A Summer in Cornwall by Emma Burstall

Author:Emma Burstall [Burstall, Emma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784972523
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

14

SATURDAY MORNING ARRIVED and leaving Cornwall was a terrible wrench for Bramble. As she looked out of her bedroom window she could see the sun glittering on the bright-blue ocean, and when Katie appeared in her fluorescent-pink bikini, clutching a magazine and towel, all set for a lazy day lounging in the garden, it felt like a double blow.

Bramble dragged her feet getting ready and ended up departing far later than intended, so that by the time she spotted signs for the M25 it was already three thirty p.m., and if she didn’t put her foot down, she’d miss her father’s ‘light bite’ before the dreaded belly-dancing display.

As soon as she pulled into the familiar Chessington street, lined with mock-Tudor semis, and stopped in front of her parents’ house, Cassie dashed out, cheeks flushed and eyes shining. She must have been peering through the vertical cream blinds in the front window, keeping watch.

‘It’s been so long!’ she cried, scarcely giving Bramble time to leave the car before enveloping her in a hug. Cassie’s bosom was as soft as a pillow and she smelled of lavender perfume and hairspray. ‘Let me take a peek. I’d forgotten what you look like!’

Being back in her old house felt strange to Bramble: easy and comforting, yet somehow different, too, for although she had only been away for three weeks, so much had happened. Bill carried her small bag upstairs before retiring to the kitchen, where he could be heard clattering about, opening and closing cupboards, rattling pans and whizzing up ingredients in the blender. She was amused. So much for their simple supper, she thought. It sounded as if he were preparing a banquet.

She and Cassie sat side by side on the plush red sofa in the sitting room, sipping tea and catching up on news, but it wasn’t long before Bill appeared again – with a white tea towel hung, waiter-style, on his arm – and summoned them with a flourish for their ‘pre-performance meal’.

‘Mesdames, your repast awaits,’ he announced in a fake French accent, before ushering them into the dining room at the front of the house, where the table was laid with a lacy white cloth and Cassie’s best cutlery and crystal wine glasses. Then he vanished again for a moment and returned with three large bowls of steaming seafood broth on a tray.

‘What’s this?’ Cassie asked, eyeing the food that he put in front of her and sniffing suspiciously.

‘Teriyaki prawns and broccoli noodles,’ Bill said proudly. ‘It’s Japanese, doncha know. I thought we’d try something different for a change.’

After Maria’s unappetising grub, Bramble would secretly have preferred Cassie’s plain but delicious shepherd’s pie or her tasty chicken hotpot, but she didn’t let on.

‘Yum,’ she said, picking up a prawn and twizzling some brownish buckwheat noodles around her wooden chopsticks. ‘What a treat!’

‘Very unusual,’ Cassie commented, rejecting her own chopsticks in favour of a spoon and fork, which Bill had thoughtfully placed alongside. ‘I like prawns, but I’m not keen on

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