Chapter 6

The plaster was removed from my leg after the appointment at the hospital, the Doctor professing satisfaction that my healing was coming along nicely. They put a support on the lower leg and recommended gentle exercise to build up the wasted muscles. My new car was delivered courtesy of the insurance and I planned to leave within a few days. I hadn't reckoned with my two nurses though, who together and separately vetoed my idea. Angela going as far as stealing the keys and hiding them, slipping them in the cleavage of her generous bosom.

"Now get them if you dare." Her eyes gleamed. She seemed disappointed when I didn't try. She left my room muttering. "If it was Millie you would have been after them in a second."

I had been working again for a few days now, using the telephone to contact my regular customers, keeping in contact and writing some useful orders. Gill and Danny, my partners would send out samples by carrier if any were needed. The ad hoc system worked but it was no substitute for a physical call and I was impatient to get back to work.

Eventually came the day when I was fit to drive. It was with both joy and sadness that I left. Angela and Millie saw me off, consoled with my promise that I would be back soon. Millie's kisses the evening before I left had more passion in them and to tell the truth I was starting to think that we had something together, something more than friendship.

My return to the business was at the most hectic time of year for us. For some reason the run up to Christmas was always busy and filling the orders was a problem. Much of our product was made with specialist handwork, and skilled seamstresses were hard to find, we couldn't just go out into the market place and hire them. Therefore the increased demand was hard to satisfy without longer hours for everyone. I was back at the right time, as whilst I was not competent with a needle and thread, I could use a flatbed sewing machine and the over locker, therefore I could get on joining panels and leave the detailed intricate work to our seamstresses. Gill was our production manager; she had just about done everything in a workroom and knew the job inside out. Danny was an accountant and hated this time of year. He would be in despatch and was the only packer who would not forsake his suit and tie, much to everyone's amusement.

I didn't mind the Christmas rush. It kept me busy at a time when my calling was an interruption to my customers. My sister usually invited me for Christmas, which was not much fun as she would bring our conversation round to what went wrong in my marriage. A subject that I tried to avoid as assiduously as she would try to talk about it. I lived my life and let others get on with theirs. My sister lived with a rigid set of almost Calvinistic rules and criticised volubly those who offended her rules. I, it would seem did that frequently. It was March before my journey plan took me back to the West Country. I had tried to curb my impatience as I came to realise that it was not just the welcome that I received at the hotel, nor the good customers and the orders I could write. Neither was it the scenery that so gladdened my heart. It was Millie who I was eager to see.

The hotel looked the same, the drive remained a desert of stone chippings upon which the car tyres crunched, occasionally flipping one up to bounce off the under-body. The door stood open and the reception unchanged with its tired sofas and indecipherable paintings. Nothing had changed yet everything had changed. Millie was at reception her smile drawing me to her; she looked around as if checking to see if we were observed then ran out and into my arms. I held her close; I could feel her heart beating as quickly as mine. She looked up wordlessly asking for a kiss. Our lips joined. This was not the kiss that we wanted. I was not one for public exhibition, nor, I suspected, was Millie.

"It's so good to see you again, Greg. The place hasn't been the same without the tenant in room nine."

"It's good to see you, Millie. This is a much better reception that I got last year. I could get used to this." She smiled.