Summer at 23 the Strand

by Linda Mitchelmore

  ‘Yes to all that,’ Fiona said. ‘And now I’ve got Cooper I can’t imagine being separated from him. My parents want me to have a nanny for him so I can go back to work.’

  ‘And what do you want?’

  ‘Maybe go back to work eventually but not yet.’

  ‘What work?’ Belle asked. ‘Just being nosy. Ignore at your leisure.’

  ‘I’m a designer. Children’s clothes. Nightwear is my speciality but I do other things. I get commissions from all the big names – M&S, Next, Harrods, among others.’

  Blimey, her girls might be sleeping in something Fiona had designed right at that moment. In M&S pyjamas, via the British Heart Foundation charity shop on Dugdale Road, both of them.

  ‘So, who’s doing it now, now you’re here?’

  ‘My staff are running the day-to-day stuff. I’ve brought a sketchpad with me and have been trying out a few ideas but it’s not gelling. Sam’s cross about that as well, seeing as I asked that he leave his iPad behind so he couldn’t work and we’d have to grow together as a family. While we’re here. And always. Hopefully.’

  ‘I can see how that might have made him a teensy bit cross, but you can only be you, be who you are.’

  And where the hell have I got this counsellor’s hat from all of a sudden when I can barely sort out my own life, never mind anyone else’s?

  ‘I’m being mean to Sam and I don’t know how much longer he’ll put up with it. I’ve got it into my head I’m the only one who can feed him, do anything for him at all. I even iron Cooper’s socks, for goodness’ sake, I’ve got it that bad. I have a hard time seeing Sam hold him even, and I just want to snatch him away in case he hurts him. Which I know he never would. I’m just being illogical.’

  ‘It’s the hormones talking,’ Belle said. ‘Got to be with all that ironing-baby-socks stuff. You’ll get to the point when you’ll think “won’t someone have this little bleeder just so I can go and have a wee”. You really will.’

  Fiona guffawed with laughter and Cooper lying beside her twitched in his sleep. She laughed so hard she began to cry again. Belle passed her a tissue.

  ‘Thanks. The NHS should hire you,’ Fiona gulped, swiping another tissue from the box Belle put on the couch beside her. ‘Laughter is the best medicine, so they say.’

  ‘I don’t know that it’s a miracle cure I’m providing but it’s good to hear you laugh. You scared me earlier, you really did. I had a whole scenario going in my head where I was going to find you a victim of domestic violence and have to call an ambulance or something.’

  ‘Never that,’ Fiona said. ‘Domestic violence victim, I mean, not that you haven’t worked a miracle.’

  ‘Well, now I’ve jumped in with my two not very PC feet, I’ve got an idea.’

  Belle rifled through the pile of flyers for this attraction and that she’d picked up at the tourist office when she’d collected the key. ‘No barbecues on the deck,’ the woman had said in a sniffy voice. And that was giving her another idea. But first…

  ‘Here we are. I knew it was here somewhere. The Palace Package. I’m assuming that’s not Buckingham but that big white hotel about twenty minutes’ walk towards town.’ She opened it out. ‘Here you go. Gym, pool, waxing, beauty treatments – which I’m assuming means things like pedicures and manicures and facials – and hairdresser. Half-day package with lunch.’ Belle didn’t think the cost of it – £70 – would shock Fiona in the slightest so she didn’t mention it. And I’m coming over a bit bossy, trying hard not to make it look as though I’m out of my depth and might actually be able to help her. So she added in a gentler voice, ‘It might do you good to find the world of glamour treatments still exists and that you can slip back into it, if only for a little while.’

  Fiona reached for the brochure.

  ‘Hmm,’ she said.

  ‘Don’t hmm and haw,’ Belle said. ‘Sam might jump at the chance to have Cooper to himself for the morning. And you might be pleasantly surprised to find he doesn’t need to call the paramedics just to change a nappy. You could express some milk or something, or there’s the ready-mixed emergency option you can get at the pharmacy. What do you think?’

  ‘I think you’re a schemer,’ Fiona laughed.

  ‘Oh, I haven’t finished yet! Did that bundle of misery on legs in the tourist office wag a finger at you and say, “No barbecues on the deck!”?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Right. Let’s have one, shall we?’

  ‘Now?’ Fiona looked startled but no longer surprised at anything Belle might suggest.

  ‘No. Not now. On our last night so we can’t be frogmarched out of here before our fortnight is up.’

  The girls slept in late so Belle decided she’d just lie there and read until they woke up. All the sea air and racing about on the sand, and the change in routine, was getting to them. They were probably more than a bit fed up with Belle slathering them in Factor 50 sunscreen but only put up a token resistance and didn’t jiggle much. And was it Belle’s imagination or were they growing in front of her eyes? Didn’t everyone tell you not to buy school uniform for the coming year the minute they broke up from school in July because they would have grown out of it by the time September came round? Especially shoes.

  Belle was on chapter ten now. When there was a knock at the door, she grabbed a throw from the back of the couch and wrapped it around her. She was in her third-best nightie, which had once been white but was now a sort of beige with half the lace hanging off the neck. She hoped it wasn’t the bundle of misery on legs from the tourist office who might have read her mind about the barbecue, and her rational self knew it wouldn’t be. It had to be Fiona.

  So, pinning a smile to her face in case Fiona was having another down moment, she opened the door wide.

  ‘Hi. I’m Sam. Fiona’s partner.’

  ‘Belle. Pleased to meet you at last. I’ve seen you running and I’ve heard a lot about you.’

  ‘All good, I hope,’ Sam said.

  ‘The best.’ Not a total lie. And then she remembered all the sadness and seriousness of the previous evening and a wave of guilt washed over her that she hadn’t asked. ‘Is it Fiona? Has something happened?’

  ‘Fiona is fine. And I want to thank you for being so kind to her last night while I was out, rather selfishly running, when – perhaps – it might have been better if I’d stayed with her. She says, do you fancy coming over for coffee? When you’re, um, dressed.’

  ‘What time is it?’ Belle asked.

  She hadn’t had breakfast yet, having decided to wait until the girls surfaced.

  ‘Ten-thirty. Shall we say you’ll be over in half an hour?’

  ‘We most certainly shall,’ Belle said. ‘Thanks for asking.’

  ‘So, Belle, say you’ll come,’ Fiona said.

  Belle had just been invited to spend the afternoon at the spa at the Palace Hotel. Sam had offered to look after all the children but there was no way Belle was going to let a man she’d only just met be in charge of her daughters. Belle was like a lioness with her cubs and no one, but no one – apart from her mother and Anne Maynard – ever had the girls on their own.

  ‘Thank you, but no,’ Belle said. ‘I wouldn’t have the first idea what to do in a gym, or all the gear you need, or…’

  ‘You could borrow some of mine,’ Fiona cut in.

  ‘You mean you’ve brought enough gym gear on holiday to loan out?’ Belle laughed. ‘If you don’t mind me asking… oh gawd, I’m putting my foot right in it here, overstepping the mark perhaps… why do you have to be so, well, more perfect than perfect, because from where I’m standing you look pretty good to me.’

  ‘That’s what I tell her,’ Sam said. He was looking at Fiona as he spoke.

  ‘You do,’ she said. ‘Sam’s a TV producer… mostly history documentaries but occasionally other stuff and we do get to go to lots of events connected with that.’

  ‘But not since Cooper was born? The feeding thing?’ Belle said.<
br />
  ‘No,’ Fiona said.

  ‘Well, you don’t find many breast-fed two-year-olds, so before you know it you’ll be back doing all that stuff.’

  Sam burst out laughing.

  Fiona smiled too.

  ‘See,’ she said, ‘I told you Belle was a tonic, didn’t I?’

  ‘Quite a few times,’ Sam said. ‘Thanks, Belle.’

  ‘So, do come with me this afternoon, Belle. On me. All of it.’

  I am so not a charity case even if I’m on benefits was what Belle was thinking. Was that how Fiona and Sam were seeing her? Was she carrying her lack of cash on her shoulders like a bloody yoke or something? Belle thought about saying all that but changed her mind. She’d be throwing their kindness and potential friendship away if she did.

  ‘Sorry, no,’ Belle said. ‘All that sort of thing has never been me. Besides, from what I know from films and magazines and stuff, going to a spa is very much a personal thing. I mean, you can hardly share a pedicure, can you? Or a massage. And I don’t know I’d want some woman with her hands all over my personal bits.’

  ‘God, Belle,’ Fiona said. ‘You call a spade a bloody shovel, don’t you?’

  ‘Yes. It’s the best way in the long run. But I’ve got another idea. Why don’t you go, Fiona, and leave this man in here in charge of Cooper? My money’s on you finding them both here when you get back.’

  Fiona put an arm around Sam’s shoulder, and pulled him towards her, kissing his cheek and snuggling into him.

  ‘And I’m fast turning into a gooseberry,’ Belle laughed. ‘Come on girls, drink up. We’re off to the zoo.’

  Belle took the girls to the zoo. She discovered Dinosaur World in Torquay and took them there as well. Her holiday spending money was eking out nicely, but it wouldn’t be long before they had to go back home.

  She saw Fiona go out on her own a couple of times, and while she was out Sam went out with Cooper strapped to his chest. Belle saw his mouth going nineteen-to-the-dozen as he chatted to his son as they strode along the promenade.

  And here was Fiona now, back from wherever it was she’d been – the gym at a guess because her hair was tied back at the nape of her neck and, as she got closer, Belle could see she had flushed cheeks and not a scrap of make-up.

  ‘Hi!’ Belle called as Fiona neared 23 The Strand. ‘Coffee time? The girls and I are just having one. Well, I am. The girls are on fruit smoothies.’

  And that was another thing: it had been the devil’s own job to get the girls to eat healthily at home but here they’d even started asking for fruit smoothies.

  ‘I’ll just see if Sam’s back with Cooper,’ Fiona said, slowing down.

  ‘He’s not,’ Belle said. ‘I saw them go out and I’ve been here ever since and he’s not come back yet. Your very own neighbourhood watch scheme.’

  ‘In that case,’ Fiona said, bounding up the steps. ‘I don’t mind if I do. Forgive any non-fragrant aromas.’

  ‘Forgiven,’ Belle said.

  ‘Can I just say,’ Fiona said when Belle came back with her coffee, ‘thank you for pushing me to go to the gym on my own. I don’t think I would have done it if you hadn’t. And you were quite right – Sam and Cooper were perfectly all right when I got back.’

  ‘Good,’ Belle said. ‘I know how hard it is sometimes letting go of that responsibility all mums – well, most – feel, and especially with a newborn.’ She looked at her daughters, almost overwhelmed by the love she had for them. But it wasn’t going to be a good idea for them to listen in on any heart-to-heart she and Fiona were about to have. ‘How do you fancy watching CBeebies, you two?’ she asked.

  ‘Yeah!’ they said in unison. Chloe clapped her hands over her head and Emily followed suit.

  ‘Right, I’ll just go and put it on. Come on.’

  ‘So, where were we?’ Belle said, sitting back down. ‘Ah yes, I remember, I was saying how hard it can be to let other people be in charge of our little masterpieces. I mean, it took me for ever to trust Anne to have the girls on her own, but she’s brilliant with them.’

  ‘Your opposite neighbour, right?’

  ‘Right. She was there when Mark and I moved into our flat and seemed very friendly, always giving us a wave, or passing the time of day, but I was so wrapped up in Mark back then I tended to ignore her. Then, one morning, after Mark had left and I was rushing to get Chloe to nursery, Emily screaming her head off for England in the baby buggy, I heard her shout “Help!” as I crossed the road. And there she was, all twisted up on her front path. She’d fallen on wet leaves and broken her wrist.’

  ‘Does she live alone?’

  ‘She does. Got family somewhere but they never visit.’

  ‘So you turned Good Samaritan?’

  ‘I did. I rang for an ambulance and went with her to the hospital. Came back home with her as well. And it all went from there really. I did a bit of shopping for her, prepped the veg for her and stuff like that. Pushed the vacuum around and gave the kitchen floor a once-over with the mop. Her place was cleaner than mine by the time her plaster came off!’

  ‘I don’t know my neighbours,’ Fiona said, and Belle thought she sounded so sad.

  ‘Do you want to?’

  ‘Most are out all day, like I was. Before Cooper. I can see being home all the time with him could be lonely. And then there’s the fact he’ll need to be with other children.’

  ‘So, what’s home like?’ Belle asked.

  ‘Converted warehouse, which just means quite big apartments with high ceilings and lots of original ironwork about the place.’

  ‘Count me out of that then,’ Belle laughed. ‘Dusting ironwork’s not for me’

  Belle knew she could have bet her last two-pence piece Fiona would have a cleaner but wasn’t going to ask.

  ‘Anyway, enough about me,’ Fiona said. ‘I like that necklace, by the way. Gorgeous colours. Aubergine is a favourite of mine. Did you make it?’

  Belle had to lift her necklace away from her chest to see which one she was wearing.

  ‘Ah, this one. Yes. It began life as about four necklaces I picked up in a charity shop in the next-to-nothing department. All different colours and different sorts of beads but I took them all apart and restrung the ones I liked best.’

  ‘Well, I’d buy that,’ Fiona said. ‘If you were selling.’

  ‘How much? You know, just so I know what people are prepared to pay if I ever get around to being able to afford a computer and getting myself fixed up to sell online.’

  ‘Thirty pounds. Forty.’

  ‘Bloody hell,’ Belle said. ‘Really?’

  ‘Really. It’s easily worth that because it’s a one-off, isn’t it?’ Fiona looked towards the beach. ‘Oh, there’s Sam and Cooper. I’ll go now. Sam was talking about driving out over the moors or something. A bit of history research on the way, I wouldn’t be surprised. Thanks for coffee. And the chat. I’m really glad I met you, Belle.’

  ‘Back to you,’ Belle said as Fiona leapt from her chair and ran to her family.

  Belle sat fingering her necklace long after Fiona had gone. Fiona had planted the seed of an idea in Belle. Once she was back home, she’d need to give the path her life was taking a seriously good think. But working at something she loved doing – like making jewellery – had to be the way to go, didn’t it?

  Fiona and Sam – with Cooper in his daddy’s arms, Belle was pleased to see – came to say goodbye. They were going home a day early because he’d had a phone call to say a contract had come up which needed signing immediately. Fiona looked thrilled to be going back to a life she knew and obviously loved.

  ‘I’m so glad we met,’ Fiona said, hugging her. She plonked a noisy kiss on Belle’s cheek.

  ‘Me too,’ Belle said, although she harboured no illusions they would stay in touch, and wasn’t going to suggest they did. They lived in totally different worlds, didn’t they? ‘I’ll look out for your name on the credits, Sam. But I’ll have to change my viewing habi
ts for that. It’s all CBeebies in our house. Never watched a history documentary in my life.’

  ‘Make sure you do!’ Sam wagged a playful finger at her.

  ‘Thanks, you know, for everything, Belle,’ Fiona said. ‘You were my port in a storm more than a few times. There was a shift after you knocked on my door, concerned about me.’ There were tears in her eyes. She still had a way to go in getting her confidence as a new mum up, but she was getting there.

  ‘There’s a port for everyone,’ Belle said. ‘Anne Maynard opposite has been mine a time or two, and giving me this holiday and all.’

  ‘Will you come back?’

  ‘Yes!’ Chloe shouted, jumping up and down in excitement. Emily joined in, clapping her hands wildly over her head. Belle was about to ‘sssh’ them but decided against it. She’d start getting off their backs a bit now, let them be how they were, how they wanted to be. She’d just have to talk over them.

  ‘Well,’ Belle said loudly as the whooping and jumping continued. ‘I asked about it at the tourist office and the woman there said this one is up for sale and she didn’t know what would be happening next year. Some people keep them for their own use, leaving them empty when they’re not around, and others just buy them as an investment and keep the rentals going. She’s taken my details.’

  ‘Talking of details, could I have yours?’ Fiona asked. ‘I’d like to design something for your girls and have it made up. A present. I’ve already sketched out a few ideas and I’ve got a good idea of their sizes.’

  Blimey, that was a surprise, Fiona wanting to keep in touch, and having gone to so much trouble already.

  ‘I’ve only got a mobile or a snail-mail address, I’m afraid. Will that do?’

  ‘Of course. No one’s worked out how to send parcels through the ether yet, have they?’

  No, no they hadn’t, but the way things were going with technology, Belle thought it probably wouldn’t be long before they did. She printed her details on the business card Fiona handed her.

  ‘We never did get that rebellious barbecue in, did we?’ Belle said. ‘Now you’ve got to go back a bit early.’

  ‘No, but it was a delicious thought and it got me through some tough days just thinking about it. You’re the best.’