The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (159) Horseplay

 

On Tuesday morning as there was a temporary window of calm in the weather, Natasha Baker saddled her horse to try and expunge her frustration, and that frustration was twofold.

Firstly the snow had kept her confined indoors for five days and secondly her three failed attempts to use her womanly wiles on Oliver Kingham.

 

Warren Bramble was also out and about that morning, but he had spent a very busy weekend going from farm to farm, if a beast was ill, they couldn’t wait for good weather to be treated.

That Tuesday morning he had been to Beacon farm tending to an ewe and drove towards Spaniards Creek with the intention of visiting Terrell’s Acre’s where he had treated several goats in November, and he thought he might pop in to see how they were doing.

  

Terrell’s Acre’s was a Small Holding on the outskirts of Spaniards Creek which had been in the Terrell family for a hundred years and was now owned by 32-year-old Sarah Terrell and her widowed younger sister Ava Adderley.

They were perfect partners in the business, Sarah was the energetic dynamo always on the move and never pausing on her purposeful pursuits, whereas Ava was the quiet studious one who kept the business on an even keel and the books balanced.

 

As good as he was as a Vet Warren wasn’t actually concerned for the goat’s welfare, he just wanted to see Sarah Terrell again, he had only met her once and he lost his heart to her, so concern for the goats seemed to be his chance of seeing her again. 

It was just at that minute he got out of his car that he spotted Sarah Terrell with her unmistakable gawky gangling gait and her shock of red hair heading off in the opposite direction, so he set off in pursuit and saw her stride off along the tow path and was struggling to keep up, but then he caught sight of her crossing the footbridge.

He lost sight of her for a few minutes and when he was across the bridge he didn’t know if she’d gone left or right, so he took a gamble and went left, just as a girl on horseback rode by, it was Agnes Starr, riding one of his patients.

While he watched her trot out of sight, he lost track of his quarry so decided to retrace his tracks back to his car, he would just try again another day.

 

Agnes Starr she was the only child of a wealthy couple who were always off globetrotting, but Agnes had no interest in that lifestyle.

She did meet up with them for special occasions, but for the most part she stayed on the island, and although she had no need to work, she looked after her Cousin Oliver Kingham’s horses which where stabled at his yard adjacent to Kingham’s Saddle and Tack, which was also where she kept her own horse.

Agnes was a pretty lass and looked such a tiny little thing sat astride her great chestnut colt, the additional height gave the appearance that she was looking down her nose at the peasantry, and because she was socially awkward, she never spoke to anyone except to respond to hellos or good mornings, so those who didn’t know her might of thought she was a stuck-up little rich bitch, but nothing could have been farther from the truth, she was a lovely sweet natured girl, with an A* little figure.

 

Agnes often rode out alone, but that morning she had left the yard with her cousin Oliver, but they separated after he caught sight of another rider, and that rider was Natasha Baker.

 

Oliver spotted Natasha and he knew it was her even though she was some distance away, so he took a different path from Agatha and set off on the track through the woods in the hope of getting ahead of her, but they were much thicker than he was expecting, and the branches got lower and lower so much so that he had to dismount.

He led the horse though the trees and emerged on the edge of a small clearing and there was someone in the clearing, it was Natasha and her horse which was tied to a tree by the reins, and she appeared to be grooming the beast.

He tied up his own horse and moved a little closer and as he crossed the clearing to close the distance between them, he said

“Is everything ok?”

He got no response and even though he was on her blind side he wasn’t walking very stealthily but it was only when he was about five or six paces from her that she suddenly became aware of his presence.

“You made me jump” she gasped and looked very flustered indeed when she saw him and by an unexpected liaison in the woods with the object of her affections.

“Sorry I did call out” he said, and she nodded knowingly in response and removed her ear buds.

“Is everything ok?” he asked.

“She’s gone lame” Natasha replied, “I think it’s her fetlock so I’m going to have to walk her back to the farm.”

“I’ll walk with you if you like.”

“Oh er yes” she said “That would be nice”

Of course she was more than happy to spend some time with him but inside she cursed the circumstances.

 

“It was a bit of luck running into you” Oliver said

“Oh?”

“Yes, Matt and Jac said you were looking for me last week”

“It was nothing important” she lied

“Well, it must have been important last week” he persisted, and she snapped crossly

“Yes, well last week I wasn’t dressed like this, and I wasn’t wet, windblown and spattered with mud”

“Well I think you always look lovely” he said before she could speak again and then when he saw her reaction he mustered all his courage and leant in and kissed her.

“I’m sorry if that was presumptuous” he said when the kiss ended but when she locked onto him again, he took it as a sign that his attentions were not unwelcome. 

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (158) Hanging the Greens

 

On Monday Conrad’s right knee still couldn’t bear his weight very well, it was the knee he had surgery on the previous year, and he thought it wise not to overdo it over the next few days, so he kept up with the painkillers and deep heat, and rested it as the weather wasn’t going to break until the end of the week, so they wouldn’t be leaving port until after the following weekend.

 

In Spaniards Creek, Danny Nightingale emailed the final chapters to his publisher Max Parsons so that meant that he and Molly could put all their efforts into enjoying Christmas to their fullest, and they intended to do just that.

 

Kingham’s Saddle and Tack makers, on Roman Road, were late putting up their Christmas decorations because of the weather but on Monday lunchtime Sarah Terrell delivered their Door Wreathes, Holly Boughs and Sprigs of Mistletoe to them.

Oliver Kingham had no problem finding willing hands to put the decorations up in the shape of Jacqueline Craig and Matt Stearnes who were apprentice saddle makers.

Jacqueline was the older of the two at 25 and was in the last few months of her apprenticeship while Matt was three years behind her in both.

Chestnut haired Jac was a diminutive figure at five foot four and she had carried a torch for Matt for three years and had waited patiently for him to make his move, and she was tired of waiting so she snaffled some mistletoe and slipped it into her pocket.

 

It only took the afternoon to get the decorations up, and when they just had the mistletoe left to do, the postman, Danilo Franzo, walked in and because he was a shy young man, Jac thought she’d have some fun with him before he left.

“Hey Danilo, you’re taller than us, can you hang this mistletoe over the door?” Jac asked

“Ok” he replied and reached up above the door, at which point Jac  stood on tiptoe and kissed him on the cheek beneath the mistletoe, just a peck.

Danilo immediately turned beetroot red, dropped the mistletoe and rushed out the door without looking back.

Jac and Matt both fell about laughing at his reaction and then Matt stooped down to pick up the discarded sprig and when he stood up again Jac was holding another sprig of mistletoe above her head with her eyes closed and her lips puckered, so he kissed her, but unlike with Danilo it wasn’t just a peck, in fact it wasn’t a Christmas kiss, it wasn’t just a kiss, it was “the” kiss, a kiss to remember, a first of many kiss, a kiss full of love.

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (157) First Sunday of Advent

 

 

Cheryl Mackender’s first undertaking as the temporary Vicar of St Joan of Arc came the day after Reverend Mathew Lines accident and that was Advent, so she had to hit the ground running.

 

The First Sunday of Advent or Advent Sunday, also called First Advent Sunday, among the Western Christian Churches, is the first day of the liturgical year and the start of the season of Advent.

On the First Sunday of Advent, Christians start lighting their Advent wreaths, and the Church light the first Advent Candle in the worship service.

Although it was always marked within the Christian family the three main Churches all did things slightly differently.

St Pierre gave particular importance on praying their Advent daily devotionals; whereas St Clara’s focused on decorating the church and St Joan of Arc practised a custom that is done liturgically through a hanging of the green’s ceremony.

 

Cheryl was understandably feeling the pressure because it was the first occasion that she was “on her own” without the Vicar to back her up, and the eyes of the parish were on her.

Fortunately the power had been restored on Saturday Evening, so they were able to run the heating on full all night to make the church a more hospitable place.

 

Apart from God she was able to take strength from two other things, Verger Lee Barnaby, and a letter she had received from the Vicar, hand delivered to her by Nurse and parishioner Elke Offord, expressing his belief in her.

She also had an encouraging text from Reverend Archer of St Clara’s, so she was emboldened as she greeted the faithful.

 

Conrad slept late and missed Church, but he received a text inviting him out for lunch on Sunday, but he was feeling a little under the weather so decided to spend the day in bed, alone with his thoughts, so declined the invitation for lunch at the pub and stayed home.

When he did get up his right knee wouldn’t bear his weight, so he took some pills applied some deep heat and went back to bed.

 

Cheryl’s debut as Vicar of St Joan of Arc was a great success and she was greatly relieved, and quietly celebrated her triumph with a glass of Pinot in the vestry with the verger.

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (156) Darling Doctor

 

He was sat beneath the duvet, with a steaming mug of coffee beside him as he amused himself on his tablet, using one of his many power banks to keep it charged.

As he was often out and about on the island, and he was quite paranoid about any of his devices running out of power.

That paranoia was paying dividends during the power cut. 

 

Deborah messaged him just after 10 o’clock to say she was on her way home after an 18-hour shift.

One of the patients needed a medevac to the mainland so they took the opportunity to fly the stranded medics to the island at the same time.

When she returned home and entered the lounge, she saw him sitting on the sofa under a duvet in the semi darkness and said

“So the power is off here too then”

“I’m afraid so” he replied

“Damn, I was really looking forward to a hot shower before bed”

“Well would a hot drink and something to eat help?” he said

“No thanks as I can't have a shower, I think I'll go straight to bed” she said forlornly

“I can offer you a hot bath” he said

“Really?”

“Oh yes”

“You darling man” she responded

“But how?”

“I used the back boiler behind the fireplace” Stuart replied

“Genius” Deborah said

“I would never have thought of that”

“I’ll run a bath then ma’am” Stuart said

“And I'll take my tea with me Cameron” she said in an affected voice

“Yes ma’am” he said, tugging his forelock “I’ll make it immediately ma’am”

 

Half an hour later Deborah emerged from the bathroom, after her long relaxing bath, dressed in her bed clothes.

“I've done you a hot water bottle,” said Stuart

“You darling man” she responded as she approached him

“But I can think of something better than that which will keep us both warm”

Then Deborah kissed him slowly and deliberately and then she led him by the hand into her room and closed the door.

 

Molly was very pleased to see snow on the island again, but she was not so pleased that the Christmas lights weren’t working because of the island wide power cut and made a note to herself to investigate having emergency generators installed in the village.

 

When Deborah woke up on Saturday evening, she didn't give a second thought to the weather and she didn’t care a jot about the power cuts, all she cared about was enjoying the fact that she had finally got her man, and all being well she would be off for the best part of four days, followed by four day shifts and another four off days which by her calculation meant she had eleven nights of sharing a bed with Stuart, before he would be sleeping alone again.

 

While Deborah and Stuart were smugly laying in the afterglow, life was going on elsewhere on the island, but not always in the same satisfactory manner as in Manor Road.

A good case in point was the Vicar of St Joan of Arc St Pierre,  Matthew Lines, who slipped on the wintry pavement and broke his hip, which left his young Curate, Cheryl Mackender, on the spot the day before the business period in the St Joan of Arc’s calendar, thankfully she had Lee Barnaby, the verger, to lean on for support which suited her down to the ground.

 

Reverend Lines wasn’t the only one to fall victim to the wintry conditions, 32-year-old Fisherman, Conrad Watts, also fell heavily, but was relatively unscathed so was more fortunate than the Vicar and had no broken bones, possibly because Conrad was younger and was perhaps saved by the fact, he was quite relaxed at the time having spent Saturday evening in the Sword and Shield. 

He and his crew had been letting off steam while the fishing fleet were confined to port by the bad weather.

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (155) Doctor in Waiting

 

On Thursday Morning Doctor Stuart Cameron was just slipping his coat on in preparation of leaving for work, Deborah was still in her dressing gown as she wasn’t going in until seven that evening as she was working the night shift.

“Hold on” she said and pinned a badge on his lapel before taking a step back

“That’s better”

As it was St Andrew’s Day and Stuart was a Scot she had ordered the badge for him.

It was a shield bearing the Saltire, with a Tam o' Shanter on one corner, St Andrew’s Day emblazoned across the middle with November 30^th underneath.

“Thank you” he said and kissed her cheek

“You’re welcome” she replied

“I’ll see you tomorrow” he said and opened the door and shivered as he stepped outside and as he started the engine light snow began to fall.

 

At roughly the same time up at High Cliff Molly and Danny had started going through the Christmas Decorations and they got George to help put up the outdoor decorations, because Danny didn’t have a head for heights, hanging the garlands was as much height as he could manage even then he let Molly stand on the steps and he handed her the decorations.

 

December

 

On Friday morning when Deborah Woodward returned to Manor Row at the end of her nightshift, it was snowing, and Stuart was just leaving the house to start his day, and they met on the path.

“Go steady Stuart, the roads are treacherous”

“I will” he said, “Are you on again tonight?”

“I’m afraid so” Deborah replied

“Ok I probably won’t see you until the morning then” Stuart said

“Bye”

The snow was falling steadily as she watched Stuart drive away and she shivered, then she opened the door and went inside because her bed was calling to her.

 

She wasn’t due back at the Bellevue until 7 o’clock in the evening, after a much-needed sleep, a hot shower and something hot to eat.

However that didn’t come to pass as she was woken just after 3pm by a call from the Hospital, asking her to come in early as some of the staff were stranded on the mainland.

So she got up and had a quick shower, a slice of toast and after looking out and seeing how much worse the snow had got, togged herself up for the walk to the hospital.

 

The wind had freshened and the heavy snowfall of earlier had abated slightly but with the strong wind it had soon turned into a blizzard when Stuart got home just after six o’clock.

Once he was inside, he was surprised to find the house empty, he was hoping to share half an hour with the jovial Doctor, with her infectious laugh, pretty smile, and of course the divine smell of the freshly showered, perfumed and powdered doctor.

When he went into the kitchen, he found a note on the table

“Called in early, see you tomorrow x”

 

He was about halfway through one of his favourite movies, “The Shape of Water”,  when around 10 o'clock the lights went out. 

“Oh bugger” he exclaimed

He got up and walked over to the window and pushed the curtain to one side and he could see that all the other houses in Manor Row were in darkness.

He knew it must be a power outage, though he didn't know why or how extensive it was, he certainly wasn’t going outside to investigate.

If he had ventured out, he would have discovered that the blackout covered the whole of Beaumont Island due to a problem on the mainland resulting from a fallen tree.

He was planning on having an early night as he wanted to be up and dressed for when Deborah got home, so after laying a fire in the grate he went off to bed.

 

The next morning he was up at five thirty, and the power was still off, however the weather had calmed down, but there were still light snow showers, so the first thing he did was to light the fire in the grate.

There was no mains gas on the island, so properties had either oil fired, LPG or electric boilers, in Manor Row they were all electric, which meant the only means of heating water in the house when the power was out was by using the open fire and the back boiler, but that didn't feed the radiators, so he kept all the curtains drawn and the doors closed to retain as much heat as possible and dressed warmly and planned a duvet day on the sofa.

Making hot drinks was problematic, without the electric cooker and the kettle so he had to boil water in a camping kettle over the open fire.

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (154) Sharpington Sojourn

 

On Monday morning Danny and Molly drove to St Pierre and caught the early ferry to Pipershaven and then they drove to Sharpington.

The autumn storms were battering the seafront, so they checked into the Seaview Hotel and didn’t venture out again for the rest of the day and had an indulgent and boozy dinner in the restaurant.

 

The next morning, after their night of overindulgence, they slept late though Danny was up first and showered while Molly was still sleeping.

As he showered, he reflected on how lucky he was to have her in his life, and how he loved her so much.

He got out of the shower and hastily dried himself and was just about to open the bathroom door and tell her how much he loved her when the door burst open, and Molly rushed in

“Morning Darling” she said and kissed him

“Hi Babe” he replied and then she bustled him out of the door and closed it behind him, and he smiled, then he finished drying himself off and with the towel wrapped around his waist, he sat on the bed.

 

When she finally appeared pink and pristine from the bathroom wrapped in towels she said

“Morning Darling” and kissed him and then she kissed him some more, and it was clear that she had a particular kind of good morning in mind.

She had been a virgin when they first got together, but that had been the previous year, and there was nothing innocent about the way she engaged in extracting every ounce of pleasure from him during the course of her lust-fuelled morning assault on him.

 

Afterwards he dozed off, and when he awoke again, he found Molly sitting in bed next to him drinking the last dregs of a cup of coffee,

“Ahh” she exclaimed “You can’t beat a nice cup of coffee to start the day”

 

Having worked up an appetite, they headed down for breakfast once they were up and dressed.

The previous days storm had blown through and had been replaced with a much calmer day, though it was grey and drizzly as they walked along the promenade to the parade of shops and next to Doily’s Bookshop was Emmaline’s Christmas Emporium.

“Wow!” Molly exclaimed as they walked through the doors, and her eyes were like saucers. “I love this place”

The last time they were there Molly was like a child in a sweetshop at the end of rationing, not knowing where to look first, and Danny had to rein her in a number of times otherwise she would have bought the whole shop.

This time was a much less frenzied visit as they didn’t need as much as they did the year before, so they were much more selective, but they were still in the store for over two hours.

When they left the shop, the earlier drizzle had dissipated, but  the temperature had dropped significantly and by the time they got back to the Hotel there was a hint of sleet in the air.

 

The next morning when they drove along the seafront, the skies were leaden grey, and before they’d got halfway to Pipershaven the first flurries of snow danced in the freshening breeze, and nothing changed all the way back to the island. 

 

Back on the island Natasha Baker drove over to Kingham’s again on the same pretext of checking on the status of the saddle she’d dropped off, but her fabricated ploy was no more successful this time than it had been before as Jacqueline told her that Oliver wasn’t in as he’d gone to the St Pierre.

“Oh buggeration” she muttered as she got back in the Landrover.

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (040) Sunday

 

Since the Archers had arrived at Beacon Farm Nikki and Sam hadn’t had a moment on their own together and Sunday was their last opportunity, so she had to take her chance.

It was after they had returned from church and Sam Archer was sitting astride a quadbike in the farmyard when he saw Nikki approaching, with her coat collar up and the brim of her hat pulled down, and he smiled because she looked quite furtive, and that was funnier because it was unlikely that anyone would see anything, but a shape given how foggy it was.

When she reached him, she climbed aboard, in front of him and started the bike, but before they set off, she turned and kissed him, and the moment their lips met she wanted more, and she could tell from his response that he wanted more too.

 

The problem was where, she hadn’t thought that far ahead, she didn’t want to drive too far in case her newfound courage deserted her, and her ardour cooled.

She decided on the Old Radar Station Ruins up on Spaniards Point, it was a relatively straight run up the track and they afforded them some shelter from the elements.

 

They parked the bike and walked to the ruins where without warning Sam took her in his arms and kissed her, in a prolonged and breathtaking embrace, and when he finally disengaged his mouth from Her’s he kissed her forehead and said, “I’ve been wanting to do that since the first moment I saw you on Thursday.”

“Me too” She responded, and they kissed again.

This time when the kiss ended, he said “Now can we go somewhere where we can get warm.”

“Oh yes please” she said and laughed.

She let him drive back to the farm and she sat on the back with her arms around his middle, and a broad smile on her face, there was more kissing during the course of the day in the warmth of the farmhouse, they just wanted their first kiss to be more private and intimate, so the cold and damp was a small price to pay.

 

Shortly after Nikki and Sam set off on the quadbike Harry left the farmhouse on foot in the direction of Spaniards Creek to stretch his legs.       

It wasn’t the best weather for a trip round the village, the fog was even thicker down by the river, he was happy to be out though, and he was deep in thought, remembering the events of the previous day, but the cold and damp was getting into his bones, so he decided to stride out back to the farm.

He left the quayside and rushed headlong round a corner and met someone else coming the other way and they both ended up on their backsides.

“I’m so sorry” Harry said getting quickly to his feet and proffering a hand to the prostrate figure which they took and when they were upright, he realized it was the Vicar, Arielle Nicolas.

“Nonsense” she replied, “I wasn’t looking where I was going, my mind was elsewhere.”

“Mine too” He said, “are you ok? are you hurt?”

“Only my pride” she replied.

“I really am sorry Vicar” he fussed.

“I’m fine, and call me Arielle, I’m off duty” she said and laughed.

They metaphorically dusted themselves off and there was a brief moment of awkward silence.

In which he wanted to say something, but his shyness got in the way, but Arielle came to his rescue.

“You look perished.”

“Yes, I just came out to explore the village and misjudged how cold and damp it was.”

“I know, I’ve been visiting a parishioner and I’ve only been out in it for 5 minutes and I’m cold” she said, “Comeback to the Vicarage and I’ll warm you up.”

“Oh, dear that’s not what I meant” she said realizing it sounded like she was soliciting, and if it hadn’t been so foggy he would have seen her blushing violently,

“I should have said “I can offer you a coffee to warm you up.”

“Thank you, I would like that very much” Harry replied, but he would have been just as happy with her first offer but chastised himself and tried to banish the immoral thoughts of the Vicar from his mind.

They drank the promised coffee and then spent a cozy afternoon at the Vicarage chatting.

“You are from Sharpington then?” she asked.

“Yes, now” he replied. “But I was born and raised in Pepperstock Green.”

“I don’t know Pepperstock Green, but I love Sharpington, we spent many happy holidays there when I was a child” she said.

“Are you an islander?” He asked.

“No, I’m a foreigner, apparently” Arielle said, “I’m from Tipton.”

“But I love the island, I’ve walked every inch of it, you can’t help feeling close to God when you’re on the hills.”

“Yes, it is beautiful.” Harry agreed.

But he thought the small delicately featured Vicar was too, with her bobbed brown hair, even though she was approaching her 40th birthday, he didn’t think she looked it at all.

“And you do a lot of walking?” he asked.

“I do and I can fit it in easily between my parochial duties” she explained.

“But I have Monday’s off” she said, “and when the weather is nice, I take the taxi to St. Giles.”

“A Taxi?”

“Yes” she said with a giggle “the water taxi, depending on the weather, I either have a picnic lunch by Hastings Lake or if it's not so nice I go to the cafe and I bring the picnic home and have it for tea.”

“That sounds very pleasant” he mused.

“You could join me if you're not doing anything I could show you the island if you'd like.” She suggested.

“I would like that very much” he said, “very much indeed.”

“I’ll put together a picnic for two then” she said and smiled.

 

When Harry returned to the farm, he made a beeline for his brother and when he found him, he said.

“We need to stay on for an extra day.”

“And why exactly do we have to do that?”