Christmas 2005 – Sara's Midnight Service
The Tangled Web is a story spanning several years and is based on the complicated lives of Sara and Sam, lovers who are brother and sister, and those they live with. Set in the English Midlands, the tale is told through a series of interlocking short stories. Although designed to be read in sequence, I have tried to make each chapter stand as a complete and satisfying story in itself.
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The little stone-built church was packed with worshipers, some devout, some slightly merry, but all happily trolling forth the cheerful words of the closing carol into the candlelit darkness of the ancient building's vaulted roof.
'...Yea, Lord we greet thee, born this happy morning...'
For nearly a thousand years the village church had welcomed Christmas revellers from the tiny Yorkshire hamlet and the farms around every year without fail. And now it was welcoming two new arrivals, the brother and sister couple Sara and Sam, whose very relationship was considered a sin.
It was Christmas Eve and the midnight mass was coming to a close. Back in their cottage, the excited twins were finally asleep, watched over by their Grandmother who was staying with her two children for the season.
Sara and Sam had taken the opportunity to go to the service together. Sara sang out confidently and tunefully. Sam less confident made sure that he sang less loudly than those standing in front and behind him.
"... Oh come let us adore him...Chri-ist the Lord..."
Anonymous in the midst of the full congregation, Sara squeezed her brother Sam's hand as they sang out into the darkness. She glanced up into his strong, handsome face and smiled cheekily. There was love in her eyes, but much more than the love a sister normally showed her brother.
Sam squeezed her hand in return, their long thick overcoats brushing against each other.
As the procession of choir and clergy passed along the aisle and out into the cold night air, the service ended with many wishes of 'Happy Christmas' being passed from friend to friend; with warm handshakes between neighbours and a hundred happy kisses on the cheek before the cheerful congregation themselves followed the choir out through the heavy wooden doors.
Sara and Sam walked hand in hand in the darkness along the uneven lane that led towards their cottage. The ground crunched under their feet as it froze in the cold Christmas morning air. A bright moon lit up the roofs of the old stone houses past which they walked in contented silence.
As they neared the stream, a neighbour called out to them in a loud stage whisper.
"Merry Christmas you two! Love to the kids!"
Sara felt Sam's strong fingers squeezing hers. She felt a warm feeling inside her. How very different from the hidden, secretive life in the city they had left behind.
The small, picturesque village in which they had lived for nearly a year knew Sara and Sam simply as the normal, very pleasant, husband and wife parents of the two mischievous but incredibly cute twins that now attended the local village infant school.
They had settled very well into village life. Sara played an active part in the local school parents' association and, although Sam was away from home a lot, they had made many good friends in their new neighbourhood. They had started attending the local parish church too on a regular basis; partly to help establish themselves in the village community, but also as part of Sam's new plan.
They were to be married the following spring.
To be more precise, they were to have their union blessed in a church service that so closely resembled a wedding that, to quote the vicar, 'only a theologian would be able to spot the difference.'
How had this miracle come about? In the end, it had been simple – at least it had been so far.
The Church of England leaves a great deal of decision making in the hands of its local clergy. It is not unusual for British couples who were originally married in a civil ceremony to want a church blessing later in life – often to celebrate a significant anniversary or if one partner becomes more religious after the original wedding. Usually Church of England vicars are pleased to perform blessing ceremonies for married couples which to the layman look and feel just like real weddings.
But crucially, because they are not wedding ceremonies in the legal sense, no personal history checks need to be made. If the vicar is satisfied, then the ceremony can take place. No birth certificates need be presented which would have shown Sara and Sam had the same parents. No original marriage certificates need be shown which Sara and Sam would have been unable to provide.
By presenting themselves to their new community as a couple already married in a registry office, Sara and Sam had easily persuaded their new vicar, a delightful, committed man in his early sixties, to perform a church ceremony for them in the spring.
They are naturally ecstatic about this. All their new friends will be invited and their mother and Uncle Steven will also be there. Sara and Sam both wished that their old friends could be there too, but sadly had to face the fact that they would probably never be able to see them again – at least never as a couple with children.
Meanwhile, this was their first Christmas in their new cottage as a real, accepted couple. They were determined to make the most of it.
As the two lovers crossed the little hump-backed bridge which straddled the village stream, Sara paused and gazed down into the jet black fast flowing waters.
"Do you remember our first weekend in York?" She asked, snuggling up close to her brother in the cold.
"How could I ever forget it?" Sam replied, putting his arm around her shoulders. "We stood on the bridge and watched the water that night, too." He pondered a little longer. "It was the first time we actually woke up in the same bed together. At least, the first time since we were children."
"Not that we got a lot of sleep!" Sara teased. "And here we are - together." She went on. "And have two wonderful boisterous children of our own."
She turned to face her brother and raised her mouth to his. They kissed, Sam's long, strong arms enfolding her, the bright moon shining on them from above.
"Sam?" Sara asked tentatively when at last their lips parted.
"What, Midge?" He softly replied, nuzzling her soft brown hair.
"Sam, there's something I want to ask you."
"What is it, Midge? I can't buy you any more presents at this time of night!" He grinned.
