The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (121) Helping Sheridan

 

Sheridan Tilbrook was only 18, shy, naïve and sweet natured, despite everything life had thrown at her, and she was all alone in a world she didn’t really understand.

She had been raised by a bitter, mean spirited and domineering mother.

Her father had deserted them when she was a baby and her mother blamed Sheridan for that and made her life a misery.

But following her mother’s death she was free and living in the Saxvirdan cottage in which her mother kept her imprisoned, but there was only a little money, so she had to work if she wanted to stay there, and that was a problem she was ill equipped to solve.

 

It was Maria Jenkins, who came to her rescue, she lived in Saxvirdan and knew her mother, through her work as a mobile hairdresser.

She asked around some of her clients she broached the subject with some of them about full time or part time work for Sheridan, and she got several opportunities for her so on a hot August Day she went in search of her and tracked her sitting on the bank of Roman Water dangling her naked feet in the water.

“Hello, you” Maria said startling her.

“You made me jump” she said and giggled.

“What are you up to?” Maria asked.

“Nothing as usual” she replied glumly.

“Just as well I’ve found some work for you.”

“Really?” she said excitedly.

“You’re not just winding me up,” she continued, obviously used to being let down.

“No, I’m serious”

Sheridan turned away from her and Maria could tell the way her shoulders were moving that she was crying.

“Well come on then” she said, “Get your shoes on.”

“They’re waiting for you.”

“What now?” She said wiping her face on her sleeve and nearly falling into the Lake, then she threw her arms around her.

“Thanks Maria”

Then she sat down again, and Maria handed her some tissues, which she gave a double take at, not knowing whether to dry her eyes or her feet so she did both in the end, eyes first.

As they walked back into Saxvirdan Maria filled her in with what odd bits of work she had found for her so far, it was not much, some cleaning, shelf stacking, gardening and the first was at Woodside Farm.

“But the rest is up to you” she said.

“I won’t let you down Maria, I promise.”

 

Maria drove her down to Woodside Farm and parked by the stables.

“This one is only temporary because of the girls is ill but if you work hard, I’m sure they’ll use you again, now go inside and ask for Natasha.”

She got out of the car stood up straight and gave her a wonky smile.

“What if she doesn’t like me?” She said nervously.

Marie got out of the car, wiped the last remnants of her tears away and took her inside to meet Natasha.

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (120) The Summer Fête

 

As had been the long-standing tradition the summer Fête was held in the Hospital grounds and also in keeping with tradition it was extremely well attended.

It was a glorious day with not a cloud in the sky but it was extremely hot so Heather had insisted additional tented areas should be provided and free bottled water.

Fortunately a lot of money was raised for good causes, and no one suffered any ill effects of the heat, well almost no one.

 

Caroline Wells had a popup coffee stall at the Summer Fête, and she did the early stint and spent the rest of the day with Austin enjoying all the stalls and attractions, and for her at least it felt like they were a proper couple.

 

It was at the end of the day when all the punters had left and a few helpers were milling around packing up the stalls, Heather was in the refreshments tent, packing away the un-drunk water when Frazer happened along.

“Ah Heather” he said “There you are”

“Hello Frazer”

“It’s been a wonderful success” he said

“You sound surprised” Heather said

“Well I am a bit” he confessed and sat down

“We obviously make a good team” she offered as she picked up a box of water.

“Yes, we do” he agreed just as Heather stumbled and dropped the box she was carrying

“Damn it” she said and crouched down to pick it up then she looked up at him and smiled

“Sorry” 

Which was when he leant towards her and kissed her and more to the point she kissed him back.

When their lips parted, they looked at each other and she said

“Well I think that has made all the hard work worthwhile”

“Exactly what I was thinking” he agreed, and they kissed again.

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (117) Lily and David

 

Lily Nunthorpe was a seamstress by trade and owned a vintage clothes shop in St Pierre, “Then for Now” and specialised in repairing and rejuvenating old garments, as well as stocking a large quantity of Vintage wear.

Her best friend was David Lee who was the owner of the Forum Cinema, and they had been friends since their school days along with their other halves.

Since they were both widowed, they became much closer, her husband Jack hand been gone for ten years whereas David’s wife Brenda had only passed two years earlier.

In those two years they were always together and could often be seen  walking their dogs together.

It was a significant year for both of them as they were both turning 60.

David was first and he had a big family celebration on the day but two days later on Saturday the two of them celebrated it again, ending up at her house.

Her niece Poppy lived with her, but she couldn’t keep up with the oldies and went to bed leaving them to carry on celebrating, and they celebrated so well that their inhibitions floated away on an alcohol fuelled wave, which is why, Lily suddenly said.

“I love you David”

“I love you too” he replied and had another drink

“No I mean “I love you”” she said and held his hand.

He squeezed her hand in return and smiled and said  

“And I….”

But he never finished, and shook his head

“No, no, I can’t”

Then he got up and stumbled out of the door with Lily shouting at him as he left

“Don’t go David, I’m sorry”

 

The next day Lily berated herself for her stupidity, in declaring her love for David, and had condemned herself to walking the dog alone, and now wouldn’t be able to celebrate her birthday with the man she loved.

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.