on her.
Fortunately a couple of anglers, who Craig had passed earlier when they were a few hundred yards downstream, had been alerted by the sound of the commotion and ran to their aid, and they leant a helping hand and dragged them both from the water.
“How on earth did you fall in, Nicola?” one of the anglers asked them as they sat dripping on the bank.
“Don’t tell them” she whispered “Please”
“She wasn’t watching where she was going and slipped on the muddy bank” he lied “luckily I saw it happen”
“Yes that was lucky” the second angler said and put his jacket around the shoulders of a shivering Nicola
“I’ll pick it up from yours later luv”
“Thank you” she said quietly
“Come on” Craig said “I’ll walk you back to the village”
He knew she was from Mornington as he had seen her around the village several times, always on her own, and looking perpetually sad.
“Thanks for your help” Craig said and shook both fishermen by the hand.
Craig and Nicola walked slowly back towards the village and were in sight of the West Gate Bridge before the silence was broken and it was her who broke it.
“Thank you” she said quietly
“That’s ok, it was quite refreshing after a five mile run” he said although he knew that wasn’t what she was thanking him for.
“No I meant for not saying anything”
“I know what you meant” he said “but I have to ask why?”
“I just get dark moods” she replied but she didn’t elaborate
(Part 04)
As Craig and Nicola continued to walk soggily beside the River Brooke in the direction of the village the only sounds were from the flowing water and the squelching of their footwear.
But Craig decided he should break the silence when he asked
“Do you want to tell me about it?”
“Not really” She replied
“But will you?”
“Yes” she replied, she didn’t want to but she thought it was the least he deserved, but it took a few minutes before she spoke again by which time they had reached the west gate bridge
“I was in a bad car crash” she began
“My God, What happened?” he asked
“My boyfriend Tom, his brother Callum and my best friend Jenny were killed” she snapped “That’s what happened”
“But what caused it?” he persisted
“Well Tom liked to drive fast, too fast to be honest” she said
“I used to tell him not to but he never listened, and now he’s gone”
And with that statement of finality she completely broke down and the tears she had tried so hard to contain flowed out of her unrestrained so Craig held her as she sobbed her heart out on the riverbank beside the bridge.
When she had composed herself they sat on the grassy bank and she told him the rest of the that day’s events which left Nicola with several rib fractures, a broken arm, a broken collar bone and extensive cuts and bruises and a concussion after Tom took the corner on the approach to the village much too fast.
He lost control, clipped a wall, left the road and flew into a nearby field where the car rolled multiple times before coming to a halt.
It was an event that had haunted her day and night ever since especially because she survived relatively unscathed.
“And that’s why you feel guilty” he said
“Wouldn’t you?” she asked him
“No,” he said “I would thank God for sparing me and you should too”
“That’s easy for you to say” she said thrusting her chin out defiantly
“Look Nicola you have your whole life ahead of you” he said “you should try to be positive, banish the dark thoughts from your mind and stop feeling….”
“Suicidal!! is that what you were going to say?” she said “I'm not suicidal, that was just a blip”
“I'm sure it was” he said “No one who wants to die would have fought like fury to live, like you did”
Nicola didn’t say anything but nodded and gave him a weak smile.
“What I meant was that feeling guilty about surviving is killing you” he continued
“What makes you such an expert?” she asked
“Well my first class degree in phycology helps” he said “but I’m just very perceptive”
“I should go” she said and stood up
“Did it help?” He asked
“What trying to kill myself?” she asked with a weak smile which he returned
“I meant talking about it” he said
“Yes” she replied surprised at her answer “It did”
“Perhaps we can talk again” he suggested but she didn’t answer and walked up the steps to the road that lead up to Mornington Field, which offered her the shortest route home, but before she disappeared from view she turned and shouted
“Yes”
(Part 05)
More than a week had gone by since Nicola had opened up to him beside the river and she had agreed to tell him more.
He had seen her around the village a few times, and had even stopped to exchange pleasantries but the opportunity to have the long awaited talk never presented itself.
That was until one day when his brother Dave was off for the day and had decided to take the children for a walk.
So he was sitting in the garden of the police house trying to decide what to do with the time he had on his hands when he was interrupted.
“Hello” a soft voice behind him said and when he turned around he saw it was Nicola.
“I’m ready to talk”
“And I’m ready to listen” he said “I’ll just make us a drink”
“Can you tell me about the accident?” he asked her after he made them both a drink
“Too be honest I don't remember very much really” she told him “not about the crash at least, it all happened so fast”
“Tell me what you do remember then” he encouraged her
“We were driving along laughing and joking just like every other time we had driven down that lane” she said “And then all of a sudden we weren’t laughing, and we were being bounced around like rag dolls and there was noise and screams and then we stopped”
She paused to drink her tea and he said nothing and just let her go at her own pace.
“I remember I was in the car and I was trapped in the back, Jenny was lifeless beside me she must have died after the first roll and Tom’s brother Callum had been thrown through the windscreen and lay dead in the field less than thirty feet away”
“What about Tom?” Craig asked and she turned to look at him with tears in her eyes as she replied
“I watched him die”
“I can’t imagine how that must have been” he said and took hold of her hand
“It was terrible, he kept crying out for his mother” she said and more tears filled her eyes.
“I wanted to comfort him but I couldn’t move, I tried, I really did but it was no use, I couldn’t even hold his hand”
The tears streamed down her cheeks
“He was such a big strong man begging for his mum, but she wasn't there. He only had me and I could do nothing for him, I still have nightmares about it”
“I would be very surprised if you didn’t” Craig thought
“I don’t know how long it was before someone came to help us but it wasn’t soon enough and so I just had to sit there helpless and watch my boyfriend die”
“After that I don’t remember much I was in a daze I have a vague recollection of the fire brigade cutting me free, and paramedics putting me in the ambulance, but that’s all” she said “it must have been the concussion”
“Or the trauma of what you had seen” Craig said
“Do you ever blame him?” she asked
“What?” she said
“Do you ever blame Tom for the accident?”
“Sometimes” she replied “I always warned him about driving too fast but he never listened, he just laughed it off, but mostly I just blame myself because I’m alive and he isn't”
Just at that moment Dave returned with the children.
“Oh hello” he said “its Nicola Boddington isn’t it?”
“Yes” she muttered “I have to go”
And before Craig could protest she was gone.
It was a real shame Dave returned when he did because she had opened up to him without very much prompting from him and he felt they had made real progress.
(Part 06)
The night after Nicola had opened up to him he sat up until the early hours with Dave drinking whisky and with Craig’s encouragement whilst in his cups his brother let something slip.
The knowledge obtained through the application of excess amounts of whisky was very enlightening and gave Craig considerable food for thought.
Though he wasn’t sure if he should use the information or not and while he wrestled with his conscience the days slipped away and all of a sudden the Mornington Beer Festival was upon them.
Craig had the weekend off even though Dave was on duty all weekend because Peta and the children had gone to stay with her parents for a few days.
So he was free to track down Nicola and continue from where they left off.
Nicola had been dreading the Mornington Beer Festival, as the whole of the Boddington clan were descending on the village and she was expected to be among them.
As was the norm the Beer Festival was being held in the grounds of Mornington Manor.
They had been sitting around the table in the main marquee for about an hour before she got up and mumbled to the group.
“I need a breath of fresh air”
She made her way out of the tent into the sunshine and as she stood on the threshold her mother came up behind her
“Is everything alright Nicola?” she asked, unable to hide the concern in her voice.
“I'm fine mum,” She replied “I just need to get out for a while and
clear my head, it’s very hot in there is all”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure, I think I'll just go for a walk” Nicola said
“Well don’t wander too far” she said “And don’t be too long”
“Ok mum”
“I mean it” Mrs. Boddington said
“I won't be too long” Nicola assured her and walked off through the crowd.
She walked as quickly as the crowds would allow and as soon as was possible she slipped between two marquees and across the grounds to the cool tranquility of Manor Wood.
When she was sitting in the beer tent with her family, dark thoughts began to fill her head again but as she made her way through the cool woods they began to fade.
Once she was in the sanctuary of the wood she ambled through to the other side until she reached the riverbank, and then turned left and followed the river towards the Brewery and Dulcets Mill but stopped and sat on the first bench she came to.
“I hope you’re not planning another swim” a voice said from behind her “I’ve got my favourite trousers on”
Despite the silence she had been so lost in her own thoughts and she hadn’t heard his footsteps as he approached.
“What are you doing here?” she asked
There was no need for her to turn around to know who the voice belonged to, it was a voice she recognized very well, it was Craig Jones.
“I just fancied some peace and quiet” he lied, in truth he had seen her walk into the woods and was concerned about her intentions.
“So what about you?” he asked as he sat down beside her
“Much the same” she replied
(Part 07)
Craig had seen Nicola walk into the woods and was concerned about her and her black moods and what her intentions might be.
He was relieved when he emerged from Manor would to see her sitting on a bench.
“I hope you’re not planning another swim” he said jokingly
“I’ve got my favourite trousers on”
“What are you doing here?” she asked
“I just fancied some peace and quiet” he lied.
“So what about you?” he asked as he sat down beside her
“Much the same” she replied
“Do you want a drink?” he asked as he reached into his bag and when his hand reappeared it was holding two bottles of beer, then he put his hand in his pocket and took out a bottle opener.
She nodded so he removed the cap off one bottle and handed it to her and then he opened one for himself.
“I have a confession to make,” he said
“I’m not just here because I fancied some peace and quiet, I was looking for you”
“You mean you still want to practice your psychology on me” she said
“No that’s not it” he said crossly
“Isn’t it?” She snapped
“No it isn’t” he retorted “Because I don’t want to be you’re therapist or your psychologist, I want to be your boyfriend”
He had fallen in love with her on that first day when he fished her from the river although he didn’t know it at the time.
“Oh” she exclaimed
“But before I can do anything about it there is something I need to tell you” he said enigmatically
“I know something about the accident” he said
“What?” she asked urgently
“I’m not sure I should say, it might make you feel better or at the very least less guilty about surviving, or it may make you feel worse”
“That's impossible” she said “what could possibly make me feel worse than I do already, so tell me”
“Well you know my brother is a policeman?”
“Yes, I remember him from the accident, He was there when the firemen got me out”
“Well, he told me something” he said
“What was it?”
“It was some evidence about the crash that wasn’t disclosed at the inquest” he said
“What evidence?” she said and bit her lower lip as if she was summoning up the courage to hear the worst.
Craig meanwhile was concerned about revealing something that might scupper their relationship before it began
“When they did the post mortems on Tom and Callum” he said “They found that they were both high”
“That's not possible” she said, refusing to believe it. “I would have
known if Tom was on drugs, wouldn’t I?”
“I don’t know about that” he said “But there’s more”
“What else could there be?” she said
“They got the drugs from Jenny” Craig said
“Jenny?” she asked
“Her cousin was a dealer” Craig said
Nicola tried desperately to remember back to the day of the accident to try and recall if there had been any clue that she missed, which if she had been alert to might have saved their lives, but she couldn’t.
“How bad were they?” he asked him as tears began to sting her eyes
“My brother told me that Tom would have been severely impaired to drive, Callum also, Jenny was clean, and there was no evidence that she was a user”
“Just a supplier” she said and her voice cracked and she began to sob, so Craig put his arm around her.
The sobs came slowly at first but were soon became uncontrollable heaves.
(Part 08)
As Craig and Nicola sat on a bench between Manor Wood and the river her sobs came slowly at first but soon became uncontrollable heaves.
He kissed the top of her head and could smell her perfume as her head lay against his chest
“I'm sorry” he said “I shouldn't have told you, but I didn't want you to keep punishing yourself”
“It wasn't your fault that you survived honey” he said “please don’t feel guilty for being alive”
When Nicola stopped crying she wiped away her tears with her sleeve.
“How did they do it?” she asked
“How did they do what?”
“Suppress the evidence”
“Apparently Jenny’s Uncle is a Judge and a lodge member so it wasn’t difficult for him to influence decisions” Craig replied
Then she was quite for a while as she mulled over the new evidence, it all suddenly made perfect sense and it explained why Tom's parents avoided her at the funeral and why Jenny’s mum wouldn't meet her eyes.
Nicola had been torturing herself that they were like that because they somehow resented her because she was alive, while all the time it was because they all knew that Tom, Callum and Jenny were all complicit in their own demise and they had nearly taken her with them as well.
The tears began to fall again but she got control of herself.
“I'm sorry” she said “it was such a shock”
“You don't need to apologize” Craig said “I'm the one who should be sorry for telling you”
“No, I’m glad you told me the truth, you’ve given me my life back” she said and hugged him tightly.
They continued sitting on the bench, Craig with his arm around her shoulder and her head against his chest long after the tears had stopped.
“I suppose we should discuss the boyfriend thing now” she said without lifting her head, he realized why shortly afterwards when she did show her face because she clearly looked like she was blushing.
“I agree” Craig said
“Why would want to be my boyfriend?” she asked “I’m a mess”
“I don’t think so” he said and leaned his face towards her and touched his lips gently with hers.
It was a sweet and gentle kiss and when it was over they smiled at each other and then she said.
“I am a mess though”
“The heart wants what the heart wants” he retorted
“But you admit I am a mess though” Nicola said triumphantly
“No, but I will admit that I fell for you when you were at your most…”
“Messed up” she interrupted
“Vulnerable, disheartened and dripping wet” he corrected her
“So I have seen you at your worst, and I’m not put off”
“What about when I’m no longer interesting to a psychologist” she asked
“I’m interested in “you” he said “the psychology just made me more interesting to you”
No sooner had he finished talking than Nicola stopped him from speaking again by kissing him.
A much more urgent, passion filled kiss altogether, than the first which seemed to draw a line under any further speculation.
After the kiss they remained on the bench holding each other in silence for about ten minutes when Craig spoke.
“Let’s go back to the festival” he suggested but she shook her head
“Why not?”
“I don't want to” she told him
“Even if we go together?” he asked
“A first date kind of thing”
“I’d rather just go for a walk” she explained “I’m not ready to face the family yet”
“Ashamed of me eh” he said
“Obviously” she said and they kissed again.
When the Mornington Estate exercised its option to purchase Mornington Field from the MOD it also acquired all the buildings and infrastructure on the airfield itself as well as 29 houses in the village formally used as quarters for military personnel.
Plans were immediately drawn up to optimize the newly acquired assets the moment the property was formally handed over on the 1st of June 2014.
The guardians of the estate are the St George family and the head of which is Baron Gabriel St George.
His architect Scott Collier was tasked with designing appropriate conversions to maximize the potential returns, and Ray Walker, who dealt with all things estate maintenance wise, was responsible for getting the old Air force housing stock occupied ASAP,
Ray worked tirelessly to that end to have not just the first six houses ready within the month as originally promised, but eight, which were handed over on the 6th of July, two days earlier than forecast.
Gabriel was then able to instruct Lyndon-Sanders Properties of Shallowfield to find tenants.
Priority was to be given to local people or people with ties to the area or those who worked in some capacity for the estate such as agriculture and the brewery.
Other than that they were to be rented with the only condition being that it had to be the tenant’s primary residence.
Gabriel was always conscious of creating a ghost town of professionals who live and work in Town all week and only return to the village on the weekend.
One such family to benefit from Gabriel’s policy were the Boddingtons who moved into number 7, Military Row.
The Boddington’s had a number of butcher’s shops in the Vale, including the one in Mornington.
They also had a pig farm, Saddleback Farm, near the hamlet of Fallowacres, which was as near as damn it the center point of the Vale, though only geographically.
All of the Boddingtons were employed either at the pig farm or in one of the many Butchers Shops, with the exception of 20 year old Nicola who was in every respect a Boddington, the looks were unmistakable, classically good looking with thick black curly hair and wild gypsy eyes, dark, mysterious and sexy.
She had obviously worked in the family business’s at some point but not for a while and she differed from her kin in one fundamental respect and that was because she was unhappy with her life and was contemplating ending it, because six months earlier in the lanes around Fallowacres she was the sole survivor of a tragic car crash which claimed the lives of her boyfriend Tom Gramstadt, his brother Callum and her best friend Jenny Grillo.
It happened one Sunday afternoon about half an hour after the Gramstadt’s had picked the girls up from Shallowfield where they worked as bar staff at The Wheatsheaf where they had been working the lunchtime shift and they were less than a mile from Saddleback Farm when Tom took the corner on the approach to the village much too fast, lost control, clipped a wall, left the road and flew into a nearby field where the car rolled multiple times before coming to a halt.
It was an event that had haunted her day and night ever since because she survived the accident relatively unscathed.
Nicola suffered several rib fractures, a broken arm, a broken collar bone and extensive cuts and bruises and a concussion.
But the most overwhelming injury she suffered was psychological because she was plagued with the guilt of the survivor.
(Part 02)
Although her physical injuries had healed, the physiological ones had not, and she hadn’t been able to work since she left hospital and she also found talking to people extremely difficult.
So she spent much of her time in her own company and when the house was full she took herself away and wandered in the environs of Mornington and thought of all the ways she could end her miserable life.
Which was how she came to the attention of Craig Jones.
Craig was the younger brother of the village copper Sgt Dave Jones and he was spending a couple of months in Mornington at the Police House helping out while his sister in law Peta was recovering after breaking her leg.
Craig had just finished his third year at University and was looking forward to doing nothing for a few months only a few days before Peta fell down the stairs and broke her leg.
And without needing to be asked he volunteered to help out while she literally got back on her feet.
Despite the fact that there was a nine year age gap Craig and Dave had always been very close and he loved the kids and his sister in law Peta was like an actual sister to him.
So it was no hardship for him to help his family and he had been a very frequent visitor to Mornington and he could see himself living there once he had finished his Masters and determined what to do with his degrees.
His services weren’t required all the time as Dave insisted he bear the burden when he was off duty so there were plenty of opportunities for him to have time to himself and as he was a keen runner he often took himself off for a run out in the fresh country air.
So it was early one morning in the middle of May on Dave’s day off, while he was doing the breakfast routine that Craig left the police house to go for a run.
He turned left and set off along the rough path along the Northern Bank of the River Brooke with Mornington Field on his right and Manor Wood across the water on his left.
After the Wood stood the famous Mornington Brewery and immediately before the river changed direction, Dulcets Mill one of the last three remaining Mornington Mills.
There was only Mornington Field on his side of the river after Dulcets Mill while on the opposite bank was a row of five terraced dwellings, called Brooke Side Cottages, which were separated from another five terraced houses, called, West Gate Cottages, by the recently rebuilt West Gate Bridge.
But after that it was countryside and farm land for mile after mile until he reached the Dulcets Road Bridge.
He crossed the bridge and headed back to the village on the opposite side of the river and it was after about a mile when it happened.
He was running at a steady pace while enjoying the scenery when he saw a dark haired figure jump into the full flowing river.
The river was swollen with the abundant spring rains but fortunately it wasn’t particularly deep or fast flowing but she was clearly struggling so he broke into a sprint and dived in after her.
(Part 03)
He could see her thrashing about and could hear her screams and as he reached the spot where she went in he jumped in without hesitation and swam towards her.
He wasn’t sure what had possessed her to jump in, in the first place but by the way she was splashing around in such distress, she clearly couldn’t swim and she certainly didn’t appear to want to drown.
Craig was in no doubt that she had tried to kill herself, it was perfectly obvious to him, but judging by her frantic struggling she had had a change of heart.
He was breathing hard from the running as he closed the distance between them and as she struggled to stay afloat the water splashed all around her.
He swam as fast as he could, but even though he was a strong swimmer he seemed to be going too slowly, but despite that he managed to reach her just in time.
But that proved to be only half the problem as reaching his initial goal only brought fresh problems, the first was having to avoid her flailing arms and the second was getting her to the bank.
He got a good hold on her but as she was fully clothed she was heavy, so it was with some difficulty that he swam her to the bank.
When he eventually got her to the riverbank the weeds on the river bed clutched at his ankles and he nearly lost his grip on her.
Fortunately a couple of anglers, who Craig had passed earlier when they were a few hundred yards downstream, had been alerted by the sound of the commotion and ran to their aid, and they leant a helping hand and dragged them both from the water.
“How on earth did you fall in, Nicola?” one of the anglers asked them as they sat dripping on the bank.
“Don’t tell them” she whispered “Please”
“She wasn’t watching where she was going and slipped on the muddy bank” he lied “luckily I saw it happen”
“Yes that was lucky” the second angler said and put his jacket around the shoulders of a shivering Nicola
“I’ll pick it up from yours later luv”
“Thank you” she said quietly
“Come on” Craig said “I’ll walk you back to the village”
He knew she was from Mornington as he had seen her around the village several times, always on her own, and looking perpetually sad.
“Thanks for your help” Craig said and shook both fishermen by the hand.
Craig and Nicola walked slowly back towards the village and were in sight of the West Gate Bridge before the silence was broken and it was her who broke it.
“Thank you” she said quietly
“That’s ok, it was quite refreshing after a five mile run” he said although he knew that wasn’t what she was thanking him for.
“No I meant for not saying anything”
“I know what you meant” he said “but I have to ask why?”
“I just get dark moods” she replied but she didn’t elaborate
(Part 04)
As Craig and Nicola continued to walk soggily beside the River Brooke in the direction of the village the only sounds were from the flowing water and the squelching of their footwear.
But Craig decided he should break the silence when he asked
“Do you want to tell me about it?”
“Not really” She replied
“But will you?”
“Yes” she replied, she didn’t want to but she thought it was the least he deserved, but it took a few minutes before she spoke again by which time they had reached the west gate bridge
“I was in a bad car crash” she began
“My God, What happened?” he asked
“My boyfriend Tom, his brother Callum and my best friend Jenny were killed” she snapped “That’s what happened”
“But what caused it?” he persisted
“Well Tom liked to drive fast, too fast to be honest” she said
“I used to tell him not to but he never listened, and now he’s gone”
And with that statement of finality she completely broke down and the tears she had tried so hard to contain flowed out of her unrestrained so Craig held her as she sobbed her heart out on the riverbank beside the bridge.
When she had composed herself they sat on the grassy bank and she told him the rest of the that day’s events which left Nicola with several rib fractures, a broken arm, a broken collar bone and extensive cuts and bruises and a concussion after Tom took the corner on the approach to the village much too fast.
He lost control, clipped a wall, left the road and flew into a nearby field where the car rolled multiple times before coming to a halt.
It was an event that had haunted her day and night ever since especially because she survived relatively unscathed.
“And that’s why you feel guilty” he said
“Wouldn’t you?” she asked him
“No,” he said “I would thank God for sparing me and you should too”
“That’s easy for you to say” she said thrusting her chin out defiantly
“Look Nicola you have your whole life ahead of you” he said “you should try to be positive, banish the dark thoughts from your mind and stop feeling….”
“Suicidal!! is that what you were going to say?” she said “I'm not suicidal, that was just a blip”
“I'm sure it was” he said “No one who wants to die would have fought like fury to live, like you did”
Nicola didn’t say anything but nodded and gave him a weak smile.
“What I meant was that feeling guilty about surviving is killing you” he continued
“What makes you such an expert?” she asked
“Well my first class degree in phycology helps” he said “but I’m just very perceptive”
“I should go” she said and stood up
“Did it help?” He asked
“What trying to kill myself?” she asked with a weak smile which he returned
“I meant talking about it” he said
“Yes” she replied surprised at her answer “It did”
“Perhaps we can talk again” he suggested but she didn’t answer and walked up the steps to the road that lead up to Mornington Field, which offered her the shortest route home, but before she disappeared from view she turned and shouted
“Yes”
(Part 05)
More than a week had gone by since Nicola had opened up to him beside the river and she had agreed to tell him more.
He had seen her around the village a few times, and had even stopped to exchange pleasantries but the opportunity to have the long awaited talk never presented itself.
That was until one day when his brother Dave was off for the day and had decided to take the children for a walk.
So he was sitting in the garden of the police house trying to decide what to do with the time he had on his hands when he was interrupted.
“Hello” a soft voice behind him said and when he turned around he saw it was Nicola.
“I’m ready to talk”
“And I’m ready to listen” he said “I’ll just make us a drink”
“Can you tell me about the accident?” he asked her after he made them both a drink
“Too be honest I don't remember very much really” she told him “not about the crash at least, it all happened so fast”
“Tell me what you do remember then” he encouraged her
“We were driving along laughing and joking just like every other time we had driven down that lane” she said “And then all of a sudden we weren’t laughing, and we were being bounced around like rag dolls and there was noise and screams and then we stopped”
She paused to drink her tea and he said nothing and just let her go at her own pace.
“I remember I was in the car and I was trapped in the back, Jenny was lifeless beside me she must have died after the first roll and Tom’s brother Callum had been thrown through the windscreen and lay dead in the field less than thirty feet away”
“What about Tom?” Craig asked and she turned to look at him with tears in her eyes as she replied
“I watched him die”
“I can’t imagine how that must have been” he said and took hold of her hand
“It was terrible, he kept crying out for his mother” she said and more tears filled her eyes.
“I wanted to comfort him but I couldn’t move, I tried, I really did but it was no use, I couldn’t even hold his hand”
The tears streamed down her cheeks
“He was such a big strong man begging for his mum, but she wasn't there. He only had me and I could do nothing for him, I still have nightmares about it”
“I would be very surprised if you didn’t” Craig thought
“I don’t know how long it was before someone came to help us but it wasn’t soon enough and so I just had to sit there helpless and watch my boyfriend die”
“After that I don’t remember much I was in a daze I have a vague recollection of the fire brigade cutting me free, and paramedics putting me in the ambulance, but that’s all” she said “it must have been the concussion”
“Or the trauma of what you had seen” Craig said
“Do you ever blame him?” she asked
“What?” she said
“Do you ever blame Tom for the accident?”
“Sometimes” she replied “I always warned him about driving too fast but he never listened, he just laughed it off, but mostly I just blame myself because I’m alive and he isn't”
Just at that moment Dave returned with the children.
“Oh hello” he said “its Nicola Boddington isn’t it?”
“Yes” she muttered “I have to go”
And before Craig could protest she was gone.
It was a real shame Dave returned when he did because she had opened up to him without very much prompting from him and he felt they had made real progress.
(Part 06)
The night after Nicola had opened up to him he sat up until the early hours with Dave drinking whisky and with Craig’s encouragement whilst in his cups his brother let something slip.
The knowledge obtained through the application of excess amounts of whisky was very enlightening and gave Craig considerable food for thought.
Though he wasn’t sure if he should use the information or not and while he wrestled with his conscience the days slipped away and all of a sudden the Mornington Beer Festival was upon them.
Craig had the weekend off even though Dave was on duty all weekend because Peta and the children had gone to stay with her parents for a few days.
So he was free to track down Nicola and continue from where they left off.
Nicola had been dreading the Mornington Beer Festival, as the whole of the Boddington clan were descending on the village and she was expected to be among them.
As was the norm the Beer Festival was being held in the grounds of Mornington Manor.
They had been sitting around the table in the main marquee for about an hour before she got up and mumbled to the group.
“I need a breath of fresh air”
She made her way out of the tent into the sunshine and as she stood on the threshold her mother came up behind her
“Is everything alright Nicola?” she asked, unable to hide the concern in her voice.
“I'm fine mum,” She replied “I just need to get out for a while and
clear my head, it’s very hot in there is all”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure, I think I'll just go for a walk” Nicola said
“Well don’t wander too far” she said “And don’t be too long”
“Ok mum”
“I mean it” Mrs. Boddington said
“I won't be too long” Nicola assured her and walked off through the crowd.
She walked as quickly as the crowds would allow and as soon as was possible she slipped between two marquees and across the grounds to the cool tranquility of Manor Wood.
When she was sitting in the beer tent with her family, dark thoughts began to fill her head again but as she made her way through the cool woods they began to fade.
Once she was in the sanctuary of the wood she ambled through to the other side until she reached the riverbank, and then turned left and followed the river towards the Brewery and Dulcets Mill but stopped and sat on the first bench she came to.
“I hope you’re not planning another swim” a voice said from behind her “I’ve got my favourite trousers on”
Despite the silence she had been so lost in her own thoughts and she hadn’t heard his footsteps as he approached.
“What are you doing here?” she asked
There was no need for her to turn around to know who the voice belonged to, it was a voice she recognized very well, it was Craig Jones.
“I just fancied some peace and quiet” he lied, in truth he had seen her walk into the woods and was concerned about her intentions.
“So what about you?” he asked as he sat down beside her
“Much the same” she replied
(Part 07)
Craig had seen Nicola walk into the woods and was concerned about her and her black moods and what her intentions might be.
He was relieved when he emerged from Manor would to see her sitting on a bench.
“I hope you’re not planning another swim” he said jokingly
“I’ve got my favourite trousers on”
“What are you doing here?” she asked
“I just fancied some peace and quiet” he lied.
“So what about you?” he asked as he sat down beside her
“Much the same” she replied
“Do you want a drink?” he asked as he reached into his bag and when his hand reappeared it was holding two bottles of beer, then he put his hand in his pocket and took out a bottle opener.
She nodded so he removed the cap off one bottle and handed it to her and then he opened one for himself.
“I have a confession to make,” he said
“I’m not just here because I fancied some peace and quiet, I was looking for you”
“You mean you still want to practice your psychology on me” she said
“No that’s not it” he said crossly
“Isn’t it?” She snapped
“No it isn’t” he retorted “Because I don’t want to be you’re therapist or your psychologist, I want to be your boyfriend”
He had fallen in love with her on that first day when he fished her from the river although he didn’t know it at the time.
“Oh” she exclaimed
“But before I can do anything about it there is something I need to tell you” he said enigmatically
“I know something about the accident” he said
“What?” she asked urgently
“I’m not sure I should say, it might make you feel better or at the very least less guilty about surviving, or it may make you feel worse”
“That's impossible” she said “what could possibly make me feel worse than I do already, so tell me”
“Well you know my brother is a policeman?”
“Yes, I remember him from the accident, He was there when the firemen got me out”
“Well, he told me something” he said
“What was it?”
“It was some evidence about the crash that wasn’t disclosed at the inquest” he said
“What evidence?” she said and bit her lower lip as if she was summoning up the courage to hear the worst.
Craig meanwhile was concerned about revealing something that might scupper their relationship before it began
“When they did the post mortems on Tom and Callum” he said “They found that they were both high”
“That's not possible” she said, refusing to believe it. “I would have
known if Tom was on drugs, wouldn’t I?”
“I don’t know about that” he said “But there’s more”
“What else could there be?” she said
“They got the drugs from Jenny” Craig said
“Jenny?” she asked
“Her cousin was a dealer” Craig said
Nicola tried desperately to remember back to the day of the accident to try and recall if there had been any clue that she missed, which if she had been alert to might have saved their lives, but she couldn’t.
“How bad were they?” he asked him as tears began to sting her eyes
“My brother told me that Tom would have been severely impaired to drive, Callum also, Jenny was clean, and there was no evidence that she was a user”
“Just a supplier” she said and her voice cracked and she began to sob, so Craig put his arm around her.
The sobs came slowly at first but were soon became uncontrollable heaves.
(Part 08)
As Craig and Nicola sat on a bench between Manor Wood and the river her sobs came slowly at first but soon became uncontrollable heaves.
He kissed the top of her head and could smell her perfume as her head lay against his chest
“I'm sorry” he said “I shouldn't have told you, but I didn't want you to keep punishing yourself”
“It wasn't your fault that you survived honey” he said “please don’t feel guilty for being alive”
When Nicola stopped crying she wiped away her tears with her sleeve.
“How did they do it?” she asked
“How did they do what?”
“Suppress the evidence”
“Apparently Jenny’s Uncle is a Judge and a lodge member so it wasn’t difficult for him to influence decisions” Craig replied
Then she was quite for a while as she mulled over the new evidence, it all suddenly made perfect sense and it explained why Tom's parents avoided her at the funeral and why Jenny’s mum wouldn't meet her eyes.
Nicola had been torturing herself that they were like that because they somehow resented her because she was alive, while all the time it was because they all knew that Tom, Callum and Jenny were all complicit in their own demise and they had nearly taken her with them as well.
The tears began to fall again but she got control of herself.
“I'm sorry” she said “it was such a shock”
“You don't need to apologize” Craig said “I'm the one who should be sorry for telling you”
“No, I’m glad you told me the truth, you’ve given me my life back” she said and hugged him tightly.
They continued sitting on the bench, Craig with his arm around her shoulder and her head against his chest long after the tears had stopped.
“I suppose we should discuss the boyfriend thing now” she said without lifting her head, he realized why shortly afterwards when she did show her face because she clearly looked like she was blushing.
“I agree” Craig said
“Why would want to be my boyfriend?” she asked “I’m a mess”
“I don’t think so” he said and leaned his face towards her and touched his lips gently with hers.
It was a sweet and gentle kiss and when it was over they smiled at each other and then she said.
“I am a mess though”
“The heart wants what the heart wants” he retorted
“But you admit I am a mess though” Nicola said triumphantly
“No, but I will admit that I fell for you when you were at your most…”
“Messed up” she interrupted
“Vulnerable, disheartened and dripping wet” he corrected her
“So I have seen you at your worst, and I’m not put off”
“What about when I’m no longer interesting to a psychologist” she asked
“I’m interested in “you” he said “the psychology just made me more interesting to you”
No sooner had he finished talking than Nicola stopped him from speaking again by kissing him.
A much more urgent, passion filled kiss altogether, than the first which seemed to draw a line under any further speculation.
After the kiss they remained on the bench holding each other in silence for about ten minutes when Craig spoke.
“Let’s go back to the festival” he suggested but she shook her head
“Why not?”
“I don't want to” she told him
“Even if we go together?” he asked
“A first date kind of thing”
“I’d rather just go for a walk” she explained “I’m not ready to face the family yet”
“Ashamed of me eh” he said
“Obviously” she said and they kissed again.
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