by Dilys Xavier
‘Right or wrong she wanted to marry me,’ Richard said, ‘and have a family. But that’s all in the past, now.’ She squeezed his fingers, her brows raised. ‘It really is in the past?’
‘You’d better believe it,’ he replied, entwining his fingers in hers. ‘Yes, Helen, and all the others as well. You’re the only one I want to be with now.’
*
Cecile seemed extra loving that night. Their lovemaking had never developed into a particular pattern, but now there was a depth of feeling that they had not experienced with each other on previous occasions. It was as if Cecile were responding to Richard’s declaration of fidelity, with her own affirmation of a commitment to him. When he kissed her goodbye the next morning she clung to him longer than usual.
‘I wish you could stay a while longer,’ she whispered. ‘I want to hold you close again.’
‘I’ll remind you of that next weekend,’ Richard promised. ‘Especially when it’s my turn to get out of bed and make breakfast when you’re demanding to be fed.’
‘Who said we were going to get out of bed?’
Richard smiled to himself as he drove towards the office. Their relationship continued to improve, and he had difficulty imagining a life without her. The feeling of closeness they generated in each other was particularly pleasing, and of course their sex life was fantastic. His thoughts were rudely interrupted by a telephone call from a customer wanting a special delivery.
‘Yes, I can arrange that easily enough,’ he replied. When the man asked him how soon he could expect the item, Richard was about to say in a week, when he remembered he would be driving through the area on Friday. ‘I can probably deliver to you personally. I’m spending the weekend in the Brecon Beacons, so I’ll be able to drop it off on the way.’ He replaced the phone after the man had thanked him, and smiled again. ‘That’s really mixing business with pleasure.’
Nicole came out from behind her desk to meet him when he walked into the outer office. She had taken advantage of her raise in salary to buy some new outfits and have her hair re-styled. Even her sensible flat-heeled shoes had been replaced. She not only looked smart, but very professional.
‘You look pleased with yourself.’ She handed him a letter. ‘And well you should be; just look at that.’
Richard glanced at the contents and whistled softly.
‘Everything’s on the up and up isn’t it? It looks as if the sky’s the limit.’ As she turned to go, he stopped her. ‘I really want you to know how much I appreciate your effort and dedication. I’m convinced that I owe a lot of my recent success to your input and advice.’
‘Thank you. It’s always nice to have one’s efforts acknowledged. ‘
‘Oh, and while I remember, I’ll be leaving early on Friday afternoon.’
The weekend seemed an age coming, but as he pulled up outside her apartment on the Friday, Cecile came out to meet him, wearing a tracksuit, not unlike those worn by athletes but far more seductive. The soft lilac material highlighted her voluptuous body and seemed to have a life of its own as she walked. A bright yellow scarf that wound provocatively around her neck and fell over one shoulder enhanced the outfit. The effect was stunning. He pulled her to him and buried his face in her hair.
The Saab ate up the miles and within an hour they turned off the M4 and onto a slip road that led to an industrial estate. A receptionist showed Richard into the manager’s office as soon as he arrived. The sign on the door read: Joseph Burnham.
‘It’s very good of you to come out of your way,’ Joseph said, ‘I really appreciate it.’
The two men discussed a common interest in football and motor racing for a short while, and then as Richard stood up to leave, Joseph confided that he was concerned about his future in the business. He went on to say that he had been approached by a European group looking to expand into Britain.
‘My partner says it’s a take-over-come merger and there’s nothing to worry about, but I’m not fooled by that jargon,’ Burnham said, in a wistful tone of voice. ‘I have a feeling that they’ll soon dispense with our services when the deal’s done.’ He slid a business card across the desk. ‘That’s the group who have shown an interest in our set-up. It might be good to know who you’re dealing with if they approach you.’
Richard slipped the card into his pocket, but once outside of the building he looked at it more closely. The company was a major player in the electronics field. Maybe his encounter with Joseph would enable him to get a foot in their door too.
Cecile looked pointedly at her watch when he returned to the car, but made no comment about the amount of time he had spent talking. Forty-five minutes later they turned off the main road into a lane that lead to Thelma and Glen’s place. The small stone dwelling, that had obviously been a worker’s cottage at one time, was situated at the far end of a group of nondescript farm buildings.
As Richard stopped the car a woman came out of a shed. She shaded her eyes to look at him and then spoke to a black and white collie that had suddenly appeared by her side. He had the feeling that she had made a mental note of the make, model and number plate of the Saab before turning to walk back into the shed. Good for her, he thought, she was evidently keeping an eye on her neighbour’s property.
The whitewashed cottage was small, but the renovations had given it a more spacious feeling. A fireplace set in an exposed stone wall now dominated the nicely furnished sitting room and tucked into the corner alongside it, a narrow staircase led straight into the first bedroom. A second bedroom had been divided off to provide a bathroom. After he had placed the bags on the floor Richard gazed through the small windows that looked out over the great expanse of the Beacons. The bleak countryside sent a shiver up his spine; he would not like to be lost out there on a cold, wet night.
A list of instructions propped against a vase on the kitchen table explained where everything was and what had to be turned off again when they left. Cecile poked into the cupboards and then checked the oven. When she saw the microwave, she smiled.
‘That’ll make things easier.’
‘It sounds like a trip to the supermarket for some TV dinners,’ Richard said, with a mock moan. ‘And I thought you were going to surprise me with your culinary skills.’
‘On a solid fuel Rayburn stove? You’d have to be joking.’
‘Okay, let’s have a look around the area, then we can drive down to Abergavenny and buy something for dinner.’ He jiggled the car keys in his hand. ‘We might as well have bite to eat there, too.’
They spent the next morning exploring the nearby valleys and then returned to the cottage for lunch. By the time they had finished eating, a low-lying cloud had obscured most of the peak, making Richard feel somewhat apprehensive about going too far away, but Cecile convinced him that they should take advantage of what fine weather there was.
‘This is Wales. It could be pouring rain tomorrow,’ she reminded him.
The wind freshened as Richard led the way up the twisted path to where it forked around a large rocky outcrop. As they reached the apex of the ridge a fine misty rain swept in from the west to add to their discomfort. He paused by the rock and hunkered down on the lea side.
‘I think we should head back to the cottage straight away,’ he said, as Cecile joined him. ‘It’s not worth taking any risks.’ When she agreed, he pointed out what he thought was a more direct route back to the house. ‘Come on, we can go that way and be there in less than half the time.’
Believing that Cecile was right behind him Richard started down the path on one side of the rocky outcrop, but he was unaware that she had been distracted by the sudden appearance of a large bird soaring overhead and that he was now out of her sight. Unwittingly she took the opposite path to the one Richard was on, so that only minutes later they were separated by a series of ravines that had not been visible from where they had stood on the rocky outcrop.
Not able to see Richard ahead of her, Cecile suddenly realised that she coul
d not be on the same path that he had taken. Quickly, she scrambled her way back to the top of the track, and only then did she notice that it divided into two. She pondered: Which one did I go down? Which one will take me to Richard? Hesitatingly, she chose the left track, but even as she stepped onto it, instinct told her she had made the wrong decision.
She grasped a protruding rock and pulled herself up onto a ledge from where she could see the way that the other path went quite clearly. If she could cut across to it, maybe she would find it easier than retracing her steps right to the top. But as she hesitated, the edge of the rocky shelf on which she was standing suddenly gave way.
At that moment Richard reached the point where he had last seen Cecile. He looked around frantically, hoping to catch sight of her somewhere, but there was no sign of her. Fearful that something had happened to her, he threw caution to the winds and almost ran down the steep slope, but the ground beneath his feet was so loose that he lost his footing, and crashed to the ground. Unable to check his fall, he rolled over a small embankment and slid into a ravine. As he tumbled over and over, he heard Cecile call his name.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Richard clambered to his feet and looked around. Above him the slate grey sky darkened as if threatening to unleash its fury and drench the area in a sudden downpour. He had to find Cecile quickly. Carefully picking his way over the scree he followed the sound of her voice until he saw her outlined against a natural depression. When he reached her side he squatted down and grasped her hand as she leant against a protruding rock. ‘Are you all right?’
‘I think so.’ She grimaced, clutching at her ankle, but otherwise seemed unhurt.
‘I’ve twisted my ankle. What about you?’ She wiped some mud off his face. ‘You’re a mess. What happened?’
‘Don’t worry about me. Can you stand?’
‘I don’t know. I’ll try.’ Cecile struggled to her feet, and gingerly eased her weight onto her left foot, and then winced. ‘I don’t think I’m going to be able to walk very far by the look of things.’
Slipping an arm around her waist, Richard half guided and half carried her down the sloping mountainside. The rain had eased off by the time they reached level ground so he had no trouble picking out the right path. When she begged him to stop for a while, he hoisted her onto his back and carried her for the remaining distance to the cottage. Two hours later he eased her onto the ground outside the front door.
‘You’ll have to lose some weight if you expect me to do that again,’ he gasped, when he caught his breath. ‘Come on, let’s get you inside and take a look at that ankle.’
He helped Cecile struggle out of her jacket and then settled her into a chair and pulled off her wet trainers. While he was dragging off his own wet clothes there was a loud knock on the front door. The woman who had watched him arrive the previous afternoon stood on the doorstep, an anxious look on her face.
‘I saw you carrying your girlfriend. Is she all right?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Richard replied. ‘She had a nasty fall. Her ankle’s badly swollen. It could be broken.’
‘It’s probably just a sprain. You’ll spend hours at casualty and it’ll probably be a darn sight worse by the time a doctor gets to you.’ The woman snorted as if to say what do you expect if you go clambering around the Breacons in the rain. ‘I’ll have look at it if you like, I’m an old hand at sorting out sprains and torn ligaments.’
Richard hesitated, then invited her inside.
‘This is our neighbour; she may be able to do something about your ankle,’ he said, as Cecile looked up. He turned to the woman. ‘I don’t know your name.’
‘It’s Annie. Annie Jones.’ She laughed. ‘It’s a good old Welsh name, Jones.’ Then she went on to explain her remedy for sprained ankles. ‘Hot and cold compresses, they always do the trick.’
She rummaged in the cupboard for a couple of bowls, and sent Richard to get some hand towels. He dutifully emptied some ice cubes into one of the bowls as she poured boiling water into the other. Cecile winced as Annie wrapped a steaming hot towel around her ankle and then almost shrieked as the woman replaced it with an icy cold one. After repeating the procedure a number of times Annie removed the last towel, stood up and looked around the room.
‘They’ve done a nice job, it was such a mess when they bought the place.’ Before Richard had a chance to reply she glanced down at their muddy trainers. ‘Better wear something more sensible next time you go tramping around the countryside.’ Then she gestured to Cecile. ‘See if that’s made any difference.’
Cecile gingerly moved her foot and then put it to the floor.
‘Yes, it feels a lot better already.’
‘That’s the secret, see,’ Annie said, proudly. ‘Don’t wait until it’s too swollen; get those compresses onto the problem area straight away.’ She wiped her hands dry. ‘Now then, you enjoy the rest of your stay.’
‘Well, I don’t know how to thank you, Annie.’ Cecile glanced at Richard who was nodding his head vigorously. ‘I’m sure we’d have had to forgo our weekend stay if you hadn’t come to the rescue.’
After the woman had gone, Richard brewed some coffee, laced it with a slug of brandy and set it on a table beside the fireplace. His eyes twinkled with laughter as he held a mirror in front of Cecile’s face so that she could see the reflection.
‘You look like something the cat ‘s dragged in.’
‘Thank you very much. You don’t look much better yourself.’
Their laughter eased the tension that had engulfed them since they had become separated on the mountainside. Now able to look at it from a different perspective, their narrow escape seemed almost farcical. When Cecile had cleaned up herself up and reapplied her makeup she returned to find that Richard had lit a fire in the sitting room and plumped up a couple cushions on the sofa. After gently easing herself into a comfortable position she reached for his hand.
‘Thank you for everything, Richard,’ she said, softly, grasping his hand between hers. ‘We were both very lucky. If you hadn’t found me so quickly we could have been up there for hours.’ She shuddered. ‘I hate to think of what might have happened to us.’
Richard pressed her fingers to his lips.
‘I know,’ he murmured. ‘You can’t imagine my feelings when I found you.’ He paused as she gently touched his face with her fingertips. ‘I was so relieved. No, relieved isn’t the right word. It was more like finding something you’d lost and didn’t expect to see again.’ He paused again. ‘You are very important to me now.’
‘That’s how I feel about you, Richard.’ Cecile’s voice was barely above a whisper. ‘When I fell down the slope I had visions of being badly injured and not being able to get off the mountain. But I was more frightened that something had happened to you; that you’d been hurt, or even killed.’ She stopped as a single tear slid down her cheek. ‘I didn’t want to lose you. I can’t imagine life without you, now.’
They cuddled up together on the sofa and watched the flames send sparks up the chimney until the fire needed replenishing. Richard climbed slowly to his feet and threw some more wood on and then stretched languidly.
‘I’ll stick something in the microwave. We can eat in here, where it’s nice and cosy.’
Throughout the evening the rain continued to lash at the windows while the howling wind tugged at the shutters and tried to force its way under the back door. An occasion bolt of lightning would light up the sky briefly outlining the massed grey clouds heavy with rain before sending a peal of thunder booming across the wild countryside. The tempestuous storm had a sobering effect on them both, reminding them of their lucky escape.
Sometime during the night, Richard woke to find Cecile sobbing softly. He cradled her to him, kissed away her tears and felt her relax into his body. When they stirred the next morning the sun was shining and the birds were chirping noisily outside the window. It was as if last night’s storm had never happened. Cecile slipped in
to his arms again.
‘It wasn’t such a good idea, coming here, was it?’
‘Yes, and no,’ Richard replied, sleepily. ‘As an enjoyable weekend break, it’s a disaster, but from the point of our relationship, it’s a great big plus.’
‘Strangely enough, I feel that way, too,’ Cecile agreed, ‘And it gives me a wonderful sense of satisfaction. In fact, it’s shown me what a caring person you are and how lucky I am.’ Then she laughed. ‘I can still see the look on your face when I made my grand entrance at Langley Hall on the night of Catherine’s dinner party. It was a picture.’
‘Well, you achieved what you set out to do.’
‘I know. It must have been difficult for you to decide who was the most attractive, Catherine or myself. We had a great laugh about it later.’
‘So it was all prearranged?’
‘Yes, of course,’ Cecile said, and gently kissed his cheek. ‘And I’m rather pleased that you took the bait.’
‘So am I.’
It was mid-morning before they descended the stairs. Richard opened the front door and found a plastic bag containing cabbage leaves and a water-soaked note from Annie explaining how they should be used if there was still any sign of bruising.
‘Do we need these?’ he asked, displaying the limp leaves.
Cecile shook her head.
‘But I’ll get a doctor to have a look at it just in case there’s something out of place.’
After they had something to eat Richard walked up the road to Annie Jones’ house to thank her once again. Her husband answered the door and seemed surprised when he was given a bottle of wine as a good will gesture to his wife. By the time he returned to the cottage Cecile was packed and ready to leave. They took one last look at the Brecon Beacons as they turned out of the lane. The nearby mountainside was bathed in sunlight, but it no longer held any appeal whatsoever.
Neither of them spoke very much on the journey home. While Richard carried Cecile’s bag into her apartment she made some coffee, poured them both a drink and placed a CD in the music centre. As the haunting strain of pan flutes filled the air she twined her fingers through his and laid her head on his shoulders.