Rastus and us at the market (Chapter 7)

 

Strangely Penny was up before me; she was standing by the window. 

"Come back to bed" I said.

"I daren't, I want you so much" she stated simply. "I'll get a cup of tea."

We were up and taking Rastus in his walk through the park quite early and after breakfast went into Stirling township where there was a Sunday market with flags and bunting waving, the call of the vendors selling their wares and of course the inevitable smell of a barbecued meat and onions filling the air. Rastus behaved himself quite well in the crowd probably more concerned that the barbecued sausages would be on the menu. We needed nothing but to be with one another but I dallied at a bookstall and I found a couple of Leigh Childs novels for Penny.

I asked her how she came to read him. Her response was unusual.

“My days are spent in a rigid environment of hospital discipline and with sick and frightened people. I find that I can enter an escapist world in his books that others might with fantasy or gaming.”

I nodded an agreement; holding on to her hand which I felt was now mine.

So I then said, “I can remember a bookshop owner in the city telling me a similar story where a lawyer dealing with the court system, crime and criminals all day long would escape with “Mills and Boon” light romance to get it out of her system.”

We finally found a seat, a few yards from the busy market and I said simply “I am so glad I found you” and leaned over and kissed her tenderly as the world passed us by while Rastus tried to decide whose knees he should put his head on. 

We were a happy band of three tied together by love. Penny loved Rastus. Rastus loved Penny and me. I loved both Penny and Rastus. But the relationship between Penny and me was a little odd. She was funny, warm and so lovable…but I could sense she was holding something back. She had guessed that I was recovering from a  previous engagement from  which I had emerged but with a few thorns for my troubles. 

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