Chapter 2 #2
‘I baked your favourite,’ Blythe smiled, her daughter always made her heart feel a little lighter.
Motherhood had surprised her in how much she’d delighted in it, especially when Siggy was smaller.
Even if pregnancy had taken her by storm (well, maybe hurricane was more accurate), once she laid eyes on Siggy, that was it, she dived headlong into a whole new baby powder scented world of finger painting, Play-Doh making, bark tracing, and rock pooling.
Whatever else life had thrown her way, or not thrown her way, as it turned out, the gift of Siggy was one she would always be grateful for.
Blythe had called her after her own grandmother.
It was a family name, passed through generations that had been obliterated in the second World War, leaving only Gisela Sigried B?cker – a woman she’d known only through the handed down tales from her grandfather.
As Siggy had grown, she’d become an equal mix of both her parents – inheriting the B?cker lilac-coloured eyes and Kip’s easy-going way.
Siggy was striking, more than beautiful, with height from both Rae and Kip, she was almost six foot and these days, thankfully, she walked tall.
She smiled easily and she chose her words carefully – a trait she hadn’t inherited from her mother!
Her daughter was a young woman Blythe felt justified in being proud of, more with every passing day.
If she had one wish for her daughter, it was that she would be content to stay forever on Pin Hill Island.
Siggy was only seventeen, too young to settle down, but she wanted more than anything something to anchor her daughter to this place.
She was the only Scott of her generation, the last Hope Square girl left.
Well, technically, she was a Scott-Carney, but she would inherit everything, this place and the hotel, one day it would all be Siggy’s, Blythe was adamant about that.
She was a great kid, but Blythe knew, better than most, how easily life could swap out what you wanted for what it felt like giving you.
She was absolutely determined; her daughter would not be short-changed in life.
She would keep her safe, keep her close, help her to avoid making the same mistakes that had cost her so dearly.
‘It’ll be ready soon, I was going to have some with coffee and sit outside, will you join me? ’
‘You don’t have to ask me twice.’ Siggy shared her mother’s sweet tooth; she could sniff out sugar from rooms away.
Blythe listened as Siggy chatted away about everything and nothing, as daughters do if you’re lucky.
While Siggy set about making a pot of coffee, Blythe placed the five apple crumbles on the drainer to cool.
They would be safe here so long as she dragged the dogs outside, away from temptation.
She cut two generous slices from the smallest tray.
They were just sitting comfortably when there was another flurry of notifications on her phone. Siggy pushed the phone towards her mother.
‘You had it switched off again.’ She shook her head in disbelief, she was always doing that, picking up Blythe’s phone and switching it back on again.
‘Oh, later…’ Blythe said, she really didn’t want to spoil her afternoon just because Fiona Dixon had decided it would be a good idea for them all to fundraise for some new cause.
‘How can you leave it to later? I couldn’t do that in a million years,’ Siggy laughed, and Blythe knew; Siggy never missed a call or a message. She checked religiously, constantly swiping her screen over and back, she had the dedication of an addict to it. ‘It could be important, it could be Dad.’
‘It definitely won’t be your father.’ Blythe laughed, Kip’s only interest in the phone was following the rugby results.
‘Fine.’ She picked up the phone, clicked open the app.
There were dozens of messages, across several groups.
It was as if everyone she knew had gone message crazy.
All those thumbs up, they made her feel dizzy.
They weren’t just in the groups either. She scrolled down through the names until she came to a message from one of her closest friends.
‘Well?’ Siggy’s voice intruded softly.
‘Hang on…’ Blythe said, scanning quickly through the messages. ‘Good news,’ she looked up at Siggy. ‘A new family are moving into the McDaid cottage.’
‘Oh, that is good news,’ Siggy said as she pressed the plunger on the coffee pot.
‘Apparently, they’re moving in next week.’
‘Are they related to old Henry?’ Siggy asked.
‘They must be, I mean…’ That cottage had been tied up in a legal wrangle for over a year at this point. Henry McDaid had died without making a will and it seemed that suddenly he had more relatives than you could count.
‘Well, if not, new people in the village will be a good thing,’ Siggy said softly.
And of course, she meant it, her daughter was sweet like that, expecting the best in everyone, it was another reason to worry about her.
The world beyond Pin Hill was not as rosy as her daughter believed, Blythe had learned that the hard way.
She hoped more than anything, that life would not throw her darling girl in the way of things to spoil that about her.
‘Hmm,’ Blythe said, because you never knew exactly who was going to show up on the ferry and decide to put down roots; although that wasn’t a conversation she wanted to get into with Siggy – they’d had too many disagreements about it recently.
Too often, Blythe found herself biting down words to avoid another long debate with her increasingly liberal daughter.