There's No Accounting For Love

Chapter Fifty Four

At the beginning of August, Alan spent a week's holiday with Clare and her family in a large Villa in Spain. It was the best holiday Alan had spent in years, especially being with the children. He laughed and joked with them and they all had a whale of a time and Toby followed him wherever he went. The heat was hard to cope with, but having a large swimming pool more than made up for it and spending time with Clare was wonderful, although they still argued at times, which annoyed Kathy.

One Saturday in September, Clare was driving them in Alan's BMW to Sidmouth where they had booked two rooms in a four star Hotel on the sea front. After some persuasion, Bob had given his permission for them to take a break away from the office and much to Alan's amazement, Clare had agreed. Alan was determined to tell Clare about his feelings – it was now or never!

Most of the journey was spent singing along to music, but nearing Sidmouth Alan felt his eyelids droop. Suddenly, he felt a prod in his chest.

"What?" He blinked his eyes.

"We're here. Come on, let's find this Hotel."

Sidmouth was an old Victorian town, with a row of hotels along a road opposite the sea front.

"What a lovely place. We'll like it here. Mum said there's a garden at the top of that hill with a restaurant, we must go sometime." said Clare, pointing to the right where a grassy cliff towered over the sea.

"I need a cup of tea first." Alan replied.

After checking into their rooms, they found a cafe in an adjoining street where they enjoyed a cup of tea, then they walked back to the beach. It was breezy, but the sun was shining brightly down from a blue 'Mackerel' sky, turning the lazy waves into silver as they lapped the shoreline. As they stood at the railings looking down at the sea, they watched a small boy throwing pebbles, making them skim across the surface of the water.

"Let's go down." said Clare.

They made their way down the steps to the beach. Alan found it hard work walking on the pebbles. "I'm still tired. I'll sit here if you don't mind."

Clare took off her jacket and turned it inside out.

"Here, sit on this it'll be more comfortable. I'm going to talk to the boy. We used to skim stones across water, remember? I haven't tried it in years."

Clare crunched her way across the pebbles and Alan sat down on her jacket, hugging his knees, thinking how considerate she always was. As he watched Clare talking to the boy and skimming stones, he noticed that the beach was empty. There was no-one else in sight, except for three children with two adults along by the rock pools on the right hand side of the beach, several hundred yards away.

Alan lay down, resting his head on Clare's jacket. He closed his eyes, sighed and started to drift off. Suddenly, he felt a warm breath on his face and heard a rasping sound. In fear and trepidation he slowly opened his eyes and there, two inches from his face, was a large Alsatian dog with a huge mouth full of spikey teeth and a horrible pink tongue, dripping saliva! Alan emitted a loud, deafening scream and buried his face into Clare's jacket. His heart beat so fast he thought it would burst from his chest, his mouth ran dry and his legs became two blobs of jelly. His felt as if his last moments had come.

How long he lay there, he was not sure. He heard Clare's voice now, not clearly and then another person, a man. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"It's all right Alan, you can come out now..."

Alan straightened up and looked up at her briefly, then covered his face with his hands. His heart beat was slowing now, but he felt sick.

"Your face is as white as a sheet. Take some deep breaths. That's right...in...out...in...out..."

Alan breathed slowly and it did help. Clare sat down beside him.

"I had a flashback to that dog in Canada." he said "I've never been so scared in my life!"

"It was only a puppy, it wouldn't hurt you." said Clare. "The owner was sorry. I explained

you were frightened of dogs."

"A puppy? It was huge!"

"You still look very pale. Let's go and get you a whiskey. Can you stand up?"

Alan stood trembling to his feet and they stumbled together across the pebbled beach, up the steps and across the road to their Hotel. As this was the first day of their holiday, he wondered what on earth would happen next!

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