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In Vera's debt
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2024-10-29 19:42:56I decided that turning up at the pub, drinking a sherry and going home again, was a compromise I could deal with. She would doubtless ride.
I walked home via the stables and dropped in on Sid. I had to tell her that Vera was looking for a lover. But Sid was busy reading stories and being a mother and housewife. I popped next door, to give her time to get straight, but Charley kept me busy a long time.
When I finally walked home the pub was shutting. I hated walking in the gloom when strangers were around. Strangers? The village has enough of its own home grown scrumpy-head loonies. Why be scared of the visiting ones?
Most of all I was scared of the hunt. That was new territory and I had never dreamt I would cross the threshold into the biggest openly flaunted symbol of plutocracy in these fair isles.
I needed Sid to walk with me. What would my severest critic have said?
'I am excited and flattered that Vera is so keen on my ideas for disbursing the
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I didn’t go home, but round to Charley’s stable apartment. He was just making his industrial-strength tea. Once settled with a full mug, I came to the point.'What do you know about Vera not riding with the hunt today?''She no longer has a horse. I mean she has plenty but her grey hunter is gone.''What? Explain!''Sold it, I think - yesterday a man in a van from Lowestoft came to collect it. She told me to sign the paperwork and put the company stamp on what looked to me, like a bill of sale.''Why did a numpty oik like you have to sign?''Steady with the abuse. I’m a trusted employee.''Course you are, but that is a bit strange.''And she was a bit attached to the horrible nag. She came the evening before to say goodbye and give me instructions - there were floods of tears - then she fled.'I was silent while we supped tea. I was in shock. Why would she offload a beast she was so fond of? I broke the
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Day 13. Saturday. The birds were making a din. I tried to focus on the clock, but needed first to find my specs. It was only four thirty. Vera had me in a vice-like clinch from behind. I managed to extricate myself without waking her. No idea how. I walked through to Vera’s study. First job - find something to wear. Some woofty kimono thing was hanging in the bathroom. It tied like a kimono, but was sexily short. I thought they should be ankle length. I had to make it do. Secondly - text Sonya, before she wakes and alerts the house to my absence. She’s a worrier. I needed to touch base or she would panic. I kept it short and confusing. ‘Waylaid at ball. Safe and sound - don’t wait up for me. X Mill.’ Third job - reunite Charley with his clothes. He could hardly slide out unnoticed, wearing DJs that probably cost four figures. I met him on the landing between Vera’s apartment and my room. He
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'So, no one else cottoned on?' 'People may have thought us totally bereft of any common sense, but once the gossip mill was grinding, they lost all sense of reality. Perhaps they liked the idea that her ladyship had a couple of bastards by another man and gave them to a childless farmer in Scotland with a big financial reward. I think every other interpretation of my disappearance was too bizarre to be believed.' I pondered her tale. Once it had sunk in, I was aghast. 'So, let me get this straight, Vera. Not only did you have the trauma of miscarrying twins, you had to live a lie, deny any local support systems for a grieving mother and go live on your own in some Scottish castle. And you had a husband, who would rather be married to an adulteress than a faithful wife who had the misfortune to miscarry. When was your breakdown? 'Very perceptive. It hasn’t happened yet, although for a while I fought with it every day. 'Past tense?' 'Yes
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'A lot has happened since then. I expected more recent thoughts.''It all has to start at that point. If we extrapolate back from all points around today’s Lower Butts, we end up at that fateful morning. That’s where big bang happened. Let’s start at that moment. We can consider distance travelled since then.''That’s fine by me,' she affirmed.'I’m going to assume that you knew Sid had lesbian leanings. I wasn’t sure. You were!'I waited for confirmation. She remained quiet so I took that as a ‘yes,’ and proceeded.'You wanted her and you wanted the children she looked after, so you hired me so that you could have contact without your scheme becoming obvious to the outside world.'Vera stiffened, sitting upright like a governess wanting to make a good impression. She still said nothing.'Then you moved the Walker children into the stable apartments - with good reason I hasten to add. Ch
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