Harriet Fisher was fast approaching her 18th birthday and although she wasn’t aware of it, was considered to be an absolute beauty, elegant, daintily petite, intelligent, funny, sexy and with a perfectly beautiful angelic voice, pure Carrington Chase educated perfection and it was a voice that made Charlotte Green sound common.
Harriet of course didn’t see herself that way and
found it difficult to express her true nature because she was painfully shy.
It was appropriate that she sounded the part as she
was a day boarder at Carrington Chase, which was Downshire’s version of
Roedean, although those in Downshire thought it was the other way around.
Although Harriet was almost an adult, she still had to
wear full school uniform every day, which she found very annoying, but it was a
quirk of the school, and it was the
best.
During term time she lived at her Godmother Mary
Davenport’s house in Carrington as her family home was in Abbottsford.
She did of course go home during the holidays and most
weekends, but not all, but Harriet seldom went out and when she did, it was
with the Davenports, who did their best to make her feel part of the family,
but it was not the same as being at home.
Johnny Davenport was the eldest child at 23 and was
the only one of the family who hadn’t really had any dealings with Harriet.
He had been at university for three years and when he
was home for holidays she was back in Abbottsford.
However now he was doing his master’s he was studying
a lot of the time at home, but due to her shyness their interactions were very
limited.
He really liked what he’d seen and figured she would
probably warm up a little one she got used to him being around, but it was
taking a while, so he decided he should be more proactive as they approached
Christmas, he needed to make his move before she went back to Abbottsford for
the holidays.
He had been putting Christmas decorations up with his
mum all day but when she left to do the school run, he made sure that he was
downstairs when Harriet returned home from college so he could intercept her as
soon as she arrived through the front door so she couldn’t rush straight
upstairs to her room, as was her normal routine.
When he heard the key in the lock he walked towards
the door and as soon as he could see her distinctive uniformed figure through
the glass, and he knew firstly that it was her and secondly that she was in the
porch he prepared to strike.
Johnny didn’t have to wait for long for the porch to
open and as Harriet wasn’t expecting to be confronted and her arms were full,
she was easy prey.
So, the moment she became aware of his presence he
held the mistletoe above her head and said.
“Merry Christmas!” and planted a kiss on her surprised
lips.
The duration of the kiss was only a second or so and
when he had finished, and Harriet made no protest he took it to be a good sign,
so he turned away and said over his shoulder.
“I have more mistletoe in the lounge if you’re
interested”.
Once he was in the lounge he stood by the Christmas
Tree and waited and hoped he hadn’t miscalculated.
Johnny only had to wait for a minute before she
appeared in the doorway still wearing her complete school uniform, minus her
coat and shoes.
Harriet gave a quick glance to confirm where Johnny
was and then she walked slowly towards him in short shuffling steps with her
head down as she stared down at her stocking feet, until she came to a
shuffling halt when she was standing in front of him.
Harriet then took a deep breath before she raised her
head and looked up at him expectantly.
Johnny’s heart melted as he looked down on the
diminutive figure gazing up at him and he realised for the first time that he
loved her.
So, when he stooped down to kiss her expectant lips it
held much more significance than the one, he stole in the hall, and that was
reflected in the duration.
The long sensual kiss was followed by another and
another and would have led to another had she not heard her godmother and
Johnnys siblings emerging from the car outside.
They had to wait another full day before they could
pick up where they left off for the first of many more times and it turned out
that she had a very good reason not to go home to Abbottsford every weekend,
and that reason was she had fallen in love with Johnny Davenport.
No comments:
Post a Comment