Easy As Falling Off A Bike pt 1507

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The Daily Dormouse.
(aka Bike)
Part 1507
by Angharad

Copyright © 2011 Angharad
All Rights Reserved.
  
-Dormouse-001.jpg

I hardly remember driving home and Si was naturally worried about his car but in no fit state to drive it, so I promised to drive him back if necessary tomorrow morning. We got home in the wee sma’ ‘oors, had a hot drink and went to bed. I was still very tired the next morning when the children woke me, but I slipped out of bed got them breakfast and told them on no account to bother their father.

Then against my better judgement I was about to ask Stella to come with me to Sussex to collect Si’s car when Tom appeared. Okay, he’s hardly Jensen Button but he’s a competent driver, so I asked him instead. He drove me in his Freelander, after I took Simon’s spare keys and we chatted happily most of the journey much of it about the courses he wanted me to run.

I asked him if he’d heard anything bad about the bank and he said he hadn’t, however when we put the radio on for the news at ten o’clock, there was a story, twenty per cent had been wiped off the bank’s shares through a mistake in some investments which had gone wrong.

I listened to Henry saying that he was sure the bank would recover and asking deposit holders and investors to keep faith with them. Robert Peston, the BBC business editor reckoned the bank had lost over a billion pounds in the past twenty four hours and that there were talks about mergers and so on. I hoped it wouldn’t be necessary.

We got to Beachy head and I collected Simon’s car and we drove to the pub and had a hot drink before starting back. Tom told me to carry on, he’d tootle along in his own inimitable way and I could fly along if I wanted. Because the car meant so much to Simon I was actually quite nervous of driving it.

Once I was back on decent roads, ie the A27, I did up the speed a little and fair flew along until I spotted the police car up ahead of me. He pulled me over and with my heart fluttering I stopped and got out of the car.

“Is this your car, madam?” he asked in the noise of the traffic belting past.

“No, it’s my husband’s.”

“I see, could I have your name, please.”

“Certainly, it’s Catherine Cameron.”

“Right, that’s fine, the car is registered as being owned by Simon, Lord Cameron, so you must be Lady Cameron?”

“I am,” I said politely but felt like asking if he’d worked it out by himself.

“Do you have any ID on you, because this car was reported parked by Beachy Head last night.”

I showed him my driving licence and he looked at it carefully. “You’ve changed your hair colour?”

“Yes, I’m usually mousey.”

“Suits you. Can you tell me why the car was parked there overnight?”

“My husband drove out that way last night and was taken ill, I collected him in my car and came back this morning to get his car.”

“Okay, Lady Cameron, just doing my job.”

“I appreciate that, the number of cars stolen each year.”

He smiled and told me to continue my journey and wished Simon a speedy recovery. I thanked him and set off again, only to be passed by Tom as I waited to enter the traffic stream. He didn’t stay ahead of me for long although I did keep an eye on my speed and for traffic cops.

When I got home I recognised Henry’s car in the drive. He and Simon were having a private conversation in my study—I suspect we all knew what it was likely to be about. I was mostly concerned that if he was reprimanding Simon, that he’d undermine what I’d managed to do last night.

I made a light lunch and when Henry appeared, invited him to stay and eat. He thanked me but said he had to return to London post haste. I then asked him how Simon was, given he’d taken it so much to heart.

“I’m glad he did, he lost us half a billion pounds yesterday.”

“On the radio they said a billion,” I wasn’t sure who to believe.

“Yeah, they rounded it up to the nearest whole billion, silly buggers—it tend to undermine what steps we take to correct things and then spineless investors start removing their savings, even though the Chancellor said they would back the bank if necessary.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?” I asked.

“Only keep that idiot son of mine out from under my feet while I sort out this mess.”

“I’d have thought you’d want him to help do that, after all he’s made you loads of money over the years.”

“Who told you that? Him? I thought so. He makes money by doing what I tell him to. This time he went off on his own and it came crashing down on his head, so I’ve suspended him—there’ll need to be an enquiry.”

“Oh.” I was devastated by this revelation.

“I appreciate what you did for him last night. He might be a right royal pain in the arse, but he’s still my son. Keep him safe, Cathy.”

“How long will he be off?”

“Until I say otherwise. Sometimes you have to be a tough parent to keep them safe.”

I smiled at him.

“You know that one already by the look of it. I have to go, hopefully this will sort itself out by Monday and I can start recovering the deficit.”

“What did he do?”

“He tried to buy a small American bank, which went belly up as soon as he bought the shares.”

“Isn’t that tantamount to fraud?”

“Absolutely, but we’ll probably have to go to court to get the money back, and that could take months if not years.”

Henry left and I went to see Simon. He was sitting in my chair staring at a photo of the children I have on my desk. “How d’you feel?”

“Crap—the bastard suspended me.”

“On pay or not?”

“On pay.”

“I think he was within his rights to do so.”

“But if I could have had a bit of time I’m sure I could have sorted things.”

“Perhaps you could, but that decision has been taken from you, so stop fretting and relax for a couple of days. Then start to plan what you would have done to correct things. Write it all down and I’ll make sure Henry sees it.”

“You should have let me jump last night.”

“And what would I do with two Jaguars?”

“Can we go and collect it?”

“Tom and I did so earlier, it’s outside.”

The pig actually checked—I felt like suspending him too—on a rope from the beam in the garage. Shit, what am I saying? I love this man to bits, I’d never hurt him.

“Cathy, there’s a dirty mark all along the nearside, what have you done to my car?”

“You what?” Hurt him?—I’ll bloody kill him with my bare hands, ungrateful twit.

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Comments

One Thing

And we thought men only had one thing on their minds.

Michelle B

Dirty mark.. sounds like

Dirty mark.. sounds like signature boy has struck again!


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

Or...

...it could just be mud - after all, it was parked down a country lane, and they can get pretty muddy at times. The classic example is when a tractor's been working on a muddy field, it will carry half the field into the adjoining lane.

I'm glad to see Cathy didn't trust Simon with driving back on his own - perhaps he can take the time to relax and have some family time... maybe even realise that his addiction to work (he often seems to spend more time there than at home!) contributed to his dodgy investment...

--B


As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!

Doesn't sound like

Henry is too happy with his son. Cars can be fixed. People sometimes. Maybe Simon needs to sit back and think a bit. Cathy's advice sounded good to me.

And maybe its Henry who needs a lesson.

If Simon wasn't good at what he was doing the bank wouldn't keep him in the position he was in.
Henry out of anger ( I hope) made his son seem incompetent and a mindless drone in front of one of the person he loves the most.

Simon wasn't without fault but I think its Henry who was at foul in here.

Lily.

Easy As Falling Off A Bike pt 1507

OK, cute way to get Cathy's ire up.

    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine
    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine

unthinking

Simon can be a real unthinking bastard when he wants to be ,Cathy is going to have to teach him some manners ,maybe make him sleep on the couch for a few days . or not let him drive the s type again .

Hugs Roo

ROO

Seems like Henry is too harsh on Simon

It never really seemed (at least to me) that Simon was instructed to do stuff.

What if Simon will find this out? he will feel so incompetent and embarrassed that he'll surely try to kill himself again.

I really hope that Henry is over exaggerating here , and that Simon can prove to us all just how good he is in what he's doing .

Lily.

Henry is thinking like a

Henry is thinking like a typical parent, jumps to conclusions before he knows all the facts, which I'm sure Simon wants to offer. After all, it is just money and generally only on paper; rather than actual cash.

Sadly even if one is sexually attracted to a man

... one must realize that they are just men and try asking ones self why you stay with one merely because of the sex. Simon exhibits a lot of the worst qualities of men but Cathy still loves him to bits.

*shakes head*

Kim

And girls are just girls

Sometime as bitchy as hell and more hatred filled then any man I know, but you know what? These are all stereotypes! Things that society taught us so we can overlook the human beings we hurt , cause the social system today require you to ignore human beings for social benefits ( may it be money ,social ranking or what not).

Just because you have no sexual/romantic interest in man doesn't mean that you have to hate them. Implying that they are inferior to woman is annoying,misandric and just plain wrong!
I don't know what led you to the hatred that pretty much show half of the population as inferior but I really hope that you wouldn't raise your son, if you'll have one, thinking that he is inferior.

Yes this message was written in hurt and rage but when I see any sort of chauvinism/racism I feel that those are the right emotions to come with.
Lily.

Great Episode

I believe that by staying at home with the family, Simon will begin to re-evaluate where his priorities lie. The love of Cathy and the children are what matters: that he works hard to achieve a happy home is just a means to that end.

This was another great episode in your saga Angharad.

I have noticed that your merry band of daily readers now number around the six hundred mark. With so many followers they, like me, believe in your characters and the story you tell. This is ‘real life’ that people can believe in and follow as a part of their life.

Thanks once again for continuing this great saga.

Love to all

Anne G.

Recovery.

One of the best ways Cathy can help Simon is to dig a little into the probable fraud that involved the American bank he was conned into buying. If Simon didn't use 'due diligence' in establishing the fiscal state of the bank then he might be partly to blame; but often, the purveyors of the bank manage to hide crucial information that points to the dangers in the banks' situation.

If these facts were surpressed or hidden, then fraud very probably exists and Simons' bank will have a case. If Cathy can, in some way dig out any dirt and help Simon recover the situation with out Henrys' intervention, then it will go a long, long way to cementing their marriage into an indestructible bond. (Though me-thinks it's pretty much that already.)

Go for it Cathy!

Good story Angie.

Still lovin' it.

Bev.

OXOXOX

Growing Old Disgracefully

bev_1.jpg

What a time

What a time to be jerking Cathy's chain. (At least he'd better be trying to do that - and not be taking his frustration at work out on her.)

From other commentary - on the news - it sounded like the bank had other "bad" investments as well (something about a deceased Col. in Lybia). Surely Simon wasn't responsible for those as well.

Isn't Si still driving Cathy's old Jag? I think he'd deserve to get his cumupance this time.

Thanks,
Anne

Well you could never

accuse Henry of not telling it like it is, No sugar coated pills here, But no matter life will go on, After all its only money.

And after the events of the last couple of days i think its fair to say both Cathy and more importantly Simon value life just a little bit more than they did a few days ago...

Kirri

I see this as a good thing.

Yes Simon's generally an idiot if not a loving one but he can't help some of his quirks because of how he was raised and his station. Face it the upper classed bunch aren't the best equipped to deal with RL as we've seen it ourselves.

The banking thing well that happens especially in these times so it's nice to see in a way them effected rather than not.

But to me this will give us two things that'll be good. One Cathy can get some more work done and see if going back to that is really what she wants.

And Two, This will maybe give Simon some downtime, get him away from the bank, away from the beer and business luncheons and maybe he'll spend some time with the kids and have a chance to get some perspective. Who knows maybe he might like being a stay at home dad more than he thinks seeing the way he and Stella were raised.

I really liked this last few chapters and just getting onto a new stage in life can be exciting too.

*Big Hugs*
Bailey.

Bailey Summers

One thing about Simon,

knows all Cathy's buttons, and likes to push them. Of course, she does the same to him, they really are made for each other.

I look at this differently

Julia Miller's picture

Since this could be a blessing in disguise. The bank’s shares have dropped over 20%. Henry doesn’t have controlling interest in the bank. I think he and the family should buy every share they can to regain controlling interest with over 51% of the shares. But that’s me. Lol