by Ivan B
Gwen heard the sound of plugs being extracted and prayed that none of the things that had to be disconnected were under then table. After a couple of minutes Angela announced that all the plugs had been pulled out. The lights went off and the door closed to the sound of rolling thunder. She sat quivering for ten minutes before she extracted herself and dusted herself down. She tentatively opened the door onto a darkened corridor and waited for a peel of thunder to cover the noise of her closing the door and fleeing towards the stairs. She did not have long to wait. By the time she’d reached the landing on the first floor the thunderstorm had almost passed over. She stopped by the large window to look out at the lightening as it flashed across the sky. She had no idea how long she had stood there when she became aware of someone standing beside her. She almost wet herself. Derek moved closer to her, “I wondered where you were, once the storm started I went to your suite to see if you were all right, but you weren’t there.”
She swallowed, had he seen her come down the stairs? “How did you find me?”
“Checked all the ground floor rooms, I was coming back up when I saw you standing here.”
She relaxed, “Love lightening, it’s all about the power of nature.”
She put her arm round his waist, “Nice of you to think of me.”
They stood watching the lightening with Gwen hoping that Derek would not wonder why she was dressed in black with a leather bag round her waist.
Cameron awoke sometime around 7am with Riona snuggled up beside him. He lay for a while looking at her deriving pleasure from her closeness and experiencing an emotional thrill from what they had achieved the night before. As he gazed at her, her eyelids rose and she slowly focused her eyes on him. He whispered, “Morning beautiful.”
She smiled and murmured something like ‘say that again.’
He kissed her cheek, “I said good morning beautiful.”
She kissed him and they made love again, this time more slowly and this time deriving pure pleasure from each other’s touch and this time without fear of failure.
Thus breakfast was taken late and with both of them in dressing gowns. Just as Riona was finishing her toasted fried egg and sausage sandwich there was the distant growl of thunder and she went to the window. She sat on the window seat gazing out across the gardens and in a half matter-of-fact and half abstract voice started talking. “It was my second term at boarding school, I guess I’d just reached seven. The school worked on a house system so the dormitory was filled with girls of all ages and with each dormitory having a head girl. I guess I must have been one of the youngest. We had a thunderstorm and I told the head girl that I didn’t like thunder. Instead of giving me sympathy she and a couple of cronies took me up to the attic and pushed me out onto the flat roof, she said that there was absolutely nothing to be afraid of and if I stood out in it I’d see that.”
She turned and gazed at Cameron. “It was the worst thunderstorm in years and I must have been out there for nearly half an hour when one of the staff heard me screaming between thunderclaps. I was only wearing a nightdress, soaked through, scared to death and freezing cold. The staff phoned home, but my father was abroad and my step-mother, rather than come herself, sent Blanche, who was then a maid. When Blanche discovered what had happened she threw a wobbly and sought to have the head girl punished, if not expelled. However, the school wouldn’t listen to Blanche, after all she was only a maid, and sought my step-mother’s advice. You know what? She said that the girl had probably acted out of the best of intentions and shouldn’t be punished or reprimanded in any way. Looking back it would have been convenient for her if I had died that night, the flat roof had no edging and I could easily have just walked off of the edge, although actually I was rooted to the spot in fear.”
She walked back to the settee and flopped down next to Cameron, “Ever since then I’ve hated thunderstorms.”
Cameron put his arm round her, she did not shudder. “I’m not surprised, it must have been terrifying.”
Riona nodded, “I messed myself and I wet the bed for weeks, you can imagine what my fellow dormitory dwellers thought of that.”
“How long were you there?”
“Two months. My father came back from abroad and Blanche told him what had happened and he immediately had me moved to another school. Lady Hardcastle has never forgiven Blanche for that and if Father hadn’t made her my personal maid I doubt she could have stayed on. She rested her head on Cameron’s shoulder, “Since then Blanche has been like a mother to me: she’s always been there for me even when my true family haven’t.”
Cameron inwardly blessed his own parent’s for their love and felt his heart melt for his wife.
After a while Riona stood up and went into the shower. Cameron followed a minute or two later.
Chapter 27
Excursion: Mr & Mrs Aspen
Breakfast was a straggly affair with different people eating at different times and two couples opting for breakfast in their rooms. However, by ten-thirty everybody, except Riona, was gathered in the lounge. Angela arrived dead on time. She laid out five envelopes on a small table. “Today you leave the hall in any pairing you choose.”
She pointed to the envelopes, “The idea of today is that you do something unusual together, something you would not normally do.”
“Oh I see,” interjected Gwen, “You want to get us stressed to see how we react.”
Angela pursed her lips in disapproval at the interruption. “Not necessarily, you should actually enjoy the experience.”
She shuffled the envelopes around, “You’re all grown ups and I’m sure you can decide amongst yourselves who does what, each envelope has a map in it for the driver, so please don’t mix the maps up. The only stipulation is that you’re back by seven. It’s a formal dinner this evening at eight with an after-dinner speaker. Any questions?”
There weren’t and she swept out like a galleon in the mistral.
Willow walked over to the envelopes and opened them all, nobody questioned her right to do so. She gazed at the contents, “We have Rock climbing, Circus skills, Archaeology, Helicopter aerobatics and Bungee jumping.”
The silence that followed was deafening. Eventually she turned her nose up, “Actually Henry and I have other things to do, so you can choose from all five.”
Ben, who seemed to be remarkably happy rubbed his hands together, “Us to, so that leave five choice for three couples.”
“Two couple,” Cameron intoned, “Riona and I have other agendas today.”
Derek and Gwen looked at each other. She grinned, “Always wanted to be a trapeze artist, but I think we’ll give that a miss.”
Treasa turned to George, who was still trying to come to terms with the situation he was in. “Rather do something less physically adventurous today.”
They broke up and went their separate ways; not one envelope got picked up.
Henry and Willow walked to the car-park round the back of the building. “Whose car do you want to use?” Henry asked praying for Willow to request the Aston Martin as he hated being driven.
She giggled, “We can use mine if you like, but I rather feel yours would be better.”
She pointed to a sad old gold Vauxhall. Henry stared in disbelief, “You drive that? Does it actually move without falling apart?”
She shrugged, “Where I live in London is OK, but park anything remotely acceptable near where I work at it will either disappear, or be stripped down for parts, in the twinkling of an eye.”
By mutual consent they climbed into the Aston. Henry showed her the seat movement buttons, so that she could get comfortable. He started the engine and then turned it off. He reached inside his coat and extracted a small case. “Was going to save this as a wedding present, but seeing we are registered partners I’d rather like you to have it now.”
He handed it to her and she extracted the ruby bracelet. She stroked it, “It’s wonderful.”
She attempted to put it on he
r wrist, but the clasp was too new and Henry ended up fastening it for her. She kissed him on the cheek, “And you’re wonderful.”
She hesitated, “Would you really have paid £16,000 for an engagement ring?”
He laughed, “Only if I could suppress the heart attack.” He looked her in the eyes, “Actually yes, if it had been what you wanted I guess I would.”
She kissed his cheek again and extracted a small package from her shoulder bag. “Was going to keep this till tomorrow, but seeing as were exchanging presents…”
She handed it to him and watched his eyes. He opened it and pure pleasure crossed his face, she relaxed. He examined the watch closely, “This is one of those automatic self-winding jobs with a proper mechanism, not a battery driven one.”
He turned it over and smiled when he saw the simple word ‘Willow’ engraved on the back. Willow watched, she knew that the old watch he was currently wearing had ‘Sally’ engraved on the back. He slipped the old watch off and adjusted the stainless steel strap of her watch around his wrist. He kissed her, “It’s just what I needed.”
He hesitated, “And it will remind me of you every day.”
He did not add ‘just as the old one had reminded me of Sally every day,’ but he didn’t have to. He sat looking at his wrist, slipped the old watch into his pocket and murmured, “A new start.”
He leant over, kissed her, started the engine and headed up the drive. As soon as they swept out of the gate Willow wanted a cigarette. She’d bought new nicotine patches and was carefully following the prescription, but it wasn’t the nicotine, it was what to do with her hands. In the end she clutched them together on her lap. “Where are we going?”
Henry carefully turned left onto a trunk road. “Our house. It’s only about an hour from here and I thought that you might like to see it.”
She fiddled with her fingers, “Sorry, I thought you lived by the south coast.”
He shook his head, “Used to, moved up to Suffolk when I started the business. Most of my imported juices come via Felixstowe Dock, so it seemed sensible to be close by. So my main Factory is at Bury St Edmunds, that’s about an hour from Felixstowe and an hour from the M11/A1 interchange.”
She absorbed this piece of information as Henry turned onto the A140 and headed towards Ipswich.
She got him to tell her all about his factory. Not too much later they turned onto the A14 towards Bury St Edmunds and Henry glanced into the car-park of a transport café and executed a smart left turn. “Mind if we make a slight detour? There’s someone I’d like you to meet.”
They pulled up in front of the transport café and Henry turned off the engine. Willow surveyed the café, “My,” she said, “You sure know how to treat a girl.”
Henry looked around as they entered and led her over to a table at the rear where there was a thin man with a shock of grey hair and a face like a cracked walnut reading a book. He looked up and smiled, “Henry! Checking up on me?”
The accent was East European and as thick as pea soup. Henry turned to Willow, “Willow, this is my good friend Jakob, Jakob meet my fiancée, Willow.”
Jakob held out a huge thick-fingered hand and Willow shook it. Henry pulled out a chair for her. “Jakob and I go back a long way, he was my first employee when I started the company.”
Jakob waved a finger, “Second employee, you’d already taken on Sarah.”
Willow raised an eyebrow, “Sarah.”
“My chemist,” said Henry, “she does all the blending.”
He looked around, “Tea?”
She nodded and he wandered towards the counter. Willow turned to Jakob, “So you know Henry well?”
He nodded, “Used to work all the hours we could together, him, me and Sarah. Later Pierre joined us to help with the marketing.”
He looked back into the past, “Sarah and I came from the Ukraine and we couldn’t get employment. Henry met us at Mass one Sunday and by Wednesday we were building a do-it-yourself bottling plant in a rented warehouse. Once it was up and running I did the deliveries, Sarah made the juices and Henry ran about selling the stuff, doing the accounts and worrying about us all.”
“And you’re still delivering?”
Jakob laughed, “Yes, but I shouldn’t be. Four years ago one of those female TV cooks recommended Aspenolli juices on her programme and our sales went through the roof. Since then the big boys send their trucks to us, something about just-in-time stocking. The rest of the market are served by a warehouse distribution company, they also pick up the stock they need. These days Stefan and I just do the special runs.”
“Stefan?”
“He became our second driver after six months.”
Willow glanced at Henry, who was happily chatting to the girl behind the counter, she felt slightly irritated, was he chatting her up? She turned her attention back to Jakob. “What’s special about your deliveries?”
He grinned, “All charity stuff. My current load is for three children’s hospices and Stefan is taking a load down to an Emergency distribution centre. Henry says it’s better than them merely taking bottled water out to disaster areas.”
Willow blinked, “You mean he gives the stuff away?”
“Tons of it. He says life has been good to him, so he wants to make it good for others.”
He glanced across café. “He’s a good man, a little odd in places, but a good man.”
Willow was intrigued. “A little odd in places?”
Jakob laughed, “He keeps the bottling plant spotless. I read in one of those magazines that he employs three times as many cleaning staff as any other juice manufacturer. You could eat your dinner off of the floor of the Bury plant any day.” Jakob grinned, “And he will also not allow smoking anywhere on the premises, if you want to smoke you have to go outside the factory gates.”
Willow mentally congratulated herself on her early decision to give up smoking. Jakob’s eyes watched Henry picking up three cups of tea. He lent forward conspiratorially, “And he’s always walking the factory floor. Says it’s important to know what’s really going on.” He gave a lopsided grin and, of course he…” he leant forward as Henry approached the table, “Look after him miss, he looks after us all like a mother hen, it’s about time somebody looked after him.”
Henry arrived and planted a cup of tea in a bone-china cup in front of Willow. She eyed it suspiciously, “Though mugs were de rigueur in a place like this.”
Henry grinned, “Special just for you.”
He turned to Jakob, “Didn’t know that Joseph’s daughter worked here.”
“Only during the holidays, she says it pays better than being in a boring office.”
Henry laughed and winked at Willow. “He means my boring office and if they pay more than me I’m in the wrong business.”
Half an hour later they climbed back in the Aston and drove off. Willow stretched her legs, “He’s nice.”
Henry manoeuvred around a container lorry and the Aston accelerated forward like a guided missile. “He’s a good friend.”
“And Sarah?”
Henry guffawed, “Don’t worry, his sister married the local dentist.”
“And Pierre?”
This time there was no laughter. “He went back home to Rwanda, haven’t heard from him since.”
She detected pain in his voice and did not follow up the subject, not that she had much time to anyway. All of a sudden he pulled into a lay-by and turned off the engine while keeping his eyes straight ahead. “I don’t want you to get the wrong idea,” he said nervously.
“I want you to see our house, but I do realise that you have your life in London and that you probably won’t want to give up your job there.” He shrugged, “If that means you work in London during the week and only come here at weekends that’s fine.” He turned to face her. “If you’d rather I moved down to London that’s fine too.”
“But your factory is up here.”
He shrugged, “One must prioritise and yo
u are my priority.”
It could have been a cold logical statement, but he said it like a love poem. She curled her bottom lip under her top teeth and sucked for a moment. “Actually”, she said gently, “I’d like to give up work.”
Henry’s eyebrows rose, “But I thought you liked your job.”
“I did, no I do, but I also don’t.”
Henry’s face took on a confused state. “Can you unpack that? You did. You do and you don’t?”
She gazed at the countryside, “I did love my job to such an extent that it took over my life and that it gave me a jaundiced view of the world. I do love my job in that if I have to work I don’t think I’d want to do anything else. I don’t love my job in that a lot of it is remarkable false because show-business is remarkably false.” She turned her eyes onto him, “To be honest I’d rather like to have a go at being a housewife, that’s if you…”
He reached out and touched her shoulder, “It would be more than I could have hoped for or dreamt of.”