In the small but thriving English county
of Downshire people go about the tasks of their everyday existence in ways that
range from the mundane to the extraordinary as their forebears had done for
centuries before, in the varied and diverse landscape, from the Ancient forests
of Dancingdean and Pepperstock, the craggy ridges and manmade lakes of the
Pepperstock Hills National Park, the rolling hills of the Downshire Downs, to
the beautiful Finchbottom Vale and the short but beautiful coastline to the
east.
But our story is set in and around
Turnoak-Under-Hawthorne, a large rambling village, originally settled in the 12th
century on the sparsely wooded slopes on the Northern fringe of the Finchbottom
Vale about 5 miles from Purplemere, and it was everything you would expect from
a Downshire Village.
It was the village where the Higgins and
Hewer families lived next door to each other and the families should have been
tied by the marriage of Helen and Neil, but instead of a joining of the two
families they were split apart when Helen ran away, and two years passed before
the couple met again, on Boxing Day.
Neither knew that the other would be in
the village on that day and they were both taken aback when they bumped into
each other at the Hen and Chickens, he was on the way up the steps and she on
the way out, and they stood there as the snow fell and minutes past before
either spoke, but it was Neil who broke the silence.
“I’ve really missed you”
She seemed both surprised and pleased by
the revelation and he wondered if she had heard him correctly or if it was just
whatever she’d been drinking having an effect on her processing ability,
“I’m sorry” she replied
“Why did you go?” he asked “I never
understood why you left”
“I had to” she replied earnestly
“But why??” he asked
“Because I was scared” Helen confessed
“Scared?” he asked aghast
“Yes”
“Of what?” Neil asked angrily
“Marriage” She admitted
“So, all you had to say was no” he said
and then there was an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes as the snow began
to fall faster but then she said
“I thought it was for the best”
“It wasn’t the best for me, or you” he
said and turned and began to walk away and Helen followed him
“Let me explain” Helen said as she trotted
behind him, but he ignored her and pressed on across the car park towards the road,
but she caught up with him as he stopped to allow a car to complete its maneuver.
“I made a mistake” she said from behind
him and he span round on her
“I realised almost immediately” she
continued
“So why didn’t you come back?”
“I didn’t know how” she said and fell in
to his arms
“So, you just made us both unhappy” he
said gently
“Yes” she replied, and Helen began to cry
When he imagined them meeting again he hadn’t
expected to see that side of her, vulnerable, that was a different girl to the
one who had run away, she wasn’t vulnerable or unsure of herself on that
day.
So, when she looked up at him through tear
filled eyes he kissed her, a kiss they had both longed for, and dreamt of for
two years.
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