Cold (24 page)

"That would be nice, thank you," said Jo, and ushered the blonde up the rest of the stairs.

They showered and changed, and ate a light lunch in the small sun lounge, which had views over the rocky cliffs.

"Where would you like to go first?" Jo asked a thoughtful Rocky.

"I'd just like to go into the village. It'll be pretty quiet this time of year." She pushed away the plate, which had held her sandwiches. "And then I need to go to the church."

Jo watched her carefully.

Rocky sighed deeply. "I need to see it... where they are now."

"Okay. We'll drive down there as soon as we've finished here."

Rocky glanced around the sun lounge. "It's very quiet here."

Jo nodded, pushing her chair away from the table and standing. "It would be; we're the only guests."

"We are?"

Jo nodded, giving the blonde a wink before turning away and leaving the sun lounge.

"Jo, what have you done?" asked a bemused blonde, following hard on the heels of her friend.

The small church just within the boundary of the village stood strong against the wind and rain that assaulted it with persistent intensity. Jo left the engine running as both women looked at the forbidding high wall that surrounded it and the small graveyard.

Without a word, Jo reached across and took Rocky's hand. "You up to this?"

"Probably not, but I've thought about it a lot since I met you." She looked from their linked hands up into concerned blue eyes. "You gave me the strength to remember them. And now I need to go and say good bye."

"You want me to come?"

Rocky shook her head, and eased her hand out of Jo's. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and stepped out into the storm. Before she closed the door she ducked down looking back into the car. "Just give me a few minutes."

"Okay," Jo said quietly.

Jo watched her through the rain-slicked windscreen, switching on the wipers for a couple of passes so she could see her lover more clearly. She has positioned the Merc so that she could see through a part of the wall that had collapsed.

Rocky pulled up the collar of the waterproof jacket that Jo had bought her, but her head and legs were still becoming quickly drenched with the freezing rain.

She vaguely knew where her grandparents had been buried and knew her parents would be close by. Stumbling slightly she came across the white headstone. It said simply:- 'Michael and Annabelle Kersey'.

Rocky's legs suddenly felt weak, and she staggered backwards. Behind her she heard the Merc's door slam and she turned to see Jo striding towards her around the other headstones in the churchyard.

She shook her head at the advancing woman. "Not yet."

Reluctantly Jo nodded and walked slowly back to the car.

Rocky turned back to the gravestone. She ignored the rain seeping down the back of her collar, and stood, arms held limply at her side.

"I should have come before, I'm sorry." Her voice was small, broken. "So much has happened, and I couldn't get back.... I didn't want to forget you, but it hurt so much to remember, and I was so alone.... I had friends, good friends.... But they couldn't fill the place you left in my heart." She pushed wet hair out of her eyes. "But now I've met someone who is giving me the strength to remember you.... I think you'd like her.... And I don't think you'd hate me for loving her.... I hope you can hear me now... I want you to know how happy I am.... I know you're together... I know you love me... I love you.... Always."

Jo watched the hunched figure of her lover, and when she saw the slumped shoulders heaving as sobs racked the small body she could stand it no longer. Slipping in the mud and wet grass between ancient graves she made her way as quickly as possible to the distraught blonde, taking the unresisting body into her arms.

The taller woman looked down at the gravestone. "Michael and Annabelle," she said quietly. "Your name was a mixture of both of theirs."

She felt the blonde head nod against her chest.

"Come on, let's get out of the rain. We can come back here again, any time you want."

Rocky allowed herself to be led out of the churchyard. Across the street was a small café, and Jo steered them towards that.

A small bell rang as they entered the café, and a woman appeared behind the counter.

"Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed. "What a filthy day. Sit down. I'll get Katy to take your order."

"Thankyou," said Jo, settling Rocky at a table. "You wouldn't happen to have a towel we could use, would you?"

"Of course, let me get one from upstairs." She disappeared for a moment and then returned with a large, fluffy, blue towel.

"Thanks." Jo took it from her and started to dry Rocky's hair. "Look at me," said Jo.

Rocky looked at her with slightly dazed eyes.

"You okay?" the dark haired woman asked.

Rocky merely nodded, not trusting her voice.

Jo smiled at her and carried on gently drying the soaked, blonde hair. "Look at you," she gently scolded. "Let's get the jacket off." She leaned forward, pulling down the zip on the front of the jacket, and then eased it back off the blonde's shoulders.

"Shelley?" asked the voice behind them.

Jo looked up to see a young woman standing behind her lover. Rocky turned herself, shrugging her way out of the wet jacket.

"Kate," was all Rocky could manage, and she stood, taking a step forward, hugging the girl fiercely.

Jo tried to look away, to give what were obviously old friends a moment, but she couldn't take her eyes off the anguished look on the face of the girl holding on to her lover.

When she'd finally composed herself, Kate reluctantly let go of the blonde. "They said you were dead."

Rocky wiped a hand across her face. "Who said?" Rocky sat heavily on the chair, feeling a gentle hand on her arm as she did so.

Kate looked at a loss standing there in front of the two seated women, shaking slightly. She ran a hand through short brown hair, and looked back at the woman behind the counter. "Can I have a moment?"

The woman nodded, and she sat with her friend. Kate nodded at Jo, who smiled back, then her gaze found her old schoolfriend again. "It was a couple of months after the accident. A man came here looking for you. Said you'd disappeared." She looked down at the floor. "Then a few months later, he came back and said he had to clear out your house, that you were presumed dead."

Rocky covered her face with her hands, then reached across and took one of Jo's hands.

Kate looked at Jo. "I'm sorry...."

"No, my fault." She reached across with her free hand, offering it to the girl. "Hi, I'm Jo."

"Kate," said the still tearful girl. "We grew up together."

Rocky looked up at her friend. "It's really good to see you, Katy."

"Where did you go?" she asked.

"It's a long story. I can't tell it right now."

Kate nodded. "That's okay, Shelley. It's just good to know you're okay." She stood. "I'll just go and get you some drinks, then maybe we can talk."

Rocky nodded, and watched her friend disappear behind the counter.

An hour or so later, Jo and Rocky walked towards the Merc, still parked beside the wall. Their clothes and hair were still damp, and they wanted nothing more than to get back to their hotel and test out the large bath they'd seen in the bathroom of their suite.

"So you went to school with Kate?" Jo asked as she unlocked the car with the remote on her keyring.

"Yeah, we were really close." Rocky slid into the passenger seat. "I didn't think about people like that. I should have got word to her." She looked across at Jo, who was inserting the key into the ignition. "Did you notice how quiet she got after she first saw me?"

Jo started the car, and waited for the de-misters to work on the windscreen. "Yeah, I think it was all a little too much for her to take in."

"I wouldn't blame her for hating me." Rocky pulled her seatbelt on, and sat forlornly with her head bowed.

"Now why would she do that?" Jo asked, becoming a little annoyed with her morose lover. She looked across at the dejected figure. "Hey," she reached out and took one of the cold hands that were clutched together in the blonde's lap.

"I was thoughtless," Rocky said quietly. "Didn't think of anyone but myself."

Jo squeezed the hand she held. "You had to do what you did to save yourself." She shook the hand. "Hey, look at me."

Reluctantly, Rocky looked up, and moist green eyes locked with Jo's. Jo pulled in to the side of the road, and turned in her seat to face the blonde.

"You survived, Rocky. And now you have all the time in the world to go back and find some of the life you left behind." She raised their joined hands to her lips, kissing the knuckles of her lover. "And I for one am very very grateful you survived." She leaned across, her lips finding the blonde's. And in that moment managed to show just how grateful.

There was only one pay phone in the small village, and the young man that stepped into it managed to take his eyes off the Merc long enough to take out a small piece of paper from his wallet. He keyed the numbers on that paper and waited while he heard the dial tone change to a ringing tone.

"Hello? It's Paul Langley.... You asked me to let you know if Michelle Kersey ever showed her face here again.... Yes, I'm looking at her right now.... No she's with a tall woman, never seen her before.... Don't know.... They're in a Merc - nice one, silver, soft top....Yeah. X1 JHS.... You'll send the money? Ok, bye."

He slid out of the phone box as the Merc, which had only gone a few yards since he saw the women get into it, drove away again and disappeared into the rainy gloom.

It was getting dark as they arrived back at the clifftop hotel.

"So you're telling me that they opened up just for us?" asked Rocky as she leaned in, testing the temperature of the water filling the bath.

"Yeah. All the hotels that were open over Christmas were fully booked. They didn't take too much persuading."

Rocky sat on the edge of the bath. "How much did it cost?"

"Does it matter?"

Rocky nodded. "I don't want you spending all your money on me."

Jo leaned her hands on the shoulders of the smaller woman. "I have lots of money."

"Not the point," Rocky said, but she was rapidly losing her resolve to be angry with Jo as she felt her lover begin to unbutton the still-damp shirt she wore.

"There won't be any room service, but I've ordered us an Indian meal which will be delivered in on hour or so. Mrs. Maple is going to bring it up."

"Mrs. Maple?"

"The woman at reception."

"And the old man who helped with our luggage?"

"Mr. Maple."

The shirt was removed and thrown onto the bathroom floor. Then Rocky was gently eased to her feet, and Jo knelt, undoing the laces of the black leather boots she wore. "I can do that," the blonde protested.

Twinkling blue eyes looked up at her through ebony hair. "I know," she said on a smile.

"So you talked them into opening?" Rocky asked, as Jo eased off her shoes and then turned her attention to the button-down fly of her jeans.

"Yep," she said, undoing the top button. "They said they'd do it." The second button popped open. "But they could only provide light meals." Another one gave under expert fingers. "And no room service." She stood as the jeans fell to pool around Rocky's feet.

She bent to kiss the lips of the half-naked woman in front of her. "I love you," she said as she pulled back.

"And I love you." Rocky decided to return the compliment, and turned her attention to the zip of Jo's fly.

The bath had taken longer than they thought, and Mrs. Maple had called them twice on the phone to tell them their meal had arrived and was in the microwave heating for the second time.

The old man tried valiantly to avert his eyes from the long legs that emerged from the bottom of a long teeshirt when Jo opened the door to allow him to bring the meal into their room.

"Mrs. Maple and I will be in the lounge if you need anything, dear," he said as he set the plates down on the small table.

"Thankyou," said Jo, giving a smirk to her lover, who was more decently covered than she was.

"You should put more clothes on," scolded Rocky when the old man left, shutting the door gently behind him.

"Why? If you've got it, flaunt it. That's what I say."

Rocky looked at the limbs in question. "You've just got.... so much of it."

The meal was, as most Indian meals are, hot and spicy, and they had to call down a couple of times for more orange juice and Coke. But every time it was the elderly man who made the long trek up to room number three. Then it would take a few moments from an unrepentant Jo to usher him out of the door again. This time he took the dirty plates and cutlery with him.

"You know what it does to him," said Rocky as the door closed. "You should have put something else on this time."

"Why? I'm comfortable."

"You know why."

Jo chuckled and eased into the warm, comfortable bed, watching Rocky as she turned on the TV and then joined her in the cosy nest.

"This is nice," Jo said as she wound an arm around the blonde, who sank easily into the embrace.

"It is."

"You okay?"

Rocky nodded but remained silent.

"So why do I feel like there's something wrong?" Jo asked, turning her head slightly and kissing soft blonde hair.

"I'm still waiting to wake up." She looked up at her friend, her heart missing a beat when she looked into eyes as blue as the summer sky. "It's like a dream." She lay her head on Jo's chest. "You're like a dream."

Jo lay there, the blonde resting comfortably in her arms, enjoying the moment and the comfortable silence that surrounded them. It almost made her jump when Rocky spoke again.

"I'm scared of losing you." The blonde's voice was very small, very pained.

"You won't, I promise."

In the snowy midlands a man picked up the phone, dialled a number and waited for it to connect. "John?.... Yes. I need you to run a check on a car for me.... Silver Mercedes convertible. Registration number X1 JHS. As soon as you can..... Let me know."