WARNING TO READERS - This is a long, rambling, multi-part story and VERY British. The individual chapters will make more sense if read in sequence.
Pt. 24 Tales of the Unexpected
Tuesday brought another surprise. When I got home in the evening I nearly tripped over Gwen's suitcase standing in the hall at the bottom of the stairs.
I found her in the kitchen sitting at the table with Emma. I gave her a kiss on the top of her head and poured myself a cup of coffee. "What's going on, Mum?" I asked. "Are you going somewhere, is everything OK?"
"Yes, everything is fine," she smiled. "I'm just going away for a few days on a training course."
"Mum has been offered another promotion," Emma put in, "Isn't that great!" She got up from the table, "I need to go and change, I'm meeting friends in town and Mum is going to drop me off when she leaves."
After she went up to her room, Gwen closed the kitchen door and then quickly stepped up to me and we indulged in a very quick clandestine kiss.
"The hospital wants me to take up a teaching post; it's a lot more money and better working hours .... But it means that I need to attend a course at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital for the rest of this week and all of next week, I know that is short notice but they only told me today."
"Wow, that is fantastic!" I enthused. "I know that you have to go, but I shall miss you terribly." I felt selfish saying it but I really would miss her.
"I shall miss you too, my darling. It is a residential course and they are putting us into nurse's quarters at the hospital but I should be able to get away Saturday evening and have all of Sunday with you."
"I will cook something special for Sunday lunch then, just let me know what time you will be home on Saturday and we can all go out to dinner in town," I told her.
I could hear Emma moving about upstairs so I grabbed her hand and dragged her into the back lobby and shut the door. I pulled her into my arms and we clutched at each other, our lips coming together in a long desperate kiss, which only ended when we heard Emma on the stairs causing us to spring apart.
We slipped back into the kitchen just as she came in. "I had better go, I don't want to get there too late," Gwen said and then reached up to give me a quick motherly kiss on the lips. I walked with them out to the car and gently squeezed her arse and we gave each other a final hug.
"Call me sometime tomorrow, so that I know you are OK," I instructed her. I stood and watched them drive away. Our relationship was strange, it wasn't at all like being married, but I think we had both got used to the other just being there in the same house, we sometimes struggled to find quality time together and sex was usually a bit spontaneous and sometimes in unusual places but we were happy just being around each other.
Wednesday brought another surprise. Maggie was out with Colin and Kitty putting in some hours at Craven Manor and I had decided to stay in the office and get on with finishing the designs of the garden remake for Caroline Brookes at Bishopsdown. I needed to get the plans completed as the client had asked to see the first sets at the week-end and I planned to run out with them on Saturday.
I finished drawing the plans about mid-day and went down to the restaurant for some lunch and I was already crossing the arboretum on my way to the office when I heard the telephone ring, quickly followed by my call bell. We had installed a ringer so that whoever was in the office could summon us if we were out on site; Maggie's call sign was two rings, mine three and Emma's four.
I bounded up the stairs, "It's a lady asking for you, a Gill Watford... she says that you had spoken about gardens on a train or something?" Emma told me, "I'll put it through to your office."
I had almost forgotten about meeting Gill at Salisbury Station. It had been on the day that Gwen and I first became lovers and I guess that momentous happening overshadowed everything else from that day. There had been a connection between us, one of those strange things that I believed was something to do with 'The Touch', and I had given her my business card and told her to call me if she ever needed any garden work done. I was a bit surprised that she was actually calling.
I sat down at my desk and picked up the telephone, "Hello Gill, what a nice surprise," I opened.
"Hello Jamie, I hope you don't mind me calling you ... I wondered if you might have time to meet with me ... there is something that I would like to discuss with you."
"Have you decided to buy that house with a garden?" I remembered that she had told me about resigning her commission and leaving the army and possibly looking to buy a house in the county. I had offered to do any gardening work she might need.
"Not exactly... I would rather meet and talk face to face," she gave a little laugh; over the telephone it sounded husky and sexy. "I'm sorry, does that sound terribly mysterious?"
"No, not at all," I lied. "Do you want to come in here to the office or should I come to you...if you give me your address?" Gill had been really nice and we had connected strongly so for some irrational reason, I felt a certain obligation to her.
"Perhaps we could meet for lunch, are you free any day soon."
I had a quick glance in my diary which was pretty full. "What about tomorrow?" I had planned on taking the day off and just doing some chores in the garden at home, but she had tweaked my curiosity.
"That would be absolutely terrific," she answered. "Do you know the Antrobus Arms in Amesbury .... If that suits you we could meet about twelve-thirty in the bar? Lunch will be on me."
"Yes, yes, that would be fine." I knew of the hotel but had never been there and Amesbury was only about seven miles away up the A345.
"Oh Jamie, thank you so much, I know that I am probably being a real pain in the butt, but I do appreciate your agreeing to come .... Until tomorrow then...."
"Yes, see you tomorrow...goodbye."
I decided not to put our meeting in my diary, I was not sure why but I wasn't at all sure that it was to do with the gardening business. She was right, this meeting did sound a whole lot mysterious, I was sure that she would not be buying me lunch at one of the county's higher priced restaurants just to discuss, possible work on a garden that I was fairly convinced she didn't even have yet.
Gill was a serving army officer; I seriously hoped that she wasn't drawing me into anything to do with military secrets or illegal activities. No, definitely not! We had only spent a couple of hours together but I really liked Gill, it wasn't just that she was very attractive and sexy and we had clicked, she loved all the same jazz bands that I did ... there couldn't be anything wrong with somebody who really liked jazz... could there?
Thursday morning I got up and made breakfast for Emma and after she had left for work went out and spent a couple of hours working in the garden. About eleven I went indoors and showered, shaved and dressed to meet Gill. The Antrobus Arms was quite a classy restaurant and so I put on a pair of biscuit coloured chinos, with a black shirt and beige linen jacket. I rolled up a tie and put it in my pocket in case it turned out to be a collar and tie dining room.
I arrived at the hotel just after twelve and bought a small Heineken lager and found a table where I could sit and watch the door. I was early but I guess even then I was a bit old fashioned; I didn't like the thought of a woman waiting alone in a bar for me to arrive.
Gill walked in dead on time and looked really great, even better than I remembered from the train. I reassessed her as being mid to late thirties and very attractive, her shoulder length dark hair was still cut in a soft pageboy style and as before her make-up consisted of a pale carmine lipstick, nothing more. She was about 5' 7" and her figure, was terrific with the voluptuous curves of a mature woman and an hourglass waist.
She was wearing a very smart plain grey, tight fitting wool dress with a wide black leather belt which emphasised her tiny waist, black tights or stockings and plain black leather court shoes. She looked elegant and extremely sexy. I stood up as she spotted me and approached the table.
"Hello Gill. Whew! You look really great," I said admiringly.
"Well thank you very much, that makes me feel good already," she beamed, her face lighting up and her deep brown eyes glowing. "Shall we go through to the restaurant...or... did you want anther drink first?"
"No, that's fine, let's eat."
The Antrobus Arms was a seventeenth century coaching inn which had been added to during the Georgian and Regency era and although it seemed a bit dated was still regarded as one of the better hotels in the area often the choice of celebrities, Robert Taylor, Alan Ladd and the Beatles having stayed there whilst filming on Salisbury Plain at various times in the past. The restaurant served excellent traditional British fare and I choose the roast loin of pork with apple sauce and Gill selected the fresh farmed trout, and we shared a bottle of rather good Yugoslav Riesling.
We actually talked very little over lunch except about generalities, the news, the weather, and I sensed that she was reluctant to get to whatever it was she really wanted to speak about. It was another lovely warm spring day, the wet weather at the weekend had passed over, and so after lunch we took our coffees and went and sat in the garden at a table by the ornamental fountain.
"Oh Jamie," she said as we sat down, "I am SO sorry. I don't think that I can go through with this... I've dragged you out here on a wild goose chase." She looked so sad and forlorn.
"Gill, it's OK. Really it is..." I laid my hand over hers reassuringly. "Whatever it is... just tell me .... But if you really don't want to ... then that's OK as well."
