(Part 01)
Jennifer Bardsley lived in the small country village of Mornington-By-Mere in the Finchbottom Vale nestled between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest and the rolling Pepperstock Hills.
Which was 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.
She lived and worked up at Mornington Field, which had once been an operational RAF base, which had been converted into a mixture of commercial and residential units.
Jen lived in apartment 1O of Lancaster House, which was converted from the old Officers Mess and she was employed by Paige Turners as did the love of her life, David Norman.
The Normans ran the general store and post office in the village and also staffed the chemist shop for its limited opening times.
David was almost 22 years old, quiet, unassuming, thoughtful and intelligent and totally head of heels in love.
He loved Mornington and he didn’t want to spend his life anywhere else but would have gladly left the village just to be close to Jennifer.
He also quite liked the Grocery trade, and could quite easily have done it full time like his father and Uncles had, but he was also a well-read young man, and as he was an intelligent young man his parents didn’t want to stifle him, so he worked part time in the shop along with working full time up at Paige Turners.
So with him and Jennifer both working up at Paige Turners and both fancying the pants off each other it should have been a shoe in for them to get together, but that was not the case.
David was willing, but Jennifer had reservations and that was because she was 8 years older than he was.
He was a singularly unremarkable looking man to look at, Mr average, ordinary, not unattractive but not attractive either, with pale skin, sandy coloured hair and crystal blue eyes.
On the first day they met Jennifer fell in love with him when she looked into those eyes for the first time.
David was in simple terms one of life’s moths, plain and bland and always drawn to the light but never a source of light.
While Jennifer was the complete opposite, if he was a moth then she was very definitely a butterfly.
She was a strikingly good looking young woman, not supermodel beautiful, but very lovely, tall and voluptuous with luscious black hair and hypnotic blue eyes.
But despite the fact that they were the sun and the moon in each other’s skies and were besotted from the first moment they entered the others orbit Jennifer put the brakes on her feelings and rebuffed David’s advances because she didn’t think that the age difference could be overcome.
She envisaged jibes from colleagues and villagers alike about the cougar and her toy boy.
In reality the vast majority would have just been happy for them and as far as David was concerned she could have been 20 years older than him and he would still have wanted her.
(Part 02)
Jennifer’s job at Paige Turners was as a locator of hard to find books, rare books, first editions and the illusive.
She possessed an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the printed word and knew how to sort the wheat from the chaff and her talents were invaluable to Paige Turners and they were fortunate to have her and they very nearly lost her when the move was made from Finchbottom to Mornington.
She was one of the doubting Thomas’s along with Annette West and Carole Beverley who were unsure about such a move.
But once they saw the village and the standard of the accommodation on offer they all signed on the dotted line without any further hesitation.
Her skill at seeking out the illusive and the obscure meant that Paige Turners were the go to people if you wanted something different, special or that which had eluded you.
So it was in her role as book expert extraordinaire that she made the drive one Monday morning over to Clerembeax Palace which was to the west of Abbeyvale situated between Grace Hill and Bushy Down on the outskirts of the village of Clerembeax St Giles.
The Clerembeax’s arrived in Downshire following the Norman conquests and stayed for a thousand years before the name died out following the death of the reclusive Marcus Clerembeax at the age of 96.
He had lived alone, apart from a butler and a cook, for 50 years after the tragic deaths of his two sons in the hedonistic sixties as a result of an excess of drugs and alcohol.
His wife chose to deal with the loss by taking her own life the day after the funeral while Marcus decided his best course of action was to turn his back on the world and hide himself away.
Following his death in the autumn of 2015 with no direct heirs it took the Clerembeax solicitors, Beaumont, Villiers and Goodfellow, more than a year to find a legitimate Heir to inherit the estate, and that was 50 year old distant cousin Yvonne Labuschagne, and she took up residence in the January of 2017.
She was by profession a masseuse and had worked for many years along with her late husband at the Dancingdean Spa Hotel in Childean.
But with her inheritance she had the means and the venue to open her own Spa at the Clerembeax Palace but the house needed work.
The exterior was fine as the reclusive Marcus had been sensible enough to keep the fabric of the building well maintained.
She wasn’t sure about keeping the word “Palace” in the name because the building didn’t really look very palatial, mainly due to the fact that the original Clerembeax Palace burned down in the 19th century so the present manifestation was in fact a rather gaudy Victorian monstrosity in comparison, though it was not without its charms.
The interior had stood the test of time far less well and needed at the very least a lot of TLC.
The 19th century plumbing certainly wouldn’t stand the rigors of a 21st century spa and the electrics needed a complete rewire.
While the library was both a blessing and a curse, the latter because it took up so much space and the former because it was full of valuable old books which was where Jennifer Bardsley and Paige Turners came in.
(Part 03)
For the new owner of the Clerembeax Palace, Yvonne Labuschagne, the library was both a blessing and a curse, the latter because it took up so much space and the former because it was full of valuable old books which was where Jennifer Bardsley and Paige Turners came in.
Because the revenue from the book sale would go a long way to paying for the refit, or at least that was what Yvonne hoped.
When people were looking for a particular book, or a particular edition and they weren’t readily available they went on the “wish list” and it was that list that she was hoping would be much reduced after her week in Clerembeax.
After first meeting Yvonne and having a brief chat over coffee Jennifer entered the musty library of the once great house with its leather upholstered chairs and oak panelled walls and she instantly felt at home, it was after all her perfect place.
She spent the first hour just casually perusing the packed shelves and just in that short time she had found four titles on the wish list.
She spent the first four days doing a rough appraisal of the library and gave Yvonne a ball park figure of what she might expect at auction from the rarest volumes and she nearly fainted.
But to catalogue the whole library would take a little while longer and she would need reinforcements to complete the task.
The understanding when Paige Turners undertook the appraisal was that they would have first refusal on the contents at the market value but they recommended O’Sullivan and Springthorpe to sell the really valuable items at auction and Paige Turners would take a small commission.
On Friday she decided that before driving home she would spend a couple of hours relaxing in the library so she took a seat in a Chesterfield chair beside the fire and in consummate comfort she began to read.
But her chosen reading was not one of the myriad of leather bound tomes that filled the oak shelves from floor to ceiling, nor a rare first edition, of which there were so many, despite her having her choice of all the literary classics, with their gold embossed titles stamped into the leather, it wasn’t one of those.
In fact Jennifer’s selection wasn’t a book at all it was a collection of letters neatly tied in faded red ribbons and as she began to read them they took her breath away, for each beautifully hand written page was part of a remarkable love story.
The lifelong love story about a most extraordinary couple, whose depth of love was evidenced in every eloquent syllable.
As she read on, their love affair was revealed to her as the most exceptional love story she had ever read or known of.
For this lovingly devoted couple who billed and cooed in copperplate script on every scented page and shared their hearts love and their deepest feelings in unguarded detail, had never met.
“How could that be” she said aloud
She thought their love was evident, in fact it was palpable on every page of their intimate personnel correspondence.
“Poppycock” she exclaimed “that’s not what this is”
Correspondence did not in any form convey the true meaning of their substance.
The tangibility was in their Love letters that was the only way to say it.
Although they had begun to write in the innocence of childhood as mere pen pals, for a project set by School, a chore that had to be done didn’t remain burdensome for long as they had fallen in love.
(Part 04)
The flowery words of an affaire d’amour, echoed in the calligraphy on every page, in each revealing billet doux, more affectionate, romantic and intimate than its passionate predecessor.
She read on as they billed and cooed on every page in each lovingly constructed sentence, heavily laced with innuendo and dripping with sensual longing, subtle yet explicit at the same time and flavoured with delicious nuances, flirtatious and lustful, romantic and affectionate.
Tears rolled down her cheeks as she read of a love of such perfect purity, not it had to be said for its pureness of thought but for the absence of any hope of physicality.
For their love was star-crossed, because she was an invalid, bed ridden, stricken with polio as a child, while he was a subject of an enemy state and because their two nations were at war she couldn’t go to him even if her health had permitted.
He in turn was unable to go to her for fear of capture and imprisonment so they could never meet, would never meet.
And as Jennifer read on it was obvious to the reader that they were content in that fact, for their love transcended the physical.
So they made love via their sweet missives, a love that never faded or faltered, in an affair lasting more than forty years, which only ended with his death.
Jennifer stopped to wipe her eyes and then read the final pages which revealed the one and only public acknowledgement of the lifelong love affair.
That acknowledge was in his will when he expressed as his dying wish that her letters, which were so precious to him and cherished during his lifetime, should be returned to his love, so that they at least should lie together.
On receipt of the letter and the news that her cherished lover had left the world she was so broken hearted that she died a week after receiving them and with her death the lovers could be united at last.
Jennifer sat in the library and sobbed her heart out for an hour and when she had finished crying she
Said loudly
“You’re a bloody fool”
She sat upright and wiped her eyes and added
“She couldn’t have the man she loved, and she loved him till she died”
“But you can, and you’ve done nothing about it”
She left the library and marched to her room talking to herself the whole way
“She never met the love of her life and you see the man you love every day”
She quickly threw her things in her bag
“You just fret about what people will think of you, well sod them, sod them all”
“Every day you see him and you’ve done nothing about it”
She repeated then she set her chin defiantly and added
“Well that changes today”
She left Clerembeax Palace without even pausing to say goodbye and drove back to Mornington at breakneck speed and went straight to Paige Turners where without even pausing for breath she marked inside without acknowledging anyone until she spotted David, and she made a beeline for him and ignoring the fact that he was in conversation with a colleague and without speaking she went straight up to him and kissed him passionately in full view of the whole staff.
“Well it’s about time” Paige said and everyone agreed “We should send her away more often”
Saturday, 3 June 2017
Friday, 2 June 2017
Those Memories Made on Teardrop Lake – (71) The Solicitor’s Receptionist
(Part 01)
Phil Marlow woke up exceptionally early and was exceptionally grumpy, which was quite unusual for him, but on this particular morning he was too grumpy for words and he wanted to cheer himself up at the earliest opportunity.
And the reason for his grumpiness was the firm of Shallowfield Solicitors, Pangbourne, Parker and Knowles, or more precisely Catherine Kimber the receptionist thereof.
His dealings at the Solicitors were concerning the settling of his late father’s estate which turned out to be quite protracted.
The particular Solicitor he was involved with was Linda Baxter, an attractive woman, tall and slender in her early thirties who wore a tailored business suit and spectacles, and she spoke in posh plummy tones, and had a sexy way of peering over the top of her spectacles which was very alluring.
But as attractive, glamorous, and alluring as she was with her posh voice and magnificent long legs she was way out of his league so he didn’t find her a distraction.
However Phil was on a mission to find a significant other to settle down with once his father’s affairs had been settled and he rather liked the look of the receptionist.
On his first visit he gazed lustily down her top at the quite pleasing vista restrained in a pink satin bra, which was a delightful surprise because her outer garments were very unremarkable, and when she realized he was staring down her top she quickly covered herself up and let out a rather disgusted exclamation, but then she smiled at him and blushed.
He may have thought her a straight laced prude, but he liked that, it had always turned him on, partly because of the challenge but more often than not because they turned out to be less straight laced beneath the façade.
So he returned her smile and asked
“Do you have anything with the address and phone number on?”
“Oh yes” she replied eagerly “I could give you one of my cards”
“Thank you….”
“Catherine” she said “Catherine Kimber”
“Thank you Catherine”
He wasn’t sure if he would ever call her but he had learned to keep his options open.
Phil thought that with regular visits to the offices he would get numerous opportunities to speak with her, but alas no.
And that was why he was grumpy because he had concluded his business with Pangbourne, Parker and Knowles, and he hadn’t asked her and nor had he phoned her.
So with the day beginning grumpily, he needed to find the courage to pick up the phone.
There were a number of local girls who had made it perfectly clear that they were willing and able but they weren’t really his type whatever that meant, but they were too pushy for his liking.
Even busty Belinda the gardener, who he had inherited so to speak from his father had given him the green light.
He had even considered going for the soft option of asking his ex-girlfriend Jenna Stimson out, things weren’t so bad with her, she was very nice, he could do a lot worse, and she didn’t want to break up in the first place.
So he took his phone from his pocket and was about to dial her number when he exclaimed
“What the hell are you doing? Her favourite colour is beige”
So without over thinking it he phoned the Solicitors
“Pangbourne, Parker and Knowles”
“Hello Catherine” he said “it’s Phil Marlow”
(Part 02)
He had considered going for the soft option of asking his ex-girlfriend Jenna Stimson out, things weren’t so bad with her, she was very nice, he could do a lot worse, and she didn’t want to break up in the first place.
So he took his phone from his pocket and was about to dial her number when he exclaimed
“What the hell are you doing? Her favourite colour is beige”
So without over thinking it he phoned the Solicitors
“Pangbourne, Parker and Knowles”
“Hello Catherine” he said “it’s Phil Marlow”
When he reached the building he went upstairs and stopped at the receptionist’s desk, which was deserted, and so he waited.
It was quite late in the day, late enough that almost everyone had left for the day.
He wasn’t there more than a few minutes before the cute blonde receptionist appeared surrounded by a cloud of freshly applied perfume.
Although in truth Phil was more interested in her rather than the perfume that surrounded her, but it was very pleasant nonetheless.
“Hello, you look lovely” he said and moved in for a kiss which he fully expected to be one of those air kiss affairs but Catherine had other ideas.
She planted a kiss straight on his lips and as soon as mouth met mouth her tongue engaged his own in oral combat and they wrapped themselves in a tender embrace.
He had wanted to kiss her the first moment he saw her and she was of similar mind but had thought the kiss would never materialise which was why she took it when it was offered.
“We have to stop” she said “Someone might see”
“Damn I was enjoying that” he said as he watched her adjusting her apparel.
“So was I” she admitted “shall we go”
They went down the stairwell towards the basement carpark but stopped half way down for another kiss which soon reignited passions flame, but when a stairwell door opened and closed either above or below she pushed him away and again straightened her clothes.
“Someone is going to see us” she said nervously
“Let’s go then” Phil said and took her hand and they ran down the stairs to the carpark.
When they reached her car Catherine fumbled for the car keys in her bag and failed.
“Your hands are shaking” he pointed out
“I know that’s your fault” she said and tipped the contents of her bag on the bonnet.
“Why?” he asked innocently
“You know why” she replied “because I thought you were never going to call and you did out of the blue and I just want our first date to be perfect, and I’m so nervous, and I’m going to stay nervous until I get you somewhere where I can kiss you in peace, which isn’t going to happen if I can’t find my bloody keys”
“You don’t need your keys for what I have in mind” Phil said turning towards her.
“Does it involve waiting patiently?” she asked
“No”
“Thank God” she replied and turned her head to kiss him.
Phil Marlow woke up exceptionally early and was exceptionally grumpy, which was quite unusual for him, but on this particular morning he was too grumpy for words and he wanted to cheer himself up at the earliest opportunity.
And the reason for his grumpiness was the firm of Shallowfield Solicitors, Pangbourne, Parker and Knowles, or more precisely Catherine Kimber the receptionist thereof.
His dealings at the Solicitors were concerning the settling of his late father’s estate which turned out to be quite protracted.
The particular Solicitor he was involved with was Linda Baxter, an attractive woman, tall and slender in her early thirties who wore a tailored business suit and spectacles, and she spoke in posh plummy tones, and had a sexy way of peering over the top of her spectacles which was very alluring.
But as attractive, glamorous, and alluring as she was with her posh voice and magnificent long legs she was way out of his league so he didn’t find her a distraction.
However Phil was on a mission to find a significant other to settle down with once his father’s affairs had been settled and he rather liked the look of the receptionist.
On his first visit he gazed lustily down her top at the quite pleasing vista restrained in a pink satin bra, which was a delightful surprise because her outer garments were very unremarkable, and when she realized he was staring down her top she quickly covered herself up and let out a rather disgusted exclamation, but then she smiled at him and blushed.
He may have thought her a straight laced prude, but he liked that, it had always turned him on, partly because of the challenge but more often than not because they turned out to be less straight laced beneath the façade.
So he returned her smile and asked
“Do you have anything with the address and phone number on?”
“Oh yes” she replied eagerly “I could give you one of my cards”
“Thank you….”
“Catherine” she said “Catherine Kimber”
“Thank you Catherine”
He wasn’t sure if he would ever call her but he had learned to keep his options open.
Phil thought that with regular visits to the offices he would get numerous opportunities to speak with her, but alas no.
And that was why he was grumpy because he had concluded his business with Pangbourne, Parker and Knowles, and he hadn’t asked her and nor had he phoned her.
So with the day beginning grumpily, he needed to find the courage to pick up the phone.
There were a number of local girls who had made it perfectly clear that they were willing and able but they weren’t really his type whatever that meant, but they were too pushy for his liking.
Even busty Belinda the gardener, who he had inherited so to speak from his father had given him the green light.
He had even considered going for the soft option of asking his ex-girlfriend Jenna Stimson out, things weren’t so bad with her, she was very nice, he could do a lot worse, and she didn’t want to break up in the first place.
So he took his phone from his pocket and was about to dial her number when he exclaimed
“What the hell are you doing? Her favourite colour is beige”
So without over thinking it he phoned the Solicitors
“Pangbourne, Parker and Knowles”
“Hello Catherine” he said “it’s Phil Marlow”
(Part 02)
He had considered going for the soft option of asking his ex-girlfriend Jenna Stimson out, things weren’t so bad with her, she was very nice, he could do a lot worse, and she didn’t want to break up in the first place.
So he took his phone from his pocket and was about to dial her number when he exclaimed
“What the hell are you doing? Her favourite colour is beige”
So without over thinking it he phoned the Solicitors
“Pangbourne, Parker and Knowles”
“Hello Catherine” he said “it’s Phil Marlow”
When he reached the building he went upstairs and stopped at the receptionist’s desk, which was deserted, and so he waited.
It was quite late in the day, late enough that almost everyone had left for the day.
He wasn’t there more than a few minutes before the cute blonde receptionist appeared surrounded by a cloud of freshly applied perfume.
Although in truth Phil was more interested in her rather than the perfume that surrounded her, but it was very pleasant nonetheless.
“Hello, you look lovely” he said and moved in for a kiss which he fully expected to be one of those air kiss affairs but Catherine had other ideas.
She planted a kiss straight on his lips and as soon as mouth met mouth her tongue engaged his own in oral combat and they wrapped themselves in a tender embrace.
He had wanted to kiss her the first moment he saw her and she was of similar mind but had thought the kiss would never materialise which was why she took it when it was offered.
“We have to stop” she said “Someone might see”
“Damn I was enjoying that” he said as he watched her adjusting her apparel.
“So was I” she admitted “shall we go”
They went down the stairwell towards the basement carpark but stopped half way down for another kiss which soon reignited passions flame, but when a stairwell door opened and closed either above or below she pushed him away and again straightened her clothes.
“Someone is going to see us” she said nervously
“Let’s go then” Phil said and took her hand and they ran down the stairs to the carpark.
When they reached her car Catherine fumbled for the car keys in her bag and failed.
“Your hands are shaking” he pointed out
“I know that’s your fault” she said and tipped the contents of her bag on the bonnet.
“Why?” he asked innocently
“You know why” she replied “because I thought you were never going to call and you did out of the blue and I just want our first date to be perfect, and I’m so nervous, and I’m going to stay nervous until I get you somewhere where I can kiss you in peace, which isn’t going to happen if I can’t find my bloody keys”
“You don’t need your keys for what I have in mind” Phil said turning towards her.
“Does it involve waiting patiently?” she asked
“No”
“Thank God” she replied and turned her head to kiss him.
Downshire Diary – (70) The Ginger Amazonian Assignation
(Part 01)
Downshire is a relatively small English county but like a pocket battleship it packs a lot in, a short but beautiful coastline, a channel port, the Ancient forests of Dancingdean and Pepperstock, the craggy ridges and manmade lakes of the Pepperstock Hills National Park, the rolling hills of the Downshire Downs, the beautiful Finchbottom Vale and farm land as far as the eye can see from the Trotwood’s and the Grace’s in the south to the home of the Downshire Light infantry, Nettlefield, and their affluent neighbour’s, Roespring and Tipton in the north but our story begins considerably further south in the Finchbottom Vale although the players in this tale come from every corner of the county.
A group of University friends were camping at the Eastern end of the Finchbottom Vale, on the Maxlins camp site in Sharpinghead that was once a working railway station before it fell afoul of Dr Beeching and his draconian cuts.
The campsite was attached to Maxlins Holiday Camp and although the campgrounds were nothing to do with Maxlins, all those attending did have day passes to use some of the amenities.
They were just spending a week relaxing before they returned to Abbottsford University for their 3rd year.
One of them was Sean Hallows who had gone to Maxlins with his long term girlfriend Daisy.
He was a rather ordinary looking lad, a bit of a bean pole with scruffy blonde hair and a bad complexion, the only remarkable thing about him was his heart.
He had to return to his tent one morning after breakfast because he had forgotten his phone.
“Get my sunnies while youre there” his girlfriend Daisy said
“Ok” he retorted and set off at pace.
They were about ten minutes walk frrom the food hall but with his great long strides he did it in five and he went to Daisy’s tent first and went inside without hesitation as he knew where she kept her sun glasses.
But as soon as he got inside he stopped dead in his tracks as her best friend Katie Bell was still in the tent, though not still in her sleeping bag, in fact she wasn’t in very much at all really.
She was kneeling down, facing the flaps, pulling a T-shirt over her head, apart from that she was only wearing her underwear.
Sean stood motionless by the opening spellbound by the vision of the girl he had been in love with for almost a year.
She was a big Ginger Amazon of a girl almost as tall as he was, long limbed, busty and beautiful, well he certainly thought so, which was why when he came upon her in a state of near undress he couldn’t take his eyes off her, and there was a lot of her to look at.
Katie hadn’t noticed him at first as her long ginger locks had fallen across her face but when she did she made no attempt to cover herself and chose instead to glare at him.
In utter embarassment and uttering appologies he retreated to his own tent red faced but she pursued him and as it was her spectacular nakedness that had caused his blushing she quizzed him over his peeping when he all but confessed the truth to her about his love of her and then they lay in his tent and shared a kiss that they had both longed for over the previous year.
The following couple of days there was a little awkwardness between them, but not because they felt guilty for what they did, the kiss was electrifying, so the reason for the awkwardness was simply that they wanted to do it again although neither of them actualy knew how the other one felt.
(Part 02)
On the third day most of the group were going on a coach trip to Pepperstock Castle for the day, but the night before Sean tripped over a guy rope on the way back from the pub and twisted his ankle, so he cried off and said he was going rest it for the day.
Daisy gave him a goody bag, containg a sandwich, crisps and a bottle of water then she kissed him good bye in the tent and told him to be good.
But Katie was standing behind Daisy and as he caught her gaze his eyes betrayed his thoughts.
Katie wasn’t going on the trip to Pepperstock Castle because she and a girl called India were driving over to Sharpington instead.
Katie was originally from Sharpington and still had family in the town so she had planned to spend the day visiting them while India was meeting up with a girl she’d met the night before.
Katie knew in the second that she made eye contact with Sean that he wanted to share a kiss with the ginger amazon again, so as soon as she dropped India by the pier she drove back to Sharpinghead again, she could always spend the evening with her family instead.
As soon as Daisy and the group left Sean limped over to the shower block and had a long refreshing shower and tried to think of how he was going to spend the day on his own.
He was really dissapointed that Ginger Katie wasnt going to be spending the day with him or he with her.
He returned showered and shaved to his tent and got himself ready and then he had an idea of what to do.
Katie got back to Maxlin’s camp site in double quick time and after parking the car she stopped at the washrooms to freshen up, applied make up and perfume and made her way to Seans tent.
She took a deep breath before she burst in through the flaps and said
“Surprise!”
But there was no one there, the tent was empty.
“Bollocks” she exclaimed and then she muttered under her breath as she trudged back towards her own tent
“I drive like a mad thing to get back here and no snog, I could be having tea and cake with my Aunt and not getting a snog, I didn’t need to drive all this way”
Sean was at that moment sitting at a picnic table where he had eaten his crisps and sandwich and he saw Katie as she bounded along towards his tent.
He saw her enthusiastically enter his tent and then exit again and trudge forlornly towards her own.
So he stood up and limped after her as she went sulkily to her own tent and caught up with her just before she entered.
“This is a nice surpise” he said “I wasn’t expecting to see you today”
“Oh its you” she said as she turned around while trying to hide her obvious delight
“Arn’t you pleased to see me?” he asked already knowing the answer
“I havent come back to see you” she lied
“Oh I thought you came back for another kiss” he said
“Well you were mistaken” she retorted
“So you don’t want a kiss then?”
“Not bothered one way or the other” she replied
“Well if you don’t want to then there was a cute blonde in the picnic area who seemed very interested” he said
“Don’t you dare” she squeeled and bundled him into the tent and on to her sleeping bag.
“If there’s any kisses on offer” she said as she half lay on top of him
“Then I’m having them all”
“They are very definitely on offer” he confirmed and her lips touched gently onto his.
Downshire is a relatively small English county but like a pocket battleship it packs a lot in, a short but beautiful coastline, a channel port, the Ancient forests of Dancingdean and Pepperstock, the craggy ridges and manmade lakes of the Pepperstock Hills National Park, the rolling hills of the Downshire Downs, the beautiful Finchbottom Vale and farm land as far as the eye can see from the Trotwood’s and the Grace’s in the south to the home of the Downshire Light infantry, Nettlefield, and their affluent neighbour’s, Roespring and Tipton in the north but our story begins considerably further south in the Finchbottom Vale although the players in this tale come from every corner of the county.
A group of University friends were camping at the Eastern end of the Finchbottom Vale, on the Maxlins camp site in Sharpinghead that was once a working railway station before it fell afoul of Dr Beeching and his draconian cuts.
The campsite was attached to Maxlins Holiday Camp and although the campgrounds were nothing to do with Maxlins, all those attending did have day passes to use some of the amenities.
They were just spending a week relaxing before they returned to Abbottsford University for their 3rd year.
One of them was Sean Hallows who had gone to Maxlins with his long term girlfriend Daisy.
He was a rather ordinary looking lad, a bit of a bean pole with scruffy blonde hair and a bad complexion, the only remarkable thing about him was his heart.
He had to return to his tent one morning after breakfast because he had forgotten his phone.
“Get my sunnies while youre there” his girlfriend Daisy said
“Ok” he retorted and set off at pace.
They were about ten minutes walk frrom the food hall but with his great long strides he did it in five and he went to Daisy’s tent first and went inside without hesitation as he knew where she kept her sun glasses.
But as soon as he got inside he stopped dead in his tracks as her best friend Katie Bell was still in the tent, though not still in her sleeping bag, in fact she wasn’t in very much at all really.
She was kneeling down, facing the flaps, pulling a T-shirt over her head, apart from that she was only wearing her underwear.
Sean stood motionless by the opening spellbound by the vision of the girl he had been in love with for almost a year.
She was a big Ginger Amazon of a girl almost as tall as he was, long limbed, busty and beautiful, well he certainly thought so, which was why when he came upon her in a state of near undress he couldn’t take his eyes off her, and there was a lot of her to look at.
Katie hadn’t noticed him at first as her long ginger locks had fallen across her face but when she did she made no attempt to cover herself and chose instead to glare at him.
In utter embarassment and uttering appologies he retreated to his own tent red faced but she pursued him and as it was her spectacular nakedness that had caused his blushing she quizzed him over his peeping when he all but confessed the truth to her about his love of her and then they lay in his tent and shared a kiss that they had both longed for over the previous year.
The following couple of days there was a little awkwardness between them, but not because they felt guilty for what they did, the kiss was electrifying, so the reason for the awkwardness was simply that they wanted to do it again although neither of them actualy knew how the other one felt.
(Part 02)
On the third day most of the group were going on a coach trip to Pepperstock Castle for the day, but the night before Sean tripped over a guy rope on the way back from the pub and twisted his ankle, so he cried off and said he was going rest it for the day.
Daisy gave him a goody bag, containg a sandwich, crisps and a bottle of water then she kissed him good bye in the tent and told him to be good.
But Katie was standing behind Daisy and as he caught her gaze his eyes betrayed his thoughts.
Katie wasn’t going on the trip to Pepperstock Castle because she and a girl called India were driving over to Sharpington instead.
Katie was originally from Sharpington and still had family in the town so she had planned to spend the day visiting them while India was meeting up with a girl she’d met the night before.
Katie knew in the second that she made eye contact with Sean that he wanted to share a kiss with the ginger amazon again, so as soon as she dropped India by the pier she drove back to Sharpinghead again, she could always spend the evening with her family instead.
As soon as Daisy and the group left Sean limped over to the shower block and had a long refreshing shower and tried to think of how he was going to spend the day on his own.
He was really dissapointed that Ginger Katie wasnt going to be spending the day with him or he with her.
He returned showered and shaved to his tent and got himself ready and then he had an idea of what to do.
Katie got back to Maxlin’s camp site in double quick time and after parking the car she stopped at the washrooms to freshen up, applied make up and perfume and made her way to Seans tent.
She took a deep breath before she burst in through the flaps and said
“Surprise!”
But there was no one there, the tent was empty.
“Bollocks” she exclaimed and then she muttered under her breath as she trudged back towards her own tent
“I drive like a mad thing to get back here and no snog, I could be having tea and cake with my Aunt and not getting a snog, I didn’t need to drive all this way”
Sean was at that moment sitting at a picnic table where he had eaten his crisps and sandwich and he saw Katie as she bounded along towards his tent.
He saw her enthusiastically enter his tent and then exit again and trudge forlornly towards her own.
So he stood up and limped after her as she went sulkily to her own tent and caught up with her just before she entered.
“This is a nice surpise” he said “I wasn’t expecting to see you today”
“Oh its you” she said as she turned around while trying to hide her obvious delight
“Arn’t you pleased to see me?” he asked already knowing the answer
“I havent come back to see you” she lied
“Oh I thought you came back for another kiss” he said
“Well you were mistaken” she retorted
“So you don’t want a kiss then?”
“Not bothered one way or the other” she replied
“Well if you don’t want to then there was a cute blonde in the picnic area who seemed very interested” he said
“Don’t you dare” she squeeled and bundled him into the tent and on to her sleeping bag.
“If there’s any kisses on offer” she said as she half lay on top of him
“Then I’m having them all”
“They are very definitely on offer” he confirmed and her lips touched gently onto his.
Downshire Diary – (69) Making Plans with the Muse
(Part 01)
Downshire is a relatively small English county but like a pocket battleship it packs a lot in, a short but beautiful coastline, a channel port, the Ancient forests of Dancingdean and Pepperstock, the craggy ridges and manmade lakes of the Pepperstock Hills National Park, the rolling hills of the Downshire Downs, the beautiful Finchbottom Vale and farm land as far as the eye can see from the Trotwood’s and the Grace’s in the south to the home of the Downshire Light infantry, Nettlefield, and their affluent neighbour’s, Roespring and Tipton in the north but our story begins in the East, or more precisely, 20 miles inland from Sharpington-By-Sea, equidistant between Finchbottom and Pepperstock Green, in the sprawling village of Denmead.
Owen Carrington’s Uncle Glyn died on New Year’s Day and left him his Cottage and a small cash sum, more than enough to keep him going for a few more years.
He left it to him because he felt they were kindred spirits, he wanted to be a writer himself but his father made him get a proper job, Owen really liked him and he was a great story teller, and it was his Uncles colourful tales that helped him when he was writing his novels.
His death came as a great shock as it was sudden though not unsurprising given his health.
So that was how he found himself living in a lovely Victorian Cottage in the quaint Downshire Village of Denmead.
It was a very tranquil place though not without its distractions.
From his study he could look out through the open French windows and across the expanse of lawn to a stand of ancient woodland, there was no fence to separate garden and wood the two just merged.
And on the other side of the wood was the hub of the village, the Green Oak, everyone seemed to go there at some point, either for a drink, the restaurant or the coffee suite.
As a writer Owen’s star was definitely in the ascendency after the success of his first Romantic novel “The Maiden Muse” but the change in the fortunes of his writing career were not universally well received, his publisher liked it, his new agent loved it, the bank manager was ecstatic about it but his mother was disappointed by it because she thought it was a bit girlie.
But it wasn’t just his writing career that was climbing high, so was his love life thanks to his muse and lover, Juliana Molesworth, who had brought his writers block to an end, and since she had become his muse he had become a writer of bodice ripping romances which had proved to be an occupation which suited him very well indeed.
And it suited him in many ways, but the main benefit was that he was able to work at home, so he had no tedious commute every day and his working day was flexible to the point that some days he didn’t write at all.
This afforded him the opportunity of playing a round of Golf during the working week when most people had their noses to the grindstone or even taking a day out to go fishing.
However his muse was in her third year at the University of
Downshire where she studied English at Abbottsford.
In the short time they had been together she had come to mean everything to him so in the final weeks of the year he did something that rocked her world, he asked her to marry him, and she said yes.
(Part 02)
Since the day of the proposal they hadn’t really had a chance to talk much about the engagement and setting a date for the wedding, Owen had publishing deadlines and Juliana was busy with assignments that needed to be in by Christmas, so the opportunity hadn’t arisen.
Despite that they were quite chilled about the whole thing and wouldn’t have thought it a very high priority had it not been for her mum Lavinia who had been acting like a thing possessed.
She had gone into total wedding planner mode and kept pestering the two of them for details.
So when she arrived home at the beginning of December she suggested they go back to his cottage, partly to escape her mum, but as the house was empty it would be the perfect opportunity to discuss the big event and make the important decisions without any interruptions.
So that was how they came to be sitting in the lounge talking about the wedding.
“Church?” he asked
“St Jane’s of course” she replied
“Agreed” he said and wrote it down
“Reception?” he asked
“The Clayton Manor” she replied
“Good choice” he agreed and added that to the list
“When?” he asked
“I don’t know about you but I thought it would be nice to do it on the anniversary of us getting together” she suggested
“I don’t remember when that was” he said scratching his head
“Well you remember the day you took advantage of me and stole my innocence” she stated
“I think you might be miss remembering the occasion Miss Molesworth” he told her
“I don’t think so” she said indignantly “I was an innocent until you got your grubby hands me”
“The way I remember it I didn’t have to take anything” he corrected her “you offered it to me on a plate”
“That’s not how it was at all,” she said giving him a playful punch
“The way I remember it, YOU seduced me,” Owen said
“I did not,” she said laughing and punched him again
After a couple of minutes of them both giggling he said
“I understand what you’re saying now, you want us to get married next year on the nearest Saturday to the day you seduced me” he said adding it to the list
“Yes” she said “two years from the day you first forced yourself on me”
“Ok you speak to the Clayton Manor about booking the hotel” Owen said “and I’ll go down and speak to the Vicar about St Jane’s”
“That’s settled then” she said and moved in very close to him, “Can we do some canoodling now”
“I think that’s what you had in mind all the time” he said “you didn’t want to discuss the wedding at all, there’s no hope for you is there?, you’re throwing yourself at me again”
“Are you going to kiss me or not?” she asked
“Oh alright then” he said and his kissed his darling muse.
Downshire is a relatively small English county but like a pocket battleship it packs a lot in, a short but beautiful coastline, a channel port, the Ancient forests of Dancingdean and Pepperstock, the craggy ridges and manmade lakes of the Pepperstock Hills National Park, the rolling hills of the Downshire Downs, the beautiful Finchbottom Vale and farm land as far as the eye can see from the Trotwood’s and the Grace’s in the south to the home of the Downshire Light infantry, Nettlefield, and their affluent neighbour’s, Roespring and Tipton in the north but our story begins in the East, or more precisely, 20 miles inland from Sharpington-By-Sea, equidistant between Finchbottom and Pepperstock Green, in the sprawling village of Denmead.
Owen Carrington’s Uncle Glyn died on New Year’s Day and left him his Cottage and a small cash sum, more than enough to keep him going for a few more years.
He left it to him because he felt they were kindred spirits, he wanted to be a writer himself but his father made him get a proper job, Owen really liked him and he was a great story teller, and it was his Uncles colourful tales that helped him when he was writing his novels.
His death came as a great shock as it was sudden though not unsurprising given his health.
So that was how he found himself living in a lovely Victorian Cottage in the quaint Downshire Village of Denmead.
It was a very tranquil place though not without its distractions.
From his study he could look out through the open French windows and across the expanse of lawn to a stand of ancient woodland, there was no fence to separate garden and wood the two just merged.
And on the other side of the wood was the hub of the village, the Green Oak, everyone seemed to go there at some point, either for a drink, the restaurant or the coffee suite.
As a writer Owen’s star was definitely in the ascendency after the success of his first Romantic novel “The Maiden Muse” but the change in the fortunes of his writing career were not universally well received, his publisher liked it, his new agent loved it, the bank manager was ecstatic about it but his mother was disappointed by it because she thought it was a bit girlie.
But it wasn’t just his writing career that was climbing high, so was his love life thanks to his muse and lover, Juliana Molesworth, who had brought his writers block to an end, and since she had become his muse he had become a writer of bodice ripping romances which had proved to be an occupation which suited him very well indeed.
And it suited him in many ways, but the main benefit was that he was able to work at home, so he had no tedious commute every day and his working day was flexible to the point that some days he didn’t write at all.
This afforded him the opportunity of playing a round of Golf during the working week when most people had their noses to the grindstone or even taking a day out to go fishing.
However his muse was in her third year at the University of
Downshire where she studied English at Abbottsford.
In the short time they had been together she had come to mean everything to him so in the final weeks of the year he did something that rocked her world, he asked her to marry him, and she said yes.
(Part 02)
Since the day of the proposal they hadn’t really had a chance to talk much about the engagement and setting a date for the wedding, Owen had publishing deadlines and Juliana was busy with assignments that needed to be in by Christmas, so the opportunity hadn’t arisen.
Despite that they were quite chilled about the whole thing and wouldn’t have thought it a very high priority had it not been for her mum Lavinia who had been acting like a thing possessed.
She had gone into total wedding planner mode and kept pestering the two of them for details.
So when she arrived home at the beginning of December she suggested they go back to his cottage, partly to escape her mum, but as the house was empty it would be the perfect opportunity to discuss the big event and make the important decisions without any interruptions.
So that was how they came to be sitting in the lounge talking about the wedding.
“Church?” he asked
“St Jane’s of course” she replied
“Agreed” he said and wrote it down
“Reception?” he asked
“The Clayton Manor” she replied
“Good choice” he agreed and added that to the list
“When?” he asked
“I don’t know about you but I thought it would be nice to do it on the anniversary of us getting together” she suggested
“I don’t remember when that was” he said scratching his head
“Well you remember the day you took advantage of me and stole my innocence” she stated
“I think you might be miss remembering the occasion Miss Molesworth” he told her
“I don’t think so” she said indignantly “I was an innocent until you got your grubby hands me”
“The way I remember it I didn’t have to take anything” he corrected her “you offered it to me on a plate”
“That’s not how it was at all,” she said giving him a playful punch
“The way I remember it, YOU seduced me,” Owen said
“I did not,” she said laughing and punched him again
After a couple of minutes of them both giggling he said
“I understand what you’re saying now, you want us to get married next year on the nearest Saturday to the day you seduced me” he said adding it to the list
“Yes” she said “two years from the day you first forced yourself on me”
“Ok you speak to the Clayton Manor about booking the hotel” Owen said “and I’ll go down and speak to the Vicar about St Jane’s”
“That’s settled then” she said and moved in very close to him, “Can we do some canoodling now”
“I think that’s what you had in mind all the time” he said “you didn’t want to discuss the wedding at all, there’s no hope for you is there?, you’re throwing yourself at me again”
“Are you going to kiss me or not?” she asked
“Oh alright then” he said and his kissed his darling muse.
Thursday, 1 June 2017
Downshire Diary – (68) The Ginger Amazonian Surprise
(Part 01)
Downshire is a relatively small English county but like a pocket battleship it packs a lot in, a short but beautiful coastline, a channel port, the Ancient forests of Dancingdean and Pepperstock, the craggy ridges and manmade lakes of the Pepperstock Hills National Park, the rolling hills of the Downshire Downs, the beautiful Finchbottom Vale and farm land as far as the eye can see from the Trotwood’s and the Grace’s in the south to the home of the Downshire Light infantry, Nettlefield, and their affluent neighbour’s, Roespring and Tipton in the north but our story begins considerably further south in the Finchbottom Vale although the players in this tale come from every corner of the county.
A group of University friends were camping at the Eastern end of the Finchbottom Vale, on the Maxlins camp site in Sharpinghead that was once a working railway station before it fell afoul of Dr Beeching and his draconian cuts.
The campsite was attached to Maxlin’s Holiday Camp and although the campgrounds were nothing to do with Maxlin’s, all those attending did have day passes to use some of the amenities.
They were just spending a week relaxing before they returned to Abbottsford University for their 3rd year.
One of them was Sean Hallows who was a rather ordinary looking lad, a bit of a bean pole with scruffy blonde hair and a bad complexion, the only remarkable thing about him was his heart.
He had to return to his tent one morning after breakfast because he had forgotten his phone.
“Get my sunnies while youre there” his girlfriend Daisy said
“Ok” he retorted and set off at pace.
They were about ten minutes walk frrom the food hall but with his great long strides he did it in five and he went to Daisy’s tent first and went inside without hesitation as he knew where she kept her sun glasses.
But as soon as he got inside he stopped dead in his tracks as her best friend Katie Bell was still in the tent, though not still in her sleeping bag, in fact she wasn’t in very much at all really.
She was kneeling down, facing the flaps, pulling a T-shirt over her head, apart from that she was only wearing her underwear.
Sean stood motionless by the opening spellbound by the vision of the girl he had been in love with for almost a year.
She was a big Ginger Amazon of a girl almost as tall as he was, long limbed, busty and beautiful, well he certainly thought so, which was why when he came upon her in a state of near undress he couldn’t take his eyes off her, and there was a lot of her to look at.
Katie hadnt noticed him at first as her long ginger locks had fallen across her face but when she did she made no attempt to cover herself and chose instead to glare at him.
“Sorry” he said still staring at the expanses of pale naked flesh “Sorry I didn’t know you were here”
“Well you do now” she pointed out
“Sorry” he said again
“Not sorry enough to look away though” Katie said
“Sorry” he repeated and stopped staring at her long enough to find Daisy’s sunnies and then he went out the way he came still appologizing as he went.
(Part 02)
Katie hadnt noticed him at first as her long ginger locks had fallen across her face but when she did she made no attempt to cover herself and chose instead to glare at him.
“Sorry” he said still staring at the expanses of pale naked flesh “Sorry I didn’t know you were here”
“Well you do now” she pointed out
“Sorry” he said again
“Not sorry enough to look away though” Katie said
“Sorry” he repeated and stopped staring at her long enough to find Daisy’s sunnies and then he went out the way he came still appologizing as he went.
He was breathing hard and his cheeks were burning with embarassment by the time he got inside his tent where he quickly found his phone and was just about to leave when he was suddenly kneeling face to face with the ginger amazon, Katie.
He jumped when he saw her kneeling there and he was flustered again and his cheeks burned red a fresh.
“I really am sorry” he said but her attention was elsewhere
“I really am sorry Katie”
“Its ok” she said “I’m not cross, I can easily understand that my lovely naked bod could easily make you spy”
“I didn’t spy, honestly Katie” he exclaimed
“So why are you so red?” She asked curiously still staring at him, making him uncomfortable and enjoying it, and under her quizzical gaze he replied quietly
“Because of what I saw” he confessed
“So you’re red because you spied on me?” she mused
“I didn’t spy” he said “I didn’t know you were there”
“But you did look didn’t you?” she asked
“Yes” he replied uncomfortably
“So do you make a habit of staring at half naked innocent young girls?” she quizzed
“No of course not”
“But you did stare at me didn’t you?” she added
“Yes”
“So if you don’t make a habit of it why did you do it today?” she asked and for the first time during the exchange felt nervous herself
“You of course” he said
“What about me?” she asked expectant of the answer
“Everything” he confessed
“What do you mean?” she asked innocently and felt her cheeks colour up
“I like everything about you” he replied
“Details?” she demanded
“Your gorgeous ginger hair, your lovely face and your sweet smile” he admitted
“But you weren’t looking at my hair or my face” she pointed out
“No I wasn’t” he admitted “I was looking at your long legs and your alabaster skin”
“And?” she prompted
“Your hips, your bum, your flat belly and your breasts” he concluded and she smiled
“And what were you thinking about while you stared at me?” she asked
“The same thing I always think about”
“And what’s that?” she asked and the moment the words left her lips he grabbed her by the lapels and pulled her into the tent and onto her back.
“I was thinking” he said as he half lay on top of her
“What it would be like to hold you in my arms and kiss you”
“Stop thinking about it and do it then” she exclaimed softly and his lips touched gently onto hers.
When they got back to the food hall Daisy was waiting for him with an unhappy expression on her face
“Where have you two been?” she demanded
“Well first of all I couldn’t find my phone” he explained “and then I forgot where you keep your sunnies”
“And whats your story?” she asked Katie
“Well I was helping Sean to rembember stuff” she said
Downshire is a relatively small English county but like a pocket battleship it packs a lot in, a short but beautiful coastline, a channel port, the Ancient forests of Dancingdean and Pepperstock, the craggy ridges and manmade lakes of the Pepperstock Hills National Park, the rolling hills of the Downshire Downs, the beautiful Finchbottom Vale and farm land as far as the eye can see from the Trotwood’s and the Grace’s in the south to the home of the Downshire Light infantry, Nettlefield, and their affluent neighbour’s, Roespring and Tipton in the north but our story begins considerably further south in the Finchbottom Vale although the players in this tale come from every corner of the county.
A group of University friends were camping at the Eastern end of the Finchbottom Vale, on the Maxlins camp site in Sharpinghead that was once a working railway station before it fell afoul of Dr Beeching and his draconian cuts.
The campsite was attached to Maxlin’s Holiday Camp and although the campgrounds were nothing to do with Maxlin’s, all those attending did have day passes to use some of the amenities.
They were just spending a week relaxing before they returned to Abbottsford University for their 3rd year.
One of them was Sean Hallows who was a rather ordinary looking lad, a bit of a bean pole with scruffy blonde hair and a bad complexion, the only remarkable thing about him was his heart.
He had to return to his tent one morning after breakfast because he had forgotten his phone.
“Get my sunnies while youre there” his girlfriend Daisy said
“Ok” he retorted and set off at pace.
They were about ten minutes walk frrom the food hall but with his great long strides he did it in five and he went to Daisy’s tent first and went inside without hesitation as he knew where she kept her sun glasses.
But as soon as he got inside he stopped dead in his tracks as her best friend Katie Bell was still in the tent, though not still in her sleeping bag, in fact she wasn’t in very much at all really.
She was kneeling down, facing the flaps, pulling a T-shirt over her head, apart from that she was only wearing her underwear.
Sean stood motionless by the opening spellbound by the vision of the girl he had been in love with for almost a year.
She was a big Ginger Amazon of a girl almost as tall as he was, long limbed, busty and beautiful, well he certainly thought so, which was why when he came upon her in a state of near undress he couldn’t take his eyes off her, and there was a lot of her to look at.
Katie hadnt noticed him at first as her long ginger locks had fallen across her face but when she did she made no attempt to cover herself and chose instead to glare at him.
“Sorry” he said still staring at the expanses of pale naked flesh “Sorry I didn’t know you were here”
“Well you do now” she pointed out
“Sorry” he said again
“Not sorry enough to look away though” Katie said
“Sorry” he repeated and stopped staring at her long enough to find Daisy’s sunnies and then he went out the way he came still appologizing as he went.
(Part 02)
Katie hadnt noticed him at first as her long ginger locks had fallen across her face but when she did she made no attempt to cover herself and chose instead to glare at him.
“Sorry” he said still staring at the expanses of pale naked flesh “Sorry I didn’t know you were here”
“Well you do now” she pointed out
“Sorry” he said again
“Not sorry enough to look away though” Katie said
“Sorry” he repeated and stopped staring at her long enough to find Daisy’s sunnies and then he went out the way he came still appologizing as he went.
He was breathing hard and his cheeks were burning with embarassment by the time he got inside his tent where he quickly found his phone and was just about to leave when he was suddenly kneeling face to face with the ginger amazon, Katie.
He jumped when he saw her kneeling there and he was flustered again and his cheeks burned red a fresh.
“I really am sorry” he said but her attention was elsewhere
“I really am sorry Katie”
“Its ok” she said “I’m not cross, I can easily understand that my lovely naked bod could easily make you spy”
“I didn’t spy, honestly Katie” he exclaimed
“So why are you so red?” She asked curiously still staring at him, making him uncomfortable and enjoying it, and under her quizzical gaze he replied quietly
“Because of what I saw” he confessed
“So you’re red because you spied on me?” she mused
“I didn’t spy” he said “I didn’t know you were there”
“But you did look didn’t you?” she asked
“Yes” he replied uncomfortably
“So do you make a habit of staring at half naked innocent young girls?” she quizzed
“No of course not”
“But you did stare at me didn’t you?” she added
“Yes”
“So if you don’t make a habit of it why did you do it today?” she asked and for the first time during the exchange felt nervous herself
“You of course” he said
“What about me?” she asked expectant of the answer
“Everything” he confessed
“What do you mean?” she asked innocently and felt her cheeks colour up
“I like everything about you” he replied
“Details?” she demanded
“Your gorgeous ginger hair, your lovely face and your sweet smile” he admitted
“But you weren’t looking at my hair or my face” she pointed out
“No I wasn’t” he admitted “I was looking at your long legs and your alabaster skin”
“And?” she prompted
“Your hips, your bum, your flat belly and your breasts” he concluded and she smiled
“And what were you thinking about while you stared at me?” she asked
“The same thing I always think about”
“And what’s that?” she asked and the moment the words left her lips he grabbed her by the lapels and pulled her into the tent and onto her back.
“I was thinking” he said as he half lay on top of her
“What it would be like to hold you in my arms and kiss you”
“Stop thinking about it and do it then” she exclaimed softly and his lips touched gently onto hers.
When they got back to the food hall Daisy was waiting for him with an unhappy expression on her face
“Where have you two been?” she demanded
“Well first of all I couldn’t find my phone” he explained “and then I forgot where you keep your sunnies”
“And whats your story?” she asked Katie
“Well I was helping Sean to rembember stuff” she said
Downshire Diary – (67) Heatherlands – While the Doctor’s Away
(Part 01)
Downshire is a relatively small English county but like a pocket battleship it packs a lot in, a short but beautiful coastline, a channel port, the Ancient forests of Dancingdean and Pepperstock, the craggy ridges and manmade lakes of the Pepperstock Hills National Park, the rolling hills of the Downshire Downs, the beautiful Finchbottom Vale and farm land as far as the eye can see from the Trotwood’s and the Grace’s in the south to the home of the Downshire Light infantry, Nettlefield, and their affluent neighbour’s, Roespring and Tipton in the north but our story begins slightly further south equidistant between Nettlefield and the Oxley’s, in the beautiful village of Heathervale.
When Chris Palmer moved to Nettlefield from Purplemere following a very acrimonious divorce he had sworn off women for good.
But he was a relatively good looking man who was fast approaching his 40th birthday, with a good physique and short sandy hair, greying at the temples and was possessed of piercing blue eyes, so he didn’t go unnoticed.
His reason for moving to Nettlefield in particular, over all the other places he might have chosen either in Downshire or beyond, was the Heatherlands District Health Centre.
It was a large practise that serviced a large area, covering Nettlefield itself, Oxley Green, Heathervale, Oxley Ridge and Tipton and Chris had been fortunate enough to land the job as practice manager and he also found himself a nice little flat in Nettlefield.
The senior partner, and Chris’s boss, at the Health Centre was Dr Clarisse Lowe, a tall statuesque woman who dressed in tweed, with Chestnut hair, a voluptuous figure, lovely long legs and a generous frontage, who was in her mid-forties and was just the kind of woman Chris would have fallen for in his previous life.
Clarisse had been married to Edward Lowe, who had been an eminent surgeon in Downshire, he had also been twenty years older when he married her and he had two children from his first marriage, Josie being the oldest.
The marriage was a happy one but only lasted five years because Edward died suddenly on the Tipton Twelve Trees Golf course after suffering a heart attack.
She had been a widow for 10 years when Chris arrived in her life, her widowhood had left her lonely but also afraid of risking her heart on someone who might end that loneliness
But apart from the fact that she had vowed not to risk her broken heart again she also had instigated a policy at the practise forbidding fraternisation between members of staff, so even if she were so inclined toward Chris she wouldn’t be disposed to go against her own edict.
But the heart wants what the heart wants which was why two people who despite their reluctance to expose themselves to love again and who were very definitely not looking for a relationship, let alone love, found it anyway.
And as a by-product of the loving relationship she scrapped the “No Fraternizing policy” which meant that the surgical gloves were off in regard to work place relationships and for Chris and Clarisse that had far reaching consequences.
(Part 02)
And as a bi-product of the loving relationship between her and Chris, Clarisse scrapped the “No Fraternizing policy” which meant that the surgical gloves were off in regard to work place relationships which was just what the doctor ordered for 35 year old practice nurse, Josie Minter, a skinny blonde girl who was the step daughter of Senior partner Clarisse Lowe.
However although she was given the green light at Easter she couldn’t find anyone she liked sufficiently to surrender her heart to either inside or outside the practise.
Not, that is, until the Christmas party.
The Heatherlands District Health Centre staff Christmas Party was held at The Foothills Hotel in Oxley Ridge.
Senior partner Clarisse had been married to Edward Lowe, who had been an eminent surgeon in Downshire, he had also been twenty years older when he married her and he had two children from his first marriage, Josie being the oldest.
The marriage was a happy one but only lasted five years because Edward died suddenly on the Tipton Twelve Trees Golf course after suffering a heart attack.
On his death however he had left her extremely well off so at Christmas Clarisse always laid on transport for those who had to get back for baby sitters after the part or alternatively they could stay overnight at the Hotel.
It was at the Christmas party where Josie finally met a man worthy of her love.
Clarisse was hosting the party and was attending with boyfriend Chris Palmer who had brought along his younger brother Darren to be his plus one.
Darren was five years younger than his brother and he shared his good looks, physique and short sandy hair and possessed the same blue eyes and skinny blonde Practice nurse, Josie Minter, felt for him instantly and him for her.
She really liked him from the first moment she saw him, but she just stood rooted to the spot, just staring at him if she hadn’t liked him so much she wouldn’t have been so mesmerised, but it had been a while since she had fancied anyone, and she was desperately trying to think how to proceed.
Chris smiled as he noticed Josie standing open mouthed then he could see who she was looking at transfixed, so he went to her aid and said
“Come on Josie come and meet my kid brother”
And when the introductions were done Darren asked
“Would you like to dance?”
“Oh yes” she replied
Darren took her hand and led her to the dance floor and they stayed there until just before midnight.
They danced through 10cc, James Blunt, Barbara Streisand, Whitney Houston, Fleetwood Mac and numerous others, but then clumsy Peter Butler fell over his own feet and sprained his ankle and Chris tapped Darren on the shoulder.
“Come on bro” Chris said “Give me a hand”
“Ok” he replied and reluctantly relinquished his hold on Josie and the spell was broken.
And although he returned ten minutes later the pace of the musical offerings had changed and there was no return to the dancing.
(Part 03)
Although Darren returned from his mission of mercy ten minutes after he had to leave her on the dancefloor the pace of the musical offerings had changed and there was no return to the dancing.
However there was quite an extended period of flirty conversation and a rather clumsy form of goodnight kiss and the promise of a future meal or trip to the cinema.
In the weeks that followed Josie dancing at the Christmas party with Darren Palmer she had been able to think of little else, but for all that come New Year’s Eve she still hadn’t heard from him .
As one of the practice nurses at Heatherlands she was kept very busy over the Christmas period but she still had time to think and those thought tended to stray to the night of the Christmas party.
She thought they had hit it off and she really had thought he would have called her sooner rather than later.
At the height of her despondency, or should that be the depth, she spoke to Chris.
She had wanted to ask him after the first couple of days but she had been putting it off and putting it off because she didn’t want to appear desperate, but by Christmas Eve she was desperate, but speaking with Chris soon put her mind at ease.
She knew from her conversation with Darren on the night of the party that he was a medical assistant with the Downshire Light Infantry, but what she didn’t know, and more significantly nor did Darren, was that the next day they had the first of a series of medivac exercises at various locations around the county.
On the morning of New Year’s Eve she watched Clarisse and Chris drive away from the house as they were to drive down to Abbottsford for a party which meant she would be seeing the New Year in on her own.
She wasn’t able to attend a party herself that year as she was working the next day, so she planned a quiet evening and the time hung heavy all day, until just before 7 o’clock when her phone rang.
She picked it up off the table and saw it was an unknown number and pressed answer
“Hello”
“Josie?” a voice asked
“Speaking”
“Hi it’s Darren Palmer”
“Oh hi Darren” she responded and began fiddling with her hair
“I’m sorry I haven’t called sooner but…” he began
“It’s ok Chris explained” she interrupted
“He did? That’s great” he said “well I was wondering if we could get together tonight”
“I would love to” she said “But…”
“But?”
“But I can’t, because I’m working tomorrow”
“So am I, so I wasn’t suggesting any serious partying” he said “but I would like to see you”
An hour later he drove into the village of Heathervale and parked on the drive of Josie’s home.
He knocked firmly on the door and waited and a few moments later the door opened and a grinning face appeared from behind the door.
Downshire is a relatively small English county but like a pocket battleship it packs a lot in, a short but beautiful coastline, a channel port, the Ancient forests of Dancingdean and Pepperstock, the craggy ridges and manmade lakes of the Pepperstock Hills National Park, the rolling hills of the Downshire Downs, the beautiful Finchbottom Vale and farm land as far as the eye can see from the Trotwood’s and the Grace’s in the south to the home of the Downshire Light infantry, Nettlefield, and their affluent neighbour’s, Roespring and Tipton in the north but our story begins slightly further south equidistant between Nettlefield and the Oxley’s, in the beautiful village of Heathervale.
When Chris Palmer moved to Nettlefield from Purplemere following a very acrimonious divorce he had sworn off women for good.
But he was a relatively good looking man who was fast approaching his 40th birthday, with a good physique and short sandy hair, greying at the temples and was possessed of piercing blue eyes, so he didn’t go unnoticed.
His reason for moving to Nettlefield in particular, over all the other places he might have chosen either in Downshire or beyond, was the Heatherlands District Health Centre.
It was a large practise that serviced a large area, covering Nettlefield itself, Oxley Green, Heathervale, Oxley Ridge and Tipton and Chris had been fortunate enough to land the job as practice manager and he also found himself a nice little flat in Nettlefield.
The senior partner, and Chris’s boss, at the Health Centre was Dr Clarisse Lowe, a tall statuesque woman who dressed in tweed, with Chestnut hair, a voluptuous figure, lovely long legs and a generous frontage, who was in her mid-forties and was just the kind of woman Chris would have fallen for in his previous life.
Clarisse had been married to Edward Lowe, who had been an eminent surgeon in Downshire, he had also been twenty years older when he married her and he had two children from his first marriage, Josie being the oldest.
The marriage was a happy one but only lasted five years because Edward died suddenly on the Tipton Twelve Trees Golf course after suffering a heart attack.
She had been a widow for 10 years when Chris arrived in her life, her widowhood had left her lonely but also afraid of risking her heart on someone who might end that loneliness
But apart from the fact that she had vowed not to risk her broken heart again she also had instigated a policy at the practise forbidding fraternisation between members of staff, so even if she were so inclined toward Chris she wouldn’t be disposed to go against her own edict.
But the heart wants what the heart wants which was why two people who despite their reluctance to expose themselves to love again and who were very definitely not looking for a relationship, let alone love, found it anyway.
And as a by-product of the loving relationship she scrapped the “No Fraternizing policy” which meant that the surgical gloves were off in regard to work place relationships and for Chris and Clarisse that had far reaching consequences.
(Part 02)
And as a bi-product of the loving relationship between her and Chris, Clarisse scrapped the “No Fraternizing policy” which meant that the surgical gloves were off in regard to work place relationships which was just what the doctor ordered for 35 year old practice nurse, Josie Minter, a skinny blonde girl who was the step daughter of Senior partner Clarisse Lowe.
However although she was given the green light at Easter she couldn’t find anyone she liked sufficiently to surrender her heart to either inside or outside the practise.
Not, that is, until the Christmas party.
The Heatherlands District Health Centre staff Christmas Party was held at The Foothills Hotel in Oxley Ridge.
Senior partner Clarisse had been married to Edward Lowe, who had been an eminent surgeon in Downshire, he had also been twenty years older when he married her and he had two children from his first marriage, Josie being the oldest.
The marriage was a happy one but only lasted five years because Edward died suddenly on the Tipton Twelve Trees Golf course after suffering a heart attack.
On his death however he had left her extremely well off so at Christmas Clarisse always laid on transport for those who had to get back for baby sitters after the part or alternatively they could stay overnight at the Hotel.
It was at the Christmas party where Josie finally met a man worthy of her love.
Clarisse was hosting the party and was attending with boyfriend Chris Palmer who had brought along his younger brother Darren to be his plus one.
Darren was five years younger than his brother and he shared his good looks, physique and short sandy hair and possessed the same blue eyes and skinny blonde Practice nurse, Josie Minter, felt for him instantly and him for her.
She really liked him from the first moment she saw him, but she just stood rooted to the spot, just staring at him if she hadn’t liked him so much she wouldn’t have been so mesmerised, but it had been a while since she had fancied anyone, and she was desperately trying to think how to proceed.
Chris smiled as he noticed Josie standing open mouthed then he could see who she was looking at transfixed, so he went to her aid and said
“Come on Josie come and meet my kid brother”
And when the introductions were done Darren asked
“Would you like to dance?”
“Oh yes” she replied
Darren took her hand and led her to the dance floor and they stayed there until just before midnight.
They danced through 10cc, James Blunt, Barbara Streisand, Whitney Houston, Fleetwood Mac and numerous others, but then clumsy Peter Butler fell over his own feet and sprained his ankle and Chris tapped Darren on the shoulder.
“Come on bro” Chris said “Give me a hand”
“Ok” he replied and reluctantly relinquished his hold on Josie and the spell was broken.
And although he returned ten minutes later the pace of the musical offerings had changed and there was no return to the dancing.
(Part 03)
Although Darren returned from his mission of mercy ten minutes after he had to leave her on the dancefloor the pace of the musical offerings had changed and there was no return to the dancing.
However there was quite an extended period of flirty conversation and a rather clumsy form of goodnight kiss and the promise of a future meal or trip to the cinema.
In the weeks that followed Josie dancing at the Christmas party with Darren Palmer she had been able to think of little else, but for all that come New Year’s Eve she still hadn’t heard from him .
As one of the practice nurses at Heatherlands she was kept very busy over the Christmas period but she still had time to think and those thought tended to stray to the night of the Christmas party.
She thought they had hit it off and she really had thought he would have called her sooner rather than later.
At the height of her despondency, or should that be the depth, she spoke to Chris.
She had wanted to ask him after the first couple of days but she had been putting it off and putting it off because she didn’t want to appear desperate, but by Christmas Eve she was desperate, but speaking with Chris soon put her mind at ease.
She knew from her conversation with Darren on the night of the party that he was a medical assistant with the Downshire Light Infantry, but what she didn’t know, and more significantly nor did Darren, was that the next day they had the first of a series of medivac exercises at various locations around the county.
On the morning of New Year’s Eve she watched Clarisse and Chris drive away from the house as they were to drive down to Abbottsford for a party which meant she would be seeing the New Year in on her own.
She wasn’t able to attend a party herself that year as she was working the next day, so she planned a quiet evening and the time hung heavy all day, until just before 7 o’clock when her phone rang.
She picked it up off the table and saw it was an unknown number and pressed answer
“Hello”
“Josie?” a voice asked
“Speaking”
“Hi it’s Darren Palmer”
“Oh hi Darren” she responded and began fiddling with her hair
“I’m sorry I haven’t called sooner but…” he began
“It’s ok Chris explained” she interrupted
“He did? That’s great” he said “well I was wondering if we could get together tonight”
“I would love to” she said “But…”
“But?”
“But I can’t, because I’m working tomorrow”
“So am I, so I wasn’t suggesting any serious partying” he said “but I would like to see you”
An hour later he drove into the village of Heathervale and parked on the drive of Josie’s home.
He knocked firmly on the door and waited and a few moments later the door opened and a grinning face appeared from behind the door.
Mornington-By-Mere – (70) Cathy’s Tale
(Part 01)
The Maddocks family lived in the small country village of Mornington-By-Mere in the Finchbottom Vale which nestled between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest and the rolling Pepperstock Hills.
Which was 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.
They lived in one of the Brooke Side Cottages, number 1, in the part of the Village known as Manorside.
Cathy Maddocks was an attractive twenty nine year old widow who lived with her six year old twins, Lily and Iris, and an 18 year old step daughter Gillian.
Cathy’s husband John was much older than she was when they married but he was the love of her life and she was absolutely devastated when he died suddenly.
After the bottom fell out of her world she spent the subsequent two years following his passing in loneliness and celibacy and every night her dreams were filled with images of the man she so desperately loved and vivid pictures of the physical expression of their love which was why she woke up every morning exhausted and in tears.
Most days she would wake early enough to cry her tears and compose herself before she started her day but on one particular morning her 6 year old twins charged into the room and leapt on the bed before she barely got started so she hid her face from her children until she could show them a happy face.
Plan (b) was to cry her tears in the shower while Gillian gave the twins their breakfast, which was all going very well until the water went cold.
“Bollocks” she snapped and turned the water off.
“Perfect bloody timing”
It was so frustrating as the shower had been playing up recently and she had been meaning to ask her brothers best friend Dave Plunkett, who had his own business in Shallowfield, to look at it but she hadnt got around to it and as she stepped out of the shower Cathy really wished that she had.
That only left Plan (c) so Cathy dried herself and returned to her bedroom.
She knelt on the bed with a large white bath sheet wrapped around her and facing her dressing table mirror she put her head in her hands and sobbed her heart out.
Her tears flowed unrestrained when she became aware of voices on the landing and she looked to the door.
“Don’t come in, don’t come in, please don’t come in” she screamed in her head and the danger passed so she shed her tears in peace until she ended in a panting sobbing heap.
Cathy remained doubled over on her bed for a full five minutes after she finished then she raised herself up and wiped her eyes and attended to her makeup before she dressed so she could go about her day.
(Part 02)
Cathy had pledged after her husband’s death that she would never share her heart with a man again and she closed her heart to love for anyone other than the twins and Gillie.
There wasn’t much in the way of extended family and of those that did exist the Maddocks were only in contact with her brother Pete and his wife Clare and for Cathy that was enough.
Although she kept the world at arms length and the family were very happy there were always occasions when she had to let the outside world in.
Such as when the shower went on the fritz and she needed a plumber, so she had to call her brothers best friend David Plunkett.
A call that Dave was only to willing to answer, without a second thought, because Dave had admired Cathy from afar since he was in year seven.
Cathy was in the year above him but his friendship with Pete brought them into the same sphere on a regular basis.
Unfortunately he never managed to stay in her orbit long enough to make an impact but he always lived in hope of being noticed until the day when she married John Maddox and then he thought she was lost to him forever.
When John died suddenly after 7 years he saw a glimmer of hope but he had to sit on his hands while she went through the grieving process, but he didn’t know it would take over two years.
So when he took the call from her for the plumbing job he thought maybe it was finally his time.
When the day came to look at the problem it was something of an anticlimax as he barely even got a glimpse of Cathy, and he only really got to see the step daughter Gillian who he thought was very protective of her stepmum when he asked where she was.
She also hung around him and his apprentice Owen a lot and Dave was almost certain that if Owen chose to make a play for her that he would have been warmly welcomed, but he wasn’t there to play matchmaker.
It was a similar story a month later when there was a leak in the kitchen and he only got to see Gillian so it wasn’t until three months after that when the boiler died that he finally managed to reaquaint himself with Cathy.
It was a day when he was on his own but it was not an altogether happy reunion as he found her colder and more distant than before and she had thawed very little by the time he reached the end of the job.
“Well that’s me done” he said as he packed his tools away
“Is there anything else you need me to do before I head off?”
“Um” she responded and then fell silent again
Dave waited for her to speak again but when she didn’t he said
“Ok, well if you have a problem you have my number”
But as he reached the door she blurted out
“Yes, yes there is”
“Ok” he retorted and returned to the kitchen “what do you need?”
There was a long pause and then without looking at him she quietly said
“I want you to kiss me” Cathy said
“What?” he asked almost certain he had misheard
“I want you to kiss me” she repeated and he plopped down on a chair.
(Part 03)
“I want you to kiss me” Cathy said
“What?” he asked almost certain he had misheard
“I want you to kiss me” she repeated and he plopped down on a chair.
If Dave was surprised by her request then it wasn’t as much as a fraction of the surprise Cathy fely, in fact she was astonished.
Even though she had been wanting to do it ever since his first visit to fix the shower.
Because even though he had not seen her she had watched him through the partly opened bedroom door and from that moment on she had thought of little else but kissing him.
And very very much so on that day, even more than usual, because Gillian had to go to work early so she had to breakfast the children and get them ready for school and she had to let Dave in and with him in the house and needing access to every room she couldn’t hide herself away after she dropped the girls at school.
She had always known that Dave fancied her, she had known it for years and she also knew by the way he looked at her that he still did.
“I’m not sure” he said not beleiving his good fortune.
“Oh please Dave” she entreated “I havent felt the touch of a man lips since John passed and….”
“And?”
“And I know you want to” she said
“Ok” he agreed
They never made eye contact all during the discussion, infact she never looked at him once, but after hearing his acquiescence she sat on his lap with her back towards him.
As soon as her bum hit his lap she turned to face him and leant in for the kiss.
Although Gillie Hopcroft was Cathy’s stepdaughter it was only by virtue of the fact that she had married her stepfather John.
After losing her father when she was four years old, she lost her mother four years after that and then when she was 9 her stepfather John married Cathy, who she fell in love with imediately and nothing that followed over the following 9 years altered that love.
The only thing that came close was when she made a startling discovery.
Cathy thought Gillie was a godsend, she was a great help with the twins who she loved as if they were her own sisters and they loved her equally.
Normally she got up first and got the twins ready for the day to allow Cathy to lie in for a while.
But there were times when Gillian had to do early shifts up at Mornington Field and Cathy had to get the girls ready herself.
She got back home from work about midday and walked into the hall to be greeted by some unfamilar sounds and she walked slowly towards the source of the sounds, which were eminating from the kitchen, when she made the startling discovery.
(Part 04)
Cathy was sitting on Dave’s lap with her arms wrapped serpent like around his neck and she was snorting loudly as passion was taking hold when they were discovered.
“What are you doing?” Gillian screamed “leave Mama alone”
Dave was taken by surprise and broke away from Cathy’s mouth.
“No don’t stop” Cathy begged “Please don’t stop”
“Mama?” Gillian quiried “you want him to?”
“I asked him to” she confessed
“Tell the truth” Dave instructed
“I… begged him” she admitted.
Within moments of her admittion Cathy was kissing him again as Gillie stared wide eyed like a deer caught in the headlights.
When the kiss ended, Dave and Cathy looked at the young girl who went beetroot red and ran out of the room.
Cathy sat on his lap and looked at her reflection in the window and smiled weakly and thought she hadnt felt that alive for more than two years and at the same moment Gillian had run to the front door.
She was cross because she had embarrassed herself, not that she was shocked to see her step mum kissing a man, nor was she angry at the situation she loved Cathy and it was about time she started to live again, the overwhelming emotion she felt when she watched them was jealousy.
Not that she wanted to kiss Dave and she certainly didn’t want to kiss Cathy, she didn’t love her in that way, she was jelous of the intimacy and the tenderness, she wanted that but she wanted it with someone else.
Gillian opened the front door and was surprised to see Dave’s apprentice, Owen Mumford, standing there.
“Oh it’s you” she said and threw herself into his arms, the very arms she had pictured herself in a few minutes earlier.
After being discovered in the act Cathy concluded the kiss with Dave but after Gillian had left the room Cathy suddenly felt foolish and self concious
“I need to go and find Gillian” she said as Dave watched in silence unable to formulate a response.
Half an hour later he was just leaving the kitchen with his stuff when Cathy walked back in
“Is she ok?” he asked
“I couldn’t find her” she replied
“Oh”
“How are you feeling?” he asked
“Confused” she replied and turned away
Cathy sat on her bed and looked at herself in the mirror she really hadnt felt that alive for more than two years but although his intimate kiss was intensly electrifying the pleasure he had given her was a double edged sword.
She wanted him but she felt guilty at betraying her husbands memory despite how much she wanted him and how much she enjoyed the kiss.
She dismissed Dave after the kiss and went in search of her step daughter.
But while she was sitting alone on her bed lamenting what might have been, she made the decision to live her life.
So the next day she phoned Dave to say that one of the radiators was leaking and he said he would be round as soon as he could.
(Part 05)
Cathy Maddocks was an attractive twenty nine year old widow who lived with her six year old twins, Lily and Iris, and an 18 year old step daughter Gillian.
Cathy’s husband John was much older than she was when they married but he was the love of her life and she was absolutely devastated when he died.
After the bottom fell out of her world she spent the following two years following his passing in lonely celibacy.
But when the shower went on the blink she phoned her brothers best friend Dave Plunkett, who had his own plumming business in Shallowfield and a huge crush on her.
She was aware of that fact and avoided him on his first two visits but on completeing the repair of her boiler she surprised them both when she begged him to kiss her.
It was a wonderful kiss which didt diminish even after they were discovered by Gillian.
However she dismissed Dave after the kiss and went in search of her step daughter.
But while she was sitting alone on her bed lamenting what might have been, she made the decision to live her life.
So the next day she phoned Dave to say that one of the radiators was leaking and he said he would be round as soon as he could.
The leaky radiator was a fabrication, it was merely a device to get him through the door.
While she waited she got herself dressed in preparation because getting him through the door was only part of the plan and so what she was dressed in was designed to keep him there.
But as she sat and waited for him doubts crept in with every tick off the clock and her resolve began to ebb away.
So she opened a bottle of wine and poured herself a large glass.
By the time Dave knocked on the front door she was just poring her third.
“Come and have a drink” she slurred when she’d opened the door
“Ok” he said doubtfully and followed her but he declined the drink and waited for her to tell him why he was there.
In the end it was Dave who broke the silence.
“When I asked you how you were feeling the other day, you replied, “Confused””
“I did” she agreed
“What about?”
“I was just confused about my feelings” she replied which he suspected but he didn’t see the next bit coming
“And I wasn’t sure about yours”
“Really?” he asked “well you needn’t be, I’ve wanted you forever”
“Ok but I’m scared” Cathy admitted
“I can fix that” Dave said
“I’m scared” she admitted
“Why?” he asked “You want me and I want you”
“It’s my first time” she confessed “Since John”
“It’s our first time” Dave said “but there would be a condition”
Cathy didn’t reply but she put her wine glass down and looked up
“What condition?”
“That you let go of the past” he replied “and no holding back”
“Shut up and kiss me” she said
So he obliged and it was everything she had hoped it would be and as he stood holding her he asked
“So it’s really happening then?” he asked
“Yes but…”
“But what?” Dave asked
“I’m worried about Gillie” she said
“Is that all” he said and laughed
“I’m serious” she snapped “I’ve upset her badly”
“Come with me” he said and took hold of her hand and led her into the lounge and over to the big window where he pulled the net curtain aside to reveal the sight of little shy Gillian sitting in the front of the plumbers van snogging Owens face off
“Oh” Cathy exclaimed “She’s ok then”
“It looks like it” he agreed
“In that case” she said a moment before she pushed him backwards onto the sofa and leapt on top of him.
The Maddocks family lived in the small country village of Mornington-By-Mere in the Finchbottom Vale which nestled between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest and the rolling Pepperstock Hills.
Which was 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.
They lived in one of the Brooke Side Cottages, number 1, in the part of the Village known as Manorside.
Cathy Maddocks was an attractive twenty nine year old widow who lived with her six year old twins, Lily and Iris, and an 18 year old step daughter Gillian.
Cathy’s husband John was much older than she was when they married but he was the love of her life and she was absolutely devastated when he died suddenly.
After the bottom fell out of her world she spent the subsequent two years following his passing in loneliness and celibacy and every night her dreams were filled with images of the man she so desperately loved and vivid pictures of the physical expression of their love which was why she woke up every morning exhausted and in tears.
Most days she would wake early enough to cry her tears and compose herself before she started her day but on one particular morning her 6 year old twins charged into the room and leapt on the bed before she barely got started so she hid her face from her children until she could show them a happy face.
Plan (b) was to cry her tears in the shower while Gillian gave the twins their breakfast, which was all going very well until the water went cold.
“Bollocks” she snapped and turned the water off.
“Perfect bloody timing”
It was so frustrating as the shower had been playing up recently and she had been meaning to ask her brothers best friend Dave Plunkett, who had his own business in Shallowfield, to look at it but she hadnt got around to it and as she stepped out of the shower Cathy really wished that she had.
That only left Plan (c) so Cathy dried herself and returned to her bedroom.
She knelt on the bed with a large white bath sheet wrapped around her and facing her dressing table mirror she put her head in her hands and sobbed her heart out.
Her tears flowed unrestrained when she became aware of voices on the landing and she looked to the door.
“Don’t come in, don’t come in, please don’t come in” she screamed in her head and the danger passed so she shed her tears in peace until she ended in a panting sobbing heap.
Cathy remained doubled over on her bed for a full five minutes after she finished then she raised herself up and wiped her eyes and attended to her makeup before she dressed so she could go about her day.
(Part 02)
Cathy had pledged after her husband’s death that she would never share her heart with a man again and she closed her heart to love for anyone other than the twins and Gillie.
There wasn’t much in the way of extended family and of those that did exist the Maddocks were only in contact with her brother Pete and his wife Clare and for Cathy that was enough.
Although she kept the world at arms length and the family were very happy there were always occasions when she had to let the outside world in.
Such as when the shower went on the fritz and she needed a plumber, so she had to call her brothers best friend David Plunkett.
A call that Dave was only to willing to answer, without a second thought, because Dave had admired Cathy from afar since he was in year seven.
Cathy was in the year above him but his friendship with Pete brought them into the same sphere on a regular basis.
Unfortunately he never managed to stay in her orbit long enough to make an impact but he always lived in hope of being noticed until the day when she married John Maddox and then he thought she was lost to him forever.
When John died suddenly after 7 years he saw a glimmer of hope but he had to sit on his hands while she went through the grieving process, but he didn’t know it would take over two years.
So when he took the call from her for the plumbing job he thought maybe it was finally his time.
When the day came to look at the problem it was something of an anticlimax as he barely even got a glimpse of Cathy, and he only really got to see the step daughter Gillian who he thought was very protective of her stepmum when he asked where she was.
She also hung around him and his apprentice Owen a lot and Dave was almost certain that if Owen chose to make a play for her that he would have been warmly welcomed, but he wasn’t there to play matchmaker.
It was a similar story a month later when there was a leak in the kitchen and he only got to see Gillian so it wasn’t until three months after that when the boiler died that he finally managed to reaquaint himself with Cathy.
It was a day when he was on his own but it was not an altogether happy reunion as he found her colder and more distant than before and she had thawed very little by the time he reached the end of the job.
“Well that’s me done” he said as he packed his tools away
“Is there anything else you need me to do before I head off?”
“Um” she responded and then fell silent again
Dave waited for her to speak again but when she didn’t he said
“Ok, well if you have a problem you have my number”
But as he reached the door she blurted out
“Yes, yes there is”
“Ok” he retorted and returned to the kitchen “what do you need?”
There was a long pause and then without looking at him she quietly said
“I want you to kiss me” Cathy said
“What?” he asked almost certain he had misheard
“I want you to kiss me” she repeated and he plopped down on a chair.
(Part 03)
“I want you to kiss me” Cathy said
“What?” he asked almost certain he had misheard
“I want you to kiss me” she repeated and he plopped down on a chair.
If Dave was surprised by her request then it wasn’t as much as a fraction of the surprise Cathy fely, in fact she was astonished.
Even though she had been wanting to do it ever since his first visit to fix the shower.
Because even though he had not seen her she had watched him through the partly opened bedroom door and from that moment on she had thought of little else but kissing him.
And very very much so on that day, even more than usual, because Gillian had to go to work early so she had to breakfast the children and get them ready for school and she had to let Dave in and with him in the house and needing access to every room she couldn’t hide herself away after she dropped the girls at school.
She had always known that Dave fancied her, she had known it for years and she also knew by the way he looked at her that he still did.
“I’m not sure” he said not beleiving his good fortune.
“Oh please Dave” she entreated “I havent felt the touch of a man lips since John passed and….”
“And?”
“And I know you want to” she said
“Ok” he agreed
They never made eye contact all during the discussion, infact she never looked at him once, but after hearing his acquiescence she sat on his lap with her back towards him.
As soon as her bum hit his lap she turned to face him and leant in for the kiss.
Although Gillie Hopcroft was Cathy’s stepdaughter it was only by virtue of the fact that she had married her stepfather John.
After losing her father when she was four years old, she lost her mother four years after that and then when she was 9 her stepfather John married Cathy, who she fell in love with imediately and nothing that followed over the following 9 years altered that love.
The only thing that came close was when she made a startling discovery.
Cathy thought Gillie was a godsend, she was a great help with the twins who she loved as if they were her own sisters and they loved her equally.
Normally she got up first and got the twins ready for the day to allow Cathy to lie in for a while.
But there were times when Gillian had to do early shifts up at Mornington Field and Cathy had to get the girls ready herself.
She got back home from work about midday and walked into the hall to be greeted by some unfamilar sounds and she walked slowly towards the source of the sounds, which were eminating from the kitchen, when she made the startling discovery.
(Part 04)
Cathy was sitting on Dave’s lap with her arms wrapped serpent like around his neck and she was snorting loudly as passion was taking hold when they were discovered.
“What are you doing?” Gillian screamed “leave Mama alone”
Dave was taken by surprise and broke away from Cathy’s mouth.
“No don’t stop” Cathy begged “Please don’t stop”
“Mama?” Gillian quiried “you want him to?”
“I asked him to” she confessed
“Tell the truth” Dave instructed
“I… begged him” she admitted.
Within moments of her admittion Cathy was kissing him again as Gillie stared wide eyed like a deer caught in the headlights.
When the kiss ended, Dave and Cathy looked at the young girl who went beetroot red and ran out of the room.
Cathy sat on his lap and looked at her reflection in the window and smiled weakly and thought she hadnt felt that alive for more than two years and at the same moment Gillian had run to the front door.
She was cross because she had embarrassed herself, not that she was shocked to see her step mum kissing a man, nor was she angry at the situation she loved Cathy and it was about time she started to live again, the overwhelming emotion she felt when she watched them was jealousy.
Not that she wanted to kiss Dave and she certainly didn’t want to kiss Cathy, she didn’t love her in that way, she was jelous of the intimacy and the tenderness, she wanted that but she wanted it with someone else.
Gillian opened the front door and was surprised to see Dave’s apprentice, Owen Mumford, standing there.
“Oh it’s you” she said and threw herself into his arms, the very arms she had pictured herself in a few minutes earlier.
After being discovered in the act Cathy concluded the kiss with Dave but after Gillian had left the room Cathy suddenly felt foolish and self concious
“I need to go and find Gillian” she said as Dave watched in silence unable to formulate a response.
Half an hour later he was just leaving the kitchen with his stuff when Cathy walked back in
“Is she ok?” he asked
“I couldn’t find her” she replied
“Oh”
“How are you feeling?” he asked
“Confused” she replied and turned away
Cathy sat on her bed and looked at herself in the mirror she really hadnt felt that alive for more than two years but although his intimate kiss was intensly electrifying the pleasure he had given her was a double edged sword.
She wanted him but she felt guilty at betraying her husbands memory despite how much she wanted him and how much she enjoyed the kiss.
She dismissed Dave after the kiss and went in search of her step daughter.
But while she was sitting alone on her bed lamenting what might have been, she made the decision to live her life.
So the next day she phoned Dave to say that one of the radiators was leaking and he said he would be round as soon as he could.
(Part 05)
Cathy Maddocks was an attractive twenty nine year old widow who lived with her six year old twins, Lily and Iris, and an 18 year old step daughter Gillian.
Cathy’s husband John was much older than she was when they married but he was the love of her life and she was absolutely devastated when he died.
After the bottom fell out of her world she spent the following two years following his passing in lonely celibacy.
But when the shower went on the blink she phoned her brothers best friend Dave Plunkett, who had his own plumming business in Shallowfield and a huge crush on her.
She was aware of that fact and avoided him on his first two visits but on completeing the repair of her boiler she surprised them both when she begged him to kiss her.
It was a wonderful kiss which didt diminish even after they were discovered by Gillian.
However she dismissed Dave after the kiss and went in search of her step daughter.
But while she was sitting alone on her bed lamenting what might have been, she made the decision to live her life.
So the next day she phoned Dave to say that one of the radiators was leaking and he said he would be round as soon as he could.
The leaky radiator was a fabrication, it was merely a device to get him through the door.
While she waited she got herself dressed in preparation because getting him through the door was only part of the plan and so what she was dressed in was designed to keep him there.
But as she sat and waited for him doubts crept in with every tick off the clock and her resolve began to ebb away.
So she opened a bottle of wine and poured herself a large glass.
By the time Dave knocked on the front door she was just poring her third.
“Come and have a drink” she slurred when she’d opened the door
“Ok” he said doubtfully and followed her but he declined the drink and waited for her to tell him why he was there.
In the end it was Dave who broke the silence.
“When I asked you how you were feeling the other day, you replied, “Confused””
“I did” she agreed
“What about?”
“I was just confused about my feelings” she replied which he suspected but he didn’t see the next bit coming
“And I wasn’t sure about yours”
“Really?” he asked “well you needn’t be, I’ve wanted you forever”
“Ok but I’m scared” Cathy admitted
“I can fix that” Dave said
“I’m scared” she admitted
“Why?” he asked “You want me and I want you”
“It’s my first time” she confessed “Since John”
“It’s our first time” Dave said “but there would be a condition”
Cathy didn’t reply but she put her wine glass down and looked up
“What condition?”
“That you let go of the past” he replied “and no holding back”
“Shut up and kiss me” she said
So he obliged and it was everything she had hoped it would be and as he stood holding her he asked
“So it’s really happening then?” he asked
“Yes but…”
“But what?” Dave asked
“I’m worried about Gillie” she said
“Is that all” he said and laughed
“I’m serious” she snapped “I’ve upset her badly”
“Come with me” he said and took hold of her hand and led her into the lounge and over to the big window where he pulled the net curtain aside to reveal the sight of little shy Gillian sitting in the front of the plumbers van snogging Owens face off
“Oh” Cathy exclaimed “She’s ok then”
“It looks like it” he agreed
“In that case” she said a moment before she pushed him backwards onto the sofa and leapt on top of him.
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