Chapter 7 : In My Bed!

There's only one first time, Rachel thought to herself, and she had had hers, working in a bakery in England. Now broken in to the world of work, she could look forward to some me time after her shift.

"You did a great job today. I was so proud of my adopted granddaughter. You also handled that Jane Jones situation with the calm and cool of the ripest of cucumbers, Honey. You can sleep in tomorrow and come in later. You deserve it. We'll have a strategic planning session about how to transition from solely a day time place to an after hours hang out also, and still earn a profit."

"Oh wow, Faye. Thanks for your compliments and for this job. It is exactly what the doctor ordered."

"Thanks for coming along at just the right moment as well."

"Are you sure you'll be alright alone tomorrow?"

"Definitely, Honey. I did it before you came and I can do it if you are not here. Arthur, Beatrice's grandson, helped me out in the past...on school breaks and around the holidays. He is a nice young man, just not really good with customer service."

"It's always either too busy or when it's not busy, I'm still busy catering, baking, marketing. I wear so many hats. Demand for us is high and I don't want to have the kind of new business growing pains that makes us unable to meet that demand or have extended hours. Get some rest. After today, you earned it and then some, Hon."

She bid her boss goodbye with a kiss on each cheek and left to explore the village of Clovelly. Although her plan was to go as far as her feet would take her, her feet were tired from standing on them all day and using muscles she did not even know she had.

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She walked a few paces through the village shops, ignored her aching feet and muscles, and skipped the errands in favor of a look around a quaint little dress shop. In her former life, she would have spent not only her time, but also her money.

She would not have been walking, either. She would have had the driver place her shopping bags and boxes from boutiques and elite shops in the trunk of an expensive, imported sedan, one of her father's town cars that was at her disposal. Her packaged, couture treasures were often purchases only to be worn once and afterward usually found their way to the back of her closet.

Now shopping was limited by her worker's wage, food and lodging budget, and competed with lower back pain and her general fatigue from smiling while talking about nothing and anticipating then putting the needs of others before her own. She wasn't exactly shallow, but she wasn't exactly deep either.

Beatrice might be enjoying her alone time by the time she got back home, so she planned to use the back separate entrance after getting a Wednesday night pub special of shepherd's pie and some amber lager. This meal, although she had never had it before, was delicious, savory, comfort food after being around sweets all day long. She would have stayed longer since it was karaoke night, but given the choice between belting one out and bedding down, tonight she opted for the latter. She splurged for a taxi ride home to her rented room.

"I am okay. I have enough. All is well," she said quietly to herself as a necessary affirmation to deal with so much change in so short a period of time.

She tried to imagine any of her fellow debutante, society girlfriends doing the same thing, but she couldn't. Just like them, before being forced into a 'merger marriage', as the tabloid called it, she did not see the need to do something that big.

###

Never before was she so excited to return anywhere in her entire life. She climbed the back stairs and unlocked the door to her rented room, a peaceful paradise with few distractions, not even a hint of modernity like cable or a phone. The lights in the rest of the house were out; Beatrice was probably asleep.

Rachel was too tired to hang up any of her dresses, so she made a beeline for the bathroom to brush her teeth, shower to soothe her working woman's aches and pains, and change into her nightgown.

As she brushed her teeth, she reminisced about her late mother. She wondered if her mom would be proud of her for making a go of things on her own: getting long-term lodging and a stable job, even though she was of more than sufficient means never to have to want or need to do either.

She thought about what was waiting for her back in the states and how the rudest person she had met so far was no match for her father or Kurt.

She was ready to sleep at least nine hours. She was not completely acclimated to her new time zone and was glad to have a late shift the next day for the first time. She lit the lavender candle she saw in the bathroom with a book of matches she found next to it from the same pub where she enjoyed a lovely dinner and local atmosphere. She used the scented light source to see her way back to her room and give herself a shot of aromatherapy ensuring a peaceful night's sleep.

She got into a full bed of two twin mattresses pushed together, for her pleasure and comfort, she imagined, and then leapt straight out while screaming for help.

A man suddenly sat up, his chest bare, his cotton boxer shorts on full display.

"Bloody hell."