We've had some big storms here lately, Doris and Ewan, and after a walk with the dog down by the canal I came up with this story. Hey, I'm English, we talk about the weather, it's a national pastime! Hope you like it.
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'Looks like it's going to be a windy night.' Lucien observed as he sat down with Jean for his nightly whisky.
'Certainly does.' she agreed as the wind howled round the house. 'It's a long time since we've had a gale like this. We lost the roof off one of the barns, once.' She carried on with her sewing.
Lucien turned the volume up on the radiogram to drown out some of the noise, and turned to the paper. He liked evenings like this. Charlie was out with Rose, he and Jean were engaged and hoping to marry soon, it was ordinary and restful and somehow, right. If he was lucky she'd put down her sewing and they could have a kiss and a cuddle before either Charlie came home or they went to bed, separately! The fire crackled in the studio grate and cast shadows around the room. Sure enough, Jean read his thoughts and decided that she didn't need to put anymore buttons on his shirt, she could finish them tomorrow, so she put her basket down and patted the space next to her. He raised an eyebrow, she smiled, coyly, it was a game they played. He folded the paper deliberately and placed it neatly on the arm of his chair, stood up, straightened his waistcoat and wandered over to her. He sat next to her and slid his hand along the back of the old chesterfield couch and rested it on her shoulder. She shifted closer and nestled into his chest. Lucien put his finger gently under her chin and tipped her face up so he could kiss her lips. A long, deep and passionate kiss followed, she allowed his hands to wander inside her blouse while hers undid his waistcoat and shirt and slid round his middle. Sometime later they parted, her blouse was undone, as was his shirt and they were both flushed. Jean giggled.
'Honestly, Lucien.' She smiled, 'we really must stop behaving like teenagers.'
'We could retire to my room.' He suggested, looking hopeful.
'Lucien, we said we'd wait.' She sighed, though she did wonder whether it would matter. The gossips had believed they'd been intimate ever since he'd returned from China, if not before, so even if they did sleep together nobody would be surprised. There again given her track record of getting pregnant the first time she had slept with Christopher on their wedding night and then as soon as they had resumed intimacy after Christopher junior was born, it probably would be wise to wait until they were married, just in case.
'Just wondering.' He smiled back, whatever she wanted was fine by him.
'Just hoping, you mean.' She leant in and kissed him again, then nestled back into her favourite spot.
She began to feel sleepy and thought she'd better say 'goodnight' before she actually dozed off where she was. She knew Lucien would not wake her and would probably carry her to bed when he'd finished feeling smug about having her asleep on his chest!
She pushed herself up and kissed him again.
'I'm going up to bed, Lucien, before I fall asleep here.' She pulled away.
'I don't mind you falling asleep here.' He pouted.
'Mmm...I bet you don't.' She kissed her finger then touched the tip of his nose with it. 'Goodnight, sweetheart.' She whispered.
Lucien stood up and took her in his arms, kissing her properly, 'Goodnight, my love.' He watched her leave the studio, wishing she didn't have such a sexy wiggle, it didn't do him any good at all!
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Jean lay in bed listening to the wind getting stronger, whistling and howling round the house. She could hear the hanging basket bang against the porch and wondered if it would still be there in the morning. She wished she hadn't thought about the barn roof, she was beginning to feel nervous about the house roof.
'Pull yourself together, Jean.' She scolded herself, 'the barn roof was old and held on more by luck than judgement.' But no matter what she told herself, she couldn't go to sleep. In the end she gave up. She put her robe on and pulled a blanket off her bed. With a bit of luck the fire in the studio would still be burning, she'd sleep on the couch in there. She had a brief thought that she could go to Lucien but was suddenly shy about needing him in the middle of the night. Downstairs all was quiet, she wasn't sure if Charlie had come home, perhaps he'd stayed over with Rose. The studio fire still had red embers in it, she pulled the guard away and put a small log on, waiting for it to catch before she put a bigger one on. It didn't take many minutes for the fire to be throwing out enough heat and she went and curled up under her blanket on the couch. She was soon fast asleep, the couch was surprisingly comfortable to sleep on.
Lucien slept on in his room, vaguely thinking he heard the fire being raked, but not waking enough to take any real notice. A crash, however, did wake him. Hoping it wasn't a roof tile he headed to the front door. He met Jean by the kitchen, which was odd, he should have met her at the bottom of the stairs.
'I'm just going to see what that was.' He told her, 'stay here.'
She waited and watched as he opened the front door. He didn't go out, it was the hanging basket, the pot had smashed in the porch. Fine, it could stay there, he'd sweep it up in the morning.
'Just the hanging basket.' He told her.
'Oh right.' She smiled, 'goodnight, again.' She turned and headed towards the studio.
'Where're you going?' He was perplexed, first she didn't come down the stairs and now she's heading to the studio.
'I couldn't sleep upstairs.' She admitted, looking a little shame-faced. 'The noise, I shouldn't have said anything about the barn roof, it...' she wanted to say the memory had unnerved her but didn't want to appear to be a wimp.
'So I did hear the fire being raked.' He went and held her hands. 'You could have come to me, if you were bothered about the storm.'
'I didn't want to disturb you.' She gave such a lame excuse, she thought. 'I'm fine in the studio, the couch is quite comfortable.' They were by the studio door now, and he opened the door for her.
'That fire looks most inviting.' He murmured. 'Mind if I warm up?'
Jean had a feeling they would spend the night in the same room, and that was alright, she thought. She just smiled and went back to the couch and curled up under her blanket. Lucien went and sat in his chair by the fire and smiled as he noticed she had fallen asleep almost immediately. He was content to watch her as she slept, she was almost childlike, her lashes bounced off her cheeks and her mouth was very slightly open. She shifted to lie on her side, facing him and the blanket slipped off. He went over and lifted it back over her, making sure it was caught and wouldn't slip again. As he did so he couldn't resist kissing her ever so softly on the cheek. She smiled and, without opening her eyes put her arms round his neck. He really wasn't sure if she was awake and toying with him, or not, so he decided to take a gamble. He put his arms round her and lifted her so he could lie down with her, her slight frame half lying on him and the blanket over the pair of them. He could get a proper tongue-lashing for this in the morning, but it would be worth it.
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Jean woke as the sun streamed through the windows. The wind had died down, the fire had gone out and a strong arm was round her waist! She moved her head to see if Lucien was awake also, he wasn't, that is to say, his eyes were closed, so he could be. She smiled, she was very comfortable where she was and was glad she had 'encouraged' him. She had been disturbed when her blanket had slipped off and felt Lucien kiss her as he covered her up. She remembered the thought that had entered her head, it went very much like;
'To hell with the gossips, I need a hug.'
She lay there waiting, for what, she wasn't sure. She knew she should make the effort to get up, but didn't want to wake him, if, indeed, he was asleep!
She wriggled just a little and settled her head on his chest, listening to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat. She heard him gasp, just.
He had been lying there, waiting for her to push him off the couch and tell him off, not wriggle enticingly against him. He bit his lower lip hard, hoping he could tame his urges, and quickly!
She grinned, that would teach him. She moved her hands and did just what he expected, pushed him hard so he rolled off the couch and hit the floor.
'Ouch!' He pretended to be hurt but was secretly grateful, he had been on the point of losing control.
'Dr Blake!' She raised her voice, but only enough to sound annoyed. If Charlie had come home she did not want him to find the pair of them together, obviously having slept on the couch together!
'Jean, I...' God he was for it, now! His face was pink with embarrassment and his eyebrows had disappeared almost into his hairline.
She burst out laughing, she couldn't help it, he looked so funny. He reached up and grabbed her, pulling her down to him and kissed her hard. Then he slapped her rump, playfully and demanded his breakfast.
'Cheek!' She squealed and went quickly out of the studio before he could grab her again.
They met again in the kitchen. She was frying bacon and eggs as she usually did, nothing seemed untoward. If Charlie appeared he would see nothing unusual. He did appear but through the front door not down the stairs. He'd obviously been out all night.
'Morning, Charlie.' Lucien greeted him, 'long night?'
'Er, yes.' Charlie coloured, 'I decided to stay over, Rose didn't like the storm.' He hoped he sounded convincing, Matthew was in Bendigo for a few days on some police matter.
'Really?' Jean raised an eyebrow but decided it wasn't her place to comment on his and Rose's possible sleeping arrangements, she'd leave that to Matthew. Anyway, if she and Lucien did decide they weren't going to wait it would be a bit hypocritical of her. 'Bacon and eggs, or has Rose fed you?'
'I'm fine thanks, Mrs Beazley, I've eaten.' He said, 'I'll just go and change for work. By the way, did you know the hanging basket has broken?'
'Yes, it went very early this morning.' She replied, I'll sweep it up in a moment.'
Charlie went up to change and made a mental note to tell Rose he'd used her fear of the storm as an excuse for staying out all night. She hadn't been in the least bit afraid, in fact they'd barely noticed it!
Lucien cleared up the broken pot in the porch, he didn't want Jean to cut herself, at least that's what he told her.
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Surgery was due to start at ten, so they had time to look over the house and garden and look for any damage. The roof seemed to have survived, a great relief to Jean, she would be able to sleep in her own bed without worry. Some plant pots she kept in the garden had been blown about and broken, so between them they picked up the pieces and Jean looked to see if the plants could be re-potted. Some could so she took them to the sun room where she could leave them until she sorted out the spare pots. Lucien threw away the broken bits and then joined her in the kitchen to wash his hands.
'We seem to have been rather lucky.' He remarked as he dried his hands.
'We do.' She agreed, 'I wonder how everyone else has fared.'
'Mmm. No doubt I'll hear during surgery. I hope I don't get any calls to the morgue.' He looked at his watch. 'I'd better get ready, it's almost time for my first patient.'
Jean took off her apron and patted her hair into place, ready to greet the morning's patients. Lucien kissed her cheek before he went into his consulting room and patted her rear.
'Lucien.' She hissed, 'behave yourself.' But she smiled all the same.
A steady stream of patients meant they didn't get to talk until lunchtime. Many of the patients told of the roofs that had lost tiles, some trees had come down round the lake, apparently and plant pots had been blown around. So far there were no reports of anyone being hurt.
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With no patients for the afternoon and no calls to the morgue Lucien suggested a walk down by the lake. Jean agreed it would be nice, they had been so busy of late they hadn't had been able to spend time together during the daylight hours. They enjoyed their evenings but they did like to go for a stroll occasionally, arm in arm round the lake or into the gardens, just being together out and about was easier now they were engaged.
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I had planned this as a little mystery story for the good doctor to solve, so this is the light and fluffy bit to start with. Possibly a couple more chapters. Reviews and comments welcome as always.