The Little Shop in Cornwall: A heartwarming and feel good beach read

by Helen Pollard

  ‘I love that one.’ Claudia ran her fingers over the embossed cover – a mermaid emerging from an undersea cave, the colours rich and jewel-like. ‘Is it for anything special?’

  Alice’s nerves returned in a blink. ‘I – er – thought I’d write up the notes I’ve made at your workshops. To help me remember things.’

  Claudia slipped the book into a paper bag. ‘Good idea.’ As she rang up the purchase, she said, ‘I read an article the other day about journaling. It’s very therapeutic, apparently, getting your thoughts down on paper.’ She winked. ‘As long as nobody else reads it, I suppose.’

  Alice gave a nervous chuckle. ‘I heard that somewhere, too. But I’m not. I’m just writing up notes.’

  Claudia nodded and reached under the counter. ‘I got some new pens in the other day. This turquoise one goes with your notebook.’ She slipped it into the bag. ‘On the house.’

  ‘Oh, no, I couldn’t.’

  ‘You’d be doing me a favour, Alice. I haven’t stocked these before. Let me know if it writes nicely, will you?’

  ‘Oh. Well. Thank you.’ Alice blinked away a tear. ‘You’re very kind.’

  ‘You’re welcome. See you soon.’

  As she watched Alice leave, Claudia wondered how much kindness that poor woman received, if she was moved by the small gift of a pen. George couldn’t be a very demonstrative husband.

  When Jason stormed in just before closing, Claudia was still depressed by Alice’s gratitude and doubly depressed by the parlous state of her till drawer. She wasn’t in the mood for one of his rants.

  ‘I am not happy about that place, Claudia!’ he exclaimed, exuding antagonism. The only saving grace was that it didn’t appear to be directed at her.

  ‘I can see that. Which place are you talking about?’ Bet I can guess, though.

  ‘Hester’s bloody Cauldron.’

  ‘Why don’t we take this outside with a soothing hot drink? Those negative vibes of yours are pinging off the walls and stabbing me to death.’

  Jason opened his mouth to retaliate, then closed it again, giving her that tiny wry smile he had. ‘What are you going to poison me with this time?’

  ‘Lemon verbena.’ Claudia spooned leaves into her teapot.

  ‘Don’t you have a teabag?’

  ‘The roofers used all the ones I pilfered from next door. Don’t you trust me? You think this is desiccated frogs’ innards?’

  ‘How the hell would I know?’

  Ignoring him, Claudia carried the tea out onto the now-empty terrace of the Page Turner, flipping her ‘Closed’ sign on the way. ‘Drink. Tell me you’re not dying from my brew. Then tell me what’s got you so riled up.’

  He drank. He didn’t keel over. He even said of the tea, ‘Hmmph. I can live with this, I suppose.’ Then he looked at her, his pale eyes earnest. ‘Hester’s Cauldron. Have you been?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Don’t you have an opinion?’

  ‘Oh, I have plenty of opinions,’ Claudia assured him. ‘But I’ll listen to yours first. What’s up?’

  ‘I know I was hesitant about Healing Waves at first…’

  ‘That’s one word for it.’

  ‘But I opened my mind. To a point,’ he added, making her smile. ‘Your shop is well-meaning, at least. But that new place screams tacky and tourist and everything I hate. And of course, Millie loves it. She went with her friends. She bought a witch’s ball. She’s got the blasted thing hanging from her bedroom ceiling!’

  ‘It’s harmless enough, Jason,’ Claudia said patiently. ‘The shiny surface is supposed to deflect negative spells; send them back to the source. That’s all.’

  ‘So, my daughter’s expecting someone to curse her now?’

  ‘I doubt it. Maybe she just likes the idea of it providing protection. Why’s that any different to you hanging the black tourmaline I gave you?’

  An unspoken ‘It isn’t’ hung between them.

  ‘Because it’s a witch’s ball,’ Jason said stubbornly.

  ‘You’re hung up on the name. If Millie told you she bought it because it’s pretty in lamplight, you wouldn’t complain. You hang baubles on your Christmas tree, don’t you?’

  ‘Yes, but…’

  ‘There’s every likelihood they originated from witch’s balls. You’re not going to ban Christmas baubles, are you?’

  Jason sighed. ‘Millie and her friends are already planning on going back there.’

  ‘I can imagine. That place is designed to appeal to their age group.’

  ‘I went in first thing this morning to see for myself,’ Jason told her. ‘Told work I’d lost my car keys to buy some time.’ When she raised an eyebrow, he held his hands out. ‘I could hardly tell them I needed to visit the local witch shop, could I?’

  Claudia’s lips twitched. ‘And?’

  ‘Either those women have got a great flair for design or they’ve paid someone who has – all those nooks and crannies and alcoves; that narrow staircase; the colours and clever lighting.’

  ‘I agree.’

  ‘And did you see how they’ve done themselves up?’

  ‘You don’t like the sexy witch look?’ When he stared at her, she shrugged. ‘Tanya’s words, not mine.’

  ‘The truth? It does nothing for me.’

  Claudia found herself surprisingly pleased with that. If Jason didn’t go for their kind of thing, did he go for her kind of thing?

  But he was still ranting. ‘It’s one thing Millie enjoying the novelty…’

  ‘Millie has a good head on her shoulders, Jason. They won’t sell her anything she shouldn’t have.’

  Jason studied her for a long moment, as though something had only just occurred to him. ‘They stock quite a lot of things that you do. Aren’t you worried?’

  Yes. Very worried indeed. But Claudia lifted her chin in a show of bravado. ‘No. I’m one up on them, because they don’t know the first thing about half of what they sell!’

  Jason’s eyes narrowed. ‘What do you mean?’

  As the tea grew cold and the air grew cold along with it, Claudia summed up her visit just as she had with her girlfriends the previous day.

  ‘You’re saying they’re frauds?’ Jason asked when she’d finished.

  ‘That’s a strong word, Jason. If they sell something without comment, then no. If, however, they’re passing themselves off as experts, as witches – and Tanya’s certain they’re not, in any serious way – then yes, I suppose they’re frauds.’ Hearing a scuffling noise from the direction of the beach, she glanced beyond the wall, but all she saw was a man walking by the edge of the incoming tide. His dog was no doubt digging through the seaweed at the top of the beach. Still, it occurred to her that a discussion like this would have been better held indoors, after all.

  Time to outweigh the negative with a positive. ‘But I’m sure they’ll learn as they go along, and if people enjoy their purchases, who am I to quibble?’

  ‘That’s magnanimous of you, under the circumstances.’ Jason frowned. ‘Wait. Tanya’s been in there? What did she think?’

  His tone was earnest, surprising Claudia. Had he come to accept, if not condone, Tanya’s beliefs?

  ‘What did you think of Tanya?’ Claudia probed, ignoring his question for now.

  Jason shifted in his seat. ‘She’s nice.’ When Claudia just waited – a technique she’d learned worked well in getting people to say more when further interrogation might make them clam up – he said, ‘Okay, she’s delightful.’

  A laugh escaped from her throat. ‘Oh, Jason. That hurt, didn’t it?’

  ‘Yes, it did.’ He scowled. ‘But just because I liked her doesn’t mean I agree with anything she said.’

  ‘And yet you’re asking for her opinion about Hester’s Cauldron?’

  ‘Yes. I might not believe in that stuff, but she obviously does.’

  ‘Okay, well, she thinks the same as me.’ Worried by the grim expression on his face, Claudia said, ‘We all have t
o make a living, Jason. They’re just trying to make theirs. We might not like the way they’re doing it, but they’re entitled.’

  ‘They’re not entitled to sell my daughter any dark sorcery crap.’

  ‘Worried she’ll learn how to turn you into a grumpy toad? Because I’m telling you now, you’re already halfway there.’

  Jason glared at the dregs in his mug. ‘Yeah, well, this’ll probably finish the job.’

  ‘I didn’t expect to see you here’ was Claudia’s greeting when Jason turned up to meditation the following evening.

  ‘My daughter was insistent.’ When Millie scuttled off to bag a comfy floor cushion, he added in a low voice, ‘She didn’t find it easy last week, but she wants to persevere and she wanted me to come. So here I am.’

  Claudia patted his arm. ‘Good man.’

  Jason chose a chair – he didn’t think his body would thank him for an hour on a floor cushion. Millie grinned and whispered ‘Oldie’ before Claudia dimmed the lights and began the session.

  An hour later, Jason was… well, quite relaxed. Like Millie, he’d struggled to stop turning over his worries, but he’d tried to concentrate on the guided meditation, and he’d drifted during the music at the end.

  ‘Normal tea?’ he asked hopefully when Claudia handed him a cuppa afterwards.

  ‘Decaff, but you’ll live. How did you find the meditation?’

  ‘Last time I tried it, with Millie, I was told to empty my mind, but I couldn’t. The guided meditation’s easier – your thoughts get pushed to one side without trying too hard.’

  ‘I agree. Emptying your mind’s nigh on impossible, if you ask me! I’m glad you came.’

  Jason looked around the room. Millie was chatting to Libby, Sarah and Evelyn.

  ‘I know it’s not the vibrant social circle you want for her,’ Claudia said. ‘But it means friendly faces to bump into. The meditation’s good for her. And I have another idea. My soap stocks are still low, so I thought Millie could help me tomorrow evening. Take her mind off Hester’s Cauldron.’

  Jason let out a mental sigh of relief at the nature of Claudia’s ‘idea’. You could never tell what she might come up with.

  ‘I’m sure she’d love to, but she does drama after school on a Wednesday now.’

  ‘Thursday, then? And while she’s still out of earshot, I have a favour to ask.’ Claudia smiled when he couldn’t keep the caution out of his expression. ‘Don’t worry, I won’t ask you to dance naked with me under a full moon.’

  Jason kept his face poker straight. ‘That’s a shame. I might have granted you that one.’

  Jason Craig, are you flirting with her now?

  Claudia spluttered out a delighted laugh, making his stomach flip. ‘I bet! No. I was wondering if you could dig out some old photos for me.’

  His brows knitted together. ‘What kind of photos?’

  ‘Shots of Millie and her mum looking close or having fun, from Millie as a baby through to the most recent, although preferably not with Gemma looking too ill. I’d need at least thirty, but I could work with up to fifty.’

  ‘Why do you need them?’

  Claudia became cagey. ‘Something I want to do for Millie. Can you trust me?’

  Jason could hardly say ‘No’, could he?

  ‘Will it help if I tell you it might help her?’ Claudia added, backing him further into a corner.

  Jason managed a tentative smile while his emotions swirled. Claudia’s sand-drawing exercise had been a success, but he still didn’t like the idea of her experimenting on his daughter. As for photos? Other than those on the wall at home, he hadn’t looked at any since he’d chosen some for Gemma’s funeral. He wasn’t sure how they would make him feel – a catalogue of a love that had slowly died; a reminder of a mother-daughter relationship that had ended too soon.

  He saw recognition in Claudia’s eyes, then sympathy. ‘Jason, I’m so sorry. I was thinking about Millie, not about how painful this might be for you. If you don’t want to…’

  ‘No. It’s fine,’ he mumbled, embarrassed that his emotions were so transparent. ‘If it’ll help Millie, I’ll do it. It might be good for me, too. I presume it’s a secret for now?

  ‘If that’s okay with you.’

  When Millie re-joined them, her response to the soap-making invitation was an immediate ‘Yes’ – no indifferent shrug in sight. Jason was grateful for that rare flash of enthusiasm.

  When Claudia asked Millie for her mobile number, Jason said, ‘You’d better have mine, too. Just in case.’

  On the drive home, he worried that Claudia might have taken that the wrong way. He’d only intended it as a safety net – for all he knew, soap-making could be a dangerous process and Millie might get hurt and Claudia would need to get hold of him, wouldn’t she?

  But it also meant their communications were no longer dictated by chance or engineered by him choosing to drop in at Healing Waves.

  Jason wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

  Claudia enjoyed her Wednesday off – the first proper one since the storm. A walk along the coastal path, a scramble down a hidden path to a secluded cove, a read of her book, a doze on the sand under a sunny, cloudless May sky… Bliss. If she could bottle this and sell it at Healing Waves, she’d be a millionaire and make a lot of people very happy.

  For now, she would settle for her own soul being happy. She’d weathered the storm, literally, and she was back in the game, ready for the summer season. She’d weathered the opening of Hester’s Cauldron, too, although she could only hope there was profit enough for them both in Porthsteren. And after their rocky start, she was getting on well with Jason Craig, while helping Millie settle.

  All in all, things were looking good… until she set foot in the General Store for a midweek tuna treat for Pudding.

  ‘Claudia. Good day off?’ Libby’s greeting was unusually curt.

  ‘Yes, thanks. Just had my usual fix of coastline. You know me.’

  ‘I thought I did.’ Libby’s lips pursed as she zapped the barcode on the tuna, but no further conversation was forthcoming – a highly unusual state of affairs.

  Claudia frowned. ‘Anything wrong?’

  ‘To be frank, Claudia, I’m surprised at you. I didn’t think you went in for gossip at the best of times, but certainly not that sort.’

  Claudia stared at her, bewildered. ‘What gossip?’

  ‘Bad-mouthing the new people. Not like you at all, I wouldn’t have said. I’d think you’d be pleased to see new businesses here in Porthsteren – that’s good for all of us. Hester’s Cauldron might not be your cup of tea, but it appeals to plenty of others, locals and tourists alike. I wouldn’t have thought you so quick to judge. I’m disappointed in you, if you want the truth.’

  Her mind still foggy after her relaxed day, Claudia struggled to make sense of Libby’s tirade. Gossip? Bad-mouthing? Her mind raced. Jason had asked her what she thought, but she was sure that if he’d said anything to anyone, it would have been to express his own strident opinion. Besides, who would he talk to about it? He was mostly either at work or with Millie. Then there was Tanya, Sarah and… Evelyn. Surely not? Evelyn lived and breathed gossip, but she’d never before passed on anything Claudia had asked her not to.

  ‘Libby, what do you mean? Who said what?’

  ‘How should I know? You know how things work around here. What I do know is that you called them frauds. That’s a strong word, Claudia. Raven told me you went in last weekend and didn’t seem keen. Now, don’t get me wrong, a lot of us don’t like that preferential rental deal they got, but we want them to succeed, just the same. You’ve said more than you should, I reckon.’ Libby softened and patted her hand. ‘You were a welcome change to Porthsteren, my lover, and we think the world of you. But you should extend the same courtesy to others, seems to me.’

  Claudia fought back a tear. Tears might suggest guilt, and what had been reported was one-sided at best. She should clear that up right now, with the one
person bound to pass it on.

  ‘It’s odd how the negative things flow fastest through the grapevine, isn’t it?’ she said firmly. ‘I expressed private views to close friends in private conversations. I also expressed many positive sentiments – that new business is good for Porthsteren, as you say, and that they’re as entitled to be here as any of us. That the shop looks impressive; that the women have a talent for design.’ She paused for effect, picking up the tuna and slipping it into her bag. ‘Perhaps you wouldn’t mind passing that along.’

  Don’t make an enemy of Libby, Claudia. That wouldn’t be wise.

  She managed a tight smile. ‘I know you like to be fair with everyone, Libby, after all.’

  Claudia’s walk home along the beach road felt like it took an age, until she was safe in her flat. Pudding was comically enthusiastic about his tuna and effusive in his gratitude, but Claudia could only manage to force down a slice of toast – a meal was beyond her. Miserable, she curled up on the sofa with a large mug of soothing tea at her side and her feline friend on her lap, willing his rhythmic purr to calm her, but this time, it failed miserably.

  Even a phone call with Tanya couldn’t soothe her. Tanya said all the right things – it was a private conversation; Claudia wasn’t known as a gossip; it would soon blow over and, if it didn’t, she had a right to her opinion (a valid one, in Tanya’s view).

  But Claudia did not sleep well that night.

  The way Claudia was currently feeling about conversations on the terrace meant she didn’t fancy her usual morning coffee with Sarah and Evelyn. But since it was drizzling and they would be inside, she took it as an opportunity to get to the bottom of things, much as she dreaded doing it.

  ‘Peppermint tea? Not coffee? What’s up?’ Sarah asked her as they settled in a corner of the empty bookstore.

  ‘I had a conversation with Libby last night. Word appears to have got around.’

  ‘What about?’ Evelyn asked, her tone cautious.

  ‘What I think of Hester’s Cauldron.’

  Evelyn’s shoulders sagged. ‘And you think it was me.’