Page 2 of A Cornish Winter's Kiss

‘I can put your case and mine in the luggage rack, and then come back and help you with one of the children, if you like?’ Emily smiled, but when she sensed a tiny bit of hesitation from the woman in front of her, she said the first thing that came into her head. ‘It’s okay, you can trust me. I’ve got a DBS check and I used to run a parent and toddler group at one of the libraries.’

Emily flushed bright red. Why the hell was she talking about DBS checks? It made her sound as if she was a dodgy character trying to cover something up. The woman held her gaze for a moment and then started to laugh, lifting the last of the tension from her face.

‘Well, how can I say no to that? Thank you so much. My name’s Bella, the baby is Max and this little madam’ – she gestured towards the toddler, who at that moment was attempting to chew her way through the straps of the buggy – ‘is Maple. She’s three but acts like she’s thirteen most of the time. I’ve never been bossed about so much in my life as I have since she learned to talk.’

‘Great to meet you all. I’m Emily. Shall I get the luggage loaded on the train? We’ve still got fifteen minutes until it’s due to leave, so there’s plenty of time to get settled.’

In the end it took less than ten minutes for them to all get onboard and settled. Bella’s little family were seated at a table on one side of the carriage, and Emily took a seat on the opposite side, not wanting to sit down with them and seem like the weirdo she’d painted herself to be, with her earnest assurances about DBS checks.

‘Thanks so much again, Emily, I don’t know what I’d have done without you.’ Bella let go of a long breath, the baby held against her chest as Maple sat in the seat next to her, busilycolouring. ‘If I wasn’t already married, I might have had to propose!’

Bella had a contagious laugh, and Emily couldn’t help joining in. If this had been the plot of one of the books she loved so much, Emily would have offered to help Bella when she got off the train, and her handsome, single brother would have been waiting to pick her and the children up. He and Bella would invite Emily to join them at their father’s birthday celebration, and it would be the start of her very own happily ever after. But this chance meeting with Bella and her family wasn’t going to be the moment that changed her life. It was just one of those moments that helped solidify what she already knew – that brightening someone else’s day invariably brightened hers too. When she eventually worked out what she wanted to do with her life, that was an aspect it needed to contain. She just had no idea how to make it happen yet.

Emily had always quite enjoyed train journeys, at least when she wasn’t wedged on to a packed carriage with no available seats, desperately trying to avoid nestling her face into someone else’s armpit. That was what came of being five feet one and a half; when you could still shop in the children’s department, that half an inch definitely counted. Thankfully, on this occasion, the train was relatively quiet and it wasn’t until they reached Salisbury that someone sat in one of the spare seats close to Emily. The woman who sat across the table from her was beautiful, in a way that could only be achieved by winning the genetic lottery. She was probably in her late fifties, or early sixties, although it was hard to tell, with thick, silver-grey haircut into an immaculate bob and blue eyes that sparkled when she greeted Emily.

‘Good morning, is anyone sitting here or is it okay if I take the seat?’

‘Please do.’ Emily returned her smile and held up the book she’d been reading. ‘This book is the only company I’ve got today.’

Emily regretted the words the moment they were out of her mouth. The woman seemed very nice, and Emily had a feeling she’d be an interesting person if they sparked up a conversation, but you could never tell. She’d given this stranger an open invitation to talk to her, and it would be almost impossible to cut her off even if she turned out to be an over-sharer with no sense of personal space, who wanted to spend the entire journey to Exeter discussing the problems she was having finding the right wormer for her cat. It might seem unlikely, but it was a conversation Emily had been caught in with a man called Graham, on the way back from her last visit home, which had lasted all the way from Exeter to Basingstoke.

‘Good book, is it?’ The woman raised her eyebrows as she took her seat, and Emily braced herself for a lecture about wasting her time reading stuff like that. She’d had that from strangers before too, and she deliberately kept her expression neutral, despite the fact that she was loving the book and could have waxed lyrical about it for the entire journey if she was given the chance.

‘It’s great, but I love everything by Sophia Wainwright.’

‘Really? Me too.’

‘She’s brilliant, isn’t she?’ Emily leant forward in her seat, instantly forgetting her fears about getting embroiled in a boring conversation, delighted to have found a fellow fan. ‘I buy every book she writes, as soon as it comes out, and my friend, who works in a bookshop, says she’s writing a series set in Cornwallnext. I’m so excited that my favourite author is going to be writing a series about my favourite place. I can’t wait.’

‘I should imagine Cornwall inspires lots of writers, so it’s probably no surprise that?—’

‘Mummy! I wanna story now please, please, please, please.’ Maple’s plea cut the woman’s response off, and Emily turned to see the little girl tugging at her mother’s sleeve, while Bella tried to give the baby a bottle.

‘Two more minutes and I’ll read it to you, sweetheart, okay? Max just needs to finish his bottle.’

‘But I want it now!’ Maple was clearly desperate for a story, and Emily understood that feeling only too well. She was considering offering to help out, but she didn’t want to interfere and make it seem in any way as if she thought Bella couldn’t handle the situation, because she was doing an admirable job of managing two children on her own. Then there was a development she couldn’t ignore.

‘Oh no, not now, Max, please.’ Bella’s words swiftly followed a sound emanating from Max that could only mean one thing. He’d filled his nappy in no small way.

‘Do you want me to sit with Maple and read her story to her while you go and change the baby’s nappy?’ This time when Emily made the offer, Bella didn’t hesitate. The help she’d given them to get on the train was clearly much stronger evidence of her trustworthiness than the mention of a DBS check.

‘Oh my God, yes please. Although are you sure you don’t want to do a swap?’ Bella grinned, holding Max out towards her for a moment, before wrinkling her nose. A smell like overcooked cabbage wafted up as she did. ‘This is going to be fun.’

‘Thanks for the offer, but I think I’ll stick to the reading.’ Emily stood up, returning her smile, and slid into a seat opposite Maple as Bella got up.

‘Right, darling, Emily is very kindly going to read you a story while Mummy goes and changes Max’s bottom.’

‘Max has done a poo poo, Max has done a poo poo.’ Maple sang the words and then turned towards Emily to give her an appraising stare. ‘Mummy does funny voices when she reads to me. Can you do funny voices?’

‘How about this one.’ Emily said the words in her best robot voice and Maple burst into peals of laughter even more infectious than her mother’s laugh.

‘Yes, yes! What else can you do?’

Emily slipped easily into a much heavier version of the Cornish accent than she usually possessed. ‘Where I grew up some people have an accent like this. What do you think?’

Maple giggled again and Emily caught the eye of the lady who shared her passion for Sophia Wainwright books, and she was smiling too.

‘Shall we read this book then? I’ll see how many voices I can do, and you can try some too.’

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