Pipershaven was blanketed
with snow when June got up to shower and it was still snowing heavily, so she
decided to forgo the shower, and quickly dressed and went downstairs.
“Do you want breakfast?”
David asked
“No, I’d better get going”
Janis was still sleeping so
she said goodbye to David and set off for the drive to the port.
However, she returned to her
sister’s house three hours later having been unable to get to the port in time
for the 8am ferry and although she was aboard the 11 o’clock, she had to
disembark after it was announced that St Pieere port had been closed until
further notice.
So, she booked herself on the first available sailing when St Pierre
reopened.
“I’m stranded” she said, “Can I stay here until the port reopens?”
“Of course,”
Due to the snow David’s cul-de-sac was even quieter than normal, and with
Janis suffering the effects of the previous day’s exertions and sleeping
uncomfortably, there was a somber mood at the house.
Which only deepened following a very heated phone call between June and
her husband John who was not best pleased with her absence from their family
Christmas.
She expressed her regret at missing the festivities and that she was the
one missing out, but it cut no ice with John.
“How many times do I have to apologize, I didn’t make it snow, or cancel
the ferries or close St Pierre” she shouted and then hung up.
Although it wasn’t her fault and she had expressed regret to John about
it, in truth part of her was actually pleased to be missing Christmas in
Saxvirdan.
It wasn’t “her” family Christmas that she was missing, it was John’s the
only family she had was in the front room being slowly eaten away.
June didn’t like John’s family and they didn’t care much for her.
So, some time away from them was just what she needed.
When the evening came and they had eaten, David opened a bottle of wine,
and even before they’d started the second bottle, they began unloading their burdens on each other.
He detailed his
trials and tribulations of watching the woman he loved slowly slipping away
from life, while she talked about the members of the Stonard’s who had not
really accepted her as being good enough for John.
David was able to make her
feel better by revealing some unsavory gossip about her husband’s clan which
she didn’t know.
June then proceeded to reveal
more and more about herself and their relationship with every drink, but the
more she drank the more she tended to ramble, she spoke a lot about time, and
sand running through her fingers and choices and not knowing.
David couldn’t really follow
her train of thought, and the drink wasn’t helping, so he stopped refilling her
glass at that point and half an hour later he decided it was time to get her to
bed.
He had to manhandle her and
steer her through the door and up the stairs and when they reached the spare
bedroom door, he had to wedge her against the wall while he opened the door,
unfortunately as the door swung open, she fell into the room.
David instinctively reached
out and grabbed her, in an effort to prevent her from hurting herself,
unfortunately in trying to avoid grabbing anything intimate he only succeeded
in falling to the floor before she did, and landed on his back and she landed
on top of him.
“You know David if I wasn’t
your sister-in-law I’d shag you” she slurred before planting an almost Labrador
like kiss on his mouth.
“And if I wasn’t happily
married” he said after extricating himself from her embrace “I’d let you”
Then he struggled to his feet
and helped June to do the same before steering her into the bedroom.
“But I’m happily married” he
said as he plopped her onto the bed
“I’m not,” She slurred “So
there’s nothing stopping me”
She said and grabbed him by
the shoulders and planted another kiss on his mouth, much more controlled and
unhurried.
Worried that he was starting
to reciprocate, he broke away from her embrace again.
“But you are my
sister-in-law” he replied and kissed her on the forehead and left.
He was very flattered by a
woman five years his junior offering herself to him on a plate, but he was
proud of himself for turning her down, and not because he didn’t fancy her.
June wasn’t an unattractive woman by any measure,
with a warm open manner, a willowy thirty-five-year-old, with shoulder length
brunette hair, intelligent green laughing eyes and a broad toothy smile, an
altogether very pleasant demeanor, she ticked a lot of boxes for him.
If she offered it again in
the future, he might not be so strong.
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