Summer at Hollyhock House
Page 30
‘Your parents won’t think we’re stealing their thunder, will they?’ she asked anxiously. ‘We can wait a day or two.’
‘No need to wait,’ Rik said. ‘They’ll be made up — my mum knows, obviously, because of the ring, and she’s over the moon. Although she said that as I wasn’t buying you one I should give you something else. What would you like?’
She thought for a moment. ‘You can get me a new bike if you like. Mine is falling to pieces.’
‘Done. Now let’s go and tell everybody before Minel drops that sprog and steals our thunder.’
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her.
In the distance, a lawn mower fired. A gust of gentle, high summer breeze drifted in through the open doors, bringing with it some stray dandelion seeds it had picked up on its way. The tarpaulin on the half-covered stack of bales rustled faintly and a few minute dust particles from the hay rose up into the air and joined the dandelion seeds in floating around them, spinning and twirling then, just before they dropped to the floor, hanging suspended around them, iridescent as they caught the glow from the light above, illuminated like tiny specks of stardust.
Enjoyed Summer at Hollyhock House? Join the Sapere Books’ mailing list for the latest releases, eBook deals, author news, and much, much more!
SIGN UP HERE
NOTE TO THE READER
Dear Reader
If you’ve made it this far, firstly I want to say a huge thank you for reading! I really hope you enjoyed Summer At Hollyhock House. It’s been such a pleasure to share with you the adventures of the gang at Hollyhocks and I hope you adored them all as much as I did.
The characters in this book aren’t based on real people, but they have been informed and inspired by many I have met along the way while navigating my own journey. In particular I wanted to take a moment to pay tribute to somebody who was part of my inspiration for the character of Rik. Like Faith and the gang I grew up in a small village in the heart of the countryside, where everybody knew everybody. It was overwhelmingly, exceptionally white. Other than one of my friends, a boy I attended primary and then secondary school with.
I met Chris Lowe when we were both five. At that age the fact he was mixed-race was a non-issue. Race remained a non-issue for me, a white girl growing up in a white world. Chris’s experience was very different. I can’t speak for him, I can only speak for what I witnessed of him.
When I was creating the character of Rik, I was thinking about boys I knew during my formative years, and wondering what defined the boys you wanted to cross that line with, to go from friends to something more? And the first person I thought of Chris, because all the girls wanted to cross that line with him. His race was a factor, one of the reasons he stood out, an obvious physical differentiator along with his beauty, and his charisma. But what really defined him wasn’t the colour of his skin, it was his ownership of it. He had the courage to wear dreadlocks to school at the age of 13 – a school with a population of 1,000 white kids, and just a handful from any other ethnic origin. For a teenage boy, let alone a teenage boy who is visibly and notably different, he had an incredibly developed sense of self, an unshakeable confidence and knowledge of who he was. He was the leader, the most iconic to all of us, he was the coolest, the edgiest, at times the naughtiest, but he was always the boy we all wanted to be around. He had a wicked – in both senses - personality and a beautiful soul.
I’m writing about Chris in the past tense because he tragically died at the age of nineteen. It’s been nearly twenty years since he left. I still remember him, the very essence of who he was, like it was yesterday. Once or twice I have dreamed about him and he’s unchanged. He will forever be a teenage boy to me. Part of him is truly frozen in time.
The character of Rik isn’t based on Chris and his racial heritage is different, but some of his individuality, his differentiating characteristics, were inspired by the Chris that I knew. As was one particularly entertaining scene between Rik and Faith – but not one that made the final cut. You can thank my wonderful editor Amy Durant for sparing you that.
If you enjoyed Summer At Hollyhock House, I’d love it if you left a review on Amazon or Goodreads, so others can find the book and enjoy it too. I’d also love it if you came and chatted with me on Instagram or Twitter or dropped by my website www.cathybussey.com.
I adore hearing from people who have read my books. You’re my greatest inspiration, and I hope to be entertaining you with gorgeous happily-ever-afters set in the magical English countryside for many years to come.
With love
Cathy x
Published by Sapere Books.
11 Bank Chambers, Hornsey, London, N8 7NN,
United Kingdom
saperebooks.com
Copyright © Cathy Bussey, 2018
Cathy Bussey has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events, other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales are purely coincidental.
eBook ISBN: 9781912546527