Yorkshire Lady

Yorkshire Lady part 3

Part 3

Caroline had always found herself tongue tied and awkward around men, convinced that they were somehow disgusted by her or else regarded her as so far beneath their notice that she was bordering on invisible to them. The more attractive a man was, the more uncomfortable she usually felt.

Her marriage certainly hadn't helped her in this. Andrew paid as little personal attention to her as possible, indeed in public he made no secret of the fact that he passed this plain unglamorous woman off as his children's nanny. Letting the world think that his favourite girl friend Rebecca was his wife, she looked the part much more.

Sex had been confined to her most fertile time each month until she had become pregnant for the second time, Andy had been quite obviously relieved to have no more reason to have to bed his wife and they had had separate rooms from then on.

The man standing before her now was a stunner. John Standring had to be over 6 ft tall. His hair was cut short and was a dark mahogany brown. He had a long nose which very much suited him and the most captivating blue eyes. He also looked as cringingly shy and nervous as Caroline felt which put her at more ease than usual.

John put out a hand in greeting his voice quiet and eyes lowered. He has the same people problem as I do. Caroline guessed.

' Pleased to meet you Mrs Lawton. Rick didn't lie when he said there was a lot of work here'. He gave a small shy smile that Caroline returned. ' I daren't go in there without a guide for fear I'll not get out again.'

'Rick tells me you're a good gardener John. Between the 2 of you I reckon we'll have something to rival Hampton Court'. John flushed scarlet at Caroline's complement.

Rick was naturally gregarious . He was a 'comfortable' person to be around and so people s gravitated to his warmth. His reassuring, non threatening demeanour meant that he had always been good at bringing the timid out of their shells and could get the most depressed of people to 'talk it through'.

He had always known the shyness and lack of confidence that had plagued John's life and had seen that Caroline was afflicted in a similar way. As was his wont therefore he took them both under his wing.

He liked them both very much and had begun to suspect that many outside influences had contributed to pushing them both inwards until they felt unable to look the world in the eye on equal terms.

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Caroline had rather a fancy for wild flowers. There were flower beds around the extensive lawns and Rick agreed that areas of this could be given over to them. ' You can get packs of wild flower seeds these days'. He announced.

' We can also let a corner remain wild to keep encouraging wild life. There'll be all manner of birds and beasts in there already so we need to keep them coming. Ladybirds and Hedgehogs are real friends. They are excellent pest controllers. We can make sure there are areas for hedgehogs and other hibernators to bed down, we can have bird nesting boxes and a bee box. They'll love wild flowers, as will butterflies'.

Caroline noticed that John was not quite so retiring and shy when talking gardens. His area of expertise. He was quietly impressed by the 5 walled gardens.

'These would've been kitchen gardens once'. He told Caroline. We could have one to grow vegetables, one for soft fruit one could be a miniature orchard'. He stopped and looked nervous as if fearful of having said too much, ' perhaps you'd like to choose what to do with the other 2 Mrs L.'

'Please John. Call me Caroline and as I said to Rick here. You boys are the gardening experts. I'm relying on your superior knowledge. I do have a couple of ideas though.

I'd like one of them to be an area where me and my boys can have a go at gardening, under supervision of course and I'd love to have a rose garden. Somewhere I can go to be quiet and surrounded by all the colours and smells'.

She was delighted by the fact that neither Rick nor John regarded any of these ideas as being unworkable and they started work that very afternoon.

TBC