The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (139) Birthday Salutations

 

On Thursday evening Molly and Danny returned to the island in time for her 24^th birthday the next day and were on the last ferry of the day and drove through the rain to Spaniards Creek and had an early night.

 

They rose late the next morning and after serving her breakfast in bed he wished her happy birthday again and so they were even later rising, so much so that she didn’t have time to open her presents from Danny before they had to leave for the Orangery.

When they arrived at the Beaumont Manor, George, Katie, Sam and Nikki were already at the table and Arielle and Harry joined them shortly afterwards.

 

After the usual birthday salutations Katie asked

“So what wonderful present did he get you this time?”

“Whatever it was, he didn’t get it from me” Sam Archer said

“I haven’t had chance to open my presents yet” she replied, and Katie raised an eyebrow

“But he did give me this” Molly added extended her left hand for them to see the ring, and after the squeals and congratulations had died down the engagement was all they wanted to talk about.

 

She did get to open her presents later that day but there were more birthday and engagement celebration with friends over the weekend.

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (138) The Tempest

 

While Molly and Danny were sunning themselves on the white Sardinian sands, the Pepperstock Bay Islands were taking a battering from an autumn storm, which in the early hours of Wednesday morning brought part of an oak tree down in Manor Row which ended up going through Deborah Woodward’s bedroom window.

Fortunately she wasn’t at home at the time as she was on a night shift, but she got a nasty shock when she got home at 8 o’clock even though Stuart Cameron had phoned her.

 

The fire service was in attendance when she got home and she was greeted by part time firefighters Frazer Richmond, who she knew from the hospital as he was also a paramedic, and Adrian Robinson.

The damage was much worse than she expected, the huge oak bough had indeed gone through her bedroom window, but it had taken a big chunk of wall as it did so, and there was substantial damage to the roof as well.

Frazer and Adrian had secured a tarpaulin over the damage in order to keep the elements out, but the tree was still in situ as it was still partially attached to the tree.

“Is it safe to go in?”

“I wouldn’t recommend it until the tree has been removed” Frazer replied

“Can I at least go in and pack a bag?” she asked

“Yes, but don’t go into that bedroom” Frazer said, and she let herself in.

 

Deborah returned about ten minutes later carrying a large suitcase and a small holdall, she paused briefly to lock the door and then she walked up the path. 

The rest of the crew had stowed their gear on the vehicle and Frazer and Adrian had been joined by Stuart.

“Have you got everything you need?” Frazer asked 

“Yes, I think so” she replied despondently

“Where are you going to stay?” Adrian asked

“The Hotel I suppose” she replied

“Nonsense” Stuart interjected “I’ve made up the bed in the spare room”

“Are you sure?” she asked

“Absolutely” he replied as he took her suitcase

“Bless you” she said

“And thank you guys as well”

“No problem” Frazer said “The Baker’s will be along in a little while”

“Who are the Baker’s?” she asked

“The tree surgeons”

 

It was midmorning when Brother and Sister, Nathan and Vicki Baker arrived in Manor Row, it was not their first job of the day.

There were five siblings in the Baker family, but only two of them were tree surgeons, and they lived together 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, and it was built by one of their ancestors, and was something of a monstrosity, but it was home.

 

They soon set to work and quickly dealt with the problem bough, before dealing with any loose or damaged branches on the tree itself, and just as they had finished loading the last of the lumber onto the pickup, Adam Jandrell and Franci Liebenberg arrived to do a full inspection and make the tarpaulin secure after the tree was gone. 

 

Once they had finished in Manor Row Nathan and Vicki drove back to Spaniards Creek and unloaded the wood in the yard, where it would be cut and dried to sell as firewood by local girl Zoey Bargeman, who began working for the Baker’s within a week of them moving in.

Apart from working for them, stunningly attractive Zoey spent a lot of her spare time with Vicki, and they became great friends as they were both 25 years old and had a lot in common.

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (137) Romantic Italy

 

Lawrence Gilbert and Brian Baker had been friends all their lives and when they left school aged sixteen, they both started working for a Chandler’s in Pipershaven and ten years later they decided to go out on their own and were doing very well for themselves, in a much smaller way than the company they had worked for, but after three years they had established themselves in St Pierre and in mid-October they opened a second premises at the Old Mill in Spaniards Creek, next door to Baker’s Tree Surgery, who were one of the first tenants to move in, back in June.

 

The Hotel Danny and Molly were staying in had a wonderful view over the bay of Naples and Capri beyond and as the scented sea breeze gently caressed her brunette hair Danny thought he had finally found the right moment in the right venue.

So on Friday Evening as they were gazing at the spectacular sunset he said

“Molly, I have to ask you something”

“What’s that?” she replied without looking at him

“Well it’s something I’ve been trying to ask you about for the last week” he added

“Well what is it?” Molly asked still staring at the sunset

“Perhaps this will give you a clue” he said putting a small package on the table and she turned to look

“It’s not my birthday for another week” she said and looked away again

“This is a different kind of gift” he said

“I’m not opening it until my birthday” she insisted

“Please”

“Definitely not” she replied  

“Molly Barrington, will you please do what you’re told when I’m asking you to marry me” he said

“What?” Molly exclaimed and turned around

“But if you don’t want to marry me, then I’ll take it back to the shop”

“No, no you can’t do that” she said in a panic

“No, the moment has passed” he said

“But you have to marry me” she pleaded, “You asked me, so you can’t take it back”

“I feel a bit silly now, but ok, will you …” he began said

“Yes, Yes, and Yes” she screamed and threw her arms around his neck.

He rummaged in his pocket and gave her the package and said

“You’d better have this then”

She snatched it from his hand and ripped the packaging to threads to expose a ring box.

Her hands were shaking as she snapped the lid back and when she saw the contents she gasped

“If you don’t like it, we can buy another ring together”

“It’s beautiful, I’ll keep it forever” she said and kissed him, and it was the kind of kiss that meant that they wouldn’t see any more of the sunset.

 

After celebrating their engagement rather spectacularly the night before they decided they had had enough of sightseeing so they thought they would take the ferry to Sardinia and have a bit of relaxion on the beach for the last five days of their holiday.   

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.

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (135) Harvest Festival

 

Paige Chapman went to the University of Downshire where she did Business Studies in Abbottsford and it was for her, like many girls of her age, a life defining time.

She was in halls for the first year and she shared with three other girls from Beaumont Island, Stacey Jackson, a tall, beautiful and kindly brunette girl, curvy redhead Poppy Nunthorpe, and Nicole Wilson a quiet busty brunette.

All four of the girls were studying different subjects, but their strong friendship resulted from their shared history as islanders, and as they got on so well the four of them decided very early on to rent a house between them for the second and third years.

 

Paige was five foot two, skinny and flat chested girl, beautiful and painfully shy, with blonde hair and a sweet smile and she lived at Crag Edge Farm which is the smallest of the five farms on the island, on the west of the island bordered in the east by Roman Road and Halfway Lane to the south.

 

There was a major effort during the Indian summer to harvest all the hay before the weather turned, but such was the intensity of the task they didn’t have time to stow it away as neatly as they normally would, so all the barns were full, but not tidy.

So ironically on the day of the harvest festival service at St Clara’s, all the farms were busy frantically getting their barns in order to make sure none of the hay and straw went to waste.

All the farms helped each other out during busy times which was why Phil Wilson from Roman Water Farm was in the barn at Crag Edge helping Paige stack hay bales.

 

They had been at it for about an hour and a half, and there was the normal amiable chatter between them as they stacked the bales, with Phil at ground level handing the bales up to Paige who was about ten feet up, piling them layer on layer, but then as she reached down for the next bale, the one she was standing on crumbled, and she fell forward onto the bale he was holding, which in turn fell on Phil and they ended up in a straw covered heap on the floor facing each other and then while she was still trying to catch her breath he took her by surprise and kissed her

“Oh” she exclaimed when he stopped

“Sorry” he said “I couldn’t help myself”

“Oh, that’s ok, it was very nice” she said “you just took me by surprise”

“Sorry?”

“It’s just…”

“Just what?”

“Well I always assumed you were gay” Paige said

“Why?”

“Well there are at least seven attractive women on the local farms, and I rather immodestly include myself in that number, between twenty-one and twenty-five and to the best of my knowledge, which is extensive, you haven’t tried it on with any of us, have you?”

“No” he said very definitely

“Why?”

“Firstly, because I’m not interested in your sister, random shepherdess’s or the stable girls” he said “and secondly because I was trying to get up the courage to ask you out, but then gravity intervened, and I seized the moment”

“Well you haven’t” she stated

“Haven’t what?”

“You haven’t asked me, you’ve invaded my personal space and assaulted me, but you haven’t asked me out” she said matter of factly

“Oh, I see, well yes I see what you mean” he said, “would you like to go out?”

“Of course, I do” she replied and then pushed him back on the pile of straw and invaded his personal space, and she was doing that to great effect when her sister Stacey walked in  

“I’ll come back later” she said

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (134) Mending a Bridge

 

The following week was very difficult for Stuart and Deborah, the reason for their angst was not the kiss in isolation, they both rather enjoyed that, no, what had them both tied up in knots was the fact they had jeopardised their friendship.

There were a number of occasions over that week when their paths crossed at the hospital or in Manor Row, but they had adopted a distanced stance and only spoke to one another, when necessary, they had also adopted an attitude of deliberately avoiding each other on a day-to-day basis.

 

After a couple of weeks at the farm Natasha Baker said

“You’re a really hard worker, the Beaumont’s could use your energy and enthusiasm with the harvest if you’re interested”

“Really?”

“Yes really” Natasha said

“Then yes I’m interested” Sheridan Tilbrook said

 

October

 

The following weekend, when they would normally have been out and about together, on a very pleasant Sunday morning, they spent it alone walking aimlessly hoping not to bump into each other.    

Their intention was an invigorating walk to clear their heads and not to keep thinking about the other, which of course was the complete opposite of what happened.

It was damp and drizzly by midmorning but an hour later the drizzle had turned to persistent rain, and they made the decision that enough was enough and turned for home, by the shortest possible route, which for both of them was through Bellevue Woods.

They were both rushing along the path, head down and aware only of the fact that they were getting wetter with every step when the paths converged and they almost collided.

“Oh it’s you” he said in a surprised tone.

“You frightened the life out of me” she said and failed to suppress a laugh

He stood and watched rivulets of rain running down her face and she stared at the large droplets on the end of his nose.

Then they simultaneously exclaimed

“I’m sorry” and then they hugged, it was a long comfortable hug, and they were oblivious to the rain, they were just so happy they had their friends back. 

They restrained themselves from kissing again even though that was the opposite of what they wanted to do and contented themselves with the hug.

 

After the hug they trapsed less urgently back to Manor Row and had lunch at his house.

The problem was that the kiss had opened a “Pandora’s Box” of emotions in him and now he was desperately attracted to her, Deborah was now coming to terms with the fact that she had fallen in love with him, and had he ever known love before in his life he would have recognised the fact that he loved her.

As they sat in his lounge enjoying a hot chocolate she suddenly said

“Perhaps in future we should wait to be invited before we do any more kissing”

“Good idea” he concurred

This was reassuring for both of them as it meant that kissing was very definitely not off the menu.

 

The Beaumont’s were every bit as impressed with Sheridan Tilbrook as Natasha Baker was, but they weren’t able to keep her on more than a couple of weeks after the harvest.

“I’m sorry” Natasha said “I wish I could keep you on longer”

“That’s ok”

“But I have a friend at the Beaumont Manor, and I recommended you” She said

“Really?”

“Yes, she’s emailed me an application form for you” she said

“Oh, I can’t do it then” Sheridan said

“What do you mean?” Natasha asked

“I can’t fill in forms”

“Why not?”

“I can’t read or write very well” she said quietly and started to cry

“Don’t cry honey” Natasha said

“It’s ok, I’ll help you with the form”

“Will you?” she asked as she wiped tears off her cheeks with her sleeve

“Yes of course”

“But what if they ask me to read something, or fill something in while I’m there” she said in a panic

“You’ll be making beds and cleaning bathrooms” Natasha said “All you need to be able to do is recognize room numbers, and I know you can do that”

“But…”

“And I will help you improve your reading and writing in the meantime” Natasha said

“Honestly?” Sheridan asked and began crying again

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (133) Overstepping

 

Also on that morning Doctors Woodward and Cameron took advantage of the fine day and the fact that they were both off work on the same day.

When Deborah knocked for Stuart, he had his binoculars around his neck and when she saw them, she said

“I hope you’re not going be saying “Oh what a beauty” every five minutes”

“I don’t say that” he said, and she laughed

“Or “Cor look at that lovely pair”“

“I don’t say that either” he said indignantly “People only say that in “Carry On” Films”

Deborah was chuckling loudly

“I would only say “Oh what a beauty” if I was looking at you” he said

“Oh!” she exclaimed and they both blushed

 

It was wet underfoot as they walked through Bellevue Woods following all the rain from the past week and with the wet  leaves beneath his feet, he suddenly lost his footing.

“Wha…” he exclaimed, followed by “oh shit” and the sound of breaking branches and a thud.

She pushed her way through some bushes and found Stuart getting to his feet and rubbing his hip.

“You didn’t see that coming with your binoculars?” she said, and laughed

“You’re mean” he replied and rubbed his hip again as if he had just remembered he had hurt it.

“Are you ok?” she asked, and they both giggled and then he replied

“I’m fine”

“Are you alright to continue?”

“Yes” he said “but somewhere more stable underfoot”

“Ok” she said, “What about up by the river?”

“Ok the river it is” she replied

 

When they got back to Manor Row Stuart was feeling the effects of his fall so, she offered to apply some Voltarol gel on his hip and lower back and when she had finished, without any warning she kissed him and he kissed her back and then almost telepathically they communicated that they had made a big mistake, and without speaking she left the house. 

“You are a stupid, stupid woman” she said out loud as she marched towards her the house “what on earth were you thinking”

She went through the front door still berating herself.

“Well that’s the end of the friendship now, and he’ll never trust you again” she said and went into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her.

 

As Deborah was stomping her way to number 6, Stuart was doing much the same thing in his own house.

“My God man, have you no self-control?” he muttered

“Just because she’s a beautiful woman, you think it ok to go and kiss her”

He ran the bath still muttering

“Just because she’s funny and has an infectious laugh and has a pretty smile, and smells divine, you cannot go around kissing her, her….” and as he struggled to complete the sentence he plopped down on the toilet and concluded.

“… beautiful soft lips”