October
The Pepperstock Hills National Park stretched from the bare, and often barren
crags of Oxley Ridge in the North, to the dense wooded southern slopes on the
fringe of the Finchbottom Vale and from Quarry Hill, and the Pits in the West
to Pepperstock Bay in the East.
It is an area
of stark contrasts and attracts a variety of visitors.
The Quarry Hill
side of the park to the west, as the name suggests, was heavily Quarried over
several hundred years, though more extensively during the industrial
revolution, the Quarries had been un-worked for over fifty years and nature had
reclaimed them and the former pits had become lakes and were very popular with
anglers and the sparse shrubbery and woodland made it a popular spot with
courting couples, whereas the northern crags and fells were popular with
climbers and the more hardy folk.
To the south
and east there was an extensive tract of magnificent mixed forestry, and it was
rivalled only by the ancient woodland of the Dancingdean Forest, which was
where Stuart Williams lived, three days a week, in the village of Springwater.
He wasn’t a native of Springwater, his home
was in Pepperstock Green, and only lived in the village after he took the post
of tree surgeon with the Forestry Commission, which he loved, but in addition
he had two other loves in his life, one was bird watching while the other was
Dawn Sparrow, and the irony of the latter’s name was not lost on him.
The Pepperstock Hills National Park, and
Springwater were perfect locations to fulfil his love of bird watching, however
his love for Dawn was not so perfect as she was with another man, her husband
Gavin, and she was not free for him to claim, even though her husband was cruel
and uncaring, she was still married to him.
However, he was hopeful he might win her
away from Gavin, as he was sure his feelings were reciprocated but after six
months he was no nearer to his goal, so he planned an intervention.
Dawn was a Paramedic by profession, but
when she wasn’t working, she was often found volunteering as part of the
Springwater Mountain Rescue Team.
It was his knowledge of her activities with
the SMRT that would aid him in his pursuit of her heart.
The Pepperstock Hills National Park was
very popular with climbers and walkers of all abilities so there were a number
of Rescue Stations in the hills which were permanently manned during the
busiest times of the year, and two nights every fortnight she would take her
turn with the first responders on the hill, and furthermore he knew when she would walk down
the hill to the Mountain Rescue HQ in Springwater, and which route she would
take.
The only thing he didn’t know for sure was whether she would be on her
own when she walked through the woods at the end of her shift.
Stuart Williams was often
up in the woods in the early hours of the day enjoying the full majesty of the
Dawn Chorus, which was how he knew Dawn Sparrow’s route and timetable.
He was enjoying the chilly morning, walking in the wood, listening to the wind stirring the canopy above his head
and the cacophony of birdsong, but then he stopped suddenly in his tracks and
his ears pricked up, and he smiled as his quarry was approaching, and she was
performing a Dawn Chorus of her own.
He clearly
heard the pleasing melodic tones of her sweet voice, competing with the singing
of the birds in the morning air.
Warm as the
sun
You were the one who outshone me
In the darkness everyone went away
You were the one who adored me
And it's so hard to say goodbye to you
So hard when I want to carry you
Everywhere, everywhere so I don't forget
I'll carry you everywhere, everywhere so I don't forget
But there's a blackbird singing
How long have you been hiding?
Lost in the rain
You always prayed we would find a way
We were watching old movies in
Our little technicolor hideaway
And on that soft screen
The beautiful ladies were movie queens
They'd glide on the floor
Singing melodies, melodies
That I can't forget
Oh love's sweetest reverie, melodies
That I can't forget
But there's a blackbird, singing
How long have you been hiding?
The voice
definitely belonged to Dawn as she sang Blackbird by one of his favourite
singers, Rumer, to every tree and critter.
He waited
quietly in the shadows, and enjoyed the performance, so he kept quiet and
listened, he was pleased she was singing that son because it was from a CD that
he had bought for her,
As she passed
him, he stepped forward onto the path and said
“Morning
songbird” and she jumped fully half a foot in the air and went as white as a
sheet.
“Oh my God” she
exclaimed “I nearly had a heart attack”
But then the
colour returned to her cheeks, and she roared with laughter, a laugh which was
so infectious Stuart was soon laughing along with him.
Their hearty
laughter filled the air as they began to walk back to Springwater but after a
few minutes she looked him up and down and said
“Aren’t you
cold in shorts?”
“We “Woodsman”
types are a hardy breed” he responded
“You don’t look
very hardy” she lied as her eyes examined every inch of the muscular
outdoorsman.
“I think you
had better come to HQ with me and have a hot drink”
“Ok” he
retorted “I bow to your superior knowledge and expertise in these matters, and
I put myself in your hands”
“I wish” she
thought to herself
For the rest of
the walk they chatted in the same casual, flirty manner that they normally did
until they reached HQ.
It was located
on the outskirts of Springwater and was the last bit of civilization before you
entered the Pepperstock Hills National Park.
It was a
moderately sized complex, which housed a café, and a shop where you could buy
everything from tents, sleeping bags, clothing, and footwear, to Sandwiches and
Kendal mint cake.
In addition,
there was the Springwater Mountain Rescue HQ, where the team met or assembled
and where they stored all their equipment, and of course a manned first aid
station.
The HQ was as
he suspected it would be at that hour, deserted, which fitted nicely with the
plan, but after that he would just have to wing it.
Dawn unlocked
the door and let him in, and he sat at the table in the kitchen area while she
filled and boiled the kettle, and they chatted in much the same vein as they
had on the walk and then Dawn put the drinks down on the table beside him.
“Thanks, that
looks just the job” he said “it’s nice to see that you have more strings to
your bow that early morning bird scaring”
“You cheeky
sod” Dawn said as she stood beside him and tried to clip him round the ear.
He caught hold
of her wrist however and pulled her onto his lap and kissed her slowly and
sensually.
“I’ve wanted to
do that for ages” he said
“You’ve wanted
to compliment me on my tea making do you mean?” she asked
“Yes, that’s
precisely what I meant” he said, “I think good manners are so important, don’t
you?”
“Oh, very much
so” she agreed “So do you think I might prevail upon you to snog me again?”
“My pleasure”
he retorted
“And mine” she
concurred and then they were kissing again.
There’s no way
of knowing how long the kiss might have lasted, but they were interrupted by
the sound of the door opening and a woman’s voice calling.
“Hello?”
Dawn jumped
quickly to her feet and for some reason began rearranging her clothing to make
sure that there was nothing untoward, and then she left the room
“Good morning
Jacqui” she said, Jacqui was her sister-in-law, and she worked at the First Aid
Station next door, he assumed she had seen the lights on and decided to
investigate.
After the
initial “good morning” all he could hear were muffled voices, so he finished
his tea and followed in Dawn’s footsteps.
“Are you going
home to bed?” Jacqui asked and gave Stuart a disdainful look
“Yes” Dawn
replied “I’m going to drop Stuart home first, and then I’ll get a few hours’
sleep before work”
Then almost as
an afterthought Jacqui said
“What’s he
doing here?”
“I found him on
the hill dressed like that” Dawn replied
“What’s wrong
with him? Is he mental?” Jacqui asked coldly
“He’s fine but
if he’d stayed up there, he could have suffered mild exposure” Dawn replied
“I can well
imagine what he would have been exposing” she said with contempt “Bird watchers
are very weird”
“I am here you
know” Stuart pointed out
Jacqui had
appeared un-phased by Stuart presence, but Dawn was a little uneasy and glanced
at her watch
“Let’s get you
in the car Stuart” she said in her best patronizing professional paramedic
voice.
She turned off
the light and locked the door and Jacqui walked back towards the First Aid
Station.
“See you later
Jac”
As they reached
her car she whispered
“Do you think
she suspects anything?”
“Not for a
second” he replied, “You were after all merely showing off your tea making
expertise”
“No seriously”
She said as she opened the driver’s door “Do You?”
“No” he said
reassuringly and got in the car and she seemed satisfied with his answer and
drove out of the car park, but she didn’t drive him home, instead she drove up
to a little car park down in the valley popular with dog walkers and was chosen
by her because the valley was still shrouded in mist, so they could sit in the
car and not worry about being seen.
Dawn parked in
a quiet corner out of view of the entrance and due to the mist out of sight of
everyone.
Once they had
come to a halt she switched off the engine and as she stared out into the mist
she asked
“I have to know
what it meant”
“What?”
“The kiss, did
it mean what I think it means, or was it just a spur of the moment, take
advantage of the situation kind of thing?”
“I don’t know
what you think it meant” he replied, and she tensed before he added
“But for me it
meant everything”
Now for the
first time she turned to face him as he spoke
“I meant that I
need you, I want you and I love you, and all that that entails” he continued “I
want you to leave Gavin and move in with me and eventually I want to marry you,
is that what you thought it meant?”
“No” she
replied “But it’s what I wanted it to mean”
And then they
undid their seat belts and proceeded to kiss and this time there was no
interruption.
