(Part 01)
Nineteen year old Jenna Crockford lived at number 5, The Close, in the picturesque village of Mornington-By-Mere with her parents and three siblings.
She was small girl, a smidge over five foot, with delicate features and long strawberry blonde hair and a large heart and that heart was full to overflowing with love.
And most of that love was directed at John Cooper the blonde haired, blue eyed boy next door at number 4 where he lived with his parents Roy and Sally and a brother and sister.
John was not oblivious to the young girl next door, far from it but he thought she was way out of his league, and she was stunningly attractive and he was an ordinary looking man.
The other problem was that she was not yet 20 whereas he was more than five years older and that had to make a difference.
John was an Electrician, and a good one at that, and although he did a lot of work in and around the village and was a “first call” tradesman for the Mornington Estate, most of the time he worked away on bigger jobs and as Jenna was in her second year at Abbottsford University their paths seldom crossed anymore which for Jenna at least made her want him even more.
Apart from his professional work he was also very active in the church, at St Winfred’s as well as farther afield.
This involved among other things, being a greeter at the church services, delivering Parish Magazines, and helping at the Christmas Bazaar in fact you name it and he did it and that was only in the village.
His wider good works included the Soup Kitchens in Finchbottom or Purplemere, the Christmas Charity Wagon in Sharpington, which was an old Mornington Brewery dray pulled by two white shire horses with the whole thing bedecked with tinsel and lights and carried on the back a multi denominational choir.
John Cooper was among those going from door to door, as the wagon drove around the town, collecting donations in plastic buckets and handing out sweets to the excited children.
He also helped out on the Santa Express, which was something else to behold.
The Santa Express was a renovated steam engine and coaches, which ran from Sharping St Mary station to a secret location where Santa was waiting in his grotto.
It picked up the local children and their parents late afternoon so that they arrived at the grotto in darkness in order to make the most of the spectacular lights.
It was one of the high points of his year, he well remembered his parents taking him when he was a young lad and he liked to see other the kids as excited as he used to be at their age.
But then as if all his other good deeds weren’t enough he decided to volunteer for the Roving Angels and after his training at St John’s Church in Purplemere, and his receipt of his Roving Angels uniform he was deemed ready for duty.
(Part 02)
He had timed his first Patrol to be in January so as not to impact on his other commitments around the busy Christmas period.
On Friday he finished work at lunchtime as that night was his first patrol with the Roving Angels.
He couldn’t deny that he had reservations about doing it despite all the encouragement and wondered if it was really for him.
He left the house in his newly acquired uniform, worn over several layers including Long John’s and stout boots and thick socks.
As it was forecast to be minus 6 that night he was going to need every stitch of clothing to keep warm so he donned a woollen hat, scarf and gloves.
The Roving Angels had been in existence for about two years and was similar to the Street Angels, Street Pastors and other groups that had sprung up all across the UK in the previous 12 or 15 years.
They had made a really positive impact on crime and antisocial behaviour in Finchbottom and Purplemere town centres over the first two years particularly in the general vicinity of the bars and clubs.
They provided a calming presence on the streets late at night in situations where a police uniform might have the opposite effect.
In the two years since they began Roving Angels had contributed to a 29% fall in public place violence on the weekends.
It all began when Christian Churches in the area came together with the Police and the Borough Council to establish the Angels.
But it took people of Faith to make it work as with so many things in life.
To be perfectly honest he was feeling a little apprehensive about his maiden patrol as he drove to Finchbottom.
He was after all doing something he had never done before and patrolling the streets in the small hours was not without its risks one of which being that drunks are such unpredictable creatures.
Not to mention the fact it was a bitterly cold night and he was a bit of a wimp and it was to be a long shift starting at 10pm and possibly finishing as late as 4am.
All the bars and clubs closed for the night at 3 am but the clientele have been known to hang around.
He had to confess that when he went into the council building where the Angel volunteers congregated he had butterflies in his stomach.
He supposed he was nervous of meeting a bunch of strangers but when he walked in he found that he knew almost half of the assembled group one of whom was Michael Hargrave who also lived in Mornington.
“John” he said offering his hand “good to see you”
“Hi Mike” he responded taking his hand “I didn’t know you were an Angel”
“Yes” he said “since the beginning”
“Really?” he asked
“Yes” he responded proudly “two years now”
Although he had been trained he didn’t really know what to expect so he was quite relieved to find he was going out on the first hour, the quiet hour, with Mike, who was a veteran.
As expected it was an uneventful maiden patrol which saw Michael taking the lead with him carrying the back pack full of Flip Flops, lollipops, space blankets and the first aid kit.
(Part 03)
Going out on his first patrol with Michael Hargrave was useful for him, Mike showed him the boundaries of the patrol area and he pointed out the potential hotspots for later, he showed him all the CCTV camera locations and identified areas not covered and crucially the radio dead zones.
Also the quiet stroll gave him and Mike a chance to chat and catch up.
After the first uneventful hour there was an hour of coffee and chat in the council building then out again at midnight until one.
That also proved to be rather uneventful in fact Michael said he had never known it so quiet, they concluded it must be the low temperature, nobody was hanging around.
On their last lap around town they did come upon a group of girls who had just spilled out of one bar and were negotiating with the bouncers to get in another one and on the periphery of the group was a face John recognised.
He hesitated before speaking because he didn’t want to embarrass the girl but while he was wondering what best to do she spoke to him.
“Hello John” Jenna said a little tipsy
“Hello Jen” he said
“What are you doing out this late?” he asked himself.
It was then that he noticed a small group of lads lurking in the shadows.
“Are you on your own?” he asked, “Where’s Kath?”
Kathryn Williams was her best friend
She nodded in response to the first part and shrugged at the second, which he interpreted to mean they had had a falling out.
“You make sure you get a cab home,” he told her
“Ok” she answered
“Have you got enough money?” John asked
“Yes John” she replied
“What’s it got to do with you?” a loud mouthed girl from the main group said
“Are you a paedo?”
“That’s enough of that if you want to get in here,” the bouncer said and then they all filed into the pub, Jenna included.
The other girls were much older than her and he was a little worried, then the group of lads emerged from the shadows and also entered the pub.
“You know her then” Mike said as they headed back to the office.
“Yes” he replied, “So do you, Jenna Crockford, she lives in the village”
He was mightily relieved to get back inside at one o’clock, he was frozen and he didn’t understand how the girls could walk around half naked in that weather.
It took almost all the next hour to thaw out and he was not looking forward to another shift and he was mightily relieved when the Supervisor announced that they would be finishing at 3am.
Because it was so cold no one was hanging around to cause trouble so his final patrol was deemed unnecessary.
With that news John and Mike said their farewells and headed out towards the car park.
As they were walking down the road they saw a most extraordinary sight on the other side of the road.
There was a girl squatting beside a parked car peeing against the hubcap, which to all intents and purposes sounded like it was being jet washed.
At the same time her friend, they presumed she was a friend as they were engaged in conversation, was peeing like a horse against a shop door.
But the remarkable thing to Johns mind was that while this was going on a young man walked briskly down the path between them and said
“Alright girls?” as he high fived them both.
John was absolutely gobsmacked at what he was seeing.
But Mike on seeing his reaction just laughed, he had clearly seen it all before.
(Part 04)
When John and Mike reached the carpark they were parked within a few cars of each other and after a brief chat Mike got in his and had driven out of the car park before John had even started the engine.
Once the engine had warmed up a bit and hot air started to blow through the vents he got out and took off his coat and fleece.
He knew from the journey over, that once the heater got running full throttle it would be too hot with them on and as he drove out of the car park the car was toasty warm.
As luck would have it his route took him past the railway station and the taxi rank and as he reached the former he noticed Jenna staggering towards the latter and more alarmingly just behind her was the small bunch of lads he had seen following her earlier.
So he pulled up just ahead of her and wound down the window.
“Do you want a lift?” he called
“I’ve got taxi fare,” she slurred
“Look” and she waved a ten-pound note at him.
“You’d better get in then” he said
When she got in the car John noticed she was shivering so he reached over to the back seat and grabbed his fleece
“Put that around you” he suggested
“Ok” she said, “Oooh it’s still warm”
Then he gave her his coat as well and put it over her legs and lap and tucked it around her.
When he looked up the young lads were just passing the car and they all stared in so he locked the doors.
On the journey back to the village he garnered from Jenna that she had indeed fallen out with her best friend Kath.
It was a typically trivial reason brought about by Kath texting her boyfriend while Jenna was on a sleepover at Kathryn’s.
Jenna also admitted she got jealous and stormed out of Kath’s house and went to see another friend, Summer, who had the bright idea of going into Finchbottom.
Summer then met her ex-boyfriend and abandoned Jenna who then tagged along with the group of older girls that John saw her with and it was then that she started crying.
As luck would have it they were just approaching a lay-by so he pulled over to comfort her, nothing else.
He had offered her a lift out of genuine Christian kindness and because he cared about her and not because he wanted to take advantage of her while she was drunk.
He just pulled over to give her a hug and calm her down and as soon as he pulled on the hand brake she leapt into his arms.
“Oh John what am I going to do?” she sobbed, “I’ve been so stupid”
Well it took about 10 minutes to calm her down enough to establish that Kathryn wasn’t expecting her back that night but he certainly couldn’t take her home in her drunken state, her parents would not have been pleased so as he had the house to himself he said
“You can sleep on the sofa at mine”
“It doesn’t have to be the sofa” she slurred and placed her hand on his crotch.
“You can stop tha...” he began but she had passed out and her hand went limp.
When he got back to the house he pulled up on the drive and set about carrying the drunken Jenna into the house.
Not an easy task even taking into account she was barely seven stones.
In the end he chose the fireman’s lift technique, which was easiest once he got her out of the car.
John took her straight into the lounge and deposited her on the sofa.
He left her there and went back to lock the car and secure the front door.
He then threw a blanket over her, turned off the lights and went upstairs.
When he finally got to his bed he went out like a light the moment his head hit the pillow.
(Part 05)
It was just after eight when he went downstairs to check on Jenna and found she was already up.
And as soon as he walked into the lounge she threw herself in his arms.
“I’m sorry” Jenna whispered
“What for?” he asked
“For being a drunken bum.” she said “and embarrassing myself”
“As long as you’ve learned a lesson,” he said sagely
“Am I forgiven then?” she asked
“Of course” he replied “but what about Kath?”
“I phoned her already and I’m off to see her now to make things up”
Then she kissed him long and passionately and then she was gone.
For some reason, despite the fact that he had only had four hours sleep he was wide awake, it was probably the intensity of the kiss, but he decided not to go back to bed.
He was quite hungry so he cooked himself a full English breakfast and he ate it on his lap in the lounge while watching TV.
After that he still wasn’t tired so he had a long soak in the bath and by the end of it he was yawning so after finishing his ablutions he returned to bed where he had a lovely restful dream filled sleep dreaming about Jenna and that kiss.
It was a lovely dream so vivid that he imagined he could feel her soft lips on his.
It left him thinking that the age difference between them didn’t matter and when she kissed him she didn’t seem to think he was out of her league.
So as he got out of bed he was feeling very positive until he looked in the mirror.
“It was obviously drink induced” he said to his reflection “She passed out in the car after all”
He slipped on his bathrobe feeling more optimistic.
“But she wasn’t drunk when she snogged me this morning before she left” he said triumphantly and opened the bedroom door.
“Hungover then” his doubtful side countered as he walked to the bathroom
“Oh this is getting me nowhere” he snapped as he stepped in the shower “Does she fancy me or not?”
By the time he had finished in the shower he had made a decision so after shaving and dressing he slipped out the front door heading for the Crockford’s, however halfway there he lost his nerve and diverted down the alley.
In between the Cooper’s at number 4 and the Crockford’s at number 5
There was an alleyway which lead from The Close and emerged between Mazzone’s Hairdressers and the Dental Surgery in The Street.
But John didn’t proceed down the alley he merely paced up and down muttering to himself that he needed to get a back bone.
He had been pacing for about ten minutes when he heard a voice from above.
It was Jenna who had been watching him with amusement from her bedroom window, but her amusement was giving way to frustration.
“Are you ever going to get round to asking me out?”
“That depends” he replied
“On what?”
“On whether you say yes or no” John said
“Well why don’t you knock on the front door and find out” she said and closed the window.
John took a deep breath and knocked on the glass and the door opened immediately and a grinning Jenna was on the other side of it.
“Hello John this is a nice surprise” she said
“Hi Jen” he said
“What can I do for you?”
“I was just wondering…” John began falteringly
“Yes” Jenna said
“I mean would you….”
“Yes” Jenna said again
“Will you….”
“Yes, yes, yes” she said “how many times must I say yes before you snog my face off?”
It proved to be a rhetorical question as she followed it by taking the kiss she desired which was prolonged and spine tingling.
Thursday, 30 March 2017
Downshire Diary – (31) She’ll be Wearing Pink Pyjamas
(Part 01)
Anthony Flood was approaching his 44th birthday and had never felt so young and vital as he had since the episode when had kissed Fiona Fortson in the stationary cupboard, or more precisely she had kissed him.
At the time he had known her for roughly six months and had had a crush on her since the first moment he saw her.
She was in his sister’s bible study group which was held at his house every two or three weeks.
When the diminutive woman standing 4 feet 11 in her stocking feet looked at him with her large saucer eyes he was ensnared.
Even before she deployed the warm mesmerizing smile he was smitten.
But as remarkably beautiful as her face was, her figure on the other hand was singularly unremarkable.
She had short chubby legs, a flat chest and a barely distinguishable waist.
Though her bum was an altogether different proposition and each buttock was beautifully defined inside her cargos.
Anthony however despite being attracted to her didn’t envisage that anything would ever come of it, he was 12 years her senior and she was a sensible Christian girl.
So it came as quite a surprise when his sister Jane volunteered him to help Fiona retrieve something from the stationary cupboard and he ended up helping himself to a snog.
After the event Anthony felt a surprising lack of guilt about it even though he had snogged a fellow congregant on church property during the Sunday service while his sister Jane sat in the congregation.
He didn’t know if Fiona felt guilty, he hadn’t seen her to ask her.
Though in fairness it was Fiona who had initiated the action in the cupboard when she feigned a slip from the steps and fell into his arms.
He remembered so well watching Fiona taking her seat after the event and she looked across at him and smiled,
Anthony winked at Fiona and her face went scarlet and then she looked away.
But when a moment later she turned and looked at him again she smiled broadly and he knew the stationary cupboard kiss was a proper beginning.
However in the week following that eventful Sunday Anthony was away in Nettlefield on business so it hadn’t been the beginning of anything and so it was the next Monday when he decided to act and he decided to visit one of the places she worked and talk to her away from the church.
Fiona had a wonderful work ethic, which was something else he admired her for and she held down three part time jobs.
Monday to Wednesday she worked at Abbotts Gardens Centre, Thursdays and Fridays she worked Dustbusters domestic cleaning services and at weekends she worked in the café and bookshop at St Joseph’s church, which was situated on the edge of the town centre.
(Part 02)
Fiona had a wonderful work ethic, which was something else he admired her for and she held down three part time jobs.
Monday to Wednesday she worked at Abbotts Gardens Centre, Thursdays and Fridays she worked Dustbusters domestic cleaning services and at weekends she worked in the café and bookshop at St Joseph’s church, which was situated on the edge of the town centre.
He visited the Abbotts Gardens Centre numerous times but failed to see her, so he went into the café and bookshop on three separate occasions just in case she was doing extra shifts but there was no sign of her there either.
So he thought that she was obviously racked with guilt and was either keeping a low profile or had left.
Anthony couldn’t keep turning up at the church looking for her as people would doubtless notice and be suspicious, he had already visited the bookshop more times in one week than he had in the previous two years.
And that would have been that had it not been for an overheard conversation between his sister and the café and bookshop manager, Mrs Patmore.
“Yes I can do a couple of hours on Saturday” Jane said “And I hope Fiona is better soon”
After Jane had hung up the phone Anthony asked
“What was all that about?”
“Mrs Patmore is looking for help at the café while Fiona is laid up” she replied
“Why what’s wrong with her?” his asked casually
“She fell off those rickety steps last Sunday” Jane said in her “I knew that would happen”
He and Jane hadn’t been to St Dunstan’s that day as they had a christening to attend at St Lucy’s in Sharpington
“Oh dear” he said wondering if she was thinking about the previous weeks antics “is she ok?”
“Badly sprained ankle” Jane said
It was Wednesday when he got the news about Fiona’s fall, and once he realised she wasn’t seriously hurt Anthony wondered if it would be classed as a fall from grace.
Particularly if she was reminiscing on the previous outing on the steps.
He spent the next couple of days trying to think of a plausible ruse that would enable him to go round and see her.
The ruse would be superfluous for Fiona as she would know why his was really there, the ruse was for the benefit of Judith who was Fiona’s flatmate.
He racked his brain for a solution but none came so he resigned himself to the fact that he wouldn’t see her until she returned to work.
On Saturday morning he was busy in the garden pruning back the shrubbery when Jane appeared at the backdoor
“I’m doing a shift at the café this afternoon” she called
“Ok” he replied
“There is a bunch of flowers on the table” she continued “I don’t have time to drop them off, so can you do it?”
“Sure” he replied “who are they for?”
“Fiona of course” she said “why do you never pay attention”
Flowers, why didn’t he think of flowers, it was perfect.
So as soon as Jane had left he went upstairs and showered and shaved.
Then he got in his car and drove the six miles to the small block of flats where Fiona lived.
(Part 03)
As soon as Jane had left he went upstairs and showered and shaved.
Then he got in his car and drove the six miles to the small block of flats where Fiona lived
He walked up to the first floor and rang the bell and a few minutes later it was opened by Judith Small the flat mate.
“Hi Judith” he said “I have flowers for the invalid”
“Hello Mr Flood” she said politely “Do come in”
As he followed Judith down the hall staring at her denim clad derriere he thought that Fiona’s flat mate had the three main attributes that Fiona lacked youth, height and breasts, but despite that there was something Judith didn’t have and that was the equal to her bum and more importantly her heart.
“It’s Mr Flood” Judith announced as he walked in
“Hello Anthony” she said recumbent on the sofa with her sprained ankle resting on a chair supported by a large cushion.
She was wearing a blue fleecy dressing gown over the top of pink striped pyjamas.
“What a lovely surprise”
“I come bearing gifts” he said and proffered the bunch of flowers which Judith snatched from his grasp and took them away to the kitchen
“They’re lovely” said the Carrington Chase educated girl and motioned with her head like someone watching the grand prix and has just seen the car race down the home straight.
He sat down on the sofa next to her.
“I would have come sooner” he said after Judith had gone.
“But…” He didn’t finish his sentence as Fiona had taken hold of his hand which she continued to hold until Judith reappeared.
“What happened?” Anthony asked with concern
“I fell off those blessed steps and you weren’t there to catch me” she said
“Or kiss me” she added in a whisper
“I wish I had been” he said and she blushed
Just then Judith’s mobile went off and she took it out of the room to answer it and the moment she went out the door Fiona took hold of his hand again but released it a moment later when Judith returned
“Will you be alright if I just pop into town?” she asked “I won’t be long”
“Of course” Fiona replied “Anthony will keep me company for a little while, won’t you Anthony?”
“Oh yes” he replied “I’ll take good care of her”
The second they heard the front door close Fiona took hold of his hand again and held it against her cheek.
“How’s your ankle?” he asked
“Not too bad” she said and Anthony took that to mean that she wanted a cuddle so he put his arm around her.
“I was hoping you would come to see me” she said in her posh wanton accent
“I came as soon as I could” he explained
“I know” she said holding his palm against her cheek and he moved closer to her and kissed her mouth.
She reciprocated instantly with lips, soft and yielding, and her mouth was hot and her tongue was inquisitive.
In the hour and a half that Judith left them alone together they did more than kiss, they declared their love for each other.
But they decided to keep it to themselves for the time being which they thought made their relationship all the more exciting.
Anthony Flood was approaching his 44th birthday and had never felt so young and vital as he had since the episode when had kissed Fiona Fortson in the stationary cupboard, or more precisely she had kissed him.
At the time he had known her for roughly six months and had had a crush on her since the first moment he saw her.
She was in his sister’s bible study group which was held at his house every two or three weeks.
When the diminutive woman standing 4 feet 11 in her stocking feet looked at him with her large saucer eyes he was ensnared.
Even before she deployed the warm mesmerizing smile he was smitten.
But as remarkably beautiful as her face was, her figure on the other hand was singularly unremarkable.
She had short chubby legs, a flat chest and a barely distinguishable waist.
Though her bum was an altogether different proposition and each buttock was beautifully defined inside her cargos.
Anthony however despite being attracted to her didn’t envisage that anything would ever come of it, he was 12 years her senior and she was a sensible Christian girl.
So it came as quite a surprise when his sister Jane volunteered him to help Fiona retrieve something from the stationary cupboard and he ended up helping himself to a snog.
After the event Anthony felt a surprising lack of guilt about it even though he had snogged a fellow congregant on church property during the Sunday service while his sister Jane sat in the congregation.
He didn’t know if Fiona felt guilty, he hadn’t seen her to ask her.
Though in fairness it was Fiona who had initiated the action in the cupboard when she feigned a slip from the steps and fell into his arms.
He remembered so well watching Fiona taking her seat after the event and she looked across at him and smiled,
Anthony winked at Fiona and her face went scarlet and then she looked away.
But when a moment later she turned and looked at him again she smiled broadly and he knew the stationary cupboard kiss was a proper beginning.
However in the week following that eventful Sunday Anthony was away in Nettlefield on business so it hadn’t been the beginning of anything and so it was the next Monday when he decided to act and he decided to visit one of the places she worked and talk to her away from the church.
Fiona had a wonderful work ethic, which was something else he admired her for and she held down three part time jobs.
Monday to Wednesday she worked at Abbotts Gardens Centre, Thursdays and Fridays she worked Dustbusters domestic cleaning services and at weekends she worked in the café and bookshop at St Joseph’s church, which was situated on the edge of the town centre.
(Part 02)
Fiona had a wonderful work ethic, which was something else he admired her for and she held down three part time jobs.
Monday to Wednesday she worked at Abbotts Gardens Centre, Thursdays and Fridays she worked Dustbusters domestic cleaning services and at weekends she worked in the café and bookshop at St Joseph’s church, which was situated on the edge of the town centre.
He visited the Abbotts Gardens Centre numerous times but failed to see her, so he went into the café and bookshop on three separate occasions just in case she was doing extra shifts but there was no sign of her there either.
So he thought that she was obviously racked with guilt and was either keeping a low profile or had left.
Anthony couldn’t keep turning up at the church looking for her as people would doubtless notice and be suspicious, he had already visited the bookshop more times in one week than he had in the previous two years.
And that would have been that had it not been for an overheard conversation between his sister and the café and bookshop manager, Mrs Patmore.
“Yes I can do a couple of hours on Saturday” Jane said “And I hope Fiona is better soon”
After Jane had hung up the phone Anthony asked
“What was all that about?”
“Mrs Patmore is looking for help at the café while Fiona is laid up” she replied
“Why what’s wrong with her?” his asked casually
“She fell off those rickety steps last Sunday” Jane said in her “I knew that would happen”
He and Jane hadn’t been to St Dunstan’s that day as they had a christening to attend at St Lucy’s in Sharpington
“Oh dear” he said wondering if she was thinking about the previous weeks antics “is she ok?”
“Badly sprained ankle” Jane said
It was Wednesday when he got the news about Fiona’s fall, and once he realised she wasn’t seriously hurt Anthony wondered if it would be classed as a fall from grace.
Particularly if she was reminiscing on the previous outing on the steps.
He spent the next couple of days trying to think of a plausible ruse that would enable him to go round and see her.
The ruse would be superfluous for Fiona as she would know why his was really there, the ruse was for the benefit of Judith who was Fiona’s flatmate.
He racked his brain for a solution but none came so he resigned himself to the fact that he wouldn’t see her until she returned to work.
On Saturday morning he was busy in the garden pruning back the shrubbery when Jane appeared at the backdoor
“I’m doing a shift at the café this afternoon” she called
“Ok” he replied
“There is a bunch of flowers on the table” she continued “I don’t have time to drop them off, so can you do it?”
“Sure” he replied “who are they for?”
“Fiona of course” she said “why do you never pay attention”
Flowers, why didn’t he think of flowers, it was perfect.
So as soon as Jane had left he went upstairs and showered and shaved.
Then he got in his car and drove the six miles to the small block of flats where Fiona lived.
(Part 03)
As soon as Jane had left he went upstairs and showered and shaved.
Then he got in his car and drove the six miles to the small block of flats where Fiona lived
He walked up to the first floor and rang the bell and a few minutes later it was opened by Judith Small the flat mate.
“Hi Judith” he said “I have flowers for the invalid”
“Hello Mr Flood” she said politely “Do come in”
As he followed Judith down the hall staring at her denim clad derriere he thought that Fiona’s flat mate had the three main attributes that Fiona lacked youth, height and breasts, but despite that there was something Judith didn’t have and that was the equal to her bum and more importantly her heart.
“It’s Mr Flood” Judith announced as he walked in
“Hello Anthony” she said recumbent on the sofa with her sprained ankle resting on a chair supported by a large cushion.
She was wearing a blue fleecy dressing gown over the top of pink striped pyjamas.
“What a lovely surprise”
“I come bearing gifts” he said and proffered the bunch of flowers which Judith snatched from his grasp and took them away to the kitchen
“They’re lovely” said the Carrington Chase educated girl and motioned with her head like someone watching the grand prix and has just seen the car race down the home straight.
He sat down on the sofa next to her.
“I would have come sooner” he said after Judith had gone.
“But…” He didn’t finish his sentence as Fiona had taken hold of his hand which she continued to hold until Judith reappeared.
“What happened?” Anthony asked with concern
“I fell off those blessed steps and you weren’t there to catch me” she said
“Or kiss me” she added in a whisper
“I wish I had been” he said and she blushed
Just then Judith’s mobile went off and she took it out of the room to answer it and the moment she went out the door Fiona took hold of his hand again but released it a moment later when Judith returned
“Will you be alright if I just pop into town?” she asked “I won’t be long”
“Of course” Fiona replied “Anthony will keep me company for a little while, won’t you Anthony?”
“Oh yes” he replied “I’ll take good care of her”
The second they heard the front door close Fiona took hold of his hand again and held it against her cheek.
“How’s your ankle?” he asked
“Not too bad” she said and Anthony took that to mean that she wanted a cuddle so he put his arm around her.
“I was hoping you would come to see me” she said in her posh wanton accent
“I came as soon as I could” he explained
“I know” she said holding his palm against her cheek and he moved closer to her and kissed her mouth.
She reciprocated instantly with lips, soft and yielding, and her mouth was hot and her tongue was inquisitive.
In the hour and a half that Judith left them alone together they did more than kiss, they declared their love for each other.
But they decided to keep it to themselves for the time being which they thought made their relationship all the more exciting.
Wednesday, 29 March 2017
Tales from the Finchbottom Vale – (30) The Verger’s Patience
(Part 01)
The village of Highfinch sits just on the edge of the Pepperstock Hills and the Lily Green Hollows Golf Club separated the village from the Hamlet of Lily Green, and the combination of the two made up the parish of St Martins.
The Vicar of the said parish was Reverend Jenna Lawton, soon to be Faulkner.
Although she was relatively new to the role of Vicar she had previously been Reverend Mortimer’s Curate, a position she held for ten years.
However when the previous Vicar suffered a serious heart attack it was so severe he was unable to resume his duties.
Almost her first act as Vicar of St Martins was to appoint Tom Rowlands as her Verger.
He was replacing 70 year old Carl Daniel who had held the position under Reverend Mortimer for 30 years and when his old friend was struck down he took it as a sign that he should retire his services.
Tom had lived in Lily Green all of his life and still lived in the same cottage where he was born.
Lily Green was an idyllic hamlet and the cottage had proper chocolate box quaintness.
In fact it was perfect in almost every way save one, he didn’t have someone special to share it with.
His parents were gone and he had no siblings, his mother had him late in life.
He was an unremarkable looking man, anonymous looking really.
In fact everything about him was average, average height, average build, grey eyes and mousy hair.
He was 33 years old and he’d been alone for 5 years but the church offered him something he had never had, a large family.
He responded to the love he found at St Martin’s and became a hard worker on their behalf in every aspect of Church life.
Choir, parish magazine, youth groups, Sunday school, Fund Raising, sales, Fetes, and Bazaars.
And it was through the church that he met Patience Rudd.
His reward for all his hard work was a phone call a few days after Jenna Lawton was confirmed as the new Vicar.
“Tom?” a woman’s voice said
“Yes that’s me” he replied
“It’s Jenna” she said “Jenna Lawton”
“Hello Vicar” he said.
“What can I do for you?”
“I know its short notice but...” she hesitated
“Would you mind taking Carl Daniel's place on the church committee?”
“What me?”
“Yes you” She confirmed “we are fast approaching the festive season and well…”
“Of course, when do you need me?”
“Ten minutes?” she asked hopefully
“Ok” he said “I’ll leave now”
After his first meeting sitting on the church committee he was asked to stay on afterwards by the Vicar and he was a little nervous when she closed the door.
“Thank you for stepping into the breech” Jenna said
“That’s ok Vicar”
“I have something else to ask of you” she said
“Ask away”
“I would like you to apply for the Vergers job” Jenna said
“Oh no” he replied “I couldn’t do that”
“But you would be perfect” she said “nobody works harder than you do for St Martins”
“But that’s just on a voluntary basis” he said “I’m not qualified to be Verger”
“You are perfectly qualified” Jenna said “Please think about it”
(Part 02)
Tom took the Vicars advice and applied to fill the vacancy as Verger and his first official task saw him carrying the Virge at the Sunday service on the first Sunday of Advent and he had never felt prouder but when he went home he had no one to share it with.
He did have someone in mind who he would have liked to share his big moment with and that was Patience Rudd.
He had known her for 5 years ever since he started attending St Martins, she was a few years younger than him and was also unremarkable looking, and ticked all the average boxes but to him she was far from ordinary.
Unlike him she had always been part of the Church since she was a little girl.
She was one of the first people he met when he made his first tentative steps into St Martin’s and Tom fell in love with the shy timid Patience instantly and the attraction was mutual.
But neither of them did anything about it, they were far too shy.
Despite the fact that they did so much together for the Church they never took the tiny final step to be together.
So as the weeks turned into months and the months to years the gulf seemed to grow exponentially and the tiny step seemed more like it was a giant leap.
They always radiated towards each other on committees, pastorates and church groups and always volunteered for the same things.
And they talked freely with no awkwardness of self-consciousness as long as they didn’t think about the other in the way they wanted them to be.
Even after he became the Verger things didn’t change between them.
Although he came very close at the St Martin’s Christmas Bazaar.
Both Tom and Patience arrived early at St Martin’s School and it was already a hive of activity.
“Goodness” he said “And I was worried I was too early”
“Yes me too” she agreed
“Shall we get stuck in then” he suggested
“Yes lets”
They worked together all morning and he would have liked to have helped her on the Bric-à-brac stall but he had already volunteered to help out in Santa’s Grotto.
“I’ve got to go” he said
“Oh ok” she said flatly
“But I’ll come and help you pack up at the end if you like”
“Yes please”
To get to the grotto he had to enter via an adjoining classroom, festively decked out, which acted as an ante room where a small number of children and their accompanying parents waited their turn, and where the school’s drama teacher, Cherry Overton-Brown, who for some reason was dressed as Robin Hood, kept order.
And beyond the anteroom in the corridor there was a sizable queue of expectant children.
(Part 03)
The grotto opened to the first child at 1 pm and there was a pretty constant stream almost non-stop until 4 o’clock.
The new Curate, Rosie, dressed as and Bernard the Elf, escorted the excited or apprehensive child in from the ante chamber, who would then climb up on to Santa’s lap.
Santa would then have a quick chat with them and give them their gift, and then Tom, would take a photo.
Rosie then escorted the happy child back out to their parents and this well-oiled machine kept operating like that for 3 hours and when Rosie escorted the final child back to their waiting parents Tom followed them out.
Tom then hurried to the hall and was greeted by a smiling Patience.
In fact so radiant was her smile that he decided there and then to ask her out.
“Patience I…” he began but the Vicar suddenly appeared and started rummaging through the books and the moment was gone and he lost his nerve.
After losing his nerve at the Christmas Bazaar when the Vicar interrupted him on the verge of asking Patience out, Tom never regained it again.
So they returned to the same pattern as before, they saw a lot of each other but never went to the next level and would probably have remained that way indefinitely had fate not intervened on a late spring morning.
Tom was in the vestry talking to Hemmings Funeral Directors about three impending funerals when the Vicar appeared in the doorway wearing a worried expression, he completed his call and hung up.
“Hello Vicar” he said “Is everything ok?”
“I’m not sure” she replied “Have you heard from Patience today?”
“No I haven’t, why?”
“Well she hasn’t been in to pick up her quota of Parish Magazine’s from the Village Hall” she explained
The first Monday of the month was Parish Magazine delivery day and all the volunteers would pick them up by 10 o’clock.
But by 11.30 everyone had been in bar Patience.
“That’s not like her” he said
“No it’s not” the Vicar agreed “I’ve tried ringing but her mobile is just going to voice mail”
On hearing that Tom offered his services in her stead.
“I’ll do her round” he said “And I’ll call in to the farm and make sure she’s ok”
“That would be great Tom” she said with real relief in her voice “Thank you”
It wasn’t how he planned to spend his day but he didn’t mind and being out and about in the fresh air on such a lovely day was not a chore and it would put his mind at rest.
Patience Rudd’s “patch” was on the Kettlewell side of the village and consisted of about 25 dwellings dotted along Kettlewell Lane and Finchtop Way, it was about a two hour round trip at an average pace
But he was in a rush to check up on Patience so even though it was a warm pleasant day he set off at pace with the bag slung across his shoulder.
(Part 04)
Tom had only one thought in his head as he delivered the Parish Magazines on his way up Kettlewell Lane, Patience, and he wanted to get to Rudd’s Farm, the furthest most destination from the village on his route.
He turned off Kettlewell Lane and into Finchtop Way which was a horseshoe shaped road that climbed quite steeply up the hill then eased down the other side re-joining Kettlewell Lane some ¾ of a mile nearer to Highfinch.
Just as he was insight of Rudd’s farm it started to rain a typical spring shower which would soak him to the skin and there were no convenient trees to shelter under, so he made a run for it some fifty yards or so and just ahead was the hay barn and he thought it the most likely source of shelter so he ran in that direction.
Once he got close he noticed the door was a jar so he pushed on it softly.
“Hello” he called as the door opened and inside he found Patience Rudd laying in a heap on the floor.
“Patience!” he called and rushed to her side
He could see straight away that her leg was broken by its unnatural position.
It was obvious what had happened she had fallen from the hayloft.
“Patience!” he said and took hold of her hand which was cold.
Her eyes opened and squeezed his fingers.
“Tom” she said and gave a weak smile.
He released her hand long enough to take his coat off and lay on top of her, then he held her hand again which she gripped tightly.
“It really hurts Tom” she said
“I’ll go and get help”
“No don’t leave me” she begged
“But I need to get someone” he retorted
“There’s no one here” she explained “Mums gone to Purplemere and Dad and the boys are on the other side of the farm clearing ditches”
“Ok I’ll phone for an ambulance” he suggested
“But don’t leave me” she insisted
“Ok I’m not going anywhere”
He dialled 999 and responded to all the operators’ questions.
“Ambulance please”
“Rudd Farm, Finchtop Way, off Kettlewell Lane”
“A girl has fallen from the hayloft, and has a broken leg”
“I don’t know if she lost consciousness, I don’t even know when she fell, but she’s cold frightened and in pain”
“My name is Tom Rowlands and I’m not going anywhere”
“Do you promise” Patience said weakly
“Do I promise what?” he asked
“Not to go anywhere” she said
“Absolutely”
“Say it then” she begged
“I promise not to go anywhere” Tom said “I promise not to leave you, and I promise that I’m never going to leave you”
“That’s a lot of promises”
“I mean to keep them all” he said
All the feelings of hopeless longing he had felt for her over the previous 5 years came swimming to the surface, and along with them came anger.
Anger at his weakness, his cowardice at not telling her how he felt and now she was laying broken and bruised on the floor of the barn and he could lose her forever.
Having never told her how much she was loved and how much he loved her.
And then a grave dark thought filled his mind about how the next conversation he had with Hemmings Funeral Directors could be to arrange Patience’s funeral.
“You have to tell her now before it’s too late!” he screamed inside his head
“You must”
Tom took her small hand in his hands and said
“Patience, darling, I have something important to say to you”
“Did you call me darling?” she asked dreamily
“Yes I did”
“I like that” she said
Tom was concerned she was going to lose consciousness before he said the words
“Patience, I have something very important to say to you”
“What’s that?” she said very quietly
“I love you, Patience Rudd” Tom said “I have always loved you, and I always will”
Patience never responded and drifted off into unconsciousness so he was unsure if she had heard a word he had said let alone understand it.
(Part 05)
A few moments after he had made his declaration of love he heard the ambulance approaching.
“They’re here darling” he said and kissed her hand then he rushed outside to show them the way.
“Over here!” he shouted
He kept in the back ground while the paramedics did their thing and listened intently to what they were saying.
He was right about the broken leg but in addition she had a dislocated shoulder and several cracked ribs.
Tom went out into the yard and phoned the Vicar and let her know what had happened.
While he was there Mrs Rudd drove into the yard and broke sharply.
“What’s happened?” she shouted
“Patience fell from the hay loft” Tom said
“Is she ok?”
Just as Tom was about to tell her what he knew. Andy Mason, the paramedic, appeared from the barn, at one end of a trolley so Tom deferred to him.
While he explained to Mrs Rudd the rest of the trolley appeared with Patience aboard, Andy finished just as the procession reached the back of the ambulance and then he said
“We’ll take her to The Royal Downshire in Purplemere”
“Ok I’ll follow on in the car” she replied
But just before they loaded Patience into the ambulance she opened her eyes and pulled the oxygen mask aside and said
“I love you too Tom”
Then she closed her eyes again and Andy replaced her mask.
“I suppose you’d better come in the car with me” Mrs Rudd said and smiled
The village of Highfinch sits just on the edge of the Pepperstock Hills and the Lily Green Hollows Golf Club separated the village from the Hamlet of Lily Green, and the combination of the two made up the parish of St Martins.
The Vicar of the said parish was Reverend Jenna Lawton, soon to be Faulkner.
Although she was relatively new to the role of Vicar she had previously been Reverend Mortimer’s Curate, a position she held for ten years.
However when the previous Vicar suffered a serious heart attack it was so severe he was unable to resume his duties.
Almost her first act as Vicar of St Martins was to appoint Tom Rowlands as her Verger.
He was replacing 70 year old Carl Daniel who had held the position under Reverend Mortimer for 30 years and when his old friend was struck down he took it as a sign that he should retire his services.
Tom had lived in Lily Green all of his life and still lived in the same cottage where he was born.
Lily Green was an idyllic hamlet and the cottage had proper chocolate box quaintness.
In fact it was perfect in almost every way save one, he didn’t have someone special to share it with.
His parents were gone and he had no siblings, his mother had him late in life.
He was an unremarkable looking man, anonymous looking really.
In fact everything about him was average, average height, average build, grey eyes and mousy hair.
He was 33 years old and he’d been alone for 5 years but the church offered him something he had never had, a large family.
He responded to the love he found at St Martin’s and became a hard worker on their behalf in every aspect of Church life.
Choir, parish magazine, youth groups, Sunday school, Fund Raising, sales, Fetes, and Bazaars.
And it was through the church that he met Patience Rudd.
His reward for all his hard work was a phone call a few days after Jenna Lawton was confirmed as the new Vicar.
“Tom?” a woman’s voice said
“Yes that’s me” he replied
“It’s Jenna” she said “Jenna Lawton”
“Hello Vicar” he said.
“What can I do for you?”
“I know its short notice but...” she hesitated
“Would you mind taking Carl Daniel's place on the church committee?”
“What me?”
“Yes you” She confirmed “we are fast approaching the festive season and well…”
“Of course, when do you need me?”
“Ten minutes?” she asked hopefully
“Ok” he said “I’ll leave now”
After his first meeting sitting on the church committee he was asked to stay on afterwards by the Vicar and he was a little nervous when she closed the door.
“Thank you for stepping into the breech” Jenna said
“That’s ok Vicar”
“I have something else to ask of you” she said
“Ask away”
“I would like you to apply for the Vergers job” Jenna said
“Oh no” he replied “I couldn’t do that”
“But you would be perfect” she said “nobody works harder than you do for St Martins”
“But that’s just on a voluntary basis” he said “I’m not qualified to be Verger”
“You are perfectly qualified” Jenna said “Please think about it”
(Part 02)
Tom took the Vicars advice and applied to fill the vacancy as Verger and his first official task saw him carrying the Virge at the Sunday service on the first Sunday of Advent and he had never felt prouder but when he went home he had no one to share it with.
He did have someone in mind who he would have liked to share his big moment with and that was Patience Rudd.
He had known her for 5 years ever since he started attending St Martins, she was a few years younger than him and was also unremarkable looking, and ticked all the average boxes but to him she was far from ordinary.
Unlike him she had always been part of the Church since she was a little girl.
She was one of the first people he met when he made his first tentative steps into St Martin’s and Tom fell in love with the shy timid Patience instantly and the attraction was mutual.
But neither of them did anything about it, they were far too shy.
Despite the fact that they did so much together for the Church they never took the tiny final step to be together.
So as the weeks turned into months and the months to years the gulf seemed to grow exponentially and the tiny step seemed more like it was a giant leap.
They always radiated towards each other on committees, pastorates and church groups and always volunteered for the same things.
And they talked freely with no awkwardness of self-consciousness as long as they didn’t think about the other in the way they wanted them to be.
Even after he became the Verger things didn’t change between them.
Although he came very close at the St Martin’s Christmas Bazaar.
Both Tom and Patience arrived early at St Martin’s School and it was already a hive of activity.
“Goodness” he said “And I was worried I was too early”
“Yes me too” she agreed
“Shall we get stuck in then” he suggested
“Yes lets”
They worked together all morning and he would have liked to have helped her on the Bric-à-brac stall but he had already volunteered to help out in Santa’s Grotto.
“I’ve got to go” he said
“Oh ok” she said flatly
“But I’ll come and help you pack up at the end if you like”
“Yes please”
To get to the grotto he had to enter via an adjoining classroom, festively decked out, which acted as an ante room where a small number of children and their accompanying parents waited their turn, and where the school’s drama teacher, Cherry Overton-Brown, who for some reason was dressed as Robin Hood, kept order.
And beyond the anteroom in the corridor there was a sizable queue of expectant children.
(Part 03)
The grotto opened to the first child at 1 pm and there was a pretty constant stream almost non-stop until 4 o’clock.
The new Curate, Rosie, dressed as and Bernard the Elf, escorted the excited or apprehensive child in from the ante chamber, who would then climb up on to Santa’s lap.
Santa would then have a quick chat with them and give them their gift, and then Tom, would take a photo.
Rosie then escorted the happy child back out to their parents and this well-oiled machine kept operating like that for 3 hours and when Rosie escorted the final child back to their waiting parents Tom followed them out.
Tom then hurried to the hall and was greeted by a smiling Patience.
In fact so radiant was her smile that he decided there and then to ask her out.
“Patience I…” he began but the Vicar suddenly appeared and started rummaging through the books and the moment was gone and he lost his nerve.
After losing his nerve at the Christmas Bazaar when the Vicar interrupted him on the verge of asking Patience out, Tom never regained it again.
So they returned to the same pattern as before, they saw a lot of each other but never went to the next level and would probably have remained that way indefinitely had fate not intervened on a late spring morning.
Tom was in the vestry talking to Hemmings Funeral Directors about three impending funerals when the Vicar appeared in the doorway wearing a worried expression, he completed his call and hung up.
“Hello Vicar” he said “Is everything ok?”
“I’m not sure” she replied “Have you heard from Patience today?”
“No I haven’t, why?”
“Well she hasn’t been in to pick up her quota of Parish Magazine’s from the Village Hall” she explained
The first Monday of the month was Parish Magazine delivery day and all the volunteers would pick them up by 10 o’clock.
But by 11.30 everyone had been in bar Patience.
“That’s not like her” he said
“No it’s not” the Vicar agreed “I’ve tried ringing but her mobile is just going to voice mail”
On hearing that Tom offered his services in her stead.
“I’ll do her round” he said “And I’ll call in to the farm and make sure she’s ok”
“That would be great Tom” she said with real relief in her voice “Thank you”
It wasn’t how he planned to spend his day but he didn’t mind and being out and about in the fresh air on such a lovely day was not a chore and it would put his mind at rest.
Patience Rudd’s “patch” was on the Kettlewell side of the village and consisted of about 25 dwellings dotted along Kettlewell Lane and Finchtop Way, it was about a two hour round trip at an average pace
But he was in a rush to check up on Patience so even though it was a warm pleasant day he set off at pace with the bag slung across his shoulder.
(Part 04)
Tom had only one thought in his head as he delivered the Parish Magazines on his way up Kettlewell Lane, Patience, and he wanted to get to Rudd’s Farm, the furthest most destination from the village on his route.
He turned off Kettlewell Lane and into Finchtop Way which was a horseshoe shaped road that climbed quite steeply up the hill then eased down the other side re-joining Kettlewell Lane some ¾ of a mile nearer to Highfinch.
Just as he was insight of Rudd’s farm it started to rain a typical spring shower which would soak him to the skin and there were no convenient trees to shelter under, so he made a run for it some fifty yards or so and just ahead was the hay barn and he thought it the most likely source of shelter so he ran in that direction.
Once he got close he noticed the door was a jar so he pushed on it softly.
“Hello” he called as the door opened and inside he found Patience Rudd laying in a heap on the floor.
“Patience!” he called and rushed to her side
He could see straight away that her leg was broken by its unnatural position.
It was obvious what had happened she had fallen from the hayloft.
“Patience!” he said and took hold of her hand which was cold.
Her eyes opened and squeezed his fingers.
“Tom” she said and gave a weak smile.
He released her hand long enough to take his coat off and lay on top of her, then he held her hand again which she gripped tightly.
“It really hurts Tom” she said
“I’ll go and get help”
“No don’t leave me” she begged
“But I need to get someone” he retorted
“There’s no one here” she explained “Mums gone to Purplemere and Dad and the boys are on the other side of the farm clearing ditches”
“Ok I’ll phone for an ambulance” he suggested
“But don’t leave me” she insisted
“Ok I’m not going anywhere”
He dialled 999 and responded to all the operators’ questions.
“Ambulance please”
“Rudd Farm, Finchtop Way, off Kettlewell Lane”
“A girl has fallen from the hayloft, and has a broken leg”
“I don’t know if she lost consciousness, I don’t even know when she fell, but she’s cold frightened and in pain”
“My name is Tom Rowlands and I’m not going anywhere”
“Do you promise” Patience said weakly
“Do I promise what?” he asked
“Not to go anywhere” she said
“Absolutely”
“Say it then” she begged
“I promise not to go anywhere” Tom said “I promise not to leave you, and I promise that I’m never going to leave you”
“That’s a lot of promises”
“I mean to keep them all” he said
All the feelings of hopeless longing he had felt for her over the previous 5 years came swimming to the surface, and along with them came anger.
Anger at his weakness, his cowardice at not telling her how he felt and now she was laying broken and bruised on the floor of the barn and he could lose her forever.
Having never told her how much she was loved and how much he loved her.
And then a grave dark thought filled his mind about how the next conversation he had with Hemmings Funeral Directors could be to arrange Patience’s funeral.
“You have to tell her now before it’s too late!” he screamed inside his head
“You must”
Tom took her small hand in his hands and said
“Patience, darling, I have something important to say to you”
“Did you call me darling?” she asked dreamily
“Yes I did”
“I like that” she said
Tom was concerned she was going to lose consciousness before he said the words
“Patience, I have something very important to say to you”
“What’s that?” she said very quietly
“I love you, Patience Rudd” Tom said “I have always loved you, and I always will”
Patience never responded and drifted off into unconsciousness so he was unsure if she had heard a word he had said let alone understand it.
(Part 05)
A few moments after he had made his declaration of love he heard the ambulance approaching.
“They’re here darling” he said and kissed her hand then he rushed outside to show them the way.
“Over here!” he shouted
He kept in the back ground while the paramedics did their thing and listened intently to what they were saying.
He was right about the broken leg but in addition she had a dislocated shoulder and several cracked ribs.
Tom went out into the yard and phoned the Vicar and let her know what had happened.
While he was there Mrs Rudd drove into the yard and broke sharply.
“What’s happened?” she shouted
“Patience fell from the hay loft” Tom said
“Is she ok?”
Just as Tom was about to tell her what he knew. Andy Mason, the paramedic, appeared from the barn, at one end of a trolley so Tom deferred to him.
While he explained to Mrs Rudd the rest of the trolley appeared with Patience aboard, Andy finished just as the procession reached the back of the ambulance and then he said
“We’ll take her to The Royal Downshire in Purplemere”
“Ok I’ll follow on in the car” she replied
But just before they loaded Patience into the ambulance she opened her eyes and pulled the oxygen mask aside and said
“I love you too Tom”
Then she closed her eyes again and Andy replaced her mask.
“I suppose you’d better come in the car with me” Mrs Rudd said and smiled
Mornington-By-Mere – (30) Speech Impediment’s
(Part 01)
Mornington-By-Mere 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.
As well as a selection of all the normal shops and services to make a difference to people’s lives.
23 year old Katie Parsons was the receptionist for the Mornington Doctors, Dentist & Orthodontic Surgeries which were an important asset to the village and the estate.
The reception area 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.
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.
The Doctors, Dentists, orthodontists and pharmacists were all based elsewhere and provided a skeleton service to the village.
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 Normans 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.
Katie Parsons lived at number 5, Military Row with her older sister Rosie.
She loved living in Mornington and sharing with her big sister although she lived alone most of the time because Rosie was a Staff Nurse at the Winston Churchill Hospital in Abbottsford and rather than commute back and forth she shared a flat with two other Nurses from the village.
Like her sister, Katie was born and bred in the village but she chose to move away following University because after her party lifestyle in Abbottsford the last thing she wanted to do was move back to quiet dull Mornington.
However she soon grew tired of the party scene and her tiresome on off relationship with lukewarm boyfriend Steve so she chose to move in with Rosie.
Physically she was not unlike Rosie, they were both blonde haired, modestly pretty, tall and slender, though Katie was a bit shapelier but there wasn’t a lot in it.
How they differed in a major way was that Katie was a bit more confident.
Which served her well in the big city and she was never short of company, and had the pick of the men.
But somehow she still managed to end up with the losers.
(Part 02)
In Mornington the field of available men was considerably smaller than when Katie was at University but even if it had been a larger pool to fish in she would still have set her sights on George Boddington because she fancied the pants off him.
But despite the fact that she was brimming with confidence she could barely get a word out of her mouth when he was around.
Katie thought he was a really good looking lad with his thick black curly hair and wild gypsy eyes, dark and mysterious and she thought he was buff too, but when confronted with gorgeous George her brain turned to mush and she lost her ability to speak.
Apart from being butchers and owning and running a number of butcher’s shops in and around the Vale.
The Boddingtons were also pig farmers at Saddleback Farm near the hamlet of Fallowacres, which was as near as damn it the center point of the Finchbottom Vale, though that was only a geographical distinction.
All the Boddington’s served their time on the farm and then served their apprenticeships in the numerous butcher’s shops.
George had spent his time firstly in Shallowfield and then in Highfinch before doing a two day a week stint in Mornington.
Six foot tall gorgeous George was a year younger than Katie, and she longed to run her fingers through his thick black curly hair and stare longingly into his dark and mysterious wild gypsy eyes, and thoroughly explore his well buff body.
Apart from being supremely fit he was extremely accessible as he worked at the shop across the road from the surgery.
Their first meeting was when he went to make an appointment with the doctor and there was no hesitancy in his voice or speech.
But then that was because he had nothing to fear at that point, he was just going to see the doctor, he had no idea he would find a beauty on reception.
“Hi, I’d like to make an appointment” he said
“Medical or Dental?” Katie asked brightly
“Medical”
“Ok was it urgent?” she asked
“No I just need a prescription” George replied
“I can fit you in tomorrow at eleven”
“Perfect” he said and inexplicably blushed and then after giving her his name he returned to the shop.
The next day when he returned for his appointment and Katie greeted him with a hearty
“Hello George”
He stammered his way through his reply and went scarlet before going to sit down which was the precise moment she fell for him.
That exchange was in July and they had barely managed a sentence between them in the two months that followed.
Day after day, week after week he would look at her in admiration but he could never speak to her, not important stuff, there would be occasional nodding and smiling.
He desperately wanted to ask her out, he had almost done it so many times but his nerve would always go, as would his ability to speak.
He so often formed the question in his head but the words just wouldn’t come out, George always steeled himself for the big moment, but it never happened.
He could respond if she spoke to him but she never really engaged with him not since that first day they met.
(Part 03)
Katie was no better at conversing with George than he was with her, in fact she was worse because that kind of behaviour was against her nature, she was a supremely confident person, but her failure to speak was abject and happened with monotonous regularity.
George was only in the shop 2 days a week and not always on the same days.
So each morning as she walked to work she would look across the road into the shop to see if he was there and if he was alone she would cross the road and go in.
But invariably when she did enter the shop one of two things would happen, one of his brothers or his father would appear from the back of the shop or they would stand there stammering at each other with scarlet faces.
Whichever was the case she would leave the shop with a pound of sausages.
“God that girl buys a lot of sausages” Georges father James said on one particular occasion in September.
George’s older brother Allen was marrying Ruby Legg from the farm shop later in September so that became the target date for him to take action.
He decided he would invite Katie to accompany him to the wedding at St Winifred’s and the reception afterwards where there would be dancing and a chance to hold her.
George just had to pick his moment, so one day, on his day off when she looked particularly alluring as she walked to work he decided to strike.
“Katie” he called and she stopped and turned around
As he closed the distance between them he thought to himself
“This time will be different, this time I have rehearsed” he said to himself even though it was only to his own reflection “this time I will do it”
So armed with a well-constructed sentence he made his move and taking a deep breath he faced her, with the short sentence looping through his head, over and over and he opened his mouth to speak, but the sentence did not appear.
Instead jumbled words tumbled out from his anxiously dry mouth, but not in the order he intended.
Some words inappropriately joined together giving an altogether different meaning that may have caused offence had it not been so totally incomprehensible.
It had definitely gone better in front of the mirror.
He just stood there spouting his nervous stuttering gibberish and he thought she must think him such an idiot and fully expected her to laugh in his face but instead she smiled at his nervousness opened her mouth to speak, blushed violently and continued on her way to work.
He watched her walk away and reformed the words of gibberish back into a coherent sentence, the very sentence he had rehearsed.
“Would you like to come to the wedding with me?”
But she was out of earshot by that time.
Had Katie been in earshot she wouldn’t have heard what he said as Katie was too busy chastising herself loudly in her head.
“What is the matter with you? You’ve turned into a gibbering idiot” she ranted “I think he was trying to ask you out you silly cow”
(Part 04)
Katie was still arguing with herself when she walked into the surgery
“What happened to the girl who dated three guys simultaneously for a whole week at University?” she asked herself
“Where is she now that I need her?”
After their abysmal failure only ten days before the wedding that may well have been the end of it had, events at that time unknown to her and totally beyond her control, not cast a benevolent shadow on Katie’s and Georges future.
Which came in the form of an invitation to Allen Boddington and Ruby Legg’s wedding at St Winifred’s Church for her sister Rosie and a plus one.
She saw it laying on the table when she got home from work and did a little jig when she saw it but stopped when her sister Rosie walked into the room.
“Why have we got a freezer full of sausages?” she asked “I’ve just been in there to get something for tonight’s dinner and it’s full of sausages”
“It was just an oversight” Katie replied
“Well guess what we’re having for dinner tonight?”
“Never mind the sausages, what about the invitation” she said
“Can I be your plus one?” Katie asked
“Oh I’m not going” Rosie replied
“What do you mean you’re not going?” Katie demanded
“Well I don’t really know either the bride or the groom” Rosie said
“But we have to go” Katie insisted
“We?” Rosie replied
“Yes I can’t go on my own”
“Why do you want to go at all?” Rosie asked
“There’s someone there I want to see” she replied coyly
“Don’t tell me it’s one of the Boddingtons” she said “That’s why we have so many bloody sausages”
Katie didn’t respond she just looked at her feet.
“So what’s the problem is he resisting your charms?” Rosie asked
“No I haven’t asked him yet”
“I see, its early days, so when exactly did you set your cap at him then? How long has it been one day or two?”
“Two months”
“Months?” Rosie said in astonishment
“What’s holding you back? Doesn’t he like you?”
“No I’m sure he likes me he’s just a bit shy” Katie replied
“Well that doesn’t normally stop you, just go up to him and ask him like you normally do”
“I’ve tried” Katie admitted
“What you’ve asked him and he said no” Rosie asked
“No I mean I’ve tried to ask him”
“My God you’ve got it bad girl” Rosie said sympathetically
“Which is why the wedding would be a perfect place to break the ice with him” Katie said
“But that’s my Saturday off and I was going to drive over to Sharpington” she remarked
“Oh please Rosie” Katie begged “I’ll make it up to you I promise”
“And no more sausages?”
“Agreed no more sausages” Katie said
(Part 05)
So it was at the end of September when the weather was unseasonably warm that Katie was getting dressed for the wedding and she giggly happy.
Rosie wasn’t at all fussed about going to tell the truth it was her day off and she really wanted to drive over to Sharpington and reacquaint herself with a certain chestnut haired florist named Kelly.
Rosie wasn’t really fussed about going to tell the truth it was her day off and she really wanted to drive over to Sharpington.
In actuality she was surprised to get the invitation at all, she didn’t really know either the bride or the groom that well even though they were distant cousins of the Boddington’s, several times removed.
But her sister Katie insisted they accept as she was interested in becoming better acquainted with the grooms’ brother.
So it was an excited Katie, who along with a grumpy Rosie, made her way through the village towards the church.
As she and Rosie stood outside the Church mingling with the other guests Katie search the crowd for George while Rosie’s eyes settled on a tall straight backed statuesque amply proportioned thirty year old, with wavy chestnut hair blowing gently in the afternoon breeze.
“It can’t be” Rosie said to herself, it turned out that the attraction Rosie was interested in finding in Sharpington was at the wedding and dressed in Lavender.
At the reception while Rosie was outside snogging the statuesque Kelly, Katie had finally got to grips with George on the dance floor but at the end of the night when the music stopped they went their separate ways without a word or a kiss, the situation wasn’t helped by the fact that they were both desperate to pee after two hours of none stop dancing so they parted with just a smile.
When they immerged independently from their respective facilities the other was nowhere to be seen.
On Sunday Rosie dragged a disconsolate Katie to the Old Mill Inn for lunch, very much under protest.
She had chosen that particular venue because she had it on good authority that George Boddington and his three sisters were going to be there.
So they walked into the pub and Katie brightened considerably when she saw George at the bar with the rest of the Boddingtons.
Kelly Westwood, the Sharpington florist with a penchant for skinny staff nurse Rosie Parsons, soon took charge and had the Boddingtons eating out of her hand.
After the third round of drinks Kelly made a sudden announcement
“I have two tickets here for the Tivoli Theatre in Sharpington” She paused for effect and then added “So George”
“Yyyes” he stammered
“Are you free Saturday night?” she asked
He was a little afraid now, in fact he was very afraid that the big lesbian was going to ask him out
“Yes” he replied
“Good” she said “You are now going to the pictures”
“Oh ok” he said meekly and gave Katie a sideways glance to which she shrugged in response.
“Ok then that’s settled then George and Katie are going to the pictures on Saturday night” Kelly announced “Together!”
“Hooray” Rosie said as George smiled at Katie who returned his smile and blushed
“Another round is in order” Kelly said and to Rosie she whispered “I don’t think I’m going to be able to drive home”
“I think we can find somewhere for you to lay your head”
“What was that?” Katie asked
“I was just saying that you can stop buying all the sausages now”
Mornington-By-Mere 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.
As well as a selection of all the normal shops and services to make a difference to people’s lives.
23 year old Katie Parsons was the receptionist for the Mornington Doctors, Dentist & Orthodontic Surgeries which were an important asset to the village and the estate.
The reception area 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.
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.
The Doctors, Dentists, orthodontists and pharmacists were all based elsewhere and provided a skeleton service to the village.
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 Normans 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.
Katie Parsons lived at number 5, Military Row with her older sister Rosie.
She loved living in Mornington and sharing with her big sister although she lived alone most of the time because Rosie was a Staff Nurse at the Winston Churchill Hospital in Abbottsford and rather than commute back and forth she shared a flat with two other Nurses from the village.
Like her sister, Katie was born and bred in the village but she chose to move away following University because after her party lifestyle in Abbottsford the last thing she wanted to do was move back to quiet dull Mornington.
However she soon grew tired of the party scene and her tiresome on off relationship with lukewarm boyfriend Steve so she chose to move in with Rosie.
Physically she was not unlike Rosie, they were both blonde haired, modestly pretty, tall and slender, though Katie was a bit shapelier but there wasn’t a lot in it.
How they differed in a major way was that Katie was a bit more confident.
Which served her well in the big city and she was never short of company, and had the pick of the men.
But somehow she still managed to end up with the losers.
(Part 02)
In Mornington the field of available men was considerably smaller than when Katie was at University but even if it had been a larger pool to fish in she would still have set her sights on George Boddington because she fancied the pants off him.
But despite the fact that she was brimming with confidence she could barely get a word out of her mouth when he was around.
Katie thought he was a really good looking lad with his thick black curly hair and wild gypsy eyes, dark and mysterious and she thought he was buff too, but when confronted with gorgeous George her brain turned to mush and she lost her ability to speak.
Apart from being butchers and owning and running a number of butcher’s shops in and around the Vale.
The Boddingtons were also pig farmers at Saddleback Farm near the hamlet of Fallowacres, which was as near as damn it the center point of the Finchbottom Vale, though that was only a geographical distinction.
All the Boddington’s served their time on the farm and then served their apprenticeships in the numerous butcher’s shops.
George had spent his time firstly in Shallowfield and then in Highfinch before doing a two day a week stint in Mornington.
Six foot tall gorgeous George was a year younger than Katie, and she longed to run her fingers through his thick black curly hair and stare longingly into his dark and mysterious wild gypsy eyes, and thoroughly explore his well buff body.
Apart from being supremely fit he was extremely accessible as he worked at the shop across the road from the surgery.
Their first meeting was when he went to make an appointment with the doctor and there was no hesitancy in his voice or speech.
But then that was because he had nothing to fear at that point, he was just going to see the doctor, he had no idea he would find a beauty on reception.
“Hi, I’d like to make an appointment” he said
“Medical or Dental?” Katie asked brightly
“Medical”
“Ok was it urgent?” she asked
“No I just need a prescription” George replied
“I can fit you in tomorrow at eleven”
“Perfect” he said and inexplicably blushed and then after giving her his name he returned to the shop.
The next day when he returned for his appointment and Katie greeted him with a hearty
“Hello George”
He stammered his way through his reply and went scarlet before going to sit down which was the precise moment she fell for him.
That exchange was in July and they had barely managed a sentence between them in the two months that followed.
Day after day, week after week he would look at her in admiration but he could never speak to her, not important stuff, there would be occasional nodding and smiling.
He desperately wanted to ask her out, he had almost done it so many times but his nerve would always go, as would his ability to speak.
He so often formed the question in his head but the words just wouldn’t come out, George always steeled himself for the big moment, but it never happened.
He could respond if she spoke to him but she never really engaged with him not since that first day they met.
(Part 03)
Katie was no better at conversing with George than he was with her, in fact she was worse because that kind of behaviour was against her nature, she was a supremely confident person, but her failure to speak was abject and happened with monotonous regularity.
George was only in the shop 2 days a week and not always on the same days.
So each morning as she walked to work she would look across the road into the shop to see if he was there and if he was alone she would cross the road and go in.
But invariably when she did enter the shop one of two things would happen, one of his brothers or his father would appear from the back of the shop or they would stand there stammering at each other with scarlet faces.
Whichever was the case she would leave the shop with a pound of sausages.
“God that girl buys a lot of sausages” Georges father James said on one particular occasion in September.
George’s older brother Allen was marrying Ruby Legg from the farm shop later in September so that became the target date for him to take action.
He decided he would invite Katie to accompany him to the wedding at St Winifred’s and the reception afterwards where there would be dancing and a chance to hold her.
George just had to pick his moment, so one day, on his day off when she looked particularly alluring as she walked to work he decided to strike.
“Katie” he called and she stopped and turned around
As he closed the distance between them he thought to himself
“This time will be different, this time I have rehearsed” he said to himself even though it was only to his own reflection “this time I will do it”
So armed with a well-constructed sentence he made his move and taking a deep breath he faced her, with the short sentence looping through his head, over and over and he opened his mouth to speak, but the sentence did not appear.
Instead jumbled words tumbled out from his anxiously dry mouth, but not in the order he intended.
Some words inappropriately joined together giving an altogether different meaning that may have caused offence had it not been so totally incomprehensible.
It had definitely gone better in front of the mirror.
He just stood there spouting his nervous stuttering gibberish and he thought she must think him such an idiot and fully expected her to laugh in his face but instead she smiled at his nervousness opened her mouth to speak, blushed violently and continued on her way to work.
He watched her walk away and reformed the words of gibberish back into a coherent sentence, the very sentence he had rehearsed.
“Would you like to come to the wedding with me?”
But she was out of earshot by that time.
Had Katie been in earshot she wouldn’t have heard what he said as Katie was too busy chastising herself loudly in her head.
“What is the matter with you? You’ve turned into a gibbering idiot” she ranted “I think he was trying to ask you out you silly cow”
(Part 04)
Katie was still arguing with herself when she walked into the surgery
“What happened to the girl who dated three guys simultaneously for a whole week at University?” she asked herself
“Where is she now that I need her?”
After their abysmal failure only ten days before the wedding that may well have been the end of it had, events at that time unknown to her and totally beyond her control, not cast a benevolent shadow on Katie’s and Georges future.
Which came in the form of an invitation to Allen Boddington and Ruby Legg’s wedding at St Winifred’s Church for her sister Rosie and a plus one.
She saw it laying on the table when she got home from work and did a little jig when she saw it but stopped when her sister Rosie walked into the room.
“Why have we got a freezer full of sausages?” she asked “I’ve just been in there to get something for tonight’s dinner and it’s full of sausages”
“It was just an oversight” Katie replied
“Well guess what we’re having for dinner tonight?”
“Never mind the sausages, what about the invitation” she said
“Can I be your plus one?” Katie asked
“Oh I’m not going” Rosie replied
“What do you mean you’re not going?” Katie demanded
“Well I don’t really know either the bride or the groom” Rosie said
“But we have to go” Katie insisted
“We?” Rosie replied
“Yes I can’t go on my own”
“Why do you want to go at all?” Rosie asked
“There’s someone there I want to see” she replied coyly
“Don’t tell me it’s one of the Boddingtons” she said “That’s why we have so many bloody sausages”
Katie didn’t respond she just looked at her feet.
“So what’s the problem is he resisting your charms?” Rosie asked
“No I haven’t asked him yet”
“I see, its early days, so when exactly did you set your cap at him then? How long has it been one day or two?”
“Two months”
“Months?” Rosie said in astonishment
“What’s holding you back? Doesn’t he like you?”
“No I’m sure he likes me he’s just a bit shy” Katie replied
“Well that doesn’t normally stop you, just go up to him and ask him like you normally do”
“I’ve tried” Katie admitted
“What you’ve asked him and he said no” Rosie asked
“No I mean I’ve tried to ask him”
“My God you’ve got it bad girl” Rosie said sympathetically
“Which is why the wedding would be a perfect place to break the ice with him” Katie said
“But that’s my Saturday off and I was going to drive over to Sharpington” she remarked
“Oh please Rosie” Katie begged “I’ll make it up to you I promise”
“And no more sausages?”
“Agreed no more sausages” Katie said
(Part 05)
So it was at the end of September when the weather was unseasonably warm that Katie was getting dressed for the wedding and she giggly happy.
Rosie wasn’t at all fussed about going to tell the truth it was her day off and she really wanted to drive over to Sharpington and reacquaint herself with a certain chestnut haired florist named Kelly.
Rosie wasn’t really fussed about going to tell the truth it was her day off and she really wanted to drive over to Sharpington.
In actuality she was surprised to get the invitation at all, she didn’t really know either the bride or the groom that well even though they were distant cousins of the Boddington’s, several times removed.
But her sister Katie insisted they accept as she was interested in becoming better acquainted with the grooms’ brother.
So it was an excited Katie, who along with a grumpy Rosie, made her way through the village towards the church.
As she and Rosie stood outside the Church mingling with the other guests Katie search the crowd for George while Rosie’s eyes settled on a tall straight backed statuesque amply proportioned thirty year old, with wavy chestnut hair blowing gently in the afternoon breeze.
“It can’t be” Rosie said to herself, it turned out that the attraction Rosie was interested in finding in Sharpington was at the wedding and dressed in Lavender.
At the reception while Rosie was outside snogging the statuesque Kelly, Katie had finally got to grips with George on the dance floor but at the end of the night when the music stopped they went their separate ways without a word or a kiss, the situation wasn’t helped by the fact that they were both desperate to pee after two hours of none stop dancing so they parted with just a smile.
When they immerged independently from their respective facilities the other was nowhere to be seen.
On Sunday Rosie dragged a disconsolate Katie to the Old Mill Inn for lunch, very much under protest.
She had chosen that particular venue because she had it on good authority that George Boddington and his three sisters were going to be there.
So they walked into the pub and Katie brightened considerably when she saw George at the bar with the rest of the Boddingtons.
Kelly Westwood, the Sharpington florist with a penchant for skinny staff nurse Rosie Parsons, soon took charge and had the Boddingtons eating out of her hand.
After the third round of drinks Kelly made a sudden announcement
“I have two tickets here for the Tivoli Theatre in Sharpington” She paused for effect and then added “So George”
“Yyyes” he stammered
“Are you free Saturday night?” she asked
He was a little afraid now, in fact he was very afraid that the big lesbian was going to ask him out
“Yes” he replied
“Good” she said “You are now going to the pictures”
“Oh ok” he said meekly and gave Katie a sideways glance to which she shrugged in response.
“Ok then that’s settled then George and Katie are going to the pictures on Saturday night” Kelly announced “Together!”
“Hooray” Rosie said as George smiled at Katie who returned his smile and blushed
“Another round is in order” Kelly said and to Rosie she whispered “I don’t think I’m going to be able to drive home”
“I think we can find somewhere for you to lay your head”
“What was that?” Katie asked
“I was just saying that you can stop buying all the sausages now”
Downshire Diary – (30) The Captain’s Bride
(Part 01)
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.
Among the residents of Highfinch was Lorraine Weaving, a beautiful 29 year old with hazel eyes, 5 foot 7 inches tall, athletically built and completely bald.
She was completely devoid of any hair at all, no eyebrows, body hair and as everyone was always asking her, nothing down there as well.
And the answer to the other question she was always being asked, was that she fell out of a tree when she was six.
Lorraine was originally born in Childean, but in her 29 years she had lived all over the Finchbottom Vale which nestles comfortably between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest to the south and the rolling Pepperstock Hills in the north, those who are lucky enough to live there think of it as the rose between two thorns.
Throughout its history the Finchbottom Vale was largely dependent on agriculture and so it remained into the 21st century but many and varied occupations and endeavour’s thrived alongside the traditional rural livelihood’s but it was in agriculture that the Weaving family had earned their livings for centuries but Lorraine, who loved her family and the Vale in equal measure, decided pretty early on in her life that agriculture was not for her.
She could have chosen almost any Town or Village in the Vale to start her change of career but she chose Highfinch, partly because she had a great aunt living in the village who offered her a roof over her head but mainly because she held a particular affinity for the village because it was in Hawks Wood where she parted company with her hair.
When Lorraine Weaving took over as practice manager of the Highfinch Surgery she quickly made new friends as she made her mark in her quiet and unassuming way and Lorraine was well liked by staff and patients alike and she firmly believed she had found her niche.
So she had a nice little house in the village a job that she loved and wonderful friends and she was as content as she had ever been, but all of that changed on the 1st of July when she met Captain Peter Loosemore.
He was at the surgery with one of his regiment, Sgt Paul Russell, who had been severely wounded by an IED in Afghanistan, and he was a double amputee, his left leg had gone below the knee and his right just above it.
He was there for a physio appointment and the Captain was there for moral support.
But the meeting left the Captain and the Practice Manager completely smitten.
There second meeting was two days later at the Annual Finchbottom Vale Health Care Summer Ball at the Clayton Manor Hotel in the village of Clayton where they fell deeper.
But straight after the Ball he had to return to Barracks as the Regiment was deploying to Afghanistan.
They didn’t have their first date until after his short but bloody tour.
(Part 02)
The first of many dates for Lorraine and Peter was in Purplemere but it wasn’t until after a carefully planned supper at her house in Highfinch that they made love for the first time
And as they lay panting in the afterglow Lorraine said breathlessly.
“Oh Peter, I love you”
And in response he kissed her hot panting mouth and replied.
“I love you too”
That was an entirely unexpected outcome for Lorraine, the thought that she loved him had never even crossed her mind.
She knew that she liked him from the first moment she met him but was that love?
To her great relief Peter said that he loved her too, but did he?
In the post coital hours they discussed at length the implications of their declarations and the basis on which they made them.
The outcome of their deliberations was that they were indeed in love and were victims of love at first sight.
This was something they had both heard of but didn’t actually believe was possible in reality.
They thought it was just the stuff of Romantic comedies.
However the implications of their joint declarations were self-evident and before they made love for a second time Peter made and Lorraine accepted his proposal of marriage.
Peter had never felt so proud and Lorraine had never known such happiness.
The wedding date was set for May 21st and would take place in St Martin’s church in Highfinch, and the ceremony would be performed by Jenna Lawton.
Her parents were ecstatic when Lorraine broke the news to them and when she introduced Peter to them they fell in love with him as well.
Lorraine Weaving, slender a tall girl, athletically built with a lovely shape and stunning legs and her mother was just an older version of her daughter apart from the bald head.
Lorraine was thirty years old but looked much younger and her mum was beginning to think the day would never come when she could hand down to her daughter her own wedding dress.
Lorraine had been a happy singleton, and content to be so until the day when she walked into the waiting room of the Highfinch Surgery and met Captain Peter Loosemore.
Her mum handed Lorraine the dress box and she said
“You are the spit of me when I got married, I’d love you to wear this”
“What is it?” Lorraine asked
“Open it and see” she replied
Lorraine opened the box and her eyes widened as she unfolded, first the tissue and then the garment
“It’s beautiful” she said with tears welling up in her eyes
“Absolutely beautiful”
When she put it on it was a perfect fit and it was her mums turn to cry as her beautiful daughter wore her mother’s beautiful wedding dress.
Lorraine’s parents stayed at her house on the night before the wedding and Peter stayed at a nearby Hotel, The Montague Beaumont.
But at about 9 o’clock she put on her raincoat and said to her parents
“I’m just going out for a bit”
“Is everything ok love?” her dad asked
“Yes dad” she replied “I just need some air”
“Don’t be late back” her mum said “big day tomorrow”
“Don’t worry I won’t be late to bed” she replied and closed the door.
(Part 03)
Lorraine left her parents in her house and drove the three miles to the Montague Beaumont Hotel and went upstairs to room twelve and knocked on the door.
“Come in” he called and she opened the door.
Peter was lying on the bed in his dressing gown watching TV.
“Hello soldier boy” Lorraine said in her best London street walker voice.
“Hello darling” he said as she walked over to his side of the bed and kissed him.
“What are doing here?” he asked
Lorraine stood in front of the window and drew the curtains.
“I’ve come to show you what I’ll be wearing tomorrow” she said as she undid the belt on her raincoat
“I thought it was bad luck to see the bride in her dress before the wedding day”
“Well traditionally yes” she said “but this is for the groom’s eyes only”
And Lorraine let the coat fall to the floor.
Peter gasped as he looked at her standing with her back to him wearing white stockings, suspenders and a silk teddy.
“Do you think it will be bad luck to see me like this?” she asked coyly as she turned around to face him.
“Oh no not at all” he said “I think the opposite is true”
“I think you might be right because you’re definitely going to get lucky” she said and joined him on the bed.
After they had finished she cuddled up close to her husband to be and he asked
“Can we do it like that again tomorrow night?”
“Tomorrow night you can have me in the dress” Lorraine replied
Afterwards he completely undressed her and then he made love to her like he did the first time when they first declared their love for each other.
On a sunny May afternoon beautiful Practice Manager Lorraine Weaving married Captain Peter Loosemore of the Downshire Light Infantry at St Martin’s church in the village of Highfinch.
She looked even more stunning than usual with her hairless head surmounted by yellow flowers and her veil and wearing her mother’s wedding dress.
In line with tradition her skin flushed pink on her big day.
Lorraine was thirty years old but looked much younger and her mother was so happy on her daughter’s wedding day that she cried all through the ceremony.
Outside the church when the bride and groom emerged there was a traditional military honour guard and when she saw Sgt Russell standing to attention with his comrades, she smiled because it was Paul who inadvertently introduced them.
But the amount of tears shed on the day of her daughter’s wedding were surpassed tenfold on the day Lorraine told her mother she was pregnant.
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.
Among the residents of Highfinch was Lorraine Weaving, a beautiful 29 year old with hazel eyes, 5 foot 7 inches tall, athletically built and completely bald.
She was completely devoid of any hair at all, no eyebrows, body hair and as everyone was always asking her, nothing down there as well.
And the answer to the other question she was always being asked, was that she fell out of a tree when she was six.
Lorraine was originally born in Childean, but in her 29 years she had lived all over the Finchbottom Vale which nestles comfortably between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest to the south and the rolling Pepperstock Hills in the north, those who are lucky enough to live there think of it as the rose between two thorns.
Throughout its history the Finchbottom Vale was largely dependent on agriculture and so it remained into the 21st century but many and varied occupations and endeavour’s thrived alongside the traditional rural livelihood’s but it was in agriculture that the Weaving family had earned their livings for centuries but Lorraine, who loved her family and the Vale in equal measure, decided pretty early on in her life that agriculture was not for her.
She could have chosen almost any Town or Village in the Vale to start her change of career but she chose Highfinch, partly because she had a great aunt living in the village who offered her a roof over her head but mainly because she held a particular affinity for the village because it was in Hawks Wood where she parted company with her hair.
When Lorraine Weaving took over as practice manager of the Highfinch Surgery she quickly made new friends as she made her mark in her quiet and unassuming way and Lorraine was well liked by staff and patients alike and she firmly believed she had found her niche.
So she had a nice little house in the village a job that she loved and wonderful friends and she was as content as she had ever been, but all of that changed on the 1st of July when she met Captain Peter Loosemore.
He was at the surgery with one of his regiment, Sgt Paul Russell, who had been severely wounded by an IED in Afghanistan, and he was a double amputee, his left leg had gone below the knee and his right just above it.
He was there for a physio appointment and the Captain was there for moral support.
But the meeting left the Captain and the Practice Manager completely smitten.
There second meeting was two days later at the Annual Finchbottom Vale Health Care Summer Ball at the Clayton Manor Hotel in the village of Clayton where they fell deeper.
But straight after the Ball he had to return to Barracks as the Regiment was deploying to Afghanistan.
They didn’t have their first date until after his short but bloody tour.
(Part 02)
The first of many dates for Lorraine and Peter was in Purplemere but it wasn’t until after a carefully planned supper at her house in Highfinch that they made love for the first time
And as they lay panting in the afterglow Lorraine said breathlessly.
“Oh Peter, I love you”
And in response he kissed her hot panting mouth and replied.
“I love you too”
That was an entirely unexpected outcome for Lorraine, the thought that she loved him had never even crossed her mind.
She knew that she liked him from the first moment she met him but was that love?
To her great relief Peter said that he loved her too, but did he?
In the post coital hours they discussed at length the implications of their declarations and the basis on which they made them.
The outcome of their deliberations was that they were indeed in love and were victims of love at first sight.
This was something they had both heard of but didn’t actually believe was possible in reality.
They thought it was just the stuff of Romantic comedies.
However the implications of their joint declarations were self-evident and before they made love for a second time Peter made and Lorraine accepted his proposal of marriage.
Peter had never felt so proud and Lorraine had never known such happiness.
The wedding date was set for May 21st and would take place in St Martin’s church in Highfinch, and the ceremony would be performed by Jenna Lawton.
Her parents were ecstatic when Lorraine broke the news to them and when she introduced Peter to them they fell in love with him as well.
Lorraine Weaving, slender a tall girl, athletically built with a lovely shape and stunning legs and her mother was just an older version of her daughter apart from the bald head.
Lorraine was thirty years old but looked much younger and her mum was beginning to think the day would never come when she could hand down to her daughter her own wedding dress.
Lorraine had been a happy singleton, and content to be so until the day when she walked into the waiting room of the Highfinch Surgery and met Captain Peter Loosemore.
Her mum handed Lorraine the dress box and she said
“You are the spit of me when I got married, I’d love you to wear this”
“What is it?” Lorraine asked
“Open it and see” she replied
Lorraine opened the box and her eyes widened as she unfolded, first the tissue and then the garment
“It’s beautiful” she said with tears welling up in her eyes
“Absolutely beautiful”
When she put it on it was a perfect fit and it was her mums turn to cry as her beautiful daughter wore her mother’s beautiful wedding dress.
Lorraine’s parents stayed at her house on the night before the wedding and Peter stayed at a nearby Hotel, The Montague Beaumont.
But at about 9 o’clock she put on her raincoat and said to her parents
“I’m just going out for a bit”
“Is everything ok love?” her dad asked
“Yes dad” she replied “I just need some air”
“Don’t be late back” her mum said “big day tomorrow”
“Don’t worry I won’t be late to bed” she replied and closed the door.
(Part 03)
Lorraine left her parents in her house and drove the three miles to the Montague Beaumont Hotel and went upstairs to room twelve and knocked on the door.
“Come in” he called and she opened the door.
Peter was lying on the bed in his dressing gown watching TV.
“Hello soldier boy” Lorraine said in her best London street walker voice.
“Hello darling” he said as she walked over to his side of the bed and kissed him.
“What are doing here?” he asked
Lorraine stood in front of the window and drew the curtains.
“I’ve come to show you what I’ll be wearing tomorrow” she said as she undid the belt on her raincoat
“I thought it was bad luck to see the bride in her dress before the wedding day”
“Well traditionally yes” she said “but this is for the groom’s eyes only”
And Lorraine let the coat fall to the floor.
Peter gasped as he looked at her standing with her back to him wearing white stockings, suspenders and a silk teddy.
“Do you think it will be bad luck to see me like this?” she asked coyly as she turned around to face him.
“Oh no not at all” he said “I think the opposite is true”
“I think you might be right because you’re definitely going to get lucky” she said and joined him on the bed.
After they had finished she cuddled up close to her husband to be and he asked
“Can we do it like that again tomorrow night?”
“Tomorrow night you can have me in the dress” Lorraine replied
Afterwards he completely undressed her and then he made love to her like he did the first time when they first declared their love for each other.
On a sunny May afternoon beautiful Practice Manager Lorraine Weaving married Captain Peter Loosemore of the Downshire Light Infantry at St Martin’s church in the village of Highfinch.
She looked even more stunning than usual with her hairless head surmounted by yellow flowers and her veil and wearing her mother’s wedding dress.
In line with tradition her skin flushed pink on her big day.
Lorraine was thirty years old but looked much younger and her mother was so happy on her daughter’s wedding day that she cried all through the ceremony.
Outside the church when the bride and groom emerged there was a traditional military honour guard and when she saw Sgt Russell standing to attention with his comrades, she smiled because it was Paul who inadvertently introduced them.
But the amount of tears shed on the day of her daughter’s wedding were surpassed tenfold on the day Lorraine told her mother she was pregnant.
Tuesday, 28 March 2017
Tales from the Finchbottom Vale – (29) Love at a Canter
(Part 01)
When the Mornington Estate exercised its option to purchase Mornington Field from the MOD 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.
The guardians of the estate are the St George family and the head of which is Baron Gabriel St George.
His architect Scott Collier was tasked with designing appropriate conversions to maximize the potential returns, and Ray Walker who dealt with all thing estate maintenance wise was responsible for getting the old Air force housing stock 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 live and work in Town all week and only return to the village on the weekend.
One such person to benefit from Gabriel St Georges policy was Hayley Gwilym who worked for the Jeffrey and Teague Veterinary Practice.
The Jeffrey and Teague Veterinary Practice had been fulfilling the Veterinary needs of the Finchbottom Vale inhabitants since God was a boy and it was still going strong and they had Surgery’s all over the Vale and beyond as well as a veterinary Hospital in Shallowfield.
Hayley had joined Jeffrey and Teague as soon as she had qualified and was mentored by senior partner Robin Jeffrey.
But after 5 years he had retired and was living in Dulcet’s Mill, one of the three remaining Mornington Windmills.
She loved working in a rural practice and Mornington was her dream job.
Which meant for the most part it was just her and the other senior Ian Teague who she liked very much and Lindsay Cooper who was the veterinary nurse who was fast becoming a close friend and together they also had to do their share at the Shallowfield Hospital.
Moving to Mornington was manna from heaven for her, she loved the village but never dared to imagine that she would actually get to live there one day in all its chocolate box perfection.
And on the day she moved into number 20, Military Row and she closed the front door behind her she punched the air.
So not only did she love where she lived she also loved where she worked and although she was only 29 years old she had high hopes of taking over as senior Vet when Ian Teague retired.
(Part 02)
So her professional life was on track and with her move to Mornington so was her personal life, at least in part the only fly in the ointment being her love life.
Because she had always planned that she would be all loved up and in a stable relationship by the time she was 30 and that deadline was barely a month away.
Hayley was a tall girl just shy of 6 feet, with a happy smiling face and rosy cheeks and short blonde curls.
Her height had always been a bugbear for her relationship wise because she always seemed to attract small men who clearly saw her as a challenge.
In truth it was difficult in her job to meet suitable candidates most of the men she met were either married or attached and the ones that weren’t were clearly unattached for good reason.
The other problem was that even if she did meet someone eligible and not vertically challenged she wasn’t always seen in the most favourable light when covered in muck or with her arm upside a cow’s rear end.
Life for Hayley Gwilym as the resident Vet in Mornington meant a lot of her calls were to Local Farms in and around the village, Manor, Mereside, Smithfield’s, Windmill, Wood Hill and Vale Farms but her territory stretched much father which was why on a sunny morning in August she was driving to Copper Beech Farm in the Dulcets.
The Dulcets consisted of a collection of villages and hamlets such as Dulcet Meadow, Dulcet St Mary, Dulcet Green and Dulcet-on-Brooke to name but a few, and it was a predominantly rural area.
She drove into the cobbled yard of Copper Beech Farm and was greeted by the owner Anthony Holmes, a tall slight figure with sandy hair and hazel eyes, who was the new owner and only arrived a few months earlier.
It wasn’t a big yard as farm yards go but it was a very neat and tidy one thanks to his farm manager Charlotte Clode.
“Hello Hayley” Anthony said “What brings you here this morning”
“Injured horse”
“Oh well you’ll find Charlotte in the stables I expect” he said
“Ok thanks” she responded just as a tall and skinny 22 year old waif with pixie cut straw coloured hair appeared from the stable block.
A look passed between Charlotte and Anthony and it was obvious to Hayley that there was something smouldering between the two of them but nothing seemed to have happened as yet.
“Hi Charlotte” she said “Where’s the patient?”
“Hello Hayley, he’s in his stall”
“Oh ok so who am I seeing today?”
“Hitch” Charlotte replied “He has a rather nasty gash on his face”
“I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure of this old chap” she said as she approached the stall and a slightly battered grey.
“No he’s not been with us long” Charlotte replied
“Well you’ve certainly been in the wars haven’t you fella” Hayley said as she approached then directed a question at Charlotte
“What happened?”
“Luke was riding …”
“Luke?” Hayley interrupted
“Yes Luke Barrowman, the owner, he was riding along the Broad Path through Brownhill Woods when someone on a mountain bike crossed the path at speed and caused him to rear up and he cut his face in the bushes”
“Well most of the cuts are superficial but this one will need stapling so I’ll need your help with that”
(Part 03)
Hayley administered a local anaesthetic and the Charlotte held Hitch’s head while the she went to work on his wounds and finally applied a dressing and when she had finished she asked
“So what became of the rider? I assume he was unseated”
“Yes quite a nasty fall” Charlotte said “he’s quite badly banged up”
“All finished with you fella” she said patting the horses neck
“But I can’t do anything for your rider”
As she and Charlotte left the stall a very tall man, taller than Hayley by six inches, very good looking, with receding blonde hair and Robert Redford eyes, was talking with Doctor Browning as they left the tack room.
“You need to rest, let me drive you home”
“I know I need to take it easy Doc, I just want to see my horse”
“Is that the rider?” Hayley whispered
“Yes he’s the one that you can’t do anything for” she whispered back
“Oh I don’t know though let me get the Ketamine” she retorted
“You’re a shocker” Charlotte said and they both laughed
“Are you coming in for a coffee?” Charlotte asked
“Yes but I’ll catch you up” she replied then in a whisper she added,
“I need to try out my bedside manner”
“You really are a shocker”
“Hello Mr Barrowman I’m Hayley Gwilym let me explain what I’ve done for Hitch” she said while Charlotte Clode went inside her flat and boiled the kettle.
She lived in a converted part of the stable block, which had a bedroom, a sitting room, a small kitchen area and a toilet and shower, it was only a small place but she loved it.
She was just pouring the hot water when she heard Hayley say
“I’ll be back in a couple of days to check the staples and redress as necessary”
“Phwoah” Hayley exclaimed when she appeared
“He’s nice isn’t he?” Charlotte said
“Yes he is”
“And he’s single” she added
“Really?”
“You sound interested” Charlotte observed
“Who wouldn’t be, he’s gorgeous, well I say who wouldn’t but you really wouldn’t obviously because your heart already belongs to another”
“I don’t know what you mean” she replied coyly
“Oh I think you do”
“Our relationship is purely professional” Charlotte protested
“That’s as maybe but you knew exactly who I was talking about” Hayley said and thought professional relationship or not they would be a couple by Christmas.
Half an hour later after she drank her coffee she stood up to leave and thanked Charlotte.
As she stood at the door she noticed Luke Barrowman trying to get into his car.
“What does he think he’s playing at?” she said and shot out of the door
“What are you doing you silly man you’re not fit to drive”
“It’s not far, I only live in Dulcet St Mary” he protested
“I’m going your way I’ll drop you off” Hayley said
“You don’t have to”
“Well I’m doing it so get in” she ordered
“Has anyone told you that you’re very bossy?” he asked
“Yes, almost everyone” Hayley said “Which is probably why I live alone”
She settled him in the car and then walked back to Charlotte and picked up her bag and kissed Charlottes cheek.
“Got to go hun, the Ketamine’s starting to take effect”
“Alright but treat him gently” Charlotte said
(Part 04)
Hayley drove out of the yard before turning into the lane and asked
“Why didn’t you go with Doctor Browning? When he offered to drive you home”
“I wanted to check on Hitch” he replied flatly
“Well that’s all very admirable but you clearly can’t drive” she said though he didn’t respond further and after five minutes of silence she asked
“Why Hitch?”
“What?”
“Why is the horse called Hitch?”
“Oh I see” he said “It’s short for Hitchcock”
“Robert or Alfred?” Hayley asked
“Who’s Robert Hitchcock?”
“A fat ginger boy who used to bully me at middle school” she replied
“Really? Someone used to bully you?” he asked in disbelief
“Yes I was a very delicate little thing” she said
“God what happened?”
“Watch it” she said “I carry a humane killer in my bag”
“I don’t doubt that for a moment” Luke said and then laughed until it was quickly curtailed by a wince.
“Ow” he exclaimed and held his ribs.
“See that’s what happens when you’re cheeky” Hayley said with a chuckle then she added a few minutes later
“So he’s named after Alfred then?”
“Yes”
“How come?” she asked.
“Oh that’s obvious he’s my favourite director”
“Really? Mine too” she said
“Oh” he exclaimed in surprise and asked
“What’s your favourite film?”
“That’s a difficult question” she said thoughtfully “I particularly like Marnie, but generally I like the old ones, Young and Innocent, 39 Steps, or the Lady Vanishes”
“Good choices” he said
“What about you?”
“Well I agree with you it is difficult but if I had to choose just one it would have to be Rear Window” Luke said
“That is a good one” she agreed
“So when you’re not watching old movies or falling off horses what do you do?” She asked “For a living I mean”
“Well I’m actually a film director myself” he said “I work for Peter Lutchford’s company over at the Purplemere Studios”
“Wow I know Peter” she said “I’m friends with his sister Amanda, we ride together sometimes when she’s not away filming”
“I ride with her sometimes as well” he said “it’s certainly a small world”
Hayley was just about to comment when Luke said
“Oh here we are, this is me”
Hayley pulled up at the kerb and Luke got out then he leant in through the window and thanked her for the lift and the enjoyable company.
“No problem” she replied “I’ll check in on Hitch in a couple of days.
Good to her word Hayley drove back into the cobbled yard of Copper Beech Farm on Friday morning and was met by the farm manager Charlotte Clode.
“Hi Hayley” she called as the vet got out of her car.
“Have you come to check up on Hitch?”
“Yes, how’s he doing?” Hayley asked
“He’s doing fine”
“That’s good”
“You’ve missed Luke, if you were hoping to check him out again”
“Oh that’s a shame” she said minding the fact more than she showed.
“He’s been back though?”
“Yes he was here at 7 o’clock this morning before he went to work” Charlotte explained
Hayley removed the dressing and examined Hitch’s wound and was very pleased with it but redressed it again.
She then sat and had a coffee with Charlotte.
“So when will you be back to see him?” she asked
“I’ll probably leave it a few days” Hayley replied
“Luke will be here on Sunday afternoon” Charlotte revealed
“Sunday it is then” she replied and laughed
(Part 05)
Hayley wasn’t working on Sunday but after reading the Sunday Paper’s and attending St Winifred’s she set off towards the Dulcet’s.
While she was reading that Sunday’s Abbottsford Clarion she had spotted something interesting in the entertainment section and a plan began to formulate in her mind.
When she arrived at the farm she was disappointed to find the yard was empty so she parked the car and walked towards the stables.
Once inside she headed for Hitch’s stall and when she saw him she said
“Hello big fella, how are you doing today?”
“I’m doing fine” a voice said and Hayley almost jumped out of her skin and Luke Barrowman, who was sitting in the corner out of sight drinking a mug of tea, roared with laughter.
“You frightened the life out of me” she said and laughed as well
“I’m sorry but I couldn’t resist” he said between guffaws
Having passed Hitch fit for light exercise Luke walked her back to her car and she said casually
“I read in the Abbottsford Clarion this morning that there’s a Hitchcock retrospective at the Tivoli all next week”
“Yes that’s right” Luke said
“Well I’m going to be staying at my sisters in Abbottsford next weekend and she’s a bit of a philistine and doesn’t like black and white films, so do you fancy going?” she asked “Strangers on a Train, Suspicion and Psycho”
“Yes that would be nice” Luke said
“I’ll meet you outside the theatre at 4.30, then” she said and gave him her business card with her mobile number on it.
“Call me if there is a change of plan, bye Luke” She said and drove off.
And as she drove into the lane she complimented herself on her handling of the situation.
She also chastised herself for telling him a little white lie regarding her movements on the following weekend as she was not in fact staying with her sister that weekend but her hastily arranged plans would now necessitate her speaking to her sister and inviting herself to stay for the weekend.
She didn’t think that lying was a really appropriate way a starting a relationship but
“needs must when the devil drives” she said out loud, after all he was rather gorgeous and single to boot, so it was worth the tiniest of white lies to ensure he didn’t slip through her fingers.
She was telling the truth about her sister not liking black and white movies though.
Time hung very heavy during the following week despite the fact that she was incredibly busy and was run ragged as she was bounced from pillar to post all over the vale.
So when Friday came to a close and it was time to hang up her wellies for the weekend the moment was greeted with some relief.
After a long relaxing hot bath and a good night’s sleep she left for Abbottsford early on Saturday morning and gave her sister Julie a very rude awakening who then had to attend to Hayley’s hair, nails and make up.
(Part 06)
The Tivoli theatre was an old cinema originally built in the nineteen twenties.
At that time it was the only cinema for twenty miles in any direction so Abbottsford was the envy of the district, by the late seventies however films had gone out of fashion and the theatre was closed.
It was in disuse for more than ten years, it was however spared the indignity of becoming a bingo hall as many a fine picture house had when the cinema revival happened, Chris Bourne, a local man made good, who like many, had fond memories of the Tivoli, mainly associated with courting, restored the theatre to its former glory with the help and support of the Mornington Estate.
Ironically it was the advent of satellite television and video rental, supposed to give us all so much choice of home viewing, which seemed to spark the revival.
It was feared for a while that the renovations would be in vain as a new multiplex cinema was opened in the new Phoenix shopping center development.
But Chris Bourne was unperturbed and decided that the Tivoli should specialize in classic movies and retrospectives.
As a result people traveled from miles around, from all over Downshire and beyond, as they did in the twenties and thirties.
The theatre was located in the older part of town in what used to be the high street.
There were no longer any shops of note in the high street, they had long since moved into the Phoenix center and when the Abbottsford ring road was opened the High street was pedestrianized and this action inadvertently created a sort of leisure haven.
Where once the road had run were now benches, planters, ornamental lights and even a fountain.
The vacant shops had for some time been occupied by a collection of restaurants, fast food outlet's, bars, café’s and wine bars.
The only premises not connected to food or drink were charity shops, craft shops, second hand book shops, two art galleries and of course the Tivoli Theatre.
Hayley was early, which wasn’t like her at all, but it was worse than that she was twenty minutes early on that occasion but as she walked past the fountain she spotted Luke, who was also early.
“He’s keen” she thought to herself “that’s quite cute”
But after discovering her date was also early she hid behind the fountain because although she liked the fact that he was keen she didn’t want to give him the impression that she was.
From the safety of her hiding place she watched him sit at one of the outside tables at Luigi’s Café just opposite the Tivoli.
He ordered a drink and took out a newspaper but in the ten minutes she watched him sitting there it appeared he was struggling to concentrate because he kept folding and putting it down on the table the picking it up again, and he repeated that several times.
“That really is sweet” she thought and giggled.
Then a young woman walked up to him, an attractive brunette and they hugged, and it was a long hug then Luke gestured to an empty chair and she woman sat and then they chatted for a few minutes which was when she decided she didn’t care what kind of impression she gave him she was going over now to rescue him from the interloper.
So she walked around the long way, approaching him on his blind side and stopped in his peripheral vision almost immediately he turned around and seemed surprised to see her.
“Hi.” She said smiling broadly “You’re early.”
He stood up.
“Hi” Luke said and gazed at her speechless as if transfixed, and then he suddenly realized he was staring.
“It would appear Julie did a good job” she thought to herself
“Um this is Katie” He said snapping out of his trance “My sister”
Luke ordered drinks for Hayley and his sister and they laughed and joked for the next ten minutes until Luke suggested that he went to buy the tickets while Hayley finished her drink.
“That’s a good idea” She said and while he was gone Katie said
“You’ve made a big impression on him”
“Really?”
“Yes, he’s talked of little else all week” Katie
“I hope I can live up to the billing” Hayley said nervously
“Don’t worry” she replied “if the look on his face was anything to go by you already have”
When Luke returned Katie said her goodbyes and as they watched her walk away Hayley boldly slipped her hand into his and they turned their gaze upon each other smiled and made their way across to the theatre.
When the Mornington Estate exercised its option to purchase Mornington Field from the MOD 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.
The guardians of the estate are the St George family and the head of which is Baron Gabriel St George.
His architect Scott Collier was tasked with designing appropriate conversions to maximize the potential returns, and Ray Walker who dealt with all thing estate maintenance wise was responsible for getting the old Air force housing stock 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 live and work in Town all week and only return to the village on the weekend.
One such person to benefit from Gabriel St Georges policy was Hayley Gwilym who worked for the Jeffrey and Teague Veterinary Practice.
The Jeffrey and Teague Veterinary Practice had been fulfilling the Veterinary needs of the Finchbottom Vale inhabitants since God was a boy and it was still going strong and they had Surgery’s all over the Vale and beyond as well as a veterinary Hospital in Shallowfield.
Hayley had joined Jeffrey and Teague as soon as she had qualified and was mentored by senior partner Robin Jeffrey.
But after 5 years he had retired and was living in Dulcet’s Mill, one of the three remaining Mornington Windmills.
She loved working in a rural practice and Mornington was her dream job.
Which meant for the most part it was just her and the other senior Ian Teague who she liked very much and Lindsay Cooper who was the veterinary nurse who was fast becoming a close friend and together they also had to do their share at the Shallowfield Hospital.
Moving to Mornington was manna from heaven for her, she loved the village but never dared to imagine that she would actually get to live there one day in all its chocolate box perfection.
And on the day she moved into number 20, Military Row and she closed the front door behind her she punched the air.
So not only did she love where she lived she also loved where she worked and although she was only 29 years old she had high hopes of taking over as senior Vet when Ian Teague retired.
(Part 02)
So her professional life was on track and with her move to Mornington so was her personal life, at least in part the only fly in the ointment being her love life.
Because she had always planned that she would be all loved up and in a stable relationship by the time she was 30 and that deadline was barely a month away.
Hayley was a tall girl just shy of 6 feet, with a happy smiling face and rosy cheeks and short blonde curls.
Her height had always been a bugbear for her relationship wise because she always seemed to attract small men who clearly saw her as a challenge.
In truth it was difficult in her job to meet suitable candidates most of the men she met were either married or attached and the ones that weren’t were clearly unattached for good reason.
The other problem was that even if she did meet someone eligible and not vertically challenged she wasn’t always seen in the most favourable light when covered in muck or with her arm upside a cow’s rear end.
Life for Hayley Gwilym as the resident Vet in Mornington meant a lot of her calls were to Local Farms in and around the village, Manor, Mereside, Smithfield’s, Windmill, Wood Hill and Vale Farms but her territory stretched much father which was why on a sunny morning in August she was driving to Copper Beech Farm in the Dulcets.
The Dulcets consisted of a collection of villages and hamlets such as Dulcet Meadow, Dulcet St Mary, Dulcet Green and Dulcet-on-Brooke to name but a few, and it was a predominantly rural area.
She drove into the cobbled yard of Copper Beech Farm and was greeted by the owner Anthony Holmes, a tall slight figure with sandy hair and hazel eyes, who was the new owner and only arrived a few months earlier.
It wasn’t a big yard as farm yards go but it was a very neat and tidy one thanks to his farm manager Charlotte Clode.
“Hello Hayley” Anthony said “What brings you here this morning”
“Injured horse”
“Oh well you’ll find Charlotte in the stables I expect” he said
“Ok thanks” she responded just as a tall and skinny 22 year old waif with pixie cut straw coloured hair appeared from the stable block.
A look passed between Charlotte and Anthony and it was obvious to Hayley that there was something smouldering between the two of them but nothing seemed to have happened as yet.
“Hi Charlotte” she said “Where’s the patient?”
“Hello Hayley, he’s in his stall”
“Oh ok so who am I seeing today?”
“Hitch” Charlotte replied “He has a rather nasty gash on his face”
“I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure of this old chap” she said as she approached the stall and a slightly battered grey.
“No he’s not been with us long” Charlotte replied
“Well you’ve certainly been in the wars haven’t you fella” Hayley said as she approached then directed a question at Charlotte
“What happened?”
“Luke was riding …”
“Luke?” Hayley interrupted
“Yes Luke Barrowman, the owner, he was riding along the Broad Path through Brownhill Woods when someone on a mountain bike crossed the path at speed and caused him to rear up and he cut his face in the bushes”
“Well most of the cuts are superficial but this one will need stapling so I’ll need your help with that”
(Part 03)
Hayley administered a local anaesthetic and the Charlotte held Hitch’s head while the she went to work on his wounds and finally applied a dressing and when she had finished she asked
“So what became of the rider? I assume he was unseated”
“Yes quite a nasty fall” Charlotte said “he’s quite badly banged up”
“All finished with you fella” she said patting the horses neck
“But I can’t do anything for your rider”
As she and Charlotte left the stall a very tall man, taller than Hayley by six inches, very good looking, with receding blonde hair and Robert Redford eyes, was talking with Doctor Browning as they left the tack room.
“You need to rest, let me drive you home”
“I know I need to take it easy Doc, I just want to see my horse”
“Is that the rider?” Hayley whispered
“Yes he’s the one that you can’t do anything for” she whispered back
“Oh I don’t know though let me get the Ketamine” she retorted
“You’re a shocker” Charlotte said and they both laughed
“Are you coming in for a coffee?” Charlotte asked
“Yes but I’ll catch you up” she replied then in a whisper she added,
“I need to try out my bedside manner”
“You really are a shocker”
“Hello Mr Barrowman I’m Hayley Gwilym let me explain what I’ve done for Hitch” she said while Charlotte Clode went inside her flat and boiled the kettle.
She lived in a converted part of the stable block, which had a bedroom, a sitting room, a small kitchen area and a toilet and shower, it was only a small place but she loved it.
She was just pouring the hot water when she heard Hayley say
“I’ll be back in a couple of days to check the staples and redress as necessary”
“Phwoah” Hayley exclaimed when she appeared
“He’s nice isn’t he?” Charlotte said
“Yes he is”
“And he’s single” she added
“Really?”
“You sound interested” Charlotte observed
“Who wouldn’t be, he’s gorgeous, well I say who wouldn’t but you really wouldn’t obviously because your heart already belongs to another”
“I don’t know what you mean” she replied coyly
“Oh I think you do”
“Our relationship is purely professional” Charlotte protested
“That’s as maybe but you knew exactly who I was talking about” Hayley said and thought professional relationship or not they would be a couple by Christmas.
Half an hour later after she drank her coffee she stood up to leave and thanked Charlotte.
As she stood at the door she noticed Luke Barrowman trying to get into his car.
“What does he think he’s playing at?” she said and shot out of the door
“What are you doing you silly man you’re not fit to drive”
“It’s not far, I only live in Dulcet St Mary” he protested
“I’m going your way I’ll drop you off” Hayley said
“You don’t have to”
“Well I’m doing it so get in” she ordered
“Has anyone told you that you’re very bossy?” he asked
“Yes, almost everyone” Hayley said “Which is probably why I live alone”
She settled him in the car and then walked back to Charlotte and picked up her bag and kissed Charlottes cheek.
“Got to go hun, the Ketamine’s starting to take effect”
“Alright but treat him gently” Charlotte said
(Part 04)
Hayley drove out of the yard before turning into the lane and asked
“Why didn’t you go with Doctor Browning? When he offered to drive you home”
“I wanted to check on Hitch” he replied flatly
“Well that’s all very admirable but you clearly can’t drive” she said though he didn’t respond further and after five minutes of silence she asked
“Why Hitch?”
“What?”
“Why is the horse called Hitch?”
“Oh I see” he said “It’s short for Hitchcock”
“Robert or Alfred?” Hayley asked
“Who’s Robert Hitchcock?”
“A fat ginger boy who used to bully me at middle school” she replied
“Really? Someone used to bully you?” he asked in disbelief
“Yes I was a very delicate little thing” she said
“God what happened?”
“Watch it” she said “I carry a humane killer in my bag”
“I don’t doubt that for a moment” Luke said and then laughed until it was quickly curtailed by a wince.
“Ow” he exclaimed and held his ribs.
“See that’s what happens when you’re cheeky” Hayley said with a chuckle then she added a few minutes later
“So he’s named after Alfred then?”
“Yes”
“How come?” she asked.
“Oh that’s obvious he’s my favourite director”
“Really? Mine too” she said
“Oh” he exclaimed in surprise and asked
“What’s your favourite film?”
“That’s a difficult question” she said thoughtfully “I particularly like Marnie, but generally I like the old ones, Young and Innocent, 39 Steps, or the Lady Vanishes”
“Good choices” he said
“What about you?”
“Well I agree with you it is difficult but if I had to choose just one it would have to be Rear Window” Luke said
“That is a good one” she agreed
“So when you’re not watching old movies or falling off horses what do you do?” She asked “For a living I mean”
“Well I’m actually a film director myself” he said “I work for Peter Lutchford’s company over at the Purplemere Studios”
“Wow I know Peter” she said “I’m friends with his sister Amanda, we ride together sometimes when she’s not away filming”
“I ride with her sometimes as well” he said “it’s certainly a small world”
Hayley was just about to comment when Luke said
“Oh here we are, this is me”
Hayley pulled up at the kerb and Luke got out then he leant in through the window and thanked her for the lift and the enjoyable company.
“No problem” she replied “I’ll check in on Hitch in a couple of days.
Good to her word Hayley drove back into the cobbled yard of Copper Beech Farm on Friday morning and was met by the farm manager Charlotte Clode.
“Hi Hayley” she called as the vet got out of her car.
“Have you come to check up on Hitch?”
“Yes, how’s he doing?” Hayley asked
“He’s doing fine”
“That’s good”
“You’ve missed Luke, if you were hoping to check him out again”
“Oh that’s a shame” she said minding the fact more than she showed.
“He’s been back though?”
“Yes he was here at 7 o’clock this morning before he went to work” Charlotte explained
Hayley removed the dressing and examined Hitch’s wound and was very pleased with it but redressed it again.
She then sat and had a coffee with Charlotte.
“So when will you be back to see him?” she asked
“I’ll probably leave it a few days” Hayley replied
“Luke will be here on Sunday afternoon” Charlotte revealed
“Sunday it is then” she replied and laughed
(Part 05)
Hayley wasn’t working on Sunday but after reading the Sunday Paper’s and attending St Winifred’s she set off towards the Dulcet’s.
While she was reading that Sunday’s Abbottsford Clarion she had spotted something interesting in the entertainment section and a plan began to formulate in her mind.
When she arrived at the farm she was disappointed to find the yard was empty so she parked the car and walked towards the stables.
Once inside she headed for Hitch’s stall and when she saw him she said
“Hello big fella, how are you doing today?”
“I’m doing fine” a voice said and Hayley almost jumped out of her skin and Luke Barrowman, who was sitting in the corner out of sight drinking a mug of tea, roared with laughter.
“You frightened the life out of me” she said and laughed as well
“I’m sorry but I couldn’t resist” he said between guffaws
Having passed Hitch fit for light exercise Luke walked her back to her car and she said casually
“I read in the Abbottsford Clarion this morning that there’s a Hitchcock retrospective at the Tivoli all next week”
“Yes that’s right” Luke said
“Well I’m going to be staying at my sisters in Abbottsford next weekend and she’s a bit of a philistine and doesn’t like black and white films, so do you fancy going?” she asked “Strangers on a Train, Suspicion and Psycho”
“Yes that would be nice” Luke said
“I’ll meet you outside the theatre at 4.30, then” she said and gave him her business card with her mobile number on it.
“Call me if there is a change of plan, bye Luke” She said and drove off.
And as she drove into the lane she complimented herself on her handling of the situation.
She also chastised herself for telling him a little white lie regarding her movements on the following weekend as she was not in fact staying with her sister that weekend but her hastily arranged plans would now necessitate her speaking to her sister and inviting herself to stay for the weekend.
She didn’t think that lying was a really appropriate way a starting a relationship but
“needs must when the devil drives” she said out loud, after all he was rather gorgeous and single to boot, so it was worth the tiniest of white lies to ensure he didn’t slip through her fingers.
She was telling the truth about her sister not liking black and white movies though.
Time hung very heavy during the following week despite the fact that she was incredibly busy and was run ragged as she was bounced from pillar to post all over the vale.
So when Friday came to a close and it was time to hang up her wellies for the weekend the moment was greeted with some relief.
After a long relaxing hot bath and a good night’s sleep she left for Abbottsford early on Saturday morning and gave her sister Julie a very rude awakening who then had to attend to Hayley’s hair, nails and make up.
(Part 06)
The Tivoli theatre was an old cinema originally built in the nineteen twenties.
At that time it was the only cinema for twenty miles in any direction so Abbottsford was the envy of the district, by the late seventies however films had gone out of fashion and the theatre was closed.
It was in disuse for more than ten years, it was however spared the indignity of becoming a bingo hall as many a fine picture house had when the cinema revival happened, Chris Bourne, a local man made good, who like many, had fond memories of the Tivoli, mainly associated with courting, restored the theatre to its former glory with the help and support of the Mornington Estate.
Ironically it was the advent of satellite television and video rental, supposed to give us all so much choice of home viewing, which seemed to spark the revival.
It was feared for a while that the renovations would be in vain as a new multiplex cinema was opened in the new Phoenix shopping center development.
But Chris Bourne was unperturbed and decided that the Tivoli should specialize in classic movies and retrospectives.
As a result people traveled from miles around, from all over Downshire and beyond, as they did in the twenties and thirties.
The theatre was located in the older part of town in what used to be the high street.
There were no longer any shops of note in the high street, they had long since moved into the Phoenix center and when the Abbottsford ring road was opened the High street was pedestrianized and this action inadvertently created a sort of leisure haven.
Where once the road had run were now benches, planters, ornamental lights and even a fountain.
The vacant shops had for some time been occupied by a collection of restaurants, fast food outlet's, bars, café’s and wine bars.
The only premises not connected to food or drink were charity shops, craft shops, second hand book shops, two art galleries and of course the Tivoli Theatre.
Hayley was early, which wasn’t like her at all, but it was worse than that she was twenty minutes early on that occasion but as she walked past the fountain she spotted Luke, who was also early.
“He’s keen” she thought to herself “that’s quite cute”
But after discovering her date was also early she hid behind the fountain because although she liked the fact that he was keen she didn’t want to give him the impression that she was.
From the safety of her hiding place she watched him sit at one of the outside tables at Luigi’s Café just opposite the Tivoli.
He ordered a drink and took out a newspaper but in the ten minutes she watched him sitting there it appeared he was struggling to concentrate because he kept folding and putting it down on the table the picking it up again, and he repeated that several times.
“That really is sweet” she thought and giggled.
Then a young woman walked up to him, an attractive brunette and they hugged, and it was a long hug then Luke gestured to an empty chair and she woman sat and then they chatted for a few minutes which was when she decided she didn’t care what kind of impression she gave him she was going over now to rescue him from the interloper.
So she walked around the long way, approaching him on his blind side and stopped in his peripheral vision almost immediately he turned around and seemed surprised to see her.
“Hi.” She said smiling broadly “You’re early.”
He stood up.
“Hi” Luke said and gazed at her speechless as if transfixed, and then he suddenly realized he was staring.
“It would appear Julie did a good job” she thought to herself
“Um this is Katie” He said snapping out of his trance “My sister”
Luke ordered drinks for Hayley and his sister and they laughed and joked for the next ten minutes until Luke suggested that he went to buy the tickets while Hayley finished her drink.
“That’s a good idea” She said and while he was gone Katie said
“You’ve made a big impression on him”
“Really?”
“Yes, he’s talked of little else all week” Katie
“I hope I can live up to the billing” Hayley said nervously
“Don’t worry” she replied “if the look on his face was anything to go by you already have”
When Luke returned Katie said her goodbyes and as they watched her walk away Hayley boldly slipped her hand into his and they turned their gaze upon each other smiled and made their way across to the theatre.
Mornington-By-Mere – (29) Under the Tree on Christmas Eve
(Part 01)
Mornington-By-Mere 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.
Corner House aptly stood on the corner of Purplemere Road and West Gate Road in the part of Mornington Village known as Manorside.
There were a number of cottages and small houses on the Purplemere road and Dulcets Lane, but Corner House was a large 8 bedroom Victorian monstrosity which had at one time been the home of the master brewer of the Mornington Brewery.
It was now the Corner Guest House run by affable landlady Kay Richardson assisted by her children Paul 24 and Stephanie 23.
Paul Richardson was tall, almost six foot six, and stick thin with mousy hair and big feet and what leisure time he had, and there wasn’t much, was spent birdwatching, and that would have remained the case had it not been for a serendipitous set of seemingly unrelated circumstances.
It began as a normal Monday at the guest house for Paul who along with his sister were cleaning the vacated rooms.
Monday was normally the worst day because the weekenders had checked out and the rooms needed servicing before the Monday afternoon arrivals.
That Monday however they only had two rooms to do because the other three were still occupied so they took a lot less time to do.
Consequently he was in the hall when the phone rang.
“Corner guest house” he said
“Is that Paul?” the caller asked
“It is”
“Excellent I need to ask a favour” they said “it’s Peter Carter”
Peter Carter was a guest and it transpired that he had gone to have a pint and a sandwich and after having several pints and two sandwiches he realised he had left his wallet back in his room and the favour he was referring to involved Paul collecting his wallet from his bedside table and taking it to the pub.
Had it been a normal Monday he wouldn’t have had the time but on that occasion as it was a lovely Sunny day he was only too happy to oblige, a walk in the autumn sunshine was just what the doctor ordered.
It was a different kind of a Monday at the Old Mill Inn as well because although it was a Monday and the restaurant was closed, instead of being eerily quiet, the kitchen was a hive of activity because on that Monday two new trainee chefs had started work under chef Lorraine Olson and she was putting them through their paces.
Even though Lorraine had to forgo the only day off that she got a week she thought it would be worth it in the long run.
As pleasantly sunny as the walk to the pub was for Paul it paled into darkness compared to what he saw when he stepped into the pub at the precise moment as Cally Wilson exited the kitchen and the trifecta was complete.
(Part 02)
Cally Wilson was only 21 and when she walked into the bar and saw Paul Richardson her heart skipped a beat and when their eyes met they were immediately smitten.
She stood six feet tall with short curly auburn hair, and a very large bust, lovely eyes and a nice smile.
Paul just hovered in the doorway staring at her while Cally who was quiet and reserved was trying to summon the courage to go and say hello but she was beaten to the punch when a middle-aged man walked over to him instead.
She didn’t hear all the conversation but she did hear the middle-aged man say as they separated
“Thank you Paul”
“Paul” she said to herself “I like that name”
However as she thought it, he turned around and went back out the door.
Fortunately for her she was going that way because Cally’s mum had MS and she was just going to pop home to check on her when she ran into Paul.
She rushed out the door so she could see where he went but as she burst through the door she ran straight into him.
“Oh I’m sorry” she said
“That’s ok I was coming back in to ask you something” he said
“Me?” she asked with surprise
“Yes”
“Ask away” Cally said
“Would you like to go out sometime? The cinema maybe?” he asked
“Yes” she replied “I would”
“Great” he said with surprise “When?”
“How about tonight?” She said and that was how it started with a trip to the Cinema in Finchbottom.
The relationship blossomed over the following weeks despite the fact that they didn’t see each other as often as they would have liked.
Cally worked long hours at the restaurant as well as having to help with her mum and the only regular day off she got was a Monday which was Paul’s busiest.
But with Christmas fast approaching they were looking forward to spending more time together
Kay Richardson had worked very hard over the years running the Guest House but to preserve her sanity she had always closed at Christmas so she and her children could have a proper Christmas.
The last guests would check out on the 23rd and the earliest check-in was 3 o’clock on the 27th.
Also the Old Mill Inn restaurant would close on the afternoon of Christmas Eve and would not reopen fully until the following Tuesday.
Cally was particularly looking forward to spending some “private” time with Paul as he had been a little backward in coming forward in the intimacy department.
And although Cally was quiet and reserved she was reaching the point that she would have to take matters into her own hands.
She wasn’t sure how she would achieve it but she had definitely lost patience waiting for him to act so she had no alternative but to take decisive action herself.
It was as she and her friend Tegan were walking to work on Christmas Eve that a plan formed in her mind and a smile not dissimilar to a leer crossed her face.
(Part 03)
Paul spent the early part of the morning of Christmas Eve delivering Christmas gifts and cards to friends and neighbours in the village, and when he had finished he planned to spend the rest of it alone at home listening to Christmas music and watching schmaltzy movies on TV.
His mum and sister were out for the day, the former had driven over to visit a friend in Sharpington and the latter was spending the day with her best friend in Dulcet St Mary.
So everything was going according to plan.
On the afternoon of Christmas Eve the Old Mill Inn was still open but there weren’t many customers left but those that were made enough noise for a crowd.
The kitchen was cleaned down and pristine and Cally had just finished putting the clean cutlery back in the trays in the dining room.
“Anything else you want me to do?” she asked Lorraine
“No you get off home now” she replied and gave her a hug and kiss “Happy Christmas lovely”
“Happy Christmas” she said in response and Lorraine went back into the kitchen.
Her friend Tegan, was small with delicate features and bobbed strawberry blonde hair and was a foot shorter and at least six stones lighter than Cally, was stood up on a chair writing up Saturday’s menu.
“Oy what about me you ginger bint” she shouted
“I’m auburn” she shouted back and went over a picked Tegan off the chair and got her in a bear hug.
“I give in, I give in” she said laughing loudly
“Now give me a kiss” demanded Cally
After exchanging kisses Cally then deposited her back on the chair.
“Happy Christmas Cal” she called as her friend walked away
“Happy Christmas” she called over her shoulder.
As Paul was watching back to back Christmas movies Cally spent the afternoon helping her mum with the preparations for the big day, and then she got changed and set off to walk to Paul’s through the fast settling snow and got there about seven o’clock.
When she arrived she was greeted with the news that Pauls mum and sister were unable to get back to Mornington due to road closures because of the snow.
Paul had put the presents underneath the tree that afternoon, so all evening almost from the moment she arrived, she was like a child.
“Can I open a present?” she asked him every ten minutes.
“Just one, please, please, please”
She was getting on his nerves to be honest and she knew it, so she did it all the more.
She kept picking up the presents, shaking them, squeezing them, and even listening to them.
Finally he relented and as he headed upstairs to the loo he said.
“We can open one present each before we leave for midnight mass”
“Goody” she squealed
When he returned to the lounge he was expecting to find her waiting impatiently to open a present.
But instead he found her lying beneath the tree with wrapping paper loosely draped about her obviously naked body.
“You go first” she said and giggled
“I assume we’re not going to midnight mass” he said
“We’ll if you’d rather go to church than open a present we can” Cally suggested
Once he had un-wrapped his present and thoroughly enjoyed its contents they were too late for midnight mass so they went to bed and went to Church on Christmas morning instead.
Mornington-By-Mere 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.
Corner House aptly stood on the corner of Purplemere Road and West Gate Road in the part of Mornington Village known as Manorside.
There were a number of cottages and small houses on the Purplemere road and Dulcets Lane, but Corner House was a large 8 bedroom Victorian monstrosity which had at one time been the home of the master brewer of the Mornington Brewery.
It was now the Corner Guest House run by affable landlady Kay Richardson assisted by her children Paul 24 and Stephanie 23.
Paul Richardson was tall, almost six foot six, and stick thin with mousy hair and big feet and what leisure time he had, and there wasn’t much, was spent birdwatching, and that would have remained the case had it not been for a serendipitous set of seemingly unrelated circumstances.
It began as a normal Monday at the guest house for Paul who along with his sister were cleaning the vacated rooms.
Monday was normally the worst day because the weekenders had checked out and the rooms needed servicing before the Monday afternoon arrivals.
That Monday however they only had two rooms to do because the other three were still occupied so they took a lot less time to do.
Consequently he was in the hall when the phone rang.
“Corner guest house” he said
“Is that Paul?” the caller asked
“It is”
“Excellent I need to ask a favour” they said “it’s Peter Carter”
Peter Carter was a guest and it transpired that he had gone to have a pint and a sandwich and after having several pints and two sandwiches he realised he had left his wallet back in his room and the favour he was referring to involved Paul collecting his wallet from his bedside table and taking it to the pub.
Had it been a normal Monday he wouldn’t have had the time but on that occasion as it was a lovely Sunny day he was only too happy to oblige, a walk in the autumn sunshine was just what the doctor ordered.
It was a different kind of a Monday at the Old Mill Inn as well because although it was a Monday and the restaurant was closed, instead of being eerily quiet, the kitchen was a hive of activity because on that Monday two new trainee chefs had started work under chef Lorraine Olson and she was putting them through their paces.
Even though Lorraine had to forgo the only day off that she got a week she thought it would be worth it in the long run.
As pleasantly sunny as the walk to the pub was for Paul it paled into darkness compared to what he saw when he stepped into the pub at the precise moment as Cally Wilson exited the kitchen and the trifecta was complete.
(Part 02)
Cally Wilson was only 21 and when she walked into the bar and saw Paul Richardson her heart skipped a beat and when their eyes met they were immediately smitten.
She stood six feet tall with short curly auburn hair, and a very large bust, lovely eyes and a nice smile.
Paul just hovered in the doorway staring at her while Cally who was quiet and reserved was trying to summon the courage to go and say hello but she was beaten to the punch when a middle-aged man walked over to him instead.
She didn’t hear all the conversation but she did hear the middle-aged man say as they separated
“Thank you Paul”
“Paul” she said to herself “I like that name”
However as she thought it, he turned around and went back out the door.
Fortunately for her she was going that way because Cally’s mum had MS and she was just going to pop home to check on her when she ran into Paul.
She rushed out the door so she could see where he went but as she burst through the door she ran straight into him.
“Oh I’m sorry” she said
“That’s ok I was coming back in to ask you something” he said
“Me?” she asked with surprise
“Yes”
“Ask away” Cally said
“Would you like to go out sometime? The cinema maybe?” he asked
“Yes” she replied “I would”
“Great” he said with surprise “When?”
“How about tonight?” She said and that was how it started with a trip to the Cinema in Finchbottom.
The relationship blossomed over the following weeks despite the fact that they didn’t see each other as often as they would have liked.
Cally worked long hours at the restaurant as well as having to help with her mum and the only regular day off she got was a Monday which was Paul’s busiest.
But with Christmas fast approaching they were looking forward to spending more time together
Kay Richardson had worked very hard over the years running the Guest House but to preserve her sanity she had always closed at Christmas so she and her children could have a proper Christmas.
The last guests would check out on the 23rd and the earliest check-in was 3 o’clock on the 27th.
Also the Old Mill Inn restaurant would close on the afternoon of Christmas Eve and would not reopen fully until the following Tuesday.
Cally was particularly looking forward to spending some “private” time with Paul as he had been a little backward in coming forward in the intimacy department.
And although Cally was quiet and reserved she was reaching the point that she would have to take matters into her own hands.
She wasn’t sure how she would achieve it but she had definitely lost patience waiting for him to act so she had no alternative but to take decisive action herself.
It was as she and her friend Tegan were walking to work on Christmas Eve that a plan formed in her mind and a smile not dissimilar to a leer crossed her face.
(Part 03)
Paul spent the early part of the morning of Christmas Eve delivering Christmas gifts and cards to friends and neighbours in the village, and when he had finished he planned to spend the rest of it alone at home listening to Christmas music and watching schmaltzy movies on TV.
His mum and sister were out for the day, the former had driven over to visit a friend in Sharpington and the latter was spending the day with her best friend in Dulcet St Mary.
So everything was going according to plan.
On the afternoon of Christmas Eve the Old Mill Inn was still open but there weren’t many customers left but those that were made enough noise for a crowd.
The kitchen was cleaned down and pristine and Cally had just finished putting the clean cutlery back in the trays in the dining room.
“Anything else you want me to do?” she asked Lorraine
“No you get off home now” she replied and gave her a hug and kiss “Happy Christmas lovely”
“Happy Christmas” she said in response and Lorraine went back into the kitchen.
Her friend Tegan, was small with delicate features and bobbed strawberry blonde hair and was a foot shorter and at least six stones lighter than Cally, was stood up on a chair writing up Saturday’s menu.
“Oy what about me you ginger bint” she shouted
“I’m auburn” she shouted back and went over a picked Tegan off the chair and got her in a bear hug.
“I give in, I give in” she said laughing loudly
“Now give me a kiss” demanded Cally
After exchanging kisses Cally then deposited her back on the chair.
“Happy Christmas Cal” she called as her friend walked away
“Happy Christmas” she called over her shoulder.
As Paul was watching back to back Christmas movies Cally spent the afternoon helping her mum with the preparations for the big day, and then she got changed and set off to walk to Paul’s through the fast settling snow and got there about seven o’clock.
When she arrived she was greeted with the news that Pauls mum and sister were unable to get back to Mornington due to road closures because of the snow.
Paul had put the presents underneath the tree that afternoon, so all evening almost from the moment she arrived, she was like a child.
“Can I open a present?” she asked him every ten minutes.
“Just one, please, please, please”
She was getting on his nerves to be honest and she knew it, so she did it all the more.
She kept picking up the presents, shaking them, squeezing them, and even listening to them.
Finally he relented and as he headed upstairs to the loo he said.
“We can open one present each before we leave for midnight mass”
“Goody” she squealed
When he returned to the lounge he was expecting to find her waiting impatiently to open a present.
But instead he found her lying beneath the tree with wrapping paper loosely draped about her obviously naked body.
“You go first” she said and giggled
“I assume we’re not going to midnight mass” he said
“We’ll if you’d rather go to church than open a present we can” Cally suggested
Once he had un-wrapped his present and thoroughly enjoyed its contents they were too late for midnight mass so they went to bed and went to Church on Christmas morning instead.
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