Kate and Clara's Curious Cornish Craft Shop: The heart-warming, romantic read we all need right now

by Ali McNamara

  ‘Usually that’s all they want to talk about – my father. Never me.’

  Oh Lord, now I feel bad.

  But that’s why you’re here, Kate, I tell myself. To find out more about Winston James and the painters he might have spent time with …

  ‘I guess that’s what comes of having a famous father,’ I say sympathetically. ‘It’s always hard on the children.’

  Julian looks at me. ‘I think you might be the first person ever to acknowledge that,’ he says quietly, and he puts down his knife and fork. ‘I’ve spent my whole life trying to live up to his name … and usually failing miserably.’

  ‘I’m sure that can’t be true,’ I say, thrown a little. I hadn’t expected Julian to reply in that way at all. He always seemed so full of himself, and now he seems to be deflating visibly in front of me. ‘You … you seem so successful.’

  ‘Do I?’ Julian asks. ‘Tell me, Kate. What do I do? I mean for a living – what’s my job?’

  ‘Er …’ I struggle.

  ‘You see? You have no idea, do you?’

  ‘No, it’s not that … We haven’t discussed it, have we? I assumed you promoted your father’s work.’

  ‘I do. That is it exactly. I work for the business he built. My life is all about his success. I’ve never had a chance to try and build my own.’

  ‘I’m sure that can’t be true.’

  ‘It is true, Kate. I’ve done nothing with my life but try to live up to my father’s name, while at the same time living off the fruits of it.’

  Now I’m completely confused. I’d come out tonight thinking I knew exactly what sort of person Julian was. I was prepared to bypass all his arrogance and pretension in the hope I could find out more about Winston James and St Felix in the fifties, and now instead I find myself sitting opposite a lost and unhappy man, who instead of annoying me is making me feel incredibly sorry for him.

  ‘Then why don’t you?’ I ask. ‘Start building your own achievements instead of living off your father’s? We all make our own choices in this world. Why don’t you start by doing what you want to do?’

  ‘I’m too old,’ Julian says woefully. ‘I’ve done this for so long I wouldn’t know where to begin.’

  ‘Nonsense. You’re what … ?’ I look at Julian closely. Don’t get this wrong, Kate. ‘… thirty-nine?’ I say, knocking a few years off, in case.

  ‘You’re very kind. I’m forty-five.’

  ‘That’s not old – you’re a little stuck in your ways, that’s all. I made a huge change in my life only a couple of years ago. I gave up a good solid job with a financial firm and made the move here to St Felix to open up my own shop – something I’d always wanted to do but had never been brave enough to try.’

  ‘Really? What changed to make you do it?’ Julian sounds like he’s genuinely interested, and not simply asking to be polite.

  ‘I was pushed into it, I guess. Let’s just say an ex made it easier for me to take the leap.’

  ‘Maybe I too need a push? Sadly, I don’t have anyone to give me that shove right now.’ He gives me a wry smile. ‘I don’t suppose … ?’

  ‘… I’d be your ex?’ I smile too. ‘That would mean we’d need to have a relationship first, and to be honest, Julian, I’m not really looking for that right now.’

  ‘Shame,’ Julian says. ‘I think you could be just what I need, Kate. Someone who tells me how it is, and who doesn’t pander to me. I think I could do with a bit of straight talking, and you’re very good at that.’

  ‘Thank you, I think?’ I beam at him. ‘Any time you need someone to give you a shove, you give me a shout. Now, we really need to eat some of this delicious food in front of us or it will get cold!’

  But before I’ve a chance to take hold of my knife and fork I feel a hand placed firmly over mine.

  ‘Thank you, Kate,’ Julian says, looking earnestly at me across the table. ‘Your wise words this evening have really touched me.’

  ‘Don’t be silly,’ I say, tapping his hand reassuringly, hoping he will remove it if I do. ‘I haven’t done anything except speak the truth. You need to find some new people to hang around with if no one has ever told you that before. Perhaps you should spend less time in all the cosmopolitan places you frequent and more in places like St Felix if it’s new friends you want? The people around here are usually quite sociable. I’ve always found them to be so.’

  As I say this I gently remove my hand from under his, and smile with relief that I’ve extracted myself from a tricky situation, but as I glance over his shoulder out into the pub, I realise that I’ve immediately walked slap bang into another. My relieved smile disappears from my face as my gaze falls on to another man, and he’s not looking at me with anything like the affection that Julian is.

  I’ve been so busy listening to Julian’s woes that I haven’t noticed Jack has made an appearance in the pub this evening. As I stare back at him I’m in no doubt that he has definitely noticed that I’m here, and also that I’m not alone.

  Twenty-one

  Jack very deliberately turns away from me in his chair and takes up conversation with the person next to him, who happens to be PC Woods or ‘Woody’ as he’s known to everybody, our local policeman.

  Oh god, had Jack seen Julian’s hand over mine? Of course he had. That’s why he stared at me like that.

  I wasn’t doing anything wrong though. I was simply talking to a … well, I’d have to call Julian a friend now, I suppose. That was definitely something I hadn’t expected to call him before tonight, but he’d turned out to be nowhere near as awful as I’d originally thought him to be, and anyway, it wasn’t like Jack and I were a couple or anything, was it?

  As I, slightly less enthusiastically, tuck into the rest of my dinner while Julian does the same, I can’t help but worry what Jack must be thinking of me.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Julian asks, when I’ve been lost in my thoughts for a while. ‘Is your meal not to your liking?’

  ‘Oh, no, it’s perfectly fine. How is yours?’

  ‘Best steak and kidney pie I’ve had in years.’ He puts down his knife and fork on his empty plate, while I glance over his shoulder again at Jack. He’s talking to Amber who’s joined him as well now – Woody’s fiancée.

  Julian turns around to see who’s capturing my attention. ‘Someone you know?’

  ‘No one special. Everyone knows each other here – it’s like that.’

  ‘Yet again this place reminds me of my grandmother’s. Everyone knew each other down her street too. I’m liking it more by the minute. I’ve been to St Felix a number of times, Kate, but this is the first time I’ve felt any affinity to it at all. This is due to your influence, I feel.’

  ‘Where was she from, your grandmother?’ I ask, eager to move the subject away from me. Julian had already made his feelings pretty clear and I didn’t want to encourage him.

  ‘Liverpool – a Scouser through and through.’

  ‘Gosh, when you talked about her before I didn’t imagine you were staying in a city as a child. I thought it was the countryside you were talking about.’

  ‘You imagined a fancy country house somewhere, no doubt? An idyllic childhood spent running through sun-kissed fields of straw – ’fraid not. This privately educated young boy had to stay in inner-city Liverpool when he was on his school holidays, in a two-up two-down terraced house. You can imagine the ribbing I got from the other children in the street when they heard my accent.’

  Everything about Julian was becoming more understandable now I knew more about him.

  ‘The way you are,’ I suddenly say, ‘that’s all a front, isn’t it?’

  Julian stares at me. ‘How do you mean?’

  ‘I mean your demeanour. You’ve developed that over the years more as a coping mechanism rather than show anyone your real personality. You’re not actually pompous and full of yourself at all. You’re much nicer than that.’

  Julian appears shocked at first that I dare t
o describe him this way. Then when I say he’s nicer than he seems his head drops and he shakes it disbelievingly. ‘Were you some sort of psychologist before you came to St Felix, Kate?’ he says, looking up at me again in total wonder. ‘You’re far too perceptive about people to simply run a shop.’

  ‘Hardly. I think I’m good at seeing the person behind the mask, that’s all.’ I glance towards Jack again, but I can’t see him now. ‘And most of what people see of Julian James is a mask, isn’t it? You keep the real you hidden.’

  ‘Wasted in a craft shop,’ Julian says, deliberately deflecting my observation. ‘Totally wasted.’

  ‘Kate is never wasted,’ I hear Jack say, and I turn around to find him about to pass our table. He must have been to the disabled toilet behind us. ‘Not in my experience anyway.’ He raises his eyebrows at me. ‘She barely drinks.’

  ‘Jack …’ I say, finding myself extremely surprised yet pleased to see him.

  ‘Jack Edwards,’ Jack offers, holding out his hand to Julian. ‘Good to meet you.’

  Julian shakes his outstretched hand. ‘Julian James. The pleasure is mine!’

  Jack looks expectantly at me, waiting for an explanation. I’m about to tell him that Julian is the son of Winston James and connected to the exhibition, but then I realise I will be doing what everyone else does to Julian – introducing him via his father – so instead I say: ‘Julian is a friend of mine. He’s … visiting St Felix.’

  ‘Very nice,’ Jack says in an overly friendly tone. ‘And will you be staying long?’

  Julian’s gaze pauses on me. ‘Possibly longer than I first thought …’

  ‘Great,’ Jack says with what I know is a forced smile.

  ‘Julian is in the art business,’ I say diplomatically. ‘So you two have something in common. Jack owns a shop in St Felix selling art equipment,’ I explain to Julian.

  ‘Ah,’ they both say, and nod politely at each other.

  ‘Do you paint?’ Jack asks Julian.

  Julian grins. ‘No, not me. My father did though.’ He gives me another conspiratorial glance, which Jack can’t help but notice.

  ‘What do you do then?’ Jack asks bluntly.

  ‘I promote art,’ Julian replies carefully, ‘but after tonight I could be changing my career path.’ Again, he looks knowingly at me.

  I wish he wouldn’t keep doing that. I know it’s annoying Jack, and I don’t want him to think there’s anything going on.

  ‘Well, you two obviously have a lot to talk about that doesn’t involve me,’ Jack says, wheeling himself back from the table. ‘I’ll leave you to it. Nice to meet you, Julian. See you around, Kate.’

  He looks deliberately at me, before pushing himself away.

  ‘Nice chap,’ Julian says, apparently not noticing anything is wrong. ‘You said the people were friendly here.’

  ‘Yes,’ I say, watching Jack push himself out of the pub. ‘They are.’

  ‘I think I will stay on a while,’ Julian adds, gazing at me while I gaze at the door Jack’s just exited through. ‘I’d like to make some new friends, and get to know a few others much, much better …’

  Twenty-two

  Do you have another?

  Jack’s text gets directly to the point.

  I respond in an equally blunt manner:

  Yes.

  When should we compare them?

  Are you free tonight?

  I am.

  7 OK?

  Yes.

  See you later then.

  Nothing …

  ‘So, it’s like that now, is it, Jack?’ I murmur sighing.

  ‘What’s like what?’ Molly asks, wandering into the shop.

  ‘Oh, nothing,’ I say, looking up from my phone.

  ‘Someone giving you grief, Mum?’

  ‘No, don’t be silly.’

  ‘Which one of your many beaus is it this time? The rugged ex-soldier or the suave sophisticated man about town? Or is there a third I don’t even know about yet? And before you say anything, I don’t mean Joel!’

  ‘Very funny. Shouldn’t you be at school by now?’ I ask, looking at my watch. ‘Wait, don’t tell me – a free period?’

  ‘Yep, plus there’s not much going on now it’s the last week of term. Hardly worth going in at all …’

  ‘Nice try. You’re going. You’re as bad as Sebastian always trying to get a day off.’

  ‘Did someone say “day off”?’ Sebastian asks, springing into the shop.

  ‘No, no one is having a day off!’ I snap.

  ‘Ooh, did someone get out of the wrong side of the bed this morning?’ Sebastian asks, looking at Molly.

  ‘Men trouble,’ Molly says, nodding.

  ‘I do not have men trouble!’

  ‘Which one is it?’ Sebastian asks Molly as if I’m not here. ‘The soldier or the suit?’

  I shake my head and carry on pricing up some of my own work with the tiny white card tags we attach with cotton. This is a particularly lovely line I’ve created of small zipped bags that can be used as make-up bags, pencil cases or however the purchaser wishes.

  ‘She won’t say,’ Molly whispers.

  ‘Maybe it’s both?’ Sebastian whispers back.

  ‘I can hear you, you know?’ I tell them.

  ‘So which is it then?’ Sebastian asks. ‘I’m kind of hoping it’s the soldier. I like Jack.’

  ‘Both of the gentlemen you are referring to are my friends, and only my friends,’ I reply adamantly. ‘And neither of them are giving me grief, as you put it.’

  ‘Are they giving each other grief then?’ Sebastian asks hopefully. ‘Ooh, duelling at dawn over the fair maiden?’

  I sigh. ‘And why would they do that when we’re just friends?’

  ‘I think the lady doth protest too much,’ Sebastian says, with a knowing look towards Molly, who nods her head in agreement. ‘Though why you’d want to be only friends with Jack is beyond me. Julian – yes, I’m surprised you even went out with him again after the first time. I would have thought an evening with him would have been one too many in anyone’s lifetime.’

  ‘Now, stop right there,’ I say seriously, putting down the pricing labels on the counter. ‘I told you, Julian is misunderstood. Once you get to know him he’s actually quite nice.’

  Sebastian nods slowly in a disbelieving fashion.

  ‘You’ll have to take my word for it then. He is. The only reason I went out with him again – platonically, I might add! – is that he’s trying to change and make some new friends, and possibly even a new life for himself. I know how hard it is to do that, so I think we should support him, not make a joke of him.’

  ‘Mum’s right,’ Molly says. ‘It was really hard for us when we moved here not knowing anyone. If Mum says he’s not as bad as he seems then I trust her judgement.’

  ‘Thank you, Molly,’ I say appreciatively.

  ‘Yeah, I’m sorry too,’ Sebastian says, ‘but you can’t blame us for taking an interest in your love life. I wish I even had a love life for someone to joke about.’

  ‘I wouldn’t mind if I had a love life either,’ I tell them. ‘When I say these two men are only friends I genuinely mean it.’

  ‘Really?’ Sebastian asks. ‘Nothing with either of them?’

  ‘Nope.’

  ‘Would you like there to be, Mum?’

  I look at Molly. She deserves an honest answer.

  ‘Julian – definitely not. He really is only an acquaintance. I like to call him “friend” because I don’t think he has many of his own, and that’s why I’m seeing him – to help him make some around here.’

  ‘What about Jack?’ Molly asks now. ‘You like him, don’t you?’

  I nod. ‘Jack is … complicated.’ I hesitate. There are … things going on between us I can’t explain that are bringing us closer, but then there are other things that seem to be pushing us apart.’

  That thing was Julian. I hadn’t seen or heard from Jack since the night in the pub
nearly a week ago, apart from his text this morning after we’d both discovered new pieces of art in our shops.

  However, I wasn’t going to stop trying to help Julian because Jack might be … it seemed daft even thinking it … but it felt like Jack might be jealous.

  ‘Relationships are hard,’ Molly says knowingly.

  I look at her. Really, she knew this already at fifteen?

  ‘Everything all right with Chesney and you?’ Sebastian enquires.

  Molly shrugs. ‘Yeah, I guess.’

  Sebastian looks at me, but I shrug too.

  ‘Do you want to talk about it?’ he adds.

  ‘Nah,’ Molly says. ‘Not really. I’ll sort it out.’

  ‘Right then, I think a group hug is in order!’ Sebastian announces. ‘Come, come,’ he says, beckoning us towards him.

  Reluctantly, I follow Molly into Sebastian’s long, skinny arms, and I put my own arms around Molly and him.

  ‘Here’s to relationships,’ he announces.

  ‘I don’t think group hugs usually have toasts,’ I suggest.

  ‘Well, this one does. Here’s to relationships!’ Sebastian tries again. ‘Healing for those who are in difficulties.’ He pats Molly and me on the back. ‘And hope for those of us who are not in one right now.’

  We both pat Sebastian.

  ‘May we all find the right man for us in the very near future …’ He pauses dramatically. ‘But for now, let us all have fun trying!’

  St Felix ~ August 1957

  Clara glances out of her shop window.

  Arthur is still there, painting away behind his canvas. How long did he need to be sat outside her shop – it felt like he’d been there days already.

  ‘It must be very exciting to be the subject of a painting,’ Mrs Harrington says, as she pulls her purse from her handbag to pay Clara for the dress she’s collecting. ‘I’d want to be out there all the time looking over his shoulder.’

  ‘Oh, it’s not me he’s painting,’ Clara says, taking the note from her customer and finding her some change in the little wooden drawer she kept all her takings in. ‘It’s the shop. Actually, it’s all the street really. The town council has commissioned several paintings of St Felix.’