"Okay, gas and break are the same, use your right foot for those, the only difference is the clutch. We'll use some old roads for you to get used to driving on the opposite side of the road." Alec explains to her.
"Okay to start, pull up the emergency brake and disengage it with your foot on the break," Alec waits for her to figure it out.
"It's not moving," Una says already frustrated.
"Press in the button, pull up and then press it down," Alec explains further. Una nods her head and while she struggles with it, she manages it.
"Okay, turn the ignition while pressing down on the clutch with your left foot," Alec continues. "You want to be in neutral, you want to be able to move the stick shift from side to side. Now, you want to get into the first, which is on the left top. Second is below it, and then third and forth so on to R which is the reverse. First off, hold down the clutch with your left foot and slowly let off the brake. You will begin to roll, you should feel the car begin to rev, or hum."
Una nods her head, going through the motions,
"Now, slowly slide your foot to the gas to get into first gears, just toe it, barely touch it, it's sensitive. While doing that, start lifting the clutch until you feel it click," Alec tries to explain.
Una nods her head,
Una nods her head, trying to wrap her head around it all. Why was it so daunting, she knew how to drive, but the extra peddle and the steps seemed to do her head in! She tries to do what he says but the execution is far from correct and the car stalls and almost shakes on her and shuts off and doesn't move.
"It's okay, you took off the clutch too fast, just try again just more slowly," Alec tells her.
Three times she tries, before she manages to make it down the small lane, okay once you get into this and want to get into second, you want to press back down on the clutch, and add more gas…—Gently!" Alec rushes out as the car lurches and suddenly stops short.
"Sorry!" Una cries.
"It's okay," Alec tells her shaking his head. "Let's try again, get into first and build up motion, then clutch and gently add more gas and then shift into second."
"All at once?" Una says wide-eyed.
"Yes, Luv, all at once it's not as hard as it seems," Alec says with a touch of amusement.
"Says the Englishman," Una rolls her eyes, "This is new and backwards on top of everything and you tell me I have to retake my driving test if I want to drive anything manual when I do switch over my license?"
"How it works Luv," Alec says. "Now try again, we don't have all day I work at noon," he reminds her.
Una wrinkles her nose and clenches her jar and lips together. She manages to get into first, and then while it's slightly rocky she manages to get into second.
"No horrid," Alec tells her. "See you'll get it and you'll have no issues, just takes practice."
"It's bloody convoluted," Una says under her breath, she breaks lightly as she turns around the small bend. "I am on the right side of the road?"
"You're fine, maybe just a little more to the left through," Alec tells her. "Now once at the end of this lane, you'll have to come to a stop, downshift first, break and hold down the clutch, and when it safe to go, or your turn, hit the gas and bring it up into second gear once more and continue on you're merry way, once you get up to 40 ish, you can shift into third gear and go a bit faster. Do the same thing, foot off the gas, press down the clutch and shift and hit the gas and release at the same time," Alec explains.
"Jesus, one thing at a time," Una swears, trying not to get mind boggled by his instructions.
"Taking the lords name in vain I didn't think that was possible," Alec chuckles.
"Shut it," Una growls at him trying to go through all the steps only to hear some awful sounds happening
"Foot off the gas, clutch and gear up and then gas it and release the clutch," Alec tells," that sounds means you're not in the right gear."
She drives them back to his place, taking a deep breath as she puts the car into park and then sighs.
"See you'll be just fine, it will just take some practice," Alec tells her. "What's your plan for the afternoon?"
"Read a bit, maybe do some yoga since it's been a while?" Una tells him.
"Well, tomorrow when I finish work we'll drive out to see some Beatrix Potter things if you are interested in her?"
"I do like Peter Rabbit," Una tells him.
"Well, you can always come to spend the day at the museum as well, meet some of the people I work with," Alec tells her. "I mean it might stop the jokes that I made you up, and that you are not real."
"They don't think I'm real?" Una looks at him in disbelief
"Well, you only existed in photos for the longest time to them, and apparently they think your way too pretty for me," Alec says shrugging. "I mean I get it, long distance relationships are questionable, our whole tale is questionable in many ways, not that I would change it anyway though."
"Give me a few more days just hiding out here before we start proving I'm a real person," Una says after a moment. "Not that I don't want to meet your friends, I do. I'm just a little weary of people since everything at the church?" Una tries to explain.
"Understandable," Alec says. "I'd say you can just drop me off work and pick me up to tease them, but I don't think my car will appreciate that," he grins teasing her and Una swats at him.
She spends the rest of the afternoon wandering the small clearing of the cottage, as well as weeding the small garden that was around the foundation. She wipes the dirt off her hands on her jeans, and sets down her trawl as she hears footsteps it's too early for Alec to be home.
"So you are a real person," Someone says to Una, she's tall, blonde and pretty and it makes Una think of Alice Parker, but her dress reminded her of something old and homemade. It was strange but it wasn't exactly out of place
"Of course," Una says trying not to appear indignant over the assumption. "Why would I not be a real person
"I saw you the other day in the woods but you disappeared. Thought you might have been a faerie?" The person shrugs.
"I'm sorry who are you?" She asks uneasily.
"I live down the road," She says simply as she sits down. "You seem younger than I pictured, but still very much faerie-like."
"Okay? Can I help you with anything, Do you work with Alec?" Una tells her. Still clutching her phone in her hand.
"Just heard the music from afar," She shrugs once more. "I don't know the man who lives here, so don't worry I don't plan on trying to steal your love."
"Thanks?" Una says still unsure of this whole thing.
"I'd be careful around this area after dark in the woods, there are plenty of tales of people disappearing and then reappearing days lately in a trance."
Una merely nods her head as a rabbit jumps in between them.
"I had the oddest experience today," Una tells Alec as they wash up the dishes.
"What's happened?"
"Some girl came into the yard…asking me if I was real and that she saw me another day and thought I was a faerie. She said she lived down the road and said don't worry I don't plan on taking your man," Una tells him. Then she just left, no name, no nothing….just came and went with a warning to be careful in the forests because people disappear?"
"Una…I don't have neighbours?" Alec says frowning.
"Well, she was real," Una says shaking her head.
"All right, how about tomorrow you come to work with me and stop eating these mushrooms that you find in the yard," Alec jokes as Una put the dishes away and moves towards the small back porch. Her gardening stuff was still out, but that was okay she put her things away and sits down on an old wicker loveseat
"I was in a church once, that someone let me into and had a whole conversation with someone once, only to find out the church had been closed for renovations," Una tells him, feeling him come up behind beside her and sit down.
"So you're my little witch or are you Fae?" Alec chuckles, drawing her into a kiss. "I mean I have neighbours not necessarily nearby, but maybe they were out for a walk? I mean would I ever suggest this, if I had nosey neighbours." He leans forward and whispers into her ear.
Una blushes bright red, but his hands were on her waist and dipping low into the waistband of her jeans.
"Alec," Una half groans and moans. "We're outside."
"I know," He says with a grin, nipping at her neck. "And no one can see us at all."
"You're being incorrigible," Una says shaking her head.
It all comes to the brink when he kisses her firmly capturing her cry with his mouth, all with a grin that refuses to leave his face. Her face is flushed and she panted against him, lips swollen from his kisses and eyes heavy. She watched him until a cool breeze blew through the trees and she shivered.
She drags him into the house, they don't even make it into the bedroom as the clothes are pushed aside and she is pushed up against the wall, and then the counter that was still slightly damp from being wiped down.
"Rubber?" he asks.
"What's the point at this point?" Una breathes. "I trust you, I love you isn't that enough?"
"Fair enough," Alec says pulling her shirt over her head, leaving her in a lacy little bra and Una pouts at him lightly. "I love you too, darling," he whispers into her ear.
She goes to work with him on Thursday, curious to see the museum and the grounds. Everyone is curious about it, and she blushes slightly at the attention.
"We didn't think you were real at first," One says to her as she stands in the slowly blooming garden. "Really did believe he made you up."
"Well, he didn't, I am very much real, just happened to be in another country," Una tells her crouching down to read a floral indication card.
"What are you in school for?" She the girl asks next.
"I'm not in school? I'm just here on a visa and international student tuition is a bit more than what I can afford?"
"So you just living at his grandmother's?" The redhead asks next.
"I have some money saved and starting next month I have a few piano students, I have a level nine certificate from the Conservatory of Music of Canada. I could probably go for my tenth if I wanted to." Una tells her.
"So you're a musician?" They ask questioning her further.
"Barely, my stepmother is a music teacher and sometimes works for the symphony in Nova Scotia when called for it," Una explains. "I just like playing and am decent at it. My sister is horrible at it, Jerry though can play well if he feels like it. We liked to play duets growing up, mostly I would play for fun though or sometimes for Rosemary at Church if Dad needed her for something else."
"My girlfriend plays the violin," she says next which makes Una pause for a moment.
"I never got the knack for it," Una says simply. "If your girlfriend kept up with it, she must be good?" Trying to give the impression that she didn't care about her choice of person to love. Because she didn't.
"She enjoys it that is for sure," the woman nods her head.
"That's all that matters," Una says simply looking over at the beginnings of some flowers.
"Luv, you know you can come inside right?" Alec calls out from the entranceway. "Catriona, Geoff is asking for you."
"It's pretty out here though," Una says shrugging as Alec comes closer to her. "Do you feel better knowing they know I'm real" She teases him.
"Well, now they say you are truly too pretty for me," Alec says grinning. "Come on, I'll show you around some of the house and some of the secret stuff," Alec says tugging on her hand.
Una nods her head and lets him lead her inside the cottage. While she knows a fair bit about Wordsworth, she never was interested enough to completely research him and the cottage broke down his life into exhibits and artifacts. Manuscripts, old journals, and paintings of what life was like back in his time.
"This though, this is what I haven't told you about or showed you," Alec says signalling to someone who nods their head. He leads her back outside, outside of the museum to another building.
"Jerwood Centre?" Una says brow furrowing.
"Just trust me," Alec says grinning and flashes his employee pass at the first at the front desk who nods their head and lets them pass.
Una doesn't know what to think until he opens a door, and inside is essentially a library.
"The Wordsworth Trust keep all their important books here," Alec explains. "But I thought you would enjoy this section the most he says leading her over to a bookcase she looks at it for a moment before she realizes that it is all Keats. Various books, manuscripts and belongs of his short life.
"Is that?" Una looks at him.
"A letter to Fanny Browne? The muse of Bright Star," Alec says simply, kissing her temple. "Indeed it is Luv."
Author note.
So, I don't manual or stick shift as it is not that common in Canada. So really that was all from Google and youtube videos, so if I messed it up, please forgive me for that!
I hope everyone is doing well, I am heading out on a tour week work trip and am not sure how much writing time I will have so updating may take a few weeks. In the meantime, any comments and questions are always welcome. Seriously they make my day!