She also found out that he had taken the title in the Saltburn surf competitions almost every year since he was old enough to enter. His dream of surfing professionally hadn’t been an empty ambition. She had spent bits of today daydreaming about the two of them as a couple, touring around in a little VW as he surfed and she cooked sausages and hand-sewed. It was such a shame that he didn’t feel the same. Perhaps if her mum knew that she had a mild crush then she’d stop spouting her nonsense about walls. No, that was a bad idea. The meddling would kill Pippa’s romantic imaginings stone dead, and she was enjoying keeping this crush exactly where it belonged: in her head.
Hello, love!’ Jan wandered into the hall where Pippa was doing this daydreaming, whilst dragging tables into place for the fayre.
‘Hi, mum. Thanks for helping with this.’
‘No worries, sweetie. I’m sorry if you thought I was having a go the other day, you’re a good girl. I know I was a little harsh, but you do need to consider some of the things I said. How’s Marion been today?’
‘Well, whilst I shouldn’t speak ill of the queen in her very own domain, she’s seemed pretty normal: patrolling the corridors and shouting at people.’
‘Well, I suppose that’s a good thing. Let’s get this cake stall up and running. I’ve brought some biscuits and made a nice pineapple upsidedown cake as well. I just saw Rosy, and she’s donated a chocolate cake, a coffee and walnut one and a lemon drizzle. She’s a good woman that. See, baking isn’t just for us oldies.’
‘I never said it was. I just don’t need to make cakes because I’ve got your biscuits!’
‘That you have. Now, who am I on with this year? Joanna said she’d never be coming back after the way Marion spoke to her last year. I said that we all had to put up with that if we wanted to help the Penmenna community. She said she’d rather donate fifty quid and never run the risk of having to speak to her again. I don’t think you’re going to find anyone as good as Joanna.’
‘Well, I think you might be in for a treat. You know the new teacher I’m working alongside?’
‘The temporary one?’
‘Yes. His mum’s down for a few days for half term and she loves to bake as well. It would appear I have found your northern equivalent. She’s already left three Tupperware containers full of sweet treats in the staffroom.’ She was half tempted to tell her about Kam’s mother’s commitment to getting him married off – something she knew her mother could relate to – but self-preservation kicked in.
‘Oh, I shall go and have a little look. When is she going to get here? Is she going to help—’
‘Ah Pippa darling, there you are. Let me introduce you to my daughters, Nisha, Hema and Anuja.’ Pippa and her mother turned to see Mrs Choudhury bustling over with three young women behind her.
‘Hello, how lovely to meet you.’ Pippa grinned a welcome to them. She had been excited all day about meeting the three sisters that Kam claimed terrorised him, and now they stood before her, all three with the same exquisite eyes as their brother – with the same identical flash of playfulness. Apart from that, though, they were wildly different from each other.
‘Hello, we’ve heard all about you.’ The youngest one, Anuja (Pippa imagined her to be a similar age as Polly) grinned mischievously. She was long-haired and long-limbed, and wearing a scarlet and gold dress that Pippa instantly fell in love with. She was glossy from top to toe, and had an assurance that radiated out of her.
‘And I have heard that you force your big brother to watch animal videos online. That must take some doing.’ She knew that Anuja was the dramatic one, currently working as an actress for a regional theatre company up in Middlesbrough. Looking at her Pippa had no doubt that she would become fabulously successful. The other two were a little shorter, and she guessed that Nisha, who was a history geek but worked for an insurance company, was the one in jeans and a hoodie, and Hema, who Kam had said inherited their mother’s culinary skills and helped run a café, was the one with the cropped hair and huge earrings.
‘Oh, he’s a dreadful fibber. Can’t believe a word he says,’ the younger one giggled. ‘He loves them, and does it voluntarily. Loves them. Makesuswatch them with him, not the other way around. He’s strange like that.’
‘Don’t believe Anuja. She’s terribly naughty.’ Mrs Choudhury gave her youngest daughter a look of such reproach it would put Jan to shame. Yet Anuja giggled rather than withered into obedience. ‘She adores Kam. We all do and he is very normal, very kind, and clearly has endless patience for his sisters, especially Anuja.’
‘To be fair all those years with her have meant he can easily deal with a classroom of five-years-olds,’ the sister with the spiky hair spoke, her tone free of malice as she offered Pippa her hand. ‘Hi, I’m Nisha.’ Pippa took her hand and grinned her hello. So much for making assumptions.
‘I haven’t met Mr Choudhury yet,’ Jan jumped into the conversation with a very pointed tone.No, thought Pippa,and with good reason too. I’ve been keeping him safe, and you’ve had your hands full plotting my wedding, four christenings and my retirement with James.
‘Ah well, we shall remedy that then. Kam, Kam, Kam, Kam, come here.’
Pippa couldn’t see him in the hall but his mother’s call was disturbing, sounding exactly like a car alarm. Suddenly the move down to Cornwall made a little more sense.
‘So, are you down in Penmenna long?’ Jan had started to pump the girls and Kam’s mother for information. They weren’t aware that she had serious skills at this. Had she been born but a few centuries earlier Pippa was under no illusion that she would have led the Spanish Inquisition and probably had it wrapped up by teatime.
As Jan fired rapid questions at them, Pippa felt her hairs on her neck tingle and, without seeing him, knew that Kam had made his way into the school hall. She didn’t know how her body knew he was close before her brain did, but it did. The first time she had been aware of it she had been in that restaurant with James and she had felt a tingle course up from the base of her spine to her neck. Not trusting her instinct, she had looked up to check the cause and there he had been, walking quietly past. She wondered if it were some sort of special phenomenon, and if it was, what did it mean?
On one level – her crazy romantic dreams level – she wondered if it meant that they were meant to be together. On a more rational, and more fearful, level she doubted they could have a Happy Ever After. Were they not too different? He was organised; she was… um, slightly more free-flowing. He was sporty; shedefinitelywasn’t. That daydream earlier of her sewing whilst he surfed was lovely, but was it even a teeny bit realistic? Indulging her crush would lead to too many complications. Pure and simple. Regardless of all of that, her tingling had proved to be correct, his presence confirmed seconds later as his mother barked out her rat-a-tat-tat call again, waving at him to come over.
‘Hello everyone, nice to see you’ve all met. Welcome to Penmenna.’ He gave his sisters a kiss on the cheek. ‘You must be Mrs Parkin. Pippa only says good things. It’s a pleasure to meet you at last.’ He held out his hand and Jan took it and shook it whilst looking at him appraisingly.
‘You’re the man who came into the garage and said you knew Pips. I saw you on the CCTV.’
‘Well, in that case, it probably was me. I certainly came in and met your husband and, I believe, your son soon after I had first met Pippa. Your husband was kind enough to help me with my car.’
‘You didn’t tell me you had car problems. Why didn’t you call and tell me you had problems with the car?’
‘Honestly. Mum, it was nothing.’
