Words required:
extravagant, accommodate, curious, Saturday, water, suddenly, communicate, interest, lounge, distant, active, direction
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Saturday: Alice liked Saturdays, it was the one day of the week she was guaranteed time to herself. Lucien took Sunday off to look after his baby son, while Jean went to Mass. Going against the church's teachings and marrying a divorced man had not stopped her belief in God, even if Alice thought God had stopped believing in her friend. Anyway, that was by the by; Saturday was Alice's time to do whatever she liked. What she liked to do was have a long soak in the bath, sinking under the warm water, not getting out until it started to cool then wrapping herself in a large fluffy bath towel, going to her bedroom and taking her time getting ready for the day and whatever it held.
Today she had no plans, Matthew was on duty at the police station, she didn't need to go into town, the garden didn't need any work doing in it; not that gardening held any interest for her, that was her beloved's area. She liked to see it neat and tidy, but she was no gardener. She had no housework to do; being a working woman she employed a woman to come in twice a week to clean and do the laundry for her; extravagant, she knew, but it meant she had time to spend with Matthew especially as she hadn't known in what direction their relationship was going, initially. Now they were 'together', and even if some of the officers had found it curious at first that their confirmed bachelor of a superintendant had decided to date the acerbic pathologist, things seemed to be going rather well.
At first, she had found it difficult to accommodate Matthew in her life, having vowed never to consider a romantic entanglement after past such situations had gone badly wrong, then, suddenly, he had been there whenever she needed someone to talk to , to discuss a case with or just to share a meal with.
He, in his turn, had originally found her distant even cold, but circumstances had proved him wrong and he had gradually warmed to her, finding her intelligent and blessed with a surprising sense of humour, a very dark one. He became active in his pursuit of Alice Harvey and eventually caught her, much to her surprise.
Now they sat in her lounge, actually it had become their lounge; he rarely went to his house anymore, his niece, Rose lived there and, he was sure, was entertaining Sergeant Charlie Davies there. So they sat in their lounge most evenings discussing the events of the day, drinking their evening whisky, she preferred it to Jean's tipple of sherry, and would 'entertain' themselves until bedtime.
Gradually Matthew had moved most of his clothes over to Alice's in an unspoken understanding that they would live together regardless of the gossip. Alice usually had a cutting riposte to anyone who made to communicate their opinion of people living together outside the bonds of marriage. As she said, it was their life; but Matthew was determined to get her up the aisle, one day!
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Bit of a ramble through the life of Alice Harvey!