The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (116) Hopeful Heather

 

August

Heather Edwards was a well-presented divorcee at the wrong end of her forties who had been a receptionist at the Bellevue Hospital for 25 years in all and had been divorced and living alone for ten years, but she hadn’t given up on love, and she had someone in her sights, and her target was Frazer Richmond.

What she didn’t realise was that she was leaning against an open door in that regard.

 

Frazer was a paramedic and part time firefighter and was confident and brave but hadn’t been able to pluck up any courage in relation to Heather, and when he was close to her, he became tongue tied.   

But he wasn’t going to give up, he just needed to get into her orbit for some reason or other and then his eyes settled on the poster for the summer Fête on the wall in a shop window, so he went straight to Bellevue.

“Hi Heather” he said

“Hello Frazer, I didn’t think you were working today”

“I’m not, but I needed to see you” he replied

“Really?” she replied hopefully

“Yes, yes” he said desperately trying not to lose his nerve.

“Why?” Heather asked.

“The Summer Fête” he said with more confidence

“What about it?”

“I could really use your help” Frazer said

“With what exactly?” Heather asked

“I need your organizational skills” he replied

“Oh I see” Heather said

“I’m a bit overrun” he said, “So will you, do it?”

“So I will be helping you?” she asked

“Yes”

It was manner from heaven for her, but she thought he was probably only asking because she had been involved to some degree with previous events, but she hoped otherwise and so she said

“Yes, why not”

 

Frazer was on the organizing committee for the Bellevue Hospital Summer Fête which was a big deal on the island and it took place in the Hospital grounds, with all the traditional stalls, face painting, tombola, lucky dip, coconut shy, aunt sally, hook-a-duck, cake stalls, guess the weight of the cake, Raffle, Bouncy Castle, Merry-Go-Round, Helter-skelter, Hot Food, Refreshments, Beer Tent, Pony Rides and the Beaumont’s also brought their Heavy Horses in livery, in was a very popular event for islanders which also attracted many mainlanders.

 

Frazer was very pleased with himself; he had very cleverly got her to help him with the Fête which was the perfect way for them to progress from friendship to something else.

 

Heather was feeling equally smug even though it meant allowing herself to be shanghaied onto the Summer Fête committee to get closer to him and it meant they were in each other’s pockets for the rest of the week.

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (115) Platonic Doctors

Thursday the woodworm treatment was completed, and all the residents were back in their homes with no ill effects apart from some indigestion due to the rich food.

 

By the end of August, Elisa and Henry were casting their net further afield with regular outings on the Water Taxi to the neighbouring island of St Giles du Cabot.

 

Saturday was another crazy day at the Gilbert, luckily Caroline had put on more staff to allow her to escape for a couple of hours to have lunch with Austin across the square, and that was their first lunch date, but there was no repeat of the New Years Eve Snogging.

 

GP Stuart Cameron had been something of a womaniser in his younger days and wasn’t particularly discerning and went for quantity over quality, but he changed after a near miss at a party with an underage girl.

His epiphany with the young girl took him by surprise, the girl was acting under the influence of two much wine on an empty stomach, but for that to stop him would have been totally out of character, but something did stop him.
What scared him was if she had offered it to him on another day he might not have been so strong.
It became a turning point in his life, but he couldn’t shake off his past, his reputation followed him and relationships became impossible, his reputation always got in his way, and no one would accept that he had turned over a new leaf, so he decided to go somewhere that he was unknown, change his career and become a GP.

Which was how he ended up on Beaumont island and it suited him because the likelihood of meeting anyone he knew or one of his past conquests was very unlikely.

He was doing very well for the first six months but then he met Thirty-eight-year-old Dr Deborah Woodward who had accepted the position of Chief of Medicine at the Bellevue Cottage Hospital because she wanted a change of pace and Stuart liked the tall jovial Doctor, with her abundance of brunette hair and an infectious laugh.

They both lived in Manor Row, which was made up of a dozen, one-and two-bedroom cottages, for the exclusive use of essential hospital staff, Deborah lived at number 6 he lived only a few doors away at number 10 and when they met Deborah liked the look of him.

 

They became friends and spent time walking together, shopping together and even meals out together but nothing more.

Deborah really liked him, but he had told her about his past, in glorious technicolour and didn’t hide anything even the underage girl, so she understood his position, but she noticed the way he looked at her, so she had hope, but she respected his position, and played the long game.

So they kept up the recreational pursuits, the joint shopping trips and meals together.

 

A busy and varied July came to a somewhat benign end and drifted seamlessly into August.  

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (114) Loves Young Dream

 

On Monday the residents from the twelve Church Lane cottages were vacating in readiness for the woodworm treatment.

Only two of the tenants were fragile enough to require medical supervision, Dr Stuart Cameron was on hand to assist one of them and Nurse Victoria Pullen the other.

 

It was also the day that Molly and Danny left the island for an extended holiday/research trip for the latest Sharon Jacques book visiting among other places, Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Bucharest, and Bratislava. 

They were going to be away for at least ten days but had allowed for three weeks if they felt they needed it.

 

It wasn’t until three days after he visited Gilbert’s when Caroline and Austin met up for that coffee, although it wasn’t quite what she had in mind, it was from a mobile fast-food van down by the docks, but it wasn’t really about the coffee, although it was surprisingly good, and that was the first of many meetings.

 

Matt Deighton first went to the Galleon Coffee Shop after first moving to the island and he became a regular customer over the coming weeks, but conversation didn’t come easy for him, he was a quiet shy man.

But it was the only real human contact he had outside of work that he had in the two months he’d been in Spaniards Creek, and he was feeling really homesick.

But after seeing Jade in the Galleon it had become the only oasis in his desert of unhappiness and he looked forward to his daily visits and he arrived earlier and stayed longer.

 

It was almost the end of July before he finally worked up the courage to ask Jade out and when he did, he rather spat the words out at her.

He’d tried to do it twice already that week and bottled out both times and then he walked up and down outside the shop for half an hour before he went back in again on Wednesday.

“Hi” she said, “Back again?”

“Yes” he replied

“Two Americano’s and a Capuchino?” she asked

“No” he barked

“Ok, so what do you want?” Jade said cheerfully

“Pictures” he said abruptly

“Sorry?”

“Will you come to the pictures with me?”  He blurted out

“When?”

“Saturday” he replied with a crack in his voice

Jade did like him, she even looked forward to him coming in every day, he was a good-looking man, and he was very sweet, but he was older than her and he wasn’t an islander, so he was from a different background.

So she rather surprised herself when she said “yes”

And that was how it all began, a first date to The Forum Cinema in St Pierre to see a Mission Impossible movie.

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (113) In His Debt

 

Libby McIntosh made good progress over the weeks following her assault, and it was a very busy time for Julie as she took on the bulk of the workload so Libby could spend the time on her recouperation, so she could get back to work as soon as possible.

In fact she had been so busy she hadn’t had time to wonder why she hadn’t had a call from the big redheaded policeman.

 

As for PC Saunders he had been struggling with the moral dilemma on whether it was appropriate for him to “hit on” a girl who was a witness to a serious assault.

“Do you remember what you said to me when I was in your position?” she asked

“It’s no wonder you’re still single” he said

“So?” Morgan Baker asked

“I should just call her, before someone else does” he said

 

It was towards the middle of July when Julie had been visiting Libby at the Hospital, she had just got back to the Hotel, and had just stepped into the revolving door when Kane Saunders stepped into it coming from the opposite direction.

He wasn’t wearing his uniform, but it was definitely him, she was going to keep going, after all he didn’t bite two weeks earlier when she was all fragile and vulnerable so why would he approach her now.

But she stopped and waited while he did a 360 in the revolving door and emerged in front of her.

“Hello Miss Willman” he said “I’ve been looking for you”

“Oh really” she said “I’ve been visiting my friend; you know the one that was attacked”

“Yes Libby” he confirmed “I called in to see her yesterday”

“Oh, is there a problem?” Julie asked

“No not at all” he said “I always look in on people I’ve dealt with”

“Is that normal?” she asked knowing full well that it was not

“It’s just something I like to do” he replied

“That’s a good thing that you do” Julie said genuinely impressed

“Not really” he said modestly

“So why were you looking for me?” Julie asked

“Perhaps we could talk about it over coffee?” he asked hopefully

“Absolutely” she replied and led the way to the lounge

They found a table and Julie signalled a waitress.

The coffee had just arrived and chatting when they were interrupted.

“Well hello stranger” Robert Brown said

“Oh” she said and went pale

“So this is where you’ve been hiding” he continued

“Not really” she said uncomfortably which Kane was sensitive too

“Perhaps introductions would be in order” Robert said

“This is Robert Brown, my Ex-boyfriend” she said “and this is Kane...”

“Her current boyfriend” Kane said and stood up to shake his hand.

Kane was a tall man in his late twenties and stood six foot four inches tall, so he towered above the diminutive Robert Brown who quickly took his leave of them.

“That was kind of you” she said relieved to see him go.

“Not at all” he said “I had an ulterior motive”

“Which was?” she asked suspiciously

“To have you in my debt so that you can’t say no when I ask you out to dinner” he said

“Well you had better ask me then” Julie said grinning from ear to ear.

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (112) Sweet Caroline

 

On Wednesday Amelia Williamson paid a visit to Cliff Haven to speak with Molly,

“Hi Amelia” she said “Come in”

“Thanks Molly, I’m sorry to disturb you, but we have a problem”

“What sort of problem?” Molly asked

“They’ve discovered evidence of woodworm in the roof space of the cottages” Amelia said

“So what’s the solution?” Molly said

“It’s simple enough to fix” she replied “They just need to spray all the timbers”

“That sounds ok”

“The problem is that all the tenants are retirees, some of which have COPD and other breathing difficulties” she explained “And…”

“And the chemicals could exacerbate there health problems” Molly said, “So how long would they need to vacate for?”

“48 hours”

“Put them all up at the Beamont for a night” Molly said “To be on the safe side make it too”

“You’ll need to let their GP know and I’ll speak with Victoria”

 

Two days after “mothgate” Morgan Baker and Tom Sword met outside the Gondolier where the diminutive Police Officer and the great bear of a Pastry Chef had the first of many dates.

 

Caroline Wells and Duncan Wilson were married for fifteen years before they divorced, and they were separated for two years before that.

It was not an acrimonious parting, and there was no ill feeling, in fact they were still friends, and there was still love between them, though not a romantic love.

Caroline had also remained very involved in her children’s lives and was still on very good terms with the rest of the family.

The breakdown of the marriage was not a lack of love, it simply came down to the fact that she did not come from a farming background, Duncan had thought she would grow to love it, but she never really did.

 

She ran a successful business in St Pierre, a Coffee House, called Gilbert’s, overlooking the harbour.

It was named after the minor Norman nobleman, Gilbert du Beaumont, who claimed the Bay Islands for himself, after the Battle of Hastings.

 

Duncan was now in another relationship and was all loved up with an Audiologist called Anna, and she was very happy for him, but she was also more than a little jealous.

But there was no one in her life, well not since New Years Eve when she got in a clinch with Doctor Austin Freshwater, not that she knew he was a doctor at the time.

Nothing came of it though because neither of them thought to get the others name.

So that was that, until she went to the Saxvirdan Surgery about her migraines on Friday, if she’d been more of a hypochondriac, she would have discovered sooner that her mystery snogger was Austin Freshwater and he was a GP.

He was on a twelve-month secondment and had only been on the island for a couple of months when they had their passionate embrace. 

When her name was called, Caroline walked into the surgery and the Doctor had his back to her.

“Take a seat Mrs Wells” He said as he turned around there was a moment’s hesitation and then they said in unison

“Oh it’s you”

 

It was nice to have seen him again but apart from a minute of polite intercourse it was just Doctor Patient.

So she left the surgery with mixed feelings, pleased to have seen him but unsure where to go next.

 

She was very busy the next day, Saturdays were always busy at the Gilbert but that day it was busier than ever, from the moment they opened until about 4pm when there was a bit of a lull.

It was during that lull when she saw Austin walk in and sit down.

Sally Watson was just about to go and take his order, but Caroline said

“Ok Sally I’ve got this one”

“Ok” she said, and Caroline walked over to his table

“Hello Doctor, what can I get you?”

“Ah Good, I am in the right place” he said

“Are you meeting someone?” she asked “I can wait to take your order”

“No I’m not meeting anyone” he replied

“I was looking for you”

“Me! Really? How did you track me down?”

“I asked around” he replied, and she was a bit taken aback and didn’t know what to say so he helped her out by saying

“I’ll have a cappuccino”

“Ok no problem”

“Won’t you join me?” he asked

“I would love to, but as you can see, we’re really busy today” she said as another group walked in

“Some other time then”

“Definitely” she replied

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (111) Mothgate

 

There were five siblings in the Baker household, and they live in St Pierre in a large Victorian house, with rooms over 4 floors since the substantial loft space had been converted into another bedroom, and there was also a cellar that was used as the movie/games room.

Their parents had retired to Spain and left the house to the five children equally, it was built by one of their ancestors, and was something of a monstrosity, but it was home.

One of the siblings was Morgan, who was a skinny freckly girl of about 5 ft. 2 inches tall and weighed in at about nine stone.

When she was working, she looked about three stone heavier in her police stab vest and utility belt.

But in civilian dress she had a lovely figure and wearing her chestnut-coloured hair down instead of tied in a bun, made her look very pretty, and that was how she was dressed when she returned to the Beaumont Manor.

Morgan and PC Kane Saunders had attended an incident at the hotel a week earlier in which a member of staff was brutally assaulted by her estranged husband.

In the aftermath she had met Tom Sword, the Pastry Chef at the hotel, and she was immediately attracted to the great bear of a man, and she figured it he crafted delicate deserts he must have a very light touch.

But she had been struggling with the moral dilemma on whether it was appropriate for her to “hit on” a man who was a witness to a serious assault.

“It’s no wonder you’re still single” her partner Kane Saunders said

“Just call him, before someone else does”

She agreed with him but lacked the confidence to do it.

 

She was back at the Hotel dressed in her girl clothes having dinner with some girlfriends and when she was leaving at the end of the evening, she saw the tall receptionist that intervened at the incident, so she said her goodbyes to her friends and went over to speak to her.

“Hello Julie” she said

“Er um… Hello” Julie responded

“Sorry” she said and pulled her hair tight behind her neck and added “Now picture me wearing a silly hat and a stab vest”

It took a minute but then realization spread across her face “PC Baker”

“Yes, but call me Morgan” she said “I just wanted to check in while I was here”

“Libby’s still in the hospital, but she’s on the mend” Julie replied

“That’s good news, but how about you?”

“Me? Oh I’m fine” she replied, and Morgan was about to press her further when her attention was drawn to the approach of a big man in kitchen whites.    

“Julie, Julie, there’s another one” he called then saw Morgan

“Oh, I am sorry to interrupt Miss, but its urgent”

“Removing a moth from the kitchen is not urgent Tom” Julie said

“A moth? So do you have mottephobia?” Morgan asked

“Does he have what?”

 “Mottephobia? it’s the irrational fear of moths, my Uncle has it” Morgan explained

“You see, she understands” Tom Sword said

“I’ve heard of it but I’m not sympathetic” Morgan said “Moths are so small, and you’re a giant”

“Yes, and look what happened to Goliath” he pointed out

“Yes, but David wasn’t a Moth” Morgan pointed out

“What about butterflies?” she asked

“They’re just arrogant Moths” Tom said, and Morgan smiled

“Well, I can’t leave the desk at the moment” Julie said

“But…” he began

“I’ll do it” Morgan said

“You will?” Tom asked

“Yes, but it’ll cost you dinner at the Gondolier” 

“Dinner?” he asked “What? you and me dinner?

“Yes, unless my diminutive stature scares you” Morgan said, and Tom laughed

“I’ll get over it” Tom said

“Good” Morgan said, “When is you next night day off?”

“Thursday”

“Thursday it is then” she said “Now let’s go get that nasty little moth”

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (110) Young Love

 

In the early hours of Monday the weather broke heralding a week of heavy rain and storms and that weather curtailed Molly and Danny’s alfresco working and Elisa and Henry’s early morning walks had to be shelved.

The storms also brought the work on the church and cottages to a halt and the opening of the footbridge was postponed for a week so as not to tempt fate, as the original bridge was struck by lightning which caused it to fall into the river.

 

Jade Bargeron was a Beaumont girl born and bred and her parents still lived in Spaniards Creek.

Jade was a popular girl, kind and thoughtful, who made friends easily and kept them through her gentle nature. 

 

Matt Deighton was two years older than Jade, but he was not from the island, he was born and raised in Sharpington.

He arrived at the beginning of May with Harry Archer in a Luton van loaded to the gunwales with equipment for the new premises of Archer Ornamental.

He joined Archer’s straight from school and all of the staff in Sharpington were canvassed to see if any of them wanted to transfer to the new building but only Matt was interested.

Which suited Harry because he liked Matt, and they worked well together.

 

The 10^th of July was Jade’s first day at the Galleon Coffee shop, and she was quite nervous, it wasn’t that she wanted to be a barista for the rest of her life, but she wanted to do it well.

The weather was foul, and the shop had been open for half an hour and not one customer had come in, which wasn’t helping her nerves at all.

So when the little bell above the shop door rang and a sad looking, sopping wet young man walked in, she sprang into action with great efficiency.

He sat down at the table by the window and pushed the hood of his raincoat off his head. 

Jade recognized him, though she didn’t know his name, she knew he lived in one of the renovated places by the river.

“Good morning” she said brightly and took out her little notebook and pencil

“Hey” he responded

“I only started today, you’re my first customer” she whispered

“So be gentle with me”

“Two Americano’s and a Capuchino” he said flatly

Jade nodded and turned to walk away,

“Please” he added which made her smile.

 

The foul weather continued right through until late into Saturday night, so it was a very productive weeks writing at Cliff Haven.

Elisa spent most afternoons at the vicarage with Henry teaching him to cook.

 

Doctors Cameron and Woodward were a little disgruntled because it was a rare Saturday when Deborah wasn’t working and the weather was just too wet, so they did the Stephenson’s grocery shop in the morning and spent the afternoon at her cottage listening to Puccini. 

Sunday was a much nicer day, but Dr Woodward was on duty, so Stuart continued working on the irregular shaped piece of Perspex they found on one of their walks.

 

On Monday the footbridge over the Spanish River was opened with a small crowd to witness the occasion including the parish council, Reverends Archer and Noble and Molly, and the ribbon was cut by local celebrity Danny Nightingale.