The sun looked like a huge bright sunflower, with small fluffy white clouds floating in a sky that was a clear blue as far as the eye could see. Although it was still early spring, it was quite a warm day. Anna had set up her easel and was painting the fields, which were full of early flowers. Bright yellow and white, in a sea of green.
This area was still untouched, but you never knew how long it would remain this way. The constant building of new homes was taking over all of the countryside. Soon there would be very little of it left.
As she sat there she thought of Sam, he had been someone to whom she could always trust in tell her the truth about her paintings. Whether she should carry on or abandon her choice of work, or to find some other profession. But more than that he had been her lover. But all of a sudden Sam had decided that he wanted to be on his own and without any reason he had left her.
So deep in thought was Anna that at first she didn’t see the dark shadow that was being cast over her canvas. As she gazed up towards the face that was looking down at her painting, it looked like the face of a sun god. Eyes the colour of bluebells that shone out of a face that was bronzed and lips that made you feel as though tiny drops of morning dew were kissing your skin.
She brought herself together and said in a slight haughty tone “Isn’t it rather rude to be looking over someone’s shoulder?” In a voice to match the Adonis looks, he whispered his reply,”Not when I had been invited by the artist My name is William and I recently bought one of your paintings via a friend off ours, Sam.” On hearing Sam’s name she was taken off guard slightly. “Of course, I do apologise for not recognising you. The last time we met you had recently come back from a skiing accident and what wasn’t bandaged had been covered in bruises” They laughed at this description of him.
“So what brings you here to this quiet little village.” Anna asked.
“I am on the look out for some colourful paintings for my new apartment. Looking at this one in front of me, I think I may have found the first one” he said.
Their eyes met and Anna felt tingles go rippling through her body. She had thought that no one could touch her heart the way Sam’s love had. She made herself pull her gaze away from his and giggled rather girlishly “Oh but you wouldn’t want this one, I’m sure that there must be plenty of pictures elsewhere if only you took a moment to look.”
She must get herself under control. He took her hand and kissed the tender spot on her wrist. She felt herself feeling very light headed and when his lips met hers it took all her will power to keep from falling faint.
William’s husky voice murmured against her ear. “Anna my darling, you have been in my thoughts since the first time we met. Now that you are free, I can show my love for you. Please say that you will not turn me away. Have dinner with me tonight.”
“I would really love that. I know that you won’t know many places round here, but I know a small Italian restaurant, Gino’s, who serves the best of pastas and has his wine sent over from the Le Marche region of Italy. Tonight then at 7pm, I will book the table for us” said Anna.
She waved good-bye to William and then packed her paints and canvases away. On reaching her small cottage she sat down at the kitchen table and hugged herself. She seemed to be trembling all over. Get hold of yourself, she said aloud. You are acting like a schoolgirl. But even so she couldn’t help but feel so happy and gay.
Anna bathed slowly, luxuriating in the warm perfumed water. After drying and styling her hair, she added just a touch of colour to her eyes and gloss to bring out the fullness of her ripe lips. She carefully chose a light beige coloured dress, which she topped with the silk shawl that had been handed down from her mother. After glancing at her reflection in the mirror she was ready to set off to the restaurant.
The sound of her heels made a slight tapping noise, which could be heard in the stillness of the evening, as there was very little traffic in the village. William was already waiting at the doorway to Gino’s and walked forward to greet her.
“You look radiant in that dress, the colour melts into your skin making it look like milk chocolate. Good enough to eat. Having said that I am starving, I do hope that Gino’s lives up to what you have told me.”
William led her into the restaurant and said “Good evening, we have a reservation for 7pm, William and Anna.” “Buona sera signor et signorina, this way please.” As the waiter left them to read through the menu, William took hold of Anna’s hand. Once they had chosen and the orders given to the waiter, he still kept hold of her hand. “ I feel as though we should have been together for a long time. But I never thought that one day that we could be. Do you feel the same.” He asked. “At the moment I cannot really say how I feel, except to say that when you looked at me earlier this afternoon, my heart missed a beat and my pulse quickened.” Anna replied.
Their meal arrived and it was every bit as good as Anna had said. They had chosen the pasta with tomato and basil sauce, with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese, followed by thinly carved slices of chicken with porcini mushrooms, rosemary and garlic sauce and a green salad. For dessert they chose tiramisu, followed by a small coffee and brandy.
By the time that they had eaten and talked about her paintings it was getting late. They were the last to leave the restaurant, even though it was only a small village, Gino’s was a popular place to eat. William walked her back to her cottage, but declined the invitation to go in for a coffee. He didn’t want to put her in a position where she felt as though he had to stay. He did promise to call her first thing in the morning and with a long lingering kiss he said goodnight.
Anna felt over the moon. As she lay awake recalling everything that they had done and said, she still couldn’t believe that she could be falling in love. He obviously thought the same way about her. Finally her eyes became very heavy and she fell into a wonderful sleep.
When she awoke the next morning, it was to a dull miserable day. A day so unlike the previous one, but Anna did not let the weather spoil the happiness she was still feeling. She pulled out the canvas she had been working on when William had come upon her. She knew the view off by heart and the memory of yesterday was still fresh upon her mind. She would finish this painting off and give it as a present to William. She worked all morning and by lunchtime was just putting the finishing touches to the canvas. She hadn’t realised how hungry she was, but checking on the time decided that she was ready for a break.
She settled for a fresh salad and crusty white bread, with a cool glass of sparkling water to refresh her. It was as she cleared the dishes from the table that she noticed the card at her kitchen window. Opening the door she found the basket of flowers, the card on the windowsill was slightly damp from the rain that had been falling for most of the morning. The card read, “ I rang your doorbell but got no response from you. I hope that you like flowers as much as you enjoy painting them. Will call on you again later. Love W.
She couldn’t recall hearing the doorbell and went straight away to check on this. The bell wasn’t working and she went back indoors to fetch a piece of paper to write a note “Please use door knocker, the bell is not working” and made a mental note for herself to get this fixed.
Anna returned to her canvas to put the last finishing touches to it and as soon as it was dry she would wrap this up for William. She was very pleased with the way the painting had turned out. The colours seemed to have come alive and there was warmth to it. Perhaps she was being silly, but just maybe the encounter and memorable day in which she had painted it was making it feel like this.
The afternoon moved on into early evening. It was when she had to put the lights on, as the day grew darker that she realised that she still hadn’t heard from William. She went to the door to check that the sign was still there and hadn’t blown away. Maybe he had more planned for the day than he originally had expected. It was still early so she really shouldn't have been getting worried like she was. But there was a strange niggling feeling at the back of her mind. Please don’t let him have gone away as well.
She drew the curtains to shut out the dark night and as the darkness had come down, it brought with it a chill that made the house feel cold. Anna brought in some wood to light a fire in the living room. It soon got going and took away the chills that were gathering around her.
After preparing a light evening meal, she settled down to read. Soon the heat from the fire made her eyelids feel heavy with sleep. She decided to lock up and go to bed. As Anna drifted off she felt herself start to dream. Images of Sam leaving her came to the forefront. Tears formed and pushed themselves out of her sleeping eyes. Her body shook with sobs that were uncontrollable. The image of Sam was then taken over with Williams’ face. Smiling brightly at her and whispering words of love.
What could he know of love if this was the way he treated her. People in love didn’t just disappear, but that is how it felt that William had done to her.
Anna awoke from her dream and the dampness of her pillow was cold against her cheek. She turned over too tired to care. When she next woke it was early morning and the day was dawning bright and sunny, so unlike the day before.
She went into the bathroom and showered, it made her feel fresh and took away the nights dreams of sorrow. She finishing dressing, making herself feel light and bright as the day with the pastel colours that she chose to wear. She went downstairs and made herself breakfast, toasted wholemeal bread buttered and topped with her favourite damson jam. Very fattening, but extremely nice. She also made herself a pot of tea and settled down at the kitchen table with the morning paper.
After cleaning everything up, Anna decided to go for a walk to really chase away any remaining wisps of her dream. She picked up a light jacket and making sure that her keys were in her bag, she set off on her walk. Her note was still pinned to her front door and being the female that she was and didn’t have a clue of how to fix anything, she decided to call in at the local hardware store. The man who owned the store was the local fixer, anything broken, Bill would fix it. She had often said to herself that she must learn to do odd jobs around the house and to cut out paying some of the silly prices that repair people came up with. If you gave Anna anything feminine to do, she would have it done in no time at all.
So after calling into Bill’s shop, she next stopped at the local bakers. Buying the still warm, fresh crusty bread, she also decided on the locally made cheese which they sold as well. Carrying her basket of goods, Anna carried on walking along the lane until she came upon the fence which circled the small woodland at the edge of the town.
Anna climbed over the stile and with her tread falling softly on the carpet of leaves and grass she meandered her way through the trees. She breathed in the scent of pine needles and the freshness of the early spring flowers. Bluebells were ablaze all around her. She took in all of these sights and keeping them in her mind, she decided to turnaround and go home, where she would try to recapture the colours onto a new painting.
She was not far from her home when she saw someone waving a wooden walking stick in her direction. As she neared she realised who it was. With a cry Anna ran forwards, “What on earth has happened to you”, she exclaimed. Williams’ response was a shrug of the shoulders and in a sheepish tone said, “After leaving your house yesterday and I do hope you liked the flowers, I then went hurrying off to try and catch the train into town. I slipped off the pavement and landed on my backside with my ankle at an odd angle at the curb edge. It was only as I tried to get up that I knew that it was more than a sprain. Your local odd job man came to the rescue. He called an ambulance and I spent practically the rest of the day in the emergency room at the hospital. As you can see I am in plaster again!”
Anna lowered her head to try and hide the laughter which was starting to bubble up. Unable to control it her shoulders started to shake with the fit of laughter which took her over. “I think that I had better take you under my wing and make sure that you don’t keep on ending up like some Egyptian mummy”
As they walked together back to Anna’s house, William said that he was truly sorry that he had not been able to get in touch with her after leaving her the flowers. Although he knew where she lived, he didn’t know her surname and couldn’t get her telephone number from the information he had.
Anna didn’t say anything. She was just so relieved that he hadn’t left her. Couldn’t she for once have given a thought to someone else? Why hadn’t she thought that there could have been some kind of accident? She was glad though that he wasn’t too badly injured.
On reaching her house, she noticed that her out of order sign had gone. Bill must have been already and fixed her doorbell for her. She opened her front door and after making sure that William was comfortable, she went into the kitchen to make coffee for them.
She poured the coffee out and handed a cup to William. As she settled back in her own chair, she looked over to where he sat and the feeling of contentment settled upon her again. They both started to speak at once, but after gaining control of themselves William said for her to speak first.
So, shyly to begin with, Anna continue to say that she was falling in love with him. Hoping that she would not be turned away and feel foolish she looked over at William again.
With eyes that were shining he said “My wonderful silly artist of course I love you. I have for such a long time. It is me that should be feeling foolish in wondering if you would feel the same.” “I have something for you.” He then took from his pocket a small ruby red box, inside which was a single diamond ring. “This is for you. Will you marry me” he asked. Then added quickly, ”I’m sorry I cannot get down on one knee.”
Anna gasped and went over to him at once and said “Oh William yes, oh how I wish I could dance around the room with you."
“One day soon you will” he replied.
As they held each other tightly, outside the night had drawn in and the moon and the stars had come out. It was a night made for lovers.
The End