The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (047) Family Matters

 

Molly Barrington’s grandfather, Sir Avery Arnold, was keen that Danny encouraged Molly's relationship with God, not that she needed any encouragement, she never missed a Sunday, and if she couldn't do the Sunday morning, she would do the evening service, even if it meant going to a different Church, which is what they did when they found themselves in Abbotsford on a Sunday and attended the evening service at St Dunston’s.

 

On the 17^th they met up with the family again in Abbottsford and over the following three days visited galleries, museums, the theatre, did more shopping, and Danny even managed to get tickets for the Abbottsford Town game, but all too soon it was time for them to leave.

As an employee of Shaw Brothers, David Leggett, got free travel on the ferry, so he took his car to the island, which was where he was sitting in his car in the carpark at St Pierre, adjacent to the port, and June Stonard was approaching furtively, in a baggy raincoat with her coat collar pulled up and the brim of her fedora pulled down, and he smiled as it was unlikely that anyone would notice her given how poor the visibility was due to the rain.

When she reached the car, she opened the passenger door and quickly got in and they immediately kissed, and the moment their lips met he wanted her, and he could tell by the urgency of her response that she wanted him too.

She had wanted him for several months, but he had resisted, but now the resistance was over.

There problem was where, she wasn’t the type of girl to do it in the car, they couldn’t go to hers as her husband worked nights and was at home during the day, and he couldn’t take her back to his house as his wife was terminally ill, and they certainly couldn’t do it al fresco given the weather, but they really wanted each other.

Unbeknown to her he already had a plan, which was why they were meeting in the car park.

He disengaged his mouth from hers, kissed her forehead and said, “Buckle up.”

“Where are we going?” she asked suspiciously.

“We’re going sailing” he replied as he pulled out of the carpark.

“What in this weather?”

They drove out of the port and followed the road past the Bellevue Hospital, and the Beaumont Hotel, and Halfway Lane then followed the road all the way to Spaniards Creek where they parked beside the Spanish River and quickly walked to down the tow path.

They walked surreptitiously for about 20 yards along the bank before he climbed aboard a small cabin cruiser.

“Where are you going?” she said with alarm, looking around to see if anyone was looking.

“Don’t panic” he said. “It belongs to my mate, Terry.”

“Are we allowed?” she asked feebly.

“Of course,” he replied. “He’s in the states”

“Yes, but are we allowed?”

“Yes, we’re allowed” he replied

 

In the cabin, as the flowing waters of the Spanish River lapped against the side of boat, he lapped at her flowing waters, and they made vigorous love as the rain beat down and the thunderclaps drowned out her moans of pleasure.

They continued their afternoon delight until the early evening when it began getting dark, so they left the boat, and he said after they returned to the car.

“That was a very pleasant afternoon,”

“Wasn’t it, I’m not so sure what your friend will think about the mess we’ve made.”

June said with a grin, and they drove back to St Pierre.

 

When they returned to the car park, they kissed again but with slightly less urgency than before.

“I liked sailing” she said and smiled.

“Me too” he agreed. “And Terry said I can have use of the boat until August.

“Smashing” she said as she got out of the car.

After watching her walk away into the darkness, he got on the last ferry of the day, returned home and after quickly showering away his lust, he went to check on his wife.

However, as he sat at his wife’s bedside, he reflected on his comment about having use of the boat until august, because as he listened to her breathing, he thought their need of it certainly wouldn’t reach until late summer, early spring was exceedingly optimistic.

 

After a tearful farewell at the Hotel, Molly repaired her makeup before they met up with publisher, Max Parsons, and had a long leisurely lunch.

They were planning to head back down the Expressway straight after breakfast but the previous afternoon they received a message from Bramstock, Goodman, Crossfield, and Bushe, Sir Avery Arnold’s solicitors, asking if they could meet at their offices on Saturday morning, the reason being that they had had some interesting news, so they had a very important and fruitful meeting with them, and decided to have a celebratory dinner and stay another night before checking out of the Abbottsford Regents Hotel on Sunday.

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (046) The Christening

David Leggett was first mate on the Empress Victoria ferry and remembered the time, not so long ago when his sister-in-law, June Stonard, much the worse for drink, offered herself to him on a plate at Christmas, an offer which he rebuffed, so when she phoned him and invited him to a party, he was about to refuse until she mentioned that the rest of the family were going to be there, plus another ten guests, because it was a Christening party, so he accepted, albeit reluctantly, because his wife would not have been pleased if he stayed away.

 

David lived in Pipershaven with his wife Janis, who was sadly terminally ill, and was bedridden, and had good days and bad days, so he attended the party on Beaumont Island on his own, because even on a good day, travelling was no longer possible.

June lived on the Island, in Saxvirdan, and was unhappily married to John who was an islander.

David arrived late, as he wanted to make sure it was in full swing, and when he got there, she was well away, much as she was when they had their drunken near miss a few weeks earlier.

On this occasion he was coming out of the cloakroom, and she was rushing to the toilet, and they came untidily together, ending in a bit of a bear hug.

“I’m so sorry” he said. “Are you hurt?”

“Only my pride” she replied. “But that happens when you’re rejected.”

“Like I said, I’m sorry.”

“Anyway, I have things to do” she said as they parted company, and he was left with the smell of her scent in his nostrils and erotic images in his head.

As he sat at his wife’s bedside that evening and recounted the details of the party, he recalled how good June smelt, so the next day he phoned her.

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (045) Getting Ahead of the Storm

 

The day after the celebratory meal was painful and unproductive one at Cliff Haven and after sleeping late, Danny and Molly seldom left the sofa for the rest of the day, and the day after that was little different.

The next day Molly got them back on track, as amongst other things she had become his muse.

At first in Colorado, because of the accident he had gotten behind, but she got him organized, but she was also a bit of a distraction, and a pleasant one at that, but later she became more of a distraction when she wasn’t with him, now he couldn’t imagine life without her.

Since the Archer’s returned to Sharpington after New Years there had been almost constant communications between Sam and Nikki, much as they had before they met but much more open and intimate than before.

For Arielle and Harry, it was almost daily Face Times but all four of them were really looking forward to the boys returning to the island in February. 

On Friday, because of an adverse weather forecast, warning of an approaching storm, Danny and Molly decided to leave the island early for the mainland to get ahead of the weather, so as not to risk getting stranded on the island and missing their rendezvous with Sam, Emma and the boys.

 

Longlake Farm is not the smallest of the five farms on the island, but covers the whole of the southwest corner, a parcel of land bordered by Halfway Lane to the north, Eagles Crag in the east and the rugged coastline to the south and west, and the White’s had raised their sheep on that land for more than four generations, and Jamie had every intention of making it five, but his immediate priority had become Hayley Stock, and their coffee date at the Galleon, where

Jamie and Hayley spent two hours talking about what might have been and before they left, they arranged a second date, and afterwards in the moonlight they shared their second kiss.  

Once they arrived in Pipershaven Molly and Danny drove straight to Applesford and stayed at his flat for two days where they could continue to work on the book before travelling to Abbottsford on the 16^th where they checked into the Abbottsford Regents Hotel.

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (044) The Shepherdess

 

It was a cold damp morning when twenty-three-year-old Hayley Stock left the farmhouse at Beacon Farm, but she was chuckling as she crossed the yard to the barn because the kitchen was full of the living dead, all suffering the effects of overindulgence at the Beaumont Manor the night before, she was chuckling because she didn’t suffer with hangovers after she gave up drinking two years earlier.

Beacon was the third largest of the five farms on the island covering an area in the southeast, bordered by the Beacon River in the west, and the Spanish River in the east and the rugged coastline to the south from Beacon Rock to Spaniards Point.

On that morning the diminutive freckle faced, auburn haired Hayley was headed to the far southwest corner of the farm on one of the quadbikes with her dog Willow, checking for strays.

 

There was a storm front heading their way and that area of the farm was prone to flooding so they wanted to gather the flock closer to home, they didn’t want to lose any ewes with lambing time just around the corner.

Nikki said she would join her with the drone as soon as her eyeballs stopped itching.

 

Hayley wasn’t from the island, she was born and raised in the vicinity of Highfinch where her family had a farm, but she was the youngest of six so she was the baby of the family and felt cossetted, but also felt like the gofer about the farm, so she said to her parents that she needed to get out and get some experience in the real world where there wasn’t a safety net.

They were very understanding and even got her the job at Beacon farm, because Katie and her mum were distant cousins.

 

Katie was reluctant at first, not knowing what the girl was like and wondering if she would be more trouble than she was worth, but they were desperately short handed at the time so she agreed and couldn’t have been happier with her decision. 

 

Hayley loved the island and had been treated as one of the family by the Harrison’s, but they also gave her responsibilities.

 

The Beacon River splits into three once it passed Eagles Crag, the first one passed to the east of Beacon Rock, the second to the west of it and formed the boundary between Beacon and Longlake farms, and the third dissected the latter farm.

It was the Beacon River that would be the source of the expected flooding following the arrival of the storm, so it was essential that she clear any ewes in the wedge of land surrounding Beacon Rock.

It was so called, because a beacon was built on the rock to warn of the impending arrival of the Spanish Armada, but it was never lit due to the fact that the weather was so bad that the sentry’s couldn’t see past the end of the island let alone a fleet of ships, and that was precisely the type of weather that was on its way again.

It took about an hour for her and Willow to gather up a dozen ewes and drive them over the stone bridge to the safe side of the river and through the gate.  

She was just about to cross the bridge to continue the search when Nikki arrived on the other Quad with her dog, Charlie.

“How are you doing?” Nikki asked 

“Wow, how can you see through those eyes?” Hayley asked and laughed.

“It’s not funny”

“It’s a bit funny” Hayley said “from this side of them”

“Don’t make me laugh” Nikki said “it hurts when I laugh”

“Ok”

“So how are you getting on?” Nikki asked

“I’ve found a dozen so far; I was just heading back to have another look” she replied

“Ok let me put the drone up, that’ll narrow down the search area” Nikki suggested

After about twenty minutes Nikki had located two small groups so she went towards Beacon Rock where she’d spotted three ewes and Hayley went southwest after a group of six down by the gated bridge that led to Longlake farm.

Thanks to Nikki and her drone she went straight to them, and Willow quickly had them under control, but she was drawn to the sound of another shepherd working their dog, it was too close to have been Nikki and it didn’t sound like her, so she walked towards the river and onto the gated bridge, and when she reached the gate she spotted him, or maybe not, why would he be on the island?

But it was him, Jamie White, on the other side of the river, and they had a history of sorts as they once shared a very passionate alcohol fuelled kiss when she was at agricultural college, after which she made it quite clear she would have liked the kiss to have been the beginning of something, but his interest seemed to be somewhere else, and not in her.

Jamie was in the year above her and them shouldn’t really have been in the same orbit, but she had admired him from afar until that end of term party when she got to grips with him, it was his last year at college, so it was her last chance, because she would probably never see him again. 

She doubted very much if he’d remember it, but she’d never forgotten it, and it was when she was reminiscing about that special kiss, that he turned to look at her and it caused him to do a doubletake.

“Hayley?” he exclaimed and began to walk towards her “Hayley Stock?”

“You remember me?” she asked, and he laughed

“Why wouldn’t I?” he said “We had a … moment, and as I recall it was a very passionate moment”

“Yes, I agree, that’s how I remember it” Hayley said “And yet I still ended the evening alone”

“Kevin Bateson” he said and grimaced

“What does he have to do with anything?” She asked

“He drank too much and ended up in hospital with alcohol poisoning” he replied “and me and a couple of others stayed there with him”

“Oh, I see”

“He nearly died” he said solemnly 

“I’m sorry I didn’t know” she said

“I understand now”

“I haven’t had a drink since that night” Jamie said 

“Nor have I” Hayley said, but she had quit for a very different reason, that night they kissed was the first time she had been drunk, and although she didn’t regret the under the influence kiss, she didn’t like the lack of control she felt, or the hangover, so she chose not to put herself through it again.  

“I didn’t know you were from the island” She added wanting to change the subject

“My family have farmed here for four generations” Jamie said,

“What about you? how long have you been here?”

“A few months” She replied, just as Nikki’s Quad appeared in the distance. 

“It looks like you’ve been found” he said

“So, we’ll have to cut our catch up short”

“Yes, that’s a shame” she said

“Well, we could always continue over a coffee” he suggested

“Where do you suggest?”

“How about the Galleon in Spaniards Creek?”

“When?”

“How about Friday?” Jamie asked

 

“Who were you talking to?” Nikki asked

“Jamie White”

“Oh, he’s a hottie” Nikki retorted

“And we’re meeting for coffee” she said smugly

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (043) The Anniversary

 

Unbeknown to Danny, when they hosted the New Years Day lunch at Cliff Haven, Molly conspired with the guests to arrange a surprise meal, to mark the one-year anniversary of their first meeting in Sir Avery Arnold’s room at the High Pines Hospital in Colorado Springs.

As far as he was concerned, they were just having a quiet celebratory meal on January 10^th, at the Orangery restaurant in the Beaumont Manor Hotel but when they walked into the lounge they were greeted by Louise Stratford, Katie, and Nikki Harrison, George Wood, Josh Beaumont, Olivia Shaw and the Vicar Arielle Nicholas, which took him completely by surprise.

While they were waiting to be seated, the Vicar asked

“So where did you meet?”

“In a hospital in Colorado” Danny replied

“Ok, more details” Louise said

Molly then explained about her grandfather’s illness and Danny’s car crash.

“It was clearly cupid at work” Katie said

“Cupid almost killed me” Danny said dramatically

“Drama queen” Molly retorted “He had a broken wrist and a few scrapes and bruises”

“Then what happened?” Olivia asked

“I became the victim of a crazed fan” he said “And she took advantage of a wounded man”

“You can tell he’s a writer” Molly said “Pure fantasy, the staff hadn’t even twigged who he was, I was the only one who recognized him”

“So, it was his pride that was wounded, and his ego that was bruised” George said, and everyone laughed, including Danny.

Everyone was still laughing as, Sophie Blourde, their server led them to their table, but once they were seated and starters and drinks were ordered, Danny began to regale them, in true raconteur style, with regular interjections from Molly, of the actual details of their meeting, how she helped him with the book, his stay at Lakeside, his chess games with Sir Avery, his subsequent death, and their journey to Beaumont island and how they fell in love along the way, and all the while Molly was holding his hand under the table.

They were on their main courses by the time he had finished the tale and then invited others to recount their own stories, so Josh took on the mantle of storyteller, and told his and Olivia’s story.

“Right your turn George” Molly said over coffee

“Nothing to tell, as soon as Katie saw me, she wrestled me to the ground” he said, and they all laughed.

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (042) In the Aftermath

 

After their visitors had left, Gwen went through Cliff Haven like a whirlwind, stripping beds, washing, tumble drying, hoovering, dusting, and mopping until the place sparkled like a new pin, she would normally have spread the work over a couple of days, but she had plans with Phil.

 

Molly and Danny spent the first two days slobbing around in their pyjama’s, they had no idea how tiring it was having houseguests, but they thoroughly enjoyed it though, even though it was exhausting.

Then all too soon it was twelfth night, so they had to take the Christmas decorations down.

“This isn’t nearly as much fun as putting them up” Molly observed.

“No, it’s not” he agreed.

“But it’ll be November in the blink of an eye, and we can put them back up again.”

“Oh, very sage, old man” she said and giggled.

“Any way it could be worse,” he said.

“How so?”

“We could be outside in the rain with George” he replied, and they both laughed, and just at that moment the door opened, and a soaking wet George appeared, and they laughed even louder.

 

Once all the decorations had been neatly packed away, with the exception of the snow globes, which had pride of place, they had another pyjama day, well actually they had a pyjama weekend and then on Monday work on the book commenced again, and they had to work flat out to finish the next two chapters in time for their trip to Abbottsford on the 17th.

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (041) At Hastings Lake

 

The damp and fog of the previous day had given way to a glorious cold and crisp day, with a bright blue sky, all too soon Sam, Emma and the boys’ stay on the Island had come to an end, the time had come for them to return to the mainland.

They were to spend the next two weeks visiting Emma’s family and catching up with friends.

Molly and Danny would meet up with them on the 17th in Abbottsford and they would spend three days seeing the sites of the Town before their guests had to return to Australia.

 

Arielle Nicolas had been standing on the quayside for about ten minutes, she was always early, when she saw Harry approaching and then her heart sank when she saw his brother Sam and Nikki Harrison following him, she had hoped it would be just the two of them.

However, she was much happier as soon as she found out that Nikki and Sam were just going to the island to fly the drone and get some shots of the landmarks, Cabot Point Lighthouse, Cabot Town, St Giles Chapel, Norman Rock, the Seaview Hotel for Sam’s business and nature and landscape shots for her artwork.

 

So as Phil Holgate started the engines of the Ocean Breeze Water Taxi, they got aboard, and she and Harry sat together as the boat moved off down the Spanish River towards the open water and it was a smooth ride across the dead calm sea.

 

The Shaw Brothers ferry, the Empress Victoria, was on the jetty at Cabot Town, and Phil brought the launch to a halt beside the small quayside.

Cabot Town itself was actually just a hamlet, with a café, and a General Store/Post Office, from there Sam and Nikki went to the North of the Island where they were going to start filming while Arielle and Harry went South to the farthest end of Broad Beach Sands, then they walked back up the full length of the beach and back up the rocky path to the lane past the Seaview Hotel which led to the meteorological station and then they walked inland to Hastings Lake to have their picnic lunch.

 

Nikki and Sam meanwhile had worked their way down to Cabot Point and filmed the Lighthouse and were making their way back to the café to get some lunch.

When they got to the southern end of the lake, they put the drone up again to get some shots of the lake and the woods from a different angle.

“Oh my God!” Nikki said, “I wasn’t expecting to see that.”

“See what?” Sam asked.

“Here have a look” she said.

“Bless me” Sam said as he saw the image of his big brother kissing the Vicar by the water’s edge. “Good for him”

“Good for her” Nikki corrected him.

 

An hour later they were sitting in the café eating bacon sandwiches when Nikki gave Sam a nudge and nodded towards the window where she could see Harry and the Vicar walking along the lane holding hands.

“I bet he’s glad I made him come to the island now” Sam said.

“So’s the Vicar” she said, and they both laughed.