Catherine

by A J Hollingsworth

  CATHERINE

  A. J. Hollingsworth

  To my wife. My sun amongst the clouds.

  Other Novels by the Author:

  The Gold Hard Truth

  Chapter 1

  It was Saturday morning and there would be no alarm today. The alcohol consumed the previous night was laying heavy on her senses, as the sunlight exploded through the bedroom window arousing her in an unfamiliar haziness. It forced her eyes open, blinding them instantly from the light of her surroundings. She snuggled deeper into her luxurious Egyptian cotton sheets wishing to block herself away from consciousness and return to a deep pleasant sleep.

  Her eyes began to close just seconds before she heard footsteps exploding like a thunder storm on the bare wooden stairs. It was too late now, his voice would soon enough wake her and he would not leave her easily either. Not that she could be mad or blame him, today was their sixth year wedding anniversary and he was excited to celebrate it.

  Excited, was in fact, an understatement. He had been harping on for months about a surprise he had planned. She had attempted guess after guess ever since, but all he would respond to each with was, 'you'll have to wait sugar-cube'. Every time with a smirk on his lips, this just frustrated her. She hated surprises. There was the desire to be in control deep within her that fought her all the time, so much, it exhausted her.

  He understood more than most would have and was incredibly patient with her. He had been forbidden from cleaning the house for his sub-standard performance and she had even taken a night course in Italian cuisine at the local college. She had spent one night a week for three months learning a variety of Italian dishes all because he had burnt burgers one night. He begrudgingly admitted she was a fantastic cook.

  'Happy Anniversary my beautiful wife,' she heard the cheerful voice of her husband say as he entered the bedroom.

  'Another ten minutes, Nath!' she replied hoping he would leave scrunching her eyes shut.

  'Not today, Rach. Told you not to drink too much last night.'

  That was the last thing she needed to be told. If she had the strength she would have sarcastically clapped him for pointing out what was blatantly obvious. She, instead, rolled over onto her chest and buried her head in her pillow.

  'Do you not want to see what I've got for you?' he teased her.

  'Unless it's an instant hangover cure, then no!'

  She was awake now. The pounding of a million tiny miners from inside her skull, were numbing her from the joy that Nathan was clearly feeling. The clanging of crockery on her bedside table alerted her to what he had brought into the bedroom earlier. She didn't know what was on the plates but the thought of food had her stomach spinning faster than a fast cycle of a washing machine. She rolled over, this time with her eyes opened, to a wide smile gleaming from him as he was sat on his side of the bed just simply watching her. He wasn't interested in anything but her for that moment, he was content just to be watching her waking, albeit heavy eyed. He ignored the smell of stale alcohol radiating from her breathe into the air.

  'Hi gorgeous,' he said in a soft tone laying by Rachel's side.

  She smiled as she brushed her hair away from her face, lifted her arm from under the cotton sheets and stroked Nathan's arm as best as she could, her perception of space was off a little and she ended up stroking half of his arm and half the bed sheets.

  'Fancy some breakfast?' he continued.

  'Sure,' she replied shuffling herself up the bed, until she was sitting with her back resting against the headboard. Nathan had jumped off the bed previously, lifted a wooden breakfast tray over her knees, she looked down at the food with a smile. Placed in military fashion on the tray was a bowl of muesli in the middle of the tray with two slices of lightly buttered toast cut into love hearts to the right and two hard boiled eggs, each in their own egg cups to the left. Rachel lent over to Nathan who had rejoined her on the bed and softly kissed his lips.

  'Is that all I get for cooking you breakfast in bed?'

  'It's only a couple of eggs and toast. It's not Eggs Florentine!'

  'Are you criticising my cooking ability?'

  'I'm the better cook we both know that.'

  'Just because I slightly burnt a couple of burgers once!'

  'Slightly? They were that badly burnt you used them for your charcoal drawings.'

  Rachel and Nathan both started to giggle.

  ◆◆◆

  'Are you ready for your present?' Nathan asked as Rachel finished the last bite of her breakfast. The miners in her head had now been reduced to a dull ache that she was able to ignore and her stomach had slowed down to a steady patter.

  'I think I had best say yes before you burst.'

  Nathan jumped off the bed almost knocking the tray off Rachel's lap and moved over towards his wardrobe. The bedroom, along with the rest of the house, had been designed by Rachel. The room was a perfect balance of style with functionality or that was according to Rachel, Nathan was less certain. The bed was placed opposite the two double pained windows facing South to catch the morning sun rising casting a warm glow over their faces as they woke in the morning. This morning Nathan was sure that Rachel had regretted that decision. Intruding away from the wall just a few feet away from Rachel's side of the bed were two four door wardrobes covering the entire length of the bedroom with four of the doors containing mirrors stretching the full height of the door. Rachel had once read in a design magazine that mirrors helped to reflect the light around a room, making it feel more spacious.

  Their bedroom was the imitation of a fashion magazine, with a light beige and olive coloured wallpaper, it was a feature wall. The other three walls were painted an eggshell and then a sand dune coloured carpet to finish the room. In the centre of the luxurious queen-sized double bed were three old teddy-bears, one with a missing eye from Rachel's childhood, having their own specific place on top of the duvet. Rachel had grown up with a very house-proud mother and that obsession had not fallen far from the tree.

  He opened the door of his wardrobe wide enough, so Rachel's view was blocked from what he was doing. He bent down on one knee taking out an old shoe box hidden behind a pile of his favourite sweaters from the back of the wardrobe and removed a small white box with a red ribbon tied neatly around and finished with a bow on top. He then replaced the sweaters before standing and closing the door of the wardrobe.

  'Now, my amazing wife close your eyes.'

  'Nath-'

  '-close your eyes please,' he insisted as she sat there with them wide open. She raised her eyebrows and lowered her chin so she was looking up at him. He knew the face well, it was her telling him she was not in the mood for games. 'Rach please!'

  She did as he asked, albeit as reluctantly as she could, as he joined her back on the bed telling her to face the palm of her hands upwards in front of her chest. She acquiesced. He then placed the ring box in her hands and told her she could look. She opened her eyes and immediately looked surprised. He smiled.

  'Have you?' she asked with giddiness bubbling up inside her.

  'You will just have to open it and find out, won't you!' he exclaimed with the largest of all smiles.

  She gently opened the bow, unwrapping the ribbon from around the box and then with glee filling her eyes she slowly flipped open the top of the box to reveal a white gold diamond wedding ring. Rachel and Nathan had a modest wedding day at the church nearby her parents house, followed by a small reception at the Red Lion pub where her father would regularly drink. Rachel had always dreamed of a big wedding.

  Her childhood was stereotypical; she loved her pretty pink dresses with matching bows in her hair that was long and flowed down her back. She wished to be Rapunzel, letting her hair down from her Ivory bedroom and for her Prince C
harming to climb up and rescue her from homework time. She had dreamt with a pillow case for a veil and one of her princess dresses as a wedding dress and freshly plucked flowers from the garden for a bouquet. But when it actually came to her wedding day she wasn't a real life princess and budgetary requirements dictated otherwise. The wedding dress wasn't custom made and her bouquet was a modest collection of white roses her favourite flower. Her guest list wasn't the entire kingdom but rather a small gathering of close friends and family.

  'I promised one day I would replace that cheap wedding ring with one more fitting my gorgeous loving wife,' Nathan said slightly welling up himself as he watched the happiest of all tears roll from Rachel's eyes.

  'Thank you very much,' Rachel said broken up through the sobs. Nathan sat beside her and held her tightly. They held the embrace for more than five minutes before Rachel pulled away. 'Do me a favour Nath. Go to my underwear drawer.'

  Nathan leaped of the bed with excitement for his present from her. He moved over to her underwear drawer and grabbing the chrome plated handle slid it open.

  'Look underneath,' Rachel instructed. From under her underwear he pulled out a white sealed envelope. He turned it over and began ripping away at the glued envelope lid and schlepped out two concert tickets for his favourite jazz band, 'The Stanley Clarke Band and The Headhunters', who she knew he had always wanted to see live since his time at University.

  Nathan rejoined Rachel on the bed by her side and slowly moved his right arm over her shoulder pulling her close to him, she leaned in till their chests met and whilst gazing into one another's eyes their lips softly met. Rachel started to kiss Nathan delicately, leaning her chest into him, pushing her breasts on to his toned pecks feeling the warmth of his heart on her. Nathan moved down away from her lips and kissed her neck tenderly before Rachel pulled him down on to the bed and lifted the duvet cover over them both.

  Chapter 2

  Rachel kissed Nathan before striding out of bed and collecting her dressing robe from her wardrobe, sliding her arms in one by one to the sleeves and heading towards the bathroom situated across from the main bedroom. The taste of the previous nights alcohol was overpowering the taste of Nathan's cooked breakfast, she lifted her toothbrush from it's holder and squirted a dollop of toothpaste on before scrubbing her teeth. Seconds later Nathan strolled casually into the bathroom and set the thermostat on the new fitted and too expensive modern rainfall shower. Rachel had redesigned the bathroom and had talked Nathan in spending over five thousand pounds in the process. He had protested a little but in the end gave in to her as he always did.

  'I'm having a shower first cheeky,' Rachel demanded as she spat the last of the toothpaste from her mouth into the sink.

  'I thought you might like me to wash your back for you.'

  Rachel stripped from her dressing gown and as she leaped in to the shower responded to Nathan's suggestion, 'you can wash my back but that's all'. Nathan followed her in squeezing an handful of Rachel's favourite body wash into the palms of his hands and foaming it into a foamy lather. He gentle started to rub it across Rachel's back, with her beginning to moan softly as she felt his hands upon her. He moved slowly down her spine with his fingertips sending an unexpected shiver through her forcing a gleeful chuckle from Nathan. She moved her back into him feeling his arousal upon her bottom, she turned facing him as his hands cupped her breasts, with him rubbing the body wash into her tender skin. They kissed passionately, as he pushed her gently against the Italian designed waved patterned ceramic tiles, the water splashing over their heads and running between them as for a second time in the last hour they made love with the soothing sound of "Fade Into You" by Mazzy Star playing in the background.

  Rachel now recovered from her hangover and very much satisfied by Nathan sat at her dressing table drying her long blond hair with Nathan sprawled out on the bed behind with nothing more than a pair of boxers hiding his modesty.

  'What shall we do today?' Nathan shouted over the noise rumbling out of Rachel's hairdryer.

  Switching the hairdryer off she turned to him, 'Is that a loaded question? I'm sure you have already made plans for this afternoon.'

  Nathan laughed loudly. He had been caught, he did have plans for that afternoon. 'I thought we could have lunch at that new restaurant, The Rattle Owl, that you said you always wanted to try. I have a table booked for us at half past twelve.'

  Rachel nodded and smiled in agreement, 'shame it's not our Wedding Anniversary everyday, I could get used to this kind of treatment. You are earning a years worth of brownie points today.'

  'Make the most of it, back to reality on Monday,' Nathan reminded Rachel.

  Rachel had been promoted to Detective Sergeant at Fulford Road Police Station in the centre of York in North Yorkshire. She was the youngest female to take on such a role in North Yorkshire Police Force's history and the reason behind the excessive drinking she had done the night before. Her colleagues decided to celebrate the 'momentous occasion' with the largest of all pub crawls across the centre of the City of York. She was not drinker, the odd glass of wine at the weekend was her usual limit, not the double figure she had drunk last night.

  Monday was her scheduled first day in her new role, one she had been working hard and preparing to achieve for the previous five years as a Detective Constable. She had been assigned a fresh new team, all answering solely to her. It was terrifying. She had nowhere to hide and the press were adapted at manipulating bad decisions as a catalyst to shift thousands of papers across the counters of the vast network of newsagents that littered the country.

  She had had enough of the media obsessed society we had so acceptingly turned ourselves into. The front pages of the tabloids that were a wash with which latest politician had called another politician a mean unacceptable name or which out of work forgotten celebrity had joined the most recent reality television show. It being clear that the money was far more important to them than the experience that so many claimed to be the reason for taking part.

  'Nervous?' asked Nathan delicately, almost too afraid to ask, as if talking about it may dampen the mood.

  'About Monday?' Rachel said as she turned around to face Nathan. 'No, not really.'

  'Rach!' her head had dropped as she spoke avoiding the knowing look coming from Nathan's pretty face.

  'Yes, Nathan, I am a little nervous,' she responded looking up at his passionate eyes. 'OK! Nath. Yes. I'm terrified.'

  Nathan ushered her to sit beside him on the bed, she stood up with nothing more than a towel covering her modesty, before plonking herself by the side of Nathan, who immediately encased her with his arm. She sat for a moment feeling safe, staring down but not aware of anything she was actually looking at.

  'Penny for them?' asked Nathan.

  'I'm worried about failing Nath, I've never failed before.'

  'Everyone is afraid of failing Rach, that's perfectly normal and what if you do fail? What would happen?'

  'DC Logan Langley would happen.'

  Nathan chuckled, 'is that why you asked Superintendent Jepson to make him your number two, so you could keep an eye on him?'

  'Of course. What's that old saying "keep your friends close-'

  '-but keep your enemies closer". That one you mean Rach.'

  'Exactly, I'm going to watch him like an hawk. He is going to cause me more trouble than any homicide.'

  'Well while you get dressed, I'm going to make a fresh pot of coffee. I think we could both do with some,' Nathan said, kissing Rachel on the forehead gently, before singing to himself on his way downstairs.

  ◆◆◆

  The smell of fresh ground coffee beans filled the kitchen with a warm soothing aroma. Rachel loved that smell, not being a coffee connoisseur, she wasn't able to identify the beans were a new blend from South Africa. Nathan was trying a different region each month. She took a clean plain white mug from the shelf near the large American-Style fridge-freezer and measuring out preciously two level teaspoons
of sugar placing one at a time in her mug. She moved over to the counter, wiggling her curves at Nathan who was sat at the breakfast bar enjoying his coffee and the view.

  'You're in a playful mood this morning Rach,' Nathan said smiling.

  Rachel chuckled as she poured a drop or two of double cream into her coffee and began stirring. Her attention was disturbed when her mobile phone began hoping across the counter in some mad frenzy. She walked over and lifted it up so she could see who was calling her on a Saturday morning.

  'Damn it!' she exclaimed with frustration echoing through her rough tone. It was Saturday. It was her wedding anniversary. She kept telling herself as her finger hovered over the answer button.

  'What does she want?' snarled Nathan as his mobile phone also rang. He deliberately coughed to attract Rachel's attention away from her mobile, still shaking away in her hand. She looked up and in one swift motion, he showed her his ringing phone, pointed to the door and left for the sanctuary in the living room.

  She was alone and the line had dropped but before she could react, it started again. She had no option but to press the answer button.

  'Morning Sir...no, just having breakfast...thank you Sir...OK...yes Sir...straight away.'

  The call disconnected and she could hear Nathan in the lounge talking, albeit slightly muffled. Monday had arrived two days early and the romantic weekend was disappearing in the blink of an eye.

  'Have we just had the same telephone conversation?' Nathan asked as he returned to the kitchen paler than his Halloween makeup.

  'If body found at the Museum Gardens sounds familiar, then yes!'

  'Yes, they suspect it is a student from the University. Stephanie has asked me to go in for moral support.'

  'Just moral support?'

  'I would hope you think I have better taste in women than Stephanie Wellbeck?'

  'Is that why you choose me, after all I am too good for you,' Rachel said in a mimicked pompous tone.