The Green Hills of Home (17 page)

"You lazy so-and-so!"
said John playfully. "After all the hours that I’ve slaved over that
cooker for you!"

"Well at least this way
you’re in less danger of being poisoned."

"Just make sure you pull off
the cardboard cover slowly so I’ve the chance to really experience your skills,"
said John, laughing.

"I’ll do my best," said
Gwen grinning. She really couldn’t believe how well they were getting on. He
was another person to the man she’d first met in London, now he was so fun and
easy to talk to.

"I’ll put some music on,"
said John as he turned on his laptop. Gwen raised her eyebrows at him
questioningly.

"What’s wrong with the CD
player?" she asked playfully.

"I’ve exhausted your meagre
music collection," said John indignantly.

"Control freak"
muttered Gwen.

"I heard that!"

"I meant you to,"
replied Gwen giggling.

As they sat down to eat John
raised his glass to make a toast, "To you and your books."

"They wouldn’t be becoming
books if it weren’t for all the work you’ve done on them" said Gwen
modestly.

"True, true," said John
jokingly, "I suppose I am something pretty special…"

Gwen threw her napkin at him. He
ducked and it landed on Oscar’s head. The dog shook it off and looked most
affronted, setting Gwen and John off laughing again.

 "Actually, I’m surprised at
how well we work together" said John as he helped himself to another glass
of wine. "I’m afraid I thought you rather amateurish when you couldn’t
come to London straight away. When you’re an editor I guess you get used to
telling authors to jump and them only pausing to ask ’How high?’"

"Well, I’m certainly not
about to do that," replied Gwen.

"No, and I’m glad – I’m
enjoying working with you. You’re not only hard-working, but also very
professional, despite the awful coffee you used to provide."

"I do want to be
professional, but being a published writer will never be as important to me as
my Mam is."

"I guess I haven’t been
around someone like you for a while. Everyone I know is very, very career
driven."

"Just like your father?"
asked Gwen tentatively.

"My father was the most
work-obsessed person I’ve ever known. He was far worse than me. My mother
dedicated her life to helping him achieve what he wanted to. He died of a heart
attack when he was sixty, a year after my mother died."

 "I’m sorry," said Gwen
softly, "What did your father work as?"

"He was in publishing too."

 "Was he an editor?"
asked Gwen.

"He started off as one,"
said John cagily. Gwen realised he was beginning to look uncomfortable; when he
quickly changed the subject by saying: "It’s warm tonight isn’t it?"
Gwen decided not to push him anymore and simply replied:

 "Shall we take our wine
outside? It’s such a beautiful evening."

"Good idea."

John and Gwen took their glasses
and settled themselves on the soft grass under the old apple tree.

"This tree really is
incredibly handy," said John as he leaned back against the trunk.

"It is, but it’s a bit of a
pain when the apples are ready to drop, it’s not worth the risk of sitting
under it, you’re very likely to get bopped on the head, and it really hurts,"
said Gwen.

It was so much cooler outside
that they only lasted about ten minutes before Gwen hurried in and came back
laden with blankets. Twenty minutes later and it was John who made the next run
inside to make some hot chocolates. Finally, as they blew on and took tiny sips
of the too hot, but irresistible drinks, they felt settled. They looked at each
other and grinned.

What would my colleagues think of
me now, thought John, but he realised he didn’t care.

He leant back and gazed at the sky.

"You live in the city the
whole of your life and you never realise how the night sky actually looks. On a
good, clear night in London you can see maybe five stars at the very most. Not
that most people bother to look."

"My father taught me all
about the stars," replied Gwen. "I can never look up at the night sky
without thinking of him."

"You really are an amazing
woman, did you know that?"

Gwen stared at him, surprised and
a little embarrassed by his outburst.

"Sorry," said John, "that
wasn’t very professional of me. Tell me, what stars can we see out tonight?"

Gwen thought it probably best to
go along with John’s abrupt change of subject.

 "Well, there’s Polaris, and
that group of stars just over there is Cassiopeia. They’ll be much clearer in a
few hours."

"Very impressive Miss Jones,
although of course you could have just made that up…"

Gwen laughed and looked towards
John. His face was much closer than she remembered.

Everything seemed to go into slow
motion as John moved towards her and kissed her firmly on the mouth. Gwen was
so shocked that it took her a moment to respond. John pulled away and looked
into her eyes, "Is this alright?" he asked gently.

Gwen nodded, she didn’t trust her
voice enough to speak, she was so overwhelmed with emotion. All she knew was
that she wanted this more than she’d ever wanted anything.  John’s kisses
became more and more insistent and then he stopped and asked, "Shall we go
inside?" Gwen replied "Yes" hoarsely and found herself being
picked up as if she were weightless and carried into the house and up the
stairs.

"Goodnight Oscar," said
John firmly as the dog got up slowly and made a vain attempt to climb up the
stairs after them. Oscar lay down at the bottom step looking resigned as John
carried Gwen into her room and closed the door.

The following morning Gwen lay in
bed watching John sleep and recalled the details of the night before. It had
been so sweet and so tender that Gwen had been close to tears. How was it
possible to feel this close to another human being: to feel that they’ve become
one with you? Part of Gwen felt that it must have been a dream. Nothing but a
beautiful dream

John murmured in his sleep and
Gwen started: she was a little nervous about him waking up. She’d been certain
last night that he felt the same way she did, but now, in the cold light of
day, she was beginning to have her doubts. She’d just made up her mind to get
up, have a shower and make herself look busy downstairs when John stirred
again; he reached out for her and drew her close to his warm body before
returning to his deep sleep once more. All Gwen’s doubts instantly dissolved.

By the time Gwen woke up again it
was nine and John was nuzzling her neck. His kisses became more passionate but
Gwen had to pull away when she remembered that poor Oscar must be desperate to
be let out.

"I’ll come with you,"
offered John realising why Gwen needed to get up.

Gwen watched him out of the
corner of her eye as he pulled on his jeans. She gave a little smile to herself
that John immediately picked up on.

"What are you smiling about
so cheekily?" he asked.

"Nothing," replied
Gwen, blushing. John pulled Gwen in for another kiss and it took all of her
willpower to remember Oscar and break away after a minute.

Gwen and John ambled along
companionably as Oscar hobbled around the garden, sniffing everywhere and
wagging his tail as much as he could.  Gwen lifted her face into the sun and
pondered that she’d never felt so complete. Gwen had had boyfriends before,
although there weren’t any that could properly be called a long-term
relationship. She’d go on dates with these men, to restaurants, bars, theatres
or the cinema in a nearby town. Each date would take her a decent amount of
time to prepare for – relaxing bath with a glass of wine, followed by
hair-styling, make-up and carefully chosen outfit, shoes and handbag. All this
was capable of taking at least a couple of hours. Yet here she was, in Wellington boots, having not even showered, with a man she cared about far more than all
the others put together. This is what she’d been looking for – someone to walk
in her wellies with. It just got even better when John took her hand in his as
if to do so were the most natural thing in the world.

"He’s exhausted isn’t he?"
said Gwen, stroking Oscar’s ears as he slept on the sofa later that morning.

"Do you think he’ll be
alright here for a couple of hours if we go out for a proper walk?"

"I should think so, it’s
such a beautiful day, and it seems a shame to spend it indoors."

Gwen and John hiked for a couple
of miles. John was happy to be quiet as Gwen chatted away, pointing out local
landmarks and telling him some of the area’s history. John had travelled all
over the world for work and with his family growing up, but he couldn’t
remember any landscape having such an effect on him as this. The weather was
perfect, warming sunshine and a refreshing breeze. Eventually they spotted a
nice looking pub and John suggested they go in and get some food.

"Shouldn’t we get back and
at least attempt to get some work done?" asked Gwen.

"It’s the weekend, we can
take it easy," said John.

"What has happened to you?"
said Gwen, pretending to be shocked.

"Let’s just say that now
I’ve got a good reason not to work," said John, leaning over to kiss her.

John insisted on paying when they
ordered their food from the bar. Gwen noticed he paid with cash; she was
pleased he hadn’t used his company expense account as she was quite sure that
she didn’t want to be just another business contact to him.

"I like that you eat,"
commented John halfway through their meal.

"What on Earth does that
mean? Of course I eat!" replied Gwen.

"I mean you eat properly,
you enjoy your food and you eat a full meal. I’ve dined with so many women who
just move their salad leaves round and round their plate, in some kind of
complex dance."

"Well, what’s the point in
ordering it if you’re not going to eat it," answered Gwen and she resumed
tucking into her delicious fish and chips.

"I couldn’t agree more,"
said John as he kissed her again. Gwen noticed some of the bar staff watching
them and nudging each other, but just ignored them. She wasn’t about to turn
down a kiss from John just because it would cause a little gossip.

They did fit a little work in
when they returned from their walk, but it was only at Gwen’s insistence. She
couldn’t figure out what had happened to John, but she was enjoying his company
so much that she decided not to point out his new relaxed work ethic again.

Oscar had moved from the sofa and
now slept contentedly on his cushion in front of the fireplace; he opened a
lazy eye every once in a while to check that neither Gwen nor John had deserted
him. He was quite happy to return to his slumber when he saw they were still at
either ends of the sofa, John with his laptop, Gwen reading a print out of a
corrected chapter. Her ancient laptop lay abandoned on the floor where she’d
dumped it after it had threatened to burn a hole through her jeans.

Gwen looked over at John when she
was certain he’d be absorbed in reading. The whole scenario seemed a little
bizarre: they were doing the same tasks they’d done many times before and yet
the feeling that something had irreconcilably changed in their relationship was
palpable, and it wasn’t just that their bare feet had never been touching whilst
they worked before.

Gwen estimated that her laptop
had probably cooled down enough for her to turn it on again, and thought she
could get away with a quick check of her emails without John noticing that she
was slacking off. She logged in and the first thing that caught her eye was a
message from John sent seconds before, it read simply, "Fancy a cuppa?"
She laughed and John looked up "I hope you weren’t checking your emails
when you’re supposed to be working."

"Of course not!" said
Gwen, mock-indignantly, "Fancy a cuppa?"

"Ok then," replied
John, trying hard to keep a straight face.

"I’m going to need to leave
soon to visit Mam," said Gwen when she came back in with the drinks. It
was one of the very few times she’d ever been reluctant to go to the hospital.
She felt a little guilty but sought to quell it straight away, her mother would
be thrilled if she knew what a wonderful day she’d had, she wanted her to be
happy. Edith would probably tell her not to visit that evening but Gwen felt
that she should. Her mother was still very frail and Gwen would worry if she
didn’t see her. But these thoughts didn’t make it any easier to leave and get
herself ready to go out.

Despite John offering to come,
Gwen chose to go to the hospital by herself that evening. As much as she didn’t
want to be apart from John, she knew her mother would guess straight away if
she saw them together that something had happened, and she wasn’t ready to
start answering questions yet.

It was as lovely as ever to see
her Mam, but she was distracted thinking about John. Her mother had to check a
couple of times that she was listening. Gwen kept daydreaming about how sweet
John had been as she was leaving.

"Will you be wanting
anything to eat when you get back?" He’d asked before she went out of the
door.

"Probably not," she
replied. "I’m still pretty full from earlier."

"Alright, see you later then"
said John before kissing her goodbye.

The memory of the simple
domesticity of the exchange made her smile before she guiltily brought herself back
to her conversation with her Mam.

Gwen had to stop herself from
driving far too fast in her efforts to get back to John as quickly as possible,
but when she got home only the hall light was on. Everywhere else was in
darkness. As usual Oscar was thrilled to have her back, but Gwen was distracted
when she greeted him. Where had John gone? His car was still outside. Had he
left a message? Why hadn’t he mentioned he was going out? Gwen walked
dejectedly into the kitchen and turned on the light.