Page 46 of Christmas at the Borrow a Bookshop

Chapter Seventeen

23rdDecember – Rescue

The knock at the shop door was so soft it hadn’t awakened Magnús, but it sent Alex scrambling for her clothes and grimacing at Jowan who was politely averting his eyes behind the glass.

It was still dark by the time she’d dressed and tiptoed sheepishly outside to greet him. The wind swirled wildly in the little square as though it wanted to knock her clean off her feet.

‘There are some people here to see you,’ he shouted over the gale.

She’d followed him Down-along through the blast of icy rain, her heart sinking further with every step.

It had rained steadily all night, not that she’d been aware of it, and the cobbles now ran with clear water between the stones.

The first thing she saw, apart from the thick white clouds lying oddly low in a wide band above the shoreline and fringed with long fingers reaching towards land, was the little crowd around theDagalienon the beach.

Tom Bickleigh was there with a man in overalls and a yellow sou’wester who she didn’t recognise. They were drilling something into the port side gunwale so the whole thing could be wrapped in a new tarpaulin. Tom had told her he’d help and here he was, as good as his word.

The other figures shifted on the shore and it took a moment to register who they were. She wasn’t prepared to see Ben standing with his hand raised to the back of his head, and his dad beside him.

For a moment she watched their backs from the harbour wall. She’d have obeyed her instincts and run in the opposite direction if it wasn’t for the sympathy in Jowan’s eyes now fixed upon her.

‘Just see what they have to say. I’ll be right here,’ he told her.

That was when she noticed Bovis, sheltering from the rain under the gable of the old lifeboat house. She knew from his sharp eyes and redder-than-usual face this was something to do with him.

There it was again, the guilt and shame, and the feeling of being a nuisance and an embarrassment even though she hadn’t asked anyone to go to any trouble on her account. She wasn’t sure how they’d found her or what they wanted; still, her whole body reeled from the feeling of being ambushed.

With heart thumping and legs weakening, she left Jowan’s side and made her way down onto the pebbles, just as Ben’s father spotted her.

‘Alex! Darling.’ With his arms outstretched and his expression breaking into undisguised relief, the sight of him made Alex suddenly want to fold over with sadness.

‘Dad!’ Her feet carried her towards him. She loved him, even if she wasn’t going to be his daughter-in-law. He’d been nothing but kind to her over the years and she desperately wanted the hug.

He held her without an ounce of animosity about the worry she’d caused. ‘Thank God,’ he said, over and over, rocking her in his embrace even if he was fully a foot shorter than her. ‘Thank God.’ When he broke away, he kept hold of her wrists, examining her at arm’s length as though looking for injuries. ‘You’re all right, not hurt at all?’ And he turned her with his hands, trying to somehow examine her back through the layers of her rollneck and her father’s long coat.

‘I’m completely fine. Why are you all here? How could Bryony know I was here from a text?’

Mr Thompson turned her right into Ben’s path. He was crying.

Already feeling trapped, now Alex wanted to simply dissolve like sea foam. Anger seemed to creep up from her toes and build as it hit her gut. The fact that he’d pulled off his hood and the rain was soaking into his hair and running in rivulets down his face like he thought he was the dashing hero in a rom-com somehow made her even more livid. He was crying like he was the victim here.

‘Oh, Alex!’ he gasped, his mouth making a great O. Alex thought ungenerously how like a fish he looked, all wet and gaping, his eyes bulging in amazement. Then it was his turn for thethank Gods as he made his way towards her. She was ready to tell him to go back where he came from and leave her alone when he stole her words away.

Lunging, he reached for her and pulled the lapels of her coat, kissing her hard on the mouth, a desperate lover’s kiss, making her lose her footing on the pebbles.

That was when Magnús arrived.

He’d awakened at the sound of the bell over the shop door tinkling. Finding Alex gone, he’d pulled on his trousers and thin Henley and dashed down the slope after her in unlaced boots only to freeze at the sound of Alex calling that strange man ‘dad’ then immediately handing herself over to the younger guy who was now practically bending her backwards with his kiss while the father clasped his hands together and smiled soppily. Alex’s hair was lifting in the wet gusts and wrapping itself like sea kelp around the man kissing her.

That was when Magnús realised what he’d been doing; running after her, half asleep and not at all properly dressed for this and not at all wanting to be seen.

He retreated, but not before Bovis sidled over and informed him that he’d been the one to reunite her with her fella. ‘And that’s her father-in-law,’ he added. ‘Maybe it’s one of ’em cases of amnesia you read about in the papers? Forgot where she was from?’ Bovis looked very much as though he expected to have his head patted for being such a good boy.

Magnús didn’t oblige; instead, he pounded back up the slope alone and unnoticed by anyone in the beach party.

Alex was so stunned she didn’t even think to slap Ben, but shedidshout, in fact she roared at him as the wind rose and the waves crashed against the sea wall and the few boats tied in the churning harbour strained at their moorings.

Mr Thomas turned away, letting the two have their tiff, his head bent, focusing discreetly on his shoes as they scuffed over the pebbles.

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