A Match Made in Devon

by Cathy Bramley

  Sapphire chewed her lip and then nodded. ‘Of course. Of course it is; I’m being ridiculous. And Danny, that would be really kind of you, if you wouldn’t mind.’

  Danny bowed deeply. ‘No problemo. Okay, come on, ladies, let’s have you over the rocks. Blondes at the front.’

  ‘Why’s that?’ Virginia asked, tucking her short dark hair behind her ears.

  Danny smiled sympathetically. ‘Gentlemen prefer blondes.’

  Virginia’s mouth dropped open and Ruby snorted. ‘You can’t say that.’

  ‘Hey,’ said Danny, holding his hands up, ‘I don’t make the rules.’

  ‘Agreed. Because you’re talking rubbish.’ Theo had sweetly been Googling the ingredients for sex on the beach cocktails and had concocted a pinky approximation of it in one of the ice buckets. He handed the girls a glass each, Virginia first. ‘I prefer brunettes.’

  ‘Like Nina?’ said Catherine innocently.

  He blushed. ‘And my wife.’

  ‘I’m naturally much lighter,’ I put in, slightly perturbed by Theo’s reply. My hair, which Trudy had dyed black as part of my disguise a few weeks ago, had faded to dark brown, but normally it was the colour of caramel. So not Theo’s type.

  Ruby peered at me. ‘You should go lighter again. It would suit your eye colour.’ She squinted. ‘What is your eye colour? Blue, green, grey?’

  I opened my mouth to answer that my eyes were all those colours, but Sapphire jumped in first.

  ‘You look lovely as you are, Nina. And thanks for sorting the privacy thing.’ She handed me Danny’s camera. ‘I’d better go and join in.’

  ‘What are you doing tomorrow?’ I heard Danny say to Ruby, draping his arm around her shoulders as they made their way to the rocks. ‘Because there’s a two-for-one offer on mussels at The Sea Urchin …’

  To give Danny his due, he very patiently took pictures with everyone’s phone and camera over the course of the next hour without a murmur. I did notice a bit of cleavage zooming at one point when Ruby asked him to take one of her leaning over the fire roasting a marshmallow but I got the impression that she enjoyed it.

  And they all listened intently when he showed them how to edit pictures straight from their phones.

  ‘People never make enough use of the filters on their phone cameras,’ he explained earnestly, sweeping his blond hair from his face. ‘They’re only simple but they can elevate a picture to something special.’

  The women all cooed. There was a certain appeal to him when he dropped the ‘sex god’ act. Even Sapphire was won over.

  ‘Danny’s cute,’ said Ruby, flicking her hair over her shoulder.

  ‘He’s single, if you’re interested,’ I said with a grin. ‘We have a good record of matchmaking at Driftwood Lodge.’

  She appeared to consider it. ‘He did say I’d definitely make it as a model.’

  ‘He’s entertaining, that’s for sure,’ Sapphire agreed thoughtfully, turning to me. ‘And it would be lovely to have some good photographs to remember the hen weekend by. Do you think he’d be free tomorrow, if I offered to pay him?’

  Danny’s ears pricked up and he was at Sapphire’s side instantly. ‘I’d have to shuffle a few things around,’ he said, sucking in air.

  I hid a smile. Like his shift at the photographic shop.

  ‘But I think I could squeeze you in.’ He dropped his sunglasses down over his eyes and waggled them. ‘If the price is right.’

  ‘Complete privacy, though, Danny,’ said Sapphire, holding his gaze. ‘And you’ll have to use one of our cameras.’

  She named a figure that made his eyes light up and they made their arrangements to meet tomorrow. The party began to break up soon after that and Theo persuaded Danny to help us load the tables and deckchairs into his van.

  It was only when I was stashing the cool boxes into the back that I glanced up and read the sign on the lifeboat house. It was from an auctioneer’s inviting interested parties to contact them and collect particulars immediately.

  That was sad. Obviously the place was disused but the building itself was lovely and must have been brimming with history. The thought of it being developed or knocked down to make way for something modern was awful. I thought of Jude and his anger when he’d seen the man with the ladder. That must have been when the sign was being erected.

  ‘Danny,’ I said, ‘why is Jude so upset about the boathouse being for sale?’

  ‘Not sure, but he’s a social worker and does a lot of work with the community.’ He leaned on the door of the van and shook his head. ‘He’s never happier than when he’s fighting for some cause or other. This will be his latest thing. He thinks we should keep Brightside Cove as it is. Stuck in the Dark Ages. But you can’t, can you?’ He shrugged. ‘Because if you don’t move forwards you end up going backwards. And this place is backwards enough, if you ask me.’

  ‘Jethro likes it just as it is,’ I said.

  Danny smirked. ‘I rest my case.’

  He had a point.

  When I finally climbed into bed in the spare room at midnight my skin was tingling from being exposed to the sun, salt and sand for so long today and my muscles were aching from the mermaid photo shoot earlier. What a crazy perfect day. I had never been as ready for sleep in my life and I hoped I’d manage to wake up in time to cook and serve breakfast for nine o’clock.

  I stared through the open curtains, my eyes hypnotized by the glow of the moon, and found myself drifting into a delicious sleep—

  DELICIOUSLY DEVON!

  The thought propelled me from my pillow as realization dawned. I hadn’t booked the caterers for tomorrow night’s dinner. I picked up my watch and stared at it. It was too late to ring now; I’d just have to call them in the morning and hope for the best …

  Chapter 19

  I made my morning cup of tea, sifted through the detritus on the kitchen table to find the scrap of paper that Molly had given me and took it to the telephone in the hall.

  ‘Hello?’ The voice that answered the phone was so croaky that I wouldn’t have liked to guess whether it was male or female. ‘Who’s this?’

  I winced. Okay, so maybe eight o’clock on a Saturday morning was a little too early to be phoning the caterers … But I’d woken whoever it was now, I might as well carry on.

  ‘Could I speak to Angie, please?’

  ‘No, she’s …’ There was a cough and a husky male voice continued. ‘Excuse me. Angie’s not here. Can I help? I’m her, er, partner. In business. A business partner.’

  A sleeping partner, by the sound of it …

  ‘I’d like to book you to cater for a dinner party,’ I said, keeping my fingers crossed for luck. ‘Eleven people.’

  ‘Hold on I’ll get the diary.’

  ‘Wait—’

  There was no need for the diary, I was about to say. But there was a creaky noise, which sounded a bit like someone getting out of bed and then bouncing back in again.

  ‘So when for? Our next available dinner party slot is—’

  ‘Tonight,’ I blurted out.

  ‘You have got to be joking?’ the man spluttered. ‘I was going to say July.’

  ‘I’m not joking,’ I said. ‘And I apologize for the last-minute-ness. But on the plus side, I have a very large budget.’

  ‘Hmmm.’

  I’d hoped money might talk, but there was a very long silence on the other end of the line.

  ‘Look, you’re the only catering company in the area, and I have eleven women, several of whom are household names, expecting dinner. You might even get a mention on TV. Imagine what that would do for your business.’

  ‘I’d get even more calls at stupid o’clock asking me to work miracles?’ replied the man drily. ‘Excuse me for not falling over myself with gratitude.’

  I stared at the phone incredulously. It was no wonder tourism had never taken off in Brightside Cove with this sort of attitude.

  ‘So you’re turning down my booking?’
<
br />   The man sucked air in through his teeth. ‘I suppose I might be able to get hold of a seafood chef. He does a mean steamed lobster. Locally sourced. Expensive, but very exclusive.’

  ‘Big Dave’s already busy, if that was who you were thinking of.’

  ‘Ah.’ There was a pause. ‘Well, as I said, I’m only taking bookings from July so I can’t help you.’

  ‘You have to!’ My palms had begun to sweat. ‘I’ve promised the guests excellent food, if I don’t come up trumps, my friend’s business will quite likely fail and I’ll blame myself, because it’ll be my fault and they’ll all end up eating beans on toast and they have specifically said money no object. Please!’

  The thought of Sapphire et al.’s reaction to one of my home-cooked meals was enough to instil a fear in me worse than stage-fright.

  ‘Oh, for crying out loud,’ he muttered. ‘Hold on, I’ll just flick through some menus, see if I can find something suitable.’

  I heard a drawer open, some papers being rustled and a kettle being switched on. Meanwhile, I waited patiently, sipping my tea. The caterers probably had a folder of set menus and there was more than likely a freezer full of suitable food waiting to be thawed out and served. This man had probably just been hoping for a night off. Some business partner he was. In the background a dog barked excitedly and I heard a door opening and closing and then he was back on the line.

  ‘Okay, I’ve checked our available ingredients and things and I reckon we can do you a south-east Asian banquet. Six or seven different mains, three choices of rice and a few other odds and sods, I mean side-dishes. That do you?’

  I almost choked on my tea. ‘That sounds fantastic. Thank you so much! Eight o’clock all right? It’s Driftwood Lodge, Brightside Cove.’

  ‘Fine,’ he said, yawning. ‘Cash on delivery, mind you, I’ll work out the price and let you know. Now, I’d better go and …’ I heard the bed creaking again, ‘… start boiling the lemongrass or something. Goodbye.’

  It was on the tip of my tongue to question the boiling of lemongrass but a glance at the time reminded me that I had an immense amount of work to do before the hen party emerged from their cottages – and my bake-at-home croissants weren’t going to bake themselves.

  By late afternoon the day was going swimmingly and Theo and I were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves. Or at least I was. Theo seemed to be going through the motions a little bit and had made one or two uncharacteristically snide comments about Kate, and I made a mental note to quiz him as soon as we had a moment to ourselves. Whenever that might be …

  We’d served the girls breakfast in their own cottages while Molly converted the living room in Driftwood Lodge into an oasis of peace and tranquillity. Piles of fluffy white towels, candles scented with cedarwood and chamomile and the ‘Sounds of Mother Nature’ playlist she’d compiled when she was pregnant with Ellis created the perfect ambiance for our morning of Brightside Beauty. And then while Theo set about making all the beds, and preparing the kitchen for Big Dave, Eliza, Molly and I had buffed, smoothed and polished eleven faces and twenty-two feet with a variety of homemade salt-and-sand treatments. The morning had finished with Indian head massages and Molly had succeeded in sending every one of our hens into a peaceful sleep with her magic fingers.

  Lunch had looked and smelled amazing. Big Dave had wowed everyone with his crab salad and he’d even brought a dessert of warm cider apple cake and creamy custard. Goodness knows how much booze was in it, but after a second slice, the hitherto sensible Virginia suggested they head off to the beach for a spot of skinny dipping. Dave, unsurprisingly, was all for it, but Eliza distracted them by bringing in the mermaid outfits, at which point the squeals from eleven women got so loud that the men offered to wash up just to escape the noise.

  We’d all collapsed over tea and sandwiches in the kitchen for half an hour while the hens dashed off to make themselves mermaid-body ready. And at three, Eliza led the girls off to the rocks where Danny was due to meet them to do their photo shoot while Theo took the mermaid tails down the slipway in his van to save them having to be carried. I waved them off and went inside to make a start on afternoon tea.

  The answerphone was flashing in the hall and I scooped up Mittens and gave him a cuddle while I played the message.

  This is Nigel Rees from Coastal Cottages. Check out our website because your page is LIVE! Get ready for your phone to ring and your inbox to sing. Brightside Holidays, here we come!

  I’d tell Theo as soon as he got back. That would cheer him up and perhaps give him a positive reason to get in touch with Kate; I was sure she’d be thrilled to see her cottages looking lovely on her favourite website. I gave Mittens a celebratory kiss and skipped into the kitchen to whip up some scones …

  Afternoon tea was ready to serve. Light, fluffy and golden scones, dishes of bright red jam studded with strawberries and bowls of unctuous clotted cream. I carried the tray across to Penguin’s Pad where the girls had asked for their tea to be served and tapped on the door with my foot.

  Ruby opened the door, frowning at her phone. ‘What’s the code to the WiFi again?’

  ‘Elvis lives,’ I replied. ‘All one word, all lowercase.’

  ‘Sapphire did ask us not to post anything online …’ Catherine jumped to her feet to help clear a space on the coffee table.

  Ruby rolled her eyes. ‘Because of course we all know the world revolves around Sapphire.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Catherine firmly. ‘This weekend, it does.’

  She gave me a look of exasperation as I settled the tray down carefully. Aside from the three of us, only the two cousins were in the room and they were sharing headphones and listening to music in a world of their own.

  ‘Where is Sapphire?’ I said to Catherine. ‘And all the others?’

  ‘Everyone is fast asleep,’ she said anxiously.

  ‘Oh, how lovely! It’s the sea air and the massage, it knocks you out.’

  ‘It’s the itinerary I’m worried about. If they don’t wake up soon it’ll be shot to pieces.’

  ‘Oh no! Imagine that,’ said Ruby in mock horror. ‘Cool your jets, sister, this is supposed to be a fun weekend not an army exercise.’

  She took a scone and dipped it straight in the cream. Not that I was a purist about these things, I didn’t mind which went on first: the jam or the cream. But even I drew the line at dunking.

  ‘Jam?’ I said, offering her a plate and a knife.

  ‘I get jittery if we go off piste, as it were.’ Catherine sighed and pressed a hand to her forehead.

  The poor thing; she was the only one who hadn’t managed to relax properly yet. I handed her a cup of tea and forced her to sit down.

  ‘So what have you got planned for the rest of the day?’ I asked.

  Catherine consulted her piece of paper.

  ‘Afternoon tea at five. Right on time, thank you.’ She flashed me a grateful smile. ‘Brisk clifftop walk at five thirty, back here for six fifteen.’

  ‘Room inspection at six thirty,’ said Ruby with a snigger, smearing jam on the top of her scone.

  Catherine tilted her chin up and ignored her. ‘Then we’ll open bottle of champagne number seventeen and start getting ready for dinner at …?’

  ‘Eight,’ I supplied. ‘A south-east Asian banquet.’

  Catherine’s eyes lit up.

  ‘Sapphire adores Asian cuisine. Also,’ she pressed her finger to her lips, ‘don’t let on but I’ve organized some special entertainment for later.’

  ‘I won’t say a word,’ I promised.

  ‘Hey, everyone. A word about what?’

  We all turned to see Sapphire padding down the stairs clutching her phone. Her soft blonde hair shimmered and there was a rosy glow to her cheeks from sleep.

  ‘Hey,’ said the cousins in unison, tugging their earphones out.

  Catherine shook her head frantically at me.

  ‘About the calories in this cream,’ I said smoothly, pointing to the t
ea tray. ‘Besides, you’ve burned it off on the beach earlier, I’m sure.’

  ‘Correct answer,’ she said, yawning delicately. ‘By the way, do thank Eliza again. That mermaid photo shoot was the most fun I’ve had in years. And Danny was such a sweetheart.’

  ‘He said I had real talent,’ said Ruby, her blue eyes glinting. ‘Out of all the group, he said I was the most photogenic.’

  ‘You certainly posed for the most pictures,’ said Catherine pointedly.

  Ruby made faces behind Catherine’s back and the cousins giggled at her antics until Sapphire’s phone made a tinkling bell sound.

  ‘Ignore it,’ said Catherine with a groan.

  ‘I can’t; that’s the sound of an email from a VIP,’ Sapphire said, flopping down next to her friend. ‘I’d better just read it; it’s from the editor of My Dream Day magazine. I hope there’s not a problem.’

  ‘Let’s have some music,’ said Ruby, jumping to her feet. She plugged her phone into a wireless speaker and started dancing to some rap music. The cousins quickly joined in.

  I walked to the door. ‘I’ll leave you to enjoy your tea. Shall I knock on the other doors to let them—’

  ‘Oh no!’ Sapphire gasped, staring at her phone. ‘Apparently there’s a picture of us all dressed as mermaids on Facebook. Yet another leak! And My Dream Day says because I’ve breached my exclusivity agreement, they’ll no longer pay to feature our wedding.’

  My first thought was that thank goodness they’d already paid Theo for the booking. My second was, who posted the photo?

  ‘But how can anyone have got hold of the picture?’ I said, raising my voice over the music. Ruby was demonstrating to the others how to go low, low, low and gyrate their hips at the same time. ‘Was there anyone else on the beach when you were in your mermaid tails?’

  ‘A couple of old dears on the far side, but other than that, just us.’ Catherine rushed to her side. ‘Let me see.’

  Sapphire handed her the phone and dropped her head in her hands. ‘I knew we shouldn’t have trusted Danny. Photographers are all the same. Can’t resist an opportunity to sell a picture. And wasn’t he the one who revealed your whereabouts on Facebook when you were in hiding?’