The Cornish Cream Tea Summer

by Cressida McLaughlin

  Lila was stunned. Was it really all over? Had she done the best she could? And then she felt a wave of emotion, of electricity, as if she’d been lit up with a thousand internal fairy lights. In a daze, she followed the young woman with the apron up the hill, back towards the costume trailer, and gasped when someone took her hand.

  She turned to find Sam beaming at her. He was casually dressed, and she felt self-conscious in her unflattering outfit, so different to the silk gowns worn by Aria, or Keeley’s floaty white dresses. She gave him a small shrug.

  ‘You were amazing,’ he said. ‘And the Cornish accent was spot on.’

  ‘At least they didn’t ask me to be Irish. That would have been a disaster.’

  He laughed. ‘Your acting debut.’

  ‘My acting debut and finale. I don’t know how you do it. It was so stressful, rehearsing last night and then today – all that waiting. At one point I thought I might be sick with nerves.’

  ‘But after you’d got your first take out of the way?’ he asked, falling into step alongside her. ‘Don’t tell me you didn’t love it, didn’t get a thrill when Gregor didn’t stop the scene or tell you to redo it, when it carried on after you’d spoken your line. When you realized how good you were. Because, believe me, Lila, you can do this.’

  Lila chewed her lip, unsure what to do with his compliment. ‘It was exhilarating,’ she admitted. ‘And I … after I’d done it once, I wanted to get it right. I wanted to be an authentic part of it.’

  ‘There, you see. There’s no other feeling like it.’ He’d turned to walk backwards in front of her, his whole face alive, as if he’d just nailed the performance of his life. ‘Hardly anything comes close.’

  She grabbed his arm, moving him aside so he didn’t back into a couple of PAs who had stopped in the middle of the path. She’d never seen him this animated. ‘Hardly anything?’ she asked.

  He shook his head, but she could see the gleam of mischief in his eyes.

  ‘So now I’ve done that, do you fancy working on board Gertie? Or, you could help me with some baking one evening in Porthgolow. I promise you, the adrenaline rush of taking your third batch of scones out of the oven and keeping them out of reach of Marmite and a German shepherd is the most thrilling thing you’ll ever do.’

  Sam laughed and took her hand again, stopping so that Lila had to stop, too. ‘You were brilliant out there, Lila. I need to go and get into my costume, and I’m sure you’re dying to take yours off, but I’ll see you soon.’ He lifted her hand and kissed it, and then turned in the direction of his trailer where, she thought, he probably had a whole Robert Bramerton wardrobe waiting for him.

  She watched him walk away and then called, ‘You didn’t agree to help me with my baking!’ But by then he was too far away to hear her.

  It was Sunday morning, a bold sun filtering through the gap in the curtains, and Lila was lying in bed thinking about what she would do with the hours stretching in front of her. The production team was moving to Bodmin the following day. Mike would be driving the bus, and Lila didn’t need to turn up until nine o’clock which, working on Estelle, was a lie-in. But it wasn’t like this lie-in.

  It was after eleven, she had a cup of tea and hot, buttery toast, and two dogs lying on her, Jasper across the very ends of her feet which, she realized, she couldn’t feel any more. She had some baking to do later that day, but before then she was going to take the pooches for a long walk, and maybe have one of Hugh’s famous fishermen’s pies in the pub.

  She reread Charlie’s latest message; the course had gone well and Daniel had stacks of ideas about how to transform the hotel, and now they were off to Alcatraz on a day trip. Lila wasn’t sure she would want to spend precious holiday time in a creepy, dank island prison, but each to their own. She hadn’t told Charlie about being an extra. That day in Polperro, ten days ago, was still a vivid, slightly unreal memory, and she wanted to tell her cousin in person, to see her face when she revealed she was actually going to be in Estelle. She took another bite of toast, shook her head at Marmite and Jasper when they raised their heads in unison, and closed her eyes against the crunchy, buttery perfection.

  Charlie’s doorbell rang.

  Lila groaned. ‘If I ignore it, do you think they’ll go away?’ Neither dog had an answer for her.

  The bell rang again.

  Lila wriggled herself out from under the dogs and duvet and, throwing a jumper on over her skimpy pyjamas, padded down the stairs. The figure blurred behind the patterned glass was tall, but she couldn’t make out any other details. Lawrence, maybe? She pulled open the door, and her heart gave a little skip.

  ‘I wondered if you had any baking to do today,’ Sam said. He was wearing a navy wool coat, his hands deep in the pockets.

  ‘How did you know where I was?’

  ‘Well,’ he said, leaning against the doorframe, his gaze flickering quickly over her bare legs, then back up again. ‘I knew you were staying in Porthgolow, and I hedged. Turns out everyone knows everyone here. I spoke to a lovely woman called Myrtle.’ His amber eyes danced with amusement.

  ‘Oh God, Myrtle. She thinks I’m flighty.’

  ‘She told me that very thing. Warned me, in fact, that I needed to watch myself around you, that you were nothing like Charlie, who apparently she adored from day one.’

  Lila laughed and stepped back, inviting him in. ‘Now I know that’s not true. Come through.’ She winced at the state of the living room; dog toys, various items of clothing and at least three pairs of shoes littered the floor and sofas. At least the kitchen was spotless, Lila aware that everything to do with the Cornish Cream Tea Bus had to be kept to the highest possible standard. ‘Sorry this is all a bit of a pickle. I’ve not had much time to clean. Have a seat.’

  Sam perched on the edge of a cushion, and Lila sat on the other sofa, pulling her jumper as far over her legs as it would go. ‘Did you really come to help me bake?’

  ‘I will, if that’s what you’re doing with your day. I just thought we could … I was keen to see where you were staying, this magical village with its food market and its glamorous hotel.’ He shrugged, looking uncomfortable.

  ‘I was planning on doing a bit of exploring myself,’ Lila admitted. ‘You’re very welcome to join me, though when I say explore, I really mean a walk on the beach and a fish pie in the pub.’

  ‘That sounds pretty good,’ Sam said. ‘If you’re happy for me to tag along?’

  ‘I’m not going to send you away after you’ve come all this way. I can’t believe you just hoped someone would give you my address – and they did! Seriously, can you imagine something like that happening in London?’

  ‘No, but maybe that’s part of the magic?’

  ‘More like an invasion of privacy,’ Lila muttered. But she was pleased Sam was here. More than pleased. ‘I’m going to shower and dress. You stay here – oooh, and you can look after these for me. Jasper! Marmite!’ she called up the stairs, and moments later, the dogs pattered into the room. Marmite jumped on Sam and buried his nose in his coat. ‘Aah look, the victim and his saviour. He will be eternally grateful to you.’

  ‘Not sure about that,’ Sam murmured, trying to extract the small dog from inside his clothes.

  ‘And this is Jasper. He shouldn’t give you any trouble. Help yourself to a drink if you fancy – I promise I won’t be long.’

  ‘No worries,’ Sam called as she hurried up the stairs, her Sunday looking even more promising than it had ten minutes ago.

  Half an hour later they were walking the dogs on the beach. It was a feisty day, with small white clouds racing across a blue sky, the sea whipped into tufts and whorls. Marmite and Jasper scampered together and apart, delighting in the expanse of sand ahead of them, and a yellow SeaKing Safaris boat bobbed across the water in the distance, taking a group of passengers around the coast. Lila folded her arms across her chest, feeling Sam’s warmth at her side.

  ‘This place is beautiful,’ he said. ‘I can s
ee why Charlie loves living here. I thought when I came down to Cornwall, I’d miss London. But so far, so good.’

  ‘Being on the TV set is nothing like being here, though,’ Lila replied. ‘Estelle is this huge community, this family. Don’t you think if you lived here, as pretty as it is, you’d get bored? No action or adrenaline? Just the sea and the beach and a few nosy old villagers?’

  ‘But if this was home, in between jobs – if I got to travel for work, then this place would be somewhere peaceful to come back to.’

  ‘I thought you loved the pace of London, with all your friends, the ease of getting to auditions. Are you thinking about semi-retirement, Sam, at the ripe old age of …?’

  ‘Twenty-nine,’ he confirmed. ‘And no, not at all. But there is something mesmerizing about all that sea, the hidden beaches and towering cliffs. Days like this.’

  ‘What, driving for miles to be pecked at by a belligerent old woman and then pounced on by two hounds and told to navigate an assault-course of a living room to make your own cup of tea? You’ve a warped sense of happiness, Sam Magee.’

  He laughed. ‘Well, when you put it like that …’

  Lila watched Jasper run headlong into the waves, barking loudly. Before she could think about how wise it was, she grabbed hold of Sam’s hand and dragged him towards the water.

  He came easily, running with her, until they got to the edge of the sea. ‘Oh no,’ he said, pulling up short. ‘I’m not going in after a dog again. My boots were close to ruined after the last time.’

  ‘So take them off, then.’ Lila was already yanking off her shoes and rolling up her jeans. ‘This beach was made for paddling, and it’s good to be spontaneous.’

  Sam shook his head and bent to pull off the not-quite-ruined boots, jumping back when a wave lapped at his feet. He took them, along with Lila’s shoes and his wool coat, and placed them in a neat pile further up the sand. Lila watched him from the shallows, the care he took, the way everything he did was calm and measured. Then he was jogging easily across the sand towards her, and she waited for him, until she realized he had too much momentum to slow down. She tried to move out of the way but it was too late. She screeched as he lifted her off her feet, hoisting her over his shoulder and walking deeper into the waves, his jeans, despite being rolled up, soon sodden.

  ‘Sam!’ Lila squealed, trying to turn her head so he would hear her.

  ‘What?’ he asked, all innocence. He changed her position, lifting her over his shoulder again, keeping tight hold of her until he had one arm under her knees, one supporting her back. She laced her fingers round his neck.

  ‘Sam, I – what are you doing?’

  ‘Paddling,’ he replied.

  ‘But it’s so deep! I’m not as tall as you. Put me down!’

  ‘Sure?’ Sam asked, pausing, and Lila looked at the water, which was up to his knees.

  ‘No. Don’t let me go.’

  ‘OK,’ he said mildly. He turned and began walking along the beach, Lila in his arms as if she was no heavier than a bag of sugar.

  She snuggled into his chest, feeling, after the initial shock, an unexpected rush of comfort. She giggled. ‘What are you doing, Sam?’ she asked again.

  ‘Being spontaneous,’ he said. When she didn’t reply, he continued. ‘You looked beautiful and vulnerable, standing there in the water, your hair loose around your shoulders. I had a sudden urge to grab hold of you and protect you from lurking sea monsters.’

  ‘But we’re still in the water. Couldn’t the sea monsters get us both?’

  ‘Not with me to take care of you.’

  Lila didn’t know if he was being wholly silly, or if some of what he said had a grain of truth to it, his feelings slipping out even while he tried to hide them in drama. She watched his Adam’s apple bob, his gaze focused straight ahead as he waded through the water in the direction of the jetty. The beach was deserted apart from one other dog walker, and Lila could easily imagine that this was a scene from Estelle; the younger, more tolerant Robert Bramerton rescuing Miss Trevelyan after a brush with a capsized boat – or a real-life sea monster. Estelle was a ghost, after all. Other things could be within the realms of possibility.

  ‘Sam,’ she murmured.

  He looked down, his piercing eyes meeting hers. ‘Do you want to know the real reason I came to find you today?’

  ‘Yes,’ she whispered.

  He shifted her position slightly, and Lila thought how tired his arms must be. A muscle in his jaw moved. ‘I came to see you, Delilah, because—’

  ‘Lila! Lila, oh my goodness, are you OK?!’ The words were screeched in their direction, cutting Sam’s sentence in half.

  Lila turned her head to see Amanda Kerr and Stella, who ran the bed and breakfast, running across the sand towards them.

  ‘Do we need to call an ambulance?’ Amanda shrieked.

  ‘Seems your act of spontaneity has backfired slightly,’ Lila said.

  Sighing, Sam turned towards the beach and, after walking a few steps, slowly lowered Lila to the ground. The water was a shock of cold around her ankles. She reluctantly unwound her hands from round his neck.

  ‘We’re fine,’ Sam called. ‘Just …’

  ‘Just messing around,’ Lila finished, striding up the beach to greet the two women. ‘Amanda, Stella, this is Sam. He’s one of the actors in Estelle.’

  ‘Oh God!’ Amanda clapped her hands over her mouth. ‘This is Sam?’ She gave Lila a knowing look. Lila had been regaling Amanda with news from the set whenever they’d baked together. She wondered, now, what she’d let slip about Sam.

  Stella giggled. ‘We’re so sorry! When we saw you in the water like that, we thought you must have fallen, or …’

  ‘It was very dramatic-looking,’ Amanda finished, holding her hand out to Sam. Greetings were made, both of the women staring at him for longer than was polite, which Lila couldn’t blame them for.

  ‘We were letting off a bit of steam,’ Sam said, rubbing the back of his neck. Lila found his sudden awkwardness adorable. He could lift her off her feet without a moment’s thought, be Robert Bramerton in front of hundreds of people watching his every blink, but the moment he was exposed as himself, with people he didn’t know, she got the sense that he wanted to crawl under a rock.

  ‘You were also creating a bit of steam.’ Amanda flapped a hand in front of her face. ‘We’re so sorry we disturbed you.’

  ‘Don’t worry at all,’ Lila said quickly. ‘Sam and I were just taking the dogs for a walk.’ She looked around, only to find that Marmite and Jasper were both close by, panting heavily and damp with sea water. ‘And then we were going to the pub.’

  ‘You could always join us for a drink, if you fancy it?’ Sam said.

  Amanda and Stella exchanged a glance. ‘I think we’ve got time for one drink,’ Amanda murmured. ‘What do you say, Stella?’

  ‘I can’t think of anything more wonderful,’ Stella replied, fiddling with a butterfly charm hanging on a cord around her neck.

  ‘That’s settled then.’ Sam gave them a devastating smile. ‘Lead the way, ladies.’

  Chapter Six

  ‘Why did you invite them to come with us?’ Lila asked, giggling and sidestepping awkwardly round an uneven paving stone as they made their way back to Charlie’s house from the pub. ‘You didn’t need to. You could have had me all to yourself.’

  Sam slipped his arm through hers. ‘Because you don’t get to spend much time here at the moment, and I didn’t want to monopolize you. Come on, Marmite, this way.’ He pulled gently on the dog’s lead.

  ‘I still can’t get over that they thought I’d injured myself when it was so obvious you were rescuing me from sea monsters!’ She laughed again. She hoped she wasn’t slurring her words. She had lost track of the glasses of wine, the hours they’d passed with Stella and Amanda. Stella’s husband Anton had joined them, and Hugh, the pub landlord, had come to sit at their table for a while. Even the huge, delicious fish pie hadn’t soa
ked up all the alcohol, and Lila knew she was drunk, that Sam, with the drive back to his accommodation ahead of him, was sober. She took a deep breath, trying to centre herself.

  ‘I didn’t mind that,’ Sam said evenly. ‘I was just frustrated about being interrupted.’

  ‘Oh yes, you were going to say something, weren’t you? It’s this road,’ she added, pointing to the sign that read ‘Coral Terrace’.

  ‘It doesn’t matter now. It’s been a fun afternoon, great to meet your neighbours.’

  She dug in her handbag for her keys, then unlocked the front door. ‘I have had too much wine, though.’

  Sam followed her into the house, crouched to unclip Marmite and Jasper’s leads, and steered her onto a sofa. ‘I’m making you a strong coffee, seeing as I know my way around the kitchen and you need to be fully functioning and able to drive to set in the morning.’

  Lila gasped. ‘Oh shit, the baking!’ She hid her head in her hands. ‘I haven’t done any of the baking I needed to do for tomorrow. Amanda does it during the week, but on Sundays I’m in charge. Fuck balls. Oh!’ She looked up at him. ‘Except we’re not starting until nine tomorrow. I can get it done first thing. Yep, I’ll do it in the morning.’ She breathed a sigh of relief.

  Sam leaned against the wall, his arms folded, the kettle bubbling behind him. ‘You reckon you’ll jump out of bed, fresh as a daisy, at six o’clock tomorrow morning and get it all done?’

  ‘I’ll have to,’ Lila told him. ‘I can’t let Winston or Charlie down. I’ve done that to too many people already …’ Her words trailed off as Sam took off his coat, folded it on the sofa and rolled up the sleeves of his jumper. ‘What are you doing?’

  He gave her a wide smile. ‘You know how you wanted me to help you with the baking? I think that time has come.’

  It was after midnight by the time they were finished. Lila, sobering up with strong coffee and copious amounts of water, had refused to simply instruct Sam and had worked alongside him. He was, as with everything, careful and diligent, measuring ingredients precisely and making sure the scones, Danishes, muffins and arancini were all evenly sized. When everything was done, Lila had a headache, and felt unbelievably guilty.