Thursday 31 December 2020

Snippets of Downshire Life - New Year’s Day

 

Mornington-By-Mere is a small country village lying in the Finchbottom Vale nestled between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest and the rolling Pepperstock Hills.

It is a quaint picturesque village, a proper chocolate box picturesque idyll, with a Manor House, 12th Century Church, a Coaching Inn, Windmills, an Old Forge, a Schoolhouse, a River and a Mere.

In addition there were a number of cottages and small houses on the Purplemere road and Dulcets Lane which form the part of Mornington Village known as Manorside where Martin Carnell lived with his wife Julie in a small two bedroom cottage on the banks of the River Brooke.

 

On New Year’s Day he woke up annoyingly early, having had a disturbed night, as he was unable to sleep, and the reason for that was a guilty conscience.

So he got up and left Julie sleeping and went downstairs where he sat in the kitchen drinking coffee and thinking about the source of his anxiety.

What was bothering him was the simple fact that he had lied to his wife.  

They had only been married for a few months and up until that Christmas he had never done it before, and in the space of a few days he had done it twice, and his deceit hung heavy on his mind.

The first time was on Boxing Day when he feigned a migraine to avoid driving to Childean to spend the day with his parents and the second was on New Year’s Eve when he told her that the car battery was flat so they couldn’t get to Shallowfield for a party at her sister’s house.

Two totally different lies but both motivated by the same thing and that was the desire two spend every minute of their first Christmas and New Year on their own.

He quickly made a New Year’s resolution to never lie to Julie again.

 

They were due to eat New Year’s Day lunch at her parent’s house in Forestdean, which he didn’t want to go to because he wanted to keep Julie all to himself, but he had no choice he couldn’t lie again so at nine o’clock he stopped his ruminations and made Julie a cup of tea.

 

Five minutes later, tea mug in hand, he was on his way upstairs to wake his lovely wife when the phone rang, so he stopped and did a U-turn and picked up the phone.

“Hello”

“Martin?” the voice said “it’s Gordon”

Gordon was Julie’s Dad.

“Hi Gordon, Happy New Year” he said

“Yes Happy New Year” he responded vaguely

“Is everything ok?” Martin asked

“No” he replied, “not at all, it’s Maggie”

Maggie was his wife,

“She’s been throwing up most of the night, so we thought it best to cancel lunch as a precaution” he continued “I’m sorry to let you down”

“Nonsense” Martin said, as he punched the air, “These things happen”

“I suspect it’s been brought on by two much rich food” Gordon elaborated “but just in case it is a bug we have decided to quarantine ourselves”

Martin suspected it was more likely brought on by too much Pinot but he didn’t say that, instead he just said

“Very sensible”

 

After he had put down the phone he continue his journey up the stairs to his sleeping wife.

After tiptoeing into the room he put her tea on the bedside cabinet and slipped into bed beside her.

Once he was under the covers he leant over and kissed her neck and as she stirred he cuddled up behind her and began kissing her ear.

“We don’t have time for that” she purred

“Oh I think we do” he retorted and nibbled her lobe.

“No we don’t” she reiterated “You’re forgetting about lunch at my parents”

“No I’m not, it’s been cancelled” he told her and she rolled onto her back and gave him a suspicious look

“Why?”

“Your mum’s throwing up” Martin said “Your Dad thinks it might be a bug”

“It’s more likely too much Pinot” Julie said and laughed, until her demeanour changed suddenly.

“So we don’t have to get up and go out” she mused

“Correct” he agreed

“Oh goody” Julie said and wrapped herself around him “We get to spend the whole day together just the two of us”

“We do” he said and kissed her

“And without pretending to have a migraine or a flat battery” Julie added

“What?”

“You know perfectly well what” she said

“You mean you knew all along?” he asked

“Of course”

“So why didn’t you say something?” Martyn asked

“Because I didn’t want to go either” she admitted and kissed him passionately which lead to them having a very late lunch at home.

 

 

 

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