Curtains twitched nervously, with a mixture of admiration and dread, as Charles took the long walk up the white gravelled driveway to the Manor house, that Monday morning. As he stood looking up at the tall windows, he wondered what destiny lay inside. What adventures would all this lead him on, and what wisdom would he seek?
But what really concerned him, was to be part of all this wealth, to plug into it like a ring-main. The thoughts of those wild sex parties burned into his mind, as he saw himself going back in time to chase those naked girls around the gardens. His past seemed to be wrapped around him, like the mist draped around the trees that morning. He rang the doorbell and waited.
When the heavy door was drawn open, he was almost hit between the eyes at the beauty of the woman who stood before him. Not just attractive to the male eye, she represented that power which made men feel as if the room was on fire, as soon as she walked into it.
"Can I help you?" The woman said the line as if she was asking him his deepest desire.
"Yes," said Charles, "I've come about the job." He had to stop himself from just falling into her arms and begging to kiss those breasts, to forget all his problems. But he needed the money.
"Oh, I was thinking more of a handyman. Are you good around the house?" She turned around and led him into the house.
"I can try." Charles could hardly believe the stupid way he was blurting this all out, but he knew he might be led into a trap, and watched what he said.
"I'm Mrs Draper, you can call me Sandra. My husband works in London a lot. So we have little time for gardening or anything else for that matter. Married?" She turned around quickly and confronted him with the question.
"Not likely! I mean- no." Charles looked around at all the money in paintings and furniture. This was the place to be.
"What's your name?" asked Sandra.
"Charles," he replied as they walked to the garden.
"I like that name. Regal, they named a line of Kings after that. You follow history much? Well, you should. This village has a lot of history linked to that time." She opened the French windows to look out onto the garden.
"History is something I want to get away from. It's the present I'm interested in," said Charles.
"This was a lovely garden once. There were a lot of happy times here." Mrs Draper spoke as if she could actually see into the past, and visualise those bodies writhing around on the lawn before them.
"Well I'll have to see if I can help you bring those happy times back," said Charles with a smile.
She just looked at him, as if she knew something he did not. Somehow she appeared close to that period in history as if she was in contact with it.
"You might want to take a look at the Yew Maze?" said Sandra turning away.
Charles did not believe in anything supernatural, and certainly not in time travel. So he got on with the garden and tried to get it into shape. Once he had cut through the rain forest of long grass and overgrown bushes, he could see some results. All the time as he swung the hedge trimmer, or pushed the mower; he thought of Sandra.
He thought of her walking through this long grass, dressed in her short, tight-fitting dress. Then he thought of her letting it slip from her silken shoulders to slide down her body and cascade onto the grass.
Suddenly he was woken from his dream as he looked up from the lawn at the house windows. There, watching him, was the woman. Maybe she thought of him as much as Charles fantasised about her? The question was, did he dare put it to the test?
One thing which did strike Charles as strange was that he only really fantasised about the woman when he got near the Yew Maze.
The opening to the Maze was a small door, very old and very heavy as if it held some dark secrets within. On opening the door, Charles was struck with the way the Yew trees twisted and turned as they made up the corridors of the Maze. It was very overgrown now, but he could still find his way around and saw it made up a very elaborate trail of deceit and deception. You could easily get lost in here, he thought and took special care to make his way back.
But as Charles turned around, he found he had walked straight down the wrong path. Cursing himself for being so childish, he turned around again and walked back the way he had come. Or at least that was what he thought, for on reaching the end of the path, the young man found he had walked further into the heart of the Maze, instead of coming out.
Frustration took hold at first, then panic gripped him, as he thought about charging through the branches of the Yew bushes to get out. This proved impossible, as the branches actually seemed to be fighting back, and Charles withdrew with cuts to his arms.
What was going on here? The damned thing appeared to be alive?
Charles had heard strange tales told in the pub, of people getting lost in the old maze at the Manor, but had put them down to simple children's stories. Or drunks! Now he was not too sure.
At times, he even wondered if he was in the garden. Or the garden as he knew it. The strange thing was, at times he was convinced he heard other voices. Strange accents he did not recognise, even American. It was as he heard the boom of a distant gun, then an aircraft flying overhead, that Charles woke up and came to his senses.
As soon as he saw the roof of the Manor House over the tops of the trees, he made his way out. Angry at himself for becoming so scared of something so childish. All the same, the next time he went into the Maze to trim the Yew trees, Charles took a very long line of string with him, to make sure he could find his way out.
