I WOULD HAVE GIVEN HER MY WORLD
I would have given her my world
I would have made myself into a mug
I would have done all this and more
Just to feel the warmth of a single hug
FLEET YOUNG FOOTSTEPS
Fleet young footsteps
In a headlong rush
Running towards romance
Barefoot in the meadow grass
Love-struck on a woodland path
Sprinting along the beach
Splashing through the water’s edge
And into the arms of love
YOU HAVE MADE AN ERROR
You have made an error
If you have to run
Barefoot on hot coals
Hotter than the burning sun
Just to prove to them
That you are their only one
ATTITUDE LATTITUDE
Such was her attitude
She felt gratitude
For her beatitude
At ending her solitude
SHE WAS PETITE
She was petite
And beautiful
A gentle glowing face,
Open and friendly
With intelligent eyes,
Like sparkling sapphires
A smile played about
Her honey sweet lips,
So soft and pink
Her hair the shade
Of ripened corn
Blew in the breeze
She was petite
And beautiful
And totally out of reach
BENEATH THE MOONLIT SKY
Beneath the moonlit sky
The romantic feeling grows
And on that star filled night
Love blossomed like a rose
I WOULD PUT YOU ON A PEDESTAL
I would put you on a pedestal
and prostrate myself before you
I would worship you like a god
I would proffer my heart
On an ornate silver platter.
For your avaricious consumption
I would give you all my love
Unconditionally, unrequited
And thank you for your indifference
I would cherish you in my life,
Even if you broke my heart in pieces.
I would look upon you lovingly
And gratefully receive your look of disdain
All this I would happily endure
Just to feel, for the briefest moment
The warmth of your embrace
ALL FOR THE SAKE OF LOVE
He carried her books home from school
All for the sake of love
They kissed on the back row of the pictures
All for the sake of love
They walked down the aisle in June
All for the sake of love
they happily lived in a one bedroom flat
All for the sake of love
They worked hard and scrimped and saved
All for the sake of love
They became a family in a bigger home
All for the sake of love
She divorced him after five years of marriage
All for the sake of lust
SHE SPOKE SWEETLY
She spoke sweetly
With a song birds melody
But within the beauty
One word could slay me
YOU TOOK ME BY STORM
You took me by storm
Broke my resistance
Conquered my heart
Quite mercilessly
But on the way
To capturing my heart
You tainted me
Sunday 26 February 2017
Tales from the Finchbottom Vale – (02) Paige Turner’s
(Part 01)
Paige Rawlins had worked in the same bookshop in Finchbottom for twenty years, but it wasn’t one of those trendy and clinical impersonal places that seemed to spring up everywhere during the eighties, O’Brien’s was a proper old fashioned book shop, full of tall wooden book cases crammed with dusty well-loved second hand books.
Paige had started working at the book shop straight from school and now it was hers lock, stock and barrel.
It wasn’t her chosen path, what she actually wanted was college and University and to write books of her own.
But on the eve of her bright future, as quite often happens, life got in the way of her well laid plans.
Firstly her father was killed aboard the RFA Sir Galahad during the Falklands War when she was only 15 and then on the day of her 16th birthday her mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
In the beginning Paige just worked part time at the shop, in between grieving for her dead father and caring for her terminally ill mum at home in Finchbottom while also limping her way through two years of college.
She had no siblings to share the burden and no cousins or aunts, uncles, grandparents or even a boyfriend to turn to for support, she was completely and utterly alone and had to cope with the whole painful mess all on her own.
In 1984 when she finished college she watched all her friends excitedly planning for the future and then one by one they went off to University and that drew a line firmly under those friendships and she took the only course that was left open to her and she went to work full time at O’Brien’s.
Her mum subsequently underwent surgery to remove the tumor followed by a course of radiation, but it came back, so she had rounds of Chemotherapy together with radiation which kept it at bay but the treatment was almost as bad as the disease.
Each passing year, full of days spent in the shop and evenings and weekends at home caring for her dying mother, drained the very life from her.
Eventually her mum’s cancer metastasized, and she was told the average life expectancy after a diagnosis with metastatic disease was just three to six months, her mum lasted two years, and by the time her mum finally succumbed Paige was as dry as the pages of the books she tended.
After the funeral, in order to fill the void in her life, Paige gave herself totally to the shop, she became its life blood, which was why five years later on her death, Maureen O’Brien left the shop to Paige, shop, stock and vellum, which she decided to rename Paige Turners.
Year by year her life consisted of the shop, book auctions and house clearances, book fairs and car boot sales and other than that she had no human interactions outside the book trade at all which was why as a result, at the age of thirty six Paige was a cold grey dowdy frump.
However she was not for all that, an unattractive woman, the blue eyes behind the spectacles were striking and the trim figure beneath the tweed suit were more than agreeable, if anyone chose to look that closely, but they didn’t, and were she to have worn her brunette hair down instead of scrapped back they would have looked harder.
When she first took over the running of it, the shop was struggling to stay afloat, in a sea of apathy in which the world had seemingly fallen out of love with quality literature and it took all of Paige’s wit and guile to make the shop pay.
Generally she was quite old fashioned in her outlook but she did make one concession to the modern world and the modern publication by giving over one window and a whole corner of the shop to new titles.
She figured that if she could lure the magpies into the shop with the bait of shiny new books she could actually get them hooked on the old classics.
Also, over the years she developed the internet side of the business, which Maureen had dismissed as a fad, but Paige rather liked it as trading that way she didn’t have to deal face to face with human beings.
It wasn’t so much that she wasn’t a people person it was just that happy smiling people were a constant reminder of what life might have been for her had things been different.
(Part 02)
It was on a rainy Friday afternoon in May when, Harry Edwards, a rather tall gaunt looking middle-aged man in an ill-fitting rain coat entered Paige Turners and stood dripping on the doormat.
The raincoat was ill fitting because he had to borrow it from a colleague when he realized it was raining so hard.
He stood on the mat for about a minute with the rain dripping off him before venturing further.
He was immediately struck by the fact that, although it was 2003 the overall ambiance of the place felt much, much older.
When he moved he took no more than three steps and then stopped again as he looked around at the rows of shelves full of old musty old tomes and sighed with resignation at the enormity of the task ahead of him.
“Oh hell” he muttered
“Can I help?” Paige said flatly accompanied by a weak smile
“I do hope so” Harry replied brightly
“I’m looking for a leather bound copy of “The Coral Island” by R M. Ballantyne”
“We have several copies of that” She said “Did you have any particular date of publication in mind?”
“Anything from the 19th century” He replied
“I have a nice clean late Victorian copy that might suit” Paige said and went off to retrieve it.
“Here we are 1890, red leather binding, very good condition”
“Excellent” he said handling the book “How much?”
“£150” She said without emotion.
He thought she was probably overcharging him but he didn’t care, it was exactly what he was looking for and it was well within his means.
And it was his Uncle’s birthday the very next day and given the inclement weather he didn’t really fancy going in search of another bookshop.
Also there was something about her that he liked behind the mannish spectacles and frumpy tweeds, he wasn’t sure what it was but he thought there was more to her than the dust jacket suggested.
“Great I’ll take it” he said
Harry Edwards had lived and worked in Finchbottom all of his life and after getting his Law degree he started working at his Uncle Henrys firm of solicitors, where he was now a partner.
It was fairly unexciting work, involving quite a lot of conveyancing, wills and minor boundary disputes but he liked it well enough.
Incidentally Barrowman, Clarke, Braithwaite and Edwards were the executors of Maureen O’Brien’s will and although that has no relevance to the story it does add a certain symmetry to it.
Harry was forty five years old and had himself suffered tragedy in his life, his father died suddenly when he was at University, his mother was struck with early onset Alzheimer’s and was now in a care home and the previous year he had lost his wife Celia to breast cancer, but unlike Paige he didn’t lock himself away from the world, but then he did have a network of family and friends to draw comfort from.
On the Monday morning after a big family weekend to celebrate Uncle Henrys seventieth birthday Harry was feeling a little jaded and in truth was almost relieved to get back to work for a rest.
By lunchtime however he was feeling a little more human so as it was a bright warm spring day and as his office was only a ten minute walk from Paige Turner’s, the notion popped into his head to call in and tell the proprietor how delighted his uncle had been with his gift.
He wasn’t quite sure why the notion entered his head nor where it came from but he still thought it a good idea.
(Part 03)
The shop door opened and sunlight spilled deep into the shop, Paige was at the back cataloguing some new acquisitions while Karen and Iris, students from Finchbottom College, were putting the new stock on the appropriate shelves.
She had to rely heavily on students to staff the shop as there was only her and Graham in the shop on a permanent basis.
She had inherited Graham from Maureen’s time but now he was slowly cutting down his hours as he headed towards retirement.
While she was cataloguing, Graham was out the back packing some books for delivery.
She looked up from what she was doing and briefly studied the new arrival.
Paige recognized the man instantly as the man who paid over the odds for a copy of “The Coral Island”
The ill-fitting (borrowed) raincoat of Friday had gone and he was now sporting a well-tailored double breasted blue suit.
She had thought about him a lot over the weekend and had felt more than a little guilty at fleecing the dripping wet untidy looking man, but now she saw him in his handmade suit that guilt soon melted away.
“He’s quite a handsome man though” she thought to herself, shaking her head at such an unaccustomed thought.
He walked further into the shop and was surprised at just how big it was, it had seemed much smaller in the gloom of Friday afternoon but on that day with the sun streaming through the windows it looked huge.
He could see there were three or four other customers milling around and a couple of young girls stacking shelves and then he caught sight of the young frumpy woman at the back of the shop so he strode off in her direction.
“Oh God he’s coming this way” she thought to herself. “He’s going to complain about the book, he’s probably checked on line and knows I over charged him”
She hurriedly replaced the book she was holding and tried to slip away but she had inadvertently trapped her foot and as she tried to extricate herself he was on her.
“Hello again” he said
“Oh hello” she said abandoning her escape attempt.
“I just wanted to say that my Uncle loved the book” he said
“Well that’s what we do” she responded flippantly and then inexplicably giggled
“In fact he was so impressed with it, he has a request” Harry said fishing in his jacket pocket and removing a piece of note paper which he handed to Paige.
“My Uncle collects book from his past, they are like special memories to him”
On the paper was written The Pathfinder by James Fenimore Cooper. (Third book of the Leatherstocking Tales pentalogy)
“That shouldn’t be too much of a problem” she said “I know we don’t have one in stock but if you come back tomorrow I should have it”
“Excellent” Harry replied “I’ll see you tomorrow then”
“What name should I reserve it under?” Paige asked
“Harry Edwards” he replied “Miss…?”
“Rawlins” she replied “Paige Rawlins”
After he left the shop she chastised herself for lying, she knew very well that she had a copy of “The Pathfinder”, and it would definitely have suited.
Why on earth had she lied,
“What on earth has gotten into you” she said to herself
As Harry walked back to the office he had an unaccountable spring in his step and he was actually glad she didn’t have that book in stock as it meant he didn’t have to make an excuse to go back the next day.
(Part 04)
On Tuesday he found the morning passed by interminably slowly in fact at one point he thought the clock had stopped.
But despite that, eventually the morning passed and the moment the clock struck twelve he was out the door.
“I’m taking an early lunch” he said
“Ok Mr. Edwards” his PA said
He walked briskly along the street towards Paige Turner’s and was surprised by the presence of butterflies in his stomach.
“How ridiculous” he muttered to himself
Paige had been kept very busy all morning as she was alone in the shop on a Tuesday but she was well aware that lunchtime was approaching.
She had her back to the door and when she heard it open she took a deep breath and turned around with a smile.
“What are you looking so pleased about?” Graham asked
“Oh no reason” Paige replied “it’s just such a lovely day”
“You don’t normally smile when the sun shine’s” Graham said “come to think of it you don’t normally smile”
“I smile” Paige said defensively
“Not often” he answered as he went to the back of the shop
“I do smile” she said to herself crossly as she turned and watched him.
“I know” Harry said
Paige was speechless when she turned around and saw Harry standing there and for a moment felt like she was fifteen again.
Before she stuttered and stammered her way through a sentence.
Harry laughed at her discomfiture before saying
“I’m sorry if I startled you”
“No its fine, really” she said
Harry left the shop half an hour later minus the book that he’d gone in for but he didn’t care, he was just pleased to have seen her again.
It was the first time since his wife’s death that he had even noticed another woman and as he enjoyed the spring sunshine he was blissfully unaware just how significant that was.
Paige had told him the book wouldn’t be in until the next day and didn’t even feel guilty for lying to him this time as it meant she would see him again.
Then she realized she’d have to give him the book eventually or he’d stop coming anyway.
For Harry the rest of the afternoon was spent very unproductively as he tried to reason in his mind why he was so drawn to a dowdy young bookworm.
“Well younger than me anyway” he said out loud
She wasn’t even his type at all and she had cheated him on that copy of “The Coral Island”.
The next day Harry couldn’t make it to the shop as he was at the magistrate’s courts in the morning and had two funerals in the afternoon.
Paige however was unaware of the reason for his failure to appear and thought herself a fool and chastised herself for lowering her guard, she didn’t smile at all that day.
(Part 05)
On Thursday morning Harry left his office about 10 o’clock and ran through the rain in his borrowed ill-fitting raincoat to the shop.
He had not mentioned his movements the last time he was in the shop and had no reason to think his absence would be noticed.
But strangely it meant something to him that he had missed seeing her.
At Paige Turner’s, Karen, Iris and Graham were bemoaning the return of the unsmiling Paige who had awoken that morning with fresh resolve to return her life back to its previous unadventurous course and not allow herself to be disappointed again.
Having reached the shop Harry just stood outside and stared at the rain streaked windows wondering what the hell he was thinking.
Why would this young woman see him as anything more than just another customer?
“You’re being ridiculous” he said to himself and turned around and started back towards work.
But he only took a few paces before he stopped and returned to the shop.
He stood again looking at the shop and taking a deep breath he said
“Nothing ventured nothing gained” and pushed open the door
Paige was feeling wretched and made everyone’s morning miserable.
She had placed the copy of “The Pathfinder” by the till and resolved that should he come in again she would give him the book and that would be an end to it, after all he was just another customer.
Paige sighed and headed towards the back of the shop, Karen and Iris kept their heads down as she passed them and when Graham appeared from the store room and saw her coming his way he performed an immediate U-turn, then she heard the door open behind her and she sighed again and prepared to deliver a withering look upon the person responsible for the intrusion.
“Harry” she said when she saw him and instantly her sternness melted away “er Mr. Edwards I mean”
“No please Harry is fine” he replied and returned her smile
“I have your book” Paige said producing it like an exhibit in a court case.
“Oh great” he said “I’m only sorry I couldn’t come in for it yesterday Miss Rawlins”
“Please call me Paige,” she said coyly
He then went on to explain in depth all the ins and outs of his previous day and why he hadn’t come to the shop.
Which was all done in the inner sanctum of her office over a mug of coffee.
“She’s never had a guest in her office before” Iris whispered as she and Karen listened through the door.
“And she’s laughing” Karen said in disbelief
An hour after he arrived he left the shop and walked back towards his office with the book tucked under his arm and more importantly than that, a date with Paige for the following evening.
So it was on a bright Friday evening in May, just one short week after his first rain soaked visit to the antiquated bookshop that was Paige Turner’s.
When inside the bookshop he had found the dusty tome that was Paige Rawlins, just like any other dusty tome amidst many others on the shelf
But she had been rebound and the dowdy bookish young woman was transformed.
Harry took her hand and led her from the shop and she stepped out from the narrow confines of her stale and musty domain and rejoined the world of infinite possibilities with her heart full of hope and not a little trepidation.
Thanks to Harry it was now her turn to live life rather than to read about other peoples.
Paige Rawlins had worked in the same bookshop in Finchbottom for twenty years, but it wasn’t one of those trendy and clinical impersonal places that seemed to spring up everywhere during the eighties, O’Brien’s was a proper old fashioned book shop, full of tall wooden book cases crammed with dusty well-loved second hand books.
Paige had started working at the book shop straight from school and now it was hers lock, stock and barrel.
It wasn’t her chosen path, what she actually wanted was college and University and to write books of her own.
But on the eve of her bright future, as quite often happens, life got in the way of her well laid plans.
Firstly her father was killed aboard the RFA Sir Galahad during the Falklands War when she was only 15 and then on the day of her 16th birthday her mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
In the beginning Paige just worked part time at the shop, in between grieving for her dead father and caring for her terminally ill mum at home in Finchbottom while also limping her way through two years of college.
She had no siblings to share the burden and no cousins or aunts, uncles, grandparents or even a boyfriend to turn to for support, she was completely and utterly alone and had to cope with the whole painful mess all on her own.
In 1984 when she finished college she watched all her friends excitedly planning for the future and then one by one they went off to University and that drew a line firmly under those friendships and she took the only course that was left open to her and she went to work full time at O’Brien’s.
Her mum subsequently underwent surgery to remove the tumor followed by a course of radiation, but it came back, so she had rounds of Chemotherapy together with radiation which kept it at bay but the treatment was almost as bad as the disease.
Each passing year, full of days spent in the shop and evenings and weekends at home caring for her dying mother, drained the very life from her.
Eventually her mum’s cancer metastasized, and she was told the average life expectancy after a diagnosis with metastatic disease was just three to six months, her mum lasted two years, and by the time her mum finally succumbed Paige was as dry as the pages of the books she tended.
After the funeral, in order to fill the void in her life, Paige gave herself totally to the shop, she became its life blood, which was why five years later on her death, Maureen O’Brien left the shop to Paige, shop, stock and vellum, which she decided to rename Paige Turners.
Year by year her life consisted of the shop, book auctions and house clearances, book fairs and car boot sales and other than that she had no human interactions outside the book trade at all which was why as a result, at the age of thirty six Paige was a cold grey dowdy frump.
However she was not for all that, an unattractive woman, the blue eyes behind the spectacles were striking and the trim figure beneath the tweed suit were more than agreeable, if anyone chose to look that closely, but they didn’t, and were she to have worn her brunette hair down instead of scrapped back they would have looked harder.
When she first took over the running of it, the shop was struggling to stay afloat, in a sea of apathy in which the world had seemingly fallen out of love with quality literature and it took all of Paige’s wit and guile to make the shop pay.
Generally she was quite old fashioned in her outlook but she did make one concession to the modern world and the modern publication by giving over one window and a whole corner of the shop to new titles.
She figured that if she could lure the magpies into the shop with the bait of shiny new books she could actually get them hooked on the old classics.
Also, over the years she developed the internet side of the business, which Maureen had dismissed as a fad, but Paige rather liked it as trading that way she didn’t have to deal face to face with human beings.
It wasn’t so much that she wasn’t a people person it was just that happy smiling people were a constant reminder of what life might have been for her had things been different.
(Part 02)
It was on a rainy Friday afternoon in May when, Harry Edwards, a rather tall gaunt looking middle-aged man in an ill-fitting rain coat entered Paige Turners and stood dripping on the doormat.
The raincoat was ill fitting because he had to borrow it from a colleague when he realized it was raining so hard.
He stood on the mat for about a minute with the rain dripping off him before venturing further.
He was immediately struck by the fact that, although it was 2003 the overall ambiance of the place felt much, much older.
When he moved he took no more than three steps and then stopped again as he looked around at the rows of shelves full of old musty old tomes and sighed with resignation at the enormity of the task ahead of him.
“Oh hell” he muttered
“Can I help?” Paige said flatly accompanied by a weak smile
“I do hope so” Harry replied brightly
“I’m looking for a leather bound copy of “The Coral Island” by R M. Ballantyne”
“We have several copies of that” She said “Did you have any particular date of publication in mind?”
“Anything from the 19th century” He replied
“I have a nice clean late Victorian copy that might suit” Paige said and went off to retrieve it.
“Here we are 1890, red leather binding, very good condition”
“Excellent” he said handling the book “How much?”
“£150” She said without emotion.
He thought she was probably overcharging him but he didn’t care, it was exactly what he was looking for and it was well within his means.
And it was his Uncle’s birthday the very next day and given the inclement weather he didn’t really fancy going in search of another bookshop.
Also there was something about her that he liked behind the mannish spectacles and frumpy tweeds, he wasn’t sure what it was but he thought there was more to her than the dust jacket suggested.
“Great I’ll take it” he said
Harry Edwards had lived and worked in Finchbottom all of his life and after getting his Law degree he started working at his Uncle Henrys firm of solicitors, where he was now a partner.
It was fairly unexciting work, involving quite a lot of conveyancing, wills and minor boundary disputes but he liked it well enough.
Incidentally Barrowman, Clarke, Braithwaite and Edwards were the executors of Maureen O’Brien’s will and although that has no relevance to the story it does add a certain symmetry to it.
Harry was forty five years old and had himself suffered tragedy in his life, his father died suddenly when he was at University, his mother was struck with early onset Alzheimer’s and was now in a care home and the previous year he had lost his wife Celia to breast cancer, but unlike Paige he didn’t lock himself away from the world, but then he did have a network of family and friends to draw comfort from.
On the Monday morning after a big family weekend to celebrate Uncle Henrys seventieth birthday Harry was feeling a little jaded and in truth was almost relieved to get back to work for a rest.
By lunchtime however he was feeling a little more human so as it was a bright warm spring day and as his office was only a ten minute walk from Paige Turner’s, the notion popped into his head to call in and tell the proprietor how delighted his uncle had been with his gift.
He wasn’t quite sure why the notion entered his head nor where it came from but he still thought it a good idea.
(Part 03)
The shop door opened and sunlight spilled deep into the shop, Paige was at the back cataloguing some new acquisitions while Karen and Iris, students from Finchbottom College, were putting the new stock on the appropriate shelves.
She had to rely heavily on students to staff the shop as there was only her and Graham in the shop on a permanent basis.
She had inherited Graham from Maureen’s time but now he was slowly cutting down his hours as he headed towards retirement.
While she was cataloguing, Graham was out the back packing some books for delivery.
She looked up from what she was doing and briefly studied the new arrival.
Paige recognized the man instantly as the man who paid over the odds for a copy of “The Coral Island”
The ill-fitting (borrowed) raincoat of Friday had gone and he was now sporting a well-tailored double breasted blue suit.
She had thought about him a lot over the weekend and had felt more than a little guilty at fleecing the dripping wet untidy looking man, but now she saw him in his handmade suit that guilt soon melted away.
“He’s quite a handsome man though” she thought to herself, shaking her head at such an unaccustomed thought.
He walked further into the shop and was surprised at just how big it was, it had seemed much smaller in the gloom of Friday afternoon but on that day with the sun streaming through the windows it looked huge.
He could see there were three or four other customers milling around and a couple of young girls stacking shelves and then he caught sight of the young frumpy woman at the back of the shop so he strode off in her direction.
“Oh God he’s coming this way” she thought to herself. “He’s going to complain about the book, he’s probably checked on line and knows I over charged him”
She hurriedly replaced the book she was holding and tried to slip away but she had inadvertently trapped her foot and as she tried to extricate herself he was on her.
“Hello again” he said
“Oh hello” she said abandoning her escape attempt.
“I just wanted to say that my Uncle loved the book” he said
“Well that’s what we do” she responded flippantly and then inexplicably giggled
“In fact he was so impressed with it, he has a request” Harry said fishing in his jacket pocket and removing a piece of note paper which he handed to Paige.
“My Uncle collects book from his past, they are like special memories to him”
On the paper was written The Pathfinder by James Fenimore Cooper. (Third book of the Leatherstocking Tales pentalogy)
“That shouldn’t be too much of a problem” she said “I know we don’t have one in stock but if you come back tomorrow I should have it”
“Excellent” Harry replied “I’ll see you tomorrow then”
“What name should I reserve it under?” Paige asked
“Harry Edwards” he replied “Miss…?”
“Rawlins” she replied “Paige Rawlins”
After he left the shop she chastised herself for lying, she knew very well that she had a copy of “The Pathfinder”, and it would definitely have suited.
Why on earth had she lied,
“What on earth has gotten into you” she said to herself
As Harry walked back to the office he had an unaccountable spring in his step and he was actually glad she didn’t have that book in stock as it meant he didn’t have to make an excuse to go back the next day.
(Part 04)
On Tuesday he found the morning passed by interminably slowly in fact at one point he thought the clock had stopped.
But despite that, eventually the morning passed and the moment the clock struck twelve he was out the door.
“I’m taking an early lunch” he said
“Ok Mr. Edwards” his PA said
He walked briskly along the street towards Paige Turner’s and was surprised by the presence of butterflies in his stomach.
“How ridiculous” he muttered to himself
Paige had been kept very busy all morning as she was alone in the shop on a Tuesday but she was well aware that lunchtime was approaching.
She had her back to the door and when she heard it open she took a deep breath and turned around with a smile.
“What are you looking so pleased about?” Graham asked
“Oh no reason” Paige replied “it’s just such a lovely day”
“You don’t normally smile when the sun shine’s” Graham said “come to think of it you don’t normally smile”
“I smile” Paige said defensively
“Not often” he answered as he went to the back of the shop
“I do smile” she said to herself crossly as she turned and watched him.
“I know” Harry said
Paige was speechless when she turned around and saw Harry standing there and for a moment felt like she was fifteen again.
Before she stuttered and stammered her way through a sentence.
Harry laughed at her discomfiture before saying
“I’m sorry if I startled you”
“No its fine, really” she said
Harry left the shop half an hour later minus the book that he’d gone in for but he didn’t care, he was just pleased to have seen her again.
It was the first time since his wife’s death that he had even noticed another woman and as he enjoyed the spring sunshine he was blissfully unaware just how significant that was.
Paige had told him the book wouldn’t be in until the next day and didn’t even feel guilty for lying to him this time as it meant she would see him again.
Then she realized she’d have to give him the book eventually or he’d stop coming anyway.
For Harry the rest of the afternoon was spent very unproductively as he tried to reason in his mind why he was so drawn to a dowdy young bookworm.
“Well younger than me anyway” he said out loud
She wasn’t even his type at all and she had cheated him on that copy of “The Coral Island”.
The next day Harry couldn’t make it to the shop as he was at the magistrate’s courts in the morning and had two funerals in the afternoon.
Paige however was unaware of the reason for his failure to appear and thought herself a fool and chastised herself for lowering her guard, she didn’t smile at all that day.
(Part 05)
On Thursday morning Harry left his office about 10 o’clock and ran through the rain in his borrowed ill-fitting raincoat to the shop.
He had not mentioned his movements the last time he was in the shop and had no reason to think his absence would be noticed.
But strangely it meant something to him that he had missed seeing her.
At Paige Turner’s, Karen, Iris and Graham were bemoaning the return of the unsmiling Paige who had awoken that morning with fresh resolve to return her life back to its previous unadventurous course and not allow herself to be disappointed again.
Having reached the shop Harry just stood outside and stared at the rain streaked windows wondering what the hell he was thinking.
Why would this young woman see him as anything more than just another customer?
“You’re being ridiculous” he said to himself and turned around and started back towards work.
But he only took a few paces before he stopped and returned to the shop.
He stood again looking at the shop and taking a deep breath he said
“Nothing ventured nothing gained” and pushed open the door
Paige was feeling wretched and made everyone’s morning miserable.
She had placed the copy of “The Pathfinder” by the till and resolved that should he come in again she would give him the book and that would be an end to it, after all he was just another customer.
Paige sighed and headed towards the back of the shop, Karen and Iris kept their heads down as she passed them and when Graham appeared from the store room and saw her coming his way he performed an immediate U-turn, then she heard the door open behind her and she sighed again and prepared to deliver a withering look upon the person responsible for the intrusion.
“Harry” she said when she saw him and instantly her sternness melted away “er Mr. Edwards I mean”
“No please Harry is fine” he replied and returned her smile
“I have your book” Paige said producing it like an exhibit in a court case.
“Oh great” he said “I’m only sorry I couldn’t come in for it yesterday Miss Rawlins”
“Please call me Paige,” she said coyly
He then went on to explain in depth all the ins and outs of his previous day and why he hadn’t come to the shop.
Which was all done in the inner sanctum of her office over a mug of coffee.
“She’s never had a guest in her office before” Iris whispered as she and Karen listened through the door.
“And she’s laughing” Karen said in disbelief
An hour after he arrived he left the shop and walked back towards his office with the book tucked under his arm and more importantly than that, a date with Paige for the following evening.
So it was on a bright Friday evening in May, just one short week after his first rain soaked visit to the antiquated bookshop that was Paige Turner’s.
When inside the bookshop he had found the dusty tome that was Paige Rawlins, just like any other dusty tome amidst many others on the shelf
But she had been rebound and the dowdy bookish young woman was transformed.
Harry took her hand and led her from the shop and she stepped out from the narrow confines of her stale and musty domain and rejoined the world of infinite possibilities with her heart full of hope and not a little trepidation.
Thanks to Harry it was now her turn to live life rather than to read about other peoples.
Saturday 25 February 2017
Tales of Love # 6
HAIR OF GOLD
Hair of gold
Falls in curls
Over amber skin
In perfect compliment
Like ripened corn
In a summer field
SHE SAID SHE FELT SO HELPLESSLY ALONE
She said she felt so helplessly alone
Like a lonely candle flickering in the dark
Then on the day when I came into her life
She said there was a discernable spark
And as if by a kind of magic, hey presto
We were instantly two candles in the dark
SO QUIET
So quiet
A perfect angel
So calm and serene
Soft eyes,
A gentle smile
As if from a dream
But beneath
The façade, things
Are not as they seem
So quiet
The perfect angel
She secretly aspires
Soft eyes,
A gentle smile
Mask her desires
But beneath
The façade, a little
Sinning is required
IN A QUIET PASSING TIME
In a quiet passing time
I look back on yesterday,
And wonder why it is
That I am so lonely today
YOU WERE MY ONE AND ONLY # 1
You were my one and only
My hearts song and melody
Now music has been banished
And I must suffer silently
YOU ARE MY ANGEL
You are my Angel
In the moonlight
Draped in lunar white
Where upon I steal
A midnight kiss
And I am in heaven
I AM NOT SPECIAL
I am not special
I have no fortune
I am average
I have no high station
I am ordinary
I am not an Adonis
But for some reason
I have won your heart
SINCE WE’VE BEEN APART
Since we’ve been apart
My wounded heart
Still bleeds for you
And I pray you’d love me too
I NEVER MEANT TO DO IT
I never meant to do it
But I did it with ease
In fact it was so simple
It was actually a breeze
So now can you fall?
In love with me please
I FIRST SAW YOU
I first saw you
As you were advancing
I smiled at you
As your eyes were glancing
And all at once
My heart was dancing
And in a moment
We were both romancing
Hair of gold
Falls in curls
Over amber skin
In perfect compliment
Like ripened corn
In a summer field
SHE SAID SHE FELT SO HELPLESSLY ALONE
She said she felt so helplessly alone
Like a lonely candle flickering in the dark
Then on the day when I came into her life
She said there was a discernable spark
And as if by a kind of magic, hey presto
We were instantly two candles in the dark
SO QUIET
So quiet
A perfect angel
So calm and serene
Soft eyes,
A gentle smile
As if from a dream
But beneath
The façade, things
Are not as they seem
So quiet
The perfect angel
She secretly aspires
Soft eyes,
A gentle smile
Mask her desires
But beneath
The façade, a little
Sinning is required
IN A QUIET PASSING TIME
In a quiet passing time
I look back on yesterday,
And wonder why it is
That I am so lonely today
YOU WERE MY ONE AND ONLY # 1
You were my one and only
My hearts song and melody
Now music has been banished
And I must suffer silently
YOU ARE MY ANGEL
You are my Angel
In the moonlight
Draped in lunar white
Where upon I steal
A midnight kiss
And I am in heaven
I AM NOT SPECIAL
I am not special
I have no fortune
I am average
I have no high station
I am ordinary
I am not an Adonis
But for some reason
I have won your heart
SINCE WE’VE BEEN APART
Since we’ve been apart
My wounded heart
Still bleeds for you
And I pray you’d love me too
I NEVER MEANT TO DO IT
I never meant to do it
But I did it with ease
In fact it was so simple
It was actually a breeze
So now can you fall?
In love with me please
I FIRST SAW YOU
I first saw you
As you were advancing
I smiled at you
As your eyes were glancing
And all at once
My heart was dancing
And in a moment
We were both romancing
Tales of Love # 2
WE WERE ONCE INSEPARABLE # 2
We were once inseparable
Tied with the bonds of love
But when the day came
When bonds become restraints
Love melted into the ether
And the ties that bound
Turned inexorably to dust
AT THE NUPTIAL ALTAR
A girl in virgin white
An intangible essence
A trembling creature
Wantonly pure
At the nuptial altar
Bearing passions blush
Blooming on her cheeks
Belying her innocence
Her thoughts portraying
Through lustful overtones
The girls growing want
Then without regret
A kiss preludes
Innocent stripped away.
And a woman remains
THEY WALKED HAND IN HAND
They walked hand in hand
Through tarragon fields
Where young lovers dream
And reticence yields
A SYLPH LIKE CREATURE
A sylph like creature,
A breath of wind might dispel
An elemental presence
Slight and graceful
Mercurial nymph
Spirit of nature
Beautiful young woman
A sylph like creature
I COULDN’T HOLD YOU IN MY COASTAL WATERS
I couldn’t hold you in my Coastal waters
When the Ocean tugged at your heart
So you slipped your moorings
And floated away into the dark
To deeper waters under moon-lit skies
That is where your heart resides
The sea is your only mistress
Your blood flows in unison with the tides
Happiness is a deck beneath your feet
In the teeth of a gale or the heart of a squall
While I wait for you on dry land
Praying for the day you make land fall
WHAT MY HEART YEARNS FOR MOST
What my heart yearns for most,
The thing that I really miss,
What keeps my passion burning
Is the thought of your sensual kiss
LOVERS WALK IN HAND
Lovers walk in hand
Thru summers scented meadow
With lustful intent
HIS AIM IS DEADLY
His aim is deadly
When cupids arrow lets fly
No one can escape
I WOULD HAVE GIVEN HER THE WORLD
I would have given her the world
I‘d have written her name in the stars.
I would have given her what was mine
And not demanded that it be ours
Or I’d have sold my soul to the devil
Yes I would have done all this
I would have done all this and more
And in return, receive a single loving kiss
I LOVED HER SO MUCH
I loved her so much
I forgot about me
I surrendered myself
I just thought about we
I loved her so much
I always thought about us
But behind my back
She abused my trust.
We were once inseparable
Tied with the bonds of love
But when the day came
When bonds become restraints
Love melted into the ether
And the ties that bound
Turned inexorably to dust
AT THE NUPTIAL ALTAR
A girl in virgin white
An intangible essence
A trembling creature
Wantonly pure
At the nuptial altar
Bearing passions blush
Blooming on her cheeks
Belying her innocence
Her thoughts portraying
Through lustful overtones
The girls growing want
Then without regret
A kiss preludes
Innocent stripped away.
And a woman remains
THEY WALKED HAND IN HAND
They walked hand in hand
Through tarragon fields
Where young lovers dream
And reticence yields
A SYLPH LIKE CREATURE
A sylph like creature,
A breath of wind might dispel
An elemental presence
Slight and graceful
Mercurial nymph
Spirit of nature
Beautiful young woman
A sylph like creature
I COULDN’T HOLD YOU IN MY COASTAL WATERS
I couldn’t hold you in my Coastal waters
When the Ocean tugged at your heart
So you slipped your moorings
And floated away into the dark
To deeper waters under moon-lit skies
That is where your heart resides
The sea is your only mistress
Your blood flows in unison with the tides
Happiness is a deck beneath your feet
In the teeth of a gale or the heart of a squall
While I wait for you on dry land
Praying for the day you make land fall
WHAT MY HEART YEARNS FOR MOST
What my heart yearns for most,
The thing that I really miss,
What keeps my passion burning
Is the thought of your sensual kiss
LOVERS WALK IN HAND
Lovers walk in hand
Thru summers scented meadow
With lustful intent
HIS AIM IS DEADLY
His aim is deadly
When cupids arrow lets fly
No one can escape
I WOULD HAVE GIVEN HER THE WORLD
I would have given her the world
I‘d have written her name in the stars.
I would have given her what was mine
And not demanded that it be ours
Or I’d have sold my soul to the devil
Yes I would have done all this
I would have done all this and more
And in return, receive a single loving kiss
I LOVED HER SO MUCH
I loved her so much
I forgot about me
I surrendered myself
I just thought about we
I loved her so much
I always thought about us
But behind my back
She abused my trust.
Tales from the Finchbottom Vale – (01) Soft Lips and Sensible Shoes
(Part 01)
The Finchbottom Vale is nestled 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.
The Vale was once a great wetland that centuries earlier stretched from Mornington in the East to Childean in the west and from Shallowfield in the south to Purplemere in the north.
But over the many centuries the vast majority had been drained for agriculture, a feat achieved largely by the efforts of famous Mornington Mills, of which only three had survived to the present day and even those were no longer functional and were in various states of repair.
There were only three small bodies of water left in the Vale now one in Mornington, one in Childean and third of course was Purplemere.
Throughout its history the Finchbottom Vale was largely dependent on agriculture and so it remained into the 21st century.
To the north of the Vale, in the lee of Pepperstock Hills, lay the modest town of Purplemere.
On the western side of the town was the residential area known as Hill Side, and in one of its many quiet road, called Oakham Crescent was Starlings House the home of Geoffrey and Thelma Haycock.
The pair had been married for twenty years and the overwhelming emotion in their union had grown to be indifference.
There was no love between them, which was a great shame, because it wasn’t always so.
They met and married while at University, it was love at first sight, she was a willowy cello playing student of sociology and he was a rugby playing budding engineer.
Not perhaps an obvious match on the face of it but it was without doubt a love match.
When they were first married their love was all consuming and were a very loving couple and could never have envisaged being apart.
These feelings continued into their post graduate years until after ten years of marriage and a succession of miscarriages and the realization she would never bear a child the love faded first into uneasy friendship and finally to mere tolerance.
But for some reason they stayed together for another ten years, for his part he stayed with Thelma for the sake of the love that was once so abundant, for Thelma it was a kind of self-flagellation, Geoff was like a hair shirt.
It was to remind her of her failure as a wife and a woman.
By the time they reached their milestone 40th birthdays, which were only a week apart, they were complete strangers sharing a house, separate beds, separate rooms and separate lives.
He had survived the lonely years through his books and his work but whereas his books were as reliable as ever they had been his job had turned sour and he wasn’t sure what the future held.
Thelma coped with the emptiness in her life by throwing herself headlong into her work as a social worker and with endless voluntary work with the Citizens advice bureau and then there was the Women’s Institute, the parish council, committees for this, meetings for that and always organizing something and constantly planning for some event or other.
As a result the large house they shared in Purplemere was always hosting some meeting or group or subcommittee.
The house that they bought when they were in love, so it would one day be filled with laughing children, was instead full of chattering do-gooders.
(Part 02)
On the many evenings the house was taken over by Thelma and her cronies, Geoff either went out or more often than not hid himself away in his study with his books.
He would sit in big leather chair with a book in his lap and his headphones on to drown out the chattering.
And that was how he would spend his evenings a good book and Rachmaninov or Mahler for company.
It was on one such evening when he first saw her.
He had been to the kitchen to get himself a coffee and it was when he was on the return leg to his study when there was a knock on the front door and as he was the closest he diverted to open it.
When he had done so he found a small woman in her early thirties with bobbed brown hair on the other side of it where she stood at the threshold staring down at her sensible shoes.
When she looked up she said in a small timid voice
“Hello, I’m Annest, I’m here for the meeting”
“Annest?” Geoff said “what a beautiful name”
“Thank you” she responded as her eyes returned to her shoes
“I’m Geoff, come in. the meeting is at the end of the hall”
She gave a weak smile and walked on down the hall and Geoff paused to watch her as she progressed in her black woolly tights and sensible shoes.
A nervous little kitten headed into the lion’s den.
When he was seated back in his study he Googled the name Annest and found it was of Greek origin and meant "pure or holy"
Over the following weeks he came to recognize her delicate knock on the door and more often than not managed to get there first to let her in.
She always appeared at the door the same way, eyes fixed on her shoes, dressed in black woolly tights and rather frumpy understated garb.
And when she finally glanced up he would see she wore little or no makeup, the merest hint if any at all, nothing to make her noticed, understated like her clothes, leaving her almost anonymous.
He found that the new visitor was so different from his wife’s normal cronies that she rather fascinated him.
As his curiosity was roused on one of the rare days when he and Thelma were engaged in rare conversation he said
“I noticed you have a new face among your number of late”
“Well there are several actually, which one do you mean?” she replied tersely
“Five foot nothing and sensible shoes” he clarified
“Oh the mouse” she replied
“Mouse?”
“Yes the others call her “mouse” as in “quiet as a church mouse”
“Because?”
“Because she’s quiet and she spends a lot of time at the church”
She snapped
“Why are you so interested?”
“I’m just curious” he replied “she just doesn’t seem to fit with your normal intake”
“No she doesn’t” Thelma agreed “A nice girl though and she’s very efficient, she actually does everything she’s asked to do in a timely fashion, most don’t”
And then as if to anticipate his next question she added
“I met her when she volunteered at the Citizens Advice Bureau”
And before he had a chance to respond she left the room.
Later that day Thelma was in the kitchen and as she stood at the kitchen sink she was watching the man she had once loved to distraction as he stood on the lawn raking up the autumn leaves.
Thelma regretted being sharp with Geoff earlier, it was the first time they had spoken sentences to each other for months and it was also the first time he had shown any interest in anything other than his books and music for years.
As she reflected on the conversation she hoped he had asked about Annest out of more than just curiosity as he had suggested and that it might lead somewhere because she had come to realize that things had to change.
Her fortieth birthday had been a watershed for her and when someone at work said
“Life begins at 40”
“Yes it does” she replied
That simple phrase “Life begins at 40” had really struck a chord and she thought about it and decided that hers very definitely would.
(Part 03)
Annest Anderton was a thirty two year old spinster who had lived her whole life in the parish of St Johns in Purplemere.
She was brought up to be a miracle child by her mother who was 44 when she fell pregnant and her father was ten years older than her, and both her parents doted on their miracle all her life.
But as often happens to an only child born to middle-aged parents she ended up caring for them when infirmity struck.
First her father with Parkinson’s and then her mother with dementia.
She was 28 when, within weeks of each other, she lost both parents and she was all alone, by which time the world had moved on and left her behind.
In the 5 years since her parents deaths she had made herself a very busy person, she worked four days a week as an administrator at St John’s Church in Purplemere, which was a large Victorian building in the town center, on Fridays she volunteered at the Citizens Advice Bureau also in the town center and on Saturdays she ran the church bookshop.
On Sunday’s she spent most of the day at church either worshiping or helping out in some capacity, Sunday school, serving drinks or setting up.
And in the evening’s she had recently become involved with Thelma Haycock’s committees.
So in fact she was an exceptionally busy person and the reason for her busyness was that she was lonely excruciatingly lonely.
And she thought that if she kept herself busy she wouldn’t have the time to notice her loneliness.
It didn’t work of course but she did it anyway.
She had hoped to make some friends among the committee members but the majority of the people on Thelma’s committees were not people of faith with the exception of the parish council and church event committees and those of a secular disposition seemed to resent her because of her faith.
Mainly they disliked her because she made them look bad, because she actually did what she promise to do.
Thelma was pleasant enough with her and her husband Geoff was always nice and she chatted with some of the members but she hadn’t made any friendships that extended beyond the meetings.
Some of the women were actually quite unpleasant to her and one in particular, Marisa Loock, was a bully.
She was a big unit from Holland build like a shot putter and had the personality of a storm trooper.
Geoff Haycock answered the door to Annest as he often did and they exchanged smiles and pleasantries as normal.
And then Geoff watched Annest as she went down the hall and then there was an increase in the volume of the murmurs as she went in.
Geoff was on his way to the kitchen to get his coffee when there was another knock, so he turned around and opened it and Lisa Gumbrell, a sour faced middle-aged woman pushed past him.
“And a heartfelt good evening to you too” Geoff said
And the woman just snorted in response.
He followed her down the hall as she walked into the lounge and he looked in and saw Annest seated nearest the door and she glanced in his direction and smiled.
He was returning her smile as Marisa Loock turned and said
“Anne! Anne! Let Lisa sit there”
“Annest” she retorted politely
“What?” The storm trooper barked
“Annest” she repeated “My name is Annest”
“Whatever, you need to move to let Lisa sit there”
Annest looked around her and asked
“Where will I sit?”
“Somewhere else” Marisa growled
Geoff was stood in the threshold of the door and had heard the exchange
“You old cow” he wanted to say but instead he said
“Stay there Annest, I’ll get another chair for the late comer”
(Part 04)
For some reason he felt protective of her and when he spoke to her she looked up and smiled, she had a lovely smile when she chose to deploy it.
So when he witnessed her being bullied by the by Marisa Loock he was moved to intervene.
“Stay there Annest, I’ll get another chair for the late comer” he said
“Or you could just move” Marisa said to her in an intimidating tone
“That’s settled then Annest will stay where she is and I’ll fetch another chair” Geoff corrected her and Marisa and Lisa both turned and glared at him.
If their aggressive display was intended to disarm him it failed miserably, he was after all a rugby union player until only a few years earlier.
There were two chairs in easy reach of where he was, one was in the kitchen and the other in his study, the one in the study had a wobbly leg so he went and got that one.
When he returned to the lounge Marisa was still trying to bully Annest into moving.
“I don’t know why you’re being so selfish” she snarled “and causing all this fuss when you could just have moved”
“I looks to me like you’re the one making all the fuss”
Geoff said and set the wonky chair down
Marisa then turned her focus on him and was about to speak when he leant down and said in a hushed tone
“Before you say another word, just remember you are a guest in this house”
As he straightened up he glanced over at Thelma and she was smiling at him, he smiled back and as he left the room he thought how much he’d missed that smile.
Geoff had taken to leaving his study door open towards the end of the evening over the two months since Annest first knocked on the front door so he could see when people were leaving or to be more precise when she was leaving.
At first she would walk straight past the door with her head down and her eyes fixed on the sensible shoes, but gradually she progressed from a side wards glance through to a smile and even a wave but on that night she stopped by the door and said
“Thank you for earlier”
“No problem” he replied “You shouldn’t let them talk to you like that, you don’t deserve it”
“Thank you” she said a smiled a wondrous smile “Good night”
“Good night Annest”
It was at that moment when he realized that she no longer fascinated him, his feelings for her had moved on.
So if not fascination was it then infatuation or was it even deeper than that.
And if it was the “L” word what the hell was he going to do about it.
The weekend following the realization that his heart had been reawakened he was sitting in his study contemplating his situation when there was a knock on his study door and when the door opened Thelma was standing there and she said.
“I think we need to talk”
“Yes” he agreed
They went into the lounge where Thelma opened a bottle of wine and filled two glances.
As they sat opposite each other they sipped their wine in silence for a more than ten minutes before she asked
“Are you happy Geoff?”
He stared at his glass for a moment before replying
“I was happy, once”
“Me too” she agreed sadly
There was another silence, shorter this time until Thelma took a deep breath and said
“We are both forty now but I still have hopes”
“Hopes?” Geoff asked
“Yes” she said “Hope that’s it’s not too late for one thing”
“What for us?”
“No, no,” she replied “for both of us”
“You mean its time?” Geoff said
“Yes, I think so” She replied
(Part 05)
By the end of that weekend after a lot of frank speaking and soul searching Thelma and Geoff had made their plans.
Though in all honesty Geoff did not lack the will he doubted his ability to achieve his aims.
And so he spent many hours in his study over the following days racking his brain as to just how he should proceed.
It was during one such session in his study that he was interrupted by a tapping on the door.
He sighed at the unwelcome interruption and got out of his chair and crossed the room and steeled himself to be rude to whoever it was who was intruding on his thoughts.
He pulled open the door sharply
“Wha…?” he began but stopped himself when he realized it was Annest.
“Oh hello”
“Am I interrupting?” she said quietly
“No not at all” he replied “How can I help?”
“Thelma sent me to get a thesaurus, she said you have one” Annest said getting almost the whole sentence out without staring at her shoes.
“Yes I do” he said “Come in, it’s on the bookcase behind the door”
Annest stepped inside the room so he could close the door and they could both see the bookcase.
“I think it’s on the middle shelf” Geoff said and was scanning along the row
“There it is” she said excitedly and reached for it but she was such a nervous little kitten that she fumbled the book and it fell to the floor.
“Oh shit” she said which made Geoff laugh
They both crouched down in unison to pick up the thesaurus and they found themselves nose to nose and inexplicably and without any warning she kissed him with her soft pale pink lips that tasted of peppermint.
For about 30 seconds they remained crouching down by the bookcase with no other contact other than their lips, and then all too soon it came to an abrupt end and she got hurriedly to her feet.
“Oh God I’m so sorry” she said and turned red faced to leave, but the door was closed and she had nowhere to go.
She was like a terrified rabbit caught in the headlights and repeated over and over “I’m sorry I’m sorry”
“Hush” Geoff said as he got to his feet “Hush”
And he lifted her chin so he could see her eyes and added “it’s ok”
Then with his hand still on her chin he guided her lips back to his.
After a long and prolonged kiss Geoff hugged her to his chest, kissed the top of her head and said
“Was it just the one book you were after?”
“For now” Annest said and giggled
“You’d better go before they send out a search party” Geoff said
“Do I have too?” she asked in a small mouse like voice.
“Yes” he said “for now”
Thelma smiled when she saw Annest return, looking flushed, to the lounge clutching the thesaurus to her chest.
She had hoped when Geoff had asked about Annest that it might lead somewhere and when she saw Geoff defending her against Marisa’s aggression that night at the meeting she knew.
And as she watched Annest blushing in the doorway she knew for sure it was mutual.
Although most of Thelma’s committee meetings were at Starlings but a couple of times a month the meetings were held elsewhere.
And the night after he and Annest had kissed in his study was one of those nights so he would have to wait another day before he saw her again.
He poured himself a drink and headed towards his sanctum when he heard Thelma coming down stairs.
“I’m off Geoff I’ll see you later” she said and smiled “Have fun”
“Bye” he replied a little confused by her cheerfulness.
As the front door closed firmly behind her he walked into the study and said to himself
“At least I’ll have a nice quiet evening”
(Part 06)
With his wife Thelma away from the house for a meeting, Geoff walked into his study and said to himself
“At least I’ll have a nice quiet evening”
But no sooner had his backside hit the leather of his Chesterfield than there was a loud knocking on the front door.
“I spoke too soon” he said getting up again “It had better not be Jehovah's Witnesses or I’ll tell them where they can stick their Watchtower”
He had opened the door expecting to find someone selling double glazing or upvc soffits or driveways but instead he found the little brunette who had stolen his heart.
“Hi” he said and his delight showed in the smile that lit up his whole face. “Come in”
“Thanks” She responded and stepped into the hall
“I didn’t expect to see you today” Geoff explained “The meeting isn’t being held here tonight, it’s at Daphne somebody’s”
“I didn’t come for the meeting” Annest said boldly “I came for this” and with that she stood on her tiptoes and kissed him
It was about an hour after they had made love in his bed and Annest said as she lay beside him with the duvet pulled up under her chin.
“What did we do?”
“Do you mean you’ve forgotten already?” Geoff replied laying on his side watching her “I thought it was quite memorable”
“No I didn’t mean that” she said and rolled over onto her side to face him, “That was wonderful”
“You haven’t done that for a while have you?” he asked
“No not since college, but it wasn’t like that” she confessed
“I’m glad” Geoff replied
“You made my toes curl” she said and blushed
“I’m glad about that too” He added
“Does that happen every time?” she asked
“I don’t know, why don’t we find out” Geoff said and kissed her as he caressed her tenderly beneath the duvet.
“Well that answered my question” she said letting out a satisfied sigh as she lay her head on his chest.
“Well I must say I’m a bit surprised at your brazen behaviour” Geoff said
“I’m a jezebel” Annest responded proudly
“I thought you were a good Christian girl and here you are sleeping with a married man” He pointed out “doesn’t it make you feel wicked?”
“A little” she admitted “but I had permission”
“From who?” he asked with surprise
“Thelma” she replied
“I see” He said smiling to himself, he realized at that moment why Thelma had left the house so cheerfully and instructed him to have fun.
“What about you” Asked Annest “don’t you feel guilty for committing adultery?”
“No for a second” he replied
“You don’t?” she asked with surprise
“No because I too had permission”
“From who?” she demanded
“Thelma” he replied
“Of course you did”
And for the next half an hour there they lay in each other’s arms dosing in the semi darkness.
“What do we do now?” She asked when they were both awake.
“Well not that” Geoff replied positively “I’m not 18 years old you anymore you know”
“I didn’t mean that” Annest said and blushed “I mean where do we go from here”
“Well Thelma and I are divorcing” he explained “Did you know?”
“Yes she told me”
“And I have been offered a job at a new Engineering company” Geoff added “It’s a good job and it comes with a house”
“Oh, where?”
“Mornington”
“Oh” she exclaimed and the mouse had suddenly returned
“Don’t say it like that, it’s not like it’s the other side of the world”
“It might just as well be” Annest responded
“Don’t look sad” he said and lifted her chin up so he could see her eyes, which were filling with tears.
“When do you start?” she asked
“January 5th, if I decided to take it” he said “but you know what they say “New Year New Start””
“So soon?”
“Is that not enough time for you?” he asked
“What do you mean?”
“Well obviously I won’t accept the job unless you come with me”
“Me?” Annest asked in disbelief
“Of course you” he replied matter-of-factly
“Really?”
“Yes really” he confirmed
“I’ve only ever lived in Purplemere” she said softly
“So?”
“Where will I work?”
“We can start looking tomorrow” he said “there will probably be something at Topliss”
“Is that where you’ll be working?”
“Yes” he replied “So what do you think?”
“I think “New Year New Start”” she said and kissed him
“You do realize that until my divorce comes through we shall have to live in sin”
“And where exactly will sin be located?” she asked
“Well our particular den of sinfulness will be 21 Military Row, in Mornington village”
(Part 07)
Geoff had left Annest laying smugly beneath the covers in his bedroom.
In order that she could redress alone because he knew she was shy and modest, he liked that about her, amongst other things.
So he was already down stairs when she walked down the staircase managing to make her five foot nothing stature appear twice the height due to her self-satisfaction with the evening’s events.
You said “until my divorce comes through”” Annest said
“Yes I did say that” he agreed
“So what happens after your divorce then?” she asked as she put her coat on
“Well isn’t it obvious?” he asked
And Annest just shook her head in response
“You really don’t know?”
“No” she replied
“Well you’ll have to marry me of course” Geoff stated matter-of-factly
“What?”
“Don’t get all coy” he said with false pomposity, “I have my reputation to protect”
“You and me?” she asked
“Unless you have someone else in mind for me”
“No, no one” she said with a quizzical look on her face
“That’s alright then”
“You want to marry me?” Annest asked
“That was the general idea” he said “I’m sorry it can’t be a church wedding but with me being a recent divorcee”
“You really want to marry me” she repeated though not a question this time.
“Of course I do, haven’t you been paying attention?”
He stopped and smiled at her and said “Well?”
“Well I think you have been rather presumptuous” she said haughtily
“Fare enough there was a girl at Tesco’s I rather liked the look of” he said and made towards the door
“Don’t you dare” she said and blocked his path
“So what’s your answer?”
“You haven’t asked a question yet” she said
“Oh it’s like that is it?”
“If you think I’m worth it you should do things properly”
“I won’t bother then” he said and she slapped him on the chest
“Ow” he said “You bully”
“You know what to do” she said and brandished her fist at him
“And they say romance is dead” he said and dropped to one knee and took hold of her hand
“Annest Anderton will you ma…?”
“Yes” she shouted and grappled him around the neck
They were still locked in an embrace when the front door opened and Thelma stepped inside.
“Ah, I see it all went well then” she said
“Yes” they chorused
As they were moving into a rented house in Mornington there were no time pressures to sell their properties, Thelma was still going to live at Starlings in the short term, until she decided what was best for her and Annest decided to let out her flat, her thinking was that the rent form the flat would at least give her some income in case it took her a while to find work in Mornington, she had no idea how many job opportunities there would be in a village.
The other thing was that she had only ever lived in Purplemere so the thought of severing every connection with the place worried her, if only in the slightest.
Though she harbored no worries in regard to Geoff she was as sure of him as it was possible to be.
She had thought for a while she might keep her job at St John’s church.
But in the end she decided that driving to and from work every day would eat into the time she would otherwise spend with Geoff.
As it turned out she needn’t have worried on either score.
The village of Mornington was thriving under the stewardship of the St George family and the reacquisition of the previously compulsory purchase land and the infrastructure of the old military airfield had brought new opportunities.
Their new life officially began not in the New Year but on December the 16th when they moved into 21 Military Row, a house they would occupy for the rest of their lives.
On January the 5th Geoff began work at Topliss Engineering and 3 weeks later Annest became the Administration Manager.
Annest’s life had finally began in earnest she had a lovely home that she shared with the man she loved, a job that played to all of her strengths and fulfilled her.
However Annest never wavered from her taste for woolly tights and sensible shoes but she never again concentrated her haze on them.
She also had that thing which had always eluded her, she had an abundance of friends.
Geoff and Annest were married in Purplemere registry office on December 16th exactly one year after they first moved in together and among the many well-wishers present was Thelma and the new man in her life.
The Finchbottom Vale is nestled 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.
The Vale was once a great wetland that centuries earlier stretched from Mornington in the East to Childean in the west and from Shallowfield in the south to Purplemere in the north.
But over the many centuries the vast majority had been drained for agriculture, a feat achieved largely by the efforts of famous Mornington Mills, of which only three had survived to the present day and even those were no longer functional and were in various states of repair.
There were only three small bodies of water left in the Vale now one in Mornington, one in Childean and third of course was Purplemere.
Throughout its history the Finchbottom Vale was largely dependent on agriculture and so it remained into the 21st century.
To the north of the Vale, in the lee of Pepperstock Hills, lay the modest town of Purplemere.
On the western side of the town was the residential area known as Hill Side, and in one of its many quiet road, called Oakham Crescent was Starlings House the home of Geoffrey and Thelma Haycock.
The pair had been married for twenty years and the overwhelming emotion in their union had grown to be indifference.
There was no love between them, which was a great shame, because it wasn’t always so.
They met and married while at University, it was love at first sight, she was a willowy cello playing student of sociology and he was a rugby playing budding engineer.
Not perhaps an obvious match on the face of it but it was without doubt a love match.
When they were first married their love was all consuming and were a very loving couple and could never have envisaged being apart.
These feelings continued into their post graduate years until after ten years of marriage and a succession of miscarriages and the realization she would never bear a child the love faded first into uneasy friendship and finally to mere tolerance.
But for some reason they stayed together for another ten years, for his part he stayed with Thelma for the sake of the love that was once so abundant, for Thelma it was a kind of self-flagellation, Geoff was like a hair shirt.
It was to remind her of her failure as a wife and a woman.
By the time they reached their milestone 40th birthdays, which were only a week apart, they were complete strangers sharing a house, separate beds, separate rooms and separate lives.
He had survived the lonely years through his books and his work but whereas his books were as reliable as ever they had been his job had turned sour and he wasn’t sure what the future held.
Thelma coped with the emptiness in her life by throwing herself headlong into her work as a social worker and with endless voluntary work with the Citizens advice bureau and then there was the Women’s Institute, the parish council, committees for this, meetings for that and always organizing something and constantly planning for some event or other.
As a result the large house they shared in Purplemere was always hosting some meeting or group or subcommittee.
The house that they bought when they were in love, so it would one day be filled with laughing children, was instead full of chattering do-gooders.
(Part 02)
On the many evenings the house was taken over by Thelma and her cronies, Geoff either went out or more often than not hid himself away in his study with his books.
He would sit in big leather chair with a book in his lap and his headphones on to drown out the chattering.
And that was how he would spend his evenings a good book and Rachmaninov or Mahler for company.
It was on one such evening when he first saw her.
He had been to the kitchen to get himself a coffee and it was when he was on the return leg to his study when there was a knock on the front door and as he was the closest he diverted to open it.
When he had done so he found a small woman in her early thirties with bobbed brown hair on the other side of it where she stood at the threshold staring down at her sensible shoes.
When she looked up she said in a small timid voice
“Hello, I’m Annest, I’m here for the meeting”
“Annest?” Geoff said “what a beautiful name”
“Thank you” she responded as her eyes returned to her shoes
“I’m Geoff, come in. the meeting is at the end of the hall”
She gave a weak smile and walked on down the hall and Geoff paused to watch her as she progressed in her black woolly tights and sensible shoes.
A nervous little kitten headed into the lion’s den.
When he was seated back in his study he Googled the name Annest and found it was of Greek origin and meant "pure or holy"
Over the following weeks he came to recognize her delicate knock on the door and more often than not managed to get there first to let her in.
She always appeared at the door the same way, eyes fixed on her shoes, dressed in black woolly tights and rather frumpy understated garb.
And when she finally glanced up he would see she wore little or no makeup, the merest hint if any at all, nothing to make her noticed, understated like her clothes, leaving her almost anonymous.
He found that the new visitor was so different from his wife’s normal cronies that she rather fascinated him.
As his curiosity was roused on one of the rare days when he and Thelma were engaged in rare conversation he said
“I noticed you have a new face among your number of late”
“Well there are several actually, which one do you mean?” she replied tersely
“Five foot nothing and sensible shoes” he clarified
“Oh the mouse” she replied
“Mouse?”
“Yes the others call her “mouse” as in “quiet as a church mouse”
“Because?”
“Because she’s quiet and she spends a lot of time at the church”
She snapped
“Why are you so interested?”
“I’m just curious” he replied “she just doesn’t seem to fit with your normal intake”
“No she doesn’t” Thelma agreed “A nice girl though and she’s very efficient, she actually does everything she’s asked to do in a timely fashion, most don’t”
And then as if to anticipate his next question she added
“I met her when she volunteered at the Citizens Advice Bureau”
And before he had a chance to respond she left the room.
Later that day Thelma was in the kitchen and as she stood at the kitchen sink she was watching the man she had once loved to distraction as he stood on the lawn raking up the autumn leaves.
Thelma regretted being sharp with Geoff earlier, it was the first time they had spoken sentences to each other for months and it was also the first time he had shown any interest in anything other than his books and music for years.
As she reflected on the conversation she hoped he had asked about Annest out of more than just curiosity as he had suggested and that it might lead somewhere because she had come to realize that things had to change.
Her fortieth birthday had been a watershed for her and when someone at work said
“Life begins at 40”
“Yes it does” she replied
That simple phrase “Life begins at 40” had really struck a chord and she thought about it and decided that hers very definitely would.
(Part 03)
Annest Anderton was a thirty two year old spinster who had lived her whole life in the parish of St Johns in Purplemere.
She was brought up to be a miracle child by her mother who was 44 when she fell pregnant and her father was ten years older than her, and both her parents doted on their miracle all her life.
But as often happens to an only child born to middle-aged parents she ended up caring for them when infirmity struck.
First her father with Parkinson’s and then her mother with dementia.
She was 28 when, within weeks of each other, she lost both parents and she was all alone, by which time the world had moved on and left her behind.
In the 5 years since her parents deaths she had made herself a very busy person, she worked four days a week as an administrator at St John’s Church in Purplemere, which was a large Victorian building in the town center, on Fridays she volunteered at the Citizens Advice Bureau also in the town center and on Saturdays she ran the church bookshop.
On Sunday’s she spent most of the day at church either worshiping or helping out in some capacity, Sunday school, serving drinks or setting up.
And in the evening’s she had recently become involved with Thelma Haycock’s committees.
So in fact she was an exceptionally busy person and the reason for her busyness was that she was lonely excruciatingly lonely.
And she thought that if she kept herself busy she wouldn’t have the time to notice her loneliness.
It didn’t work of course but she did it anyway.
She had hoped to make some friends among the committee members but the majority of the people on Thelma’s committees were not people of faith with the exception of the parish council and church event committees and those of a secular disposition seemed to resent her because of her faith.
Mainly they disliked her because she made them look bad, because she actually did what she promise to do.
Thelma was pleasant enough with her and her husband Geoff was always nice and she chatted with some of the members but she hadn’t made any friendships that extended beyond the meetings.
Some of the women were actually quite unpleasant to her and one in particular, Marisa Loock, was a bully.
She was a big unit from Holland build like a shot putter and had the personality of a storm trooper.
Geoff Haycock answered the door to Annest as he often did and they exchanged smiles and pleasantries as normal.
And then Geoff watched Annest as she went down the hall and then there was an increase in the volume of the murmurs as she went in.
Geoff was on his way to the kitchen to get his coffee when there was another knock, so he turned around and opened it and Lisa Gumbrell, a sour faced middle-aged woman pushed past him.
“And a heartfelt good evening to you too” Geoff said
And the woman just snorted in response.
He followed her down the hall as she walked into the lounge and he looked in and saw Annest seated nearest the door and she glanced in his direction and smiled.
He was returning her smile as Marisa Loock turned and said
“Anne! Anne! Let Lisa sit there”
“Annest” she retorted politely
“What?” The storm trooper barked
“Annest” she repeated “My name is Annest”
“Whatever, you need to move to let Lisa sit there”
Annest looked around her and asked
“Where will I sit?”
“Somewhere else” Marisa growled
Geoff was stood in the threshold of the door and had heard the exchange
“You old cow” he wanted to say but instead he said
“Stay there Annest, I’ll get another chair for the late comer”
(Part 04)
For some reason he felt protective of her and when he spoke to her she looked up and smiled, she had a lovely smile when she chose to deploy it.
So when he witnessed her being bullied by the by Marisa Loock he was moved to intervene.
“Stay there Annest, I’ll get another chair for the late comer” he said
“Or you could just move” Marisa said to her in an intimidating tone
“That’s settled then Annest will stay where she is and I’ll fetch another chair” Geoff corrected her and Marisa and Lisa both turned and glared at him.
If their aggressive display was intended to disarm him it failed miserably, he was after all a rugby union player until only a few years earlier.
There were two chairs in easy reach of where he was, one was in the kitchen and the other in his study, the one in the study had a wobbly leg so he went and got that one.
When he returned to the lounge Marisa was still trying to bully Annest into moving.
“I don’t know why you’re being so selfish” she snarled “and causing all this fuss when you could just have moved”
“I looks to me like you’re the one making all the fuss”
Geoff said and set the wonky chair down
Marisa then turned her focus on him and was about to speak when he leant down and said in a hushed tone
“Before you say another word, just remember you are a guest in this house”
As he straightened up he glanced over at Thelma and she was smiling at him, he smiled back and as he left the room he thought how much he’d missed that smile.
Geoff had taken to leaving his study door open towards the end of the evening over the two months since Annest first knocked on the front door so he could see when people were leaving or to be more precise when she was leaving.
At first she would walk straight past the door with her head down and her eyes fixed on the sensible shoes, but gradually she progressed from a side wards glance through to a smile and even a wave but on that night she stopped by the door and said
“Thank you for earlier”
“No problem” he replied “You shouldn’t let them talk to you like that, you don’t deserve it”
“Thank you” she said a smiled a wondrous smile “Good night”
“Good night Annest”
It was at that moment when he realized that she no longer fascinated him, his feelings for her had moved on.
So if not fascination was it then infatuation or was it even deeper than that.
And if it was the “L” word what the hell was he going to do about it.
The weekend following the realization that his heart had been reawakened he was sitting in his study contemplating his situation when there was a knock on his study door and when the door opened Thelma was standing there and she said.
“I think we need to talk”
“Yes” he agreed
They went into the lounge where Thelma opened a bottle of wine and filled two glances.
As they sat opposite each other they sipped their wine in silence for a more than ten minutes before she asked
“Are you happy Geoff?”
He stared at his glass for a moment before replying
“I was happy, once”
“Me too” she agreed sadly
There was another silence, shorter this time until Thelma took a deep breath and said
“We are both forty now but I still have hopes”
“Hopes?” Geoff asked
“Yes” she said “Hope that’s it’s not too late for one thing”
“What for us?”
“No, no,” she replied “for both of us”
“You mean its time?” Geoff said
“Yes, I think so” She replied
(Part 05)
By the end of that weekend after a lot of frank speaking and soul searching Thelma and Geoff had made their plans.
Though in all honesty Geoff did not lack the will he doubted his ability to achieve his aims.
And so he spent many hours in his study over the following days racking his brain as to just how he should proceed.
It was during one such session in his study that he was interrupted by a tapping on the door.
He sighed at the unwelcome interruption and got out of his chair and crossed the room and steeled himself to be rude to whoever it was who was intruding on his thoughts.
He pulled open the door sharply
“Wha…?” he began but stopped himself when he realized it was Annest.
“Oh hello”
“Am I interrupting?” she said quietly
“No not at all” he replied “How can I help?”
“Thelma sent me to get a thesaurus, she said you have one” Annest said getting almost the whole sentence out without staring at her shoes.
“Yes I do” he said “Come in, it’s on the bookcase behind the door”
Annest stepped inside the room so he could close the door and they could both see the bookcase.
“I think it’s on the middle shelf” Geoff said and was scanning along the row
“There it is” she said excitedly and reached for it but she was such a nervous little kitten that she fumbled the book and it fell to the floor.
“Oh shit” she said which made Geoff laugh
They both crouched down in unison to pick up the thesaurus and they found themselves nose to nose and inexplicably and without any warning she kissed him with her soft pale pink lips that tasted of peppermint.
For about 30 seconds they remained crouching down by the bookcase with no other contact other than their lips, and then all too soon it came to an abrupt end and she got hurriedly to her feet.
“Oh God I’m so sorry” she said and turned red faced to leave, but the door was closed and she had nowhere to go.
She was like a terrified rabbit caught in the headlights and repeated over and over “I’m sorry I’m sorry”
“Hush” Geoff said as he got to his feet “Hush”
And he lifted her chin so he could see her eyes and added “it’s ok”
Then with his hand still on her chin he guided her lips back to his.
After a long and prolonged kiss Geoff hugged her to his chest, kissed the top of her head and said
“Was it just the one book you were after?”
“For now” Annest said and giggled
“You’d better go before they send out a search party” Geoff said
“Do I have too?” she asked in a small mouse like voice.
“Yes” he said “for now”
Thelma smiled when she saw Annest return, looking flushed, to the lounge clutching the thesaurus to her chest.
She had hoped when Geoff had asked about Annest that it might lead somewhere and when she saw Geoff defending her against Marisa’s aggression that night at the meeting she knew.
And as she watched Annest blushing in the doorway she knew for sure it was mutual.
Although most of Thelma’s committee meetings were at Starlings but a couple of times a month the meetings were held elsewhere.
And the night after he and Annest had kissed in his study was one of those nights so he would have to wait another day before he saw her again.
He poured himself a drink and headed towards his sanctum when he heard Thelma coming down stairs.
“I’m off Geoff I’ll see you later” she said and smiled “Have fun”
“Bye” he replied a little confused by her cheerfulness.
As the front door closed firmly behind her he walked into the study and said to himself
“At least I’ll have a nice quiet evening”
(Part 06)
With his wife Thelma away from the house for a meeting, Geoff walked into his study and said to himself
“At least I’ll have a nice quiet evening”
But no sooner had his backside hit the leather of his Chesterfield than there was a loud knocking on the front door.
“I spoke too soon” he said getting up again “It had better not be Jehovah's Witnesses or I’ll tell them where they can stick their Watchtower”
He had opened the door expecting to find someone selling double glazing or upvc soffits or driveways but instead he found the little brunette who had stolen his heart.
“Hi” he said and his delight showed in the smile that lit up his whole face. “Come in”
“Thanks” She responded and stepped into the hall
“I didn’t expect to see you today” Geoff explained “The meeting isn’t being held here tonight, it’s at Daphne somebody’s”
“I didn’t come for the meeting” Annest said boldly “I came for this” and with that she stood on her tiptoes and kissed him
It was about an hour after they had made love in his bed and Annest said as she lay beside him with the duvet pulled up under her chin.
“What did we do?”
“Do you mean you’ve forgotten already?” Geoff replied laying on his side watching her “I thought it was quite memorable”
“No I didn’t mean that” she said and rolled over onto her side to face him, “That was wonderful”
“You haven’t done that for a while have you?” he asked
“No not since college, but it wasn’t like that” she confessed
“I’m glad” Geoff replied
“You made my toes curl” she said and blushed
“I’m glad about that too” He added
“Does that happen every time?” she asked
“I don’t know, why don’t we find out” Geoff said and kissed her as he caressed her tenderly beneath the duvet.
“Well that answered my question” she said letting out a satisfied sigh as she lay her head on his chest.
“Well I must say I’m a bit surprised at your brazen behaviour” Geoff said
“I’m a jezebel” Annest responded proudly
“I thought you were a good Christian girl and here you are sleeping with a married man” He pointed out “doesn’t it make you feel wicked?”
“A little” she admitted “but I had permission”
“From who?” he asked with surprise
“Thelma” she replied
“I see” He said smiling to himself, he realized at that moment why Thelma had left the house so cheerfully and instructed him to have fun.
“What about you” Asked Annest “don’t you feel guilty for committing adultery?”
“No for a second” he replied
“You don’t?” she asked with surprise
“No because I too had permission”
“From who?” she demanded
“Thelma” he replied
“Of course you did”
And for the next half an hour there they lay in each other’s arms dosing in the semi darkness.
“What do we do now?” She asked when they were both awake.
“Well not that” Geoff replied positively “I’m not 18 years old you anymore you know”
“I didn’t mean that” Annest said and blushed “I mean where do we go from here”
“Well Thelma and I are divorcing” he explained “Did you know?”
“Yes she told me”
“And I have been offered a job at a new Engineering company” Geoff added “It’s a good job and it comes with a house”
“Oh, where?”
“Mornington”
“Oh” she exclaimed and the mouse had suddenly returned
“Don’t say it like that, it’s not like it’s the other side of the world”
“It might just as well be” Annest responded
“Don’t look sad” he said and lifted her chin up so he could see her eyes, which were filling with tears.
“When do you start?” she asked
“January 5th, if I decided to take it” he said “but you know what they say “New Year New Start””
“So soon?”
“Is that not enough time for you?” he asked
“What do you mean?”
“Well obviously I won’t accept the job unless you come with me”
“Me?” Annest asked in disbelief
“Of course you” he replied matter-of-factly
“Really?”
“Yes really” he confirmed
“I’ve only ever lived in Purplemere” she said softly
“So?”
“Where will I work?”
“We can start looking tomorrow” he said “there will probably be something at Topliss”
“Is that where you’ll be working?”
“Yes” he replied “So what do you think?”
“I think “New Year New Start”” she said and kissed him
“You do realize that until my divorce comes through we shall have to live in sin”
“And where exactly will sin be located?” she asked
“Well our particular den of sinfulness will be 21 Military Row, in Mornington village”
(Part 07)
Geoff had left Annest laying smugly beneath the covers in his bedroom.
In order that she could redress alone because he knew she was shy and modest, he liked that about her, amongst other things.
So he was already down stairs when she walked down the staircase managing to make her five foot nothing stature appear twice the height due to her self-satisfaction with the evening’s events.
You said “until my divorce comes through”” Annest said
“Yes I did say that” he agreed
“So what happens after your divorce then?” she asked as she put her coat on
“Well isn’t it obvious?” he asked
And Annest just shook her head in response
“You really don’t know?”
“No” she replied
“Well you’ll have to marry me of course” Geoff stated matter-of-factly
“What?”
“Don’t get all coy” he said with false pomposity, “I have my reputation to protect”
“You and me?” she asked
“Unless you have someone else in mind for me”
“No, no one” she said with a quizzical look on her face
“That’s alright then”
“You want to marry me?” Annest asked
“That was the general idea” he said “I’m sorry it can’t be a church wedding but with me being a recent divorcee”
“You really want to marry me” she repeated though not a question this time.
“Of course I do, haven’t you been paying attention?”
He stopped and smiled at her and said “Well?”
“Well I think you have been rather presumptuous” she said haughtily
“Fare enough there was a girl at Tesco’s I rather liked the look of” he said and made towards the door
“Don’t you dare” she said and blocked his path
“So what’s your answer?”
“You haven’t asked a question yet” she said
“Oh it’s like that is it?”
“If you think I’m worth it you should do things properly”
“I won’t bother then” he said and she slapped him on the chest
“Ow” he said “You bully”
“You know what to do” she said and brandished her fist at him
“And they say romance is dead” he said and dropped to one knee and took hold of her hand
“Annest Anderton will you ma…?”
“Yes” she shouted and grappled him around the neck
They were still locked in an embrace when the front door opened and Thelma stepped inside.
“Ah, I see it all went well then” she said
“Yes” they chorused
As they were moving into a rented house in Mornington there were no time pressures to sell their properties, Thelma was still going to live at Starlings in the short term, until she decided what was best for her and Annest decided to let out her flat, her thinking was that the rent form the flat would at least give her some income in case it took her a while to find work in Mornington, she had no idea how many job opportunities there would be in a village.
The other thing was that she had only ever lived in Purplemere so the thought of severing every connection with the place worried her, if only in the slightest.
Though she harbored no worries in regard to Geoff she was as sure of him as it was possible to be.
She had thought for a while she might keep her job at St John’s church.
But in the end she decided that driving to and from work every day would eat into the time she would otherwise spend with Geoff.
As it turned out she needn’t have worried on either score.
The village of Mornington was thriving under the stewardship of the St George family and the reacquisition of the previously compulsory purchase land and the infrastructure of the old military airfield had brought new opportunities.
Their new life officially began not in the New Year but on December the 16th when they moved into 21 Military Row, a house they would occupy for the rest of their lives.
On January the 5th Geoff began work at Topliss Engineering and 3 weeks later Annest became the Administration Manager.
Annest’s life had finally began in earnest she had a lovely home that she shared with the man she loved, a job that played to all of her strengths and fulfilled her.
However Annest never wavered from her taste for woolly tights and sensible shoes but she never again concentrated her haze on them.
She also had that thing which had always eluded her, she had an abundance of friends.
Geoff and Annest were married in Purplemere registry office on December 16th exactly one year after they first moved in together and among the many well-wishers present was Thelma and the new man in her life.
Friday 24 February 2017
Tales of Love # 20
IF I HAD ONLY KNOWN # 1
If I had only known
It would be the last time
I'd see you fall asleep
I would have stayed
A little longer and
Lingered at your bedside
Holding your hand
As you slipped
Silently away
To be at peace
AS STREAKS OF GOLD APPEAR IN THE WESTERN SKY
As streaks of gold appear in the western sky
I look into her hypnotic green eyes and sigh
With her in my arms and romance in my heart,
As the sunset glowed, I vowed we’d never part
THE SLIGHTEST TWINKLE
The slightest twinkle
Was evident
In her shining eyes
The hint of a smile
Played about her lips
And her mouth
Went up at the corners
Almost unperceptively
Her whole countenance
Held in that moment
On the brink
And as the words
Left my lips
The status quo
Was swept away
As the delight
Spread across her face
And my question
Was answered
In the affirmative
WHO’S STORY OF LOVE
Who’s story of love
Is written in the stars
Is it the Greeks of old?
Or could it be ours?
HER FATHER DRANK BLACK BITTER COFFEE
Her father drank black bitter coffee
Her mother sipped earl grey tea
As I stood before her parents
I was full of fear and anxiety
It was a very daunting experience
And it was not at all as I planned
I was there for a noble purpose
To ask for their daughters hand
As the object of my attentions
Sat demurely drinking her juice
Her father started choking
And mother turned strangely puce
We left the house hand in hand
Running head long from the pair
They had both forbad consent
But the lovers really didn’t care
So they went to the Savoy Hotel
And ordered chilled Chardonnay
which came in crystal goblets
Carried on a large silver tray
They sat in luxury surroundings
Until the bottle was empty
And their hearts were full of love
And their future was full of plenty
IF I HAD ONLY KNOWN # 2
If I had only known
It would be the last time
I would see you
Walk out the door
I would have
Called you back
And hugged and kissed
You even more
MY STRAWBERRY BLONDE
My strawberry blonde
Always topped my list
With Alabaster skin,
Apple blossom kissed
Smooth and silken soft
Just as I had wished
But that was long ago
Now she is sadly missed
WE HAVE LIVED OUR LIVES TOGETHER
We have lived our lives together
And we have reached our Novembers
The once burning fires of our lives
Have been reduced to meagre embers
And yet we can still look forward
To us both sharing our Decembers
I MISS YOU ALL THE TIME
I miss you all the time
You were my shining sun
And there is an emptiness
But when all said and done
There’s nothing lonelier
Than dinner for one
THE SUN AND MOON
The sun and moon
Where once in love
But the sun burned hot
With want and desire
While the moon
Was cool and aloof
So they were destined
To be Star-crossed
For all eternity
IF I HAD ONLY KNOWN # 3
If I had only known
It would be the last time
That I would ever see you
I would have stayed
A moment longer
And lingered at your bedside
As I said goodbye
And told you once again
How much I loved you
MESMERISING CHARMS
Mesmerising charms
Led me to her arms
A loving place
So why should I run?
Love in my heart
I want to share
But I hold back
And I want to run
Fear is the key,
A deep fear in me
Of being hurt
So I want to run
I need the key
To unlock the chains
That bind my heart
So I won’t run
I LOOK BACK FONDLY
I look back fondly
To those early days
When we would sit together
On the winter evenings
Beside the roaring fire
And we would sit and talk
Laughing and chatting
In the orange glow
Late into the evening
Until the embers cooled
ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE
The grass is always greener
And the senses were keener
So I committed a misdemeanour
And when away she flew
To her green pastures new
My foolish heart was torn in two
If I had only known
It would be the last time
I'd see you fall asleep
I would have stayed
A little longer and
Lingered at your bedside
Holding your hand
As you slipped
Silently away
To be at peace
AS STREAKS OF GOLD APPEAR IN THE WESTERN SKY
As streaks of gold appear in the western sky
I look into her hypnotic green eyes and sigh
With her in my arms and romance in my heart,
As the sunset glowed, I vowed we’d never part
THE SLIGHTEST TWINKLE
The slightest twinkle
Was evident
In her shining eyes
The hint of a smile
Played about her lips
And her mouth
Went up at the corners
Almost unperceptively
Her whole countenance
Held in that moment
On the brink
And as the words
Left my lips
The status quo
Was swept away
As the delight
Spread across her face
And my question
Was answered
In the affirmative
WHO’S STORY OF LOVE
Who’s story of love
Is written in the stars
Is it the Greeks of old?
Or could it be ours?
HER FATHER DRANK BLACK BITTER COFFEE
Her father drank black bitter coffee
Her mother sipped earl grey tea
As I stood before her parents
I was full of fear and anxiety
It was a very daunting experience
And it was not at all as I planned
I was there for a noble purpose
To ask for their daughters hand
As the object of my attentions
Sat demurely drinking her juice
Her father started choking
And mother turned strangely puce
We left the house hand in hand
Running head long from the pair
They had both forbad consent
But the lovers really didn’t care
So they went to the Savoy Hotel
And ordered chilled Chardonnay
which came in crystal goblets
Carried on a large silver tray
They sat in luxury surroundings
Until the bottle was empty
And their hearts were full of love
And their future was full of plenty
IF I HAD ONLY KNOWN # 2
If I had only known
It would be the last time
I would see you
Walk out the door
I would have
Called you back
And hugged and kissed
You even more
MY STRAWBERRY BLONDE
My strawberry blonde
Always topped my list
With Alabaster skin,
Apple blossom kissed
Smooth and silken soft
Just as I had wished
But that was long ago
Now she is sadly missed
WE HAVE LIVED OUR LIVES TOGETHER
We have lived our lives together
And we have reached our Novembers
The once burning fires of our lives
Have been reduced to meagre embers
And yet we can still look forward
To us both sharing our Decembers
I MISS YOU ALL THE TIME
I miss you all the time
You were my shining sun
And there is an emptiness
But when all said and done
There’s nothing lonelier
Than dinner for one
THE SUN AND MOON
The sun and moon
Where once in love
But the sun burned hot
With want and desire
While the moon
Was cool and aloof
So they were destined
To be Star-crossed
For all eternity
IF I HAD ONLY KNOWN # 3
If I had only known
It would be the last time
That I would ever see you
I would have stayed
A moment longer
And lingered at your bedside
As I said goodbye
And told you once again
How much I loved you
MESMERISING CHARMS
Mesmerising charms
Led me to her arms
A loving place
So why should I run?
Love in my heart
I want to share
But I hold back
And I want to run
Fear is the key,
A deep fear in me
Of being hurt
So I want to run
I need the key
To unlock the chains
That bind my heart
So I won’t run
I LOOK BACK FONDLY
I look back fondly
To those early days
When we would sit together
On the winter evenings
Beside the roaring fire
And we would sit and talk
Laughing and chatting
In the orange glow
Late into the evening
Until the embers cooled
ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE
The grass is always greener
And the senses were keener
So I committed a misdemeanour
And when away she flew
To her green pastures new
My foolish heart was torn in two
Gone Are Those Joyful Days
Gone is that joyful day
When we stood before God
Humble in his blessed presence
And we were joined as one
Everything ahead of us
Gone are those joyful days
Full of love and laughter
Days of tender moments
And heady nights of passion
Everything ahead of us
Gone are those joyful days
When we walked along the shore line
Sunlight glinting on the water
The sea breeze blowing through our hair
Happy and carefree, hand in hand
Everything ahead of us
Gone are those joyful days
When God blessed our union
And delivered perfect joy into our lives
As our little family grew
And we had everything we desired
Gone are those joyful days
When your smile lit up my life
And my heart brimmed over with love for you
Before it was broken in two
And you were still here with us
Gone are the joyful days
Since you have gone ahead of me
Now God has you by his side
And I will miss you deeply until that day
When God has reunited us
I look forward to that joyful day
When we stand once more together
But though my heart is broken
I must delay our reunion
Our sweet children need me
And I must love them double now
When we stood before God
Humble in his blessed presence
And we were joined as one
Everything ahead of us
Gone are those joyful days
Full of love and laughter
Days of tender moments
And heady nights of passion
Everything ahead of us
Gone are those joyful days
When we walked along the shore line
Sunlight glinting on the water
The sea breeze blowing through our hair
Happy and carefree, hand in hand
Everything ahead of us
Gone are those joyful days
When God blessed our union
And delivered perfect joy into our lives
As our little family grew
And we had everything we desired
Gone are those joyful days
When your smile lit up my life
And my heart brimmed over with love for you
Before it was broken in two
And you were still here with us
Gone are the joyful days
Since you have gone ahead of me
Now God has you by his side
And I will miss you deeply until that day
When God has reunited us
I look forward to that joyful day
When we stand once more together
But though my heart is broken
I must delay our reunion
Our sweet children need me
And I must love them double now
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