Amelia Williamson
was in Spaniards Creek on Monday morning, but she was on the eastern side of
the Spanish River at Number 1, The Old Mill, which was the newly refurbished
offices of Bucklebury and Brandywine Property Management.
She was quite
excited setting up the new office from scratch, but she was even more excited
because Clive Crossfield from Bramstock, Goodman, Crossfield, and Bushe in
Abbottsford, who were the Barrington’s Solicitors, was arriving on the early
ferry to help her set up.
They had been in
communication since she was first offered the job and had met via Teams calls
on many occasions, but they had never met in person, but that was going to
change very soon, and she was looking forward to that.
They had
officially taken over the building the week before, but there were things to do
internally, before she could move in.
Since Franci
Liebenberg pinned Adam Jandrell down in his office chair and aggressively
snogged him, she was no longer his right hand “man”, she was now his assistant
project manager and his significant other.
It was Franci who
was co-ordinating the floorer’s, electrician’s, Alarm system engineers, phone
and internet installers, CCTV and the
signage fitters, for the new tenants.
So for the first
week of May Amelia stayed away and let them get on with it.
Clive
Crossfield’s first port of call when he arrived in Spaniards Creek was to meet
with Molly Barrington.
“Hi Clive” she
said when she opened the door “Welcome to the island”
“Hello Molly,
thank you”
The reason for
the meeting was the impending repatriation of Sir Avery Arnold and he explained
that all the arrangements were complete, the disinterment was set for Thursday
and all the transportation and flights were booked.
Over the next
hour they went through all the arrangements in fine detail, just to make sure
nothing had been overlooked, then Molly said.
“Well, I won’t
keep you any longer I’m sure you’re as eager to see Amelia as she is to see
you” Molly said
“Oh, erm I
don’t…” he burbled,
“Just go get her
and we’ll talk later” Molly said and giggled, because she’d never seen him get
flustered before.
When Clive had
gone Molly picked up her phone and called the Beaumont Manor Hotel and booked 4
rooms for some special visitors to the island, then she rejoined Danny in the
conservatory.
Clive parked
outside the Old Mill and walked into number 1, and found the slender brunette,
Amelia, talking to a wiry well-tanned Franci Liebenberg with tousled blonde
hair about the positioning of power points.
“Hi Amelia” he
said and when she turned around and saw him, she blushed
“Ccclive” she
stammered and then an awkward few moments ensued when they couldn’t decide
whether to shake hands, hug, air kiss, or fist bump, in the end they clumsily
hugged, and Franci said
“I’ll come back
later”
Over the next few
days they worked very closely to set up the office with the new furniture,
shelving and office equipment and then began sorting through the archive boxes
that had been stored at Beacon Farm.
When they weren’t
working, they spent time at the Galleon or Philips Folly, but they never
managed to express what was on their minds.
On Thursday 4,700
miles away from the island, in Colorado Springs, Sir Avery Arnold’s body was
disinterment at St Savior’s crypt and placed in a special coffin for
transportation by the undertakers and delivered to the airport for shipping.
The next day when
Amelia arrived at the Old Mill, he found Clive and Franci deep in conversation
in the carpark and stopped when they saw her approaching.
When they were on
their own inside the building Amelia asked suspiciously
“What was Franci
talking to you about?”
“Your friend
asked me a question” he replied enigmatically
“What question?”
she enquired
“I don’t know
that I should tell you, nosey” he replied
“Tell me “She
begged
“Well, if you
must know” Clive said “She asked me if I loved you”
“And what did you
say?” she asked coyly looking at the ground
“I said I
couldn’t love you more if my life depended on it” he replied, and she gasped
“I love you too”
Amelia said and wrapped her slender arms around his neck and kissed him.
After a few
moments she uncoiled herself and said sadly
“But you’re
leaving today”
“Ah, I meant to
talk to you about that” he replied
“What?” she asked
urgently “What?”
“I thought I
might stay on for another week” he said and then they kissed again.
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