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Rosie's Diamond: Chapters one and two
Chapter One As the bus reached the junction it slowed down and turned right without indicating.
Chapter One
As the bus reached the junction it slowed down and turned right without indicating.It was a pitch-black night and there was no other traffic to be seen so the driver knew it was safe. The headlights lit up the road and showed him all he needed to see.
As the bus completed its turn it stopped. The door opened and Vic Bannerman stepped tentatively out into the dark. He looked down the road and could see clearly into the distance illuminated by the headlights of the bus.
"It's that way." The gruff voice of the driver followed him through the open door.Vic looked back to see the driver pointing behind him.
He turned, ready to start down the unknown road, as the door shut and the bus drove off. This time he could see nothing, not even a house light. The dark seemed as if it was solid. Looking back again he could see the red taillights of the bus disappearing into the distance. He shrugged his shoulders and started walking.
If only the bus had come this way he thought to himself. It's cold, it's dark, it couldn't get any worse. He immediately bit his tongue, why tempt fate.
Too late.
He felt the first drop of rain on the back of his neck and then several more, within minutes it was pouring down. There wasn't even a tree to shelter under. Well, there probably was but he couldn't see it in the dark.
He wasn't sure how far he had to go, but now he was drenched it would seem a lot further. The signpost at the T-Junction had said fourteen miles.
Thankfully he hadn't seen it.
Chapter Two
Rosemary Van der Velde had lived on the outskirts of Wulfrum for around ten years ever since her husband Roderick had collapsed and died of a heart attack in his native South Africa. It had come as a total surprise as he was only forty-two years old and had never had a day's illness in his life, not even a cold. Rod had made a fortune in the diamond business. His father had started it but Rod had increased profitability a hundred fold. Life had been good in the pre-apartheid days and the crime rate was low. Who would ever have thought that after the abolition of apartheid that crime would have escalated the way it had. She was glad she no longer lived there.
After the funeral she had packed and returned home to England. At first she had moved in to London's Grosvenor Hotel where she had taken a suite.
The home in Wulfrum was bought about a month later. It was far enough away from the town for her not to be bothered by the locals, yet near enough for her to be able to employ a gardener, a cleaner, and a cook.
It had four bedrooms, three of which she never really expected to use. The fourth bedroom, her room, was huge with an en suite bathroom, which had a large jet spa circular bath and a separate shower. The whole room, walls, ceilings and floors, were tiled in a magnolia tile; one out of every twelve wall tiles had a small flower motif. The ceiling tiles were all plain as were the floor tiles except they were large twelve-inch tiles. The units, toilet, bidet, bath, shower surround, and two sinks, all matched the tiles.
She had furnished one other bedroom just in case the unlikely event of having a house guest ever happened.
Her own room was furnished and decorated in several shades of pale blue. Blue had been Rod's favourite colour and she felt this would help keep his memory fresh.
Not there was any chance of it fading. There had only ever been Rod, apart from the odd schoolgirl flirtations, and there would never be anyone else, even though she was still only forty-five. Her whole life had been Rod, and he had always told her that she was the one thing in his life that had spurred him on to be the success that he had become.
The one sadness in both of their lives was that they had not had children. They tried and planned but it was obviously part of God's greater plan that it was not meant to happen. Eventually they had both accepted it and if anything it had made them even closer.
They were pretty much alone when Rod died. Both sets of parents had died some years earlier, all within five years of each other. Rod had no siblings and she had just one brother who was still in England. They had not been close for many years. This both surprised and disappointed her because right up until just before she got married they had been the best of friends. He hadn't even turned up for the wedding and when she moved to South Africa any chance of a reconciliation moved with her. At the very least she would have liked to have known what had gone wrong.
Perhaps now she was back in England she would contact him and see if she could form some kind of relationship with him.
Perhaps!
The money she had inherited from all of Rod's interests had exchanged from South African rands into well over two million British pounds even after all taxes had been paid.
She knew that she would never have to worry about money but would willingly have given it all away to have Rod back.
The house in Wulfrum was expensive but money really meant nothing to her and it was the one house she had seen that she really wanted and felt comfortable with so she paid a little over the odds for it without grumbling and had wanted to move in and get settled as soon as possible.
Paying cash also made it a very easy sale.
Moving in was not the adventure she had hoped for. Being alone, the house suddenly appeared much bigger and forbidding with many huge unwelcoming corners.
It became a lot better when the moving company eventually delivered all of her personal effects from South Africa. She had been in the house almost three weeks before everything arrived.
During those few weeks she had furnished very tastefully, the whole house except for the two smaller bedrooms, one of which she decided to turn into an office and computer room.
The four downstairs rooms plus the kitchen all had wooden floors which, before she moved in, had had stripped back down to bare wood and re-stained. They now looked like new floors.
Several large Persian and Indian carpets now hid parts of all of them.
She had bought all the furniture from Selfridges in London and had it shipped down.
Most of it was mahogany and gave the downstairs a look of antiquity. Even though it was all brand new it looked old.
The lounge suite consisted of three two-seater settees and three large armchairs two of which were recliners with a footstool for the third. They were similar in colour to the upstairs colours but with more of a yellow presence. Again they were expensive but were extremely comfortable.
The kitchen was fitted with all of the latest top-of-the-range appliances.
She had everything material that she could possibly want. All that was missing was Rod.
At least now she had her personal effects and her pictures and photographs and many of the personal items that they had bought together.
She would survive.
CLICK HERE FOR CHAPTER THREE
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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