Twenty eight year old Fiona Burnham lived alone in the
village of Mornington-By-Mere,
which is a small country village lying in the Finchbottom Vale nestled between
the Ancient Dancingdean Forest and the rolling Pepperstock Hills.
It is a quaint picturesque village, a proper chocolate box picturesque
idyll, with a Manor House, 12th Century Church, a Coaching Inn,
Windmills, an Old Forge, a Schoolhouse, a River and a Mere.
But Mornington-By-Mere is not just a quaint chocolate
box English Village it is the beating heart of the Finchbottom Vale and there were a number of cottages and small
houses on the Purplemere road and Dulcets Lane which form the part of Mornington
Village known as Manorside where Fiona lived in a small two bedroom cottage
in the row of West Gate Cottages on the banks of the River Brooke.
She had only lived there full time for around 6 months when she finally
sold her house in Purplemere and moved to the village.
Her brother had lived in the house before her and she often visited him
there and she had fallen in love with the place and when he married a
missionary and left for a new life in China, she took over the tenancy.
She was a hard working girl and for the last two years she had run her
own business, Premier Lace.
Having made the decision to move herself and
the business to the village the latter happened in a much more timely fashion
than the former.
She was from a good Christian family and
although she wasn’t as devout as her brother she was strong in her faith and
had an unerring work ethic.
Fiona left school at the age of 15 and began
working for her Uncle Normans import/export textile business.
But after ten years her uncle died and the
company was sold.
Fiona was left a substantial bequest in his
will so she used it to start her own business, and she did very well very
quickly, but there was always something lacking.
Fiona was a statuesque young woman, tall and straight backed, which in
itself was quite an achievement, considering the challenge for her to stand
upright due to the size of her breasts which were on the large side of
substantial, which were surmounted, much to her embarrassment, by very large
nipples, in an almost perpetual state of arousal, which was why she was known
around the office as “Miss pencil rubbers”.
But despite her particular attributes that would normally stir the blood
of any self-respecting red bloodied man she was not given a second look in that
regard.
She wore horn rimmed glasses and her red hair was scraped back severely
from her face, which itself bore no makeup.
Her clothing was of good quality, though lacking in style, and her
footwear was functional rather than aesthetic and she exuded a mannish air, and
men generally thought on the whole that Fiona Burnham was quite sexless.
All though she was making a success of her own business she wasn’t a
very popular figure in the workplace of her uncles, although she was very
efficient, she had no one there she could really call a friend among her colleagues,
and to say the least Fiona appeared aloof.
So it was with some surprise that Guy Merchant found himself one day
casting his eye over her in a lascivious manner.
Guy Merchant was a buyer for Hanratty’s Department Store in Abbottsford,
and he was fast approaching his thirtieth birthday and was a confirmed
Batchelor.
He was not by any definition, a ladies man, but had not been completely
unsuccessful in the pursuit of women, despite his Batchelor status.
He had no particular “type” when it came to women, he was not so
successful with the opposite sex that he could afford to discard possible
companions based on something as superficial as hair colour, body shape or
breast size.
But not by any criteria imaginable did he ever think that the sight of
Fiona Burnham would cause a blip on his radar.
He had known Fiona for about 5 years when she worked for her uncle but
when she set up on her own she was in a colleague’s territory so he lost touch,
and even when she moved to Mornington she was still not in his area, but when
Hanratty’s restructured, Premier Lace ended up on his turf.
When he arrived in Mornington he drove up and parked outside Premier Lace
and expected to find Fiona very much unchanged but he couldn’t have been more
wrong.
As he walked in he saw Fiona was no longer wearing thick framed glasses
and her red hair was no longer swept back off her face but hung in soft red curls
with a delicate fascinator balanced on her head and above her ear was a small
floral arrangement.
When he first saw her standing there he did a double take, and stared
quite hard until he was convinced it was her.
Instead of the familiar drab office clothes he was accustomed to see her
in she was wearing a pale pink dress which showed a shape he had never noticed
before, he knew obviously she had a massive breasts, it was impossible for her
to conceal such wonders, but they were now more exquisitely defined in the
bodice of what he interpreted to be a bridesmaids dress, which was open at the
back and plunging at the front, the result of which was that he spent more time
than was strictly necessary just staring at her bust, confused as to what
exactly was holding them up.
Finally lifting his gaze above the level of her chest he noticed she was
wearing makeup on her face and something he had never seen before, a smile, and
the addition of that smile made her very pretty.
Fiona suddenly became aware Guy was watching her and as their eyes
briefly met she blushed which was when she steeled herself, took a deep breath
and walked gracefully towards him, not on her usual functional items of
footwear but on stylish stiletto heeled shoes.
“Hello Guy” she said avoiding eye contact “how lovely to see you again”
“Likewise, wow Fiona” he said “you look stunning”
“Thank you” she said and blushed again
“A little overdressed for a meeting though I would have thought” he
added
“Ah there’s a reason for that” she said and giggled as two more bridesmaids
and a bride suddenly appeared.
Fiona explained that one of her oldest friends had got married the month
before in Mornington but when they returned from honeymoon they discovered that
the whole wedding album was a disaster.
So they were getting all the principles together again to retake the
photos courtesy of the Kilbourne sisters and the Digitize
Image Lab.
And they had been doing it all morning and it had taken longer than expected.
Just when she finished explaining one of the photographers called for
the principles again and she said
“Here we go again”
It was outside in the June sunshine as he waited for the photographer to
complete his play book that he spotted her again while he was indulging in
another spot of appraisal but it was another ten minutes before they resumed
their conversation
“So do you want to rearrange the meeting for another time?” Guy asked
“We’re all done now so yes and no” she replied
“Now I’m confused” Guy said
“I know” she confessed “Let me get changed and I’ll explain over lunch”
“Well don’t change on my account” he said
“Don’t worry I won’t wear anything frumpy” Fiona said
Fifteen minutes later she returned and good to her word she wasn’t
dressed frumpily at all and had swapped her bridesmaids dress for a summer dress
and Guy thought she looked gorgeous
“Wow definitely not frumpy” he pointed out
“Thank you” Fiona said and blushed
As they walked down to the Old Mill Inn he felt rather shamefaced for
fawning over Fiona and feeling flattered by her familiarity when in the past he
wouldn’t have paid her any attention or welcomed any approach from her.
Guy couldn’t believe his luck that he was having lunch with her, not
only at the same table but she was seated right next to her.
One course followed another as did the glasses of wine and as the
deserts were arriving Guy asked
“So how come there are two totally different Fiona’s?”
“What do you mean?” she asked
“Well the one I’m with now and the girl in the sensible footwear”
“Well ordinarily I’m quite shy” she confessed “and I don’t make friends
easily”
“But today you’re bubbly and confident” he said
“That’s because I know everyone and they know me, the real me, I don’t
have to pretend and I don’t have to hide” Fiona said
“So why did you hide?” Guy asked
“It started when I first got promoted” She said “partly so people would
take me seriously in the position and partly because I wanted to desexualize
myself”
“But it didn’t work” Guy said
“No, they just ended up disliking me” she admitted “then it was
difficult to undo what I’d done without looking silly so I was stuck with it”
“Oh I see” he said
“It did have its compensations” she said “because I was never a target
for unwanted sexual advances in the workplace”
“But when I set up on my own I reinvented myself” she said “And here I
am”
Coffee followed desert which was in turn followed by more wine, then it
occurred to Guy that he had drunk too much and wouldn’t be driving home.
So it was with a light head and a lascivious eye that Guy enquired if
there was somewhere to stay and as luck would have it the Old Mill Inn had
several guest rooms and they had a vacancy.
After he had reserved a room Fiona suggested a walk in the fresh air to
clear their heads and once outside she steered Guy towards Church Bridge and
when they were half way across he said
“When I asked you earlier if you wanted to rearrange the meeting for
another time, you replied “Yes and no””
“I did”
“So what did you mean?” Guy asked
“What I meant was that I didn’t need you cancel today’s meeting but I do
want to see you again” she replied but he completely missed her meaning and
Fiona smiled and they carried on walking and as they left the bridge and joined
the Riverside path Guy stopped and said
“You know I think you should have shown everyone at the old place the
real you” he said
“Because I’m sure they would have liked you as much as I do”
“I’m not interested in what they might think” Fiona said standing very
close to him
“I only care what one of them thinks”
Guy was gazing into her eyes and the penny still hadn’t dropped as he
said
“It was very fortunate then that Premier Lace ended up in my
territory”
“Your new boss Sean Feely made sure of that” Fiona confessed
“Why would he do that?” Guy asked
“Because I asked him too” she confessed
“Why...” he began and then the penny finally did drop
“Oh”
“Is that a problem?” she asked
“No not at all” he replied and as they stood together beside the River
Brooke in the sun she did what she had dreamt of doing for five years and
kissed him.
