Brandy Butter on Christmas Canal by Shae O'Brien

Author:Shae O'Brien [O'Brien, Shae]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
Publisher: Sunpenny Publishing Group
Published: 2013-12-09T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 2

It was late afternoon when they arrived at the pub near the moorings above Cowley lock. The drive across from Bristol to Uxbridge had taken just a few hours, but what with the packing as well, and phoning Babs to ascertain that she had the keys to Waterlily, it had turned into a long day.

Babs was waiting in the car park; Liliane had called her mobile phone to give her a fifteen-minute warning once they’d turned off the motorway. The older woman seemed a little fazed to find Jesse in tow, but happily handed over the spare set of keys and gave them directions to where they’d find Waterlily. Normally moored just up the canal from the pub, Elsie and Timmie had taken her up to the Slough Arm for some peace and privacy in Timmie’s final days, and it had been Babs who had helped Elsie immediately after Timmie’s death, and who had seen to things after finding Elsie, too.

She hugged Babs close. “Thank you,” she whispered. “For everything.”

“Don’t you worry, my lovely,” Babs whispered back. “Elsie was my best friend, too.”

Which caused Liliane to remember that this stalwart woman had also lost someone special to her. She resolved to make sure she now checked on Babs each day, at least until she was sure that Elsie’s closest friend was really okay.

The drive round to the Slough Arm was another half hour or so in the rush-hour traffic, but at last Lily pulled the old Ford station wagon, piled high with her things, into the lot behind the new Business Park. Eschewing the numerous notices about Private Property and No Unauthorised Parking, she slid into a spot right where there was an opening in the trees that led through to the canal towpath, and tipped a wink at the CCTV camera that overlooked the cars.

It was dark, but half a moon half-lit their way, and her feet remembered the path. Trusting that Waterlily was moored in the usual place, Liliane led Jesse through the gap in the trees, onto the towpath – and there she was, lying on the quiet of the canal, steady and still as a house. The soft breeze caused only soft ripples that didn’t disturb her as they kissed her sides, and despite the night, Liliane could just make out the murals on the narrowboat’s panels.

Waterlily lay almost against the edge of the towpath, her mooring ropes through two D-looped steel pegs at bow and stern holding her safely in. Surrounded by the peace of the autumn evening, Lily found it hard to believe that she would not be knocking on the roof, and be greeted with warmth and delight and welcomed into the cosiness of the cabin, with delicious scents wafting through the boat as Gramum cooked up one of her delights for dinner, or baked cake or biscuits for tea …

She hadn’t realised she had stopped still until Jesse’s arm came around her shoulders.

“Come on then, old girl. You’ll be fine, eh?”

Would she? Suddenly she wasn’t so sure about all this.

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