Different Worlds Ch. 09

Oh my goodness, can I just say I am so sorry, I decided the final chapter needed a bit of a rewrite and then I totally dropped the ball. I stopped to do nanowrimo, and then I did a creative writing course, and then all sorts of other stuff happened... well you know how it is, life has this way of throwing curve balls at you. I hated leaving you all hanging like that (at least it wasn't a cliff hanger) but I've finally finished now!

Thank you again to North200 for his amazing editing, I have learned too much from him through working on this. He has just started uploading a new story over in Erotic Couplings, its excellent and you should all go and check it out, he's an incredibly talented writer, and I am lucky to have had the privilege of working with him.

Finally thank you all for reading, and for all your lovely feedback.

*****

Richard sat in Fortnum & Mason's tea rooms, drinking tea and waiting for his father. A man was playing lounge music quietly on a grand piano in the corner. The place was filled with elderly ladies in hats nibbling on cakes and sipping Earl Grey from china cups while they took a break from their Christmas shopping. The conversation was quiet and polite; the height of civility. Fortnum's was a sumptuous, frivolous affair at the best of times, but the Christmas decor was thoroughly over the top. The chattering ladies kept stealing glances at Richard; he was by far the youngest person in the room and the only unaccompanied male. Terrence was late.

It had started with Richard's mother, she loved to come here for high tea whenever she was visiting London and she assured him that the quality of Fortnum & Mason's meringues were unmatched countrywide. Richard had never been keen on meringue but in honour of her memory he and his father had continued to meet here whenever they were both in the capital.

When finally Terrence bustled in there was no mention of his tardiness. The moment he took his seat a waiter arrived with menus and after a cursory glance the two men ordered.

"How are you my boy? How is Stockholm treating you?"

"It's great, I have a nice apartment near the old town, the project manager's English is impeccable and he's very welcoming; he and his partner have had me over for dinner twice already. The project seems to be going well, but I don't want to tempt fate, it's still early days."

"Still plenty of time for things to wrong eh?" Terrence guffawed and the ladies at the neighbouring tables glanced their way yet again.

Their food arrived and for a while they ate in companionable silence, until Terence spoke again.

"And how's it going with Ivy? Have you managed to tame her yet?"

Richard internally rolled his eyes. His father's continuing inability to see Ivy, well women in general really, as anything other than a challenge to be overcome was exasperating. He curbed the waspish response on the tip of his tongue, his father was too set in his ways to change after all these years, but he didn't manage to suppress the accompanying sigh.

"I like her, I like her a lot but she's so proud, so independent, and I like that about her I don't want to crowd her, but..." he sighed again. "I don't want to lose her either."

Terrence stopped eating, and putting his cutlery down he drew himself upright. "Why on earth would you lose her?" he sounded alarmed at the idea. "You have nothing to worry about."

Richard wondered if perhaps he shouldn't have mentioned his concerns to his father, but they had been preying on his mind.

"I haven't been seeing as much of her as I'd like. She was happy to come up to London to visit me, but she hasn't been to Stockholm yet. She's worried about the cost of the flights."

"Well you can cover that can't you, boy?"

"Yes I can and I would if she'd let me." He swept a hand through his hair. "I can't get back to London as often as I'd like. I have work commitments and the journey is so time consuming but on the other hand I'm scared the less I see of her the more likely it is that we'll drift apart."

"You need to take the upper hand, boy." Terrence wiped his mouth and placed his napkin down on his empty plate in front of him. Richard frowned, but Terrence didn't notice.

"Sometimes these girls just need to be told what's what." Anyway, I really must dash I'm meeting Roger in the club." After quick slap on the back Terrence gripped Richard by both shoulders. "Everything is going to be fine, you just need to take charge of the situation."

Content that he'd solved that problem Terrence stood up and pulled on his jacket. Richard watched opened mouthed as he disappeared down the stairs and into the crowded shop.

*

A few days had passed, and it was one of those bright crisp days so common in Stockholm, but Richard felt like he'd hardly seen any of it. It had been dark when he arrived at work and as he left the office for a lunchtime meeting with the client and the project manager the sun was already beginning to set.

When he thought about Ivy, Richard became increasingly despondent. He wasn't certain that long distance relationships worked, especially when not well established. The contract in Stockholm was a big one and he was going to be there for most of the next nine months, maybe even the year.

When they did see each other his fears dematerialised instantly. A fortnight ago he'd sprung a surprise visit on Ivy and she'd been overjoyed. It was quite clear that she was happy and settled in Bruton and he came away feeling confident and secure but as the periods in between the time they see each other lengthened the doubts started to creep back in and Richard became more and more fearful that something might happen, and Ivy might decide to flee once more. And if she did it was unlikely that he would be there to catch her.

And he missed her. He missed her smile. he missed her blush. He missed being able to watch her face as she climaxed. He missed the sound of her laughter. His lip curled as he thought about making love to Ivy. A mental image of her perched on the edge of the bed, naked in the half-light of the truck flashed into his mind and he groaned. He would need to look at his diary again later and see if there was any way he could possibly squeeze in another visit soon.

He was just getting into his car when his phone rang.

"Richard, hi! How are you? How's it all going?" He recognised Sally's rich, warm voice immediately and an uncharacteristic pang of homesickness assailed him.

"Yeah I'm fine,"Why was Sally ringing? Sally never rang. "Is everything okay?"

"Yes, everything is fine, nothing's happened, it's just... Well, I was wondering how things are going with Ivy? You can't be seeing much of each other now the Stockholm project has started."

"Have you been talking to my father?" he asked, laughing.

"I have, and Ivy has been wandering around the place like a bear with a sore head since you left. I think she might be missing you."

His heart leapt at her words and immediately he shook his head -he was like a hormonal teenager.

"I don't know what to do, my father thinks I need to just take her in hand and start ordering her about, but he's still stuck in the 50's."

"He might have a point you know."

Richard froze, his car key hovered by the door.

"But I can't just..."

"I'm not suggesting that you tie her up and drag her by her hair into your cave Richard, but she can be as stubborn as a mule. She seems to have got it into her head that if she lets you pay for her flights to Stockholm that she is somehow fulfilling all of Will's accusations about her gold digging motives, and to be quite frank I think she is being ridiculous."

Richard smiled to himself, he was very fond of Sally, and it was lovely to have someone other than Terrence to talk about this with. He'd been meaning to ring Caroline or Sara but he hadn't found the time. "What do you suggest I do?"

"I'm not sure exactly, but I have a few ideas. Let me talk to Ruth and I'll get back to you."

*

The following weekend Sally and Ruth were in the small kitchen behind the shop, Sally was washing up and Ruth was making tea.

"Ruth, does Ivy have a passport?" Sally asked suddenly.

"Yes, she does I'm pretty sure of it, why?"

"Richard was saying that he keeps inviting her to Stockholm to visit him but she won't go."

"Why not?"

"She's worried about the cost but she won't let him pay for the flights."

"Oh for fucks sake," Ruth said, and the mugs she'd just taken off the shelf above the kettle hit the counter harder than she'd intended.

"What's she up to next weekend?

"You mean this one coming?"

"No, the one after, the weekend of the eighteenth."

"Nothing much I don't think. But I can ask her. Why? Are you thinking..."

"That we can just take her to the airport and put her on a plane to Stockholm? Yes, that's exactly what I'm thinking. If you can find Ivy's passport I'll talk to Kevin and Terrence about getting Ivy an early finish on Friday and Richard can look at flights."

"Do you think they'll mind?"

Sally laughed. "No, I don't think they'll mind at all."

"I'm sure I just heard the door?" Ruth slid of the stool she'd been perched on and went out into the shop, but there was no one there. She returned to the kitchen.

"I'm sure I just heard something."

"Yes me too," Sally frowned.

"If there was a customer wouldn't we have heard the bell?" asked Ruth.

"No!" said Sally, "I disconnected it in a fit of rage last week, after the door flew open in those high winds for the hundredth time, I thought I was going to murder someone."

Ruth laughed.

"I meant to reconnect it, but I haven't got round to it yet."

*

Ivy lifted the final log on to the wood horse -she'd left the biggest one till last, and wrenched it into place. She was drenched in sweat, short of breath, her shoulders were aching, her hair was a mess but she had chopped enough fire wood now to last week at least.

The temperature had dropped a few days ago and she was running the burner pretty much 24/7. If it was out when she she woke up in the morning the truck reached subzero temperatures immediately and getting dressed became a quasi Olympic event that couldn't happen fast enough. But keeping the thing supplied with wood seemed to take every spare moment she had. She really must get a bigger burner, one that took longer logs. Still, all this sawing was keeping her warm she supposed as she wiped away the hair that had stuck to her face.

She caught a flicker of movement and spun round. What she saw startled her. William was standing behind her, hands in his pockets, that now familiar expression on his face; the bad tempered, half scowl of a petulant child. She hadn't expected to find him turning up uninvited to her space like this and despite the physical exertion she could feel the cold all of a sudden. How long had he been standing there watching her?

"What do you want?" She was pleased when she sounded as pissed off as she felt.

He didn't look up from the ground when he spoke.

"I... I want to talk to you."

"Maybe I don't want to talk to you."

He still wasn't looking at her

"You don't have to say anything, just hear me out."

She leaned the saw back up against a tree stump and he visibly relaxed. Scowling she waited for him to speak. As the silenced stretched out between them Ivy resisted the urge to smooth down her hair, or brush away the sawdust. She was not going to make any effort to make herself more presentable for Will, fuck that. She was determined not to do anything to make this easier or more comfortable for him. He could just say what he'd come to say and get lost.

"I wanted to apologise." The words shot out of his mouth like a crowd of office workers rushing from a burning building.

That was the last thing she'd expected him to say. Her mouth fell open, she tried to close it, but it didn't seem to want to cooperate. She didn't want him to know his words had affected her but he wasn't looking at her anyway, he was still looking at his feet or at the van, or the trees, anywhere but her.

She folded her arms across her chest. "Richard put you up to this didn't he?"

Finally he met her stare. "He doesn't know I'm here."

Oh. "Well I still don't like you."

"I'm not saying I like you."

"I'm glad we've got that sorted out."

Yet more uneasy silence, in which Will looked supremely uncomfortable and her instinct was to speak, to say something to fill the void, to make it better, was almost overwhelming. But she didn't, she let him stew.

"Look I can see that he really cares about you, and you care about him too don't you?"

He was kicking the ground as he spoke

"That's actually none of your business."

He frowned and she wasn't sure if it was directed at her especially or if it was just that the conversation wasn't going as he'd planned and suddenly he seemed very young

"Yes, all right," she said, raising her hands. "I do, yes."

"Well he cares about you too, and you seem to make him happy so... well that's alright by me."

He looked up at her, really meeting her eyes for the first time, and for a moment she could see the scared vulnerable boy that was behind all the vitriol and spite and she could imagine how much climbing down it would have taken for him to come and say all that, and he looked so like his sister that part of her wanted to smile and tell him that everything would be okay, that they could be friends. But she didn't because he wasn't Caroline, and she didn't trust him, not one little bit. So instead she said,

"Well, thanks for letting me know."

They both stood in the small clearing. Ivy's hands were no longer folded across her chest, they were in her pockets now.

Eventually he spoke again. "Well okay then, see you."

"Bye."

As she watched him walk away Ivy wondered if that was the end of her problems with Will.

~

It was Friday, the cold, winter sun was still low in the sky and Ivy and Kevin were filling the beds with newly rotted manure. The gate into the walled garden was too narrow for even the smaller tractor, so Ivy was barrowing it in. Kevin had explained earlier that spreading the muck out across the raised beds before the first frosts set in was best because then they would help break down and decompose, ready for planting in the spring. Another thing that made perfect sense when she thought about it, but that Ivy had never read in a book.

It was back breaking work, hot, dirty, back breaking work and as she stopped to catch her breath, leaning against the fork, wiping the sweat from her brow she wondered what on earth had gotten into Kev. He'd been acting strangely all morning. She kept catching him grinning, at first she ignored it but then she caught him laughing quietly to himself when he thought she wasn't looking.

Just at that moment he emerged from the tool shed holding an ancient pair of rusted shears and a wire brush and as he ambled towards her, he wasn't even trying to keep a lid on it, he was just laughing. She cracked.

"What's with you today? You've been acting weird all morning."

He didn't reply, he just looked beyond her and nodded.

She spun around. Ruth, Sally and Terrence were marching towards her. There was a leaden feeling in Ivy's stomach.

"Ivy," said Sally. "You're coming with us."

"Where are we going?"

"We're taking you to the airport, you're on the 2 o'clock flight to Stockholm," Terrence informed her.

"What? But I can't just... I need to finish..."

She looked between the four of them, Kev was straight up grinning, Ruth looked faintly worried and Terrence just looked like Terrence always did completely unperturbed and possibly slightly pleased with himself. Sally's expression was determined.

The penny dropped; this was stitch up and they were all in on it.

"Come on," said Ruth, "you've got an hour to pack."

"And shower," added Kevin.

"An hour?" said Ivy stupidly, she noticed for the first time that Sally was holding a hard plastic trolly bag. It was such a brilliant shade of orange she wasn't sure how she could have missed it until then.

"I thought you could use this, it's completely impractical in this sort terrain but they're great for city breaks."

"Thanks." It dawned on Ivy she wasn't wriggling out of this.

"Come on, lets get moving. I know you can be ready in half that time," Ruth told her. "You're only staying for the weekend. But we might as well get on with it."

*

An hour and a half later the girls stood huddled in front of the departure boards scanning the columns, until they came across the word 'delayed' written in red where Ivy's gate number should have been.

"Oh," said Ivy. She was feeling so anxious about the trip already.

"Well then we have time for lunch," said Sally.

*

"So, Will popped by," Ivy told them, as she picked at her salad.

"Will?"

"Yeah."

"What did he want?"

"He wanted to apologise." Ivy shrugged.

Ruth coughed up the gulp of water she has just drunk. "Shut up!"

"Yeah," Ivy nodded, "I couldn't believe it either, I thought Richard had put him up to it but apparently not."

Sally turned to Ruth. "That's what that sound was!"

Ivy and Ruth both frowned.

"What?" asked Ivy.

Sally was still speaking to Ruth. "The noise, it must have been Will in the shop the other day, he must've heard our conversation."

"Yes!" Ruth nodded, "we were planning this when we heard a sound, Sally went to check but no one was there, maybe it was Will?"

"He came by on Sunday at about eleven," Ivy told them.

"It was about that time when we heard the noise." Sally said.

***

"He is such a turd," Ruth said.

"It's not his fault, he's had a tough time."

"Oh stop being so reasonable, he's a vindictive little shit."

Ivy looked up at Ruth and her mouth opened.

Ruth looked between Sally and Ivy. "What? He is, isn't he?"

"It's still unusual for you to be so scathing about anyone," Sally replied.

They sat in silence for a while, eating their lunch, until Ruth said.

"I can't believe you were just going to go, based on what Will said."

"Well, yeah, I probably wouldn't have, after I'd had a chance to think it through. I mean I have a responsibility to Kev and Terrence for starters, but I, —I dunno, Luke rang and I just... it seemed like the best thing to do. We come from such different worlds, and I'm not just taking about his background, he's a professional architect, I'm a nobody."

"Stop talking like that, you're not a nobody. You're an amazing, beautiful woman," Sally was speaking in her stern school mistress voice again. "You're creative and intelligent and generous and it's no wonder Richard is crazy about you."

"He's not crazy about me." Ivy mumbled, staring at her hands. why did she find it so hard whenever anybody said anything nice about her?

"Oh he's crazy about you, you should have seen him that day, when he thought you'd gone," Ruth said.

"I'm so glad you didn't though," said Sally.

"Me too." Ruth flung her arms around Ivy as she spoke.

Ivy laughed, "Oi, I nearly spilled my coffee."

The gate for Ivy's flight was announced over the tannoy. They all looked at each other.

"Gate 43, I don't even know where that is."

"It takes a while to get there from here," a helpful waiter who had been hovering near by informed them.

"I'd better get moving," Ivy told them.

They all stood up and Sally helped Ivy put her coat on as Ruth grabbed her bag. Ivy took her purse from her pocket and started to fumble with notes.

"Ivy, let me get this, it's the least I can do after springing this on you."

"No, don't be stupid, I can cover it."

"Then let's talk about it later, when you get back, we don't want you to miss your flight. You go, I'll settle the bill."