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‘This is Jago Pengethley, new in town,’ Austin explained. ‘Jago, this is my granddaughter, Alice. She works in the café when she’s not at university.’
‘We’ve met already. Hi, Alice. Hope you’re not quite as busy as you were when I came in with Tom.’
‘Thankfully not.’ She grinned and then bent to croon at Ivy. ‘And who’s this little darling?’
‘Ivy. We adopted her from Tom as it happens. He’d taken her in at the sanctuary. She might say hello if you’re calm but she’s still quite nervous of strangers.’
Alice felt in the front pocket of her white apron. ‘Dog biscuit?’
‘Worth a try.’
She crouched down by the dog. After shying away, Ivy caught the scent of the treat, nose twitching. Alice held it in her palm and the dog decided to take it. She stood up, having given Gretel a biscuit too. ‘Nice to meet you again, Jago, and lovely to meet little Ivy.’ Taking her grandfather’s arm, she scolded him. ‘Now come on, Granddad, it’s icy out here and you’re frozen.’ As they made their way in the direction of the Sea Spray Café, she looked over her shoulder. ‘Can we tempt you too? I make a mean hot choc.’ She grinned, her dangly earrings bobbing back and forth.
Jago gazed at the brightly lit steamed-up windows of the café. As a shower of spray hit his neck like tiny needles, he could see how it got its name. He could smell the coffee and cake wafting over deliciously and was seriously tempted. ‘Not this time. I have something I have to do.’ He stood watching as they disappeared into the warm fug of the café. It seemed everyone either knew one another in this town or were related. The sight of young Alice looking after her grandfather so tenderly filled him with hope for the world. Hearing Ivy whimper and press herself shivering against his legs, he turned away. It might be the whisky in his blood giving him Dutch courage and he knew he was going against Verity’s advice to talk to Avril first, but he needed to do it. As Austin said, there was no time to fiddle-faddle about. He only had this one life, and it was his responsibility not to waste any of it. He owed his father that. Walking at a pace, before allowing himself to change his mind – and to warm himself and Ivy up, he strode in the direction of the brightly lit lifeboat station.
CHAPTER24
‘COZY LITTLE CHRISTMAS’ – KATY PERRY
Avril looked up as Alice steered an older man and a shaggy German Shepherd to a seat at a table in a warm corner, well away from the Knit and Natterers. She noticed one or two of the group wave, so assumed he must be local. Concentrating back on her knitting needles she navigated a tricky part of the pattern, frowning at it through her reading specs. Having conquered it, she sighed, put her knitting down and finished her cooling coffee.
‘Thank you for the flowers, Brenda,’ she said to the woman who was sitting next to her. Of everyone in the group, Brenda was the one she’d become closest to. Brenda had dropped off a bunch of pale pink tulips the evening before. Along with Tracy, she was beginning to count the two women as close friends – and was starting to feel slightly less new in town.
‘Oh you’re welcome, my lovely. They’re only a cheap bunch from the florists I picked up when I did my shopping but it’s always cheery to have flowers around at this time of the year. And I was down in town anyway.’ She dropped her voice. ‘Putting the garlands out on the railings.’
‘You were lucky not to get spotted.’
‘In that we were! We hid in the shelters on the front and nipped out in between the late-night dog walkers. Luckily, it was so cold there were few folk about. I felt like I was doing something downright naughty. Such a giggle.’
‘I had a quick look this morning. It looks fantastic and the lights will be really pretty when it goes dark. The holly leaves came out well. I was a bit worried I hadn’t got those quite right.’
‘They’re just the ticket, Avril, don’t you worry.’ Brenda chuckled. ‘I do think it’s fun, although it won’t be long before we’re rumbled.’
‘I don’t suppose it’ll take an Einstein to link a knitting group with the yarn-bombing.’
‘Is that what they’re calling it?’
‘Well, Merryn and Jago are calling us the Ninja Knitters. Not that they know I’m part of it all, mind you.’
Brenda put her needles down and began to giggle. She laughed until tears came. Then she whispered it to the rest of the group and they joined in with the laughter. ‘Oh, I love it. Never thought I’d be a ninja anything. Oh, that’s fair made my day.’ Picking up her knitting, she resumed. ‘And how is Merryn getting on?’
Avril considered the question. Her youngest child seemed to be okay. ‘She’s settled really well at the school. Had a lead role in the nativity. Her new teacher knows how to challenge her and trust me, it’s not easy with Merryn. I never know what she’s going to come up with next. Do you know she’s taken to quoting Shakespeare? She doesn’t know what half the words mean, of course, but she’s learned some off by heart.’
‘Golly, she must have a wonderful memory. Mine gets worse all the time.’ Brenda sighed and put her knitting down to drink tea. ‘I can remember lots about my childhood but ask me what I had for lunch yesterday and I simply couldn’t tell you.’ She grinned at Avril. ‘What’s started that all off? Does she want to act?’
‘She might. She certainly enjoyed all the attention she got from being on stage in the nativity, but I’m not sure. One minute she wants to run an animal sanctuary like Tom’s up at Lullbury Bay Farm, then this morning she declared she has her heart set on being a vet. So, who knows? Jago and I think the Shakespeare quotes thing might be because she had a book of quotations bought for her by my husband for her seventh birthday. It’s a link with him, I suppose. She badgered and badgered him for one, no idea why. Another of her whims. She’s got a butterfly mind, has my Merryn. Has bursts of enthusiasm for things which are all-consuming but brief.’
‘Well, she’s very young.’
‘Yes, not nine until February.’ Avril thought back to when she’d found out she was pregnant. ‘It was a bit of a shock falling pregnant at forty-six.’
‘Oh my lovely, I expect it was.’ Brenda shuddered. ‘I’d gone through the change and out the other end by that age. How did you cope?’
‘That’s what I thought it was. The menopause.’ Avril giggled. ‘Never occurred to me I might be pregnant.’ She finished her coffee remembering how she’d gone off it completely whilst pregnant with both Merryn and Jago. ‘I should have realised as soon as I couldn’t bear the smell of coffee.’
‘And you do like your coffee.’
‘This is very true.’
