YOU TOOK ME FROM A SEA OF COLD

 

You took me from a sea of cold

You breathed life into me

Brought me back from the dead

Gave wings to my soul

And put music into my heart

The Clerembeax Palace Hotel and Spa – Night Management – Charlie

 

The beautiful Downshire village of Clerembeax St Giles is situated to the west of Abbeyvale located between Grace Hill and Bushy Down and on the outskirts was the Clerembeax Palace Hotel and Spa.

It was once the home The Clerembeax’s, who arrived in Downshire following the Norman conquests and stayed for a thousand years before the name died out following the death of the reclusive Marcus Clerembeax at the age of 96.

The current owner was Yvonne Labuschagne, who decided to open it as a Hotel and Spa and she and her handpicked staff had made a great success of it, and they had a varied clientele who frequented the Hotel for a variety of reasons, but all of them expected a high degree of service.

So the staff were always on hand to deal with whatever needs the guests might require, whatever the hour.

Among the night duty staff were Night Manager Chelsea Winfield and her assistant Charlie Wadsworth.

Charlie was attractive rather than pretty, mid-twenties, with short straw-coloured hair, pixie cut, and stood barely an inch short of six foot tall and was slender and willowy.

She also had a roving eye, and her tastes leaned very much on the feminine side, she had even hoped her friendship with her boss Chelsea might have developed into a sexual one but she realized very early on that she was a man only kind of girl.

But working at the Hotel offered her plenty of eye candy and on occasion she even got to consume some, like the evening when she was on duty and a guest phoned down requesting additional towels.

So, with a bundle of towels in her arms Charlie knocked on the door and a moment later Katie Daniel opened it.

“Lovely” Charlie thought as she looked her over, pretty face, blue eyes, soft shoulder length brown hair, 5t 3 or 4, early thirties, gorgeous figure, housed in a black cocktail dress, thick black tights and heels.

“Fresh towels Madam” she said

“Thank you” Katie responded, “Can you put them in the bathroom?”

“Certainly, Madam” she responded and watched the mirrored relaxion as Katie kicked off her shoes and sat on the sofa with her legs up.

After Charlie had replaced the towels and generally tidied up, she reappeared to find Katie sitting where she had last seen her.

“Will there be anything else madam?” she asked, and Katie tried to reply but was unable as tears started to well up in her eyes and then they ran uncontrollably down her cheeks as she sobbed.

Charlie rushed over to her and knelt on the floor beside her and offered herself up as comfort

“Whatever is the matter?” she asked which just elicited more sobs, so she offered a consoling arm.

“I’m so sorry” she sobbed gratefully accepting Charlie’s open arms and buried her tearstained face in her comforters’ neck.

Charlie then made encouraging noises and stroked her back but being a shoulder to cry on was the full extent of her expertise.

They held that position for some time until Katie’s sobs began to get shallower and shallower and eventually abated altogether.

Nevertheless, she held on to Charlie tightly and began to nuzzle her neck and she could feel Katie’s breath on her skin, which was when her thoughts changed from those of consolation to those of lust.

While still nuzzling Charlie’s neck Katie’s hands began to caress up and down her back and her nuzzles turned to kisses.

She reciprocated the caresses and in an instant Katie’s mouth was on hers.

Miss Daniel’s lips were soft, her mouth was hot and her tongue was energetic and as they kiss her hands began to claw at Charlie’s blouse, dragging it free of her waistband and then with great urgency she pulled herself upright so she was seated in front of the maid as her fingers fumbled at her shirt buttons and when she had accomplished her task she almost ripped the shirt off her back and when those trembling hands were on Charlie’s flesh and she sighed and Charlie knew that “There was something else that Madam wanted”

LIKE THE WINTER TREES

 

Like the winter trees

Left stripped bare

By the autumn gales

Such is our marriage

Our love was once that leafy canopy

Which sheltered and nurtured

But it slowly changes in hue

Then it dried up and blew away

On the winds of change

Until our love was no more

Snippets of Downshire Life – National Umbrella Day

 

Downshire is a relatively small English county but that didn’t bother its inhabitants, they may not have been the biggest, but they were in no doubt that it was the best, and that belief was no more truer than in the southern town off Abbottsford which was Downshire’s administrative capital and the seat of the Downshire government.

It was also a place of learning thanks to the Downshire University, it could also boast that it was a Cathedral City, was home to Abbottsford Town football club, the renowned Winston Churchill Hospital, and Clifford’s biscuits, an old family business established in 1879 by Robert Sebastian Clifford and currently run by his Great-Great Grandson Donald.

The company had moved to their present location in Abbottsford’s in 1928, to the broad white building which was a prime example of the Art Deco style, with its angles, curves and symmetry, which was a stylish façade that did not go unappreciated by Aidan Hennis, one of Clifford’s long-established employee’s, but it was the curves and symmetry of another staff member that interested him more.

 

It was in 1995 when it all began, when Aidan was just 21 years old, when he met Julie Navarro for the first time.

It was a cold grey Monday morning, so grey and dismal that it was clear rain wasn’t far away.

He was starting at Clifford’s that morning and he had just stepped off the bus when the girl in front of him dropped her umbrella.

Aiden bent down and picked it up and when he stood up again, she had turned around and he was staring into the eyes of an angel whose brunette hair framed the classical beauty of her face.

“Thank you” She said and smiled at him and he was instantly besotted.

But as taken with her as he was, he was completely struck dumb and all he could do was return her smile and hand her the umbrella and that would probably have been that, had it not been for the fact that she was heading for the same building as he was.

Although he had never met her before it turned out that they were both new starters.

As a result, they went through induction together, which took up most of their first day, but even given that amount of exposure, and countless opportunities to speak to with her, he still found himself tongue tied, so he missed his chance, because she was bound for accounts on the 3^rd floor and he was destined for the production floor.

 

Their paths seldom crossed after that in fact, and when they did, it was always from a distance, until the summer of that year when Aiden was in Shallowfield for a family wedding and was staying at the Shallowfield Lodge Hotel on the edge of Teardrop Lake.  

 

On the morning of the event, he decided to escape the madness surrounding his family and go for a long walk, so he left the hotel early, it was bright and sunny when he left, but it had rained heavily in the night and there was more in the forecast so he took an umbrella with him just in case.

There was a lane which ran around the periphery of the lake and he headed up the norther side and he was about thirty minutes into his walk when two things happened, firstly the skies darkened, and secondly a young woman in a summer dress stepped into the Lane about ten yards ahead of him, and she really caught his eye, the wiggle of her hips, the swirl of her skirts and he had just begun to admire her legs when the heavens opened.

He immediately deployed the umbrella and as the girl ahead of him was improperly dressed for the conditions the code of gallantry dictated, he come to her aid so he jogged towards her.

“Here under here” he called

“Oh thanks, that came from nowhere” she said

“And it’s brutal too” he added and then she looked up for the first time 

“Oh hello, its Aiden isn’t it?”

“Hi Julie, what are you doing here?” he asked

“Family wedding, my sister Toni…”

“Is marrying my cousin Liam” he continued

“That’s spooky” she said and then there was a lightning flash and thunder rumbled very close by and she stiffened and squeezed in close to him and buried her face in his shoulder   

“Are you ok” he asked

“Yes” came a muffled response “I don’t like thunder”

“But thunder won’t hurt you” he said and chuckled

“Don’t laugh” she said laughing herself “thunder frightens me”

“Come on wimpy I’ll walk you home” he said, “Where are you staying anyway?”

“The Shallowfield Lodge”

“Me too”

 

The rain had virtually stopped by the time they reached the hotel but he kept the umbrella up in order to keep her close but inevitably they reached their destination.

“Thanks” Julie said “I would have been soaked to the skin if you hadn’t been on hand”

“My pleasure” he said as he shook his umbrella dry

“I’ll see you later at the wedding” she said and smiled before she went inside

 

The wedding was a nice affair, and the wedding Gods were kind enough to restrict the rain to when it didn’t matter but they were not as kind to Aiden who was frustrated at every turn in his efforts to get close to Julie again, that was until he managed to get one dance with her.

“How long are staying at the Lodge?” he asked as they danced along to the strains of Harry Nilsson’s “Without You”

“We’re here until Monday”

“Come sailing with me tomorrow then” he suggested “we can have a picnic out on the Lake”

“Ok, that would be nice”

 

They virtually had the lake to themselves apart from a small skiff in the distance, they spent about an hour sailing and then he lowered the sail in the middle of the lake, and they started their picnic, with Aiden sat in the stern and Julie midships.

They sat and chatted, ate sandwiches, drank beer and laughed until the skies began to darken, and the far away rumbles of thunder wiped the smile off her face.

“Don’t worry, you’re safe” he said, and the smile returned but then large raindrops began to fall

“Oh no! Our picnic” she exclaimed

“Don’t panic” he said and reached under his seat and retrieved an umbrella

“My hero” she said and moved to the stern to sit beside him and

They sat and chatted, ate sandwiches, drank beer and laughed as the rain fell around them, and then when the picnic was done, they kissed, and she was so totally absorbed by it that she wasn’t even aware of the thunder rumbling overhead.

 

A year later and they were to be married themselves though their nuptials were to be in Abbottsford, but they did intend to honeymoon on Teardrop Lake.

 

They bought a house together in the suburbs of Abbottsford and Aiden moved in a month before the wedding but because Julie’s mother was a very strict Christian they weren’t allowed to live there together until after the wedding, and it was a dictate that they found difficult to ignore as her Aunty had a house in the same cul-de-sac, and she was a very nosy woman and Julie was not a favourite of hers, so reluctantly they had to honour it, for the most part at any rate.

 

It was early in the morning when Julie arrived at the house, parking her car in a lane nearby and walking the rest of the way, safe in the knowledge that she would reach the door unseen, as she had seen her Aunt and Uncle leave in their car, to go shopping.

 

Once inside they embraced and one thing led to another and they spent most of the in bed in fact they would have been there longer had they not been woken by lightning strikes and thunderclaps, but they cuddled closer and the lightning strikes got brighter and brighter and the thunder clapped louder and louder and grew nearer and nearer until it was directly overhead and the thunder shook the very fabric of the house, but they were making love again by then.

 

 

They would have happily spent the rest of the day and the night together but alas she had to go, however the problem was how to get her out of the house in broad daylight without being seen, because her Aunt and Uncle were home again, and eagle-eyed Aunt Rosa would be casting a watchful eye in their direction.

By the time Julie redressed and they got downstairs it was early evening and although the thunder and lightning had abated it was raining hard, but not just rain, it was an absolute deluge.

“Crappy weather” Julie cursed

“It’s excellent” he said

“What?” she exclaimed, “But it’s horrible”

“It’s perfect, is what it is” he said and went into the utility and came out with a set of waterproofs and a Golfing umbrella.

“If Aunt Rosa sees you in these, she’ll think you’re me” Aiden said

“Is that the umbrella we had our first kiss under?” she asked

“It is” he replied “so don’t lose it because it’s special”

“It’s special to me too” she said and kissed him

 

Having provided Julie with the appropriate clothing they immediately hit upon a snag, because the trousers didn’t fit over the skirts of her midi dress, as it bunched up under the waterproofs and made it look like she had a bustle.

“Well, you don’t look much like me with a bum that big” he said

“Cheeky sod” she retorted and punched his arm, and he was laughing as he left the room.

 

When he came back, he was carrying her decorating clothes, which consisted of a pair of paint spattered leggings and a T-shirt.

“Oh, good thinking” she said “You’re a sneaky man”

“I know but it’s the least I can do in return for an afternoon of sin”

He declared and she blushed crimson red, and then she removed the waterproof trouser and then had to take her dress off.

“Don’t get any ideas,” she said when she noticed him looking at her in her bra, pants and tights.

“Well, you could stay a bit longer” he suggested

“It’s not that I don’t want to” she said quickly pulling on the leggings, “Another four weeks and then it will be every night”

“I can’t wait” he said as he watched her put on the T-shirt, then she pulled on the waterproof trousers again they were a little on the large side and the waistband sat just below her bust line.

Then she pulled on the top over her head before slipping on her shoes.

“That’s going to work” he said

“Is it ok?” she asked

“Yes” He replied “Now put your hood up”

She did as he said, and it immediately obscured most of her face

“Perfect, you look gorgeous”

“I will hurt you” she threatened

 

After he had kissed her goodbye, he said

“Text me when you get to the car”

“Ok” she responded and kissed him again, then he turned the light off and she let herself out into the rain, put the umbrella up, and off she went.

 

Meanwhile, with the house in darkness, he went into the backroom and put the TV on, then after five minutes he got a text

“Made it,” it read “Love you”

Aiden smiled and typed a response

“I love you too”

SHE WAS SO ELEGANT

 

She was so elegant

And light of step

As if on Angels wings

She was swept

From heavens high

Into my arms

To bless my life

With her charms

EVERY CORNER OF THE WORLD (7)

 

I will sail around the Cape of Good Hope

where the two great oceans meet

I will follow you to the ends of the earth

Because you’re the only one for me

I BELIEVE IN SOUL MATES

 

I believe in soul mates

Whom you can sense long before

They come into sight

I believe mine is close