B&B OF LOVE AND FUN-18
Hello all. Nice to be with you again. We had a short break in this story, due to my real life things, but now I'm back. Hope that at least one person missed me ;-) Today's and hopefully tomorrow's chapter, will be divided into two parts. I know that it's B&B of love and fun, but this time there will be some dark clouds over Charles and Elsie, but not for long... Hope you will like it ;-)
Few weeks later...
Generally, there were no reasons to complain in the Carson/Hughes/Patmore B&B, within the last few weeks. After the religious group visit, things were going pretty well. People were calling, they were booking the rooms and sometimes, there were even situations when the B&B was fully booked and they had to deny the reservations, because they had a complete set of guests.
Financially, things were looking wonderful for all four of them. The expenses that they had, buying the place, seemed finally to pay back, slowly, but effectively. Charles and Beryl were more than happy, putting their money to the bank and watching as their bank accounts were growing each day and Katie was very pleased, that the money she was earning, will be useful in the future. In her own mind, she already saw herself buying a small cottage, for the money that she was making.
Katie was hard working girl and Elsie simply couldn't imagine doing all the work without her. They were busy since dawn till dusk, everyday and Elsie, in spite of being hard worker and a person full of energy, simply felt, that in her age, doing it all alone, would be too much for her.
Beryl had her own share of hard work and Katie was trying to help her too, however she could, while Charles was doing his part of the job...All of them were contributing all they could, to a mutual success.
Just as they all predicted, running a B&B was not an easy thing to do. There were nice guests, who enjoyed their stay, from the beginning till the end, but there were also people, who were so difficult to bear, that Elsie barely could stop herself from being nice to them and unfortunately, she knew that she had to...
Charles and Beryl were in better situation, as they were not working in the first line of the front. Elsie was the one, who had the most time with the B&B guests and she was the one, who had to take care of all the requests, even the most silly and annoying ones.
The B&B was developing, their financial situation became more stable now, but all good things in life usually have a bad side too and in their case, the bad side was, that they literally had no time for anything else. Private life had to be forgotten...
It's not that they were not used to that, because they certainly were. Working at the Abbey, for the most part of their lives, taught them, that having a private life was out of the question, but now the situation for all of them was a little bit different. Beryl was more than eager, to develop her relationship with Bill Mason-just as he was, but with the amount of work that she was having now, their private meetings had to be limited and neither of them were happy about it...
Elsie saw the suffering of her friend and she would be willing to help her, to make it easy for Beryl, but she knew, that cooking was definitely not her strongest thing and when she shyly suggested to Beryl, that she could help, if Beryl would like to have some time to herself, she heard from her best friend, that if they wanted to keep the B&B going, with a good opinion as it had till now, involving Elsie in kitchen duties, was not a good idea. They both had good laugh from it.
One way or another, Elsie was too tired herself, to do even one thing more...She knew it and Beryl knew it.
In the evenings, she was so tired, that she could barely force herself to have her eyes opened.
All she wanted to do, was to have a hot bath and go to sleep, which met with a quiet disappointment from her husband, who was working for the glory of B&B too, but maybe not so hard as Elsie was... So when the evening came, he was more than willing, to spend some private time, the only private time that they had, in more pleasurable way...
Elsie was so tired, that she had no energy for anything...She was always the one, who wanted to make sure, that everything in the B&B was top quality and the day has only 24 hours, plus she really needed at least few hours of good sleep, so naturally her relations with Charles, had to suffer because of this.
So far, Charles has not made any harsh remarks to Elsie, but he was getting more and more impatient, going to sleep in their bedroom each night and finding Elsie in a state of deep sleep already, or in a better case, sharing just one kiss with him, while she was half asleep and watching, as she covers herself tightly with the duvet and turning her back to him, to fall asleep almost immediately.
Charles was tired too, but he was not as exhausted as Elsie and he wanted to remember ,that he still has a wife, but that seemed do be impossible recently. To a point, he was bearing this with dignity, but there came a night, when his patience has finished...
When he came into bed one night and noticed, that Elsie was not sleeping yet, he decided to make this a night for both of them and immediately took Elsie in his arms, kissing her with a fervor, that left her no doubts, about what he would like to do now...
Charles wasted no time, he lied on Elsie, groaning quietly, just as he felt her body under his and he started to lift her night dress up, wanting to feel her naked body...He was warmed up instantly, but to his disappointment, Elsie started to back down...
"Els...What's the matter? Don't you want us to...?"
"I do Charlie, but I have no strenght...I've been up since 5 A.M. working like crazy and it's so late...Another group is coming tomorrow...I need to have some sleeep..."
"But Elsie...We haven't...For weeks we haven't been close...At all...I miss that..."
"I know my love...I miss that too...But I really don't have the energy...I just want to sleep...If that will help, we can cuddle a bit, before I will go to sleep..."
Elsie made an offer to Charles, which in normal circumstances he would never refuse. They were married for quite a long time and Charles, being a gentelman as he was, sensitive about women's needs, knew very well, that love act was something totally difficult for men and women...He understood that.. He loved Elsie very much and all sorts of physical contact with her, was dear to his heart, but this situation was too much for him...His patience was exhausted and he wanted Elsie to know that...
"I think it's not a good idea Elsie...If you are that tired, it will probably be better if you will go to sleep.. I will not stand in your way..."
This time it was Charles, who turned his back to Elsie, astouned with his behavior...Elsie was extremely grateful, for having a husband who was so gentle and loving in their intimate sphere...She knew, that not all women were blessed with husbands like that...She knew, that there were men, who in Charles's place, would not be so understanding and would simply get what they wanted, without asking...But Charles's behavior really hurt her badly...
Falling asleep took her much more, than it normally did...
Next day was difficult...They were both feeling hurt and neither of them was willing to talk about it, or to try solving this problem somehow..Not that they even had time for that, as they were overloaded with work...Days were passing by and Elsie was getting more and more sad, while Charles was getting more and more annoyed...
He developed this nasty habit, of making reproaches to Elsie, of pointing out the mistakes, that she did in everyday work...
Beryl and Katie both saw what was going on, but they decided, not to interfere in the marriage business. Up to a point, Elsie has been calm about Charles's behavior, but when one day she was sleep deprived and he was more nasty than usual, all it took was one remark from him, to start a war...
Katie just went to a village to buy some things, while Beryl was in the kitchen with Mr Mason, who decided to visit her, as they haven't seen each other for a while...He brought flowers and chocolates and they were talking quietly in the kitchen, when they heard noises coming from the living room...
"I think, that I already told you yesterday, that the table clothes should be taken off...They were marked and you promised to do it yesterday Elsie..."
"I did, but I forgot about it totally, I was cleaning the living room till midnight, while you were fast asleep..."
"Oh, so you are suggesting that I'm not doing enough, right? Is that what you are trying to tell me here? Rich, coming from a person who can't handle one simple thing, as cloth changing..."
"It's not about the cloth and you know it very well Mr Carson! It's about your hurt pride and your disappoitment in me, just don't hide under the table cloth...Or other duties.."
"Well, recently you have not been doing any duties, that you were suppose to do, so maybe it's time to consider if you are up to the task!"
"In that case Mr Carson, if you think that you can handle better than me, be my guest, because I am out of here and I will luckily give you a chance to run this place according to your standards!"
"I'm sure that I will manage much better!"
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
Elsie left slamming the door louldy and Charles did the same, going to the corridor, leading to the private part of the building...
Beryl and Mr Mason were amazed, with what they just saw and heard...They quietly, not noticed by the Carsons, returned to the kitchen...
"Oh my, who would have thought, that I will ever see something like this..I thought that they were a perfect couple...It's very sad..."-Bill was depressed with the scene...
"They are a perfect couple...But with all the work, that we have here now, even their marriage relation had to suffer a bit...They are working all the time and they don't have time for themselves at all...It had to take some kind of toll..."
"And apparently it did...Even the best marriage can have those kind of days..."
"I wouldn't know...I have never been married and don't know a lot about it..."- Beryl said, still thinking about the harsh scene...
"You know Beryl...It's never to late to change this..."
"To change what? Their marriage problems?"
"No. Your lack of knowledge about marriage...I think that I have a perfect remedy for this.."
"Oh? And what that remedy might be?"-Asked Beryl, feeling that her throat is dry...
"Beryl, I know that our relationship is not developing very effectively recently, because of the lack of time, but my feelings are clear...Will you accept my propsal?"
"Are you...? Are you asking me to marry you?"
"Yes, that's exactly what I'm asking...I never have time to catch you, with so much work that you have, so why wait any longer? So what is your answer?"
"My answer is yes Bill...I will marry you!"
"I'm the happiest man in the world..."
That's all for this chapter my lovelies...I wanted to end it with a positive note, since there are some dark clouds with Charles and Elsie's marriage...To quote Beryl :"The correct thing to do is to say men and sigh"-of course I'm talking about Charles's behavior...I think that all women have been through the same kind of problems in a relationship...Don't worry...Everything is going to be ok...Tomorrow I will do a beautiful reconciliation of our favorite love birds...Hope you liked this chapter a bit...Have a great weekend!