by Isabella May
***
River squeezed Alice’s hand. He took a deep breath and started up the ignition.
“So… where are we driving to now, James?”
“God, you are starting to sound Somerset again.”
They both giggled at that, the relief enveloping the Citroën and themselves in a warmth that suggested the craziest, biggest bridge they would ever come to know in their relationship, had been crossed now. Those Three Billy Goats Gruff; Lennie, Blake, Georgina – four he supposed if you counted Tamara and her handiwork, far behind them.
“Actually, that might come in handy… Somerset… Cornish, they’re kind of the same.”
“I’m not so sure anybody from Cornwall would agree with you there,” said Alice.
“We could always put it to the test, what do you say?”
“We are going to Cornwall? Do you mean to say that was the surprise?”
“One of the surprises... I hear there might be a pub up for sale in that general kind of direction… a pub in need of a little cocktail bar conversion… which might just happen to be in the same village as some buildings commonly referred to as stables… with a gert lush farmhouse attached to them besides.”
“Now you’re going all Bristolian on me… and no, no, you aren’t serious… Oh, River, I—” Alice’s eyes filled up with tears.
“I think we’ve both been holed up in that caravan too long, and we’ve both put other people’s happiness first for too long.” Of the latter, River was surer than he’d ever been about anything in his life. “Time to treat ourselves now, I can’t promise I’m going to be the lucky bidder, but I’m sure as hell going to give it my best shot… kind of helps knowing your dad has offered to counterbid, should the offers exceed my retainer.”
“Daddy’s what?”
“He’s popping down next week… your mother’s blissfully unaware though… so Mum really is the word.”
“Ha,” said Alice with a smile. “That’ll be easy on my part… I’m just delighted to think he’s finally making contact, even if it is behind her back. Sometimes I wish it had been Mummy and Tamara in one house, Daddy and me in another. Family dynamics would have been a whole lot better that way.”
“If there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that we don’t choose our families… well,” Heather’s reminder flashed before him, “at least not when we’re in this physical incarnation.”
“Que sera sera. Let’s look to the future now.” Alice’s grin grew wider at the very idea.
And it was no ordinary grin, but that legendary spellbinder of hers, the one that had broken Blake’s heart, the one that had broken too many wooden jerks of an actor’s hearts, but the one that hopefully wouldn’t do the same to River’s.
She couldn’t have sounded more like Mercedes when she said that, and that had to stand his vulnerability in good stead, at the very least – the rest he’d make up as he went along. Yet those three simple Spanish words were as true in his life and Alice’s, as they were in anybody else’s, be it a question of labour or love, Blake or Georgina, the world’s most off-the-wall-and-all-the-more-beautiful-for-it taxi driver, or heck, even the Rigby-Chandlers.
Except in English they translate to five words: what will be, will be.
River Jackson would take it one step further than that though: when we want something so badly that we’re scared it might consume our very soul, and then we surrender to that soul’s dark night; when we get out of our own way and stay there just a little while, finally, one morning we rise to see that the universe had our back all along, the dark clouds have parted, the sun is shining, and we have arrived at that perfect place.
THE END
Tor In The Mist – created by Vanessa Couchman
Ingredients:
Somerset Apple Brandy
Somerset Apple Juice
Mint sprigs arranged to look like trees
1 pellet of dry ice (frozen CO2) to make it fog
One of the most dazzling creations in River Jackson’s bar, no visit to Glastonbury is complete until you have sampled a Tor In The Mist. This liquid sensation is guaranteed to take Instagram, and the Glastonbury Festival foodie stands by storm, in the year that is 2018.
*Dry ice should never be handled directly, but picked up with tongs!* The pellet drops to the bottom of the glass and dissolves before the drinker can get to it (unless they are a very thirsty drinker…).
Avalon Amber – created by Ailsa Abraham
Ingredients:
Somerset Apple Juice
Gingerbread Spice Cordial
This non-alcoholic cocktail (the only teetotal brew to be found in The Cocktail Bar), is a simple yet complex concoction comprising of locally grown Somerset apples, with a tot of gingerbread spice cordial for that wickedly subtle hint of spells!
It tastes sublime and is best supped on a cold winter’s afternoon in front of a roaring log fire, preferably accompanied by a book about ley lines or crystals or shamanism.
The Magical Mañana – created by Isabella May (with a little help from River Jackson)
Ingredients:
1 measure Tequila
1 measure Sherry
Freshly squeezed Orange Juice to taste
10 globules of high quality Spring Water… and a belief in magic
Muddle everything together and wait for miracles to happen!
Thank you for reading this Crooked Cat novel. If you have enjoyed it, we and the author would be grateful for a review. Thank you.
Find other thrilling reads at www.crookedcatbooks.com!
Table of Contents
Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4
Section 5
Section 6
Section 7
Section 8
Section 9
Section 10
Section 11
Section 12
Section 13
Section 14
Section 15
Section 16
Section 17
Section 18
Section 19
Section 20
Section 21
Section 22