Spring on the Little Cornish Isles: Flower Farm

by Phillipa Ashley

  *

  On Wednesday lunchtime, Jess walked back from the St Saviour’s Hotel with a spring in her step. She’d splashed out on a cut and blow-dry at the hotel spa, and splurged on some new coppery highlights at the same time, then gone mad with a manicure that she hoped might last until the following evening, if she could avoid all manual labour until then. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d indulged: not even for her cousin’s wedding, when her nails had been a DIY job and she’d trimmed her own fringe.

  The price had made her wince but she reckoned she deserved a treat after a gloomy winter. She doubted Will would even notice. She still hadn’t told him about the date and he’d gone to St Mary’s to talk to some of the other narcissi farmers about selling more of their crop to the flower farm to meet demand in the autumn. They’d managed to secure a deal with a big supermarket and they couldn’t grow everything they wanted on their own patch. Her mother was still safely away on the mainland, so Jess wouldn’t have to endure her scrutiny either.

  Jess’s route home took her past the market garden, with its vegetable stall and ‘honesty box’ selling assorted misshapen but perfectly edible veg. Despite the dark times over the past few months, it always made her smile. She and Adam had once spotted a large willy-shaped carrot on the stall and fallen about in hysterics. She remembered Adam saying, ‘Wow. That gives a new meaning to the phrase meat and two veg.’

  Even now, the happy memories gave her a bittersweet pang. He’d bought the carrots and cooked the rude one and presented it on a plate to Jess, with a couple of strategically placed Brussels sprouts. It was very silly but had had them rolling about with laughter … and shortly afterwards, rolling about on the floor of his cottage.

  Which unfortunately, was only minutes away down the path to her left. She’d managed to walk past the track several times in the past couple of weeks and thought she was doing well, but today …

  Today she could bear it. Today was the first day of the next stage of her life without Adam and she needed to put her hand near the fire and prove to herself that she really had moved forward.

  She turned off the concrete road and down the sandy track towards the bay. Two minutes later she emerged from the high hedges and out onto a cobbled slipway that led into the shallow water. Several boats were afloat off shore with more pulled up on the beach and secured by chains to metal rings on the cobbles, which glistened with bright green weed.

  Thrift Cottage hunkered down below a gentle hill, fifty metres back from the sand. It was one of a row of four that had once belonged to fishermen. Three were now holiday cottages and the other owned by a Scillonian family on St Mary’s who rented it out to long-term or permanent residents like Adam was – or had been. Jess kept her distance for a while, and calmed her racing heart. Adam’s bike was still outside but leaving stuff behind meant nothing: few people could afford to ship all their possessions with them when they left. Adam’s furniture would probably be sold at a ‘garage’ sale or given away soon.

  She thought back to how she’d reacted to him when he’d first turned up with the post at the flower farm two years before. She’d thought he was a gym bunny – like Luca – but soon realised that he was naturally built like that. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him and slowly but surely, she’d fallen for him. He’d taken out a long-term rental contract on the cottage, bought a boat and shown every sign that he was here to stay.

  Jess’s gaze was pulled like a magnet to the silent cottage with its blank windows and the bike already showing signs of rust in the sea air. Damn. It had been a mistake to come here. It wasn’t helping her focus on the future or on tomorrow’s date, and anyway rain was rolling in from the far west if those dark clouds were anything to go by.

  She gave the cottage a last glance and was about to leave when she heard the crunch of gears and groans as an ancient vehicle turned off the road and down the track to the cottage. It sounded like the Yarrows’ Land Rover … Jack probably. He lived on the hill above and his boat was pulled up on the beach, probably waiting for the turn of the tide so he could go fishing.

  Jack was a loudmouth and know-all. The last thing Jess wanted was to be spotted moping outside Adam’s cottage, so she decided to make herself scarce. She hurried across the top of the slipway towards a ‘rabbit run’ path through the hedge opposite the cottage. She could make her way from there back up to the main road without being seen. She’d slipped behind the hedge when the Land Rover laboured onto the top of the slipway. Jack was in the driver’s seat, but he wasn’t alone. She heard voices and recognised two of them.

  Her heart thumped as loud as a drum as a heavy door slammed shut.

  Jess edged towards the exit of the path, desperate to have her fears – her hopes – confirmed but not daring to move any closer in case she was seen.

  ‘Thanks for the lift, mate.’

  ‘’S’all right. How long are you back for?’

  ‘I’m not sure.’

  ‘OK. See ya. Do you and the ladies want a hand with the luggage?’

  ‘No, thanks. We can manage from here.’

  That northern accent, even the ring of his boots on the cobbles. It was impossible to mistake.

  Adam was back – and he wasn’t alone.

  Chapter 21

  Seconds later the engine rattled into life and the rumbling diesel and grinding gears drowned out any other sound. Jess could stand it no longer. She had to risk it.

  She stepped out of the hedge and onto the slipway, just far enough to see Adam with a huge rucksack on his massive shoulders, a flowery suitcase in one hand and a leopard print one in the other. Behind him, a blonde woman in a pink fake fur jacket teetered up the path in high-heeled boots. Her arms were almost pulled out of their sockets by several Co-op bags. She barely looked out of her twenties. A girl of about eight or nine wearing a unicorn backpack trailed behind her, running her fingers through the plants.

  The woman dumped the carrier bags onto the porch and let out a huge sigh of relief. Adam put down the suitcases and fumbled in his pocket for the keys. He muttered something, but Jess didn’t catch it because all she could hear was the thump of her heart in her ears.

  The woman planted her hands on her hips and stared out to sea. Jess’s heart rate spiked further, and she flattened herself against the hedge, ignoring the nettles brushing her hands. She heard the key scrape in the lock and the door, unused for weeks and stiff with damp, creak open. From the porch it was unlikely they’d spot her, but still. Her heart thumped and she strained to listen to the conversation.

  ‘My God. I thought we’d never get here. I thought we were going to crash into the cliff as we came in to land and then the sea was so rough. Jesus, Adam, you really do live in the middle of nowhere.’

  Jess wasn’t great at accents but she recognised the Scottish lilt clearly enough.

  The woman joined the little girl who was looking at the waves breaking on the beach, while keeping tight hold of her backpack straps. Meanwhile, Adam had opened the door of the cottage but hadn’t gone inside. He stood watching them for a few seconds.

  With her heart still beating like a drum, Jess brushed away the fine drizzle that had blown in on the sea breeze from her face.

  ‘Mummy. Are we really staying here?’

  The woman heaved a sigh. ‘It looks like it, pumpkin.’

  ‘For how long?’

  ‘Only until the end of the Easter holidays.’

  The girl turned her face to her mother. ‘But not forever?’

  That word ‘mummy’ sliced through Jess like a knife. Jess could see Adam’s face even though the mother and daughter couldn’t. It was set like granite.

  ‘No, Emmy. Of course not. We all have to go home when term starts. Unless you really like it here and then we could see about moving.’ The woman kissed the little girl on top of her head.

  ‘You’d better get inside. There’s rain in the air,’ said Adam.

  He was right. The slate-coloured clouds ha
d already marched closer, and the first spots were falling. Jess’s newly trimmed fringe was already starting to stick to her forehead. She pulled her hood up.

  Emmy skipped ahead of her mother into the cottage.

  Adam walked down the path, picked up another bag of shopping but stayed at the gate, gazing out at the horizon, his bicep muscles bunched as he lingered.

  Jess stepped out of the hedge so she could see him better. Which also meant he would see her. She wanted him to. Wanted him to know that she had seen him, seen all of them.

  Her lips moved. ‘Adam.’

  He had to see her. If he so much as glanced towards the path beside him, he would see her. Instead, he turned away from the sea and trudged up the path with the shopping.

  As he neared the door, the woman appeared in the doorway. ‘Shall I put a cup of tea on? Good job I bought some milk. Did you know you left some in the fridge? Jesus, I’ll have to deep-clean the whole kitchen. Emmy! Don’t touch anything until I’ve given it a good scrub. Emmy!’

  Jess couldn’t see Adam’s face but she heard his words before the door closed.

  ‘Sorry, Keri. It’s been shut up for months. I’ll help you clean it up. It’ll soon feel like home, I promise.’

  *

  ‘Jess? Are you in the house? Jess? Je-essss!’

  Will’s voice seemed to penetrate the walls. His shouts almost shook the building and he sounded desperate, but Jess still didn’t answer. After spotting Adam, she’d been wandering around in a daze, trying to process what she’d seen and heard before going straight up to her room and locking the door.

  In his letter, Adam had said there was no one else, but Jess had always struggled to believe that and wondered if he’d just been trying to be ‘kind’. The sight of this woman and her daughter, obviously so close to him, seemed to back up her worst suspicions.

  Emmy had Adam’s dark curly hair and straight nose, so she could very well be his daughter. Keri must have contacted him or Adam had decided to contact her and rekindle a past relationship. Now he’d decided to bring them back to Scilly for the holidays to see how they liked the islands. Maybe Adam even intended them to live with him full time. Had he known all along that he had a little girl or had Keri only dropped that bombshell on him in the text last August? My God, she might even be his wife … he could have married her while he’d been away. No: he might have been married all along and now Keri had come back to him and needed him. That was it. End of.

  If Adam hadn’t been willing to share the truth with her, then she really was better off without him. It was no use staying with a man she couldn’t trust. She’d seen the damage that could do to a relationship within her own parents’ failed marriage, and if he had been committed already, he should never have started a relationship with Jess in the first place.

  Thoughts, some reasonable and some wild leaps of speculation, continued to gallop wildly through her brain, but Jess didn’t try to stop them. She was in no state to think straight or reasonably.

  ‘Jess?’

  Will’s voice was quieter now and his knock softer.

  ‘Are you in there? Are you OK? I’ve been looking for you and you weren’t answering your calls. I know you’re in there … I can hear you. I’m going to open the door so I can make sure you’re OK.’

  Jess sat up. ‘No. Hang on. I’m not decent.’

  She gathered up a pile of damp tissues from the bed and chucked them in the bin.

  ‘Hold on. I’m coming.’ After a deep breath, she opened the door.

  ‘Great. Found you.’ He frowned. ‘What’s up? Your face is red. Have you been crying?’

  ‘Of course not. Don’t be silly.’ She tried not to sniffle.

  His eyes swept the room behind her as if she might be hiding someone. ‘Are you OK? It’s not like you to be up here in the middle of the day.’

  ‘I’m fine. Thought I might have a migraine coming on so I lay down on the bed, but luckily it was only a headache. I’ve had some pills and I was coming back to the office.’

  He peered at her. ‘Yeah, you do look pretty rough.’

  ‘Thanks a lot,’ said Jess, realising her brother hadn’t even noticed her hair. Mind you, it must be a right mess since she’d come back from Thrift Cottage in the drizzle and lain on the bed for half an hour. ‘Let me sort myself out and I’ll be down in five minutes.’

  He turned away but Jess’s stomach lurched. She had to tell someone, and if she couldn’t tell her own brother and Adam’s friend, who could she tell?

  ‘Will?’

  He frowned. ‘Jess? What’s up?’ His voice softened. ‘If anything’s the matter, tell me.’

  ‘It’s Adam,’ she said.

  ‘Fuck. I knew it. It’s still upsetting you. Jesus, I wish he’d never bloody come to Scilly, mate or no mate. I can see you’ve not been yourself since he left.’ Will leapt straight into protective big brother mode.

  ‘But I was getting over him and I was determined to leave it all behind. But that’s just it. I can’t leave him behind because I saw him this lunchtime. He’s back.’

  Will’s jaw dropped. He cursed softly, walked back inside the room and closed the door behind him.

  ‘Did you know he was here?’ Jess asked.

  ‘Isn’t it obvious from my face that I didn’t? Where did you see him?’

  ‘At Thrift Cottage. He was getting out of Jack Yarrow’s Land Rover.’

  ‘Did he see you?’

  ‘No … and that’s not all.’ She took a deep breath. ‘He was with a woman and a little girl. I think they might be his girlfriend and his daughter.’

  ‘Shit. Are you sure?’ Will rubbed his hand over his mouth.

  ‘No … but I can’t think who else they can be. The woman’s called Keri and the daughter is Emmy. They both have Scottish accents and I think this Keri must be his … partner because they seemed really close and when they went inside …’ Jess could hardly get the next words out, as her throat clogged with emotion. ‘Keri mentioned something about being here for the holidays but that they might consider staying if Emmy liked it and …’ She swallowed down a sob. ‘Adam told them that the cottage would soon feel like home. And the little girl even looks like Adam.’

  ‘Fuck.’ He rubbed the top of Jess’s hand. ‘I’m sorry. I never expected anything like this. I thought Adam was a mate. I had no idea he was a Grade-A tosser.’ He turned and headed for the door but stopped before he got there. ‘I’m not going to let him get away with hurting my sister like this. I’m going over there now to have it out with him.’

  Jess grabbed his arm. ‘Don’t be stupid. That won’t solve anything, and besides, he’s a free man. He can do what the hell he likes. I don’t want you fighting my battles.’

  *

  It was with difficulty that Jess pulled herself together and returned to the office to try and get some work done, or at least appear to be doing some work. Seeing Adam, Keri and Emmy had certainly thrown a bucketload of cold water over the sunny mood she’d been in after her visit to the spa, which reminded her – she had a date with Luca the next evening. She wasn’t in the mood for that either, but thank God she had a night to try and calm down and get over the shock.

  She knew that news of Adam’s return wouldn’t take long to spread round the island. In fact, she wouldn’t have been surprised if the whole of St Mary’s had known about it before she’d even spotted him at the cottage.

  It had definitely reached Gull because a text came from Maisie before Jess had closed down the office laptop for the day. She’d been about to call her friend, but now she didn’t need to. Not content with a phone conversation, Maisie asked Jess to come over to the Driftwood and, the tides being right, Jess took the boat over for a quick visit after work.

  ‘Why has he come back now?’ she asked Maisie as they shared a coffee in the kitchen of her cottage.

  Maisie shook her head. ‘I don’t know, hun. Only he can tell you. You have to ask him.’

  ‘Speak to him? Over my de
ad body!’ Coffee spilled from Jess’s mug as she put it down on the table harder than she’d meant to but her earlier shock and hurt had now turned to anger. ‘Shit. Sorry, Maisie. I’ll clear that up.’

  Maisie covered Jess’s hand with hers. ‘Forget it. This has been a big shock and you need to find out what’s going on if you can, but most of all, you need to keep on with your own life. By the way, your hair looks great and the nail colour is gorgeous. Is there something I should know?’

  Jess looked at her nails. A couple had already chipped, probably when she’d been hiding in the hedge. Damn Adam.

  ‘Jess?’ Maisie probed.

  ‘I’m supposed to be going out for a meal with Luca tomorrow night. I’ve been meaning to tell you. I even had my hair done today.’

  Maisie let out a whoop. ‘I thought you looked different. I love it …’ She eyed Jess sharply. ‘Hun, I sincerely hope you’re not going to let Adam’s reappearance change your mind?’

  ‘Obviously, I’d said yes to the date with Luca before I found out Adam was back. Not that it should make any difference.’

  ‘It absolutely should not make a difference but I do understand how you must feel. Bugger, why has he come back now with this woman and little girl? Have you found out who they are?’

  ‘No. But I bet everyone will be sure they’re his girlfriend and daughter. I can’t think they’re anything else or why would they be living with him?’

  Maisie pressed her lips together. ‘Being honest, I don’t know either … I could punch Adam on the nose myself for doing this to you. I am sorry, hun, but you must carry on with your plans, especially now. Show him you don’t care, even if it’s hurting like hell,’ said Maisie fiercely.

  Jess nodded. Maisie was right, but it was going to be hard to put on a front with everyone watching. ‘When I first saw Adam was back, I was so shocked I didn’t know whether I would keep the date. Then I thought Adam hasn’t come home to beg me to come back to him, has he? Not that I ever would, after the way he left, so I’m going to go out with Luca. But I haven’t told Will yet …’