Spring on the Little Cornish Isles: Flower Farm by Phillipa Ashley

Author:Phillipa Ashley
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780008253387
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2018-01-24T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

It took two large gin and tonics in the Gannet to numb the aches and pains in Gaby’s arms and legs or at least make her not care about them. At times over the past few hours, she’d half-wished she’d volunteered to be cox, not row, but the prospect of steering the gig between rocks, reefs and sandbanks made that a non-starter. At least she couldn’t actually kill anyone but herself by rowing.

She looked down at her hands and winced. Jess had loaned her a pair of cycle gloves but she still had blisters on the insides of her fingers and wasn’t looking forward to the next day in the fields. On the other hand, she’d really enjoyed the sense of camaraderie with the other members of her own crew and their rivals and a quiet but deep sense of satisfaction was gradually filling her veins. Then again, that could have been the gin.

Everyone – even Will – was laughing and joking as they milled around the pub terrace which had glorious views over the lagoon towards St Mary’s. The evening was cool but clear, with flat-topped pink clouds hovering on the horizon, almost like ghost islands above the real ones. It was on nights like these that she contemplated the idea of staying on Scilly for more than a mere summer, even if it meant abandoning the promise she’d made to her family and herself to see the world while she could.

Around two dozen rowers were gathered around her, tucking into hot pasties. As it was Easter Saturday, there were also trays of Easter brownies studded with mini eggs. After all that rowing, the crews attacked the food like a pack of seagulls let loose in a chip shop.

Luca came over a second after Gaby had taken a large bite of a pasty.

‘Gaby, you were incredible.’

She nodded and tried to smile while chewing furiously, spraying him with pastry crumbs. She pointed at her mouth and tried, ‘Sobby.’

‘It’s fine. Please, finish your dinner.’

Gaby gulped down the chunk of pasty, wincing as the hot meat lodged in her throat. She started coughing.

‘Drink this.’ Luca shoved a pint of lager at her and she managed to dislodge the pasty and cool her throat at the same time. He patted her on the back. ‘Sorry. I’ve almost caused you to choke. I came over to see how you were. Great effort today by the way.’

‘It was nothing, really.’

‘Not at all. You performed extremely well.’

Gaby’s cheeks heated up and the volcanic pasty had nothing to do with it. Her fellow crew members – including Will – must have been able to hear. In fact, she could see Will out of the corner of her eye, holding a half-eaten pasty and scowling in her and Luca’s direction. Jess’s attention had been caught too, but her eyes were mostly on Luca.

‘I was rubbish,’ she said, embarrassed by Luca’s effusive praise. ‘And no, please don’t say otherwise. It’s only thanks to the others that we even made it over the line before dark.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.