She was pulling the dress over her head when she felt a much warmer hand on her cold arm, and she jumped - although thankfully didn’t shriek this time.
“It’s damp, but you can use my towel if you want to,” he offered, holding out a black towel that looked like heaven in that moment.
She dropped her dress back onto the shingle and met his gaze for a moment. She appreciated that he kept his eyes on her eyes, and not on the sight she was presenting stood there in just her underwear. She really should have listened to her mother… never strip off in public.
The towel helped extract most of the water from her hair, and while she couldn’t dry her underwear, she could at least make sure her skin was dry. At the last moment - and after a quick check to make sure he was behind his rock, she removed her bra and threw her dress on over the top. One fewer piece of wet clothing was surely better.
While she waited to return the towel, not wanting to disturb him as he changed - although, a little voice inside her head admitted she was quite intrigued at that thought - she tried to put her hair back into its bun, but without a hairbrush she was pretty sure she looked like she’d been dragged through a hedge backwards.
He reappeared as silently as he had done in the water, and without words she handed the towel over to him.
“I might not be here to save you next time,” he said, a slight smile playing on his lips. “Don’t get yourself in trouble again.”
“Thanks for the towel, and the near heart attack… Caspian.” And then he was gone, walking off on a path that led to an unknown destination, the opposite direction to the car park. She watched him walk, barefoot, shoes and towel in hand, for a few moments, before the night air became too much for her cold skin and she jogged back to her car, feeling grateful for the blast of warm air the heating provided.
It was only when she was on the winding road back to Dartmouth that she realised her bra must have been tangled up in that towel…
Chapter 10
Beth slept better that night than she had done in a long time, and when she awoke to clouds outside her window, she couldn’t even be annoyed at the change in weather. She’d had a gloriously hot shower the night before that had washed away the salt, the cold and some of the embarrassment at leaving her bra in the towel of a good-looking stranger. She just hoped he didn’t think it was on purpose… that would be even more mortifying.
This morning, though, was not about swimming in the sea, or dark-haired strangers that swam late at night… no, today was for job hunting. She had a list, thoughtfully written by Lee, of course, and she was ready to find what it was that she wanted to do with her life - or at least the next few months of her life, for now.
“Morning Sam,” she called to the young guy behind the counter as she headed out of the shop. Sam was busy doing something important-looking with the fryers, and only raised a hand in greeting, but that was plenty for Beth. First stop was the local shop to check out their ad board and buy the local newspapers. Perusing the board, she decided there was nothing of too much interest on it - except for an advert for a local boat tour, which she thought might be good once she had a little more disposable income - but she bought three local newspapers, and took them to her favourite bench over-looking the moody water.
As she approached, she felt her heart sink slightly as she noticed a white-haired gentleman in an oversized, green overcoat sat there, enjoying what she thought was a bacon butty - but she powered on and sat on the other side, offering him a smile before opening the first of her papers and getting her pen ready to circle.
The first one was mainly care work and cleaning which, although she would consider, wasn’t the direction she was hoping to go in. She circled a couple of possibilities, though - mainly the ones that didn’t require any experience and had an immediate start - before moving onto the next.
“Looking for a job?” the man asked with a gravelly voice that sounded like he had spent many years smoking.
“Yes, I am actually,” she said, glancing at him before returning to her paper, scanning the next page and feeling disappointed when nearly every job required experience in fields she didn’t have. Fishing, cooking, accounting - nothing she thought she had a hope of getting. There was an advert for a dog-walker, which she circled; it wasn’t a full time income, but perhaps she could gain a little money that way, while she tried to find something.
“I hear they’re looking for someone over at Greenway,” he said, raising a hand and pointing in the distance to a building over the water.
“Greenway? As in Agatha’s Christie’s house?”
He nodded. “Tour guide or some such, I was told. Might be worth checking out.”
“It definitely will be! Thank you, I really appreciate it.”
She tried to control her expectations as she shook the man’s hand, learning that his name was John. After all, there might not be a job there… or they might need experience. But there was something about the suggestion that made her feel excited, and it had been a long time since she had felt excited about a job prospect. Maybe there could be more to a job than just making enough money to pay the rent and endless bills.
She considered waiting until the next day to go and check out the possibility, but was too impatient. Lunch, a change into something that would make a great first impression, and then she could figure out how one even got over to Greenway. Even if the job prospect was a bust, she would still get to see the home of a writer she had always loved - that was worth an afternoon, surely.
John moved away to get on with whatever it was he did with his days - she suspected something outdoors, with that overcoat - and as the sky threatened to drop the rain it had been storing for the last few balmy days, Beth skipped off to get a few essentials that she had not yet had time to buy: milk, bread, cheese and toilet roll. She had stolen a toilet roll from Lee the previous night, but that did not seem like a sensible way to continue with living her life. As long as she budgeted enough to get the ferry over to Greenway, and the entrance fee if things didn’t go to plan, she thought she’d be okay.
Things had to work out. This had to be a sign, surely - she had her flat, and now a lead on a job - plus a newspaper that she hadn’t yet perused. The heavens opened and as the rain filled the dry streets and emptied them of people, Beth ran back to the flat, already planning what she could wear to impress whoever she would meet at Greenway…
***
There was a crush in the shop when she entered, probably thanks to the sudden downpour, and as she tried to get through to the little side door that led up to her flat, she heard Sam shout.
“Hey, Bethany-”
“It’s Beth!” she shouted back.
“Beth. I’m snowed under here, Jenny’s rung in sick and I can’t keep on top of all of this. Want a few hours work? I’ll pay you!”
She contemplated her options. On one hand, she wanted to go to Greenway right now. On the other, she needed the money - and she could always do that tomorrow. Or later on in the day. Her financial situation certainly was dire…
“Go on then,” she said, getting through the crowd to get behind the counter and grabbing an apron from where he pointed.
“Can you wash up to start with? Then get chips in the fryer - fill the basket, put it in, be careful because it’s boiling and I don’t have time to take you to A&E.”
“Charming,” Beth said, rolling up her sleeves and getting on with it. It was all money, after all.
***
The three hours she worked in the shop that afternoon were possibly the most physical hours of work she had ever done, and she was surprised by just how tired she was when the rush finally ended and Sam became a little more polite and thanked her for stepping in. He opened the till and handed her £30, which she felt was well-earned.
“I’m job hunting at the minute,” she said, folding up the apron carefully. “So if you get desperate again, I might be able to help.”
“Cheers,” he said, grabbing a can o
f coke and swigging loudly from it. “Do you want fish and chips? On the house? I do appreciate you stepping in, I know just because you live here doesn’t mean I should just pull you in to the madness!”
“Don’t worry, I’m quite good at saying no,” Beth said with a smile, but took him up on the offer of fish and chips. It was too late now to go to Greenway, and she was starving, having missed her planned lunch of a cheese sandwich. This was definitely preferable, and as she dumped her bag of groceries on the kitchen counter upstairs, she couldn’t wait to tuck in.
She chose to sit by the window again, watching the view from her window as she ate the delicious battered cod, in spite of the fact that rain poured down the windows. She could still see the boats no longer bobbing but rocking energetically on the disturbed waters. People were a scarcity, with the weather having pushed them all into shops, cafés, pubs and certainly fish and chip shops - or sending them scurrying home.
A man in a green coat was tethering up a boat, and she wondered if it were John, the helpful soul who’d suggested she try looking across the water for a job. He certainly was suffering the worst of the weather.
She knew she should make the most of the time, but for a while it was nice to just sit there, letting a sleepiness from a large meal and some hard work wash over her, watching the rain pour down the windows and letting her eyes drift slowly closed…
Chapter 11
Bright and early the next morning - well, Beth felt bright, the weather not so much - she headed out of the flat dressed in a blue dress with matching flats, hoping she looked smart enough without being out of place at a historical building. She’d done some research, after her impromptu nap the previous evening, and found the ferry was the quickest way to get over the water - and she felt a thrill at the thought, for she couldn’t remember the last time she’d taken a passenger ferry. It was a short walk to where she needed to get on, and the ferry was busy with what she presumed were commuters, working on the other side of the water.
Beth found a spot next to the rail, where she could look out across the water and take in the moving scenery, as the ferry departed and slowly chugged to its destination. Out on a boat, which rose slightly in the waves coming from the ferry, was the man in the green coat again; she seemed to be seeing him everywhere. He had a flat cap on, and she raised a hand in greeting, and thought he waved back - although she would be surprised if he could recognise her at this distance. It was his distinctive green coat, after all, that she recognised - and she wasn’t in anything that could identify her.
She’d left her fine blonde hair loose that morning, and it blew around her face as they moved, making Beth feel like she were out at sea, instead of the reality of not being that far from her own flat. She let the others off before she followed, smoothing down her hair and checking her appearance in a window before heading up the path and away from the water. The air felt close, and she wondered if they might have a thunderstorm by the end of the day.
It was a narrow single-track road up towards the house, and she followed the brown signs pointing out the local attraction. There were a few other people further ahead, but it wasn’t too busy; it was a little before the season started, for one, and the weather was not as pleasant as it had been the last few days. The heat was still surprising though, and as she reached the top of the hill, Beth regretted the decision to leave her shoulder-length hair down, as it felt as though it was sticking to the back of her neck in the humidity.
At the entrance to the grounds she gave herself a moment, leaning by one of the grand pillars, to catch her breath and try to fix her appearance as best as she could, using her fingers as a comb and the window of the little stone building by the pillar as a mirror.
Another long walk down a driveway, through grounds that she thought she might explore at a later date, and then there it was in front of her; a large, imposing white building, with elegant columns and full of windows to spy out of. The grey clouds above gave it an ominous feeling, but Beth just lapped that up - it was an air of mystery, an air of possibility that excited rather than concerned her.
“Hello dear, welcome to Greenway, home of mystery and intrigue!” A white-haired lady greeted her at the payment desk, and Beth grinned at the words.
“Hello!”
“Just one adult’s entrance?”
“Well, yes, I would love to see the building, but I also had a question. I heard from a gentleman in Dartmouth that there might be a job available here, and I wanted to see if that was true!”
The lady smiled and put down her ticket book. “Well, you’re not misinformed, miss-”
“Davis. Beth Davis.”
“Beth. I’m Tanya. We’re looking for a tour guide, for the season mainly, although it could continue past that, depending on the staffing situation come September. Have you done any tour guide work before?”
Ah, here was the issue. Experience - it always came up. “No, I haven’t,” Beth said, deciding to go with honest but enthusiastic. “But I’ve always been a massive Agatha Christie fan, and I’m a quick learner of facts - and I just moved to Dartmouth this week!”
Tanya smiled, and Beth hoped that was a good sign. “Well, experience isn’t essential, although it certainly helps. Let’s take a walk through the house, shall we, and get to know each other?” Beth nodded keenly, taking a surreptitious sip from her sadly warm water bottle and following her through the turnstile.
“As you might be aware, this was a holiday home for Agatha Christie and her family,” she said, as they entered a large living room with bookcases forming a large part of the wall. “Things have been left as they were then, filled with all sorts of artifacts from their travels and things the family collected. What we need here is someone to take the booked tours around. Someone who can learn about all the features and quirks, and share their enthusiasm with those who’ve paid for tours - as well as touring the gardens.”
“That sounds amazing,” Beth said, reading a page open in a scrap book filled with memories of Christie’s childhood.
Tanya smiled. “So you just moved to Dartmouth?”
She nodded. “From Exeter.”
“On your own?”
“Yep. My sister and her family live in Totnes though, so I’m not completely stranded!”
“That’s nice. And what work have you done previously?”
She listed her most recent jobs, but didn’t go back too far - she didn’t want to put the lady off with such an extensive list of jobs. She knew it made her look a little flaky - but her days of constant job-hopping were, she felt, in her past; and besides, this was probably only temporary. Still, what a great job to do for three months or so.
“A lot of experience! How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Twenty-eight,” Beth said, her smile slightly nervous. “And an Agatha Christie fan from since I could read properly!”
Tanya’s smile broadened a little at that one. “And you could start immediately, if you were offered the job?”
“Yes, as soon as you liked. I have a car, and live right near the ferry, too, so I’m flexible.”
“Okay, well, let’s go to the back room and look at some paperwork - but it all sounds good to me!”
Beth felt her heart soar.
It would all work out…
“Well, Elizabeth Davis, I’m very glad you came in this morning!” Tanya said after Beth had filled in the third form. “I’d be very happy for you to come and work here - providing your references come through all right from your previous employment, of course.” Beth couldn’t wipe the smile from her face. She was pretty confident that her references would be good - after all, although she’d felt like she was going nowhere, she’d always turned up and always been praised for doing a good job. And although this opportunity was only temporary, it still felt like something that she could really sink her teeth into, something she could be passionate about.
“I’m so glad I came, too,” Beth said, shaking Tanya’s hand. “So
, do I wait to hear from you?”
“Let’s just set a start date, shall we? And then I’ll give you a ring if there’s any issues. How does Monday sound?”
“Perfect.”
Tanya said goodbye, leaving her free to wander the house at her leisure, and a pleasant hour or so passed as she explored the different rooms, learning as much as she could soak in - not just for the job she would be starting, but for her own interest too. These were places and objects that had inspired someone who had filled many of Beth’s evenings as a child and a teenager, and she couldn’t help but feel inspired herself. Inspired to make something of the opportunity, even if she wasn’t quite sure what.
The South West Series Box Set Page 41
