by Lucy Edington

Created on: June 15, 2009

Thomas looked down at his hands and smiled with the memory. Thin, warm, perfectly manicured fingers were entwined with his and were giving them a squeeze. All was right with the world.

Thomas had talked through a complicated array of places to go on this, their second meeting, but Elizabeth had plumped for the more laid-back option of a walk in the countryside.

"Our first-date nerves are out of the way now" she had said to him on the phone the day before "I think that we should have some quiet time in each other's company and just see how we like it"

There had been the whisper of something more in those simple words, and yet no promise at all, so he had willingly acquiesced to the new plan with a frisson of excitement.

Elizabeth had bounced out of her door that day in a simple, blue summer dress, all cool folds and understated tailoring, with a straw hat in one hand and a picnic basket in the other. She cast Thomas a warm smile as she leaned in to plant the softest of kisses on his cheek, and then walked around to the trunk of his car so that he could let her stow their lunch. Thomas loved the contrast of her soft white cardigan as it slid slightly to reveal a bronzed shoulder, and he allowed his eyes to briefly fall below her hem to also trace the tantalising line of her calves that were criss-crossed with the silky ribbon ties of her sandals. He breathed in the subtle scent of her chestnut hair as it wandered towards him on the slight breeze, and when she turned and smiled at him again he told her she looked beautiful. He wholeheartedly returned her smile as she thanked him.

They had driven through lazy countryside, passing hardly anyone that early on a Sunday. They had opened the windows wide and Elizabeth had chosen a radio station where every song seemed to have 'love' mentioned in it. She hummed along to a few of the tracks and Thomas even joined her in one or two, feeling strangely relaxed now that she was with him again. There was an easy, companionable silence between them when they were not humming; their mutual smiles the only real discourse until they reached the country park.

Thomas had never been there before, but Elizabeth assured him it had a quiet place to sit and picnic by a stream. He took charge of the hamper and she walked gracefully beside him as they strolled through the first part of the nature walk. There had not been rain for days, so Elizabeth's footwear was not as frivolous as Thomas had at first feared them to be.

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