Out of Your League

Chapter 9

I stood on the porch of Ed's gorgeous country manor, twiddling my thumbs and thinking of every possible excuse I could to procrastinate knocking on that door. Daniel had driven me up here to Ed's country estate this morning and  for some reason, I was really nervous. The weirdest thing about it was that I had been to this house and met his parents countless times, it was almost like a second home to me.

The house was old, really old - it had seen the reign of Henry VIII, it had seen both world wars and everything in between so no doubt it was watching me stand at the door noting how pathetic I was compared to the soldiers and courtiers. The front of the house was imposing as it towered over the surrounding gardens complete with a lake and small wood. The double front door was enormous, carved oak with decorative iron handles graced the entrance. My house in London is big but this is on a whole new level, he has a fricken' lake for god's sake. I mean, it is normal, anyone who lives in the country has one but...

The ancient front door creaked open and Ed's head poked out,

'Back Bertie, back.' He pushes tries to keep the door shut, but fails miserably and his Dad's old, fat Labrador appears. He hobbled straight up to me and wagged his tail so hard that when it hit my leg it actually hurt. Ed smiles and opens his arms, I dropped my bags and went straight towards him as he gave me a hug, smelling distinctly of dog. I made a noise of disgust and jumped backwards as he scowled at me in a way that told me he wasn't annoyed at me:

'It doesn't smell that bad does it?'

'You must be kidding yourself, it stinks,' It's not that I don't like dogs, I just don't think that humans should smell like them. Pulling off his jumper, he moved forward again and this time, I didn't hesitate.

'I missed you, you know. I know it was only three days but...' I smiled into his shoulder and cut him off,

'Me too, me too,' I felt his answering smile in my hair. We stayed like that for a while before his butler interrupted up with a polite cough as he asked:

'Can I take your bags miss?' Ed nodded and thanked him as the Butler asked 'And where shall I take them?' We both hesitated, would I sleep in one of their guest rooms, or would I sleep in his room? I had always slept next to him before in his double bed but now that we were a couple would his parents be reluctant to have us sleep in the same room for fear of what we would get up to? They had always known about my reputation but they'd never had any idea that me and Ed had slept together. But luckily, Ed made the decision for me,

'She'll be in my room, thanks,' Then he took my hand and led me up the steps into his house. I'd been there plenty of times before but this time it seemed... grander, more imposing. The wooden floorboards stretched along in every direction, their slight faults and tilting a sign of the house's age. A table stood wonkily in the centre of the entrance hall adorned with only a vase of deep purple flowers that reminded me of inky skies and long night-time drives. On the walls were various depictions of horses, dogs and hunts along with a few paintings of boats. On either side of the door were beautiful windows with plush, red velvet window seats. Bertie slowly headed towards his bed in the corner and lay down again, clearly the small effort of walking to the door having tired him. Ed's hand continued to enclose mine as he lead me to the kitchen where he claimed were freshly baked cookies. Ed's mum loved baking, she would be a chef if she could but due to her family's standing and her life, that wasn't allowed. So now, she just had to content herself with baking and cooking for her family and pretending to her parents that she had a chef who did it for them. She was in the kitchen along with the cookies and as soon as he saw her, Ed's hand dropped mine like it was scalding and he jumped back.

'Colette, nice to see you, how's your family and your dear mother?' I told her they were well and she nodded contently, clearing not having noticed Ed's reaction or my confusion. Had he not told them about us yet? Then Ed grabbed the plate of cookies and said we were going upstairs.