When the Mornington
Estate exercised its option to purchase Mornington Field from the Ministry Of Defence,
it also acquired all the buildings and infrastructure on the airfield itself as
well as 29 houses in the village, formally used as quarters for military
personnel.
Plans were immediately
drawn up to optimize the newly acquired assets the moment the property was
formally handed over on the 1st of June 2014.
The guardians of the
Mornington Estate were the St George family and the head of both the family and
the estate was Baron Gabriel St George.
His architect, Scott
Collier, was tasked with designing appropriate conversions to the buildings and
infrastructure on the airfield to maximize the potential returns for the
estate, and Ray Walker, who dealt with all things estate maintenance, was
responsible for getting the old Air force housing stock up to standard and
occupied ASAP.
Ray worked tirelessly
to that end to have not just the first six houses ready within the month, as
originally promised, but eight, which were handed over on the 6th of July, two
days earlier than forecast.
Gabriel was then able
to instruct Lyndon-Sanders Properties of Shallowfield to find tenants.
Priority was to be
given to local people or people with ties to the area or those who worked in
some capacity for the estate such as agriculture and the brewery other than that
they were to be rented with the only condition being that it had to be the tenant’s
primary residence.
Gabriel was always
conscious of creating a ghost town of professionals who lived and worked in Town
all week and only returned to the village on the weekend.
One such person was
Lianne Martin who worked at the Mornington Dental & Orthodontic Surgery two
days a week.
The Doctors, Dentists,
Orthodontists and Pharmacists were all based elsewhere and provided a skeleton
service to the village of Mornington.
The Doctors presence
was maintained by the Dancingdean Health Centre in Shallowfield and one of
their number, Locum Doctor Kelly Spearman lived in one of the Military Row
houses.
The Dental and Orthodontic
staff came from a large specialist practice in Finchbottom, Downshire
Denticare.
The Shallowfield,
Robert Harvey Pharmacy in Oakwood Road filled any prescriptions and delivered
them to the surgery every day.
The Norman family, who
also ran the general store and post office provided Lily Norman and her son
Robbie to staff the chemist shop for its limited opening times.
The Doctors Surgery,
the Pharmacy, and the Dental & Orthodontic Surgery were on the opposite
side of The Street from the Old Mill Inn and the reception area for the
Doctors, Dentist & Orthodontic Surgeries sat in an extension between the
two buildings.
Because Mornington was
such a small village none of the practices were open full time but Baron St
George, the head of the Mornington Estate heavily subsidized all three as well
as the small Chemist shop, which shared the Doctors premises, but there weren’t
enough patients to warrant full time staffing so in order to make appropriate
use of the facilities the doctors surgery was made available to other
practitioners in the afternoons and evenings, such as Chiropractors, Hypnotherapists,
Acupuncturists etc. but villager Claire Pollard, a Chiropodist was the only
regular the others tended to be a bit more sporadic in their attendance.
32 year old Dentist
Lianne Martin moved into number 2, Military Row with her younger sister Kirsty
and her six year old niece Sasha on the 18th of July.
Lianne worked in
Finchbottom for Downshire Denticare and divided her time between there and
Mornington.
After her sister
Kirsty and her boyfriend split up she and her daughter moved in with Lianne but
it was a bit cramped in her flat so when the opportunity of a house in
Mornington presented itself she snapped it up.
Lianne had always
loved the village and had often dreamed of living there but never dared hope
that it might actually happen.
She couldn’t imagine
why no one else was prepared to work there but she didn’t think about it often
after all their loss was very much her gain.
She wasn’t unhappy in
Finchbottom but deep down she was a country girl at heart and the added strain
of having her sister and niece living with her in a flat design for one was
telling.
So a three bedroom
house in Mornington was manna from heaven and they all loved living there.
Sasha was looking
forward to starting at the village school in September and Kirsty hoped to get
part time work up at Mornington Field once the premises were let.
The only downside for
Lianne living in Mornington was having to journey to Finchbottom three days a
week and battle through the rush hour traffic on the Expressway.
She would have liked
to work all week in Mornington but there just wasn’t enough dentistry required
for that.
But her tortuous journeys
turned out to be relatively short lived as at the beginning of November she was
asked to work at the Highfinch practice for three days a week instead of
Finchbottom and she didn’t need asking twice.
It was further to
drive than Finchbottom but it was a much easier one.
The reason for the
change was because three of the existing staff in Finchbottom had been in a
lottery syndicate and won the jackpot.
Good fortune for them
and as it appeared, good fortune for Lianne.
Because it was a
greater distance the company had agreed to provide bed and breakfast accommodation
in Highfinch which meant for Lianne that for her three days she would be able
to stay over for two nights on expenses, so she thought she had really landed
on her feet.
It was early on morning
of the 3rd of November when she set off from Mornington and she was very
excited at the prospect of starting at a different practice in a village she
had never been to before and of course meeting new people.
On her arrival she was
greeted by the practice manager, Rachel Bradley, and another dentist Jonathan Walters.
Jonathan was also a
newbie, from Sharpington, although he had a two week head start on her, he was
tall, dark and handsome with penetrating blue eyes, a square jaw and a dimple,
perfect skin and a marvelous smile.
He stood tall and
proud and his physique was slender, he was well-toned, athletically sculpted
and was very well groomed.
And the very moment he
said
“Hello Lianne” she
took an instant dislike to him.
The very moment that
Jonathon Walters said
“Hello Lianne”
She took an instant
dislike to him.
He was everything that
she was not, he was tall and she stood 4ft 10 in her socks, his hair was dark
and luscious and hers was mousy and wayward, he had penetrating blue eyes while
hers were grey and a bit squinty, he had a strong square jaw and a dimple, she
had a pointy chin with a mole on it.
Jonathon had perfect
skin and a marvelous smile Lianne had a face full of freckles and her smile was
lopsided.
He had a sportsman’s
physique and was built like an athlete, Lianne was not, she was slim though and
despite her imperfections she was not unattractive but she was not sporty by
any stretch of the imagination.
And finally he was
well groomed without a single hair out of place and she, despite having spent
longer than normal on her appearance, looked like she’d been dragged through a
hedge backwards.
However Lianne’s
savage self-assessment would not have struck any cords with Jonathon because he
saw someone altogether different to the person Lianne imagined herself to be
and his first impression of her was a very positive one.
Because they were both
newbies, Practice manager Rachel Bradley, tasked Jonathon with showing Lianne
around the practice and doing the introductions and then showing her the places
of interest in the village finishing off at the end of the day at the Greenwood
Guesthouse and introducing her to landlady Janita Front.
“Good evening
Jonathon” she said warmly “And who have we here?”
“Hi Janita, this is my
new colleague Lianne” he said
“Smarmy git” Lianne
thought to herself
“Pleased to meet you
Lianne” Janita said warmly and shook her hand “I’ve put you across the landing
from Jonathon”
“Oh lovely” she said
but in her head she continued
“As if it’s not bad
enough that I’ve had to put up with the condescending ponce all day strutting
around like he’d been there for years, now I find we’re staying at the same
B&B”
She avoided him at
dinner that night by making an excuse about visiting and old friend and hid in
the Church for a while and then drove around until she found a pub that did
food.
Breakfast however was
a different story but she decided that nothing was going to come between her
and a full English so she just had to put up with him.
It got better for
Lianne after that first week when they were both there together, because they
settled down into a fixed routine, she was there Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
while he was there Wednesday, Thursday, Friday so she only had to tolerate him
one day a week and one breakfast.
Over the following few
weeks and months everyone told her what a lovely man he was, a gentleman,
thoughtful, kind and considerate.
But she couldn’t see
it, she just saw a smarmy condescending git.
On her first day in
Highfinch when she was desperately trying to avoid Jonathon, she ducked into St
Martin’s church and got talking to the Curate, Jenna Lawton and although she
was not a practicing Christian or even any kind of a Christian for that matter
they became firm friends.
And furthermore she
made a good many friends in the village as she got close to her first
anniversary in Highfinch, all of whom continued to tell her what a wonderful
man Jonathon was.
After six months of
temping Jonathon Walters was offered the position full time and it took him thirty
seconds to accept and he even moved from Sharpington to the village and had a
small house between the village and Kingfisherbridge just a stone’s throw from
the guest house.
Lianne still found him
annoyingly friendly and smiley and she still thought he was smarmy but even
with him being at the practice full time she had managed to keep contact with
him to minimum.
One evening in
mid-September Jonathon was sitting in his house at the end of the day wondering
just what he had to do to break down Lianne’s Defences, he had been nothing but
pleasant to her, he was always friendly, polite, helpful, kind and he smiled a
lot but she was unmoved.
Everyone told him what
a warm friendly person she was but he hadn’t seen that side of her, but was
still hopeful.
However that didn’t
stop him from being in love with her, and it had been a year since cupids arrow
struck and he was still no nearer a resolution.
He had asked her out
countless times and she always brushed him off but he wasn’t prepared to give up
on her.
While Jonathon sat in
his house wondering how he could get through to Lianne, she was sitting in her
room at the Greenwood guest house after having had a conversation with her
landlady Janita Front who spent ten minutes extolling to her the virtues of Jonathon
bloody Walters.
“Everyone loves
Jonathon” she said
“Except me” Lianne
said
“Why is that?” Janita
asked with a quizzical look on her face “He’s so nice”
“So everyone keeps
telling me” she said
“But he is” Janita
said
“I can’t help it I just
don’t like him” Lianne snapped and went to her room.
Once she was inside
she heard Janita’s question repeating in her head
“Why is that?”
And in truth she walked
away because she couldn’t answer that simple question, she didn’t know why she
didn’t like him, she just didn’t.
She couldn’t put her
finger on the reason, Jonathon had never uttered a single bad word to her in
the ten months that Lianne had been working in Highfinch and nor had he done
any deed that would have her incurred her wrath, he had always been “nice” in
all their interactions, he was pleasant, friendly and polite, but when he was
nice to her it made her dislike him even more.
About half an hour
into her reflection her train of thought was broken by the telephone ringing
and she cursed under her breath about the interruption before she answered it.
“Hello” she said
flatly
“Hello Lianne, it’s
Jenna” said the curate, although by then she was the de facto Vicar of St
Martins while the Reverend Mortimer was recovering from a heart attack.
“Jenna Lawton”
“Hello Jenna, Jenna
Lawton” she said lightheartedly Jenna always had that effect on her.
After a brief chuckle
she continued
“The reason for the
call is that I’m having an informal dinner party at the vicarage, well when I
say dinner party I mean a takeaway curry, I can’t cook to save my life” she
paused briefly “so if you’re free on Saturday night, it’s just beer, curry and
Trivial Pursuits and you’ll know most of the others”
On Saturday night she
would be in Mornington and wouldn’t have contemplated travelling back to
Highfinch on the weekend and would have politely refused but for two crucial
reasons, firstly her 7 year old niece was having three friends to stay for a
sleep over and secondly Jenna mentioned Trivial Pursuits, and Lianne loved
Trivial Pursuits.
“I would love to
Jenna” Lianne said, “Should I bring anything?”
“Only if you can drink
it” she replied, “come about eight, bye”
After she hung up the
phone she went downstairs to find Janita so she could book a room for Saturday
night as it was obvious that driving back to Mornington would not be an option.
It was a lovely sunny
summer afternoon as she left Mornington on Saturday and headed out into the country
towards Highfinch and was looking forward to a stress free journey through the
beautiful countryside of the Vale, which was beautiful enough but as she got
closer to the Pepperstock Hills she knew it would get even more so.
The village of
Highfinch sits just on the edge of the Pepperstock Hills and the Lily Green
Hollows Golf Club separates the village from the Hamlet of Lily Green, and the
combination of those two and Kingfisherbridge made up the parish of St Martins
where Jenna Lawton was curate.
When Lianne arrived at
the Vicarage, bang on 8 o’clock she was surprised to be told that she was the
last.
“Come in” the Vicar
said and handed her a menu “we’ve all chosen”
Lianne felt positively
tardy.
Jenna Lawton had said
that Lianne knew almost everyone and she was not wrong.
Jade Flowers, was the
local Doctor and her practice manager
Lorraine Weaving, who
was completely bald.
The two redoubtable
village good eggs, middle-aged buddies Vicki Paulding and Julia Thomas, and
their best friend Cressida van Meeuwen.
Local celebrity TV
presenter Nick Faulkner, furniture maker Farron Sutherland and to her utter
disbelief Jonathon Walters.
They were a mixed
bunch, varying ages and occupations, a mix of the Godly and the heathen, the
old and the young the sublime and the ridiculous.
The only one of the party
she was annoyed to see was Jonathon Walters but she decided to put him out of
her mind and concentrate on enjoying the evening.
Lianne was sure that
once the wine had flowed a little she might mellow towards him or alternatively
slap him in the face with a Nan bread.
They had an excellent
curry and a liberal quantity of beer and wine was consumed, apart from Jade who
was on call.
The conversation ebbed
and flowed and the overall atmosphere was very congenial and as the evening
wore on the Trivial Pursuit appeared to universal acclaim.
Sadly after about an
hour and with Lianne’s team winning Jade was paged and had to leave and also
took Lorraine with her, then just after midnight Cressida called it a night as
she needed to get back for the sitter and Farron offered to walk her home so he
left as well.
That left Vicki and
Jenna on her team and they were narrowly in the lead over Julia, Jonathon and
Nick and when both teams needed only one cheese she looked at the clock and saw
it was 2 o’clock.
“Have you seen the
time Vicar?” Lianne said “don’t you have work in the morning?”
“Ah no” she slurred
“this week there is a combined service at St Bartholomew’s in Springwater and
they don’t start until 6 pm”
Jenna gave a huge grin
and raised her glass.
“Happy days” she said
and took a drink most of which went down her chin.
“Now let’s finish the
game” she said wiping her mouth on her sleeve.
“Oh yes I remember
now” Jonathon said “are we all going?”
“Yes there’s a coach laid
on” said Julia
It was 3.15am when
Julia answered the winning question to great rejoicing.
“Well done” Lianne
said “on behalf of my team and myself”
One of her team, Vicki
was asleep on the sofa beside her and feeling no pain and Jenna was still
missing her mouth with her wine and didn’t even realize the game was over.
“Home time” Julia said
So everyone said
goodnight to the Vicar and Julia and Nick guided Vicki homeward, and after
about fifty yards Nick exclaimed
“Damn”
“What’s wrong?” Asked Julia
“I never did ask
Lorraine why she was bald” he replied
“She fell out of a
tree when she was six” Julia answered
“Oh” he responded and
was about to speak
“And she’s bald down
there as well” Julia interrupted
“I wasn’t going to ask
that” he protested
“But you were curious”
she continued and he nodded.
Meanwhile Lianne and
Jonathon slightly the worse for wear, were just leaving the vicarage and the
moment the night air hit her so did the alcohol and she wobbled on her feet.
“Come on I’ll help you
back to Janita’s” He said
“Why are you always so
nice?” she slurred
“Because it’s less
effort than being mean” he replied curtly and steered her towards the guest house,
although it was further than his house it wasn’t too far out of his way, and he
couldn’t leave her to her own devices in her condition.
Lianne awoke early in
the darkness to the sound of the Beach Boys emanating from the clock radio, and
she could just make out in the half light, a large hand reaching out from below
the duvet and silencing it, but then something occurred to her.
“I don’t have a clock
radio” she thought so she tried desperately to figure out where the hell she
was and who exactly the owner of the large hand was.
She tried desperately
to identify some point of reference in the room, anything that might yield a
clue to her location.
The problem was that
the brain processes what you can see and then fills in the blanks with things
from your memory bank.
For example if you she
an indistinct shape in the gloom your brain compares that shape to your
memories and chooses the nearest one and then that is what you see but when
your eyes become more accustomed to the darkness a sleeping dog on the floor
becomes a dressing gown discarded the night before, or a sleeping child on the
chair becomes a sweater dropped haphazardly.
But even being aware
of that she was still struggling to identify any point of reference that would
identify her location which was all to no avail, but then why would she it’s
not as if she had made a habit of waking up in strange bedrooms over the years.
But just then a head
emerged from beneath the covers and Jonathon Walters face appeared above the
duvet and he smiled and said
“Good morning, I hope
you slept well, I know I did”
“Oh my god” she exclaimed
“What have you done?”
“Would you like
breakfast?” he said
“Breakfast?
Breakfast?” she yelled “So much for Mr. “Nice” guy, what kind of a man are you,
taking advantage of a Defenceless woman”
“A hungry one” he replied
and threw back the covers
“Urgh I don’t want to
see you naked” she yelled
“Really you were happy
enough about it last night, in fact you insisted and to encourage me you got
naked first” he said
“Oh God I got naked”
she simpered and lifted up the duvet to look at herself and did a double take
“Ha! I’m not naked”
“Of course you’re not
naked” he said walking across the room to the door in his PJ’s “Because I am
not the kind of man to take advantage of a Defenceless woman”
“Yes but you got me
into your bed and hoped you’d get lucky though” she shouted as she followed him
out the door
“No” he snapped
“What do you mean no?”
“I put you in my spare
bed, because you were too drunk to walk the rest of the way to the guest house”
he explained “but you climbed into bed with me in the middle of the night
because you were cold”
“But…” she began and
then it all came flooding back to her, he had settled her in the spare room,
but after no more than half an hour she had slipped out of the spare room and
tried to slip into his bed, Lianne even begged him to let her get in bed with
him and when he said yes she snuggled up to him.
She thought the fact
that he had kept the more embarrassing details to himself was very much to his
credit.
They sat at the
kitchen table and ate breakfast in silence, although in truth it was lunch time
and eating a fried breakfast at that time of day he in his dressing gown and
she in the clothes she wore the night before, was all very decadent.
The silence was broken
when there was a knock on the front door.
“Who’s that?” Lianne
asked with panic in her voice and a look on her face like a startled rabbit.
“I don’t know” he
replied “I’ll find out”
He closed the kitchen
door and walked down the hall and he could tell by the shape through the glass
it was his neighbour Frank so he opened the door.
“My God” Frank said
“you do know it’s the afternoon”
“Shut your face” he
responded “I had a late night”
“I bet you did” he
said “You lucky dog”
“I’m afraid not”
Jonathon said “No princess for me”
“Oh well, better luck
next time son” he retorted
“Maybe” he said
“Anyway what can I do for you Frank?”
“Oh yes I almost
forgot, I’m going to cut my front grass, do you want me to do yours at the same
time?” Frank said
“That would be great thanks”
“Ok lad” he said as he
walked away “I’ll be a couple of hours finishing off”
“Thanks Frank”
Jonathon said and closed the door
Lianne had been
listening to the conversation and the suggestion by his neighbour that he had
brought back a conquest shocked her and although Jonathon had protected her
honour she was still alarmed and ran upstairs.
Jonathon went back into
the kitchen to find it empty so he went upstairs to find Lianne pacing around
the spare bedroom.
“What am I going to
do?” she said panic stricken
“Well don’t panic for
a start” he said
“It’s alright for you”
she shouted “everyone in this village thinks the sun shines out of your arse”
“Almost everyone” he
said to himself
“What was that?” she
asked as she continued pacing
“Nothing”
“What will people
think” she ranted “if they see me leaving your house in what I’m wearing, in
what I was wearing last night, in what I slept in last night, everyone will
know I’ve been out all night”
Johnathon left the room
while she continued her rant and returned a few minutes later carrying some
clothes in his arms.
“The Jeans and sweater
are my sister Molly’s, she’s a similar shape to you” he said handing Lianne the
clothes “they may be a bit long in the leg, she’s taller than you”
“Everyone’s taller
than me” she said without humour
“The pumps are hers as
well but she doesn’t have the same size foot” Lianne looked at him and then ran
into his arms
“You’re a life saver”
she said and kissed his cheek and then he left the room again, and this time he
returned carrying a small hold all
“Put your clothes in
this and get dressed and I’ll see you down stairs”
While Lianne did as
she was told he went to his bedroom and got dressed himself and went
downstairs, and Lianne walked gingerly down the stairs to join him after about
ten minutes.
When Lianne had joined
him downstairs she waited nervously.
“Ok Frank’s busy out
the front” he called from the kitchen where he was looking through the window.
“What now?” she asked
as he walked towards her
“Leave the bag there”
he said and took her by the hand and led her out through the kitchen and out
the adjoining door and into the garage.
“Wait in there” he
instructed, but she looked worried
“Don’t worry” he said
and kissed her forehead and then he went back in the house and picked up the
hold all and the car keys and opened the front door.
He went to the back of
the car and opened the boot and threw in the bag.
There was a car rug in
the boot so he picked that up and closed the lid again then he opened the rear
passenger door on the driver’s side, threw in the rug and left the door open
before going back in the house where he went straight through the kitchen and
rejoined Lianne in the garage and told her what to do.
Jonathon took a deep
breath before emerging from the front door and closing it behind him.
He gave Frank a wave
before opening the garage door then he walked down the path to speak to him
“Hey Frank” he called
“Is that a new mower?”
While he walked down
the path Lianne crept out from the garage and onto the back seat of the car
where she hid under the blanket.
“It is” he replied
“It’s a corker” he
added “I’m off out now so I’ll see you later”
“Ok lad” he replied
“The grass looks great
by the way” he said
Once he was sure
Lianne was safely hidden he went back up the path and closed the garage door
and quickly checked that she couldn’t be seen before he closed the passenger
door and got in the car himself.
“I think your reputation
is safe Miss Martin” he whispered
“It’s very exciting”
she said quietly then she added
“I feel like a scarlet
woman” and she giggled
“So do I” he replied
“You’re clearly sex
mad” she said
Jonathon looked in the
rear view mirror as they drove though the village, Lianne was laying across the
back seat completely covered by the blanket apart from her finger which were
gripping the edge of the blanket and the top of her head.
Every time they passed
another car or a pedestrian he shouted
“Hide” and the top of
her head would disappear from view.
They went the long way
round, partly because it was quieter but mainly because he was in no hurry to
drop her off.
Once around the
village was all he could stretch it to however and sooner than he would have
liked he drove the car into the guesthouse carpark and having seen landlady
Janita by the front door pruning shrubbery he parked as close to the side
entrance as possible.
“We made it” Lianne
yelled triumphantly from beneath the blanket.
“Yes, your reputation
is unblemished” he agreed “But you still need to get inside”
“Oh yes I hadn’t
thought of that” she said as Jonathon got out of the car and opened the boot
and retrieved the bag.
“I’ll go and distract
Janita” He said after opening the back door “so count to a hundred and then
make a run for it”
“Ok” she said quietly
“Thank you”
He walked casually
around to the front of the building where Janita stood secateurs in hand.
“Jonathon!” she said
“What a lovely surprise”
“Hello Janita” he said
and kissed her cheek
“What brings you
here?” Janita asked
“I’m just dropping
this off for Lianne” he said indicating the bag he was holding “Is she about?”
“I haven’t seen her
today, she didn’t come down for breakfast” she replied “How are you getting on
with her?”
“Well I’m still
hopeful” he replied
“Do you want to go and
knock?” she asked
“No I won’t I’m going
to Springwater this afternoon” he replied “So if I could leave this with you
I’ll get going”
“Ok love” Janita responded
and Jonathon kissed her cheek again and headed back to the car.
Lianne was inside and
listening at the door when Jonathon said
“I’m still hopeful”
“He’s hopeful, he said
he’s still hopeful” she thought “And I’ve been an idiot”
Everyone told her what
a lovely man he was, a gentleman, thoughtful, kind and considerate.
But she couldn’t see
it, she had been blind to his true character and she just saw a smarmy
condescending git.
But his actions on
that weekend had shown his true colours.
She listened some more
and he said
“I’m going to Springwater
this afternoon”
By the time Jonathon
was kissing Janita’s cheek she was already opening the door to her room.
After leaving the
guest house, Jonathon drove home and got himself showered and dressed and then he
walked the short distance to the house of TV sportscaster Nick Faulkner.
Sunday for Nick didn’t
properly begin until 1 o’clock and he didn’t feel a hundred percent.
However a shower, two
mugs of coffee and some dry toast helped and he felt a lot better as he left
the house at about 4.30pm after answering Jonathon’s knock.
They didn’t have to
walk far as they were only going next door to Julia Thomas’s and Jonathon rang
the doorbell and the door was opened by a young man.
“Hi Callum” he said
“Is mum ready?
“Yes” he replied
“she’s just coming”
Julia appeared looking
as fresh as a daisy and said
“See you later love”
and kissed her son
Turning her attention
to Nick she said “hello Nick, you look rough, Jonathon you look gorgeous as
ever”
“Thanks Julia” they
said and she laughed
Then the group moved
on to Vicki’s and when she emerged even she looked ok considering what she put
down her neck.
“Hello you three” she said
and continued “goodness Nick you look a little green around the gills”
“We’ll try to get you
home sober this time” she said
“Thanks mum” Nick said
Their next port of
call was the vicarage and when the door eventually opened the vicar stood
before them looking like death warmed over.
“Good God” Jonathon said
“Heavens above”
exclaimed Julia
“Right let’s get in
the house” said Vicki taking charge.
“I have just the thing
for what ails you vicar”
Vicki rummaged in her
bag and fished out a medicine bottle with a dirty brown substance in it.
When the door to the
vicarage eventually opened in response to their knocking the vicar stood before
them looking like death warmed over.
“Good God” Jonathon
said
“Heavens above”
exclaimed Julia
“Right let’s get in
the house” said Vicki taking charge.
“I have just the thing
for what ails you vicar”
Vicki rummaged in her
bag and fished out a medicine bottle with a dirty brown substance in it.
“I’ll try anything”
Jenna said pitifully about to sit in an armchair
“No don’t sit vicar”
Vicki commanded, “You need to be ready to move”
Vicki handed the glass
bottle to Jenna and said
“Take a good slug of
that”
“And then what?” asked
the Vicar
“You’ll know what”
Vicki said
Jenna took a good long
pull on the bottle and then licked her lips before saying
“That’s not as bad as
it lo….”
She never finished the
sentence as she turned a funny shade of puce and headed for the toilet.
The noises that came
from behind the toilet door were best not described but left to the
imagination.
When she emerged some
ten minutes later she looked more like her old self.
Another twenty minutes
after that she was fit to be seen in church but when they left the vicarage
they were running late and when they reached the village green the coach was
already loaded and waiting for them so they boarded quickly and apologies’ were
made as they found seats.
Jonathon was going to
sit next to Nick but then across the aisle he noticed another familiar face,
which was smiling at him.
“There’s a spare seat
here” Lianne said
He glanced at Nick who
smiled and nodded and then he sat down next to her.
“I didn’t know you
were coming” he said
“Nor did I until this
afternoon” she replied
It wasn’t a bad
service at St Bartholomew’s, a bit happy-clappy for Jonathans taste but it was
ok, but then he wasn’t really concentrating, as for Lianne, who didn’t have anything
to benchmark it against, was just happy to be there.
On the coach back to
the village St Bart’s got mixed reviews although the general consensus was that
it wasn’t as good as St Martin’s which made Jenna happy.
Lianne and Jonathon
sat together again on the return journey and almost as soon as the coach pulled
away from St Bartholomew she slipped her hand in his.
It was 7 o’clock when
the coach returned to the village green and after disembarking from the coach a
small select group of pilgrims decided on pub grub at the Downshire Arms, the
vicar declined on religious grounds namely that she didn’t want any further communication
with God on the porcelain telephone and Jonathon and Lianne who wanted to spend
the evening together.
They could have been together
in the pub over dinner but neither of them were in the mood to share themselves
with others so they walked back to Jonathon’s where he cooked for her again.
Reluctantly after a
couple of hours he drove her back to the guesthouse so she could collect her
car for the drive back to Mornington.
Janita looked out of
the window and smiled as they shared a lingering goodnight kiss.
He was sad as he
watched her drive away but he was also content because she would be back again
the next day.
