Chapter 3
I looked at the scene before me; on the left was a pretty rose covered cottage and on the right a view of the cove down below. It was great! I had always loved the seaside, but what with Dad’s work and everything, I had not been able to go more than twice to the seaside and they were only day trips.
‘Can I get out?’ I exclaimed excitedly.
‘Yes, of course, but don’t run off; we’ll go down to the cove when we settle in.’
I quickly opened the door and got out of the BMW.
It was a bit windy and as I stood there admiring the view, my skirt started to rise up and I had to hold it down. My hair was waving about in the breeze and kept getting in my eyes; I needed to get some scrunchies.
It was a lovely place; I could see the waves washing gently up the sandy shore; it was so quiet there, that I could actually hear the waves in the distance as they went up against the rocks at the edge of the cove.
It was very hilly and the cottage was sort of perched on an outcrop of rocks and was, in parts, built into the hill. I could see a few other cottages dotted around and on the other side of the cove; one was actually on the beach.
‘I bet that’s neat,’ I thought, ‘being able to live right on the shore!’
‘Come on, Melissa, help me with the bags.’
I reluctantly tore myself away from the view and helped Claire.
We struggled up several steps leading to the front door and Claire put her bags down and fished out a key from her handbag.
Once the door was opened, she went in and I followed, curious to see what the inside looked like.
The door led straight into a lounge, or sitting room, I suppose you would call it.
I was pleased in one way that I wasn’t that big yet, because the ceilings were low and covered with wooden beams. Tall adults would bang their heads!
‘Welcome to your new home!’ beamed Claire as she turned to me and waved her hands about.
‘It’s nice, but it’s not my home.’ I said a bit ungratefully.
‘Well it is until we can get your dad sorted out. What do you think of the place?’
‘It’s great and I love the seaside!’ I said, trying to make up for my rather unkind remark.
‘I thought you might.’
‘Is this your cottage?’
‘Yes, I inherited it from an Aunt, Working in London, I don’t get down here as much as I would like, but I have used it as a sort of holiday home for years. It helps to have a nice place, to get away from the pressure.’
‘Where will I sleep?’
‘I’ll show you in a minute. Let me give you the tour.’
She led me through to the kitchen, which was larger than I thought it would be, it had a range over in the corner and lots of pots and pans hanging from a low ceiling, beneath which was a large rustic wooden table. There was a dresser on one side; I think they call it a Welsh dresser. It had lots of plates, cups and saucers on it; placed neatly in wooden slots and hooks. On the other side of the kitchen was a normal cooker, a worktop, microwave and flat screen television.
‘Like it?’
‘Yes it all looks nice.’
‘The range is mainly used for heating in the winter, but I like making my own bread when I get the chance and it has a great oven for that. Let’s go upstairs and I’ll show what’s up there.’
I followed her up the narrow stone staircase; it led to a landing.
‘Come on, follow me,’ she said turning left.
She pointed out the bathroom as we passed along the passage. I peeped in and saw that bathroom was quite small and had a shower instead of a bath. I liked that as I always preferred showers. Over to one side was a toilet and washbasin. As I say, it wasn’t a large bathroom, mind you I suppose, officially, it was a shower room but, there again, I’m not a large girl, and so I didn’t need much elbow room!
I caught up with Claire as she went to a room at the end of the passage.
‘This is my room.’
It was a pleasant room, light and clean looking. It had a double bed with white pillows and a bright and colourful quilt on it.
There was a dressing table and chair in the corner and by the bed was a bedside table.
I walked over to the bedside table and saw a photo in a silver frame. There were three people in it, smiling for the camera. One was obviously Claire and with her was a man and a young girl; about my age; she was pretty, with long blond hair.
‘Is this your family?’
Claire walked over with a bit of a frown on her face, for some reason.
‘Erm, yes, my ex-husband and my daughter.’
‘Aren’t they worried about where you are?’
‘They went on holiday to the States...Let’s go and see your room!’ she replied rather sadly, changing the subject.
She grabbed me by the hand and we went out of her room and back along the passage to the other end. She let me pass her as she said ‘Go on, open the door.’
I did as I was asked, curious to see where I would be staying.
The room was of a similar size to Claire’s bedroom, but with a single bed. The walls were very pale pink emulsion and the bed coverings were sort of very pale blue. On the pillow was a small doll, pink, of course. All in all, it was certainly not a boy’s room!
‘Do you like it?’
‘Yes, it’s nice room.’ I said, trying to sound polite. ‘Can I go out?’
‘I don’t see any harm in going out later. We may see some walkers or others trying to find their way through the cove to the sea and also, there are a few other occupied cottages in the cove so we don’t want to raise any suspicions, do we? The last thing we want is for the authorities to get wind of strangers living here. It may lead to your Dad getting caught, so we’ll have to be careful and not draw too much attention to ourselves.Is that okay?’
‘I ‘spose.’
‘Good girl, now let’s get those bags up here and then we can have a cup of tea.’
She went downstairs, but before I followed her, I looked out of the window. It was small, but had a great view of the cove and the sea beyond. It was a clear, cloudless day and I could see for miles. There were a few ships on the horizon and what looked like a sail boat in the cove. I couldn’t see clearly, but it looked like there was a girl in the boat. She had bright red hair flowing in the wind. I wished I was on a boat, sailing towards my Dad. I hoped I would see him soon and that all our problems would be over.
It was a nice scene; the only thing that bothered me was the noise of what looked like hundreds of seagulls that seemed to think that the cove was their home. I hoped that they went to sleep at night!
I went down the steep stairs to find that Claire was picking up some bags.
‘Good, can you pick up those two, they’re yours.’
I picked them up and also my shoulder bag and struggled back up the stairs with everything.
‘At this rate, I’ll get big muscles in my legs, going up and down these stairs,’ I thought, puffing slightly.
I turned right at the top and went into what was now my room and put the bags on the floor; I then sat on the bed and bounced up and down a bit. It was a comfortable bed, soft and springy — just how I liked it.
I had a thought, ‘where is my mobile phone. Perhaps I can ring Georgie or text her.’
Picking up the shoulder bag and very annoyed at myself for not thinking about it before, I rummaged about, but couldn’t see my phone anywhere. I then opened up the other bags and had a good look in them. I found my iPod and charger, but no phone. Had I left it at Claire’s house? I went to her room and knocked on the door.
‘Hello?’
I heard steps crossing the polished wooden floor, and then the door opened.
‘Strange,’ I thought, ‘Claire’s eyes look red as if she has been crying.’
‘Are you okay?’ I said.
‘Yes fine, just hay fever; it affects my eyes, sometimes; come in.’
She didn’t ha
ve streaming eyes a short while ago and it made me wonder if that was just another possible lie or was she telling me the truth?
I went into her room and could see her bags on the bed with some clothes as well…
‘Claire, I can’t find my mobile phone.’
‘Can’t you; that’s strange.’
‘Have you seen it?’
‘No; you must have left it somewhere.’
‘I ‘spose I might have left it at your house. Is there a phone here?’
‘No, my aunt never bothered. I have my mobile and that means I can keep in touch with things.’
‘Will you be ringing my Dad?’
‘No, he asked not to be contacted, as any calls might be traced to him. He is going to get another non-traceable phone where he is going to and then he will contact us.’
‘Oh ,’ I sighed, ‘ I miss him.’
‘I know, honey — come here for a cuddle.’
She opened her arms and I went over to her. She wasn’t my Mum or Dad, but at least she cared.
As she hugged me, I looked over her shoulder.
I couldn’t help noticing that the silver frame with her family picture had gone.
After a little while, I felt a bit better and Claire gave me a tissue to wipe my eyes.
‘Shall we go and have a cuppa?’ she said with a smile.
I just nodded and we were soon sitting in the kitchen, drinking some hot sweet tea and dunking some Scottish shortcake biscuits.
‘Feeling a little bit better now?’
‘Yes thanks,’
She yawned.
‘I’m going to have to have a nap later or I’ll be falling asleep on my feet. It’s okay for you, you slept on the journey.’
‘Are you sure that you don’t want to sleep now? I asked.
‘No, later. I’ll be all right.’
‘What are we going to do now then?’
‘Well, you young lady, are going to have a shower and get a change of clothes, then we’ll have a late breakfast…how does bacon and eggs sound?’
‘Great! What are we doing after breakfast?’
‘Well, I need to have a shower too, that will wake me up but I’ll have mine after breakfast. Then we’ll go down to the beach, if you want.’
‘Wow! Could we?’
‘Yes, of course, so wear something that would be good on a beach. See if you can choose something appropriate.’
‘Pity I don’t have a cozzie!’ I laughed.
‘Well, if you look carefully, I packed a couple for you, but don’t look too anxious, it’s a bit early in the morning for swimming, it’ll be freezing, so wear something nice, okay?’
‘Okay,’ I said reluctantly. Nice to Claire meant something frilly and girlie.
Then I thought a bit more positively.
The beach!
I ran upstairs and tore my clothes off, and then had a shower. There was a shower cap, so to keep my hair dry, I put it on. I noticed some shower gel on a shelf in the shower, so after getting myself nice and soggy, I squeezed some goo on my hands and used it all over. It had a nice flowery smell to it, which I liked. When drying myself, I noticed how soft and smooth my skin felt and realised that it was the shower gel that did that.
Soon, I was back in my bedroom and sorting out through my bags to find something suitable to wear. I saw the two swimming cozzies, one black and one, the inevitable pink and I would have loved to wear the black one, but as Claire said, it was probably a bit cold at the moment.
In the end, I chose a pale pink tee shirt with small flowers on it, and a shortish white cotton skirt that ended just above my knees, well it did until I turned the waistband up a bit. Then I found some white sandals that well with the skirt and I was nearly ready. I would have preferred shorts or capri’s and if all this hiding was going to go on for a while, I would have to get Claire to buy me some. I wondered if Claire’s daughter was forced to have the dorky little girl look.
I brushed my hair until it looked reasonable tidy. I still wasn’t used to the length and the colour, but it was growing on me. I saw my makeup bag on the dressing table. I didn’t feel very confident doing that stuff, so I took the bag downstairs with me.
I still didn’t see why I needed to wear makeup. It seemed silly that any girl of twelve would want to wear that goop, but Claire knew more about this sort of thing than I did and I knew that many of the girls at school used makeup, despite the school rules.
When I went into the kitchen, I could smell the mouth watering bacon and eggs and I realised how hungry I really was.
Claire looked up from the cooker and looked at me.
‘Nice choice of clothes, well done!’
‘I didn’t know what to do about makeup. Do I really need to wear it?’
‘Well, just a dusting, but we’ll sort that out before we go down to the beach. Can you get some orange juice out of the fridge and put it on the table?’
I did as I was asked and soon we were tucking into our breakfast. I enjoyed it a lot, not realising how hungry that I actually was. We didn’t talk much while we were eating — mouths too full, I suppose.
Soon, I was quite full up and pushed away my plate with a sigh.
‘Thank you, it was very nice.’
‘You’re welcome, honey. I’m just going to have a quick shower and change; can you do the washing up, while I’m upstairs? I won’t be long.’
‘Okay.’
As I washed up, I thought again about the strange things that were happening to me. It seemed so unreal, standing there, washing up in a cottage; by the seaside in Cornwall, with all that was happening to Dad.
With a pang, I wondered where he was and I realised how much I missed him. Although he was always busy with his work, I loved the small amount of time that we had together. I remembered when he took me fishing once. I tried all day to catch a fish and when I finally managed to catch one, I was all upset, because I thought that the fish was in pain. Dad took the hook out and let it go; he never took me again, because he realised that it upset me to hurt anything. Then I remembered when he took me to see Swan Lake; I thought that it would be sissy and not a thing that a tomboy like me should go to, but the music and dancing was fantastic and I remember crying when Odette and Siegfried drowned themselves by leaping into the lake. It was lovely but very sad.
Then I thought about the strange things going on at the moment. I hated to think of my Dad as a criminal and it was all hard to take in. He couldn’t be guilty and I just knew that it must be some terrible mistake.
I had just finished washing up when Claire came downstairs.
‘All done? Thanks Melissa; right let’s sort out your face and we can get off.
Once again, with a sigh, I shut my eyes while Claire put on my makeup. She didn’t seem to put on as much as last time and I was grateful for that. Soon she was finished and she showed me in a mirror what she had done.
Whatever she did, it was enough for me to look different. What with the clothes, hair and makeup, Emma was nowhere to be seen. I was sad about that, but realised that as a disguise, nobody would think that I was another girl called Emma.
‘Now, Melissa, while we are out, we might see people, especially down at the beach and on the lane leading down to it. Remember, you are Melissa, not Emma. If anyone asks, you are staying with your Auntie Claire for a few weeks. It’s important as we do not want anyone to guess who you really are and put you or your dad in danger; okay?’
I just nodded, realising the seriousness of the situation and not wanting my dad to get caught through my giving the game away.
We left the cottage and walked down the narrow lane towards the cove down below. I began to get a bit excited as we got nearer the beach. I could smell the sea and could hear more clearly the sounds of the waves. Seagulls were making their usual noises and it all added to the seaside thing.
There was a gate in front of us and Claire opened it, letting us through and then closing it behind us. We were now on a narrow pathway th
rough a wood and the sun was partially hidden by the trees. I could hear the branches and leaves waving in the breeze and the sounds of the sea ahead. I felt goose bumps on my arms and bare legs, as it was a lot cooler in the shade.
The trees thinned and suddenly we were out in the sunshine again. There before us was a narrow sandy path that led onto the beach. The sand was almost white and very fine. My feet started to sink as I started to run toward the deep blue sea. I could hear Claire behind me, laughing as she tried to keep up with me as I ran to the water and just stopped myself before a gentle wave broke up onto the shore, almost wetting my white sandals. I was surprised how cold it was, but it was great!
I looked around and saw the cove was a bit larger than it had seemed from the cottage; it was a wonderful place and I loved it more than I thought possible.
Claire walked up to me, slightly out of breathe.
‘Do you like it?’
‘Oh yes, Claire; it’s wonderful!’
‘I’m glad; I’ve had many happy times here, let’s go and sit by those rocks for a minute.
She walked over to some outcrops of rocks and sat down. After a few moments I sat down beside her. It was still fairly early, but the sun was getting stronger. I could feel the heat on my bare arms and legs and I realised that today was going to be a scorcher. Maybe I could get to wear my swimming costume later and have a swim after all.
Claire must have thought it was hot as well as she opened her bag and had a rummage around.
‘Blast!’
‘What’s wrong?’ I said.
‘I forgot the suntan lotion.’
‘Do you want me to get it?’
She thought for a moment.
‘No, that’s OK; I’ll go. You wait here and don’t go far; remember what I said.’
‘Yes, Auntie Claire.’
She looked at me with a smile on her face, but somehow her eyes looked a bit sad.
‘See you in a minute,’ she said getting up and making her way back up the beach.
I watched her leave the beach and go into the wood. I looked back to the sea and then got up, brushing the fine sand off my skirt and legs. I slipped off my sandals and left them by the rocks as I walked down towards the water.
The sand was warm on my feet and I loved the sensation of the hot grains as they went through my toes.
I reached the water and dipped my toes in; the water was surprisingly cold but lovely too. I hoped that I could swim here. I always loved swimming and I was quite good at it. To swim in the sea had always been one of the things that I always wanted to do, but had never had the chance.
I was totally concentrating on the water as the waves ran over my feet…
‘Hello.’
I jumped, nearly falling over in surprise at the voice coming behind me.
Turning around,I saw that there was a girl, about my age standing there. She had flaming red hair and was covered in freckles.
Kidnapped? Page 5
