The Green Hills of Home (2 page)

Taking one last look in the
mirror, but finding Sian nowhere near ready; Gwen went into the sitting room
and settled herself down in the armchair for what she anticipated would be a
long wait.

Sian finally emerged almost half
an hour later wearing a hot pink halter neck and tiny black leather skirt. The
heels she teamed the look with brought her up to Gwen’s height. She gave no
apology for her tardiness, but posed by the door of the bedroom awaiting Gwen’s
reaction.

Sian knew she looked fantastic
and Gwen was certain she wouldn’t be able to get her out of the flat until
she’d confirmed as much.

"You look gorgeous,"
she said, inwardly rolling her eyes.

Sian gave her hair a satisfied
flick and picked up her bag.

"I didn’t keep you waiting
did I?" she asked.

"No more than usual,"
answered Gwen with tolerant affection.

Gwen would have been happy to
walk the short distance to the Bar but Sian insisted they take a taxi to save
her feet in the very high heels.

When they arrived there was a
queue to get into the Bar, Sian confidently led Gwen to the front of the line,
smiled sweetly and was let straight in by her doorman friend.

Gwen looked around. The room was
dark and the music loud. She knew immediately that it wasn’t going to be her
kind of place. The responsibility of a grateful and well-mannered guest only
went so far and she started to mentally calculate how long she’d have to stay
before she could politely make her excuses and leave.

Although she was only twenty-six,
the Bar made Gwen feel old. Everyone looked so young and some of them were
wearing even less than Sian.

Sian spotted some people she knew
and waved frantically to them.

"I’ll get the first round
in," said Gwen smiling. "You go and join your friends; I’ll be with
you in a minute."

"Aw, thanks sweetie. A vodka
and orange please," called Sian over her shoulder as she skipped off
happily.

Gwen glanced over at the barman
and immediately regretted her offer. He was very busy and Gwen suspected it
would take ages for her to be served. She got as close to the bar as she could
and did her best to attract the barman’s attention.

After she’d waited for almost ten
minutes she was ready to give up. She kept getting jostled and was no closer to
getting served than when she’s started. Gwen was just about to move to the
other side of the bar and try her luck there when she felt a strong hand on the
small of her back and a firm voice whispered in her ear. "Let me help, what
are you after?"

Gwen looked up and her heart gave
a jolt as she instantly recognised the handsome, slightly imposing man speaking
to her as the person she’d bumped into earlier.

"Two vodka and oranges
please," replied Gwen, recovering from her surprise as quickly as she
could.

The man straightened up and
reached across the bar with a twenty pound note in his hand. He called out:

"Hey, Chris, some drinks
over here when you get a chance?"

The barman came straight over.

"Hi there, sorry to keep you
waiting, it’s been a bit crazy here tonight."

A minute later Gwen had her
drinks handed to her.

"Thanks," she said. "That’s
quite a talent you’ve got there. Let me pay you for these."

"I come here a lot for work
so I know the barman. Don’t worry about the drinks, it’s my pleasure."

And with a flash of a smile,
giving sudden warmth to his taciturn demeanour, he disappeared into the crowds.
Gwen’s heart was still racing as she stared after him. She felt a little
unsteady; as if her legs weren’t quite sure how long they’d be able to support
her for.

Gwen was certain she could once
again read the stranger’s interest in her from his manner, but now he’d
vanished abruptly twice in less than twenty-four hours and she was seriously
beginning to doubt her instincts.

The notion did occur to Gwen that
she was a little disappointed that the man apparently hadn’t recognised her,
but she swiftly shook her head to free it of such silly thoughts and tried to
focus on finding Sian. If anything, the Bar had become busier since she’d last
seen her cousin, but Gwen finally managed to spot her. She was sitting at a
small table with about six other people. She was talking animatedly using lots
of hand gestures and had managed to get hold of a drink from somewhere.

Sian noticed Gwen as she got
closer and waved her over.

"Hey babe, what took you so
long? I’ve been gasping for a drink. Luckily Demetrius here gave me his," Sian said, indicating a sleazy-looking man who had his arm draped around her. Even seated
Gwen could tell that Demetrius was shorter than her. He was tanned to the point
of being orange and his hair had so much gel in that Gwen expected it to start
dripping onto the table.

Demetrius smiled and winked at
Gwen in what he obviously considered to be a sexy manner. It made her skin
crawl. He clearly thought he was God’s gift to women but he really wasn’t the
kind of man who appealed to Gwen.

She could feel Demetrius’
lecherous eyes on her as she was introduced to everyone and found a place to
perch.

Judging from what Gwen could gather
from the conversation everyone else at the table worked as actors of some sort
or another, none of them very successfully.

Sian didn’t make much of an
effort to include Gwen in the chatter and nobody else seemed to feel the
inclination to talk to her, so Gwen took the opportunity to make a scan of the
room to see if she could spot her handsome stranger. There was no sign of him
and when she turned her attention back to the table she discovered Demetrius
staring at her intensely, his arm still around Sian.

His gaze unnerved Gwen and she
hastily turned away and attempted to strike up a conversation with the woman
across the table from her. This wasn’t exactly easy with the Bar as loud as it
was, but at least it gave Gwen something to focus on, other than Demetrius’
probing eyes.

After about an hour, Gwen thought
she could acceptably signal to Sian that she was going to leave. Sian was clearly having a good time and Gwen didn’t imagine her company would be missed.

The couple sitting between Gwen
and Demetrius got up to leave and Gwen shifted along the bench so she’d be
nearer to Sian, waiting for a suitable pause in her cousin’s monologue.

Gwen was looking at Sian and willing her to turn towards her when she felt something on her leg. Gwen jumped
and glanced down to discover Demetrius’ hand sliding its way up her thigh. She
stood up immediately and glared at Demetrius, who was continuing his
conversation as if nothing had happened. The offending hand was now holding his
drink. His other arm remained draped about Sian. Holding back from pouring her
drink straight into Demetrius’ lap, Gwen forced herself to move away before her
temper caused her to do something that might embarrass her cousin. She would
have excused herself, but as no one noticed her getting up, she didn’t bother.

Gwen walked quickly to the
toilets; the Ladies was busy so she locked herself in the disabled bathroom and
was glad to see it had its own washbasin. She splashed her face with cold water
to clear the anger from her mind and calm the burning red of her embarrassed
cheeks.

"What should I do?"
Gwen asked her reflection, which just gazed back at her looking confused. "And
what should I say to Sian? I can’t let her go and make a fool of herself by
being with a man like that."

Gwen shuddered at the memory of
Demetrius’ clammy hand on her thigh. How could he do that when he had his other
arm around Sian!

Gwen opened the door of the
toilet. She was determined to get Sian away from her friends and talk to her
about what had happened. What she didn’t expect was to walk straight into
Demetrius.

"Ciao bello, I got away as
fast as I could," said Demetrius playfully as he put his hand on Gwen’s
waist.

"I certainly wasn’t waiting
for you. And I think you’ll find it should be ‘bella’," replied Gwen
crossly. She moved out of Demetrius’ reach.

"Don’t play games with me
with your flirty glances and that short little dress, you know you want me."

Demetrius pushed Gwen roughly
against the wall. She could feel the cold of the tiles through her dress. As
she caught Demetrius’ eye she saw that the mischievous twinkle had been
replaced with a hard, forceful stare. This was a man who was determined to get
what he wanted.

"Demetrius, I’m sure you’re
a really great guy, but I’m not interested in you. I’d like you to let me go
please," said Gwen, trying to remain calm.

Leering at her, Demetrius used
his body to keep her pinned to the wall. He then caught both of her hands in
his own and began to kiss her forcefully. Gwen could smell alcohol and
cigarettes on his breath. She fought to keep her mouth shut and tried to turn
her face away but Demetrius was much stronger than she was. She attempted to
kick him and he broke away from kissing her to laugh.

"You’re a feisty one aren’t
you?" he jeered.

Demetrius was about to resume
molesting her when Gwen felt him roughly being pulled off her.

"What the hell do you think
you’re doing?" shouted Demetrius angrily to his attacker.

"She said she wasn’t
interested," said the deep, manly voice of her saviour curtly. Gwen turned
her attention to her rescuer and once again recognised the tall, solid form of
her alluring stranger, except now his eyes blazed with fury.

Demetrius looked his enemy up and
down before dropping his hold on Gwen.

"Alright mate," he
reluctantly conceded, with his hands in the air. He glared at Gwen and walked
off. The stranger’s steely gaze followed Demetrius across the Bar and out of
the building.

As soon as Demetrius was out of
sight Gwen’s body relaxed and she slid down the wall onto the floor and began
to cry. She wept big, heavy tears of relief. She wasn’t a large woman and was
sure she wouldn’t have been able to fight Demetrius off if he’d continued to
refuse to take no for an answer.

When Gwen had begun to calm down
she looked up to thank her handsome protector. She caught his eye and gave him
a shy smile. He stood awkwardly watching her, his concern plain but he was
clearly unsure of how to deal with the situation now that the tension was over
and he was left with a sobbing woman on the floor. She endeavoured to pull
herself together quickly. 

"Thank you," said Gwen
quietly, as she reclaimed some of her composure.

"No trouble at all, can I
get you anything?" asked the man as he helped her to her feet.

"No thanks," replied
Gwen. "I think I’d just like to go home."

"Can I call a taxi for you?"

"I’ll walk," said Gwen
immediately, thinking of the sorry state of her finances, "It’s not far."

"I’ll walk with you."

"You don’t have to do that."

"I insist" he said
firmly, "I was leaving anyway."

Gwen’s token arguments voiced,
she willingly agreed: his mind was set and she was grateful she wouldn’t be
walking through London alone. Besides, although she didn’t really know him, she
felt safe and secure with this man around.

"OK, I just need to tidy
myself up a bit."

"I’ll meet you by the
entrance in five minutes."

Gwen’s knight-in-shining armour
strode confidently off across the Bar and was soon lost to Gwen’s view as he
disappeared amongst the throng of merry drinkers. He swiftly explained to his
business associates that an emergency had cropped up; they’d have to adjourn
their meeting. Pre-occupied as he was with scanning the club for Gwen, he
didn’t register the looks of surprise that passed over his colleagues’ faces at
his backing out of a work commitment, informal though it was.

Gwen reapplied her make-up in the
bathroom and then hurried back to Sian, resolved to warn her about Demetrius.

Sian was still sat at the table,
but was now chatting busily away to a tall blond haired man. She looked up as
Gwen approached and beckoned to her to sit down beside her. 

"Are you alright?" Sian asked.

"Yes, but I need to speak to
you about Demetrius."

"Oh, he’s left I think, but
never mind him, I simply must introduce you to Steven here," she gestured
towards the man at her side who smiled at Gwen. "Steven is the most
amazing director, his new play is opening next week…" continued Sian.

Gwen gently interrupted her "I’m
afraid I’m going to have to go, I’ve got a bit of a headache."

"Oh no, will you be alright
getting back on your own?" said Sian, looking reluctantly towards Steven
and obviously worried she’d be forced to leave him.

"I’ll be fine; I’ll see you
back at the flat later."

Sian didn’t need any more
persuading and Gwen hurried to the entrance where her stranger was waiting for her.

They left the Bar and walked out
into the night. The air had a chill to it as they stepped out onto the
pavement. Gwen shivered.

"Take my coat," offered
her handsome stranger gallantly.

The coat was around her shoulders
before Gwen had a chance to protest. It was warm from his body and smelt of his
aftershave.

"Thank you," said Gwen.
She caught his eye and smiled. She was genuinely grateful for the warmth, if a
little surprised by his old-fashioned manners.

They walked in silence for a few
moments. Gwen was beginning to feel uncomfortable and sneaked another look at
her companion. He was wearing the same suit as earlier that day, which, coupled
with the briefcase, suggested that he’d come straight from work. He looked very
thoughtful, Gwen was sure he was nowhere near as bothered by the lack of
dialogue as she was.

"Do you live around here?"
was the first conversation starter Gwen could come up with.

"Not far," was the
short answer.