Helen was awoken by a light quarrelling from outside in the garden.
"No, Bruce!"
There was a squeal, and a laugh...and that laugh belonged to Arabella.
Helen grabbed her dressing down and tiptoed down the corridor to Thomas's door. He eventually opened it, but she could hear him grumbling from behind the door tiredly.
"Helen?" he looked surprised.
"Sorry, but I just wanted to make sure I wasn't seeing things," she explained as he let her in.
She hurried to his window and leaned out over the lace net curtain.
"Seeing things?"
"Shh," she hissed, pointing to Bruce and Arabella through the open window.
Thomas peered over her shoulder and scoffed in disbelief.
"I thought as much," he muttered quietly.
Helen tilted her head at him, amused.
"Oh is that so?"
Thomas smirked. "Yes, they've been annoying the heck out of each other lately."
"Bruce and Arabella?"
"It would seem so."
"So much for the bachelor quote," she muttered feeling Thomas's arm around her slender waist as he chuckled softly at her sarcasm.
Helen laughed when Arabella fell backwards into the fountain, squealing in shock at the freezing cold water. Little did Arabella know that water she had just landed in was nothing compared to that which she would later endure in a few years time...
XxxX
Helen woke in an odd neck was so crooked that it hurt to even move it. When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Thomas beside her. Slightly alarmed, she attempted to sit up.
"Oww," she muttered louder than she had wanted, which alerted Thomas also.
"What is it love?" he asked, massaging her neck.
"I think I slept awkwardly," she replied, leaning back into him.
Thomas continued to massage the back of her neck gently, when a knock at the door broke the comfortable silence between them.
"Come in," Called Thomas. The door opened, and there stood wide eyed and lips pursed together, was Mrs Barbour.
"Helen..." she stammered. Helen sat up quickly but winced in pain.
"What's going on?"
"Nothing, I can assure you." replied Thomas firmly.
Helen glared at them slightly.
"Whats the matter with your neck?" she clucked.
"Oh...it's just stiff, that's all..." replied Helen quietly, aware that Thomas's hand was still there.
Realsing that Clarissa was now staring wide eyed at his hand Thomas cleared his throat.
"I was just giving her a massage. Nothing worse than a stiff neck."
Helen rolled her eyes slightly as he jittered.
"I didn't fall out of a tree you know," snapped Clarissa.
Helen and Thomas exchanged glances.
"I don't follow you mother."
"Oh well you should... quite easily in fact, you women seem to just land so easily into the palm of mens hands these days..."
Helen furrowed her brows and looked at Thomas, and then back at her mother.
"We didn't do anything." she replied defensively.
"We slept here the whole night," said Thomas, gesturing to the sofa they were situated on.
"I beg to differ. And if you were going to frolick under our noses you could have at least cleared the evidence and made the bed." retorted Clarissa.
Helen turned her head and looked at the unmade bed from where she had awoken Thomas last night.
Turning her head back sharply, she went to answer her mother back but was hit by a sharp pain in the side of her neck.
"Oww.." she muttered, relaxing a little when she felt Thomas's thumb stroking on the pressure point.
"I came to see what the noise was outside. Arabella and Bruce..." she explained.
Clarissa didn't look conviced.
"Arabella and Bruce what?"
"Well... they were fooling about outside...Arabella fell in the fountain. I came to Thomas to see what the noise was, and we just ended up...ended up talking." finished Helen.
"There's a big difference between talking and rumbling my darling." drawled Clarissa.
"Tommy and I did not rumble," snapped Helen, huffing as she folded her arms.
"I'm watching you two, very closely..." warned Clarissa, eyeballing Thomas intimidatingly before she turned on her heel and elegantly left the room.
"Urgh!" cried Helen, swinging her fist in defeat and temper, hitting a cushion moodily.
"The date's set, Helen she can't do a thing now," said Thomas gently, pulling her into him.