'Arthritis, you say? I've got some herbs that'll help with that. You can pour your tea now. Supper will be ready in fifteen minutes and I'm sure I've got a bottle of wine somewhere. I can open that for you when we eat. I don't drink but I always keep a bottle handy in case anyone calls in.'
'Thank you. That's very kind. About the herbs and the wine. But please don't open a bottle just for me. I'll be fine with tea.'
'It's there to be opened. It's just a simple red. None of the fancy stuff. So you were saying, Cami's fit and healthy.'
'Yes. And she'll be sixty this year.'
'In September. The twenty-first, I believe.'
'Gosh. You remembered after all these years.'
'I never forget important things.'
Tabbie poured her tea. 'Is this lavender?'
'And honey. Always a popular choice and both from my garden.'
'You keep bees?'
'And they keep me.'
Tabbie took a sip. 'It's delicious.' She put her cup down and smiled at Aurelia. 'Mum's sixty this year, as I said, and I want to do something special for her. She's not really one for parties and although I've hinted at the idea of her going away, she's so well-travelled that I'm not sure there's anywhere she hasn't been. She also said that she'd rather stay at home and celebrate quietly. But I can't let it pass without doing something so I'm visiting all her friends, past and present – assuming they're still friends of course, but as Mum never falls out with anyone, they are. Apart from Dad. And he was never a friend, as such. But I digress. I'm asking all her friends to say a few words to her on video and I'm going to splice the clips together and make her a DVD and also keep copies in her cloud storage. Would you be happy to say a few words to her, on camera?'
'More than happy.'
'Oh no!' Tabbie leapt to her feet and headed towards the door. 'My camera's in the boot of my car. How could I have forgotten? It'll be ruined.'
'No dear. Come back and sit down. I asked the boys to retrieve your things from inside your car and from the boot. I've put your jumper, together with the clothes you were wearing, in the wash. Your bags are in my drying shed. And your camera's there too, along with some rice to help to dry it out. I believe I managed to get most of the water out. Luckily, not much water had managed to get into the boot. Probably due to the angle you went into my pond.'
'Oh gosh, thank you, Aurelia. But wasn't the car almost completely under water save for the roof?'
Aurelia smiled. 'It may have appeared so, but when the boys arrived, most of the boot was definitely above the water line. I think your camera will be almost as good as new.'
That seemed very doubtful but Tabbie didn't want to disagree. She hoped Aurelia was right. If the worst came to the worst though, she would simply have to revisit the friends she'd already filmed and ask to repeat the process with a new camera. There was no point in worrying about that now. What was done was done. Better to think about something else entirely for now.
'As I mentioned to “the boys” earlier, I'm very interested in history. I expect you've got several stories to tell, especially about your ancestor, Jennet de Witt. I'd love to hear them. Unless you'd rather not talk about her. I thought I detected a slight reluctance to elaborate and I completely understand. Our history is important to us and some people don't want to share that.'
Aurelia smiled and stood up to stir the pot above the fire with a long, wooden spoon which looked as old as Aurelia herself.
'Supper's ready.'
She walked towards the dresser and took two large bowls from the shelves and two forks and spoons from the drawer she passed on her way back to the table.
Aurelia clearly didn't want to talk about Jennet de Witt and Tabbie decided not to bring the subject up again. It would be impolite to pester, especially as a previously uninvited guest in Aurelia's house.
'Anything I can do to help?' Tabbie moved towards the pot.
'You can help yourself.' Aurelia handed her one of the bowls and smiled. 'Take as much as you want. There's plenty.'
Tabbie half-filled her bowl. 'I can always come back for more. Shall I fill your bowl too?' She placed hers on the table and reached out for the other bowl which Aurelia gave her.
'Thank you, dear,' Aurelia said, moving her chair a little closer to the table. 'Then I'll tell you a tale or two about Jennet. And about a few of my other ancestors. You may be particularly interested in my grandmother, Gosceline. She told everyone she was a white witch, and shortly after the First World War she cast a spell so that more boy babies than girls would be born here and also in the villages of Little Whitingdale, Little Stelling and Stellingfold Heights. Four out of every five babies born during the months of November, December and January each year would be male. It was because so many men from all the villages died during the war and when it ended there was a distinct shortage of males. Gosceline made sure that wouldn't happen again.'
Tabbie put Aurelia's bowl on the table in front of her and pulled her own chair to the table. It seemed Aurelia was happy to talk about Jennet and the rest of her ancestors, after all.
'Gosh. That's incredible. Do people believe the spell still works to this day?'
'All spells continue to work unless a time is placed on them to end.'
'Do you cast spells?'
'Rarely. I do get asked, from time to time, especially as we live in such troubled times, but I think of myself as semi-retired and I only cast a spell if it pleases me to do so.' She chuckled cheerfully but a moment later, a shadow seemed to fall across her eyes and her face took on a sombre expression. 'The thing is with spells and such, they don't always work out quite as one hopes. Especially if the person performing the spell makes a mistake. Even a tiny mistake can alter a spell with devastating effects. Oh gracious, don't look so concerned. I'm not talking about Gosceline, or myself for that matter. Some spells need to be cast by the person concerned. If they get it wrong and fail to follow the instructions they've been given to the letter, it can give them a result they hadn't expected.'
Aurelia coughed as if clearing something from her throat. Or an unpleasant memory of a spell gone wrong perhaps?
'Gosceline was a great … enabler,' Aurelia continued. 'One of the best. But even so, her spell changed the dynamics of the village today. There are several men born here who are now in their mid to late thirties but hardly any local women of a similar age. That meant, to even the numbers, women would have to come from outside. But Gosceline obviously thought of that because only one man born here is currently 'not spoken for' shall we say?'
'Just one?' Tabbie was disappointed.
'Yes.'
'Um. Who's that?'
Aurelia gave her a curious look as if she had something on her mind. But she smiled as she lifted a spoonful of stew towards her mouth and just before popping it in, she said: 'Justin, dear. But he says he's not staying here for long.' And she chuckled again, as she munched on her stew.
Chapter Five
'I'm the colour of a bar of milk chocolate and it's so hot here I'd melt if it wasn't for the fact our air-conditioned villa has a private pool.' Mia smiled even though Ella was on the landline phone at Sunbeam Cottage and couldn't see her. 'Not that we really need a pool. We've got access to a private beach which is about a minute's stroll away past a couple of coconut-laden palm trees.'
'It sounds horrendous.'
Mia gave a little laugh. 'The journey was pretty horrendous. Well, not horrendous exactly. Travelling First Class is anything but that, but it was long. Really long. Thirty-three hours, door-to-door.'
'Crickey! I still don't know why you and Jet wanted to travel nine and a half thousand miles to some private island in the middle of the Pacific for your honeymoon when Little Pondale has a perfectly good beach, and the village green is sort of like an island. Only greener. With a pond.'
'Yeah right.'
'Did it honestly take that long? Did you and Jet join the mile-high club? First Class has beds, doesn't it?'
Mia tutte
d good-naturedly. 'Yes, it took that long. Yes, there were beds. And no, we didn't. We didn't even have sex the night we arrived. We were both too tired. After the flight to Los Angeles we had a four-hour stopover, followed by a connecting flight from Tahiti to Bora Bora and then another flight to here. When they said we'd be travelling by Twin Otter, I half expected to see two of the furry creatures strapped together like the out-rigger canoes we spotted in Tahiti, until Jet told me it was an aircraft. But being in a small plane certainly gives you a spectacularly stunning view. And we made up for the missed sex the following morning.'
Mia had read that the flight over Bora Bora gave visitors one of the most beautiful vistas in the world, and it hadn't disappointed, but the final twenty-minute flight to Tetiaroa, the private island and home of the luxury eco-resort, The Brando, was something else. Looking down over the atoll into glistening, pristine waters, several differing shades of blue where manta rays, dolphins and flying fish, together with black-tipped reef sharks glided serenely amongst the coral, took Mia's breath away. No wonder the island's former owner, Hollywood legend, Marlon Brando after whom The Brando was named, fell in love with the place when he was filming Mutiny on the Bounty all those years ago.
'I bet you're missing Little Pondale no end. Although, we've had rain and storms and all sorts of peculiar weather since the day you left and it's been bloody chilly for June.'
'Funnily enough, I am. Just a bit. Not the rain though. Mainly missing you, and Mum, and everyone. But not enough to want to come home yet. Two more glorious weeks of spending my days basking in the sun, swimming in an impossibly clear, blue ocean surrounded by icing-sugar-white sand and gently swaying palms, and my nights in the arms of the sexiest, most gorgeous man alive. I can't believe I got this lucky.'
'I can't believe you got him to agree to leave his beloved farm for a month. If anyone ever doubted how much Jet Cross loves you, that alone should set them straight.'
'He tells me he's not missing it much at all, but I know for a fact he called Franklin two days after we arrived. But to be fair, I did ask him to. Justin's great and I know he's been Jet's best friend for ever and ever, but I was a bit worried about leaving him in charge of Little M, let alone helping out with a herd of cows, four reindeer and a barnful of chickens. Especially now he's a Hollywood film star.'
Ella coughed lightly. 'Yeah. You could've slapped my face with a wet kipper when I heard he was staying for the duration of your honeymoon. What is that about? Someone said all the media coverage and paparazzi intrusion gets on his nerves, but it sort of goes with the territory of fame and fortune and he signed up for that. Has Jet said anything about why Justin wanted to stay on?'
'Nope. I know as much as you. Justin asked Jet shortly before our wedding if he could stay at the farmhouse while we were away, and as it saved Mum looking after Little M, and meant an extra hand to replace Jet on the farm, it seemed like a no-brainer. Jet says Justin merely wants a break from the bright lights and non-stop partying.'
'There's no better place to get away from all that stuff than Little Pondale.' Ella laughed but only for a second, her voice taking on a serious, almost melancholy tone. 'It's still weird each time I bump into him. I thought Gill might be jealous, but he's not.'
'Oh? Does he have anything to be jealous about? You got over Justin a long time ago, didn't you? You were even the one who broke it off, really, although I know Justin was leaving in any event.'
'Yeah. But Justin looks twice as gorgeous now than he did when we were dating. Or perhaps it's the fame and fortune that make him more attractive. I don't know. But I can't help wondering whether we'd get back together – even for just a fling – if I wasn't with Gill. I'm not saying I want a fling with Justin. I love Gill, don't get me wrong. It's just that … well … I'm not sure about the future.'
Mia sat upright and swung her legs over the side of the sun lounger, burying her toes in the soft white sand. 'The future with Gill, you mean? Are you having doubts about him? I thought you two were for life.'
'So did I. But shortly after we waved you and Jet off, I made a joke about how lucky you two were to be spending a month on a private island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and that he and I would be lucky to have a honeymoon in Margate, and he went all weird on me.'
'All weird? How?' Mia took the rainbow-coloured cocktail the personal butler had brought her on a tray, and smiled at him before returning her attention back to Ella.
'He sort of coughed and the colour drained from his face. Then he fiddled with his glasses, like he does when he's troubled by something, and he asked me why I'd said that. I told him it was a joke and he frowned and coughed again and said: “Oh okay.” And he sounded relieved, Mia. As if the thought of us getting married was upsetting to say the least. Every time I mention your wedding, or your honeymoon or stuff, he changes the subject. Bree and Garrick had dinner with us the other night and Bree asked me to help her with her own wedding – which was bloody strange because she's the wedding planner, not me, and she's got three assistants now, but anyway – Gill paled immediately and when Bree asked if she should save a date for a certain other couple's wedding, Gill said that he didn't know of anyone else in the village who had any plans to get married.'
'Hmm. That is weird. Perhaps he's nervous about it. But you've only been together since last October so there's no rush, is there?'
Ella tutted loudly. 'Says the woman who's just married the man she started dating … last October.'
'Point taken. But I'd known Jet since May.'
'Ah yes. Four months makes such a huge difference.'
'Okay, okay.' Mia sipped her cocktail. 'Oh my God. I wish you were here, Ella. This cocktail is orgasmic. You'd love it.'
'I wish I were there too. Although Jet might not be so pleased to see me. Where is he anyway?'
'He's taking a shower before lunch.'
'And you're not in there with him? Has the passion cooled now you're married?' Ella laughed.
'If anything, it's increased. Which I didn't think was possible. But I wanted to call you because I keep forgetting you're eleven hours ahead and if I hadn't called now it'd be another day until we talked.'
Ella yawned, as if to emphasize the fact that it was eleven p.m. in Little Pondale. 'Yeah. I was beginning to think you'd forgotten your best friend. We've never gone so long without speaking every day. I'm just glad you've found the time amongst your non-stop schedule of sun, sea and sex to phone me.'
'Sun, sea, sex and alcohol. Actually, there's quite a bit to do here. Tetiaroa may be small but The Brando has thirty-five villas, so we're not completely alone even though we hardly ever see anyone. There're two gourmet restaurants, two bars, a fitness centre, swimming pool, library, tennis court, a boutique, and an out of this world spa that's built over a freshwater pond. Not to mention a shop that sells beautiful jewellery made from exquisite black pearls, one or two items of which I may or may not be bringing back with me for a certain best friend.'
'Black pearls? Oh Mia. I'll love you forever if you do.'
'You'll love me forever even if I don't. But I will. Anyway, apart from all the swimming, sunbathing and spa treatments, we've taken excursions to other islands – all of which are miles away. We've been to Bora Bora and yesterday to Tahiti. We didn't get time to see much of either of them between flights so it was great to do both. Bora Bora's beautiful but so is Tahiti – and it's larger so there's more to do. The Botanical Gardens make my garden look pathetic. The Gauguin Museum's small but interesting. Like me.' Mia gave a little laugh and took a sip of her cocktail.
'Who told you that?' Ella laughed too.
'Shut up. Where was I? Oh yes. We went to Point Venus and saw the Monument Tower, which was built in honour of Captain Cook, and the Bounty Memorial in memory of the HMS Bounty. I've learnt so much. It was actually quite humbling to think those famous captains – Samuel Wallis, James Cook and William Bligh had all stood where I was standing, or thereabouts, in the 1700s.'
'Didn't
the locals murder Captain Cook? No wait. That was on Hawaii, not Tahiti. Sea captains are not my Mastermind subject of choice. But as an editor, writers are. Several famous writers spent time in Tahiti you know. Robert Louis Stevenson lived there. W. Somerset Maugham wrote The Moon and Sixpence, which I'm sure was loosely based on Gauguin's life when he lived there. But he was an artist. Who else? Ah, Herman Melville, Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. Jack London travelled there aboard the Snark.'
'Yes. We heard a bit about all of them. And it took them a lot longer than thirty-three hours to get here. I don't envy them their journeys.'
'Ooh! And did they mention Rupert Brooke? I'm sure they did. He's supposed to have found true love there but I'm not sure how true that love was. He left his Tahitian lover when he returned to England. The git. I wonder if Gill's love for me is that kind of True Love. I'm telling you now, Mia, if the little sod leaves me, I'll never love again. And nor will he. Because I'll throttle him.'
'I'm sure Gill has no intention of leaving you, so stop worrying.'
'That's easy for you to say. Only a couple of hours ago he came home and talked virtually non-stop about some woman called Tabbie who'd driven her car into Aurelia Jenkins' pond.'
'What? I bet Aurelia wasn't pleased about that. Was anyone hurt?'
'Apparently not. Franklin, Justin and Gill had to go and help get it out though and when Gill came home it was all “Tabbie this and Tabbie that”. And that's another thing. I thought he'd only met Aurelia once but he says he's seen her a few times.'
'Does that matter? You don't tell him how often you bump into everyone, do you? But what else did he say about this Tabbie? What was she doing near the pond in the first place? Witt's Cottage is a bit off the beaten track. To end up in the pond means either this Tabbie was dreadfully lost or–'
'She was going to see Aurelia. Her mum's a friend of Aurelia's apparently. Anyway, you don't want to hear about all that now. I'll email you. It'll give you something to read while you're lounging in the sun.'
Secret Wishes and Summer Kisses on Lily Pond Lane Page 4