Chapter 19
Maybe it was the scotch, maybe it was just the very long time I'd spent thinking about the possible life ahead of us for Bethany and I, or maybe it was my subconscious reluctance to end the dream of us that I had been wallowing in at the time, but for whatever reason - I woke unusually late that Sunday morning.
In fact it was only the incessant ringing of the telephone that finally stirred me.
'Ah, you are there! I thought you must have gone out already.' Bethany said when I eventually picked it up.
'No, you've discovered my secret vice - I was actually still asleep.' I admitted.
'Goodness - I've been up for ages!'
'Well I sat up for quite a while - thinking about us.' I explained.
'Nice thoughts - or doubtful ones?' she asked with a note of hesitancy in her voice.
'Oh nothing but the very nicest ones my darling. In fact I was busily planning some sort of future for us.' I blurted out.
There was silence for a few moments, and I began to wonder if I had stepped across some unspoken boundary - but I was quickly reassured by both her response and the almost girlishly excited tone in her voice. 'Well you can start talking about those things whenever you like! But before that, what plans did you have for today?'
'Today? Nothing in particular, a few odd jobs around the place, that's all - why?'
'We had a phone call from the father of a couple of the boy's school-friends, he was planning to take them out on his boat today, and rang to see of John and Jason would like to join them. And of course that was an offer they simply jumped at - I've just seen them off. So as you won't have had breakfast yet, why not pop round here and let me cook one for you. Then we can decide what we want to do with the rest of our day - that is if you don't mind spending it with me!' she added cheekily.
'Give me half an hour to shave and shower, and I'll be there. If nothing else, the offer of a cooked breakfast is far too good to turn down!' I answered in a similar tone.
She giggled. 'I thought that might be your answer. Now as I might well still be upstairs tidying up, I'll leave the back-door unlocked, so just come around through the garden and you can come in the back way. OK?'
'I'll be there soonest my darling, just start getting things warmed up for me!' I added before we hung up.
As the forecast was for the day to be another hot one, I slipped into just shorts, a polo shirt and loafers, and in something less than half an hour was making my way back around to Bethany's house.
The rear entry door was, as she'd said it would be, unlocked, and having gone through the deserted kitchen and into the hall-way that ran the length of the house, and remembered that she'd said she could well be upstairs, I stood at the foot of them and called upwards. 'Bethany! Bethany, it's me, Mark - are you up there?'
Her answering call had a strangely echoing tone to it, but she said she was, and told me to go up to her. 'When you get to the top you'll see that there's an open door. I'm in there.' she explained.
I climbed the main flight, then turned up the three or four stairs that led on to a hallway that mirrored the downstairs one - to the right all the doors were firmly shut, but to the left, and at the far end, there was one almost wide open.
I went straight in, and found myself in what was quite obviously Bethany's room - decorated in shades of primarily old-rose and dusty pink, with glossy white paintwork that highlighted the delicacy of those shades of colour. Then, adding a couple of more dramatic colour splashes, were a few objects of either rich burgundy or muted emerald green.
The bed, an over-sized one, had a throw-over that picked up those colours, contrasting with the crisp whiteness of what were obviously freshly-laundered sheets - and both those and the coverlet were turned invitingly down.
But there was no sign of Bethany.
'Wrong room darling!' I heard her call - the echoing effect that I noticed from downstairs, now very much clearer. 'I'm in the room next door.' she added - and sure enough when I looked out, there was a second, just partially opened doorway.
Again I went in - into one of the largest bath-rooms I'd ever seen - much of one side of which was totally dominated by a simply massive, late Victorian - complete with the apparently nearly always obligatory, claw-feet - bathtub.
It wasn't just much longer than any bath I had ever seen, but was really high-sided, so high in fact that although I could tell that Bethany was sitting bolt-upright in it, even I could see not more of her than just her head and the very tops of her shoulders.
I figured that it was quite big enough to accommodate most, if not all, of an entire brood of a Victorian family's children at the one time - and in spite of their sometimes much-vaunted prudery about matters sexual, we all know just how many of them there tended be in those days!