Monday 24 April 2017

Tales from the Finchbottom Vale – (50) Guilty Secret

(Part 01)

Twenty eight year old Paul Ingram had fallen in love with an older woman, a forty year old woman to be precise, who was a beautiful unhappily married, Carrington Chase educated woman called, Francesca Carrington-Webber.
Attraction for him was instant when he saw her in the first class carriage on the train to Abbottsford.
That was before he’d even heard her speak in her posh Carrington Chase educated voice which he didn’t hear until she fell on his lap on the return journey.
Carrington Chase was Downshire’s version of Roedean, although those in Downshire think it was the other way around.
Paul had always been turned on by a well-spoken women and turned off by common ones.
For him there was no greater turn off than to see a spectacularly beautiful woman open her mouth and speak in a rough colloquial accent, Cheryl Cole being a good case in point.
But Francesca was beautiful to look at and she had the sexy posh accent, but more than that after having spoken to her and seen behind the beauty and the poshness, she was a lovely person from the inside to the out.

Paul and Francesca both lived in the village of Forest Dean situated equidistant between Shallowfield and Childean, she lived in a huge house that backed onto the The Forest Ridge Golf Club, and coincidentally Paul worked for the Golf Club.

Although he didn’t realize it at the time, Francesca had noticed Paul on the train to Abbottsford and she was taken with him from the first glance, and it was the first glance of many.
She had even spotted him later that afternoon as she was in the back of a taxi, slightly the worse for drink, and he was sitting in the beer garden of the Downshire Castle, and totally out of character she waved at him.
But nobody was more surprised than she was when she fell in his lap, not once but three times when she was returning home.
And from that moment on the die was cast.

But it wasn’t until 6 weeks later when she was attending the Sharpington Yacht Club Dinner Dance when their paths crossed again.
Francesca was well used to being ignored by her husband at such events but the moment the dancing started he deserted her to go and drink with his mates at the bar and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back for her so she made a dignified exit and walked up to the promenade where she broke down completely.
She couldn’t have put a time to the period she spent crying on the bench or how much longer she may have remained had she not heard a male voice behind say
“Is everything ok?”
And when she turned around to reveal her tearstained face she saw it was Paul Ingram
“Oh it’s you” she said the moment she saw him and was up on her feet and rushing into his arms, but was unable to speak for several minutes as Paul held her in his arms and she sobbed.
And those tender moments of consolation lead to them making love in his caravan.

(Part 02)

After Paul and Francesca made love in his caravan in the middle of July and he walked her back to her Hotel in the early hours of the next day Paul was very optimistic about the prospect of seeing her again, and in the very near future.
However by the beginning of August he hadn’t even seen her again let alone hold her and touch her.
He had phoned her numerous times but she never picked up.
He would have gone to her house but unfortunately he neglected to get her exact address when he last saw her.

Francesca was trying desperately to avoid speaking to Paul, even though that was the last thing she wanted to do.
She had thought of little else since that night they spent together but she had also had terrible feelings of guilt, which was why she kept ignoring his calls and she would have kept that up indefinitely until the point he gave up calling, had fate not taken a hand.

Paul had been sent to collect some grass seed from the Shallowfield Garden Centre which was quite unusual in itself because they normally got there supplies from a wholesale supplier, but they had an urgent need due to their own stock being found to be sterile and the lead time on replacement not meeting their urgency.

It was as Paul drove along the high street in Shallowfield when he caught sight of Francesca Carrington-Webber sitting alone at one of the tables outside Addison’s Café.
She was wearing a summer dress and she looked absolutely gorgeous, he guessed she was probably enjoying a coffee while waiting for a friend.
He parked the car in the first available space and walked back towards the café and as he got close he quickened his stride and as luck would have it, or so he thought, he caught her eye and he gave her a wave, but instead of waving back she gathered up her things and hurried away.
“That’s very odd” he thought

Having failed to speak with Francesca he went to the Garden Centre and got the seed and decided to have lunch at The Woodcutters Arms and had a sandwich and a pint.
When he stepped back out into the sunlight, he spotted Francesca again, this time in the pub carpark, so he approached her on her blindside so she couldn’t run off again and when he was a few feet away he said
“I think you’ve been avoiding me”
Francesca jumped and immediately became flustered
“No, no not at all” she corrected him
“I think you have,” he repeated “why?”
Francesca didn’t say anything for about a minute
“Please tell me Francesca” he entreated
“Because I feel guilty,” She snapped
“You don’t need to feel guilty Honey” he said
“You don’t understand” She said vehemently “I don’t feel guilty because it happened”
“Then why?” Paul asked but she didn’t respond
“Francesca?”
“Because I enjoyed it” she barked
“I liked it because you made me feel sexy”
Francesca paused and then continued
“I liked it because you made me feel special”
Then she hurried away towards her car, but stopped and turned after a few paces and said
“But most of all I feel guilty because I want to do it again”
And then she was gone again, Paul thought for a moment before he hurried after her
“Francesca?” he called but she kept going so he pressed on after her instead and Francesca was standing by her car when he caught up with her.
“Do you mean it?” he asked but his question met with silence
“Francesca?”
“Yes” she replied reluctantly “but it can never happen again”
“Why?”
“Because I’m a wife and a mother” she retorted and then added almost as an after thought
“And I love my husband”
She may have once but not so much now he thought, her husband spent more time on the Golf course or in the club house than he did with his gorgeous wife.

(Part 03)

“Because I’m a wife and a mother” she retorted and then added almost as an after thought
“And I love my husband”
She may have once but not so much now he thought, her husband spent more time on the Golf course or in the club house than he did with his gorgeous wife.
He believed Francesca was clearly lonely which she didn’t deserve to be, and it was in his power to change that.
She opened the hatchback and was about to put her shopping in the boot; but he put his right hand on the edge of the boot, preventing her.
“Do you think about that night?” he asked
“Yes” she said
“Often?”
“Yes” she replied “All the time”
“Do you remember us laying in my bed” he asked and she reddened at the recollection and then nodded
“It’s something I’ll never forget” he said “I think about it every day and especially when I go to the Caravan”
“Don’t make fun of me, don’t make fun of it” she screamed and started to cry
“I’m not making fun of you,” he said taking hold of her hand
“I think of it all the time” he said “And not just the love making, I think of you, in that cocktail dress, with my jacket on your shoulders”
Francesca squeezed his hand and he continued
“Walking arm in arm through the park”
“So do I,” she gasped and squeezed his hand again.
They didn’t speak; the only sound was her steady breathing and the birdsong as they both recalled moments of that night.
He watched her, eyes closed, lips slightly parted, and her tongue lightly moistening them as she breathed but then a group of pub customers walked by and the spell was broken, she let go of his hand and she threw her shopping quickly in the boot and slammed it shut.
“Please don’t avoid me again?” he said
“I won’t, I promise” she said and then she drove away.
He hoped he wouldn’t have to wait long before he saw her again and as he walked back to his car Paul allowed himself to fantasize about where and when he might see her again, the first occasion in Sharpington was a chance meeting, a serendipitous event, which culminated in them making love, the second time was also by chance, but it was too public for him to embrace her the way he wanted to, hopefully the next time they met by chance it would be different.
“I hope there will be a next time” he muttered under his breath and then he was snapped out of his deliberations by the sound of a car horn.
When he turned around to investigate the source of the sound he discovered it was Francesca, who had pulled up alongside him.
“Hello” he said “I was just thinking, about you, about us”
“Good, I want you to come with me to the woods so I can kiss you” she said
“And I want to kiss you to” he retorted “When did you have in mind?”
“Right now” she snapped
“Are you sure?” Paul asked
“Yes” she yelled “Get in the bloody car”
“So much for a chance encounter” Paul said to himself as he walked around to the other side and got in the car.
And after a short tense ride in the car up to a secluded part of the Dancingdean Forest Francesca and Paul had a long awaited kiss in the woods.

After their passionate embrace they talked and talked until it was time for her to go and pick up her girls from school.
The outcome of the discourse was that she wanted to see him again, but she was a married woman, however unhappily, so they couldn’t be together in the way they were at the Whitecliff Hill Caravan Park, not yet anyway.
They also concluded that what had begun for him as a bit of fun with a fit older woman, and for her some good energetic sex with a toy boy, had despite the age difference turned into something else, as they had fallen in love.

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