Yorkshire Lady

Yorkshire Lady part 9

Part 9

It was the end of January and Andy Lawton was a worried man.  In a weeks time he would be going to London to start recording  ' Masters At Arms'  new album  and he was in the grip of a mystery.   Caroline had  ' flipped'  gone  ' mad, nuts, crackers, bananas'  she'd gone 'round the twist, round the bend' in short  BARMY  and all since Christmas and New Year.

To pluck examples from the air. 

 Andy and Rebecca had come down for breakfast the morning after arriving back from  Gstaad.   It was 11 O clock and 'The Staff'  were having  their break. 

Andy put in an order to Caroline  for coffee and muesli for himself and Rebecca.   She had looked at him calmly and serenely   as she replied.   ' I'm having a break Andrew.   The muesli's on the shelf, bowls in the cupboard next to it, the milk's in the fridge, there's coffee in the pot and cups in the cupboard above.   I'm sure helping yourselves wouldn't be too difficult'.  

Another time  Rebecca had come into the gym breathing fire.   ' Andy,   Caroline has refused to wash  my favourite  Gucci shirt'.

He walked into the bedroom where Caroline was making beds with Phyllis.  He demanded to know what her game was.  Her firm calmness was irritating.  ' As I've already told Rebecca there are 3 baskets in the utility room labelled    whites, coloureds and delicates

if she puts anything she wants washing into the appropriate basket I will gladly wash it for her.'

What had happened ?   That was what Andy was wondering.    All of a sudden the biddable mouse he'd married seemed to have vanished to be replaced by the Chatelaine currently ruling his house.

 His boys had been talking about  'John' rather a lot recently,   well, he supposed Standring was suitably at their level to appeal.    Caroline clearly fancied him and not surprising really.

Rebecca and the rest of Andy's harem had described him as  'lush' and a ' choice bit of rough'.   

 Caroline got on well with the rest of the staff it was true but the idea that Standring might also fancy Caroline was in Andy's opinion laughable.

Andy finally chose to put  Caroline' s behaviour down to a 'phase' of some kind.  

He left for London convinced that when he returned Caroline would be herself again.

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It would have have been no comfort to Andy to have known that  Caroline considered herself to become 'herself'  when he left her and their children with their friends.

In Andy's absence she now loved John openly.  Their friends approved wholeheartedly and Caroline's parents were satisfied that John's intentions were strictly honourable.   Letting Andy's parents know was not an option as yet, so Caroline swore her Mother to secrecy for when she was at the WI.

  Mrs Boulton felt a certain smug satisfaction with the secret.  Kate Lawton was inclined to be very much above herself on the strength of her famous son.

She had chosen to ignore the fact that her 'darling boy' treated his wife shamefully.

Mrs Boulton hugged to herself the knowledge of how blissfully happy her daughter was with a gardener while Kate's Rock Star Son had made her miserable.

Caroline had hoped that John would  ask his father and grandmother to visit around New Year but John had a stubborn streak that tended to surface at tricky times like this, with  John digging his heels in wanting to take his own time over the matter in hand.