Yorkshire Lady

Yorkshire Lady Part 5

Part 5

September came and Caroline felt somewhat bereft as she waved Freddy off  at school and took little Charlie to playgroup.   She was deeply grateful to John who had suggested that she might not want to be alone at this moment and had come in the car with her.

  After leaving Charlie  she held back the tears that had been threatening since leaving Freddy until climbing back into the car.  John saw the quiver of her bottom lip and took her hand so gently that the tears began to flow and she couldn't stop them. 

  John took her into his arms and  let her rest her head on his shoulder whist she sobbed noisily,   ' I'm so sorry John, she said as the tears subsided a little,  what am I like ?'

   John stroked her hair wanting to kiss her forehead but not trusting himself to end it there.  'You're like any Mother having to let her children away from her for the first time.   You'll have Charley back at lunchtime and Freddy at 3 O'clock,  they'll be fine. 

  Why don't I take you for a  cup of something hot and comforting in town?'    Caroline smiled.  ' You're a total sweetheart,  just what I need'.

They sat in a Hebden Bridge café with mugs of hot chocolate.   ' Not long now until your Andy gets back isn't it ?'   John asked.

 Caroline nodded and sighed. ' On the 20th to be exact.'

Up until the 20th , John  made himself  keep his distance from Caroline.  If he continued with the intimacy of recent days  then he knew he  would lose all control and he didn't yet know how Caroline felt about her husband.  Clearly the marriage was not an especially happy one but if Caroline was nonetheless in love with the man she married  then he was not about to put a spoke into the wheel.

Caroline was bitterly disappointed.  She had begun to hope that she had some chance with John and now that hope seemed to be dashed.  He was clearly afraid of what her husband might say but a husband was the last thing that Andy had been to her.  

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On the 20th  September  Andy Lawton returned home with a blaze of publicity.    He finally swept into the drive  of his manor house in a chauffeur driven limousine.  ' Ah it's good to be home' he thought.  This was what he had got married for to have a family waiting for him and a home made comfortable by a woman's touch.  

Freddy and Charlie greeted their father cautiously.   They didn't have a particularly close bond with him.   Andy didn't do small children,  they were too messy for one thing.  Caroline got a  ' hiya Caz' and that was all.

 Andy greeted Rick and Phyllis who he had met already then turned to John,  Rick introduced them and John seemed to become shy and timid again rather overwhelmed by the charismatic, over confident Andy.

He played ball with his boys for half an hour, establishing himself as the devoted father.   He spoke to Caroline in the same way that he did the staff,  after all she was his wife as a 'job' as far as he was concerned.  Tonight he would be sharing his bed with one of his  girlfriends. 

That night in her own lonely bed she thought of John.    His strong muscular body only seen once shiny with water but dreamed of frequently,  she pictured his heavenly smile and recalled the feeling of his arms around her as she cried on her children's first day at school.

Her eyes closed as she imagined him with her now enveloping her with all the tenderness she hoped she had seen in his lovely eyes.  Her own eyes would remain open through out,  wanting to watch him and share the experience with him.