Beach Hut Surprise: Escape to Little Piddling this summer — six feel-good beach reads to make you smile, or even laugh out loud

by Libertà Books

  Chapter Six

  "What would you like to drink, Rose?"

  "I can recommend something cool and refreshing from my cellars," said another voice.

  Rose looked up at the man standing beside her.

  "Henry Dumaine, Miss Redmayne."

  "Ignore him," Daniel said. "If you drink his wine, he doubles his profit. Next thing we know, he'll be buying the brewery."

  Rose smiled. "Another time, Henry. It's been a long and eventful day and I haven't eaten more than a couple of ice creams since breakfast. If I drink anything even remotely alcoholic, I'm likely to fall asleep with my face in my food, so I'll stick to a pineapple juice topped up with fizzy water."

  "On the house," Henry said to the young woman who was hovering to take their order. "And a pint of best bitter for our gallant coxswain," he added, taking a chair from an adjacent table and sitting down.

  "Thanks for the drinks, Henry. But you don't have to stay and watch us drink them."

  "Arthur called me this afternoon, Rose," he said, ignoring the encouragement to leave. "I can call you Rose?"

  She conceded the familiarity with a nod.

  "I've been thinking about some radical alterations to the wine bar and he suggested I talk to you."

  "That's very sweet of him, but how did you know I'm Rose Redmayne?"

  "Arthur told me that you were staying at Flo's and, when I called and asked for you, Flo told me that you were here with Daniel."

  "The joys of small-town living—"

  "—are overrated," Daniel said.

  Rose handed Henry her card. "Why don't you give me a call tomorrow and we can fix a time to talk through some ideas?"

  "I'll do that," he said, getting up. "And, by the way, the baked crab is superb."

  "I'll settle for that," she told the waitress.

  "Your usual steak, Daniel?"

  "Thanks, Lucy."

  When she'd gone, Daniel shook his head. "How long have you been in town, Rose?"

  "A little over twelve hours and already I have a potential client."

  "Oh, I think Henry has his sights set a little higher than that."

  "Then I'm afraid he's going to be disappointed. I never mix business with pleasure."

  "That's a sound rule, especially around Henry," he said.

  "What about Arthur?"

  "Arthur, too?"

  "I'd speculate that there's a shortage of eligible women in town, but the photographs in your beach hut would suggest otherwise."

  "You made yourself at home when you were washing the dishes?"

  "They were hard to miss in such a small space."

  "Janine is my cousin and Molly is a member of the lifeboat crew, as is her husband. I'm sure he was in the background of that photograph."

  "And the third?"

  "You counted?" He shrugged. "Sarah was offered a job in Hong Kong. She wanted me to go with her, but I couldn't leave Little Piddling."

  "And she couldn't stay?"

  "It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

  "I'm sorry."

  "There comes a time in all relationships when you have to make the big decision. It was the right one for us. What about you?"

  "The big decision?" She pulled a face. "Does putting his stuff into black plastic bags, leaving them outside and changing the locks count?"

  "He cheated on you?"

  "Thanks for sounding so surprised. To be honest," she said, "the fact that he wouldn't take time off to come with me to Dad's funeral hurt more, which tells you everything you need to know." She shrugged. "I should have ended it sooner, but when you're busy, it's easier to stay in a relationship that has gone past its sell-by date than face the upheaval. He did me a favour."

  "If that's even part of the reason you're here, he did us all a favour."

  "I'm glad you think so. What do you do, Daniel? Apart from volunteer for the lifeboat and do good work on the town council."

  "I work with my dad. He has a boatyard on the far side of the bay. I design the boats and we have a team of craftsmen to build them."

  "Is there much demand for custom-built boats?" she asked.

  "There's always a demand for quality," he said. "People don't pay you to paint their houses in magnolia."

  She laughed. "That's true."

  "Have you sewn up the beach hut deal, yet?" he asked.

  "Your mother didn't tell you?"

  "I haven't seen her today. I have my own place, just around the corner."

  "That's convenient."

  "Yes."

  As they looked at each other across the table, there was a mute acknowledgement of the possibilities that was broken only by the arrival of Lucy with their drinks and cutlery.

  "Thank you, Lucy," Rose said, just a little breathless. Then, when she'd gone, "I made an offer on the beach hut and it was accepted. I've even made a start on cleaning it up. How did your day go?"

  "Better than average. I met a lovely young woman and was getting to know her, but then my pager went off and I had to dash off."

  Not before he'd made a date. Daniel Black was fast in every sense of the word.

  "I wasn't sure what to do when you left. I didn't want to shut Nigel out of your hut in case he needed the shade. I hoped he was big enough to make anyone think twice."

  "You did absolutely the right thing."

  "Can I ask what happened? Why you were called out?"

  "A local man out sailing with his wife had a heart attack. Fortunately, she was able to perform CPR until we arrived with a defibrillator. He's going to make it, but it was a close call."

  "That's a good day in anyone's books. How long have you been a member of the lifeboat crew? Henry called you the coxswain. Isn't that like the captain?"

  He nodded. "My dad was the cox until his leg was crushed during a rescue. I joined the crew as soon as I was old enough."

  "Is he OK? Your dad?"

  "They managed to save the leg, but he frets when a call goes out. It was his life."

  "But hard on your mother. She must have worried about him every time he went out." She took a sip of her drink. "I know for a fact that she worries about you."

  "Oh? Did she say something?"

  "It was more in the look she gave me. She seemed to think that I was some Internet hussy with wicked designs on her boy."

  "Oh, please, let that be true."

  Oh, lord...

  Rose took a long, cooling swig of her drink and said, "Arthur was happy to let me make a start on cleaning the hut."

  "He didn't volunteer to help?"

  "His partner was at a country-house sale so he couldn't leave the office," she said. "I spent the afternoon straightening the door, changing the lock and removing my bodyweight in cobwebs. I'll start stripping out the cupboards tomorrow..." She was talking too much and was relieved to see their food arrive. "Oh, that looks so good."

  Lucy made sure they had everything they needed, then left them to it and, for the first time in weeks, Rose ate with enjoyment.

  "Wow," she said, sitting back a little while later. "I haven't eaten that much in weeks."

  "It's the sea air."

  "Actually, I think it was the ice cream."

  He thought about it for a moment, then said, "No. You're going to have to explain that."

  "I would if I could, but actually I don't understand it myself." She didn't understand a lot of things that had happened recently.

  Apart from some seriously wicked ideas about what she might do with Daniel Black. They were very clear indeed.

  "Shall I bring the dessert menu?" Lucy asked, as she cleared the table.

  Rose was giving it serious thought when Arthur saw her and made a beeline for their table.

  "Flo told me you were here, Rose." He nodded at Daniel. "Good job today, cox."

  "Arthur..." Daniel's acknowledgement had the barest touch of warning.

  "I won't stay," he promised. "I've just got a couple of things to tell Rose."

  Daniel raised a hand
in surrender, but said, "Next time we're going out of town."

  Next time?

  Rose struggled to contain the smile threatening to break out all over her face and said, "I'm about to decide on dessert, Arthur, so can you make it quick?"

  "Of course. First, I may have found somewhere that has everything you want and a bit more."

  "How much more?" Daniel asked, irritably.

  "It's attached to a shop," Arthur continued, ignoring him, "but the owner is having cash flow problems so he might be prepared to do a deal on a short let. The only problem is that it's in Piddling Magna."

  "Why is that a problem?" Rose asked. "It looked a perfectly nice little town when I drove through. And it's—what?—five minutes in a car?" She glanced at Daniel for confirmation and he nodded.

  "Oh, it's nothing," Arthur said, reassuringly. "Just a bit of local rivalry. It started when smuggling was the lifeblood of the town back in the eighteenth century. The Little Piddlers charged a toll for those upstream to access the Piddle. There were incidents."

  "The Piddle?" Rose asked.

  "The River Piddle. It's silted up now."

  "And there were ruffled feathers," Daniel continued, "when Little Piddling decided to give itself a style upgrade and add sur Mer to its name—"

  Rose snorted.

  "It was not a laughing matter. Arthur's great-great-grandfather very nearly lost his job when someone changed all the new town signs to Little Piddling sur Merde."

  "Merde? But that's...!" She shook her head. "Gilbert and Sullivan would have had a field day, but what has this to do with Piddling Magna?"

  "It used to be called Much Piddling—"

  "No. Stop. No more." She held up both her hands. "There's only so much piddle one can take. Tell me about the property, Arthur."

  "It's detached. There's a big flat, a workshop and parking."

  "Is it the old forge?" Daniel asked.

  "Well, yes..."

  "We'll pick up the key in the morning and take a look."

  "Oh, but..." Daniel raised an eyebrow and whatever Arthur was going to say, he thought better of it. "Right. Tomorrow."

  "Arthur," Rose called as he backed away. "What was the other thing?"

  "Other thing?"

  "You said there were a couple of things? Is there a problem with the hut?"

  "What? Oh, no. Sorry... You were enquiring about the Graham family. I asked mother if she knew the name and she said there was a girl called Juliet Graham a couple of years below her at school. Her family had a beach hut."

  "Does she still live in Little Piddling?" Rose asked.

  "I'm afraid not. A little girl was swept out into the bay on a sunbed and Juliet was drowned trying to rescue her."

  Rose felt the colour drain from her face. Katy... "What happened to the little girl?"

  "I don't know. Sorry."

  "How to kill an evening, Arthur," Daniel said, grimly.

  Utterly confused by their reaction, Arthur said, "Yes. Sorry... I'll, um..."

  "Just bugger off!"

  "But there was something else—"

  "Now!"

  Daniel reached for her hand. "Rose? Are you OK?"

  "Yes... No..." Confronted by something she had, on some subconscious level, already known, she was still struggling with the reality. "Do you believe in ghosts, Daniel?"

  Chapter Seven

  "Let's get out of here." Daniel signalled to Henry that he was leaving and, having helped Rose to her feet, he headed for the door.

  "D-Daniel! We can't just walk out. We haven't paid the bill."

  He stopped, but only to take off his jacket and put it around her shoulders. Until she was surrounded by his warmth, she hadn't realised that she was shivering.

  "Henry knows I'm not going anywhere."

  "Of course not. You already said that you can't leave Little Piddling, but I want to pay my share," she said, concentrating on something tangible, something that she could understand.

  "You can pay for lunch tomorrow after we've checked out the Old Forge," he said, his arm around her as he guided her into the street. "Right now, we could both do with some air."

  "Where are we going?" she asked, as they crossed the square and turned the corner, but not in the direction of her B&B.

  "Nowhere," he said, punching in numbers on a keypad beside the front door of a four-storey town house. "We're here."

  Rose expected to find herself in the entrance of a flat conversion, but there were a couple of jackets and a dog lead on a stand in the entrance hall, boots and running shoes where they'd been kicked off. There was nothing to suggest communal living and she was just taking in the fact that Daniel's "place around the corner" was a rather fine house, when Nigel padded in from the rear.

  Daniel opened the door to a large living room and bent to light a gas fire. "I'm going to make tea and then you can tell me about your ghost. Take care of her, Nigel."

  Nigel wagged his tail as she slipped off Daniel's jacket and hung it beside the others, followed Rose to the sofa and then, once she was safely enveloped in soft leather, settled down over her feet like a warm comfort blanket.

  The sun had set and the light had nearly gone when Daniel returned with a couple of mugs. "Hot sweet tea for you," he said, handing one to her. "Good for shock."

  She tipped towards him as he sat beside her, and he put his arm around her and it felt like the most natural thing in the world. As if she'd known him all her life.

  She sipped the tea but it was the warmth of his body, the steadiness of his breathing, his patience, waiting until she was ready to talk, that calmed her until the shivering subsided.

  "This morning..." Had it only been this morning? She felt as if she'd been in Little Piddling forever. "When you thought you heard me talking to someone, you were right."

  "I didn't see anyone."

  "She was behind the hut door."

  "She?"

  "Jules. Katy's mother."

  Daniel drew her closer as her voice snagged on the word. "Jules?"

  "I didn't notice her at first. She was sitting behind the door and all I could see was a foot. I thought for a moment that she was a body, but when I moved the door she was just sitting there."

  "When did you realise that she was a ghost?"

  "I didn't. Not until Arthur... She was quite irritable. Asked me what had taken me so long. She called me 'Katy', too."

  "What did she look like?"

  "She was about my age, maybe a bit younger. She had dark curly hair. It was damp, as if she'd been in the sea and her mascara was running, but she had..."

  "Had what?"

  Rose swallowed. "I thought she looked familiar," she said, "and now I know why. It's because she looks like me."

  "You always looked like her, Rose."

  "Did I?" Just because it was all beginning to make some kind of crazy sense didn't make it any easier to believe. To accept. "There was a child's wet bathing costume..." And in that moment, the reality hit her. If Jules was her mother, the bathing costume, the bucket of shells, belonged to Katy.

  To her.

  "You knew!" She turned in his arm so that she could see his face. "You were just pretending to believe me when I said I was Rose."

  "I could see that you believed you were Rose," he said, "but yes, I had no doubt that you were Katy."

  "Jules wrote a postcard to my father." She pulled free and fished it out of her bag to show him.

  He looked at the picture then turned it over and read the message.

  "I don't know that address," Rose said. "I didn't understand why Dad would have kept it and I meant to throw it away, but it kept turning up."

  "I imagine that he always meant to tell you the truth."

  "When? I'm twenty-nine, for heaven's sake. And what is the truth? Jules told me that she was my mother but she's younger than me."

  "She was twenty-six when she drowned, Rose."

  A lump formed in her throat. "And Katy. How old was she? How old was I?"

&
nbsp; "Nearly eight. You were excited because you were going to get a new bike for your birthday."

  "I did," she said. "It was red, but I don't remember being here. I don't remember anything." She took a breath. "When I cleared my father's house there was a ton of stuff for the twins. Baby shoes, congratulations cards, baby handprints. It was as if every day of their lives had been filled with memories. But there was nothing of mine earlier than a photograph of me with the cake Mum had made for my eighth birthday."

  "Twins?"

  "Matt and Lisa. They're nearly six years younger than me but I don't remember Mum being pregnant, or her bringing them home. I only remember them as toddlers."

  "Didn't you ever ask?"

  "Dad told me that I'd had an accident, banged my head, but that isn't true, is it? Do you know what happened to me, Daniel?"

  "Only what I was told afterwards. I'd joined the Sea Scouts that year and I was at a sailing camp on Brownsea Island. My dad was in bits about it when I came back, wouldn't talk about it, but Mum knew I wouldn't give up asking where you'd gone."

  "I lived here?"

  "Yes. You and your mother lived with your Nanna Rose—"

  "In a pink house?"

  "You remember it?"

  "No... Yes... There's something..." A big pink house and a garden that looked out over the bay. "I had a swing," she said, "and if I sat on it, I could see the island."

  "I think your Mum and Dad met when he was working down here in the summer vac from uni."

  "And she had a baby? Where was he?"

  "They obviously kept in touch."

  "By postcard?" she demanded, then muttered an expletive as she realised its relevance. "The beach hut... That's where it happened. That's why he kept it."

  "It looks like it. Maybe she was the one who didn't want their relationship to be permanent, Rose. Or maybe she just didn't want to leave Little Piddling."

  "I was wrong about Gilbert and Sullivan," she said. "This place is more like Brigadoon. I'll bet if anyone born here ever leaves, it will disappear."

  "You left," he reminded her. "Mum told me that your Nanna broke down when she was told what had happened and you were barely conscious when you were picked up. Someone must have called your dad, because he collected you from the hospital and took you home with him."

  "To his wife and babies? She accepted me so completely, Daniel."