In the Village of Pepperstock Green – Chapter (115) – Muddy Maxine

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In the Village of Pepperstock Green – Chapter (114) – Halloween Fright Night

October

 

On Halloween a small group of friends from Pepperstock Green, Maxine Hickey, Duane Frank, Jordan Downey, Jack Hibbert, Gemma Snow and Dorota Soporek planned to head to Sharpington-By-Sea for the Halloween Fright Night at the Sharpington Fun Park.

It was a popular destination even out of season, but Halloween always drew a great crowd for the illuminations, Fright Night and a Fireworks Display.

 

To get into the spirit of the evening they were all going in fancy dress, Gemma and Dorota lived in the same street, a couple of doors apart, and Jordan and Jack lived in neighbouring houses in the next street.

So, they left their respective homes and went to call for the boys because they had plans other than going to Sharpington.

Dorota was dressed as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and had a particular Vampire that she wanted to slay once she went in the back door at Jack’s.

 

Jack was wearing his Dracula outfit as he sat alone on the sofa watching TV when Dorota, in her skimpy skintight figure-hugging Buffy outfit, appeared in the doorway and said

“Trick or treat” and brandished a stake in one hand and a goody bag in the other.

“I definitely want a treat” he said

“That’s not how it works” she said “I’m supposed to get the treat”

“That’s what I had in mind” he said and leapt up and spun her around and deposited on the sofa and when she was laying on her back, he joined her there.

“If you try to bite my neck you blood sucking fiend, I will stab you with my plastic stake” she yelled

“Why would I want to bite your neck when I can kiss your gorgeous lips?” he said earnestly

“Ok I surrender” she exclaimed and discarded her sword and pulled his lips to hers.

 

Gemma meanwhile was dressed as a Witch, in a black cloak, pointy hat and black and white striped tights and planned on casting a spell on Jordan.

He had fallen asleep in front of the TV as he sat in his armchair in the lounge waiting to be called for and awoke suddenly to find Gemma standing in the doorway.

He wasn’t sure if what he was seeing was real or if he was dreaming, but if it was the latter it was a dream he never wanted to awake from, but he closed his eyes and when he opened them again she was still there, and he smiled as he watched her standing in the doorway dressed as sexy witch.

Her cloak was open, and she had a short black dress on beneath it, giving him a great view of her gorgeous striped legs, shaped by the fact she was wearing high-heeled ankle boots, and he thought she looked very sexy.

But then he chastised himself for thinking that way about his friend, as she suddenly brandished her wand and waved it with a flourish.

“Hello Gemma” he said nervously and in response she tucked her wand inside her belt and walked slowly and deliberately towards him without speaking and was enjoying the effect she was having on him, and that effect was quite profound and by the time she reached his chair he no longer looked at her as a friend.

She leant forward and put a hand on the arm rests, either side of him to support herself, and asked,

“Do I have your full attention now?”

“Oh yyyyes” he stammered

“It’s about time” she said and then she kissed him in a sloppy, wet, passionate way and he reciprocated in kind.

When she stopped a few minutes later she stood up, Jordan took hold of her hands and pulled her on to his lap and he kissed her some more.

 

After Gemma and Dorota had got their men, they waited for the Uber to arrive and when they set off the stopped briefly on the edge of the village to pick up a couple of Zombies, in the shape of Maxine and Duane.

 

Their first port of call when they arrived in Sharpington was the Pier and a visit to Bizzoni’s Ice Cream Parlour, which was a must, it just wasn’t possible to go to Sharpington and not sample their homemade ice creams, even in October, after that they went to the Sharpington Fun Park.

It was the first purpose-built amusement park to open in Britain, which had an assortment of rides, like the Rotor and the Wild Mouse, The Cyclone and the Morehouse Galloper all very tame compared to a 21st century roller coasters, but the park was still very popular.

 

They were not the only visitors to get into the spirit of the evening by wearing fancy dress, so there were plenty of Witches, Wizards, Vampires, Zombies, there were even a smattering of Vampire Slayers.

The first thing they did when they got to the Fun Park was to queue up for tokens.

Then the small group of friends joined the short queue for the Ghost Train, they were not surprised at the fact that it wasn’t very popular, it was a bit tame for the 21st century.

“Why are we going on this?” Maxine asked “it’s a bit lame”

“Don’t worry adrenalin girl” Dorota retorted “Well get to the big rides later, first things first”

“I’d rather do the Coaster” Jordan said, and Gemma punched his arm and said

“Later”

Gemma got in the first carriage and Maxine was about to sit next to her when Dorota got in ahead of her, Jordan and Jack quickly took the second, so she and Duane got the next one.

Maxine felt a bit awkward being in the same carriage as Duane, partly because Gemma had tricked her into dressing as a Zombie when Duane was also a Zombie, but mainly because she really fancied him, but she didn’t know what to do about it. 

“They weren’t very subtle, were they?” Duane said as they entered the darkness.

“What do you mean?” Maxine asked

“Making sure we were in the same carriage” he said

“Why would they want to do that?” she asked

“Because they know we like each other” Duane explained

“Do they, I mean do we?”

“Well, if we don’t, then I’ve made a terrible miscalculation” he said

“You have?”

“I thought you liked me as much as I like you, and you wouldn’t mind being alone in the dark with me as we trundle around the track, so that I could do this” he said and kissed her and the moment their lips touched she was in no hurry for them to part.

 

They were still kissing when the carriage emerged back at the starting point

“It worked then” Gemma exclaimed

“Good job” Dorota agreed and high fived her friend, while Jordan and Jack looked on blankly.

“Here” Gemma said to the operator as she handed him some tokens “That’s for those two”

“Are you sure they want to keep going?” the operator asked

“Oh yes” she retorted “Just prize them apart when the tokens run out”

In the Village of Pepperstock Green – Chapter (113) – Theatre Night

October

 

On the Northeast corner of the village of Pepperstock Green was where the Barnabus Boarding School was situated, and two of the second-year college students were Kayleigh Luck and Jack Huntly, albeit on different Courses.

They were casual acquaintances, the fact they were from the same village and on the same college course was purely coincidental, although she had appeared on his radar, but he very much doubted if he was on hers.

Most days they based were at Barnabus but two or three times a week they had classes at Pipershaven College and normally travelled home straight after College, sometimes at the same time, sometimes separately, but occasionally they would stay in Pipershaven for some reason or other, such as one day in the middle of March.

The college were given a fair number of complimentary tickets for the Heartstone Theatre in the town, which were distributed among the students on a first come first served basis.

Jack wasn’t particularly interested in the theatre, but his friend Barry got a couple of tickets.

“It’s not my thing” Jack said “And you won’t even tell me what the play is”

“Oh, come on” Barry urged “It’ll be a laugh”

“So, it’s a comedy then?”

“Come with me and find out” Barry said so he reluctantly agreed

“How bad could it be” he said to himself

 

After they left college they went into town and ate at a burger bar before walking to the Theatre and when they got there he realized just how bad it could be, and it was really bad, it was opera, but not Puccini or Verdi, he could have coped with that, he could even have coped with Gilbert and Sullivan.

But no, it was none of them, it was modern opera, about the 1980’s Minors Strike.

“I thought you said it would be a laugh?” Jack said when he saw the posters

“It will be” Barry assured him

 

Barry was wrong, it was not fun, and at the interval Jack said

“I can’t sit through any more of this shit”

And he left Barry and his protestations in his wake and headed straight to the bus stop.

 

On route it began to rain so he stepped up the pace and he had his collar up and his head down when he reached the entrance of the bus station and ran straight into another passenger trying to escape the rain and they both ended up on their backsides.

“I’m so sorry” he said getting quickly to his feet and proffered a hand to his prostrate victim, which was when he discovered that his victim was Kayleigh Luck.

“Nonsense, I wasn’t looking where I was going, my mind was elsewhere” she replied as she took his hand

“Mine too” he said “are you ok? Are you hurt?”

“Only my pride” she replied

They dusted themselves off, figuratively speaking, and there was a brief moment of silence.

“Are you heading back to the village too?” he asked redundantly

“Yes” she replied and looked at her watch “but we’ve just missed our bus, there’s another in half an hour”

“Shall we get a coffee then?” he suggested

 

They were sitting in a café on the opposite side of the street from the bus station at a table in the window when she asked

“So, what’ve you been up to tonight?”

“I’ve been through hell” he replied

“Bad date?”

“Worse than that” he said

“Oh, do elaborate” she urged

 “I’ve been to the Heartstone Theatre watching a very bad opera about Geordie miners” he said “if they’d been Welsh miners, they might have been more musical” 

“Yorkshire” she said

“What?”

“They were Yorkshire miners” she replied “According to the program”

“You were there too?”

“I was” she replied “I was dragged there by Linda”

“And you bailed too?” he asked and laughed

“I said I had a Migraine” she said and winced

“I feel guilty, but I just had to get out of there before I got one for real”

They were still laughing five minutes later when they saw a bus pull up across the road.

“We’d better go” she said

“Ok” he agreed

 

They had just got outside when Kayleigh froze like a rabbit caught in the headlights.

“What’s wrong?”  he asked

“It’s Linda” she replied and pointed “Over there”

Jack looked where she was pointing and spotted Barry a few paces behind her.

“Oh no there’s Barry too” he said 

“Come on” she said and took him by the hand and led him at speed across the road into the bus station and into the far corner

“They won’t see us in here” she said and opened the door to the disabled toilet.

“Well, it looks like we’ve missed another bus” he said

“I guess so” Kayleigh said and then she took him completely by surprise and kissed him, however a surprise it may have been, but unwelcome it was not, and she knew that immediately by the way he responded to her kiss, so as a result it went on longer than she first intended when the notion came into her head to capitalize on the situation.

“Well, that’s been a long time coming” she said when she eventually came up for air “I’m sorry I had to pounce but I got tired of waiting for you to make a move”

“I’m not complaining” he said “but I didn’t think I stood a chance”

“I guessed that which is why I needed to take drastic actions” she said “Which is why I had to deliberately knock you on your arse and drag you into a toilet”

“I’m glad you did” he said and then it was time for him to kiss her

“Come on” she said “or we’ll miss another bus”

“Ok” he agreed, and they slipped out of the disabled toilet and on to the concourse and they walked hand in hand to their bus stop.

“You know when I left the Theatre, I thought it had been a waste of an evening” he said

“And what do you think now?” she asked

“I would say that it hasn’t been a complete waste” he replied “Only the first half”

“Good answer” she said and stopped to kiss him

In the Village of Pepperstock Green – Chapter (112) – Still Waters Run Deep

October

 

In the village Dawn Durrant was the post mistress, she was a rather plain middle-aged woman just the wrong side of 40, who was quite small and slim, choosing to dress in all black, and was a very stern looking woman, who rarely smiled, with short brown hair and wire rimmed spectacles over which she peered superciliously at all and sundry.

The general consensus in the village was that she was either a Witch or just a dried up old spinster, but Phil Boocock, landlord of the Black Wolf, knew that still waters ran deep and that there was more to the harsh faced Post Mistress than met the eye, because she was also his mistress.

He knew what lay beneath the drab exterior of her black attire, though everyone believed she wore thick black tights, he knew she only ever wore stockings, and her underwear, when she chose to wear any, was always black and always sexy.

Phil also knew you should never judge a book by its cover and if the poisonous clique in the village knew her as he did, they would have known there was nothing cold, or dried up about her, but having said that he would not want any of them to share her bed, or her heart, as he did.

In the Village of Pepperstock Green – Chapter (111) – Dawn Chorus

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.

In the Village of Pepperstock Green – Chapter (110) – Meeting the Auntie

October

 

With a boot full of Tesco’s finest tinned and dried goods he turned into the lane, Jeff Forman didn’t really feel like stopping for tea with Mrs Higgins, but she had invited him, and he thought it would have been rude not to, so he pulled up outside The Laurels.

As they sat in her lounge drinking from her best China, he related the story of his getting lost in the woods and being rescued by a young woman called Maxine.

“Oh, she’s my niece” Anne said with a mixture of pride and a little sadness “I worry about her”

“She seemed very sound when I met her” he said

“Oh, she is, but the poor girl is an insomniac, she hasn’t slept properly for four years or so” she said “She only ever cat naps”

“Why is that?” he asked

She was thoughtful for a moment and then she said

“More tea?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to pry” he said

“It’s ok Mr. Graham” she said “It just makes me sad”

“I understand but please call me Jeff”

She nodded and went all thoughtful again before she said

“Maxine always had a small problem with sleeping after her grandmother died in her sleep when she was 12, but she seemed to grow out of that in time” She paused to take a sip of her tea.

“Then when she was at University her best friend Bella suffered an embolism and died one night. Maxine was absolutely devastated but I think she would have come out the other side had it not been for the Brown’s”

“The Brown’s?” he asked

“Yes, they were a family from the village who died in a house fire.

It happened in the early hours as they slept, five of them, it was so tragic, Maxine knew the family very well and she had even baby sat the children; it was the final straw for her and ever since that night Maxine has had a morbid fear of sleeping”

“How sad” he said

“She has been attending group sessions at the retreat” Anne said

As he arrived home, or at least his temporary home he reflected on how candid Anne had been, after all she could just have said she suffered from insomnia and left it at that.

He supposed not being honest might have failed to explain her irregular hours and her habit of walking the woods at all hours of the day and night.

He could relate to that in some ways as he was prone to keeping irregular hours himself, but he was pleased Anne had told him everything, as a writer he was naturally nosy but there was something about Maxine that struck a chord with him.

 

He continued to see Maxine walking the lane, or the riverbank or one of the many woodland paths, though she never stopped to talk but she did occasionally wave, he did wonder what on earth she did with herself, apart from her therapist sessions, there must be more to her life than walking the woods.

One day towards the end of October he was in the village on a milk and bread run when he bumped into Anne again.

“Jeff” she said, “how’s the book going?”

“Hello Anne, slowly I’m afraid”

“Well, I won’t keep you from it then” she said and laughed

“Don’t worry I need to rest my brain for a bit” he replied “in fact why don’t you pop in later and I will return your hospitality, I have cake”

“Well in that case I would love to”

 

On the way back to the cottage he wasn’t sure if he had given Anne the wrong impression and his invite might have been misconstrued, she was an attractive woman some ten years his senior but nonetheless attractive, and a ten-year age gap wasn’t unheard of after all.

There was a knock at the door about 3 o’clock that afternoon and when he opened the door, Jeff saw it was Anne in a grubby Berber jacket, dirty wellies and mud-spattered jeans which put his mind at rest, she was hardly in the mode of dress for a woman who thought she had been invited for a tryst.

“Is it alright if I leave the dog in the porch?” she asked as she slipped off her wellies.

“Bring her in” he said

“Are you sure?” she asked “there is nothing worse than the smell of wet dog”

“Nonsense bring her in” he insisted

“Come on Maisie” she called, Maisie was an American Cocker Spaniel, very wet, very muddy, and very friendly.

He paused briefly for a stroke and then went straight to the hearth.

Jeff made the tea and took it into the sitting room.

“No China cups I’m afraid” he said

“That’s good I prefer a mug” she responded, and her gave her a look because she had served tea to him on her best China.

“I know” she replied to his unasked question “I blame my mother”

And they both laughed, his mother was like that as well.

As they drank their tea, he found himself quizzing her about Maxine again, the nosy writer again he supposed,

“I see her in the woods or on the Lane a lot” he said

“Yes, she has a lot of time on her hands” Anne replied

“She can’t hold down a job because she doesn’t sleep regularly and is prone to nodding off from time to time”

It seemed that financially she was set, her house was hers out right and she had an annuity from her parents’ estate which was enough for her to live on, as she led a very modest existence.

“So, what does she do to fill her days?” he asked

“She’s an avid reader” she replied “She’s reading all of yours at the moment”

“Really?” he said

“Maxine is also a bit of a movie buff especially classics” Anne said “and of course she likes to walk”

Jeff nodded

“It’s silly isn’t it that she feels safer walking the woods in the middle of the night that she does in her own bed”

“It is” he agreed

“She doesn’t eat properly either” she added with a lump in her throat, and he thought how wonderful it was to have someone care about you that much.

In the Village of Pepperstock Green – Chapter (109) – Meeting Maxine

October

 

Jeff Forman is a writer, although no one at St Adelaide’s or in Pepperstock Green would have heard of him, but under his nom de plume of Jack Graham he would have been hard pressed to find anyone who had not, for under that name he had written a series of successful thrillers, six in all and a seventh was now well overdue.

He was recently divorced, though not his choice, his darling wife had cheated on him, with his best friend to boot so it couldn’t be avoided, but since the divorce he had struggled with the latest book in the series, it didn’t even have a title yet and he was fast approaching a crucial deadline.

So, he decided the best thing to do was to get away, right away, where no one knew him and where there were no distractions.

So, he decided to book himself into St Adelaide’s Reflection and Healing Retreat to help him with his writer’s block.

But he because he still had a looming deadline he opted to stay in one of the retreats cottages beside the River Oxley and planned to take up residence from October to March, though he only planned to stay until he’d shaken the writer’s block and completed the book which he thought he would manage in a month, away from all the everyday distractions of a town, which was why he found himself living in the nauseatingly named Honeysuckle Cottage, which was, as the name might suggest, a pretty little cottage.

It would originally have been a two up two down, but it now had a single-story extension which housed the kitchen, upstairs was a small bedroom and the bathroom, which was equipped with a good old-fashioned man-sized bath, while downstairs in addition to the kitchen there was a sitting room and another bedroom.

 

He first met Maxine Franklyn on a grey murky day in October when he went into the village to Richmond’s General Store to buy some essentials, milk, and bread, mainly.

It had been sunny and bright when he left Honeysuckle Cottage that morning, so he decided to walk two miles into the village and took one of the many paths through the woods.

However, by the time he was leaving the village store with his essential purchases it was raining, and it was that fine drizzly rain that soaked you in an instant and from a distance it gave the illusion of being a mist.

In fact, due to its inherent ability to obscure landmarks it was, to all intents and purposes, a mist.

 

Well he had been walking back towards the cottage with his head down to protect his face from the slanting rain and making slow progress on the woodland path in his unsuitable shoes and when he eventually lifted his head up he didn’t recognize a single tree and was completely disorientated, and as he wasn’t that familiar with the woods in the first place, he didn’t recognize anything.

As the rain continued to fall, he started to panic when a voice behind him said

“Are you alright?”

Jeff turned around and saw a little creature of indeterminate age in a parka with a fur trimmed hood.

“I am embarrassed to say it, but I appear to be lost” he said

The figure stepped forward and pushed the hood back from her face to reveal a young woman in her mid-twenties who was no more than five foot tall.

“You’re lost?” she asked in disbelief and smiled broadly

“Yes” he said even more embarrassed

“Where were you going?” She asked

“Honeysuckle Cottage” he replied

“Oh, you’re the writer” she said

“Yes” he replied “Jeff Forman”

“I’m Maxine Franklyn, and we’re neighbours”

“Are we?” he asked

“Yes” She replied “I live in Walnut Tree House, just along the river path from you”

“Well, I am pleased to meet you Maxine”

“Come on, I’m going your way” She said, and she walked with him all the way to the cottage, she wasn’t the chattiest person he had ever met but he rather liked her, nonetheless.

“Here you are, safe home” she said smiling.

“Thank you for rescuing me and for walking me home” he said “Come in for a coffee”

“I can’t I have to be somewhere” she replied

“Another time perhaps” he suggested

“Yes ok” she agreed and hurried off.

 

A few days later he had to drive into Pipershaven to do a more substantial shop to stock the cupboards, he had exhausted the meagre supplies he’d brought with him when he moved in plus he needed some more appropriate footwear for the country.

On his way he drove past Walnut Tree House where Maxine lived, it was roughly a mile from his cottage and despite being called a house it was also a cottage, though it was much bigger than his.

As he drove slowly pasted it he was surprised to find himself disappointed that there was no sign of life.

Beyond that were another three houses before the lane reached the Main road, one of which was the home of his “landlady”, or at least the woman who worked at the Retreat and managed the accommodation, Anne Higgins, who right on cue came out of her front door and waved.

Jeff slowed down and waved back, and he was about to drive on when she flagged him down.

“How are you settling in?” Anne asked

“Fine” he replied “I’m just going into Pipershaven to stock up on groceries”

“I won’t keep you then, but Pop in for tea on the way back” she said