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Chapter 1
Lili heard the tinkle of the bell above the shop door. She’d put theOpensign in the window and had just nipped upstairs to the flat to put the kettle on. She thought everyone who came would want a drink. She’d bought biscuits too and had tried her hand at making a cake. She looked at the chocolate sponge, which she had cut into slices and put on a plate. The sponge had sunk a bit in the middle, but it had turned out okay considering that baking wasn’t really her forte.Neither is running an antique shop, she thought as she laid out the cups and saucers on a tray.
‘They’re here!’ Maisie called out, poking her head up the stairs.
‘Okay, I’ll be down in a minute.’ A feeling of déjà vu swept over Lili as she stood in the small kitchenette of the two-bedroomed flat above the old antique shop in Cobblers Yard. The last time she’d made tea and coffee for her guests downstairs, it had been an impromptu gathering of the owners of the shops in the cobbled square, and she’d made do with a hastily bought selection box of biscuits.
Cobblers Yard was located off the main street in the seaside town of Aldeburgh on the Suffolk Coast, where Lili had gone for a holiday. Lili hadn’t meant to stay in a flat above a shop for her holiday – and certainly not with everyone in the little community of shops under the impression that she was a good friend of the owner, Joseph, who had ended up in hospital after a fall. It was all a bit of a misunderstanding that Lili had failed to correct.
Lili sighed as the kettle boiled, wondering again how she had got herself into this fix. Her holiday, which had been planned as a romantic break away from London with her boyfriend, Alex, had turned into anything but romantic. It hadn’t been her fault, though. She reminded herself of this, thinking of her best friend, Hannah.
Footsteps thumped up the stairs, interrupting her thoughts. Hannah’s daughter, Maisie, whom Lili had brought with her on holiday, ran into the kitchen. ‘Sarah and William have arrived.’
‘Okay, sweetheart. I’ll be down in a minute.’
‘Hurry up. We’re waiting to get started.’
‘All right, all right. Tell them I’ll be down in a sec.’ Lili stared after her. The situation wasn’t Maisie’s fault either. She was the innocent party in all this. Maisie was eight years old, and Lili had been looking after her, on and off, since she was born. She had looked after Hannah a great deal too. Lili’s boyfriend, Alex, had put up with Lili’s wayward best friend for several years as Hannah flitted in and out of relationships, crashing on their sofa with her little girl when things did not work out. A fortnight earlier, though, it had all come to a head.
Lili poured boiling water into cups, wishing she could put that day out of her mind. The trouble was, she couldn’t. Alex had barely been in touch since the massive row they’d had before she’d left London. Little wonder. He must have been looking forward to the week in an atmospheric hotel, The Harbour Inn on the Suffolk coast. Lili sighed. The trouble was that Hannah had chosen that day to stage another one of her impromptu appearances. She had dumped Maisie on Lili before jetting off with her boyfriend to Barbados on what she had calleda ‘make-or-break’ holiday. As usual, things hadn’t been working out with her current beau.
And, as usual, Lili had not had it in her heart to refuse her. Unfortunately, for Alex it had been the final straw. He had thrust the train tickets and hotel booking details at Lili, telling her to take Maisie instead – and hinting that she shouldn’t bother coming back.
They had been together for six years. During the week at the hotel, Lili had eventually phoned Alex.She hadn’t planned to, but Hannah had been in touch to tell her she had extended her trip. Lili hadn’t been all that surprised; it had happened before, when she’d ended up looking after Maisie for the entire school holidays. This time around had been different. At the point when Hannah had called to say she’d extended her break, Lili had had nowhere to go. All the holiday rentals in the vicinity had already been booked for the summer, and she hadn’t thought that Alex would have her back with Maisie in tow.
That was when serendipity had stepped in, and she’d met the lovely people from Cobblers Yard.
Lili poured milk into two cups of tea, and a dash into the coffee for Ray. She added two tall glasses of juice to the tray, along with the cake and biscuits, and headed out of the door. Carrying the tray with both hands, Lili carefully walked down the stairs and entered the antique shop, smiling at Sarah and William, who were already seated on stools at the old-fashioned wooden counter.
‘Tea for you, Sarah.’ Lili handed her the mug.
‘And a juice for William.’ She smiled at Sarah’s six-year-old grandson as she passed him a glass of orange juice.
Maisie took the other glass before taking a seat too. Lili picked up her tea and glanced at the coffee. ‘Where’s Ray?’
Sarah frowned. ‘I expect he’ll be along in a moment.’
Lili caught the frown. It wasn’t because he was late. It was because he was coming at all. Sarah and Ray were meant to be getting divorced. They’d had the papers for five years – or so the story went, according to the resident rumour mill in the shape of two widowed sisters next door in the charity shop. Sarah and Ray still hadn’t got round to finalising it.
Lili had heard that Sarah and Ray had previously lived in London but had split up when they retired. Ray had followed Sarah to Aldeburgh and had even leased an art shop in Cobblers Yard – right opposite the flower shop that Sarah ran – just so that he could be near her. Ray was Sarah’s biggest customer; he went in to buy her flowers every day. Lili thought it was incredibly romantic.
She glanced at Sarah’s face and knew she saw it differently. Lili guessed Sarah felt Ray was being a nuisance, and she could tell Sarah didn’t want him to turn up at the antique shop that day. He was not going to be there for Sarah, though, but to help Maisie with her amber jewellery, which had become a bit of a hit with the tourists. The necklaces, rings and brooches were being snapped up as souvenirs from The Amber Coast – perhaps because people didn’t expect to see jewellery in an antique shop. Lili thought it might also have to do with the prices. There was an amber jewellery shop up the road in another coastal town. Their pieces, although made with much more expensive materials, were also much more costly. Maisie’s were handmade and individual but were a fraction of the other shop’s price.
Lili and Maisie had met Sarah and her grandson, William, at a little café in Aldeburgh on the first day of their holiday. They’d visited the café after spending time on the beach amber-hunting.
Maisie had discovered several pieces while foraging along the pebble beach. In the café, Sarah had noticed them and directed them to Ray’s art shop so they could buy a jewellery-making kit and Maisie could turn her little amber pieces into something that could be worn.
That had marked Lili and Maisie’s first visit to Cobblers Yard and the start of a chain of events that had led them to rent the little flat above the antique shop and to run Joseph’s business while he was in hospital.
