We grab a couple of stools and I plant two cocktails on the high table. A Sea Breeze for me and for Tamsin something called a Cutthroat, presumably because it’s lethal.
‘Oh, thanks, hun. I need this,’ says Tamsin.
‘My treat. It’s the least I could do after the free treatments. You know, I could get used to being pampered,’ I say with a sigh. It’s been ages since I had a night out with Tamsin. Running a business is brilliant, but there’s so much to do, I could spend every moment at work.
Tamsin giggles. ‘I do my own treatments. I only twitch and keep wanting to criticise if I visit other therapists. I guess we all have our own ways that we think are the best ones.’
‘I’m the same about food now. If I eat out at another cafe, I can’t help thinking how I’d have seasoned or presented the dish differently – or about adapting the ideas for Demelza’s.’
We’ve already chatted a little about the cafe while Tamsin was doing my treatments. Even though I was supposed to be relaxing, we couldn’t help talking ‘shop’. I take a long sip of my Sea Breeze through the straw, trying not to think of how well it would accompany the themed food nights I plan to set up next summer. The combination of the vodka and tangy grapefruit and cranberry juices is totally addictive. We have a licence to serve alcohol with meals, but we’re just stocking a small range of locally brewed beers and some Cornish wines at the moment, so I daren’t run before we can walk.
‘You look like you needed that cocktail, my facial obviously didn’t work its magic,’ Tamsin says. ‘How’s things at Demelza’s?’
‘OK. Fine. Exciting. A bit scary when it goes quiet and when it gets too busy, but it’s my dream.’
‘Sounds normal to me. I was petrified when I left the country club spa to set up my own business.
‘Were you?’
‘Yup, kept wondering if I was mad, could I cover the rent on this place, would I make enough to pay my suppliers, would I get sued if something went wrong, would I have to move back to my parents if it all went pear-shaped.’
‘The Cades don’t own your building, do they?’
‘Oh, no, thank goodness. They don’t own everything in town, it only feels like it. Have they been giving you any more trouble since the summer? I heard Mawgan was on the Harbour Lights committee.’
‘She is, but she hasn’t done anything to us since she changed her mind about buying Kilhallon.’
‘Miraculous. Thank God she decided it wasn’t any good for her to develop.’
‘Mawgan bears grudges longer than the mafia. I’m still wondering what she might have in store for us – me, Cal and Kilhallon – next. Part of me expects her to release a plague of rats in the cafe or sneak mouse droppings into someone’s soup the day the hygiene inspector turns up. She has fingers in so many local pies … Hey, maybe she puts her enemies in pies like Sweeney Todd.’
Tamsin almost snorts her cocktail. She doesn’t realise I’m serious about Mawgan holding a grudge and, while I don’t think Mawgan would murder anyone, I do know a few of her weak spots and that makes her a very dangerous foe to have. Mawgan won’t have forgiven me for finding out how hurt she was by her mother’s affair with Cal’s father. I touched a very raw nerve when I brought up that subject. Even though she relented and allowed Andi and Robyn to move into one of her properties, she’ll be seething that my ‘chat’ with her had an effect.
‘What about Cal? How’s it going with him?’ Tamsin lobs this question in like a pebble in a previously tranquil rock pool. I need to let the ripples settle before I consider my reply.
‘OK. He’s my boss. You know what it’s like.’
‘He’s not just your boss, though, is he?’ Tamsin has a mischievous gleam in her blue eyes. ‘That’s the rumour around St Trenyan, anyway.’
‘Rumour? How can anyone possibly know what’s going on between me and Cal?’
‘Gotcha!’ Tamsin smirks.
‘Oh, God.’ I slurp my Sea Breeze while I think of how to reply and how much to reveal. I haven’t known Tamsin more than a few months, but she’s lived in St Trenyan all her life and has known Cal since their schooldays. I really like her and we’re getting to know each other much better, I’m just not sure I’m ready to share my – or Cal’s – intimate secrets with her yet. Although now Polly knows Cal and I are sleeping together, it might well be all over St Trenyan.
‘Cal and me – it’s complicated,’ I say, at a loss for any other way of describing it.
‘With Isla being on the scene, you mean? Or off it. She’s gone back to London, hasn’t she?’
‘For now, yes, but she’s bound to be back. I shouldn’t complain, really, because the shoot she did has paid very well and the publicity will be worth masses to us after the series airs next year.’
‘And?’
‘And … Cal, I just don’t understand him.’
‘I did warn you, hun. What’s he done now?’
‘He asked me to move into the farmhouse with him.’
‘Wow. That sounds serious.’
‘Hmm.’
‘And have you?’
‘No. No, like I said, it’s complicated. I do like him.’
‘Like?’
‘I like him a lot, but moving in is a big step. I’ve only just found my own place to stay. Me and Mitch, we value our independence and I feel I’m being dragged in deeper with a man who I don’t know well enough yet.’
‘And you’re scared that it’s going too fast?’
‘Not only that. More that if it ends – when it ends – it will hurt worse if I’m living with him. I need to keep that distance.’
‘I think you’re right, but Cal … when he falls, he falls hard, and I guess that asking you to move in is a biggie for him. You’re not still worried about Isla being a threat?’
‘Not a threat, exactly. I do believe he’s getting over her, but they’re still very close.’
‘Yes, but she’s off the scene now since she moved to London. She’s making a go of it with Luke from what I can work out, unless you know different?’
‘I saw her when she brought her film crew to Kilhallon. She didn’t say that much about Luke to me, but I got the impression they’re doing OK.’ For now, I remind myself.
‘So you don’t think the rumours that Luke was having an affair with Mawgan Cade were ever true?’ Tamsin says.
‘No … I don’t think he’d be that stupid, do you?’
Tamsin snorts. ‘Maybe not, but Mawgan definitely would if it suited her plans … Oh my God, talk of the devil. I thought we were safe in Sharky’s.’ Tamsin does a lemon-sucking face and nods at the entrance where Mawgan has just walked into the bar.
I groan. ‘Quick, let’s grab that booth in the corner so she can’t see us.’
‘OK, but I thought you weren’t scared of her?’ Tamsin says with a grin.
‘I’m not, I just don’t want any trouble.’
Even from here, I can hear Mawgan ordering drinks and laughing – it’s hard not to hear her as she likes to be the centre of attention in any establishment – but we can’t actually see her now and vice versa, with a bit of luck.
‘Wow. Is that her new boyfriend?’ Tamsin whispers, risking a none-too-discreet glance around the edge of the booth.
‘I dunno. I didn’t see who was with her. Please don’t look at her.’
Ignoring my plea, Tamsin cranes her neck around the corner of the booth. ‘I’m not looking at her, but he’s worth a second glance. He’s far too good for Mawgan!’
‘He must be mad or brave or both,’ I say, agreeing with Tamsin that most guys are too good for Mawgan, not because of any shallow thing about the way she looks, but because she’s a vindictive, malicious cow.
‘If I could only get my hands on those eyebrows,’ Tamsin says between giggles. ‘She’d look great if she went a bit more natural, but I suppose she loves the fake look.’
‘I saw her without any make-up on once,’ I say then wish I hadn’t because I’ve vowed – sworn in
blood – not to tell anyone what passed between Mawgan and me at her house earlier this summer.
‘Really? When was that? Had she come out of her coffin during the day, then?’
‘I was erm … passing her place and she was putting out the bins,’ I say, hoping Tamsin won’t realise my white lie. ‘She was wearing a leopard-print onesie and I hardly recognised her,’ I add, because this part of the story is at least the truth.
‘Putting out the bins in a leopard-print onesie? Actually, I can imagine that, although I’d have thought the Cades kept a team of servants to do their chores,’ says Tamsin, swirling the dregs of her Cutthroat with a swizzle stick then knocking it back. ‘I think we both need another cocktail to get over the shock.’
‘I agree but not in Sharky’s. The atmosphere’s gone way downhill for me. How the hell are we going to get out of here without Mawgan seeing us?’
‘Hmm. Could be a problem although … wait … Mawgan and the hottie are taking their drinks over to the VIP area in the corner. Now’s our chance.’
As I can’t see anything, I have to take Tamsin’s word for it. Grabbing my bag, I squeeze out of the booth while Tamsin checks the coast is clear. As we scuttle out, Mawgan’s voice carries right across the bar. She’s laughing – actually laughing – not cackling or sneering, which is her default setting when I’m around. Tamsin makes a dash for the exit and I follow but I can’t resist a glance round.
‘Oh my God!’ I nearly trip over in the doorway.
Tamsin stops at the bottom of the stairs leading up to street level. ‘What’s up?’
‘That man with Mawgan. I know him. Wait …’
Tamsin hisses at me as I hover in the entrance to the bar. ‘I thought you said you don’t want Mawgan to spot you.’
I crane my neck as a group of lads squeeze past me on their way inside. I have to know that my eyes weren’t deceiving me, even if Mawgan does see me, which isn’t likely because she only has eyes for the man opposite her. She leans forward, gazing into his eyes like a puppy waiting for a chew from its owner. I can’t see his face but I’d know that dark blond mane anywhere.
‘It’s Kit.’
‘Who?’
‘Kit Bannen,’ I tell Tamsin as we hurry up the steps and out into the street. ‘He’s renting a cottage at Kilhallon but I have no idea what he’s got to do with Mawgan.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
‘Let me get this right. You saw Bannen in town with Mawgan Cade?’
Cal stops dead when I deliver the news on Tuesday morning while unloading the delivery of craft beers and cider we’ve ordered for the Harbour Lights Festival a week on Friday. After I got a cab back from St Trenyan last night, I lay awake into the small hours, wondering whether to tell him about Kit, because it will only feed his prejudices, but decided it was one secret I couldn’t keep to myself.
‘Yes, in Sharky’s, that new bar off Fore Street.’
‘What the hell were they doing in there?’
‘Drinking together, I suppose. That’s the point. I don’t really know. I didn’t see him for more than a few seconds, but it definitely was him.’
‘And he was definitely with Mawgan, he didn’t just happen to have rocked up next to her at the bar by a piece of terrible luck?’
‘No. He walked into the place with her and they seemed chatty enough – according to Tamsin.’
Cal hisses. ‘My God. So they’re seeing each other?’
‘I don’t know about that. He didn’t exactly have his hand on her bum or anything, or at least he didn’t from the brief glimpses Tamsin got of him.’
‘Mmm. Did he see you?’
‘I don’t think so.’
He humphs and drags his fingers through his messy hair. He looks tired, but I’m hardly the brightest bunny myself after burning the candle at both ends for the past few weeks and partying last night. Tamsin and I went on to another bar, then for pizza and then to St Trenyan’s only club. I spent half the time wondering if Mawgan and Kit might walk in, but there was no sign of them. Cal was still up when I got home. I saw the lights on in the study window of Kilhallon House and it was after midnight. I crawled into bed, and was so tired that I didn’t even have the energy to push Mitch off my bed. Then I lay awake, wondering the same things as Cal.
‘He might have just bumped into her in town, you know. He is entitled to go out for a drink,’ I say.
Call rolls his eyes. ‘No one just bumps into Mawgan uninvited.’
‘She could have picked him up in the pub or a cafe. Stranger things have happened,’ I say, not believing it myself.
‘Yeah … but he’s not her type, surely?’
‘And she’s not his type.’
‘I don’t know what type he is …’ says Cal sharply then, as if he’s regretted his tone, adds, ‘In fact, we don’t really know what he actually does all day, do we?’
‘Writes his book, I suppose, and he goes out running and walking. He used to pop into the cafe and work on his laptop over a coffee, but he hasn’t been over lately. Funnily enough, he never has that much to say to me now.’ Yes, there is sarcasm in that comment, but I don’t care. Cal asked for it.
‘He never says anything to me at all and it didn’t look like he had nothing to say on Sunday morning. I saw you chatting to him for ages outside the cafe.’
‘Not for ages, it was just for a few minutes while I cleared the tables and he was only asking whether he could have a packed lunch while he went on a walk. In fact, he’s hardly spoken to me more than a couple of times since Mitch was lost in the fog. Anyway, how do you know? Have you been spying on me?’
He rolls his eyes. ‘You’re being paranoid. I never spy on people.’
I snort.
‘Don’t start a fight.’
‘Me? You started it when you warned Kit to back off from me after Mitch went missing and broadcasted to the world that we were sleeping together.’
He looks at me with those intense dark eyes and I have to admit, longing stirs low in my stomach. ‘Were sleeping together is the problem,’ he says softly. ‘I really miss you, Demi. Come back to the house. Polly knows now, so there’s no need to sneak about. We can’t go on avoiding each other and not talking about it.’ He continues the Cal brooding stare and my knees almost go weak. Almost.
‘What’s “it” meant to be?’
‘You know what “it” is. It’s the elephant in the room. Me asking you to move in with me. I’m sorry I misjudged things between us.’ He groans in frustration. ‘Hell, I wish I’d never mentioned it. Now all I want is for us to go back to the way things were. You in my bed, the banter, the cheek, the hot sex.’
My skin tingles at the prospect of being back in Cal’s bed. Of lying next to that warm, hard body. Waking up next to him, hot and naked and …
‘Stop. Don’t do it. Things can’t be the same.’
‘Why not? Because I tried to move things too fast for you?’
‘No. OK, yes, but my reasons aren’t only that things have moved too quickly between us. It’s also the way you announced it in front of Kit, like you wanted to prove a point to him.’
He groans. ‘Kit. Bloody Kit! What is it with him? Why does he matter so much to you? And I was right to be wary. There is something going on with him. It can’t be a coincidence he was with Mawgan, you have to admit that much.’
‘No. It might not be a coincidence but – Cal, can we drop this for now?’
‘Fine by me. I can think of way better things to do than talk about Bannen, anyway.’
My lips clamp shut. I don’t know what to say. I’m still angry with him even as feelings stir that I can’t suppress, making my blood heat and my senses zing. I don’t think I’ve felt fully alive since our row. I’d love to take him upstairs right now and strip him naked and feel that gorgeous body against mine. I’d love to melt into him and spend half the night making love and wake up, exhausted and happy all afternoon.
‘It’s a bad idea. We can’t.’
‘Yo
u mean you can’t handle it. Can’t handle me?’
‘Of course I can handle you!’
‘Then do it.’ He grabs my hand and places it over his groin. ‘You want me now.’
I snatch my hand away but not fast enough not to know exactly what he means. I feel the same way, shaky with lust for him but also furious. ‘Stop it. Someone will see us out here.’
‘Like Kit? Do you really care what he thinks of us now you’ve seen him snogging Mawgan?’
‘He wasn’t snogging her. He was listening to her. That’s all I saw.’
Cal raises his eyebrows. ‘Listening? You mean encouraging her?’
‘He definitely wasn’t kissing her, but she wanted to kiss him. An idiot could see that, but…’
‘But what?’
I picture the scene in Sharky’s again. Mawgan leaning over the table, drooling over Kit like Mitch does over a piece of steak. Kit leaning in on one hand, very close to Mawgan. I couldn’t see his expression from behind but you can’t mistake body language like that.
‘I suppose he could have been flirting with her, in a way.’
‘What way?’
‘Paying her attention, leaning in towards her, as if she was the only girl in the room …’ My voice trails off because Cal is giving me a look that says he knows exactly what I’m thinking. I hate him for his smugness, but he is right. Kit Bannen was behaving the same way with Mawgan that he has done with me sometimes. Even the way I’ve seen him with Polly.
‘You know he could be as manipulative as Mawgan, but way more clever and subtle.’
‘That’s going too far. I agree there’s something odd about him knowing Mawgan, but I don’t think he’s manipulative and I still think he could easily have met her by chance and she pounced on him.’
Christmas at the Cornish Café Page 15