Downshire is a relatively small English county but that didn’t bother its inhabitants, they may not have been the biggest but they were in no doubt that it was the best.
And that belief was no more truer than in
the southern town off Abbottsford which was Downshire’s administrative capital
and the seat of the Downshire government.
It was also a place of learning thanks to
the Downshire University, it could also boast that it was a Cathedral City, was home to Abbottsford
Town football club and benefitted from the renowned Winston Churchill Hospital, and twin sisters
Ariadne and Scarlet Shakespeare were both nurses at the Churchill.
They were
identical twins, Ariadne was the older of the two by an hour and was five
foot eight with bobbed brunette hair and an olive complexion and hazel eyes.
Scarlet was two inches taller than her sister and had more hair.
The girls were both foot lose and fancy free and liked to
party and had no intrest in tying themselves down, but on the occasion of their
27th birthday, on New Year’s Eve, that all changed, when they met best
friends Marcus Birkin and Gareth
Clare.
Marcus and Gareth both worked for Bramstock, Goodman, Crossfield and Bushe
solicitors in Abbottsford, although they hailed from 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.
The Birkin and Clare families had lived in the village for many years and
were of the landed gentry and the boys were public school and Cambidge educated.
Abbottsford was a world away from
Turnoak-Under-Hawthorne and socially the Shakespeare girls were a world away from
Marcus and Gareth and their meeting on New Year’s Eve was purely by chance.
The twins were travelling from home after getting
ready to party into the New Year, and the solicitors were in Marcus’s car
travelling in the opposite direction from work when the two vehicles collided.
It wasn’t serious just a bit of minor
damage, but Marcus had only had the car for a month so an angry exchange
between him and the cab driver ensued, which Gareth tried to cool, to no avail,
but when the two leggy drop
dead gorgeous brunette girls emerged from the Taxi, the two adversaries and the
peacemaker all went quiet.
They were both stunningly beautiful and
wearing low cut party outfits and when Marcus first saw the one with the bobbed
hair, he was smitten and the fender bender was no longer of any importance to
him, whereas Gareth felt the same about the tall one.
The taxi driver, who had been at fault for
the accident, took full advantage of the distraction and got in his cab and
sped away.
“Hey come back!” Ariadne shouted
“What are we going to do now?” Scarlet
asked as the Cab disappeared around a corner
“Don’t worry” Marcus said “We’ll get you
to your destination”
“You don’t know where we’re going” Ariadne
pointed out
“You could tell us and then we would”
Gareth said
“Problem solved then” Scarlet added and
gave her sister a look that said “just get in the car”
Ariadne complied because it was obvious
her sister fancied the drivers friend, and she thought the driver was ok, and
he was posh, and she liked posh.
They were on the way to a New Year’s Eve
Party at the Hospital, and by the time they got there the twins had persuaded
the guys to join them at the party rather than just drop them off and go their
separate ways, not that it took much persuading.
During the relatively short drive across
town the four passengers had come to the conclusion that they weren’t going to
accept any other outcome than to see the old year out together.
The Shakespeare’s were determined not to
let their chosen solicitor out of their sight and they in turn had resolved not
to let the girls out of view.
So they spend most of the night on the
dance floor and the time that they were not dancing they were at the bar, with
the exception of spending a penny.
At midnight, Scarlet was dancing with
Gareth to a slow number by James Blunt when the music was suddenly replaced by
the sound of Big Ben through the sound system.
“Happy New Year” Scarlet said and kissed
him before he could respond, and then he didn’t want to speak.
Ariadne looked across at her sister
kissing Gareth and then she looked at Marcus and thought “why aren’t we doing
that?”
She smiled at him as Big Ben continued to
sound, and he smiled back, but no kiss, “plenty of time, six bongs to go”.
Bong,
Bong,
Bong, and nothing happened so she said
“Have you seen what Scarlet and Gareth are
doing?”
He turned to look at the kissing couple
“Oh yes”
Bong,
“Can I ask you a question Gareth?”
“Of course”
Bong,
“Why aren’t we doing that?” she asked and
before the final bong he was kissing her.
As things turned out that night didn’t
just mark the end of the old year for the two couples it marked the end of
their old lives.
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