A/N: Thanks for the reviews, nice to pull the rug from under you... I intend to brush up the previous chapters of ´Women of Yorkshire´ one of these days, since I discovered, since I spotted a few errors when I was reading the chapters through the other day. But here you go for now...


Chapter 7

For a few seconds she could only stare – shocked and bewildered.

"Hello Ruth." Eddie smiled causally, displaying a studied, boyish attitude that greatly unnerved her somehow. It wasn't how she remembered him. It wasn't the disgruntled, bored man that she'd divorced a year and a half ago.

"What are you doing here?" she repeated tonelessly.

"Can I come in at least?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "I haven't seen you in ages."

Before she could really think it through, she stepped aside, allowing him to pass her. It was only when he went into the living room before her that she realized he was carrying a backpack.

"So this is where you ended up in?" he commented, looking around him. From the look on his face she couldn't really determine if he meant it in a positive or a negative way. At the moment she didn't really care either.

"Eddie… why are you here?" she asked a third time, allowing a note of annoyance to slip into her voice.

"Look… I just wanted to know how you are… you know, we haven't really spoken since that divorce came through and I was in Knapely anyway so…"

Ruth glanced at her watch. "You wanted to know how I was doing at a quarter past eleven at night?" she asked incredulously.

He gave a small shrug and avoided her gaze. "Alright… I'm in a bit of a spot to be honest," he admitted then. "I met up with Jack tonight, you know, to catch up and go for a few drinks…"

Of course she knew exactly what the meant. Jack Berkley had been Eddie's closest friend and Ruth never could stand the sight of him. Whenever they got the chance they'd spend a night at the pub, mostly during the weekends when Ruth was hoping for some time with Eddie when his busy workweek was over. What had annoyed her most though was the fact that Jack's wife Eileen, who had the reputation of being a bit of a harpy had managed to tell her husband every now and then that he ought to stay home, while she could beg and plead with Eddie all she wanted, but he had never reclined a night at the pub just for her sake.

"Anyway…" Eddie continued, "I was supposed to stay over at Jack's tonight, but Eileen wouldn't have it. Normally I would just stay the night at the old place, but since that's been sold now…" He looked at her hopefully, "I was hoping you'd have a bed for me?"

Whatever she had expected, it was never that. "I… I don't know Eddie…" she started, her mind in a turmoil. He had left her. He had made it absolutely clear that he wanted to have nothing to do with her anymore. She'd never expected him to come back – for whatever reason.

"Oh… come on, love…" he was advancing on her slowly. "After sixteen years… you won't throw me out, would you? The last bus to Ilkley is already gone."

It was raining again, she could hear it clatter against the window and her resolve began to waver. It was the most dreadful weather. And he only needed a place to sleep… after sixteen years of marriage, didn't she at least owe it to him to help him out?

She was still biting her lip and doubting her decision when he came to stand in front of her.
"Ruthie…" he started softly, reaching out to place his hand at the back of her neck. She knew that tone of voice, remembered it from so long ago. It was the voice he'd use when he wanted her – he hadn't used it for years. Not to her at least.

She felt herself become rigid under his touch.

"Look," she said flatly, looking away from him. "You can stay on the couch if you want to. But only for tonight. I'll get you a blanket and a pillow."

"Alright…" he sounded disappointed, but she choose to ignore it. Hurrying to the build-in closet in her bedroom she didn't even look properly, just blindly groped for the extra blanket she kept there, a spare pillow and a sheet and brought the items back to the living room. Quietly she pointed him to the bathroom, thankful that she had already finished in there.

Once he'd got in, she picked up Ollie and went into her bedroom, not quite knowing what else to do with herself. She crawled underneath the duvet while Ollie curled up near her feet and she listened to the sounds coming from the bathroom first and later from the living room. It was odd to hear someone else bustle around in her house. She was so used to the silence, to her privacy now that the presence of someone else made her nervous.

Finally everything became quiet and she turned around in bed, trying to get comfortable. But as much as she tried to lie perfectly still, take calm breaths and count sheep, she couldn't manage to fall asleep. Instead she felt herself growing more tense and nervous with each passing minute. And when the loud noise of Eddie's snores penetrated through the closed door she gave a frustrated grunt and turned back to her side again, curling up in a tight ball.

She wondered how many drinks he'd had – judging from the forest he was currently sawing down and the fact that he'd been out with Jack he'd had quite a few. Suddenly she felt afraid. What had she been thinking allowing him to stay here? What right did he have to barge in here in the middle of the night and demand a place to stay? And why on earth had she agreed to it? Maple Cottage was her home, her sanctuary and in the eighteen months she'd been living here she hadn't felt afraid once. But she was now. She was scared, uncomfortable and anxious in her own bed and only because Eddie was back.

Why was he here? What did he want from her? Had he honestly been trying to make a pass on her earlier? But what about that other woman? Was he now cheating with her on the same woman he'd been cheating her with? The more she thought about it, the more worked up she got. Suddenly the WI Christmas Reception felt like a lifetime away. The dress.. Tim… dancing in his arms… that brief kiss… it felt as if it hadn't happened. Or had happened to someone else. For all of a sudden she felt as if she'd reverted back in time, back to the days where her entire world had revolved around Eddie.

Ollie got up from the foot end of the bed and made his way over to where she was lying. Carefully he nudged his head and body between the arms she'd pressed so tightly against herself. After a few turns he snuggled himself against her stomach, between her arms. Soothed somewhat, she scratched his head for a bit and slowly drifted off to a restless, fitful sleep.


The next morning she felt absolutely haggard. She woke up twenty minutes before her alarm clock went off and wearily got out of bed. Ollie was already pacing in front of the bedroom door, meowing loudly.

"Yes… I know… you want to get out…" she muttered yawing, putting on her dressing gown. She opened the door and was greeted by the sound of running water coming from the bathroom. Apparently Eddie was already up. Slowly she paddled into the living room, feeling every trace of the past, stressful night in her body. With a deep sigh she went into the kitchen first to make coffee and then back to the living room to clean up the couch. Just as she had finished folding the blanket and the sheet, Eddie emerged from the bathroom, wearing a pair of jeans (a bit too tight, she noticed) and a white shirt.
"Do you know the bathroom sink is leaking?" he asked.

"Good morning," she replied curtly. "Yes, I know, I have someone looking at it this weekend. If you´re done in there I´m going in to brush my teeth."

Without really waiting for his reply, she brushed passed him and almost fled into bathroom, firmly locking the door behind her, something she usually never did. Maple Cottage had never felt too small to her, but right now Eddie seemed to take up all its space and she was starting to feel constricted. Quickly she brushed her teeth and tried to avoid looking at herself in the mirror. She couldn't really stand to look at herself at the moment. With her pale face, the deep circles underneath her eyes and every line visible she felt she looked every bit her age.

She had to leave for work in a little of an hour and she really ought to get dressed now, but for some reason she couldn't stomach the idea of changing while Eddie was still in the house. She just wanted him to leave, plain and simple.
Still clad in her dressing gown she made her way back into the living room, finding Eddie sitting at the table, reading the newspaper and sipping coffee.

"Look, if you want breakfast there's some cereal in the cupboard above the sink and milk in the fridge," she started. "I don't want to hurry you, but I have to leave in half hour…" If she got him out before that time, she'd have time to change and get ready before she had to leave for work.

"Where do you have to be this early in the morning?" he asked surprised and displeased.

"At the nursing home… I have a job now, Eddie," she snapped back. She felt she wasn't being fair on him. After all, she had allowed him to stay – even though she regretted that now very much. But she just couldn't wait to get rid of him. Now more than ever she realized she simply didn't want him in her life anymore.

Going into the kitchen, she put some cat feeds in a bowl and placed it on the floor next to the water bowl. When Ollie didn't immediately came running like he usually did when he heard the sound of the cat feeds hitting the bowl, she frowned. Stepping back into the living room she looked around for him, but couldn't spot him anywhere.

"Have you seen Ollie?" she asked Eddie.

"Come again?" he mumbled, barely looking up from his newspaper.

"Ollie… my cat," she repeated impatiently.

"Oh…" Eddie finally looked up and Ruth could tell he was getting as annoyed as she was already feeling. "I put it outside. You know I can't stand animals in the house, Ruth."

"You WHAT?" she spat, turning around on her heels and storming out of the front door. The rain pour had stopped, but a dreary, cold drizzle hit her in the face. She looked around for her cat and when she couldn't see him she called out his name. The drizzle was getting into her eyelashes and damping her hair and standing on the garden lane she turned around in circles, almost ready to cry.

A soft, miserable meow came from underneath the shrub and when she kneeled down, she could just make out Ollie's big, yellow eyes staring at her from underneath soaked and dripping leaves.

"Ollie…" she cooed softly. "It's alright… come here, boy… it's alright." As fast he could on his short, fat legs, the cat scampered from underneath the shrub and hurried over to where she was kneeling down, ready to be scooped up in her arms.

Never minding how wet and cold he was, Ruth cuddled him close.

"Ruth…. Ruth!" Apparently Eddie had followed her to the door and was now standing on the threshold, peering anxiously outside, a mortified expression on his face. "Ruth! Get back in here! You're in your dressing gown, for god's sake!"

She closed her eyes for a moment and slowly stood up, still cradling Ollie. He had always been like that. He had always been so worried how about how they appeared in public. And somehow he had always seemed to be embarrassed by her.

"Don't laugh so loud."

"Stop fretting with your purse."

"Are you really going to wear that sweater?"

With as much calm and dignity as she could muster she walked back into the house. Once inside she made sure the door was closed before she turned to him, her eyes fuming. "You had absolutely no right to throw my cat out in the rain!" she hissed, her voice low with anger.

"Oh for crying out loud, don't be so dramatic!" he shot back. "It's only a stupid cat."

"It is my cat," she yelled back, furious now. "And my house. You don't have a say whether he stays or goes." Uneasy by the loud noises, Ollie started to wriggle in her arms and briefly she bend down to put him to the ground. "What do you want from me, Eddie?" she asked then, straightening up and looking him in the eye.

"Look…" he started uncomfortably. "I know we've hit a rough spot lately, but I still think we could make it work… you and me…"

"A rough spot…" she repeated incredulously. "We've been divorced for over a year now. You cannot think… you want to get back together? What about…" she realized she still didn't know the name of that woman she'd met only once in that restaurant in Ilkley.

"Look, that's over," he replied. "It was just a fling, nothing more. Something I had to get out of my system. It's you I married, Ruth!"

"You cheated on me," she said softly, trying to keep the hurt out of her voice. "And I don't even know if she was the only one. You really expect me to take you back, after that?"

"Oh, like you are the holy bloody virgin Mary," he scowled. "You're ready to take your clothes off for everyone."

"It wasn't like that and you know it," she bit back at him. "It was one photo-shoot, it was one photographer and it was for a good cause. There was nothing distasteful or seedy about that calendar."

"You think I like having the entire nation looking at my wife's private bits?" he shouted angrily, slowly turning red in the face.

"I guess as much I like the idea of you shoving your private parts into…" she decided that she really didn't need to finish that sentence.

"It was just a bloody affair!" he yelled back, getting more worked up with each passing minute.

"It was just a photo-shoot," she replied and couldn't help the small smile when she added: "Apparently something I needed to get out of my system."

After that he just blinked at her, mouth slightly agape. "Since when did you turn into a cranky, bitter hag?" he eventually asked spitefully.

"I just stopped being your doormat, Eddie," she answered calmly. There was a great sense of liberation now that she was finally being able to tell him the things she'd been thinking for the past eighteen months.

"So, you won't get back together?" he asked, a disbelieving look on his face.

After all the things he'd said to her, she wondered why on earth he actually wanted this in the first place, but she shook her head. "No Eddie. Not in a million years."

"Fine. If you rather live out your days in this chicken coop," he spat, indicating his surroundings. "Suit yourself."

"I will, Eddie, don't worry," she answered resigned. "I think it best if you left now."

He didn't speak another word as he grabbed his things together and stormed past her. She heard the front door slam shut and finally allowed herself to take a deep breath again. Her house was finally her own again.


With her hands shaking and her head still reeling, she did manage to get into her work uniform: a light-blue pair of baggy trousers and a shirt of the same colour. Barely on time, she managed to park her car and rushed inside, trying to get her disorganized thoughts under control. Right now she needed to focus on her work and if truth be told, she was glad she did have something to distract her from the havoc Eddie had been creating in her mind in the past couple of hour hours.

In the nurses lounge she put her coat and purse in her locker and pinned her nametag and brooch watch to her uniform. Ready for the day now, she stepped outside, her face an thoughts brightening when she spotted Tim, standing a few yards away, talking to the head of department. Immediately she felt a great sense of relief and confidence wash over her. Eddie was history. He was finished and done with. And that part of her life was finished as well. She had a new life now, one she felt happy with, one she was in control of. And despite Eddie's degrading comments, she wouldn't have it any other way. Just looking at Tim, it came all flooding back at her, the reception, the way she had felt in her sexy and alluring dress, the way he had made her feel, staring in her eyes, his fingers playing with her hair. Smiling softly, she slowed her steps so that when the head of department walked away she could step up beside him.

"Good morning," she greeted him, barely able to keep the excitement out of her voice. But when he turned around to look at her, she was taken aback by the angry look in his eyes.

"Morning," he grunted back, barely looking at her.

"Tim… is something the matter?" hesitantly she reached out and placed her hand on his arm. Immediately she could feel his tension.

He shook his head and chewed the inside of his cheek, as if he wasn't sure whether or not to reply. Finally, after a few tense moments, he seemed to reach a decision and grabbing her by the elbow he opened the door to the supply storeroom and pushed her inside.

Surprised and a little disturbed by his unexpected behaviour she looked up at him. "Tim… what's going on?"
His eyes were still blazing and there was a deep frown above them. And from the way he was clenching his jaw she could tell something had obviously upset him greatly. But when he turned around to look at her, she realized with a small start that his anger was directed at her.

"Is it true?" he demanded.

"Is what true?" she asked bewildered.

"Are you and Eddie getting back together? Did he spend the night with you?" His voice was short and measured and she barely recognized him from the gentle, considerate man she'd come to known.

Already worked up from her earlier fight with Eddie she slipped right back into argument-mode. "Excuse me? Who told you that?"

"I ran into Jack Berkley this morning, as he was delivering the milk… he told me he'd dropped Eddie off at your house last night – said he hoped the two of you 'had gotten it on.'"

The first thing she was going to do when her shift had ended was throttle that gossiping, meddling fool of a Jack, Ruth decided. Then she turned her attention back to Tim.

"Eddie and I are not going to get back together," she reassured him. "Not a chance."

"But he did spend the night with you, didn't he?" Tim insisted, his temper not lessening in the slightest.

"He showed up last night, right after you had brought me home," she started to explain. "He said he needed a place to stay and I let him sleep on the couch. He left his morning… that's all that happened, I promise…" she hated the pleading note that had entered her voice. Why was she defending herself to him? Why was it so important that he knew really nothing had happened between them?

"And you couldn't just tell him to get a room above the King's Crown?" he asked through clenched teeth.

It was such a simple solution she almost groaned out loud, vexed at her own stupidity. Why hadn't she thought of that last night? "Look…" she started again, a little uncertain now. "Perhaps you're right, I should have send him to the King's Crown. But I didn't think of that last night… He used to be my husband… he broke up with this other woman, I couldn't very well turn him into the street, could I? I still owe him…"

"You owe him?" Tim repeated incredulous, not letting her finish the sentence. "You don't owe him a bloody thing! Not after the way he treated you, not after what he did to you!"

"I know what he did to me!" she spat back. "After all I was the one he did it to."

"I just can't believe you took him back in, just like that," Tim continued. "For heaven's sake Ruth, I thought you were smarter than that!"

The look of disgust on his face shook her to the core. It was how Eddie used to look at her, how he'd looked at her when she'd shown him the calendar. And now Tim was looking at her in exactly the same way. He was moving away from her. She was losing him, just as she'd lost Eddie. Boring, prudish, stupid Ruth… Stupid to think she could move on from the rut she'd been into. And it hurt. It hurt more than she could even bear to admit to herself. And so she lashed out, all the anger and stress of the past night and morning releasing itself to him.

"You listen to me," she began, trembling with fury and indignation. "You don't get to tell me what I can or cannot do. And neither can Eddie for that matter. If I want to get back together with him, if I want him back in my life or in my bed that is my decision to make and mine alone!

And for your information, I threw him out this morning because no… I'm not stupid enough to take him back!"

She glared at him, her eyes shooting daggers, trying to get her breathing under control, barely registering that his eyes had turned dark and his hands were shaking, until she felt them grabbing her waist, pulling her tightly against him. He bend his head and captured her lips with his own, ignoring her small sound of shock, turning into a moan when his lips moved insistently over hers. His hands on her lower back pulled her impossibly close, almost lifting her of the floor and pressing her flat against his body.

His tongue stroked and teased her lips, demanding entrance and all of a sudden she realised he wasn't pushing her away. He wasn't pushing her away at all, but he was trying to get closer to her. She almost sighed in relief, parting her lips and allowing him to explore her, to taste her and to wrap his arms around her, holding her close against his chest.

Moving her hands up to his shoulders she felt the tension leaving his body as his kiss became slower and deeper and so much more sensual. She felt his hands caressing her neck, her back, her hips and her stomach before enveloping her again, embracing her, keeping her close and secure.

When he finally pulled back, he only tightened his hold on her, trailing his lips over her cheek to her ear.
"Ruth…" he whispered huskily, the hoarseness of his voice and the way his warm breath tickled her ear sending shivers down her spine. She tilted her head back a little to look in his eyes, her own mind a whirlwind of thoughts and sensations, the blood still rushing in her ears.

The look in his eyes caused her stomach to flutter almost painfully. There was so much desire and need in them that her heart began to hammer furiously.

When she was working she usually pulled her hair back, but he carefully caught a loose, soft strand between his middle and index finger and tucked it behind her ear.

"You deserve so much more than that idiot of an Eddie," he told her in that same low, husky voice, making her shudder again.
Slowly, almost reluctantly he moved his arms away from her and she instantly felt cold from the loss of them. Taking a few steps back, he ran his hand through his hair, all the while holding her eyes with his own, until he turned around and stalked out of the supply storeroom, leaving Ruth behind with a pounding heart and her feelings in a turmoil.


Of course, I´d love to hear what you think!

And here I was thinking that I was the first person to write a Calendar Girls fic. I´ve never been so glad to be wrong; check out Lucida Bright´s wonderful Glorious! It´s in my favorites, you´ll have to scroll down for a bit.

Happy reading!