Lucy put the finishing touches to her make up then gave her hair a final brush. She smiled at her reflection. Her dress was new. She'd seen it from the bus coming home from the hospital the day before. She'd been so taken by it that she'd got off the bus at the next stop and bought it.
The doorbell rang. Lucy heard her father open the door and greet Paul cheerfully.
"Lucy love." He called, "Paul's here."
Excitement mounting, Lucy picked up a neat little clutch bag and headed down the stairs. Paul was still chatting to her father as she descended. Paul turned and stared at her, open mouthed.
"Lucy! You look stunning sweetheart!" He moved forward and kissed her.
Lucy kissed him back. "Thank you. You look lovely in a suit!"
Paul helped her put her coat on then smiled as she wrapped her Christmas scarf around her neck.
"Ready?"
She nodded. "Bye dad. I don't know how long I'll be but I've got my key."
Daniel nodded. "Bye you two," he called from the door, "Have a lovely evening!"
They got into the waiting car. Lucy was surprised to see that Paul had hired a driver for the evening. He snuggled up to her in the back seat.
"I can focus all my attention on your now we have a driver." He whispered.
Later, holding her hand, he led her into a very expensive looking restaurant. Lucy discretely scanned the room, noting the very expensively dressed people there. The waiter clearly knew Paul and they were lead to a pleasant table for two, close to a dance floor where a live dance band played familiar show tunes.
After ordering their food and drink, Lucy sat opposite Paul, tapping her foot in time to the music. He smiled at her.
"Would you like to dance sweetheart?"
She grinned. "Can you dance?"
He laughed. "I can do something approximating a waltz and not crush your toes. Will that do?"
She nodded, laughing. "Go for it!"
Paul stood up and offered her his hand. Moments later, pressed close together, they twirled around the dance floor. The pace of the music slowed, allowing them to nuzzle closely. Paul kissed her.
"You look incredible tonight Lucy." He whispered, "I'm one very, very lucky man."
"You scrub up pretty well yourself McCartney." Lucy whispered back.
The couple stopped dancing and kissed deeply, oblivious to the people in the restaurant with them. As the music ended they went back to their table. Their food arrived soon afterwards and the two chatted whilst they ate. Then, just after 8pm, they left the restaurant and headed to the theatre. Lucy was buzzing with excitement as they approached the building. Suddenly two men stepped out in front of them and began taking pictures of the couple.
"Who's this Paul?" one of them called.
"What's your name love?" called the other.
Momentarily blinded by the camera flash and being jostled by the reporters, Lucy stumbled and fell.
"Arrgh!"
"Lucy!" Paul exclaimed, leaning down to help her up. "Are you OK? Have you hurt yourself?" He turned angrily to the reporters. "Will you two fuck off! Look what you've done!" He turned his attention back to Lucy. He could see she was near to tears. Her dress was now filthy and her tights shredded revealing cut knees. He helped her to her feet. "How are you feeling Lucy?" he asked anxiously.
"I..I'm .." Tears rolled down her cheeks. "I'm sorry. I hurt!"
Paul could see that she was trembling and had gone terribly pale. He looked around and saw a taxi. He waved it down. After helping her into the car he asked the driver to move away from the reporters in order to give poor Lucy more privacy.
"How are you feeling now Lucy my love?" He saw she was nursing her right hand. "Your hand?"
"It's my wrist." She whispered, wincing in pain. "I landed on it awkwardly. It hurts like hell!"
"Can you take us to the nearest Accident and Emergency please." said Paul to the taxi driver. "As quick as you can!"
It was over three hours later that Paul escorted an exhausted Lucy to a taxi home from the hospital. Her fractured wrist, now in a cast, was still causing her a lot of pain despite having been given pain relief. As the taxi arrived at Cavendish Ave Paul realized that Lucy had fallen asleep. He shook her gently.
"Lucy darling. We're home."
He helped her out of the car and into the house. She was shivering violently, a reaction to the chilly January morning and the shock. Sitting her down in front of the living room fire, he ran upstairs and collected a clean pair of his pyjamas and his dressing gown.
She looked at him, puzzled. "What are they for?"
"I thought you could put these on. You'd be a lot warmer in them."
She nodded and stood up slowly, shaking her coat off her shoulders. She stopped and looked at him. "Can you unzip my dress please Paul?"
She turned her back to him. Gently lifting her hair and fighting the strong urge to kiss her neck, he slid the zip down and Lucy slipped her dress from her good arm. "I can't do the other side."
Paul took the shoulder of her dress and gently removed it.
"I never imagined being undressed by you for the first time would be like this Paul." said Lucy with a giggle, "I'm not exactly oozing sex appeal with my bloody knees and bandaged wrist, am I?"
"Oh I don't know," said Paul, kissing her softly. "I think you're gorgeous no matter what. Admittedly, I didn't imagine undressing you would be like this either but I have still rather enjoyed it!" He laughed. "Anyway, I think its bedtime. We're both exhausted."
"But I should go home," said Lucy. "Dad will be worried."
"Lucy love, you're falling asleep on your feet and you're frozen. Plus it's nearly 4am. At least if you stay I can get you your pain killers and things. Well?"
Seeing sense in what Paul was saying she followed him upstairs, every step adding to her tiredness.
"You can either sleep with me love," offered Paul, "Or use the guest room. I don't mind. It's up to you."
Lucy leaned against him, shivering. "I think I'll sleep with you. Then I can take all your body heat. I'm so cold!"
Paul pulled the covers back and waited as Lucy climbed awkwardly in to the bed. Her knees were stiff and painful, her wrist still aching. He handed her a glass of water and two tablets which she took quickly.
"Now settle down." He soothed, pulling the cover over her then getting into the bed on the other side. He carefully moved up close to Lucy and then wrapped his arms around her. "How's that?" He whispered, "Comfy?"
Lucy nodded in his arms and muttered something, almost asleep already. Paul waited until her breathing slowed and she stopped shivering. Then, happy that Lucy was finally asleep, he closed his own eyes, relishing being able to spend the night with the woman he loved in his arms.
Lucy woke a few hours later and wondered where she was. Realising she was still with Paul, she shook him awake.
"What's wrong Lucy love?" he whispered, concerned.
"I need the bathroom!" she told him urgently, "but I don't know where it is!"
Paul got out of bed and showed her the en suite bathroom. "Can you manage on your own?" he asked through the closed door.
She emerged a few minutes later. "I made myself manage." She told him, "I draw a line at you helping me go to the toilet!"
"Shame!" He grinned. "I wouldn't have minded!"
Lucy shook her head then hit him playfully. "You're rude!"
"I would be given the chance." whispered Paul, making Lucy giggle, "Look, it's only 7.30. You go back to bed. I'm going to go and sort Martha out."
"You don't mind?"
"No, of course not!" He leaned over and kissed her once more. "You're the walking wounded. Rest OK?"
As Paul headed down the stairs Martha suddenly started barking loudly.
"Martha stop!" he called, worried she'd disturb Lucy, but she kept on barking. He hurried to the hallway. By now Martha was scratching at the front door and growling. Then someone began pounding on the door.
"Who is it?" Paul called.
"Where's my daughter?"
Paul hurriedly opened the door. "Daniel?"
Lucy's dad pushed passed him. "WELL? Is she here?"
"Daniel please, calm down. Yes Lucy's here and she is fine."
"So what the hell is this?" He held up a newspaper, thrusting it into Paul's face. Filling the whole front page was a picture of Paul yelling at the reporters whilst Lucy was on the floor. "What did you do to her?"
Paul held his arms up. "Daniel, I promise I've done nothing to Lucy. Look, come through and I'll explain. Please."
Paul lead him through to the living room. Both men sat down. Danile looked around the room. He saw Lucy's dress folded neatly on the table, her bra placed on top of it.
"That's her clothes! You swine! You hardly know her!"
"What? No Daniel, you've got me all wrong." Paul stood up and picked up Lucy's dress. He showed him the muddy marks from where she had fallen.
"So what's that? What's been going on?""
"Daniel, last night, Lucy and I, we went for dinner at a restaurant then had a short walk to the theatre."
"And?"
Paul sighed. "We were virtually ambushed by some reporters. They got wind that I was out with a new woman. They wanted to know who she was. Daniel, Lucy was startled by it all and fell. In the picture I'm telling the idiots to leave us alone then I helped Lucy!"
"And you just had to bring her home here and help her take off her dirty clothes?" Daniel's voice was full of sarcasm. "You could have brought her home to me!"
"Dad, stop it!" Lucy stood by the living room door. "Paul has been brilliant!"
Paul stood up, "You should be resting! Come and sit down. NOW!"
Lucy hobbled to the sofa, her knees stiff and sore. Suddenly Daniel spotted the cast on her arm.
"What on earth...?"
"Dad, after I fell I couldn't move my wrist. I asked Paul to take me to the hospital."
"Why didn't you ring me?"
"Paul never left my side dad. He didn't get the chance to call you and when we had chance it was far too late." She smiled softly at Paul, "I'd fractured my wrist. By the time we got back from the hospital it was nearly four in the morning."
"Lucy was exhausted, cold and in a lot of pain Daniel. She needed to rest like the hospital told her to."
"And you're alright now Lucy love, apart from your wrist I mean?"
"Apart from sore knees where I fell, I'm fine dad. And it's all because of Paul."
Daniel looked from his daughter to Paul. "I'm sorry," he said quietly, taking Paul by surprise, "I misjudged you."
"It's not a problem." said Paul. "I understand your concerns. "Well, come on then Lucy. I'll take you home."
"That might not be a good idea," said Paul quietly, "At least, not at the moment."
"WHAT?"
"Daniel, there's hordes of reporters outside my house and as far as I'm aware, Lucy has nothing to wear." Paul smiled at Lucy. "I think going home in my pyjamas might set the gossips off, don't you?"
After making arrangements for Daniel to drop some clothes off for Lucy later in the morning, Daniel slipped out of the house the back way.
Paul returned to the living room, Lucy was lying back on the sofa, her eyes closed.
"Right you," he said, kissing her softly on the nose to wake her, "Back to bed."
"No! I'm OK here."
"Lucy..."
"I'm OK Paul."
"Right, put your feet up and run and get you a blanket from the bed."
Whislt Paul was upstairs Lucy heard someone moving around in the kitchen. She was suddenly afraid. Maybe a reporter had somehow got into the house? Paul came back into the room.
"Lucy, what's wrong/ You've gone very pale."
"I heard a noise Paul," she whispered, "There's someone in the kitchen. I'm scared!"
She was surprised when Paul gave her a huge grin and then left the room. She heard him talking cheerfully to someone. Then as quickly as he'd left her, he returned, this time though, he wasn't alone.
"Lucy love, you don't need to worry. The noise you heard was this wonderful woman. Lucy, this is Rose, my housekeeper. Rose, this is Lucy, the girl I told you about!"