The Cornish Cream Tea Holiday by Cressida McLaughlin

Author:Cressida McLaughlin [McLaughlin, Cressida]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2022-05-10T12:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Of course the sea was choppy the day Ben had picked for them to visit the abandoned lighthouse.

It was Wednesday, midway through Thea’s holiday, and she hadn’t done anything about her bookshop since her meeting with Jamie Scable. Or, at least, she hadn’t done anything practical about it, but her conversations with Ben had reignited her confidence, and that felt like progress.

‘The seat belt’s a bit temperamental,’ he said now. She was on the bench seat in his van, Scooter between them, and was wrestling with the belt as she had done the other evening. ‘You just have to yank it, then it should be fine. Sorry, I’ve been meaning to get it fixed.’

‘It’s usually only you and Scooter in here though,’ Thea said, finding that when she did what he said, the seat belt came out easily. ‘What’s the great smell? I hadn’t expected a builder’s van to smell so …’

‘Delicious?’ Ben chuckled. ‘It doesn’t, as a rule. You’ll have to wait and see.’

‘Oooh, so you’re not just showing me around the lighthouse? There’s more to today?’

He glanced at her then turned back to the road. ‘You’ll just have to wait and see,’ he repeated, an amused note in his voice.

Thea couldn’t take her eyes off the sea, the way the waves crested long before they got near the shore. It was still blisteringly blue, but the sun’s heat was tempered by the strong wind, and she was pleased she’d put factor forty suncream in her bag. She was wearing frayed jeans and a red T-shirt, a thin hoody over the top, and her trainers. She didn’t know what an abandoned-building appropriate outfit was, but Ben’s T-shirt and jeans, along with his scuffed, solid-looking work boots, made her think she’d got it right.

‘Is it going to be safe?’ she asked, peering past Ben’s profile to gaze at a rock formation sitting close to the cliffs, the churn of water around its base like the inside of a washing machine. ‘It’s quite rough today.’

‘It’s mostly safe,’ Ben said. ‘As long as we’re careful, there’s a fairly good chance we’ll make it back in one piece.’

Thea swallowed. ‘OK. That’s … I mean, great …’

He flashed her a grin over Scooter’s head, before turning back to the road. ‘I’m joking. It’s going to be fine. The tide’s out, and the walkway’s wide enough when it’s low. I wouldn’t take you if it wasn’t safe: I’m not about to put you in danger.’

‘I didn’t think you’d do that,’ Thea rushed. ‘I just …’ her gaze returned to the froth, and she thought of the bit in Pinocchio where he was eaten by the whale. But then Ben turned off the main road and, although they were moving towards the sea, the view of the coastline was obscured by a dense cluster of trees. Ben drove the van with ease, even as the road got narrower. Branches clawed at the windows, one talon shrieked along the glass, and Thea was suddenly in a horror film rather than a disaster movie.

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