The
village of Kettlewell sits in the rolling Pepperstock Hills that form the
northwest border of the Finchbottom Vale and it is half a mile from the hamlet
of Kettlewell-on-the-Hill, the two of which made up the parish of St
Augusctine’s Church, and Kettlewell is 1.5 miles from its largest neighbour,
Highfinch where Mason Bond was born and raised.
Mason
had just returned to the Vale after three years at university although he had
not come directly home as he spent a month at his father and stepmother
Elizabeth’s home in Abbeyvale.
He
could have stayed longer, and would have enjoyed it, as he got on well with his
dad and Elizabeth was a lovely step mum, but he was keen to get home to his own
mum and spend some time with her.
But
on an early summers morning he walked the short distance to Kettlewell to find
the home of Rosie Gammon who was the girlfriend of his housemate Gary Fuller.
Because Rosie was working all
summer in Sharpinghead and Gary was doing the same at the Pepperstock Hills
National Park he had asked Mason to drop off Rosie’s birthday present.
Although he had lived in the
area all his life and had been to Kettlewell quite a few times before that day,
he was unfamiliar with the part where the Gammons lived as it was on the far
side of the village right on the edge of the countryside.
When he found the large
detached former farmhouse, he
walked up the path and knocked on the door.
After
a moment or two it opened by a pretty girl with pale ginger hair, fair delicate
skin, and stunning blue eyes.
Although
she had different hair colour, height, and body shape he could tell instantly
that it was Rosie’s sister.
“Hello”
he said and smiled.
“Can
I help?” she asked.
“Yes,
I was looking for Rosie” he replied.
“Are
you Mason?” she asked.
“I am” he replied.
“She’s in the shower”
“Oh ok, can I just leave this
for her?” he asked holding up a carrier bag.
“Nonsense she’ll never let me
hear the end of it if she doesn’t get to say hello” she said and pulled him in
by the arm and closed the door, before leading him into a big old-fashioned
kitchen with a large country kitchen table.
“I’m Lily by the way” she said
as she pulled out a chair for him “I’m the big sister.”
“I thought you lived in
Abbeyvale” he said.
“I do, I have a little house
there” she replied as she filled the kettle “I live there because I work there,
but this is home, so I come back whenever I get the chance.”
After making drinks they sat
at the table and chatted, and the subject got onto their schooldays at St
Swithin’s.
“I don’t remember you” she
said.
“I don’t remember you either.”
“I was a little chubster at
school” Lily said.
“They used to call me Miss
Piggy, back then.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Simple really, a fat girl
called Gammon, what else would they call me” she explained, and he burst out
laughing.
“Why don’t I remember that?”
he asked still laughing.
“I don’t know” she replied
with a puzzled expression.
“What year did you start
there?”
“2001” he replied.
“That explains it, I started
in 1999, so I’d moved up to middle school by the time you started” she
explained, and Mason was still chuckling, so she chuckled too.
“I was just about to make
lunch; would you like to join me.”
“Yes, that would be lovely” he
replied but what he meant was that she was lovely.
All the time she was busying
around they continued to chat, and he never took his eyes off her.
Lily was hunched over the huge
kitchen table fastidiously assembling the sandwiches, and as she was applying
the finishing touch of mustard mayonnaise, she adopted a stance not unlike a
world class table tennis player preparing to serve.
Mason was not sure why she
stooped over so dramatically, she wasn’t exceptionally tall, but whatever the
reason, he really liked it.
Rosie joined them soon after
and they ate lunch together and talked for another hour before it was time for
him to go, and as he walked back to Highfinch he reflected on his time with
Lily Gammon and if he wasn’t already in a long-term relationship, he would
definitely have asked her out, as it was, he doubted he would see her again.
However, he was wrong, it was
when he was staying in Abbeyvale with his dad and step mum for the August Bank
Holiday Weekend and after one of Elizabeth’s epic Sunday lunches he needed to
try and walk it off.
It was just after entering St
Candida’s Park when his eye was immediately drawn to what he hoped was a
familiar figure, so he decided to have a closer look.
He soon confirmed that it was
indeed Lily Gammon sitting
in a quiet corner of the park, in a shady and secluded spot, laying on a picnic
blanket wearing a bikini top and shorts.
As
he approached, Lily was clearly lost in solitary thought and was startled when
he said.
“Hello
Miss Piggy”
“Don’t
be cheeky” she retorted with a smile.
“Do
you mind if I join you?” Mason asked.
“That
would be lovely” she replied and beamed with genuine delight and making room for him on the blanket.
“So
how come you’re hiding under here?”
“That’s
obvious” She replied, “With ginger hair and fair skin to accompany it, I either
have to keep covered up or stay in the shade, so I prefer the shade as I can’t
abide the sun, and it’s not overly fond of me”
“Well that makes sense then” he said, “I thought you might be worried about
crackling”.
“I
really am going to have to hurt you” she said, and they both laughed.
They spent a very pleasant
afternoon and early evening on her blanket talking, and found that they had a
lot in common, they were both older siblings, both sets of parents divorced
when they were in their teens, and their fathers had remarried women that they
found it impossible to dislike.
In spite of everything they
loved their fathers, but they reserved their most passionate relationships for
their mothers, who they admired beyond measure for their self-sacrifice and
selflessness, but neither of them had found a significant other in their lives,
and that was a regret for them, and they really wished they could find someone.
Unfortunately, one bit of
information Lily imparted was something he did not want to hear because as he
was now a free agent, he was going to ask her out on a date, but she told him
she was now dating someone called Liam.
It was ironic that when she
was unattached, he was not and vice versa, it just seemed like it was not meant
to be.
So, when they parted ways with
a kiss on the cheek and a hug, he was convinced there was no future for them,
though he hoped he was wrong as he had been before.
Three days before Christmas,
Mason stepped out of his dad’s house into the winter night, after wishing his
dad and Elizabeth a Happy Christmas and walked briskly to Abbeyvale Station.
It was a fairly crowded train
for a Sunday evening, but not full, there were still a number of empty seats,
Mason chose one by the window leaving an empty seat beside him.
Snow spattered against the
window as the train rattled out of the Station and then she appeared, and his
heart skipped a beat, and he thought Christmas had come early, because there
she was, larger than life, vivacious and self-assured, covered with snowflakes
and smiling to herself, with snow covering her like sugar on a doughnut.
Lily Gammon was wrapped-up
against the cold, in a green woollen hat and coat and a long-knitted scarf
draped about her neck.
Still smiling, she shook her
head and the pale ginger hair that hung beneath her hat, danced about her
shoulders and the snowflakes settled on them melted away from her soft hair.
There was a rosy redness on
her cheeks, either from the frosty winter evening or a liberal taste of
Christmas spirit, a little of both, he assumed.
Lily made her way unsteadily
down the carriage between the seats, due to the motion of the train, leaving
wet snowflakes in her wake with her full-length coat swishing from side to
side, as she tottered on her high heeled boots, and then she saw him, and her
eyes lit up like beacons, and her smile illuminated the carriage and his heart
soared at the sight of her, he returned her smile and said.
“Hello Miss Piggy”
“Just because it’s the season
of goodwill doesn’t me, I won’t hurt you” she said and flushed a little.
When she was standing in front
of him, smiling and blushing, he stood up and she immediately hugged him, and he
could smell her hair and perfume as he hugged her back.
They sat down heavily on the
lumpy seats in the rattling carriage and sat looking at each other, then Lily
put her gloved hand on his.
“It’s so good to see you” she
said without taking her eyes off him.
“I was just thinking the same
thing” Mason agreed and the easy converse that typified their time together
resumed, and they became oblivious to their traveling companions, and that was
how the remainder of the journey passed.
But all too soon they were
pulling into the station and the train shuddered to a halt.
Their fellow traveller’s all
rushed off into the night and the winter filled the carriage, reluctantly Mason
and Lily left their seats and disembarked from the carriage arm in arm, then
hand in hand as they walked slowly along the platform, still talking and laughing,
until they handed over their tickets and stepped out of the Station and onto
the street, but stepped to one side to get out of the way of the other
passengers.
Then as the snow began to fall
again Lily turned to face him and kissed him gently on the lips, such a warm
sensitive and tender kiss, their first ever kiss, and when their lips parted,
she smiled at him coyly and flushed a deep shade of pink.
“I’ve wanted to do that for a
while” she said, and Mason kissed a snowflake off her nose and cupping her
flushed cheek in his palm he pulled her sweet lips to his and returned her kiss
and Lily’s arms wrapped around his neck, holding him tightly.
They stood locked in their
first passionate embrace, as the snow fell softly on the scene until Lily
pulled away for a moment, before burying her face in his neck and saying
softly.
“That was perfect.”
After an indeterminate period,
the spell was suddenly broken by the sound of a car horn.
“That’s mum” she said, and
they separated, he was subsequently offered a lift home with her, but he had
plans to meet his brother for drinks in town.
“Unlock your phone and hand it
over” she said.
“Yes bossy” he replied and
handed it over.
She then entered her number
and handed it back.
“There you are, now you have
no excuse not to ask me out.”
“I’ll phone you tonight” he
said and then they slowly walked hand in hand to her mum’s car and they kissed
again, then he watched the car drive away with Lily craning her neck to keep
him in sight until the very last moment.
However, the dye was cast
because their Christmas reunion would go on to change their lives forever.
