‘Here’s Felicity and Rona now.’
They appeared around the corner carrying a basket of cups and saucers, which were soon laid out on another table at the side of the Boathouse, followed by assorted refreshments.
‘I can’t thank you all enough,’ said Bea, overwhelmed by the effort that everyone had put in for her. She checked her watch and looked up the river path. Already there were villagers walking towards them.
‘I’m actually feeling a little nervous,’ Bea confided to Julia.
‘You’ll be great. It looks like it’s going to be a fantastic turnout too.’
‘You’ve got this,’ encouraged Nolan, taking a seat next to Flynn.
‘Let me point a few people out to you,’ said Julia. ‘Second row, we have Grace and Andrew. They live in Heartcross Castle.’
Immediately, Bea recognised the celebrity chef.
‘Then we have Allie and Rory. Allie’s parents own the pub, the Grouse and Haggis – they are Fraser and Meredith, sat over there. Rory is the local vet, along with Mollie, who is married to Cam, who owns The Old Bakehouse.’
‘Woah! This is an overload of information.’
Julia grinned. ‘Eleni, my assistant at the B&B, she goes out with Jack, the local builder. Then we have Ella and Roman, Callie and Gianni. Dolores and Hamish, from the village shop, et cetera. But here is a useful contact for you – come and say hello. This is Aidy Redfern, the local reporter. He worked with Felicity to support her fundraising for the bridge, and his articles and news reports helped to spread the word. Aidy, could I introduce you to Bea.’
Bea smiled and extended her hand. ‘Pleased to meet you.’
‘You too. I think what you’re suggesting here is commendable and I’m really looking forward to hearing what you have to say. And if we can help at all through the news channels and the newspaper, I’m all for that.’
This was music to Bea’s ears and she couldn’t thank Aidy enough.
Everyone smiled in her direction and a quick check of her watch told her it was 7.30pm Bea exhaled. This was it.
As soon as she stepped to the side of the table and picked up the microphone the babble of voices in front of her died down. She noticed Emmie slip into a seat in the back row and give her a thumbs-up. Bea gave her a nervous smile. Trying to steady her hand, Bea switched on the microphone and brought it up to her mouth.
She dared a glance towards Nolan, who responded with a reassuring smile, giving Bea the confidence to take the plunge.
‘Thank you all for coming,’ Bea said, looking around at the community and acknowledging everyone with a nod of her head. ‘I’ve invited you all here to talk about the river and our safety. Water is unpredictable. For some, the River Heart is a playground, for others it’s a means of making a living. People travel here to Heartcross to enjoy your welcoming community and the spectacular scenery, but also the River Heart itself.’ Bea stretched out her arm and turned towards the river. Thankfully, her nerves were slowly disappearing. ‘In the summer months you welcome a colossal number of tourists to this area, so many that I’ve found myself wondering, how on earth does this small village fit that many people in it?’ The crowd laughed. ‘With the number of people that visit Heartcross, I assumed when I arrived that there would already be some sort of river rescue in place. There’s no doubt it’s needed. In the short time I’ve been here I’ve seen paddleboarders struggling to get back on their board, swimmers in difficulty and kayaks capsizing. It’s so easy to go from having the time of your life to being in mortal danger – in a matter of moments.’ Bea took a breath followed by a sip of water.
‘What I’m proposing is a volunteer family of community members ready to give up some of their time to helping save the lives of others. I know Heartcross is a passionate community and I know I’ve only been here a very short time but I hope you think this is as important as I do.’ Bea turned towards Julia, who placed a large flipchart stand next to her and mounted a couple of large photographs on it. ‘To begin with, we would need two boats: one all-weather boat, and a fast response boat. We would also need pagers, and another piece of kit that is essential is a drone, which can be sent up in the air to help identify any danger. We would need one volunteer watching the river at all times, and the rest of the crew would be alerted by the pagers. When those pagers go off, the volunteers would need to be prepared for absolutely anything. But saving someone’s life is phenomenal. There is nothing more rewarding.’ Bea could see the whole community nodding in agreement with her.
‘I know you’re all extremely busy – you have families and businesses to run and it’s a lot to ask you to commit on a regular basis, but that is what I am asking you to do. It will take time and money to build a team of lifesavers, give them the necessary training, obtain boats and the kit – not to mention build a small headquarters, for which of course we’ll need planning permission. Establishing and building a river rescue will take time but I’m hoping you will all get on board this project. I want to support the community as best I can and it’s my belief that if we can all work together we can make this dream a reality.’ Bea took a breath and realised what she’d just said. She wanted to stay in Heartcross and see this project through to the end – and she’d just told the entire community.
‘I think I’ve done enough talking so I’ll invite anyone to speak who has anything to add, or any suggestions or questions about how we can carry this forward.’ Bea picked up her glass of water and began to panic when everyone stood up at the same time, as if they were about to leave. She looked towards Nolan, who was standing next to Julia and Flynn. All of them were smiling broadly. Nolan began to clap, then, to Bea’s surprise, the rest of the community followed suit and she was surrounded my rapturous applause. They weren’t leaving – it was a standing ovation. Overcome with emotion, Bea’s eyes welled up with happy tears. She’d never in her life felt such a sense of belonging. This meant so much to her. Emmie was also up on her feet, clapping and nodding at her. Julia stood up, hugged Bea where she stood, and took the microphone.
‘Bea has only been here for a very short time but the second I met her she gave out such warmth that I knew she was going to be an asset to this community. She was the person who raised the alarm when Lucas went missing and didn’t hesitate to go clambering over rocks in stormy weather to help rescue the little boy. I think this is a wonderful idea; it’s what we need to make our water safer, and, like Bea said, if we work together, I’m sure we can make it work. Now, back to Bea.’
‘Does anyone have any questions?’ asked Bea.
‘The boats, the kit and a rescue building will cost phenomenal amounts, surely?’ shouted Hamish, who was sitting at the back.
‘Yes, it will be very costly, but surely we can draw on our resources in the village, and businesses in Glensheil too. We have influential businessmen living in this village…’ Bea looked towards Flynn and Andrew Glossop. ‘I’m sure they’ll have great contacts and perhaps even ideas about sponsorship.’ Bea was hopeful she hadn’t overstepped but both Flynn and Andrew were nodding. ‘We also have builders amongst us. Would there be any chance of putting up a small building to house the boats and the kit? Right here, where you’re sitting now, could be the perfect space – an extension to The Little Blue Boathouse.’
Eleni nudged Jack, who shouted to Bea, ‘I’m sure my company can help out but we need planning permission.’
‘I can take care of that,’ offered Arthur, who worked at the council.
‘We can raise money for the kit, pagers and the drones but what we also need is a person watching the river at all times. But that would need to be from quite a high building. I was thinking about the lighthouse, but is that too far away?’
‘Possibly,’ shouted out Flynn. ‘But we’ve installed new security cameras at the hotel and they are brilliant. They’re attached to a very tall mast and you can swivel them to survey all areas. It’s operated from a TV monitor in the office and you can flick between different areas. Maybe something like that could be set up?’
‘This sounds perfect,’ enthused Bea, happy to see that all the villagers were getting involved. ‘I don’t mind taking care of the admin and the volunteer rotas and I can set up a system that we all have access to. This is going to take some organising and it won’t happen overnight, but we’ve already taken a step forward with this meeting.’ Bea bent down and pulled out a handful of paper from the bag at the side of the table. ‘If anyone would like to be a volunteer lifesaver, or can offer a donation or help to raise funds, help to buy the kit – help with anything, really – then can I please ask you to jot it down on one of these pieces of paper and give it to me, Nolan, Julia or Flynn? That will give us a starting point. I’ll then go through all the papers and devise a plan and get an update out to the community by the end of next week. I’ll also see about opening a bank account for any funds that are raised, and maybe we could set up a committee that could be in charge of finances. Would that be okay with everyone?’ There was so much to think about and this was a huge project to coordinate, but Bea was up for the challenge.
