The
beautiful Downshire village of Clerembeax St Giles was situated to the west of
Abbeyvale located between Grace Hill and Bushy Down and on the outskirts was
the Clerembeax Palace Hotel and Spa and when Yvonne Labuschagne inherited it
from her cousin, the last remaining Clerembeax, she undertook the task of
modernizing the Palace and opening a Hotel and Spa offering, fitness classes,
gym, rock sauna, infra-red sauna, aroma steam room, ice fountain, drench
showers, Jacuzzi, a Romanesque pool, Reflexology, Raki, facials, scalp massage,
hand massage, Manicure and Pedicure, while also providing accommodation,
meeting and function rooms, a superior restaurant and whatever temptation might
attract potential visitors.
Ray
Morrison was a trained Physiotherapist and Masseur, who had worked with Yvonne
at the Dancingdean Spa, when her husband was still alive, but his role at the
Palace also involved training some of the younger ancillary staff as well as
using his skills on the guests, but he enjoyed being in Clerembeax, and he had
made many friends among the staff, and he also enjoyed taking long walks in the
surrounding countryside, when he wasn’t working,
One
of the younger members of staff he had a lot of interactions with was 17-year-old
Cheryl Lee, who Ray had great regard for and had taken under his wing.
It
was due to that great regard and his avuncular nature that on Mother’s Day his
actions lead to great changes in his life.
It
was during the final incarnation of the Beast from the East at the end of a
long Winter, when Cheryl was desperate to get home to her mother, who was laid
up, in the village of Tollington, with a broken leg, and as the storm had
affected mobile phone and landline coverage, she was unable even to contact
her, to reassure herself that she was ok, so Ray took pity on her.
As
Tollington was only about two miles from the Hotel as the crow flies and as he
drove a Landrover Discover, he offered to try and get her home.
It
was a perilous journey which involved having to winch the car out of a ditch at
one point, but fortunately there was no obvious damage to the car, so twenty
minutes after that they pulled up outside Cheryl’s house.
“Thank
you, thank you, thank you” she squealed and hugged him again before saying
“come on” and got out the car.
Ray
followed and watched her run up the path and then fall in a heap about three
paces from the front door.
In
his concern he rushed to her aid
“Are
you ok?” he asked but when he reached her she was giggling so much she couldn’t
speak.
Once
she got her to her feet and she’d regained her ability to speak they walked
gingerly to the porch and she unlocked the front door.
“Mum!
Mum!” she called as she walked inside “it’s me”
“Cheryl?”
a call came back in reply
She
shed her coat and accessories in the hall as Ray closed the front door and then
Cheryl went into the cosy lounge where her mum was.
“Happy
Mother’s Day!” she said as she burst into the room
“I
wasn’t expecting to see today” her mum said with tears in her eyes, and there
was a prolonged teary hug.
“How
did you get here?” Her Mum asked as she wiped her eyes
“Ray
drove me”
“Ray?”
she asked
“Yes,
Ray from work” she replied “You know the one I’m always talking about”
“Oh
yes, well that was kind” she said and then hurriedly added “I hope you haven’t
let him drive back to Clerembeax again”
“No,
he’s in the hall” Cheryl replied
“Well
bring him in then, so I can thank him”
So,
she went back out to the hall and said
“Come
in and say hello”
“Ok”
“Mum
this is Ray, Ray this is…”
“Sarah
Daniels?” Ray said
“I
used to be” she said with a confused look on her face
“You
used to go out with my brother Ben” he explained
“Ray
Morrison” she exclaimed “But I’m surprised you remember me though, we only met
a few times because you were away at University most of the time”
“You
obviously made an impression on me” he said and smiled because she may not have
remembered him, but he remembered her very well and the feelings he had for her
back then and it appeared they were still there.
Ray
accepted the offer of a hot drink and a seat by the fire but when his mug was
empty he got up to leave.
“Thank
you for the drink” he said “but I’d better make a move”
“You
can sit right back down where you were” she snapped “Don’t think for one moment
I’m going to let you risk life and limb out there again”
Ray
opened his mouth to protest but Cheryl said
“You’d
better do as she says, even with a broken leg, she’s more than a match for you”
So,
he sat back down, and Sarah insisted he stayed the night because of the snow.
But
it had nearly all gone by the next morning as it had turned to rain sometime in
the night.
Ray
had managed to get through to the Hotel in the early hours and report he and
Cheryl were safe and would be back at work the next day.
They
didn’t leave quite as early as Ray intended as Sarah insisted they get a cooked
breakfast inside them first, which Cheryl cooked under her mum’s strict
supervision.
But
when they did get away they found the journey took even longer than the night
before, due to flooding, road closures and diversions, but they got there in
the end.
It
wasn’t much better when he repeated the journey over the next couple of days,
when he drove Cheryl home to Tollington, something that he insisted upon because
Ray said the buses weren’t running a normal service.
After
the flooding subsided and life got back to normal he had no more excuses to
make the drive over to Tollington on some pretext or other to spend time with
Sarah, in fact it was more than a week later before an opportunity presented
itself.
It
was on Wednesday afternoon and Cheryl was helping him clean down his room in
the massage suite and she was chatting away as she moved bits of furniture to
clean underneath, when she asked him to help her move the massage table.
“That’s
alright, we’ll do under there on Friday” he said
“I’ve
got the day off on Friday” she responded “I’m going with mum to Kiddingstone
General, she’s having the cast off”
“That’s
good news” he said, “How are you getting there?”
“We’re
going on the bus” she said cheerily
“No,
no, that’s totally unacceptable” he said “I’ll drive you there”
“It’s
ok, we’ve done it before” Cheryl replied
“I
know but now you don’t have to, so I’ll drive you” he retorted in a tone that brooked
no response and then he phoned reception to take him off the rota for that day.
On
Friday morning when he arrived at their house in Tollington Sarah and Cheryl
were ready to go.
“This
is really very kind of you Ray but she shouldn’t have imposed on you like this”
Sarah said
“She
didn’t” he replied “I insisted”
“Well
I’m grateful” she said not wishing to protest further as she was rather pleased
to see him.
When
they arrived at Kiddingstone General he pulled up outside the front entrance
and Sarah was disappointed as she didn’t think he was just going to drop her
off and go, but when he came to a complete halt he said
“I’ll
drop you here and go and find a space, and then I’ll see you inside”
She
had to supress a smile in response but had to make a verbal protest, even if it
was merely for appearance sake
“You
don’t have to wait, we can get the bus back, or get a cab”
“I
wouldn’t dream of it” he retorted
“But
we’ve imposed on your good nature enough already” Sarah added
“Nonsense,
if I wasn’t happy to do it I wouldn’t have offered” he replied
“Blimey!
You two are like two sides of the same coin” Cheryl said and laughed
Ray
sat in the waiting room while she was having the cast removed and Sarah was
smiling broadly when she emerged, minus the cast, which Cheryl was brandishing
like a trophy.
Even
through her jeans it was obvious to Ray that she had lost quite a bit of muscle
definition while she had been incapacitated.
Sarah
was sat in the passenger seat reading her discharge notes on the journey back
to Tollington when she said
“They’ll
send me a physio appointment in the post”
“How
many? And how often?” he asked, and she scanned the notes
“One
a week for six weeks”
“You
need more than one session a week” he said
“I’m
a trained physio myself so I can help”
“Really?”
“Yes,
physio and massage is what I do” he said
“Where
would you do it? At home or at the Spa?” she asked, and he knew he would be
seeing a lot more of her over the coming weeks, so he replied
“A
bit of both I think”
At
first, he would drive to Tollington and either do her physio there or pick her
up and drive her to the Spa where he could get her on the massage table.
In
the later sessions she had sufficient strength in her leg to be able to drive
herself to Clerembeax, but he would still do the reciprocal visits to her.
As
time progressed they did more talking and drinking coffee than they did physio,
but then they had passed the point where she needed it by several weeks any
way.
It
was on one such visit when he suddenly knelt on the floor in front of her.
“It’s
alright my leg is fine, you don’t need to massage it today” she said and smiled
“I’m
not kneeling down to massage your leg” he replied
“Oh”
When
Cheryl walked in and found Ray kneeling on the floor in front of her mum she
panicked
“Oh
God what’s wrong? Is it your leg? What happened?”
“Don’t
worry, nothings wrong” Ray said “I’m not down here for the leg”
“What
then?” she asked with a puzzled look on her face
“I
was…” he began and then looked at Sarah who nodded her head “Proposing”
“And?”
she asked, eyes wide
“I’m
going to be your father” he replied
“Wicked”
she squealed and rushed over to hug them both
