Chapter 25
The following morning, as soon as they were all awake, they ventured out onto the decking of the lodge to breathe in the wonderful sea air.
It was just as wild and woolly as it had been the day before, but now they could take in the whole panoramic view, spot the ships and boats, large and small, sailing on the sea in the distance and hear the gulls squawking around them.
‘Happy birthday, Gina!’ Dilly raised her mug of coffee to the air and the others all followed suit, exclaiming their best wishes to their friend.
‘I love this,’ said Gina, embracing the elements. ‘What a special place to spend my birthday. Do you think we should all sell up and come and live by the seaside?’
‘I could be tempted,’ said Dilly with a grin, ‘although, I’m not sure about Tess. She’s a proper home bird. I can’t imagine you ever wanting to leave Lower Leaping.’
‘No, you’re right. I can appreciate how wonderful this is, obviously, and it’s so beneficial to have a change of scene, but really, there’s no place like home, is there?
I have all my friends in Lower Leaping, great neighbours, and it will be at the heart of my new business too.
Hollyhocks holds too many ties and too many happy memories for me to ever want to leave it behind.
Besides, everyone knows my secrets there,’ she said with a knowing look towards Gina.
‘You know, Charles and I always used to call it our Forever Cottage. Ha! Perhaps we were tempting fate by naming it that.’ She gave a rueful shrug.
‘After all the time and work we put into restoring Hollyhocks, we agreed that we would never want to move away. So, it might not have turned out to be Charles’s Forever Cottage, but I really hope it will stay mine. ’
‘Right,’ said Gina, holding her face up to the sky, relishing the sensation of the sea spray on her face.
‘Well, I couldn’t possibly move without you lot so that’s just another valid reason for us to schedule in more trips away in the future and to make the most of the time we have here. Where to first?’
They headed out of the lodge and down the hill, spreading out onto the narrow road to walk four abreast, the seagulls their constant companions.
The centre of the little seaside town was already abuzz with activity with shopkeepers putting their stands of windcheaters and, perhaps optimistically, beach accessories outside.
Tourists, like them, out and about, exploring the quaint cobble streets and mooching about the specialist shops.
The numerous cafés were already doing a roaring breakfast trade and the aromas of the coffee tempted them towards a large seafront restaurant with outside seating down by the harbour.
It was brisk and blowy but they were well wrapped up in their waterproof jackets and hiking boots and they relished their prime position at a table where they could watch fishing boats unloading their catches, the young children with their parents crabbing over the harbour wall and the many dogs padding up and down, enjoying the scents of the sea air.
‘Oh I miss Barney. He would absolutely love it here, although he would be an absolute pain with all these new smells, so I’m really rather glad he’s being safely looked after at home by Hannah.’
After a hearty breakfast of juices, coffees and hot bacon rolls, perfect sustenance for their planned coastal walk, they made tracks and headed towards the path that offered far-reaching clifftop views.
It was a seven-mile walk, but they were in no hurry to reach the end; they were happy to take their time, to stop and admire the scenery, to appreciate the flora and in particular the pink, yellow and white plants that grew in clumps alongside their route.
‘They look so delicate and fragile,’ Dilly remarked, ‘but they must be pretty hardy to withstand these elements.’
‘Just like us then,’ said Gina. ‘Delicate on the outside but as strong as those rocks over there on the inside.’
‘I’m not sure anyone would describe me as delicate,’ Dilly said, laughing, ‘but I like the sentiment.’
They had been walking for about an hour when they realised that Suzy had fallen behind.
They turned around to see her standing, a lone figure, holding onto the back of a bench, looking out to sea, completely lost in her own thoughts.
Going back to collect her, Tess asked, ‘Are you okay, Suzy?’ She placed a hand on her shoulder as Dilly and Gina joined them.
‘Yes,’ she said with a smile. ‘I’m just having a moment.
Being here, experiencing nature at its rawest, feeling the wind against my skin, I can almost imagine that Martin is out there somewhere, within touching distance.
’ She reached her hand out in front of her.
‘You probably think I’m completely mad.’
‘Not at all,’ said Tess, wrapping an arm around her friend.
‘Sometimes, it hits me: the unfairness of it all. That he was taken away before his time, that he didn’t get a chance to see his boys grow up and that we were denied all those happy years together.’
‘I know,’ agreed Tess. ‘Totally unfair, although he’d be incredibly proud at how you’ve managed without him and the amazing job you’ve done in bringing up your boys. They are his legacy.’
‘Yes, you’re right,’ said Suzy, her face lighting up in a smile.
‘I can see his personality and mannerisms in them both, much more so now that they’re older.
I suppose it is bittersweet knowing that they are doing so well, happy, living their own lives, which is all you want for your children, but this should really be our time together and it makes me so sad that he’s missed out on all of this. ’
‘What do you think Martin would be saying to you today if he was here, standing alongside you?’ Dilly piped up.
Suzy pondered on that for a moment, her gaze still scanning the horizon as if in search of him.
‘Oh, he’d be entirely fed up with me. I’m fed up with myself at times. He’d be telling me to stop harking on about the past and to get on with living in the present.’
‘And what do you think about that advice?’ Dilly probed. ‘What would you say to him?’
Suzy nodded, looking around at her friends, the invigorating conditions making her eyes water. Or at least, she thought it was the wind. Her friends were all struggling with the elements in the same way.
‘It’s probably good advice, isn’t it?’ she said, asking around their faces for confirmation, which they duly gave, nodding at her intently. ‘What would I say to him? That I loved him, and that I understood, and I would do my utmost to live my life as he would want me to. To not waste another day.’
Tess wrapped her arms around Suzy, with Gina and Dilly getting in on the act for a group hug. Eventually, Gina, who seemed to have taken on the role of group leader, said, ‘Come on, let’s get a couple more miles in. Then we can have birthday cake!’
The walk was challenging, tiring, but the ever-changing landscape was nourishing and rejuvenating.
By the time they’d completed their seven miles with sore feet and aching limbs, they were ravenously hungry.
After an early tea of fish and chips, bread and butter, and endless mugs of tea, they decided to head back to the lodge, weary but incredibly happy.
Suzy placed candles on the shop-bought birthday cake and they all sang a rousing rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ to Gina.
‘Honestly, this has been the best birthday ever. I wouldn’t have wanted to spend it in any other place or with any other people.
’ She popped the remaining crumbs of her slice of cake into her mouth, before announcing, ‘Right, there’s to be no excuses; we all need to get in the hot tub to soak our weary legs.
It’ll be fun,’ she added, seeing Tess’s doubtful expression.
Tess wasn’t so sure, worried that it might be too cold, reluctant to struggle into her swimsuit when the temperature outside was bracing, but there was never going to be any getting out of it.
Not with Gina and Dilly egging her on. She needn’t have worried though because as soon as she stepped down the steps into the bubbling bath, immersing her shoulders beneath the hot water, she realised it was every bit as delightful as Gina had promised it to be, especially with the sound of the sea’s movements soothing her ears.
‘There, what did I tell you? You need to start living dangerously, Tess. And you too, Suzy.’
‘Now, you’re sounding like my mother,’ said Tess with a frown.
‘Although I think I’ve probably done my fair share of stepping out of my comfort zone this year, don’t you?
It’s been scary, stressful and liberating, but do you know something, it’s been an absolute blast too, and I’m confident there’s even more surprises to come. ’
‘You’re an inspiration to us all,’ said Suzy, ‘and I’m going to follow your lead. Take a few more chances, step out of my lane and embrace the world in the way that Martin would have wanted me to.’
‘Go you!’ said Dilly, splashing the water in Suzy’s direction, which was probably a bad idea because then Suzy took that as an invitation to splash her back.
Gina, never one to be outdone, joined in the game, only scooping the water with much more force, leaving Tess with no other option but to join in too.
They sounded like a group of school kids, whooping and laughing, their faces gleaming with water.
‘Stop, stop, stop,’ said Gina finally, unable to stop laughing.
‘I think that deserves a toast, don’t you?
’ They picked up their glasses of Prosecco that Dilly had poured for them, which she’d placed carefully on the edge of the tub.
‘Here’s to good friends, happy days and helping each other to be the best versions of ourselves that we could ever possibly be! ’