Til We Meet Again

Til We Meet Again

~~~~~

Pamela Clayfield    

"This author has a great eye for what's important in a story as well as a palpable warmth for her characters." ~Sustainable Arts Foundation

Also by Pamela Clayfield

To Love Again
At Sunset
Let The Dream Begin
The Journey Home
Mystery In The Attic
The Writing On The Wall
Changes In Time
The Trinket Box

Til We Meet Again

~~~~~

Pamela Clayfield

Til We Meet Again

by Pamela Clayfield

Copyright © 2007
Second Edition 2016

Online editions may also be available for this title.

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To my dad, who first introduced me to the ‘other realm’

Prologue

             
She entered the ballroom dressed in a floor-length burgundy velvet ball gown and held her mask tight to her face while she searched the room.  Someone had done a beautiful job of decorating for this year’s Spring Ball and everything looked perfect. When she spotted him, she walked briskly towards him only nodding at other guests as she passed them. Some she knew, others were strangers to her. She reached out a gloved hand and gently touched his shoulder.

              He turned quickly and smiled when he realized who it was.  “Grace, I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” he told her in a stage whisper.

              “I know but I had to see you,” she told him.

              “I’m glad you’re here, you look absolutely wonderful,” he whispered.  He pulled her to him and hugged her.

              She felt so safe in his arms.  It was warm and secure there.  She wasn’t afraid of anything when he held her and she sighed.

              “Let’s get out of here,” he whispered in her ear and slid his hand into hers.

              “Where will we go?” she asked.

              “My place,” he replied.

              “But…” she trailed off.

              “My parents are here remember,” he said reading her thoughts. His eyes began a search of the room to find them. “I want you, Grace, I need you,” he told her as he led her through the door she had entered a few moments before.

             
Why is he calling me Grace?
she wondered as she followed his lead.

              He led her outside to his carriage and helped her up.  He took the reigns and they headed in the direction of his house where he helped her back out of the carriage and led her inside where he picked her up and carried her upstairs straight to his bedroom and set her gently on the bed. 

              She let him undress her slowly, gently and so lovingly. 

              He stopped to kiss her neck and each breast as he revealed them.  He left a hot trail of kisses down her stomach before he pulled the dress off completely and admired her exquisitely creamy flesh. 

              She was content being here with him.  He was the one she loved and she wanted him as much as he wanted her.  She feared they could never be together except in secret like this and she let herself be led to a place she had never been before.  She sat up and eased his jacket off and took great care undoing his shirt.  She pressed her hands to his chest and slid her fingers through the curly hair there.  She heard him moan and leaned to kiss him there. 

              All this was too much for him and he rose off the bed to remove the remaining clothes quickly.  It wasn’t long before they were making love.

              “You feel so wonderful,” she whispered and closed her eyes.

              “So do you,” he told her before he kissed her.

              They held on to each other.  “I wish I could stop time and stay here forever,” Grace said.

“I wish the same thing Grace.  I love you,” he replied.  “But I suppose I should return to the party before I’m missed,” he added.

              “Yes, even though I don’t want you to go,” she said.

              “I don’t want to go either.  I’d rather take you away and never bring you back.  I want to marry you, you know that don’t you Grace?” he asked.

              “I do know that, and I want to marry you too,” she replied.  “But you know we can’t just do that.”

              “But why not?  Other people do it, they elope, they run off and come back married and there’s not a thing anybody could do about it,” he told her.

              “I know, I don’t know, oh I hate this,” she said as tears ran down her face.

              He sat back on the bed and took her into his arms.  “I will always love you, but I’d rather you came away with me and married me.  Your father would have to accept me then,” he told her.

              “But there’s no reason why he shouldn’t accept you now,” she said getting angry.  Her father didn’t like this man because he had gotten into trouble with the law once. They had found the real culprit who had even admitted it but it didn’t matter.  It was the principle of the thing, her father had told her.   She had argued to no avail and had been forbidden to see him again.  Now all she wanted to do was run off with him and marry him anyway.  “I’ll do it,” she said.

              “You will?  You’ll marry me?” he asked her.

              “Yes, I will marry you.  We’ll plan it secretly and we’ll just go,” she said getting excited.

              “When?” he asked.

              “Next weekend.  We’ll talk and make plans after I know what’s going on next weekend.  I think my parents have a party of their own to go to,” she told him.

              “I can’t wait.  I wish I had a ring, I love you so much Grace,” he told her. 

              Before either of them knew it, they were lying in each other’s arms making love again. 

              Grace never felt happier than she did at this moment.  He was a wonderful, loving man.   She had liked him very much for a long time and he had felt the same way about her.  She had wanted to marry him the first time she’d laid eyes on him in middle school.   

              They finally dressed after that and he led her back outside and helped her back into the carriage.  He took them back to the party but she snuck off in the direction of her own home and he went back inside feeling like that cat that had eaten the canary.  He could tell no one and vowed he wouldn’t utter a single word to anyone until he had spoken to Grace again.

              She turned and blew him a kiss as she walked towards home.  She had to get there before her parent’s arrived home.  Her parents were quite wealthy and very popular as were his.  They just had different circles of friends.  She was so excited and wished she could share her news with her brother, or her mother, but it couldn’t happen.  She could only utter a single word about it when she came home with his ring on her finger.

Chapter 1

Katie woke with a start and felt really confused.  It wasn’t like her to have such vivid dreams and she still couldn’t understand why the man in her dream, who looked very much like her boss Dean, kept calling her Grace.  In fact, she didn’t understand the dream at all and as it had been so vivid, including the lovemaking, it was stirring feelings of her own deep inside. 
This isn’t the first time I’ve had such a dream
she thought. 
This is just the first one I’ve remembered.

              She reached for the tea she’d made after she’d arrived home soaking wet and cold from walking home in the rain that had started around lunch time. It was now only lukewarm but she took a swallow anyway.  “Yuck,” she said out loud as she pushed aside the blanket she’d curled up under and shivered.  She stood up to go to the kitchen wishing Dean would have been around as he would have offered to drive her home. 

              She put together a salad for her supper and sat alone in the kitchen eating.  She wished her grandmother was here, or her parents.  She’d love if someone could shed some light on the dream she’d just had. 
Who is Grace and what was she doing in my dream?
She wondered as she chewed.  She thought of going next door to old Mr. Grimshaw but when she looked out the window, across the driveway, it appeared that he was out. 
Oh sure, he’s been dying to tell me all about my family and now he’s out
, she thought as she chewed slowly still trying to make light of what she had witnessed.  Mr. Grimshaw had taken care of the outside yard work for the last several years and had known her great-grandmother when he was a little boy.

              She hadn’t lived here long, she had just moved in a couple of months before and a lot had happened in such a short amount of time.  Her grandmother, who had lived in the house, had passed away after a long illness at Easter.  At the same time, Katie had been let go from her teaching position at a school in the city.  She had decided to take up residence at her grandmother’s house in Elmira which was actually less than a half hour from the city of Waterloo where she had grown up though it felt like an entirely different world since it was a small town.  She took a full time job offered at the local library where she’d met Dean, her boss.  She’d had plenty of clean-up work to do at the house and that had taken her a good month before she’d started working.  It was a lot harder to get things in order when she was working but she still managed to find a few hours in a day to get a few things done.  Mr. Grimshaw was teaching her how to take care of the flowerbeds and she enjoyed gardening more than she ever thought she would.

              She finished eating and washed the few dishes she’d used before walking around the house.  She was hoping perhaps the walls would talk but knew they wouldn’t at the same time.  She looked at the few photos she’d re-hung on the walls after the painters had finished and then tripped over a box. 
Did I put that there?
she wondered.  She pulled the box towards her and lifted it carefully.  There was dust on the lid and she gently placed it on the dining room table.  She lifted the flaps to look inside.

              A knock at the door startled her and she wondered who would be here.  She sighed and left the box to answer the door.

              “Sorry about not being able to drive you home,” Dean said from the other side of the screen door.

              “Dean! That’s okay,” she stammered.  She suddenly felt shy around him since the dream she’d had about him making love to her.  Well, about him making love to someone named Grace.  They had been dating for the last month, since Canada Day.  There had been plenty of town events going on and he’d asked for her help that day with all the events the library was sponsoring.  That night, with the sky filled with fireworks, he had asked her out.  It had been a month since then and they had shared their hopes and dreams with each other but this suddenly seemed different.

              “Are you okay?” he asked.  “You don’t look good.  I should have driven you home, you probably caught a cold.”

              Katie stepped back so he could come in.  “No, I’m fine, I was really tired and I came home and had a nap,” she told him. 

              “Are you sure you’re okay?”

              “I’m fine,” she reassured him again. .”Now get in here before you let all the heat out,” she ordered.  “I’m still cold.”

              “Yes ma’am,” Dean replied and stepped over the threshold.  “It
is
nice and warm in here isn’t it?”

              “Yeah.  Just not quite warm enough to get rid of the chill in my bones,” she told him. 

              “I’m sorry again about that.  Today of all days.” He shook his head and slipped out of his wet shoes.  He pulled her into his arms for a hug. 

              “That’s okay.  You’re not my personal chauffeur and you shouldn’t expect to be,” she replied.  “You’re forgiven.  Have you eaten?” she asked changing the subject.

              “No, I haven’t been home yet,” he replied.

              “I can make you a salad, or a sandwich, or an omelet if you’d like,” she offered.  She walked towards the kitchen. 

              “A salad sounds wonderful,” he told her as he followed.  He perched on a stool while she fixed more of the salad she’d finished only moments earlier.  “This place is great,” he said as he looked around.  He had really only picked her up or dropped her off in the last month so he hadn’t seen much of the place.

              “It’s okay.  It needs a lot of work still if it’s going to be a permanent home though,” she said.  “It needs new windows, new roof, new furniture, new everything.  It’ll take a lot of time, and money.”

              “But it’s so roomy and comfortable,” Dean told her.

              “I know but wouldn’t this kitchen look great with new cupboards and an island right here,” she said as she spread her arms wide.