‘I can’t argue with—’ Pippa’s sentence was cut in half as the door was pushed open and everyone on a barstool whooshed around to take a look.
That tumbleweed silence would have filled the whole room with its echoey lack of welcome if Pippa hadn’t jumped straight up and ushered Kam forward, the grin on her face as he entered so wide that it actually hurt her ears.
‘Kam, come meet the reprobates of The Smuggler’s Curse. Everyone’ – the word had pure steel undertones – ‘say hello to Kam.’
Chapter Eleven
Kam had walked along the beach, the sun setting in such glorious orange and cerise technicolour that he could barely take his eyes away from it. The seagulls were silent, long gone to bed at the end of the bay, tucked up and away from human eyes. The crunch of dried seaweed under his Reefs mingled with the crash of the waves, the smell of salt burying itself deep into his lungs as the waves reflected the summer colours of the sky.
This was living life, this simple act of appreciating the beauty around him and being grateful for what he had. Not difficult in Cornwall, beauty was everywhere in this part of the world.
Lit by the street lights and the last few minutes of the sun, Penmenna was one of these things of beauty. The warm lights of windows dappled down the hillside, a higgledy-piggledy dotting of comfort, of hearth and home.
He reached The Smuggler’s Curse, light also streaming out of these windows but not quite in such a life-affirming manner as the rest of the village. Instead, light seeped out of dirty window panes, promising that it may be warmer inside but probably not as fresh. He startled as he thought he heard a moo come from the pub garden, before deciding he must be mistaken. He could see the outline of some hanging baskets suspended by the front door, but they appeared to have not much more than three bits of twig and a beetle inside, rather than the riot of colour that could be expected at this time of year.
There was laughter coming from inside. Looking at the door he wasn’t sure whether, if he pushed it open, it would crumble under his fingers. He decided he didn’t care. Pippa had been such a joy from the moment he had met her, constantly perky, frequently sarcastic but always funny, a proper sunshine girl. She was well worth a splinter or two. The thought of getting to spend part of the evening with her, as well as all of the day, brought the biggest beam he had felt since the age of eight and his parents had bought him a brand-new bike. Pippa was the freshness of spring and the joy of new bikes all rolled into one. He pushed the pub door firmly.
And there she was.
As he stood still in the doorway, he remembered the words of his father as he described the way he had looked at Kam’s mother when they were initially introduced, and had known. He had known.
Kam had always thought it was romantic nonsense his dad spouted to keep his mother happy, despite the fact that his father was not usually forthcoming when it came to expressing his emotions. Still, Kam’s scientific nature didn’t believe in the whole thunderclap, coup-de-foudre, love at first sight nonsense. Love was a slow burn, a spark of lust followed by getting to know someone until you found a mutual respect and understanding in tandem with the continued lust thing. That was what Kam believed turned into love.
But now, risking more and more splinters per second, he wondered if he had been wrong.
For there, in front of him, Pippa stood laughing, her whole spirit lifting the dark of the bar. The laughter he heard emanating from those surrounding her showed that all were lit by her light. And without being able to name it precisely, he knew he had just felt something huge course through him.
‘Kam, come meet the reprobates of The Smuggler’s Curse.’ She smiled as she walked to meet him by the doorway. ‘Everyone, say hello to Kam.’
* * *
The evening passed in a whizz and a flash. Kam had imagined he would be spending it tucked up in the snug talking to Pippa, getting to know her, sharing their stories about the events that had shaped them, the things that had brought them to where they were. To see what made this sunshine girl sparkle.
What actually happened was that once she had greeted him, she pulled up a stool at the bar and ushered him to sit down. The two men she was with nodded at him and responded to her command by muttering his name, but not in a madly welcoming way. He felt a little bit like he had stumbled into the OK Corral and was about to become part of a gun fight he knew nothing about.
Pippa, however, was oblivious. Or appeared to be. She looked adorable tonight, as if she had dressed up for a dance in a village hall at some point sixty years ago, her lips matching the cherry-red of her shoes. He felt he should have bought a posy and be wearing a waistcoat, rather than chilling in a hoody and jeans.
‘What can I get you?’ she asked, gesturing towards the bar.
‘Oh no, I’ll get them. What does everyone recommend? What is the drink to welcome me to Penmenna?’
‘Korev.’ The shorter squatter man sat furthest from Pippa said, as the barman failed to respond to Kam’s presence.
‘It depends quite how brave you are, but if Roger takes a liking to you, he has a special barrel of hooch that ’e keeps for us regulars. That’ll welcome you to the village. It’s this ’un that we’re welcoming, right?’ added a man who seemed to have been involved in some extreme dental incident.
Kam grinned; an apparent attempt to poison him the minute he sat down was actually remarkably tame compared to what he’d expected when he’d first pushed open the big wooden door.
‘I’ll have the Korev for now then, and I’ll take you up on the hooch when I return one Friday night. If you haven’t run me out of town by then, obviously.’
‘Exactly, after tonight you may never return. So, you won’t need to know that I’m Mike and this ’ere is Andrew.’ The toothless one winked as he introduced himself and his friend to Kam. ‘Here, Roger, I’ll buy the new teacher his first Penmenna pint. And we’ll check out the cut of his jib.’
‘Did you know that was a saying from back in the day, when you were checking out which country a boat was from, so it’s quite pertinent here. Seeing who is friend or foe in a nautical way.’ The voice was female and came from the corner, a table near the fire where sat a woman who the word dainty was invented for. Seventy if she was a day, the lace of her blouse furling up around her neck, a glass of sherry in front of her. Next to her sat a man in a dog collar, so good-looking that Kam did a double-take. The two of them were playing cards with a stack of pennies next to them, the woman looking as if she had considerably more. ‘Talking of which I’d better let some sea air in; it’s time for Flynn to come in for his pint.’
‘Sit yourself down, Ethel. I’ll get that.’ The vicar put his cards down, gave Ethel a faux-stern don’t-peek look and stood up to go and pull the door open, bringing in the sound of church bells striking the eighth hour.
‘Oh yeah, you’re going to love Flynn.’ Pippa shot Kam the biggest grin as if she had a surprise up her sleeve. He wondered if Flynn was novel simply for possessing all his teeth and digits.
‘And he’ll love you too. Always been partial to a handsome face, bit like myself.’ Ethel took a glug of her sherry and winked at the vicar.
Kam grinned. ‘Well, then, I’ll look forward to meeting him,’ he said as Roger gave him a proper Cornish pint. He had been drinking Rattler, a cider guaranteed to put hairs on your chest, whilst he’d been living in Newquay. It was his friend Ben’s drink of choice; they sold a lot of it in the bar attached to the surf hostel that Ben ran. Kam had found he’d had a couple of thick-headed mornings afterwards, with only the surf succeeding in blasting him clean and getting his brain to work again. So, for now he was happy to see if Korev might be his drink. He took a long gulp.
‘This is good. I’m looking forward to Friday night, if I can judge Roger’s hooch on this in any way.’
‘I wouldn’t,’ Pippa retorted. ‘That lager is considerably more legal and less likely to turn you blind.’
‘Now, you madam, that were not my hooch that
did that.’
The whole pub erupted in laughter.
‘I’d say the majority view is that it was,’ Pippa clarified.
Kam laughed along with them, taking small draughts of his beer and enjoying being part of the community atmosphere in here. They chatted away, most of the gossip about people in Penmenna, or he up Roscombe way, or that posh bloke down Treporth, but all of it harmless and no one being made more fun of than those present. He had just been invited to join the vicar, who introduced himself as Dan and seemed pretty sound, for a kick about with some of the others in the village when the door creaked open a little further. All of a sudden Kam felt a wet nose on his leg, heading towards his groin.
‘See, you thought we was odd but you want to be grateful we didn’t greet you like that,’ Mike laughed.
‘Come on, Flynn. Leave Kam alone.’ Pippa greeted the dog who had snuck in through the door, ‘Up you come.’ And with that Flynn hopped up onto a stool that had been kept vacant and put a paw on the bar and barked.
‘I know, mate,’ said Andrew. ‘The service in here is dreadful.’ Everyone then continued their conversation as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening, while Roger popped a large dog’s bowl of water and an open packet of pork scratchings on the bar.
Kam watched spellbound, only half an ear on the conversation as the dog eagerly lapped it all up, ate his snacks, barked twice at the barman, jumped down from his stool and slid out of the door again. It was Andrew this time who got up to shut the door.
‘It’s cute, isn’t it?’ Pippa whispered to him in an aside. ‘Comes in every night without fail, has done since he was a pup, just sadly without his dad now. Derek passed away about three years ago, but we managed to keep Flynn in the village so he could continue with as many of his routines as possible, and his nightly walk and drink are one of them.’
‘That’s pretty special. I’ve never heard of anything like that before.’
‘Penmenna’s pretty special and I am happy that you are now part of it. Now, drink up. It’s your round!’
* * *
As Pippa curled up in her bed, smile still on her face, she heard her phone beep. Reaching to grab it and expecting it to be from Pete or Polly moaning about their mother’s latest heinous crime, she saw instead it was Kam whom she had given her number to when they had arranged their pub outing.
Thank you for today, you helped my first day go really smoothly. And tonight was lots of fun. I have a feeling I’m going to like Penmenna.
Pleasure. I really enjoyed myself. See you tomorrow!
A smile played on her lips as she placed her head on her pillow, and it stayed there until she drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Twelve
Pippa headed into the classroom, in modern and can-afford-to-be-covered-in-paint clothes and great big eyeliner flicks, with two mugs of coffee in her hands and a smile on her face. Kam had been fun the other night. He had slotted into the pub as if he’d been born and bred there, and that was a rare thing indeed. In fact, the last recorded time that had happened was when a woman had got lost in the village and came in to ask for directions. Roger had married her.
Afterwards, Kam had walked her home. She had said it wasn’t necessary but he had insisted. She had let him cross her over the road and walk a full fifty yards, and then, as they reached the village shop, she had told him, with delight, that this was her.
She had toyed with inviting him in, but was aware that there was a subtext to that question that wasn’t appropriate with the man who was, until the end of July, her immediate boss. Plus, as she’d been leaving to go to the pub tonight, Lottie had received a phone call about a badger on the side of the lane the other side of Lovage Farm and had practically hopped, skipped and jumped her way down the stairs, out of the building and into her car.
She was not inviting a man she had to work with – a man in possession of the most beautiful eyes and even handsomer spirit – in to deal with dead badgers after their first evening out. She had some sense of self-protection. So, although she hadn’t offered coffee then, she was happy to deliver it this morning.
Bouncing in, mugs in hand, she was rewarded as Kam looked up from flicking through something on his school tablet with a great big beam of welcome.
‘Here you go. I thought you would like a coffee.’ She handed him the biggest mug she had been able to find in the staffroom and then took a great slurp of her own.
‘Oh fab.’ Rosy poked her head above the bookcases in the reading corner and smiled at Pippa, only for her face to fall a little when she saw that Pippa hadn’t been talking to her.
‘Oh, shoot. Um, I’m so sorry Rosy, I didn’t realise you were in class today.’
‘I know, fair point. I’m not. I just wanted to grab some resources to help with some special needs assessments, so I thought I’d nip in early before everyone got in, children that is, obviously. In fact, I know you’re good as gold and come in early and stay late, but isn’t this really early for you?’
Rosy’s face was quizzical and Pippa froze to the spot. She might have a point. She hoped to god that Kam didn’t pick up on it and guess she was in deliberately early just for him. Little bit awkward.
‘Ha… um… I’ll be right back. I’ll just go get you a coffee.’ Pippa fled. She was a woman who never blushed, but there was a good chance all that could change today and cheeks may decide to match her lipstick!
* * *
Kam had taught a whole lot of maths and the children were now doing various independent activities around the classroom. Pippa was in the role-play area with some of the children, creating a huge beanstalk on the side of their two-storey play loft. Before starting, they had put rollers in her hair from the dressing up area so they could act out Jack and the Beanstalk when they had finished, and they had nominated Pippa to play the mother. Ellie had pointed out that she had the perfect shrieky voice because Jack’s mum could probably be heard from every side of the playground as well. Pippa’s face may have scrunched up a little because Ellie quickly added, after Sam had nudged her, that Pippa wasn’t shouty in a mean way though. Rather than taking offence, Pippa tried to remind herself of the social and emotional learning goals this behaviour indicated Ellie was reaching.
‘Miss Parkin.’ She felt the hiss upon her ear as much as she heard it, as she stood there, green painted leaf dangling over her head, staple gun in hand and spare leaves held between her knees.
‘Yes,’ she hissed back, feeling like a spy down a shadowy alley in a badly lit European city and rather liking it
‘The hamster door is open and I can’t see Sir Squeaks-a-lot anywhere in his cage.’
Pippa spun around, handing her remaining leaves to Ashleigh, who was on the floor carefully sticking leaves to the base of the loft, her tongue sticking out slightly as she concentrated upon her task.
‘Squeaks is missing?’ She whispered back. She didn’t want the class hearing just yet, and four and five-year-olds have some kind of magic hearing skills which mean they block out instructions fairly effectively but could always capture a secret.
Kam nodded, his eyes big and wide. Bless him, she could see that he was too concerned to even try and hide his worry.
‘Okay, this is going to be fine.’ She nodded at him reassuringly. She guessed that there was no teacher in the world who wanted to be responsible for losing the class pet in their first week. ‘He’s probably just hiding. If you were being manhandled regularly by nearly a hundred odd primary school children you’d definitely hide now and again. And if he has escaped, he can’t get far.’
‘Have you seen how fast hamsters run? I have, and it’s fast!’ Kam hissed back as they carefully wandered back to the cage, scanning the floor as they did so.
‘How do you know how fast they run with such conviction?’
‘I’ve watched YouTube videos, hundreds of YouTube videos.’
‘Seriously? I’m scared to ask why. I thought my flatmate was weird but you may have trumped even her!’
‘Large family, lots of sisters. I learnt early on it was easier just to comply.’
‘I like the sound of that.’ Kam’s eyebrows shot through his hairline as Pippa realised that she may have crossed a line into inappropriate. If he didn’t know she had a bit of a crush before, he probably did now. She decided not to double down nor apologise, but just pretend she hadn’t said anything at all.
They reached the cage and with her I’m-a-proper-professional-and-would-never-say-anything-dirty-in-the-workplace face on Pippa rummaged amongst Sir Squeaks-a-lot’s bedding. And then rummaged again. Oh dear.
She turned to face Kam, mirroring his expression of concern.
‘Okay, you’re right. Sir Squeaks has sodded off. But look, all the doors are closed. I know he was there first thing when we fed him. He can’t be far. He just can’t be.’
‘He could be squished. We need to make sure that the children don’t stampede.’ They both shot a quick panicked look across the floor to make sure there was no evidence of squish so far.
Phew, lots of blue and green paint, and someone had taken some blocks out of the construction area and had started making a village near the maths corner but definitely no hamster gore visible to the naked eye.
‘You’ve got this. Go on.’ Pippa reassured Kam.
‘Okay. Can you go scout the reading corner and then I’ll send the children there?’ Kam asked her and as she nodded in return.
‘Consider it done. There won’t be a cushion left unturned.’ She scampered to the reading corner on tiptoes.
Kam put both of his hands in the air and used his loudest, most authoritative voice. ‘Class One, can everyone stop what they’re doing and freeze?’ He waited for the class to respond, which they did immediately. Impressive.
‘Okay, now, Sir Squeaks-a-lot has escaped from his cage so we need to be very careful and find him. I need you all to keep still for a minute whilst Miss Parkin checks the reading corner, and then we’ll move there slowly from each area. I’ll tell you when it’s your turn, then head to the reading corner, but keep checking very carefully where you put your feet and keep your eyes peeled in case you spot him. When we are all there, we can work out a plan to find him. Does everyone understand?’
The Cornish Village School--Summer Love Page 6
