The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (136) Good Friend’s and Artisan’s

 

The beginning of the second week of October Molly and Danny left Beaumont Island for a short holiday in Italy, and their first stop was Venice.

They stayed at the Palazzo Canova and from there they did all the touristy stuff, a romantic cruise in a gondola along the Grand Canal, the Rialto Bridge and fish market, St Marks's Basilica, the Bridge of Sighs and the grandiose Doge's Palace.

They enjoyed it well enough, and the Hotel was excellent, but he wasn’t feeling how he wanted to feel in a city fabled for its romance.

 

Molly enjoyed the sightseeing in Venice, and they talked in loose terms of what Sharon Jacques or Frazer Markham might get up to, but Venice hadn’t really lived up to their expectations.

So after two chilly nights they decided to get on the train and three hours later they were in Rome, and it was everything they expected it to be and more, but it still didn’t tick one important box for Danny.

 

Tracey Moran and Penny Keats were lifelong best friends and were inseparable, and every milestone they had reached in their lives had been reached together.

They lived in Spaniards Creek and had both recently had their 18^th birthdays and were in their last week before going off to university.

Their parents were not well off so they had got all the grants and bursaries that were available to them and being hard workers, they earned every penny they could to fund the shortfall.      

Since their early teens they had worked as Stable Girls at Woodside Farm and as soon as they turned 18, they started doing bar work at Philips Folly in the village.

It was while they were working at the Folly that they first saw Ben Arscott and Paul Young on Thursday evening and they were instantly attracted to them.

 

Ben and Paul were not islanders and were in Spaniards Creek to work on St Clara’s as they were apprentice Artisan Stone Mason’s, and they too liked what they saw, and as trade was slow due to the inclement weather there was plenty of time for chatting up.

 

On Friday it was a busier night, but they still kept a watchful eye on the girls during the evening and even chatted them up some more, but it wasn’t until Saturday night when they were at bar and noticed Tracey head off in the direction of the smoking area, and they nodded to each other, so Paul went in search of Tracey while Ben walked briskly over to where Penny was standing. 

 

Ten minutes later Ben walked back to the bar just as Tracey returned from outside, accompanied by Paul who then returned to their pints.

“Well?” Tracey asked when she returned to her friend.

“Well, what?” Penny replied

“Did Ben ask you?” Tracey asked

“Yes” she said excitedly, and they hugged

“But how did you know?”

“Paul told me” She replied

“But how did he know?”

“Ben told him?” Tracey said

“Oh”

“Anyway, Paul told me” She said “and then he kissed me”

“Where?” asked Penny, wide eyed with curiosity

“On the lips stupid”

“No, I mean, where?” she explained “Where were you when he kissed you”

“Oh outside” Tracey clarified

“What were you doing outside?” Penny asked “Apart from being kissed”

“Well, I went to the smoking area” Tracey explained “and when I came back in Paul was there waiting for me and he told me not to go back to the bar because Ben was asking you out”

She paused for breath and then continued

“Which was taking forever by the way, and we were blocking the door, so he suggested we went outside to get out of the way and that was when he kissed me, in the moonlight, it was very romantic”

“Wow” Penny responded “And did he ask you out as well?

“Yes” she said excitedly, and they hugged again

“Who’d of thought it, I have a date with an Artisan”

Penny said

“Me too” Tracey squealed just as the last bell rang.

 

In Rome, Molly and Danny had seen all the sights the great City had to offer until their feet were sore, so they decided they needed a change of pace by Sunday.  

So after 5 days in the eternal City they sat on the terrace of the Palazzo Canova Hotel drinking Wine Danny and asked

“So where to next?”

And the words had barely left his lips when she said 

“Naples”

“That was very definite” he said, and she grinned

“Naples it is then”

 

So the next morning after breakfast they got the train from Rome and an hour and a half later, they were in Napoli.

“See Naples and die” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once famously said.

Well Molly and Danny did see Naples and they didn’t die, but they enjoyed amongst other things the ruins of Pompeii, Mt Vesuvius and a day trip to Capri.