‘Sit yourself down, Ethel. I’ll get that.’ The vicar put his cards down, gave Ethel a faux-stern don’t-peek look and stood up to go and pull the door open, bringing in the sound of church bells striking the eighth hour.
‘Oh yeah, you’re going to love Flynn.’ Pippa shot Kam the biggest grin as if she had a surprise up her sleeve. He wondered if Flynn was novel simply for possessing all his teeth and digits.
‘And he’ll love you too. Always been partial to a handsome face, bit like myself.’ Ethel took a glug of her sherry and winked at the vicar.
Kam grinned. ‘Well, then, I’ll look forward to meeting him,’ he said as Roger gave him a proper Cornish pint. He had been drinking Rattler, a cider guaranteed to put hairs on your chest, whilst he’d been living in Newquay. It was his friend Ben’s drink of choice; they sold a lot of it in the bar attached to the surf hostel that Ben ran. Kam had found he’d had a couple of thick-headed mornings afterwards, with only the surf succeeding in blasting him clean and getting his brain to work again. So, for now he was happy to see if Korev might be his drink. He took a long gulp.
‘This is good. I’m looking forward to Friday night, if I can judge Roger’s hooch on this in any way.’
‘I wouldn’t,’ Pippa retorted. ‘That lager is considerably more legal and less likely to turn you blind.’
‘Now, you madam, that were not my hooch that did that.’
The whole pub erupted in laughter.
‘I’d say the majority view is that it was,’ Pippa clarified.
Kam laughed along with them, taking small draughts of his beer and enjoying being part of the community atmosphere in here. They chatted away, most of the gossip about people in Penmenna, or he up Roscombe way, or that posh bloke down Treporth, but all of it harmless and no one being made more fun of than those present. He had just been invited to join the vicar, who introduced himself as Dan and seemed pretty sound, for a kick about with some of the others in the village when the door creaked open a little further. All of a sudden Kam felt a wet nose on his leg, heading towards his groin.
‘See, you thought we was odd but you want to be grateful we didn’t greet you like that,’ Mike laughed.
‘Come on, Flynn. Leave Kam alone.’ Pippa greeted the dog who had snuck in through the door, ‘Up you come.’ And with that Flynn hopped up onto a stool that had been kept vacant and put a paw on the bar and barked.
‘I know, mate,’ said Andrew. ‘The service in here is dreadful.’ Everyone then continued their conversation as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening, while Roger popped a large dog’s bowl of water and an open packet of pork scratchings on the bar.
Kam watched spellbound, only half an ear on the conversation as the dog eagerly lapped it all up, ate his snacks, barked twice at the barman, jumped down from his stool and slid out of the door again. It was Andrew this time who got up to shut the door.
‘It’s cute, isn’t it?’ Pippa whispered to him in an aside. ‘Comes in every night without fail, has done since he was a pup, just sadly without his dad now. Derek passed away about three years ago, but we managed to keep Flynn in the village so he could continue with as many of his routines as possible, and his nightly walk and drink are one of them.’
‘That’s pretty special. I’ve never heard of anything like that before.’
‘Penmenna’s pretty special and I am happy that you are now part of it. Now, drink up. It’s your round!’
As Pippa curled up in her bed, smile still on her face, she heard her phone beep. Reaching to grab it and expecting it to be from Pete or Polly moaning about their mother’s latest heinous crime, she saw instead it was Kam whom she had given her number to when they had arranged their pub outing.
Thank you for today, you helped my first day go really smoothly. And tonight was lots of fun. I have a feeling I’m going to like Penmenna.
Pleasure. I really enjoyed myself. See you tomorrow!
A smile played on her lips as she placed her head on her pillow, and it stayed there until she drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Twelve
Pippa headed into the classroom, in modern and can-afford-to-be-covered-in-paint clothes and great big eyeliner flicks, with two mugs of coffee in her hands and a smile on her face. Kam had been fun the other night. He had slotted into the pub as if he’d been born and bred there, and that was a rare thing indeed. In fact, the last recorded time that had happened was when a woman had got lost in the village and came in to ask for directions. Roger had married her.
Afterwards, Kam had walked her home. She had said it wasn’t necessary but he had insisted. She had let him cross her over the road and walk a full fifty yards, and then, as they reached the village shop, she had told him, with delight, that this was her.
She had toyed with inviting him in, but was aware that there was a subtext to that question that wasn’t appropriate with the man who was, until the end of July, her immediate boss. Plus, as she’d been leaving to go to the pub tonight, Lottie had received a phone call about a badger on the side of the lane the other side of Lovage Farm and had practically hopped, skipped and jumped her way down the stairs, out of the building and into her car.
She was not inviting a man she had to work with – a man in possession of the most beautiful eyes and even handsomer spirit – in to deal with dead badgers after their first evening out. She had some sense of self-protection. So, although she hadn’t offered coffee then, she was happy to deliver it this morning.
Bouncing in, mugs in hand, she was rewarded as Kam looked up from flicking through something on his school tablet with a great big beam of welcome.
‘Here you go. I thought you would like a coffee.’ She handed him the biggest mug she had been able to find in the staffroom and then took a great slurp of her own.
‘Oh fab.’ Rosy poked her head above the bookcases in the reading corner and smiled at Pippa, only for her face to fall a little when she saw that Pippa hadn’t been talking to her.
‘Oh, shoot. Um, I’m so sorry Rosy, I didn’t realise you were in class today.’
