Chapter 9
Early on Sunday morning, Angelia was accompanied by Meghan and her dad on a visit to Glentorrin to view her latest property acquisition. Her dad parked the car outside of the newly purchased building and Meghan climbed out first, glancing around herself and smiling.
‘This place is beautiful,’ Meghan said. ‘I don’t think I’d ever want to leave if I was you.’
With her hair tucked up inside her signature disguise of a baseball cap, Angelia climbed out of the car and inhaled lungs full of the fresh Scottish sea air.
She had missed this island and hadn’t realised just how much until now.
The sunglasses she usually wore in London as part of her attempt to be incognito were essential attire on this occasion as the sun hung high in the sky, casting a bright golden hue over the pretty village.
There was a chatter of birdsong in the air, and a rippling of water lapping at the sea wall, and the place had such a calm, idyllic feel about it.
The one thing missing, much to Angelia’s delight, was traffic noise.
The white-painted building she now owned stood at the end of a row of others facing the inlet of water. At the opposite side of the inlet was the Lifeboat House Museum, a place Angelia was keen to visit after hearing stories of the place from Ruby.
‘It’s a far cry from the smog of London, eh? So much fresh air,’ Meghan said as she stood, hands on hips, scanning the location with intrigue. ‘It reminds me of a model village me and my mam visited when I was little. So quaint.’ She shook her head and smiled.
‘It’s a lovely setting for sure,’ Angelia said as she too gazed across the stretch of water where shards of light were dancing around on its surface.
She had always loved the sound of water; it was always so soothing to her, and she often used rain and river soundtracks to help her sleep.
A small blue and white fishing boat bobbed up and down at its mooring and a couple of seagulls sat on the water just floating, seemingly without a care in the world.
As she turned to her left, Angelia could see the beautiful, grand old house up on the small hill that she recognised from photos as that belonging to Ruby Locke and her husband, Mitch, and below that was a tree-lined village green and what looked to be the new hall Ruby had mentioned.
Along from this was a pretty stone-built church that she could just make out behind its verdant barrier of green, leafy trees and bushes.
A little further up the road she could see a pub called the Coxswain and a little village shop too.
It was picture-postcard perfect, and she could understand completely, aside from the obvious fact that she had fallen for an island resident, why Ruby had decided to make this place her home and respite from her busy film career.
Although these days her film work was kept to a minimum and she in fact ran a dance class in the previously mentioned village hall. The best of both worlds, Angelia mused.
Angelia had missed the peaceful nature of village life while ensconced in the big city she had been calling her temporary home.
This little place, however, had serenity and peace in spades.
What was there not to love? She felt her shoulders relaxing and, as she exhaled, she felt some of the anxiety she had been holding onto since her diagnosis leaving her body.
Over by the village shop, a teenage boy with a mop of dark hair and girl with long red curls were holding hands as they walked their respective dogs; one tiny and one huge in comparison.
They greeted an older woman with neat grey hair who was standing in the shop doorway leaning against the jamb, and they chatted animatedly for a while, laughing as the woman petted the dogs; the larger of the two clearly very excitable.
Scrappy would’ve loved to go over and say hello if she hadn’t left him at home with her mum, she thought. He loved to play with other dogs.
‘Well, here we are,’ her dad said, holding out his hands in a kind of ‘tadaaaa!’ gesture, drawing her attention to their real reason for being in Glentorrin. He unlocked the outer set of narrow double doors to reveal another, partially glazed entrance door.
Before she stepped inside, Angelia took another moment to assess the surrounding shops and houses.
Her double-fronted shop was similar in stature to the bakery further along the road, at first glance, only the bakery had one single window to the retail space.
Both had living accommodation to the rear that extended above.
She turned her attention to the frontage of her property once more.
The sign above the door had been painted over, many years before, hiding the visible clues to its origins.
Although, in its last iteration, Angelia had discovered, the building had functioned as an antique shop and before that an ironmongers, but those businesses had existed many years before.
It had lain empty since then and it was clear by a simple inspection through the pretty arched windows and through a gap in the shutters that the interior was covered in a layer of dust so thick you could write in it.
‘Angel!’ came a voice from across the village and she turned to see Ruby jogging towards her from the village hall.
Angelia turned and walked quickly towards her. ‘Hey! It’s good to see you!’ The pair hugged. ‘Dad, Meghan, you remember Ruby?’
‘Aye, of course. Lovely to see you, Ruby,’ her dad said.
Meghan blushed bright red. ‘Erm… hi, Ruby.’
Ruby narrowed her eyes. ‘Hmm, I’ve got a bone to pick with you, Meghan Parry.’
Meghan’s eyes widened. ‘Oh?’
Ruby laughed. ‘I’m messing with you! But Ezra can’t stop bloody talking about you and he’s driving me mad. He’s like a besotted puppy dog.’
Meghan beamed. ‘Ah, okay. And sorry, not sorry.’
‘I take it things are going well for you two?’ Ruby asked with a tilt of her head.
Meghan nodded. ‘Oh, yes. He’s wonderful,’ she replied dreamily.
Ruby turned her attention back to Angelia. ‘I can’t stay; I’ve got an older ladies’ dance class starting soon but I wanted to come over and welcome you. How are you doing?’ Ruby asked with evident concern etched on her face. ‘Are you okay? Are the meds helping?’
Angelia had sent a long message to Ruby after her diagnosis and told her she was coming home for a while. She nodded. ‘I’m getting there, thank you. And it’s early days with the meds but so far, so good.’
‘I’m so glad to hear that, honey. So, this is your first visit to the shop since you bought it, are you ready to see what you’ve let yourself in for? I don’t think anyone’s been in there for over a decade.’
Angelia chewed her lip. ‘Hmm. I’m nervous. And I’m a bit baffled as to what to do with it, to be honest.’
Ruby waved a dismissive hand. ‘You’ll think of something.
And I can tell you right now, the villagers are just happy it’s not going to be derelict any more.
The thing with Glentorrin is it’s a versatile little place and we get lots of tourists passing through in summer so whatever you choose I think it’ll be buzzing.
I bet it’s good to be home, even if it’s a short-term thing,’ Ruby said with a wide smile.
Angelia turned to look at the houses and shops overlooking the inlet of water. ‘It is. I do love this island. It’s always so hard to leave.’
Ruby leaned in and kissed her cheek. ‘Well… maybe you don’t actually have to this time.’ She gave a wink. ‘Right, I’d better be going. I’ve a date with some tap shoes and a bit of Cliff Richard.’ She giggled, turned and jogged off towards the hall once more, waving over her shoulder. ‘Bye for now!’
‘Shall we go inside?’ her dad asked, putting an arm around her shoulder.
‘As you’ll see, it’ll need a good clean up before you’ll really get to see its full potential,’ he said as she followed him through the doors.
‘I took the liberty of getting the power switched on, although from the survey it’s clear some rewiring will be necessary before you trust the electrics. ’
Once inside, her dad fully opened the shutters and stood in the middle of the shop floor area, arms folded across his chest as he assessed the place and nodded. ‘Aye, I had to use my imagination on your behalf when I came to look at it the first time. But you see the potential, eh?’
For a few moments, Angelia stood, wide-eyed, gawping, open-mouthed as she watched the dust motes dancing in the light breeze they had brought in with them through the door.
She wondered if she had perhaps bitten off more than she could chew.
It looked so much worse than the photos in the online auction brochure.
It was now clear why no locals had been prepared to bid on it.
She wondered if it was going to be a major money pit and if she should seriously consider just selling it straight on to some other willing lunatic.
As it was, it was a completely different prospect to the houses she had bought previously.
They had been solely residential, or empty and newer commercial buildings, and most had only needed updating and a lick of paint before a family or service provider could move in, whereas, this place needed a complete overhaul.
She inhaled the musty smell of damp and her nose tickled. It’ll probably need fumigating, she thought as a feeling of dread crept over her when she spotted what appeared to be rodent droppings on the floor.
‘Don’t just stand there, Angelia, have a good look around. Get a feel for the place. Get your imagination working,’ her dad insisted. He had a point.