Chapter 2
Saturday was spent cleaning the flat, packing and having lunch with Carrie’s mum, Ellen, who lived about a twenty-minute drive away and seemed thrilled her daughter and granddaughter were going to be spending their summer where she grew up.
“I don’t think you’ll find Castle Cove very changed from when you were last there,” she said as they sat down at a table in the local café they’d decided to meet in. “There is a fantastic new coffee shop next to the bookshop though.”
“Very good to know,” Carrie replied.
“Maybe I’ll even come and visit after Mary’s back. It would be lovely to all be together.”
“It would,” Carrie agreed, reaching over and giving her mum a squeeze.
They loaded up Carrie’s little Ford Fiesta first thing Sunday morning and were on their way before nine.
Carrie was grateful the day was a bit miserable and cloudy as the air conditioning in the car hadn’t worked for at least two years and she didn’t fancy them roasting if they got caught in traffic on the M4.
They listened to Roald Dahl CDs until they stopped for lunch. When they set off again, Poppy fell asleep and Carrie turned off the stories and made the most of the peace and quiet, thinking over all the places from her childhood holidays that she wanted to show Poppy.
She was perhaps most looking forward to seeing the bookshop. Aunt Mary had been so pleased when Carrie had called her back to say she’d be coming. Unfortunately Mary had needed to leave early in the morning so they wouldn’t see her before her trip, but Carrie had promised that she and Poppy wouldn’t be rushing off when her aunt returned and they could spend some time together then.
She was still so cross with Tony for letting Poppy down again. She appreciated he needed to work, but his jobs were always so random that it was hard to plan anything around them. What really upset her was that he never seemed to put Poppy first. Would he have even told them he couldn’t make the zoo if Carrie hadn’t called him? Well, probably, as he needed yet another loan... Would he ever become less selfish, she wondered? She’d spent the last decade hoping for that. It was a constant source of irritation to Davina, who’d known Carrie since they were pregnant together, and was well aware that Carrie would still be with that ‘useless, good-for-nothing’ as she referred to Tony, if he hadn’t upped and left because he felt ‘stifled’ — his word. Exactly like her own father, in fact. Not a part of her life she’d hoped to repeat for her daughter.
Davina had been so supportive when Carrie phoned to tell her of her plans. “You’ll have a great time and it means you won’t be moping around waiting for that idiot to get back,” she’d said.
“I wouldn’t have been moping!” Carrie said.
“Maybe moping is a little strong,” conceded Davina. “But you definitely wouldn’t have made any plans if there was a chance he’d be coming back before the end of the holidays.”
“You know I only want him around for Poppy. I honestly can’t believe I stayed with him so long. He was completely wrong for me and incapable of commitment. But he’s Poppy’s father and my personal views and history with him shouldn’t stop that relationship.”
“Tony may be Poppy’s father by birth, but he certainly doesn’t act like one,” Davinia retorted. “He’s no good, and you need to stop feeling guilty. It’s not your fault that your daughter’s father is a good-for-nothing.”
There was a lot of truth in what Davina said, and Carrie had resolved, once again, to be stronger when it came to dealing with her useless ex. Going to Cornwall was just the start of that.
Thanks to taking a few breaks on the journey, it was almost four o’clock by the time Carrie drove into Castle Cove. They passed the little Co-op supermarket and the library where Carrie had spent many a happy hour on hot days when she’d needed to get out of the sun and continued down to the main beach so Poppy could get her first proper look at the sea.
The beach was flanked by a small cove on one side and the town’s harbour on the other. Carrie pointed out the remains of the castle the town was named after on the town’s highest point on a hill overlooking the water. She promised her daughter they’d have plenty of time to explore everything while they were here.
Carrie turned the car up on to the steep high street lined with shops which ended with the cenotaph, stood proudly in the centre of the town square opposite the town hall.
There was no parking on the narrow high street, but Carrie turned down a side road and then a lane running behind the shops until she reached the back of her aunt’s bookshop. She pulled in to the private parking area there.
“Here we are!” she said brightly.
“This doesn’t look much like a bookshop,” said Poppy, suspiciously.
Carrie laughed. “This is behind it. I’ll show you.”
They opened the car boot and took out as much of their luggage as they could manage then went through a wooden gate which led into the shop’s little back garden. Surrounded by high stone walls, it was paved with flower-beds and potted plants around the edge and had some wrought iron tables and chairs dotted around which Auntie Mary used for events.
“Auntie Mary said she’d leave the keys behind the plant pot with the olive tree in it... Ah, there we go.”
Carrie fiddled around until she found the right key for the lock and let them in the back entrance to the shop. They entereda corridor with two rooms off to the right, one a small kitchen area and the other a cloakroom with a loo and sink. On the left was the entrance to what Carrie knew was a storeroom. At the end of the corridor was a door leading into the shop itself, presently closed to shoppers as it had never opened on Sundays.
“Oh wow!” said Poppy, as they walked in. “It’s so pretty!”
“It is,” said Carrie, looking around. The shop looked very different from when she used to visit but some things were familiar, especially that amazing bookshop smell.
When Carrie was growing up, her aunt and uncle ran the shop as a general bookstore, covering all genres and selling mostly new books, with a vintage book area which was her aunt’s pride and joy. A few years after her uncle had died however, Carrie’s aunt revamped the place, explaining that she just wasn’t able to compete with the chain stores and websites and needed to do something different. And so ‘The Castle Cove Bookshop’ became ‘The Happily Ever After Bookshop’ and specialised in romance books. It still mainly stocked new books, but there was now a larger second-hand selection located upstairs, above the back half of the building and accessed via a spiral staircase, including a rare, vintage and collectable area, most of which was kept in glass cabinets.
