The South West Series Box Set

by Rebecca Paulinyi

  “Time to go.”

  ***

  The journey seemed quicker this time round, and Beth found herself anticipating the feeling of walking into that flat again, seeing that view. The fact that the money for petrol, and the money she knew she needed to offer Jasmine and Joe for their fuel, was pretty much the end of her overdraft was something she tried very hard to push to the back of her mind. It would work out - she needed to believe that. Lee and James had invited her over for dinner the following evening, so that was at least one night’s food sorted. And the deposit from her current flat would help her back into the black - she just needed to wait for it all to come through.

  It’ll work out, she told herself, picturing the boats on the water and the ice cream van by the side of the road.

  After stopping for fuel - as expected, she was pretty much on empty - she arrived a little while after Jasmine and her boyfriend, but she grinned as she caught sight of them sat on the wall by the water, enjoying an ice-cream in the June sunshine.

  “I guess I can see the attraction,” Jasmine said, hopping off from the wall without messing up her clothes, and walking over to where Beth stood waiting.

  “Right? It’s pretty spectacular, isn’t it.”

  “I mean, I’m not sure it’d make me up and move my whole life…” she said with a roll of her eyes, but Beth just rolled hers straight back. “But yes, it is spectacular. Glad we found the right place - some of those roads are bit of a nightmare, aren’t they!”

  “Don’t I know it. That’s one thing I’m not looking forward to - learning how to reverse down a narrow road!”

  “Rather you than me.”

  Beth greeted the young guy that was running the chip shop that day, and used her new set of keys to open up the door to the flat. Together, they shifted the boxes upstairs - a task which took far longer than packing them into the van, it seemed - and dumped them into an intimidating pyramid in the centre of the room. Beth’s eye caught the glinting light from the water outside her window, and she felt calmer about the hours of unpacking ahead of her. It was okay; this would be fine. She had no deadline. She wanted change - well, this was certainly change.

  “Ring me, soon, okay?” Jasmine said as they said goodbye for the third time. Joe tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, clearly forcing a smile to remain on his face.

  “You can ring me too, you know!”

  “Yeah, yeah, but you know how rubbish I am.”

  Beth laughed. “I’ll ring, I promise. Thank you, for today - and please give Joe that petrol money. Thanks Joe!” she shouted, hoping he could hear her through the closed doors. He raised a hand in farewell, then started the engine - a clear sign that the time for goodbyes was over.

  Beth watched the van drive away until it was a dot, and then it was gone, round a corner and on its journey back to Exeter.

  It was just her now. Her, Dartmouth, and a little flat above a chip shop.

  Well, things had definitely changed…

  Chapter 8

  When she awoke the next morning, it took her several minutes to remember where on earth she was. The bed, the bedding, the ceiling, the light streaming through the windows - all of it felt very different. As did the fact that it was a week day and, aside from unpacking, she had no commitments. Nowhere to be, no-one expecting her - not until dinner that evening at James and Lee’s.

  She decided she had time for the luxury of another half an hour in bed. She’d left the curtains open so she could still see that beautiful vista, and rolled over to face the sunshine over the water as she stretched her aching limbs. As moves went, yesterday had been fairly simple, but there still seemed to be that slight sense of trauma that came with making a massive change to anything in life.

  There were many worries on her mind, but she pushed them successfully into a corner for now. There was time for that later - plenty of time. For now, she had a comfortable bed, a beautiful view, and a half-read Agatha Christie to finish.

  Bliss.

  ***

  The day disappeared without Beth really knowing where it had gone. She discovered one roll of toilet roll had been left for her in the bathroom cupboard, and knew she needed either a shop or to ‘borrow’ from Lee’s house that evening. A wander around town, some lunch, a cup of tea watching people wandering up and down, doing their shopping or enjoying the warm air… and then before she knew it, it was time to head over to Totnes, for a promised home-cooked dinner.

  She relied heavily on her sat-nav to find the way, nearly missing the turn off to the cottage once again, but she was only five minutes later than she’d said when she eventually turned off the engine and entered the little cottage. There was an amazing smell coming from the kitchen when Lee let her in, and the sisters embraced before heading into the kitchen, where Beth declined a glass of wine since she was driving.

  James was standing by the hob, stirring something which had steam swirling up from it with a wooden spoon, with a smiling Holly on his hip.

  “Cooking and taking care of the baby?” Beth said with a raised eyebrow. “You know some people would say you’re spoilt, Shirley Davis,” Beth said, and Lee grinned and for once didn’t tell her sister off for using her given name. When they were kids, and they’d annoyed one another, one of their favourite taunts was using each other’s full names round the playground for all the other children to hear. It was mortifying - and yet ridiculous, since their full names had of course been read out in the register at some point or another, and they could easily get each other back with the same treatment.

  Nowadays, it was more of a joke - although depending on their moods, there may or may not be a laugh.

  “He’s not completely perfect,” Lee said brushing her hand against his arm as she passed him.

  “Bet you can’t think of ways he’s not,” Beth answered, holding out her hands for Holly who seemed a little less reticent this time.

  “Dinner’ll be ready in five,” James said, having not responded to the compliments that made him blush a little. “Coq au vin, I hope you’re hungry!”

  “Starving,” she said. “I am unemployed, remember! Sounds very fancy.”

  “I’ve had a day off,” he said with a shrug. “I like cooking!”

  “See? Perfect,” Beth stage-whispered to her sister, and they laughed as they sat down at the table in the same seats as when Beth had been staying.

  “So, little sister. Dartmouth. How is it?”

  “Amazing,” Beth said, her eyes lighting up as she spoke. “It feels great being there. I love my flat - you’ll have to come over sometime this week, once I’ve sorted things out a bit.”

  “And on the job front?”

  “Haven’t looked yet - that’s tomorrow’s job.”

  “Get the local newspapers,” James chimed in, handing out the plates of chicken casserole that made Beth’s mouth water. “There’s usually three or four on sale, covering different areas - and check the notice boards in shops, too. Can’t beat local knowledge.”

  “Thanks, James,” Beth said. “Sounds like a good start for tomorrow.”

  “And you know,” Lee said, quietly, although Beth was pretty sure James could still hear her, “You only need to ask. I can always help you out.”

  Beth put her hand on her sister’s arm and gave it a light squeeze. “I know, Lee. I know you’ve always got my back. But I want to do this on my own. I feel like it’s the right decision for me - so hopefully I can make it work.”

  “You always make things work,” Lee said with a grin, tucking in. “Ever since we were kids you made impossible situations work out for you.”

  “So did you!”

  “But mine was sheer hard work. Yours was something else… personality, maybe!”

  Beth grinned. “Well, with a record like that, things have got to work out, haven’t they!”

  ***

  Feeling happily full after the home-cooked meal James had served, Beth returned home feeling calm. The suggestions of places to
job-hunt would be a good project for the days to come, and she felt confident there must be something she could do that would earn her some money. For now, however, adrenaline seemed to course through her veins, the excitement of being in a new place, of seeing the moon reflecting in the water, broken only by the occasional ripple from a duck or bird, made her want to explore. As she stared over to Kingswear and saw the full moon hanging bright, illuminating the houses but distorting their happy, bright colours into something a little more foreboding, she could see how mysteries could be inspired by this place.

  The sea, she decided - that was what she wanted. A quick search online found the nearest beach, and within five minutes she was in the car, traversing the unknown roads and following the directions from the voice inside the phone. Excitement bubbled within her, feeling like she was breaking some sort of rule, sneaking out at night - she’d always loved the feeling of rebelling, even if she’d never done anything that audacious. Well, audacious by her mother’s standards, but certainly not by her own.

  The road curved elegantly around sharp falls, and beyond that - although she tried to not let herself be distracted from the road - Beth could see the sea, dappled in silver moonlight. It wasn’t long before she parked up, and rushed to reach the shingle, enjoying the crunching of the pebbles beneath her trainers.

  She let out a laugh that hovered in the air around her, taking in deep breaths of the salty air and enjoying the near emptiness of the beach. She thought it must be around ten, although she hadn’t bothered to check the time when she’d set out on her adventure. The pebbles turned to sand as Beth approached the water, and the waves crashed half-heartedly onto it. Beth couldn’t resist taking her shoes off and dipping her toes in, and was surprised that it wasn’t nearly as cold as when she had swum in the sea at Thurlestone with James a couple of weeks previously. Perhaps the two weeks had made that much of a difference; perhaps the sea had heated up significantly through the long, warm summer’s day that they’d had; or perhaps it was all relative to the temperature around her. Either way, Beth didn’t care; it was a glorious feeling to take off her slightly sweaty shoes and socks and plunge her feet into that oasis.

  She glanced around; there didn’t seem to be anyone close by, and the lure of that water was too much to deny. Ignoring her mother’s many warnings - don’t swim in the dark, don’t swim alone, don’t take your clothes off in public - Beth pulled her dress over her head without much thought and waded into the water wearing nothing but her matching black lace underwear set.

  The water embraced her, feeling silken against her skin, and she swam silently through patches of silver, hearing only the rhythmic movement of her own arms and legs in the water. It was a totally different experience to swimming in the day time; she felt free from all constraints. Free from all the expectations she’d been putting on herself, free from the fears that had been pulling her down.

  She lay on her back and as the water soaked through her blonde bun, she closed her eyes and let the gentle swish of the waves move her slowly backwards and forwards.

  And then she heard a voice.

  Chapter 9

  “Don’t get pulled out, there’s no-one around to save you.”

  She shrieked a little and put her feet down, then ended up with her face partially submerged when she realised that, somehow, she had drifted away from the shore and was now out of her depth. It was only a moment of panic - she was a fairly confident swimmer usually and the current was not strong - but it took her a second to get her breath back and move herself in towards the shore so she could easily stand.

  She blinked furiously to get the salt water from her eyes, then looked around frantically for the mysterious male voice. Her heart rate sped up, half in panic, half in curiosity - as she finally spied a man swimming length-distance laps backwards and forwards ahead of her. With his dark hair, she’d almost not spotted him, and she was pleased to know the voice hadn’t been in her head. That would have just been too strange to explain…

  As her heart rate slowly dipped back to a more normal speed, she watched him moving through the water, slicing through the waves with a powerful front crawl. Even in the low moonlight she could see the muscles in his arms, and the stamina he had for swimming relentlessly, backwards and forwards, seemingly unaware that he was being watched.

  But he couldn’t be unaware - could he? He’d spoken to her, after all, even if she’d not really acknowledged him. He had probably saved her from her own stupidity, stopped her from drifting out much farther and struggling to get back to shore.

  It took a good ten minutes, possibly even fifteen, before he took a break. Beth was still rooted to the spot, although she’d dipped her shoulders under to try to stop herself from visibly shivering. It had been fine while she was moving, but she didn’t feel she could swim away, as embarrassed as she was to be caught floating in her underwear dangerously far from the shore - not until she’d spoken to him.

  A further minute passed before he seemed to realise she was still there, and when he swam over, Beth found herself struggling to think of what to say.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, a slight harshness to his voice that she thought could possibly be from the exertion of all that swimming.

  Beth nodded struggling to find words at that moment.

  “What are you doing swimming on your own at this time?” Perhaps it wasn’t just the exertion - his words still sounded stroppy.

  “I could ask you the same thing,” Beth said, finding her tongue at last.

  He ran a hand through his wet hair and laughed.

  “Fair enough. I should say, what are you doing nearly drowning at this time of night?”

  “I was not nearly drowning!” Beth replied, incensed.

  “You were floating out of your depth without realising, that definitely leads to drowning. And there’s no lifeguard here to save you…”

  “You could have saved me,” she said, and realised to her horror that she was pandering to this man. Just because he was stood there, covered in water droplets, glistening in the moonlight with muscles that made her feel… No. She was not going to humour this man, no matter what his stupid body looked like.

  He didn’t have an answer for that.

  “You scared the living daylights out of me,” Beth accused; if he could be stroppy, she could be just as difficult back.

  “Sorry.”

  Their eyes never broke from one another’s, and Beth felt a tingling in her arms that could have been from the coolness of the water - or could’ve been from all her hairs standing on edge.

  “Me too,” Beth said, holding out her hand. “I’m Beth. Thanks for stopping me floating away.”

  He eyed her hand suspiciously for a moment or two, before taking it and saying “I’m Cas. And sorry for scaring you.”

  She found her mind searching for words as the tingle from where his hand touched hers travelled through her cold body.

  “Cas?”

  “Short for Caspian,” he said with a shrug.

  “Caspian…” she let the name roll on her tongue. “I don’t think I’ve ever met a Caspian before.”

  He folded his arms a little awkwardly. “My mum loves the sea, so…”

  “It’s a great name.”

  “Not when you’re eight,” he said, with a dark look, and Beth laughed, then stopped herself - the look on his face suggested she was being rude.

  “Sorry, sorry! It’s just my name’s Elizabeth, and my sister’s is Shirley, and we’re always complaining about our old-fashioned names - it’s why we always shorten them.”

  The look on Caspian’s face softened a little, and then Beth’s teeth chattered embarrassingly of their own accord.

  “You should get out. You’re going to make yourself ill, stood there not swimming.” She nodded, feeling like she couldn’t argue with his direct tone - and also knowing that she had been cold for quite a while now.

  They swam back to the shore together in silence, Beth enjoying th
e feeling of blood moving through her limbs once more as she moved through the black expanse. He was faster than her, of course, and she watched him exit the water in his black trunks, water cascading from his dark hair and head to a rock a few metres away from where she had carelessly dumped her dress and trainers. He was already vigorously rubbing his hair with a towel by the time she reached the shore, and she steeled herself to not think about the fact that she was dripping wet in her underwear with no way to dry off, in front of a stranger. After all, underwear was hardly that different from a bikini - and at least it was matching…

  She wandered over to her clothes, rubbing her arms in a futile attempt to warm up, and picked up her dress, shoes and socks. There was no other option - she hadn’t really thought this plan through when she’d left the house. She’d just have to put the dress back over her wet bra and knickers, dash to the car and blast the heating on, then maybe have a hot shower when she got home.