Olivia Adamson was a cool and detached woman who to the untrained eye appeared to be aloof and detached but nothing could be further from the truth.
But to all intents and purposes
she disliked men, though that wasn’t strictly speaking true either, in fact she
disliked what they did to her.
It all began for Olivia when
she was 12 years old when her father left her mum and as a result she felt
abandoned for the first time.
That selfish thoughtless act
of desertion marked Olivia and proved the benchmark of her early years and in
every relationship she had throughout her teenage years ended the same way with
her being left alone again.
College was one
disappointment after another and even onto university she seemed to possess the
knack for choosing men with feet of clay.
So midway through her degree
course she decided to wash her hands of the species entirely and concentrate on
her BSc, and she never looked back and Olivia finished university with a first
in business management.
Olivia never forgave her
father and she was never reconciled with him and as a result of a massive heart
attack when she was 29 she never would be.
She was a formidable woman and
dealt with all men with a firm hand and if that
failed she would employ her Paddington Hard Stare, which had been known to
strike fear into men and in some cases reduce them to tears.
Olivia had willingly sacrificed the chance of love, marriage and family just
to protect herself from being hurt again.
And Olivia maintained
her aloofness in the face of men and reinvested the love she might have shared
with a life partner with her dearest friends.
Honestly it would
have been forever so had she not met Simon
Fisher, a local writer and serial philanderer.
At first she had the measure
of him and kept him safely at arm’s length, courtesy of hard stare.
But through acts of kindness
and self-sacrifice on his part she weakened and so began a short but exhausting
sexual affair.
Simon was a dog when
it came to women but she knew what he was, and she let him have her, dog or no
dog.
He was insatiable
in his habits and he cast his net wide.
Olivia had even heard
rumours about him and Claire Andrews but she didn’t believe them and nor did she
confide her complicity in his philandering with Claire.
She did enjoy it though
and she had never felt so alive succumbing to him was one of the events that
had made her revaluate her life.
Another one was the Reverend Katie Oliver’s
untimely death and then so many of the people she knew in Bushy Down had formed
into couples and left her alone again.
Claire Andrews was a
well-respected GP and was Olivia Adamson’s closest friend.
They had spent more than ten
years at the surgery together in Bushy Down so when Claire instructed Olivia, the practice manager, to find her another
practice she didn’t hesitate for a second.
With her contacts and ultra-efficiency it didn’t take long to find out
the Shallowfield practice was up for sale and she offered to handle all the
details, with the strict proviso that Olivia could run it for her, Claire
agreed in principle but said she would be happier if she became her partner
instead, Olivia agreed in a heartbeat.
And it was with a clear
conscience and a heart full of hopeful expectation that Olivia upped sticks and
moved across the county.
Claire had no problem selling her share of the Bushy Down practice to
her partners and as Shallowfield’s surgery was vacant due to the untimely death
of its previous occupants, the Doctors Collins.
It all went through very quickly, in fact so quickly that neither Olivia
nor Claire had found anywhere to live despite the fact they had both sold their
respective properties.
So while they were waiting they booked in to the Shallowfield Lodge
Hotel at the head of Teardrop Lake.
Of course staying at the lodge was not the hardship it might sound, it
was a very comfortable Hotel, well situated for the Surgery and the proprietors,
Ron and Sheryl Brown, were the perfect hosts.
But as nice as it was it wasn’t home.
Which is why they were seated in front of William Lyndon-Sanders desk at
his Property company office, hoping to impress him sufficiently that he might
actually help them to find somewhere to live.
Olivia was four years younger than Claire and although she said it herself she was not unattractive
to look at with her short dark hair, tall and slender figure with nice long
legs, though she had so admit she was fairly shapeless and her chest was as
flat as a bowling green.
Liv wore a smart two piece
suit and black tights and due to her height a pair of flat shoes.
She also wore glasses, which
made her look quite formidable and she had been told on more than one occasion that
it helped in determining which way she was facing.
And Olivia knew that eeven though Claire
was fast approaching forty she was still an attractive woman, a very attractive
woman.
pretty face, blue eyes, soft shoulder length brown hair, 5ft 3, nice
figure, everything where it should be, equally proportioned, and she also knew
as they sat in the front office of Lyndon-Sanders, that William Lyndon-Sanders
lustful gaze was on the woman wearing a blue two piece suit, thick black tights
and 4” heels.
They were dressed in their ultra-smart apparel because some of the estate
agents they had visited in the area had been more than a little frosty, even
for January.
William Lyndon-Sanders was very impressed with one of the potential
client seated before him, the one who was emitting a very exotic perfume every
time she moved.
And he thought she was a very attractive looking woman.
He was a details man and his eyes had been studying the little bit of
pale pink bra strap and the glimpse of lace edging inside her nicely filled
blouse, her neat hips and her beautifully round buttocks.
Olivia had to deploy the hard stare which caused him to snap out of his
lusty trance.
“How may I help doctor?” he
asked
“Please call me Claire” She
said “And this is my colleague Olivia,”
He looked at Olivia and was
less impressed but smiled
“Olivia is the practice
manager” Claire clarified
Claire then proceeded to fill him in on the situation and there
difficulty in finding somewhere close to Shallowfield.
“The problem is there aren’t many properties locally for sale” he
explained
“And those that are, go for over inflated prices”
“Why is that?” Olivia asked
“There is a covenant dating back to feudal times” he said “That covers a
great number of properties in the area”
“What does that mean for us exactly?” Claire asked
“It means that the only available properties locally are for rental
only” William said
“So is there somewhere to rent in Shallowfield that might suit?” Olivia
asked
“I think there is yes” he said
So that was how practice manager and organizer extraordinaire Olivia
Adamson and the lovely Dr Claire Andrews came to be living in the Folly Cottages in the
Dancingdean Forest.
The three terraced cottages were situated high above the northern perimeter
road in a rocky glade overlooking Teardrop Lake.
Once upon a time they were home to peasant woodsmen who worked the forest
but now the peasantry couldn’t afford to live anywhere near the lake.
The view was spectacular, although they
couldn’t see it all or even discern the teardrop shape that gave the lake its
name. But the view of the surrounding ancient woodland of the Dancingdean Forest
was majestic.
Much of the modest body of water was
obscured from view from their vantage point but it was beautiful and relatively
unspoilt which was why the two women fell in love with the place immediately.
Even before they had even seen inside the cottages they were all but
decided and afterwards the only decision to make was who would occupy which
cottage.
In the end it was a simple choice, Claire had the one with the bath and
Olivia had the one with the best kitchen as she liked to cook.
The middle one remained empty for now at any rate.
It was both idyllic and peaceful overlooking
the lake, there was little or no noise pollution and although the lake was used
there were no speed boats or jet skis, only rowing boats, canoes, dinghies and
skiffs.
Teardrop Lake and the surrounding
woodland was privately owned and covered by an ancient covenant, and was divided
into twelve parcels each with one significant dwelling, although those who
rented any of the cottages dotted around the forest had access to the woodland
and lake.
Olivia and Claire were
very pleased with themselves for finding the cottages, but a variety of reasons
prevented them from immediately moving in.
Firstly they
needed to be decorated and re-carpeted and Olivia and Claire needed the time
which was of a premium and they didn’t really have any to spare.
The new practice
was taking all their time and even with organizer extraordinaire, Olivia,
on-board they were too exhausted come the end of the day to do anything
other than eat and crash.
So they employed
Karl Bowers, the odd job handyman at the Shallowfield Lodge, Coleman’s son, to decorate the cottages.
At their
favourite eatery, The Brown Windsor, across the street from the surgery they tackled
the thorny problems that remained.
The Brown Windsor was a
popular restaurant and boasted a large regular clientele.
It was owned and run by Mark Roscoe, a pleasant personable man around 40
years old, who carried the evidence of his over indulgence around his middle.
For the first month or so they ate there every night by the end of it
they had exhausted the variety on the menu and Mark had exhausted Claire’s
patience with his constant attention.
It was one of the few occasions that Olivia didn’t mind being the least
attractive.
In the early days of their time in Shallowfield, Olivia and Claire found
that the Brown Windsor Restaurant was where all the decisions were made.
And after they had secured the services of all the key players for the
surgery, it left just one
vital position to fill, that of the practice nurse.
“Look we both
know who we want” Claire said
“Evangeline” they
chorused
“Yes but we’ll
never get her” Olivia replied
“We could make
her an offer” Claire suggested
“Look this
practice has twice the number of patients as Bushy Down and one in three of
them are private, but there is still a limit to what we can offer her” Olivia
said
“She’ll never
come all the way out here anyway”
“It’s worth
trying”
“But she’ll never
be able to afford to live here” Olivia said
“It was difficult
enough for us to find somewhere”
“I have an idea
about that” Claire said
“What?”
“Number two Folly
Cottages”
“That’s
brilliant” Olivia said “why didn’t I think of that?”
So they lured Evangeline Christodoulou to
Shallowfield with an improved package and a tied cottage.
It was a real
coup, they had tried to get her to join the BushyDown surgery but never quite
managed it.
Where Olivia
Adamson was the master organiser Eva was a doer, in fact she was a tour de
force, she was practice nurse, phlebotomist, ran the clinics, did home visits
and was an all-round good egg.
So they managed
to lure Evangeline Christodoulou to
Shallowfield with an improved package and a tied cottage.
It was a real
coup, they had tried to get her to join the BushyDown surgery several years
before but never quite managed it.
Where Olivia
Adamson was the master organiser Eva was a doer, in fact she was a tour de
force, she was practice nurse, phlebotomist, she ran the clinics, did home
visits and was an all-round good egg.
So with all the
major post filled by the end of February
And the three
Folly Cottages fully redecorated by Karl Bowers and new carpets fitted
throughout they were finally able to get their worldly goods out of storage and
were moved in by the middle of March two months to the day after they signed
the leases.
Eva moved into
hers two weeks earlier courtesy of her brother Emilio’s and a battered transit
van.
Olivia thought it
was nice after two months of living in a hotel and eating at a restaurant to
just go home at the end of the day and change into sloppy joes and have a home
cooked meal.
She seldom had to
eat alone though because Claire couldn’t cook to save her life, so most nights they
ate together.
By the time May
arrived things had settled down considerably and they had added another nurse,
Kate Marston, to the staff.
On the May bank
holiday Lynn Cooper had invited everyone from the Surgery to a BBQ at Coopers
Villa at the east end of Teardrop Lake.
As they were all
local everyone accepted the invite.
It was a glorious
day with not a cloud in the sky and only a gentle breeze blowing off the lake.
Claire, Liv and
Eva all walked down to the Coopers together.
Along with Paul,
Alastair and Kate who all emerged into the lane simultaneously as they all had
flats in Dancingdean House.
Olivia thought
there was a bit of a love triangle forming with the three of them and hoped it
wouldn’t blow up in everyone else’s face.
Olivia thought
Kate knew exactly what she was doing.
The three of them
were all of a similar age and she trusted they would be sensible.
She envied Kate
though having two good looking men chasing after her.
Now things had
settled down at work she had more time to think that she was comfortable with
and her thoughts turned to love.
She had after all
moved to Shallowfield for a new start so why couldn’t that include someone
special for her.
She chastised
herself for her foolishness and her unrealistic dreams and decided she should
just be pleased for Kate and hoped she would be happy with her choice.
As soon as the
group arrived at the Coopers Eva disappeared in search of Siti.
Olivia and Claire
mingled and made their way slowly towards the patio stopping on the way to chat
as they went and they had just set foot on the flagstones Mark Roscoe emerged
through the French doors in deep conversation with Paul Cooper who was a Chief
Inspector in Abbottsford.
But as soon as
his eyes fell on Claire he lost interest in Paul and made a beeline for Claire.
“Oh God” Claire
said
“What?” Liv asked
“Restaurateur
alert” Claire said and looked for an exit
“Fear not” Olivia
said and blocked Mark’s path while Claire made good her escape.
Olivia put
herself in his path and smiled, the smile was one of the most disarming weapons
in her arsenal.
In truth it was the type of phantom smile like a baby might make, which
you think is aimed at you but it turns out to be wind.
“Hello Mark” she said
“Oh hello” he replied trying to look past her
“We have so missed eating at the Brown Windsor” Olivia said
“Well you know where we are” he said still trying to look beyond her
Anyway pleasantries were
exchanged and when she felt Claire had shown him a clear pair of heels she let him pass.
Then Olivia Adamson
smiled a natural smile.
“That was neatly done” a voice said behind her
“Very impressive”
Olivia turned slowly around and was priming herself to deliver a withering
look at the owner of the voice.
When she completed her turn she was met by a tall skinny man with short
brown hair and glasses with an inane grin on his face.
And the withering look she had planned melted away into a smile.
“I thought you handled him
very well” he said and handed her a drink
“Thank you, he’s been
pestering my friend” she explained
“He won’t take no for an answer”
“Oh I see” he said “and I thought
you were a secret agent”
She felt herself blush and then inexplicably Olivia giggled
“No I’m Practice manager at the
local surgery” she said
“Ah so you’re not Mata Hari?” he quizzed
She giggled again
“No I’m Olivia Adamson” she said
“So what about you? Are you an
international man of mystery?”
She asked and they both laughed
“No my name is Ben Shenton” he
replied “and I am Vicar of this parish”
“Well I’m pleased to meet you Ben” Olivia said and smiled
“Well that’s not the normal response I get” Ben said
“It’s normally the cue for them to be somewhere else”
“Well I’m made of sterner
stuff” She replied
“In which case let me
introduce you to some of my parishioner’s” he said then he whispered
“They have gossip that will
make your hair curl”
Olivia was sitting on a stone bench and while Ben had gone to get them
another drink she decided to phone Claire, it rang three times before it was
answered
“Doctor Andrews” she said
“Are you ok?” Olivia asked
“Oh yes” Claire said “I’m on a yacht drinking wine with the rich and
famous”
“Sounds fabulous” Liv said
“What about you?” Claire asked “I know it’s not your kind of thing”
“I’m actually enjoying it” she whispered “And I’ve heard a lot of
gossip”
“Excellent you can fill me in later” Claire said
“I’ll see you later then, Bye Claire” Olivia said
“Ok Liv” Claire said and Olivia hung up
When Ben returned he had two
wine glasses in one hand and a plate from the BBQ in the other.
“I hope this is ok” he said “There was a bit of a bun fight so I grabbed
what I could get”
“It looks great, thank you” she said “I’m starving”
The two of them sat on the stone bench and ate in silence but for the
satisfied sighs of appreciation.
When they had finished Ben gathered together the dirty plates and empty
glasses and said
“Do you fancy a walk?”
“Yes I’d like that” she said “but I need to spend a penny first”
So Olivia went to the loo while Ben took the dirty things to the
kitchen.
When they met back on the patio Olivia had attended to her makeup and
Ben was carrying two bottles of water fresh from the fridge.
“You think of everything” Liv said
“I try to” he said
“So which way?” he asked when they got up to the road
“Left” she replied
“Left it is” said the vicar and they started walking slowly along the
road in the spring sunshine and idly chatted.
Ben Shenton wasn’t from Downshire he was born in New Zealand to
missionary parents, subsequently he had travelled the world, doing missionary
work.
But he felt called to a different life and settled in the county.
He was almost forty years old and St Mary’s in Shallowfield was his
first parish as Vicar.
“How long have you been at St Mary’s?” Olivia asked
“Two years now” he replied
Oliver thought back to her time in Bushy Down and how difficult it was
for the new vicar Robert Hunter after Katy Oliver died.
“And?” she asked
“And it took time for me to win them over” he replied
“But now they have accepted me”
By the time they got to the top of the hill up the sun was at its
hottest and they were flagging.
So as they were close to the Folly cottage’s Olivia suggested take a
refreshment break at her cottage.
“Great idea” he concurred
They spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on her patio drinking cold
beer.
“Lynn tells me you are an organizer extraordinaire” he said
“That’s very flattering” Liv said and blushed a little
“I could use a great organizer” he said
“I see, first the flattery and then the sting” she said laughing
“Not at all, not at all” he said, also laughing
Whether or not Olivia thought she was being conned or not she agreed to
help him, and by the end of the afternoon she had also agreed to join the choir.
After spending the afternoon on Olivia’s patio and suitably refreshed they
resumed their walk and went up to Olwen’s Chapel.
Olwen was an Anglo Saxon Lady who was one of the early converts to
Christianity but her pagan husband’s tribe would not accept the new faith and
she was forced to worship secretly in the forest.
Her chapel was in actually just an assortment of stones on the forest
floor arranged around a granite altar stone in a woodland clearing.
It had been rediscovered early in Queen Victoria reign and had been
lovingly maintained ever since by a local society.
It was a very atmospheric place and every time she went there Olivia
found herself spiritually refreshed.
They stayed a short while and then the Vicar walked Olivia home before
going home himself, it was a lovely afternoon marred only by the fact she had
snagged the chain of her crucifix on an errant branch.
“Oh shit” she exclaimed
“What’s the matter?” Ben asked
“I broke the chain” she replied “and I’ve lost my cross”
The two of them scrabbled in the undergrowth but after several minutes
search they were unable to find it.
“It was my mums” she said and a lump filled her throat.
Ben was apologetic but Olivia dismissed it as unimportant.
Ben knew of course that it wasn’t unimportant.
When she returned to the cottage she was enigmatic about her whereabouts
for the afternoon and when Claire pressed her Olivia distracted her with the
gossip she had heard at the party.
She had enjoyed her afternoon with Ben, he was nice, someone with a like
mind, a kindred spirit, but she knew Claire would have endowed it with romantic
overtones, which she wasn’t even sure existed, and if they did, did she really want
it?.
Olivia knew the answer to that question was a resounding yes.
In the days immediately following the BBQ at Lynn’s, Claire had been
like a cat on a hot tin roof waiting to hear from Peter, the gallant hero who had
helped her escape Mark Roscoe’s clutches.
On one morning she heard Claire leave very early, clearly unable to
sleep and Olivia presumed she was on her way to the surgery to catch up on
paperwork.
By the time
Olivia walked into the surgery Claire was much happier.
“You’re very
chipper for someone who left home at sparrows fart this morning”
“It must be the
country air” she said
“Hmmm” Olivia
uttered
“Do you fancy a
Chinese tonight?” Claire said changing the subject
“Yes ok” she
agreed “We’ll have to eat at 8 though”
“How come?”
Claire asked not that it mattered
“I have choir practice”
she replied
“You have what?”
Claire asked with a snort of derision
“Choir practice”
Olivia said “I have joined the church choir”
And before Claire
could say anymore she flounced off into her office.
Olivia was cross, she didn’t understand why Claire was so surprised,
neither of them were strangers to church and Claire knew she liked to sing.
Things had settled down at the surgery with all the staff and processes
starting to pay dividends and with Claire thinking more about the whereabouts
of her new man than what she was doing so Olivia made herself useful on the
Vicars behalf,
Doing some bookwork, Rota’s, that kind of thing.
Despite Claire’s scepticism
in regard to Liv’s choral epiphany it had very definitely put a spring Olivia’s
step.
And a good humour
had seeped in to her every pore when she increased her choir practices to twice
a week.
Due to her
preoccupation with Peter Lutchford,
Claire didn’t notice just how much time Olivia was spending on parish matters
and the choir.
One night in the
church hall after practice Olivia was helping Ben clear away after everyone had
gone.
“I won’t be here
for Friday’s practice” she said
“Oh! Why?” he
asked struggling to keep the disappointment from his voice.
“Claire is
throwing a dinner party for my birthday” she replied
“It’s your
birthday?” he asked “why didn’t you say”
“I don’t like a
fuss” said Olivia
“Well you should”
he said “you deserve it”
“Nah” she
responded and picked up her bag and said goodnight.
Ben had a meeting
at the diocese with the Bishop the next day which occupied most of it.
The day after he
only had a narrow window between a meeting with the parish council and the summer
fete organizing committee.
He left the
village hall and walked down towards the surgery, he saw Peter Lutchford
entering Gunasekara’s general store and Doctor Andrews crossed the road in front of him also heading towards
the store.
As he approached
the glass doors of the surgery he took a deep breath, muttered a little prayer
and pushed open the door.
He was carrying a
manila envelope as he walked to the reception desk.
“Hello Vicar”
Lynn Cooper said
“Hi Lynn” he
replied “could I leave this envelope for Ms Adamson”
“You can give it
to her yourself Vicar” she replied and gestured beyond him
He turned around
and saw Olivia was just leaving her office.
“Vicar!” Olivia
said “Were you looking for me?”
“Yes, if you have
a minute” Ben said
“Certainly, come
in” Olivia said in her cool detached way
“What brings you
to the surgery” she said as she closed the door
“To invite you to
lunch” Ben said “for your birthday”
“Oh” she
responded. Taken completely off guard
On Friday lunchtime Olivia
left the surgery and walked along to the Vicarage.
As she approached, Ben was
waiting next to his car on the driveway.
“Happy birthday” he said and
kissed her cheek
“Thank you” Olivia responded
“Jump in” he said
Olivia looked at the 15 year
old red and rust colour Proton and said
“I take it we’re not going
far?”
“Don’t worry” he said “it
runs better than it looks”
“I hope so” she said as she
got in
They didn’t have far to go,
just a few miles to the Huntsman’s Lodge in Childean.
As they sat at the table
drinking coffee after the meal Ben reached into his pocket and brought out a
small gift.
“Happy birthday” he said
“What’s this?” she asked
“Open it and see”
Olivia was carefully opening
the little package when she stopped and looked at him
“You shouldn’t buy me a gift
just because you’re grateful for my help” she said
“I didn’t get you a gift
because I ‘m thankful for what you have done” he replied “I got it because I’m
thankful for you”
“What?” she said meekly
“It’s because I think you’re
special” he said
“Oh” she said and smiled, then continued opening the package, she
ripped off the paper and exposed a small rectangular lidded box.
Olivia discarded the paper and then removed the lid and gasped.
“It’s my mums cross” she said in disbelief
“How?”
“I borrowed Coleman’s metal detector” he said
“You did that for me?” she asked “really?”
“Yes” he replied
She sat in
silence staring at the little cross on the new gold chain and there were tears
in her eyes.
“Can you put it
on for me?” she asked with a crack in her voice
They both stood
up and Olivia turned her back on him and offered up the chain to her neck, then
Ben took the two ends and closed the clasp.
Once it was on Olivia
paused to admire it briefly before turning around to face him.
“Thank you so
much” she said and laced her skinny arms
around his neck and pulled her whole frame in close to his and kissed him
slowly and deliberately and he reciprocated in kind.
When they had finished they
remembered they were not alone in the restaurant and they laughed as they sat
down.
Ben leant forward across the
table and whispered
“It’s a good job I didn’t
wear my collar”
Later on that Friday
Claire held the dinner party at her cottage in honour of Olivia’s thirty
seventh birthday.
Olivia and the
other guests were completely undaunted about the fact that Claire couldn’t cook
to save her life.
Apart from Claire
and the guest of honour, those present were Evangeline, Siti Shahara, Lynn
Cooper, Chantelle Dooney and Kate Marston and they were all from the practice.
The evening went
very well, Olivia had a lovely time though her thoughts did keep wandering to
Ben.
All the guests enjoyed
three courses of gourmet food and copious quantities of wine.
And the hostess
with the mostest Claire never lifted a finger all night.
All the food was
prepared, cooked and served by Lynn’s daughter Jane who was the Sous chef at
the Brown Windsor.
Jane moonlighted
on her nights off doing home dining experiences.
It wasn’t cheap
but Claire thought it was worth every penny.
Olivia was
unaware of the cost and would have been passed caring if she had, she needed to
use every brain cell she could muster as she weaved her way back to her front
door.
Later that day, while
Claire was in her cottage deeply regretting her over indulgence the night
before, because she had her first date with Peter that night, Olivia slept her
hangover off until teatime.
Despite her hung
over state she had decided on a plan of action, the first part of the plan was to
shower off the smell of the booze that was seeping out through every pore.
Part two involved
her dressing to kill and making the best of what she had.
She saw
headlights through the cottage window and when she looked out she saw what she
assumed to be Claire’s new chap Peter in a chauffeur driven car.
She watched Claire
get into the car and then saw it drive away the she put part three of the plan
in force.
It was the day
after her birthday and Olivia finished getting ready and left her cottage to
drive to the village.
She parked her
car in the surgery car park and walked down the road to the vicarage.
Like a secret
agent in the night she looked around and knocked on the door and fingered the
crucifix he had presented too her for her birthday.
She saw the
shadow through the glass and the door opened.
“Hi Ben” she said
and smiled
“Olivia” he
responded “Come in”
She stepped
inside and the moment the door closed they were in each other’s arms.
