The Cornish Beach Hut Café

Chapter 36

36

The Hideaway at lunch time

Full English

Wednesday

‘I ’ve made us mini cheese scones and salad, with meringue, strawberries and custard cups for pudding.’

When I ended up at Kit’s last night I really hadn’t thought through fitting in the hotel baking next morning, work at the studio and a lunch date at The Hideaway with the mermaids. As it turns out I’m running fine on half an hour’s sleep because my body and my brain are still buzzing with the adrenalin rush of spending eight hours in bed with Kit.

Clemmie comes out onto the veranda with Arnie on one arm and an ice bucket and bottle in her other hand. ‘I thought we could try this No-secco, it’s Huntley and Handsome’s wine of the week.’ She stops and gives me a closer look. ‘You’re looking good today. Have you got new blusher?’

I try not to go scarlet. ‘It’s the St Aidan sun bringing my freckles out.’

She gives me a nudge. ‘Whatever it is, order some for me!’

Plum’s carrying a tray of plates and glasses. ‘Nell’s not made it?’

Sophie’s following with Bud on her hip. ‘Give her another month.’ She sits down, settles Bud on her knee and opens her picnic box. ‘I take it we’re here for an update on all things High Tides?’

We’re not. We’re here so I can talk her into her makeover, with Plum and Clemmie here as my wingmen, but for now I’ll play along. ‘The best news is that the hotel is noticeably busier since word has got around they’re serving cake.’ Their scone and cake orders have doubled day-on-day this week. Rye marks it all on graphs, and has already shown me projections. ‘If the orders carry on growing this fast I’ll need to buy an industrial oven a week on Friday.’

Clemmie gives Plum a wink. ‘You may only have to wait fifty years not a hundred before Rye comes out to play.’

I grin at Plum. ‘I reckon you may get your chance before summer’s over.’ I give a silent groan. ‘If only all the news were this good. Kit and I have missed David and Mum twice in a row, so we still aren’t certain how that’s going.’

Sophie’s eyes narrow. ‘If they know you’re looking, they might be giving you the run-around.’

It’s a good excuse to be seen out with Kit, so I won’t close this down. ‘We’ve promised Rye we won’t stop until we find out what’s going on.’

Plum’s loading her scone with butter and grated cheese. ‘Any ideas about how we can stop David taking over the dunes and the world?’

I fan out the pile of fundraiser postcards I bought in the shop. ‘This is very new, but look what I came across while the scones were in the oven.’

Sophie glances at them. ‘They’re the Kittiwake Court bygone St Aidan cards.’

I pick out the most important. ‘This one is from the nineteen thirties and it says it’s a picture of a tide-fed sea pool. Doesn’t it look gorgeous?’

Plum’s looking at the photo. ‘I’ve often noticed the remnants of it walking along the beach. It was on the rocky outcrop towards Oyster Point.’

Plum never ceases to amaze me. ‘I had no idea it existed, but I’ve been Googling. It was abandoned in the seventies when a section of the wall collapsed, but the council had ploughed their money into the leisure centre so they never bothered to repair it.’

Plum pulls a face. ‘That was the era when people were buying tumble driers and throwing away their washing lines. It’s hard to imagine why people would abandon a sun-warmed sea-water pool to swim indoors in water filled with chlorine.’

‘It wouldn’t happen now, people love wild swimming.’ Sophie’s siting up straighter as she listens. ‘You can see the tide running into it when you look down from Siren House. The water flows out again because of the hole in the wall.’

I’m thinking aloud. ‘I came across that postcard completely by chance, but now I’ve seen it I can’t help thinking – if it were there again to use it would be better for the community in every way than the lido David Byron’s pushing for. This isn’t just me wanting to save The Hideaway either, I do believe it’s the truth.’

‘I completely agree!’ Clemmie’s got a mouthful but she’s waving her scone in the air for emphasis. ‘It’s closer to the town for everyone, it would be completely free to use, it’s beautiful and natural, and so much kinder to the environment than acres more concrete at the so-called environmentally friendly High Tides.’

Plum slaps her palm down on the table. ‘It’s a fabulous idea, Floss. Everyone in St Aidan would love the idea of reinstating the sea pool. Anything that romantic and historically inspiring, they’d be bound to support it.’

‘There are special grants and funds available for community projects.’ I’ve been Googling this too.

Clemmie’s expression is serious. ‘If the community got behind an outdoor pool of their own it would leave David Byron and his horrible plans high and dry, and he’d be the only one to lose out.’

My heart is racing with excitement. ‘So that’s wins all round! We need to look into this further!’

Clemmie’s beaming. ‘Well done, Flossie May. I’ll see if there’s any way Charlie can help.’

Plum joins in. ‘I’ll ask around my contacts at the Chamber of Commerce.’

Sophie laughs. ‘Looking ahead, Sophie May Beauty will definitely sponsor the opening party and in the meantime I’ll organise the Friends of St Aidan Sea-Water Pool group.’

‘So that’s that for now.’ I look around their eager faces and realise as they’ve known me my whole life, I might as well ask what’s been on my mind. ‘One question while you’re all here – I realised the other night I had no idea what happened when Mum and Dad split up.’

Sophie’s looking at me blankly. ‘He walked out on us. There’s nothing more to it than that.’

Plum chimes in. ‘Everyone in St Aidan knows the story. Your dad was a long-distance bus driver.’

Clemmie carries on. ‘One day he took a coach-load of holidaymakers to Chester le Street and didn’t come back.’

Plum nods. ‘We were six, because the day your mum came in to tell school about it I remember Mrs Banks, our Year One teacher, letting Sophie choose the story.’

It’s awful when the village knows my family history better than I do. I suppose Clemmie lived in the same row of fishermen’s cottages as we did, so she was bound to know.

I look at Sophie. ‘But surely that can’t be it? Had they argued? Was there someone else?’ The questions flash through my mind.

Sophie shakes her head. ‘He was away so often with his job, for a long time it didn’t register with me that he’d gone.’ She looks at me. ‘Mum played it down. You were younger, and he always took more notice of me than you because I was an attention seeker.’

I grin at her for that admission. ‘By the time we were old enough to ask it was ancient history.’

Sophie nods. ‘It’s similar with Milla. Her dad didn’t want any involvement and that was a big thing before she was born, but we never think about him now.’

Which is the perfect opening to move this on. I give Clemmie a look and she picks it up and runs.

‘You’ve given up on changing your colour scheme, then?’

Sophie stares down at her box-fresh turquoise hoodie. ‘Whatever I choose Milla will criticise it.’

I look at Sophie. ‘We’ve thought of a fun way to make Milla think again with her criticism.’

Sophie sits back in her seat. ‘Don’t keep it to yourself! I’ll consider anything!’

Plum sits forward. ‘We’ve all noticed that in Milla’s eyes Aunty Florence can do no wrong.’

Clemmie nods. ‘You’re definitely up there with the goddesses, Floss.’

I take a deep breath and turn to Sophie. ‘How would it be if we change you – by turning you into me?’

Clemmie’s laughing. ‘If you’re wearing Floss’s clothes, Milla won’t criticise those.’

Plum’s nodding. ‘With a whole new persona it’ll be easier for you to break free from your aqua habit too.’

Sophie’s voice rises. ‘Does it have to be this radical? ’

I sense that she’s wriggling. ‘Two strong characters like you and Milla, anything less wouldn’t work.’

She blows out a breath. ‘Okay, I get that. But what about my hair? Much as I’d love to do this, I draw the line at dye.’

I wiggle my eyebrows. ‘There’s no need to change your colour. Luckily for you I still have my chemo wig.’ This is the master stroke that will make it extra special.

Sophie lets out a murmur. ‘I finally get the shiny brown swishy hair I always wanted.’

I laugh. ‘To make it more of an event, I thought we could all go to the hairdressers and watch you have the wig styled into something slightly more like yourself?’ I can’t help smiling. ‘We’ll make a pact with Milla. Your challenge will be to last two weeks as me. If you make it, you can go back to being yourself afterwards, and Milla has to back off.’

Clemmie laughs. ‘The more I hear, the more I like it.’

I carry on. ‘After you’ve had fourteen days rocking the world in my colour-pop dresses and playsuits, you might see there’s more to life than Sophie-May blue.’

Sophie groans. ‘Playsuits? Really? ’

‘That’s the part I’m looking forward to most. Especially my Day-Glo orange ones.’ I take pity on her. ‘Don’t worry, they’ll be a lot longer on you than they are on me, and we can hitch my mini dresses in with belts.’

Clemmie’s eyes are bright. ‘So what do you think, Soph? Are you in?’

Sophie sighs. ‘Do I have a choice?’

Plum laughs. ‘I don’t think you do. It’s already decided!’

I stand up and squeeze past Shadow, who’s sitting up super-straight waiting for crumbs. ‘I’ll go and get another bottle from the fridge, to seal the deal, and I’ll bring out a dress or two to give you a taster.’

I go to the bedroom and take a couple of dresses off the pile I’ve sorted, then go for the wine. As I’m bending down getting the bottle I hear footsteps on the living room floor, so it’s not a complete surprise to find Kit resting his shoulder on the wall when I come through, with Shadow at his knee.

‘Hey you! This is a nice surprise.’ I make myself stop before I reach him.

‘Good social distancing, Florence Flapjack-face.’ He grins at me. ‘I’m sorry to interrupt your lunch, but Monica and Ellie, whom you saw earlier, would love a visit to your veranda if you can fit them in later?’

‘I’ll make sure the mermaids leave them some meringues. Anything else?’

He drops his voice. ‘Would you like to come over for supper later? Or a midnight swim? Or we could look for the Plough?’

Or we could just go to bed? I try to limit the width of my smile. ‘Supper sounds good. Text me when you’re ready for the deck visit.’

Kit’s thumbs are hooked through his belt loops. ‘Great, great and great. I’d better get back to Monica and Ellie. I could have messaged, but I wanted to see you in real life.’ He’s about to turn, but instead he steps forward and drops a kiss on my mouth. Then a second later he’s gone.

I take a moment to steady my galloping pulse rate, then fix my smile in place, call Shadow to heel and saunter back out onto the deck.

‘Today’s couple want to come over later. That was Kit checking I had enough ice cream.’

Plum laughs. ‘As if you’d ever run out.’

Sophie’s staring at me. ‘Am I seeing things? Did he just kiss you back there?’

Plum’s eyes widen but she doesn’t say anything. There’s just a gaping hole of silence.

‘Me? Kit?’ I’m opening and closing my mouth but nothing more is coming out. ‘W-whatever made you think that?’

Clemmie rubs her nose. ‘It must have been the angle. There was no contact at all from where I’m sitting.’

I laugh and hold the dresses in the air. ‘Nice try, Soph. It’s going to take more than that to distract me from your transformation.’ I toss the dresses over her chair arm. ‘Here, take these. I’ll go and get the seconds.’