The Clerembeax’s arrived in Downshire following the Norman conquests and stayed for a thousand years before the name died out following the death of the reclusive Marcus Clerembeax at the age of 96.
He had lived alone, apart from a butler and a cook, for 50 years after the tragic deaths of his two sons in the hedonistic sixties as a result of an excess of drugs and alcohol.
His wife chose to deal with the loss by taking her own life the day after the funeral while Marcus decided his best course of action was to turn his back on the world and hide himself away.
Following his death in the autumn of 2015, with no direct heirs it took the Clerembeax solicitors, Beaumont, Villiers and Goodfellow, more than a year to find a legitimate Heir to inherit the estate, and that was 50 year old distant cousin Yvonne Labuschagne, and she took up residence in the January of 2017.
She was by profession a masseuse and had worked for many years along with her late husband at the Dancingdean Spa Hotel in Childean.
But with her inheritance she had the means and the venue to open her own Spa at the Clerembeax Palace but the house needed work.
The exterior was fine as the reclusive Marcus had been sensible enough to keep the fabric of the building well maintained.
She wasn’t sure about keeping the word “Palace” in the name because the building didn’t really look very palatial, mainly due to the fact that the original Clerembeax Palace burned down in the 19th century so the present manifestation was in fact a rather gaudy Victorian monstrosity in comparison, though it was not without its charms.
The interior had stood the test of time far less well and needed at the very least a lot of TLC.
The 19th century plumbing certainly wouldn’t stand the rigors of a 21st century Spa and the electrics needed a complete rewire.
While the Library was both a blessing and a curse, the latter because it took up so much space and the former because it was full of valuable old books, which was where Jennifer Bardsley and Paige Turners came in.
Her skill at seeking out the illusive and the obscure meant that Paige Turners were the “go to” people if you wanted something different, special or that which had eluded you.
So it was in her role as book expert extraordinaire that she was the first guest to stay at the Clerembeax, albeit a nonpaying one, while she catalogued the books and documents in the Library.
When she had completed her cataloguing and appraisal of the Library she gave Yvonne a ball park figure of what she might expect at auction from the rarest volumes and she nearly fainted.
The understanding when Paige Turners undertook the appraisal was that they would have first refusal on the contents at the market value but they recommended O’Sullivan and Springthorpe to sell the really valuable items at auction and Paige Turners would take a small commission.
Fifty-year-old Yvonne was a small dark-haired woman who had maintained her figure well over the years, and was widely considered to be attractive, but despite that she was on her own since her husband’s early death, and it was the one regret she had in her life, however she hoped that would change when the Spa was up and running.
But as part of the process Jennifer Bardsley introduced her to Account Manager, Gareth Fackrell from Paige Turners, who was handling the sale of the books through O’Sullivan and Springthorpe, and they got to spend quite a lot of time with each other, which suited Yvonne down to the ground.
The initial meetings took place at Paige Turners offices in Mornington, which Yvonne referred to as the “Bookworms”, but most of the times they met subsequently they were in coffee shops or pub restaurants, but she for one always looked forward to those meetings.
But as pleasant as those occasions were, there was never any breakdown of the client/account manager relationship.
However their final meeting was at the “Palace” on the eve of World Book Day, it was an impromptu meeting, called at short notice by Gareth, and despite the fact that their relationship had never been anything other than professional she still dressed up for the meeting.
“Gareth” Yvonne said and kissed his cheek “Come through to the kitchen”
“Hello Yvonne, sorry for the hastily arranged meeting but I have something I think you’ll be really happy to see”
“Really? I’m intrigued” she said and turned to face him.
“I have here” he said opening his brief case and taking out a document and putting it on the table, “the latest balance sheet including all of February sales, which equates to 80 percent of the contents of your library to date”
“What am I looking at?” she asked as she perused the balance sheet
“Well this is the crucial number” he said pointing it out.
“Ok, but what does it mean?”
“That is the total figure for book sales, less auctioneers fees and Paige Turners commission, that’s what it means”
“What?” she exclaimed “That’s… mine?”
“Yes every penny” he replied
“My God I didn’t realise there were so many Book Worms in the World” she said and then she began to jump up and down, squealing with delight, and then she threw her arms around Gareth and kissed him.
Which initially took him by surprise but he soon gathered himself and joined in, and as it was the first time she’d kissed a man other than her husband since she was at University, as well as being the first since her husbands died, it was one hell of a kiss.
