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A new chapter of Duty!

Demelza and Ross enact another secret plan--with a little help from Ross's late father.

These two are spending time together and apart during the holiday break. Today's update is safe for work. Read Chapter 41 here.

Chapter 39, Gifts Large and Small, is published and safe for work.

But they bang again in future updates, I promise.

I posted two chapters for tonight's update! Both are safe for work. Read them here:

Chapter 37: What Anyone Would Do

Chapter 38: Family

Catch up with Ross and Dem as he finally gets his head screwed on straight in Chapter 36: Reunion.

I've got an update tonight; it's safe for Easter Sunday. Find out what's up with these two in Chapter 35, A Night on the Town.

Chapter update today; it's another clean one. Rated G.

Read Chapter 34, Anniversary and Advice, here.

An update with Chapter 33 tonight, and it's all safe for work and everything. Read Rattling Around here.

Chapter 44

Baby You Can Drive My Car

This is a short little chapter. Thank you for your support.

With the wedding coming up, and the need to haul Demelza’s entire wardrobe plus her wedding dress, not to mention Seamus to Nampara for a week, it was important to find a new car, and fast.  So, Ross and Demelza spent the next couple of days car shopping.  Demelza thought it would be fun, but quickly found it to be more stressful and confusing than fun.  So many brands of cars, so many features on the cars to consider, the prices were scaring her more than anything.  “Ross, can we afford to get a new car?  They’re all so expensive.”   

Ross opened the door to a restaurant that they decided to have lunch at while discussing cars.  “Demelza, don't forget that we have the insurance check to use from the accident.  Now as much as I would like to get another sportscar, I think it would be better to find something bigger for trips and for hauling your cello around.  Plus I think you would be more comfortable learning how to drive on a larger car.”

They had been seated at a table and were perusing a menu.  Ross looked at the menu then looked around the restaurant.  “I don’t think I’ve ever been here before.  Have you been here before?”  He noticed that most of the customers seemed to be young families, some with young toddlers in high chairs.

Demelza looked up, “No, I don’t think I’ve been here either.  Looks nice though.  Hopefully the food is good.”

“Must be with all of these people here.  What are you hungry for?” 

“Mmmm I don’t know.  We didn’t eat much for breakfast.  Maybe a cheeseburger and some chips.  What do you think?” she asked.

Ross was enamoured with the atmosphere of the restaurant, specifically the tables that had young children sitting at them.  His eyes were sparkling while watching a toddler crawling up on her father’s lap and he leaned down and blew a zerbert into her neck causing her to laugh with a high shrill.  Then the father laughed at her and leaned down and kissed her on the top of her head.  The mother and son  looked like they were playing tic tac toe on the paper placement that the children were given.  Demelza was trying to get his attention,  “Ross…Ross…hellooo Ross… earth to Ross!” She was laughing at him now.

“Hmm? What?”

“Where were you just now? You were a million miles away!” Demelza said.

Ross gave a slight chuckle, “I’m sorry, I was looking around, you know, people watching. Um Yes, I’m going to have a cheeseburger and chips as well.”  The waitress came over and they gave their order to her before she collected the menus and left to put their orders into the kitchen.  All of a sudden there was a baby laughing out loud with the kind of laugh that you only hear from a baby, the laugh coming deep from his belly!  It got the attention of both Demelza and Ross.  Only this time Demelza was noticing how enamoured Ross was with the laughing baby and the other tables with families.  She lowered her eyes in realization of what was going through her fiance’s mind.  They had more or less agreed not to have children because she had felt like she had already raised a family with her brothers, especially after her mum died.  Her father certainly didn’t raise her brothers.  He didn’t care if they went to school in dirty clothes, or if they had lunch money in their pockets.  Ross seemed like he understood this, and maybe he did, but now she was wondering if she had asked too much of him.  

Their waitress had brought their food to them, and for the most part, the meal was eaten in silence.  “Demelza?  Are you alright?  You’re awfully quiet.”

Demelza raised her eyebrows, and tried to think of something to say, “Yeah, I’m fine.  I was just thinking about the prices of the cars we’ve looked at so far.”

Ross nodded his head, “I’m sure it’s been overwhelming for you.  And like I said earlier, I think we should get something bigger, so that you’ll feel safer driving.

Demelza nodded, “I won’t argue with that.  So does that mean we should look for something like a station wagon?”

Ross smiled at his lover, “Well, there aren’t many station wagons out there anymore, and they’re very expensive, so I suggest we start looking at SUVs.  Volvo makes a few, so does BMW…”

Demelza interrupted, “But Ross we don’t need something really expensive like a Volvo do we?  Surely there are some nice ones that aren’t that fancy.”

“We can look at a couple of different brands.  It’s important though to sit in them and make sure there’s enough head room, alright?”  Ross could tell that Demelza was nervous about the whole experience, but he wanted to make sure they got the right vehicle for them.  Especially in case they ever do start having children. 

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After lunch the couple returned to their task at hand and started sitting in a few different models.  Ross made sure that Demelza sat in the driver’s side as well to make sure she had enough head room since she was fairly tall.  Ross started asking about vehicles that had been previous lease vehicles so that they could possibly find a lower priced vehicle with fewer miles.  Ross got a kick out of Demelza ooooing and ahhhhing over the colours on the different vehicles.  Finally they possibly found what they were looking for, “Demelza check this Land Rover out.  I want you to sit in both sides to see how much room you have.”  She did as he asked and sat in both sides.  “Ohhh I like the leather seats, Ross!  But I’m not crazy about the colour.”

“Yes love, that’s all nice.  Now you get out and let me sit in it.”  A salesman finally spotted the couple looking at the Land Rover and walked over to them.  He introduced himself as Brad and shook Ross’s hand.  Demelza cleared her throat and he shook her hand.  Ross asked the salesman, “Was this a lease vehicle by any chance?”  

“Aye, yes, you’ve found a lease car.  It’s only two years old, and as you can see, there’s only 3,500 miles on it.  Would you like to take it out for a spin?”

Ross was shaking his head, “Yes, we would.  Climb in Demelza.  After signing a few papers, the couple took the Land Rover out for a test drive.  It had plenty of room for Seamus and a cello, but Demelza couldn’t get over the colour.  “Demelza, seriously, the colour doesn’t matter.”  She in turn gave him a dirty look.  “Okay, when we get back to the car lot I’ll ask if they have another lease car in a different colour.  But if they don’t we really need to take this one.  Besides, what’s wrong with this gray colour?”

“Everybody has a car this same colour.  It’s like the car manufacturers only had this paint to use for five years!  I’d like red, or even blue!”  Oh I love the heated seats!

Ross chuckled and shook his head, “Yeah the seats are nice.  So, we’ll see when we get back to the car lot about another colour.”  After test driving the SUV in the city traffic and in the outskirts of London, Ross was satisfied with the way the car handled and felt comfortable inside.  And having just been in a recent accident himself, Ross had read up on the SUV’s safety ratings in crashes and felt confident that it would also be a safe vehicle for Demelza.   “So sweetheart, what do you think? Besides the colour?”

Demelza shrugged her shoulders, “It seemed to do okay.  It’s kind of hard for me to tell how it drives, when I don’t know how to drive yet.  What do you think?”

“I think it will be a good vehicle for us and for you.  It has good safety ratings which is a really important thing as we know from experience.  I think we should go with this one.”

“IF they don’t have one in a different colour!” Demelza was giving Ross that smile that he couldn’t resist.

New chapter of Duty!

Demelza starts to sense something is off at Nampara but doesn't quite know what to make of it.

Read Chapter 70 ("Skillage") here.

Endings and Beginnings

Chapter 32 is up to kick off the weekend. Everything is safe for work, and there's a new cover to mark what is essentially the second part of this story.

Thanks to everyone still along for the ride!

Chapter 31 is up and available on the archive. It's alll safe for work. Read Answers No One Wants here.

Two new chapters of Duty!

Just what are all these folks in Cornwall up to? Perhaps the unexpected but also the expected?

Read Chapter 68 ("Slight Detours") here.

Read Chapter 69 ("The Work of the Day") here.

For any American friends who may need a distraction today, here's a new chapter of Duty.

Demelza and Ross may be no closer to untangling the webs of deception around them, but they do come to recognize the value of love and friendship.

Read Chapter 67 ("Tea & Sympathy") here.

This is a longish chapter and I promise there are more on deck, ready to go later this week.

Chapter 29 is safe for work, but includes descriptions of violence. Be aware and proceed carefully if that's a possible trigger.