Emily Parsley lived in St Pierre in what was previously her family’s home, and she had lived there all 26 years of her life; and she had lived alone in the house for 2 of those years.
She worked in St Pierre for
the St Pierre and District Council, but she had many more strings to her bow.
Emily was very active in the
church, at St Joan of Arc as well as farther afield.
This involved among other
things, being a greeter at the church services, delivering Parish Magazines,
helping at the Christmas Bazaar, Summer Fete, and Sunday School, you name it,
and she did it and that was only on the island.
Her wider good works included
the Soup Kitchens in Pipershaven, who were always desperate for volunteers.
The
Christmas Wagon in St Pierre and
Spaniards Creek, which was an old Mornington Brewery dray, pulled by two of the
Beaumont shire horses, which was bedecked with tinsel and lights and carried on
the back, a multi denominational choir singing Christmas Carols.
Emily was not however, among
those going from door to door, as the wagon drove around the town, collecting
donations in plastic buckets and handing out sweets to the excited children, no
she was in the choir on the back of the Dray because she had the voice of an
angel.
The wagon plied its festive
trade on three consecutive nights on the week before Christmas, starting in the
Townsquare they travelled on three different routes so that by the end of the
third evening they would have covered all of the town, they then did a fourth
trip through Spaniards Creek.
The collectors with the
buckets were dressed as Elves, whereas Emily and the other choir members were
dressed in Victorian costume.
There were always plenty of
helpers, most of whom she already knew, but there was often a new face or two,
and that Wednesday was no difference, but one helper fell into both categories.
She had just got aboard the
wagon when a voice behind her said
“My God its Herbie”
Only one person had ever
called her Herbie, and that was Clayton Cooper, but she hadn’t seen him since
they were at school together when they were 14, because he moved away from the
island, she didn’t know where to.
She turned around to face the
speaker,
“It is you” he said and
laughed, and the schoolgirl crush she had on him as a 14-year-old girl flooded
over her again, even though the tall man with broad shoulders and hands like
shovels, short brown hair, neatly trimmed beard, and hazel eyes, was so different
from the boy she worshipped, only his infectious laugh was the same.
“Clay!” she exclaimed
“The very same” he replied
“Not the same” she corrected
him “but definitely you”
She had never believed in
love at first sight or in soul mates, she thought them rather fanciful notions,
the stuff of romantic fiction and sentimental movies.
That was until she met the
grown-up incarnation of Clayton Cooper when she was instantly smitten, but she
doubted he would feel the same.
“What are you doing here?”
she asked
“The same as you”
“That’s not what I meant” she
said, but then became aware that they were moving off
“Here we go” she said
regretfully
“I would love to catch up
though” she called over her shoulder
“Me too” he shouted after her
She did catch sight of him a
couple of times after that, the first time was when one of the Elves, Lily
Farmer managed to trap him in a bus shelter armed with a bunch of mistletoe and
only when she had satisfied herself in the pagan ritual did, she let him go.
Irrationally, having
witnessed the kiss, she was not at all happy about it, but she did enjoy seeing
him again.
The second time she saw him
was when they returned to the square and she disembarked, when her own cousin
Ellie kissed him and said goodbye.
Sadly, she never got to speak
to him again, not that day at any rate.
As she walked back home, she
was rerunning the evening’s events in her head and just as she opened her front
door, her phone rang, so she stepped inside and answered it.
“Hello!”
“Hi Emily” her cousin Ellie
said
“Guess who asked me for your
number today?”
An hour later her phone rang
again and this time it was Clayton and two days later they had their first
date.
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