Wednesday, 11 September 2024

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (132) Surprises and Endeavours

 


The next day after Frank Neary and Maya Davenport shared a goodbye kiss, and Frank was walking away, Maya suddenly said

“Oh Frank I almost forgot”

“What?” he said and turned around

“Violeta wants you to pop into the shop, sooner rather than later,” she said

“Ok”

He had to admit he was a little intrigued, but he would have to wait until the next day to find out what Violeta had to share that was so important.

 

Violeta and Arron were outside the shop arranging the assortment of goods on display.

“Hello, you two” Frank said brightly

“Frank” she said excitedly and ran towards me.

“Frank” she said again “Arron darling Frank’s here”

“Frank” Arron said as he offered his hand

They were both in a state of great excitement

“Is everything ok?” he asked

“Oh yes” Violeta said grinning from ear to ear, then after an exchange of looks between them and a nod from Arron she waved her slender hand under his nose and displayed the sparkling engagement ring.

“We wanted you to be the first to know” Violeta said and then danced excitedly on the spot, then after a quick glance at Arron they said together

“We are engaged”

“Isn’t it wonderful?” Aunt Louisa said as she stepped out of the shop

“Congratulations” he said shaking hands with Arron

“Congratulations” he said again kissing Violeta “I couldn’t be more pleased”

And he really couldn’t have been more pleased, especially with himself as he had engineered the union unbeknown to both parties.

After leaving the lovebirds he continued on his way to work.

 

Rachel Musson was a very stern looking young woman with short brown hair, who managed the commercial side of the Yacht Club in Sharpington.

Her attire was always dour, and drab and she never smiled, and peered superciliously over her spectacles at everyone, and was universally believed that she was not a joyful person.

William Bailey was the treasurer of the club, and they exchanged pleasantries, if you could call them that, but nothing more than that.

However, one weekend a month they travelled independently to the Beaumont Manor Hotel on the island, where they entertained one another, while her normal dour and drab attire was replaced by much more exotic garb.

 

While the Island was enjoying an Indian summer Molly and Danny’s near miss with Max Parsons the previous week threw them into a blind panic.

So they spent Monday to Friday working frantically to get the Sharon Jacques Book back on track and worked from early every morning and burnt the midnight oil, and when they were done Molly said

“Wow that’s good stuff”

“I agree,” Danny said “perhaps we should work like this all the time” 

They looked at each other for about 10 seconds and they both said simultaneously

“Nah”

 

Elisa and Henry were staying on St Giles for the weekend so Molly and Danny could have a chilled-out weekend which was just what they needed after the kind of frantic week they’d just had.

In the final week of September the Island was still enjoying an Indian summer as the harvest came to an end while they had a more restrained week of writing and by Saturday, they were ready to take a trip up to see Max after the weekend.

 

Midday on Monday Molly and Danny left St Pierre on the ferry when the weather broke, and it rained all the way

to Applesford where they stayed overnight at the flat.

It was still raining heavily when they set off again the next day, but it had eased off by the time they got to Abbotsford.

They booked straight into the Regents Hotel and had a relaxing remainder of the day then met up with Max on Wednesday and he was delighted with their output and over dinner that night they announced that they were taking the rest of the month off, which he took surprisingly well.

They spent Thursday in Abbottsford and did some shopping and in the evening had dinner and went to the theatre.

The weather on the return journey on Friday was atrocious so they overnighted at the flat again and got the ferry back to the island on Saturday morning in the sunshine.

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