I take my paperback. ‘Thanks, I’ll get back to you on that one.’
It’s not lost on me that Mum and I were in the same shop buying practically the same book, but we might as well have been in parallel universes.
Shadow and I head out onto the street, take a gasp of sea air to clear our heads and run straight into St Aidan’s other overall wearer. At least Plum’s are reassuringly paint-splattered.
She points at my book. ‘Ooh, you’re taking up astronomy?’
‘It’s only a precaution, I’m hoping not to.’
Her eyebrows go up. ‘I’m pleased I’ve met you, because something’s come up – one of those things that have to be discussed face-to-face.’
‘If it’s about Dillon…’
‘No!’ Her hand goes up. ‘This is something else entirely. I can’t tell you who told me, but – David Byron has made an informal approach to the planners, asking if they’d be in favour of putting a lido on your land.’
My heart goes into free fall. Talking about Dillon would have been manageable, but this is like Pandora’s box opening. ‘Can they do that without telling me?’
Plum’s involvement with the Chamber of Commerce not only means she’s in the front line for receiving information, but also that she understands it too. She takes a breath. ‘An informal approach is a way for people to find out the kind of development the council would allow without going to the expense of drawing up a full scheme. They’d only inform all the landowners involved if a proper application was made.’ She bites her lip. ‘If they work out what they need in advance, when the full scheme is submitted it goes through faster.’
I blow out a sigh. ‘It lets developers get all their balls in a row so they can take the little people like me by surprise.’
Plum blows out her cheeks. ‘At least now we know what’s going on behind the scenes we can decide on an action plan.’
I’m working out what she’s getting at. ‘A plan for what?’
She pulls me into a hug. ‘I know we mermaids are a bit depleted with Nell and Clemmie on maternity leave, but we can’t take this lying down.We have to fight it!’
‘We absolutely do!’ I punch the air so hard, I drop my star book on the pavement.
And to think that my biggest worries up until five minutes ago were how to dodge staring up at the sky with Kit, and how to get Sophie to agree to a makeover.
34
The beach at High Tides Hotel, St Aidan
Postcards from another planet
Tuesday
‘Let’s be clear – we’re not stargazers, and this is definitely surveillance. Anything else we do is simply a way of passing the time.’
As Kit and I stamp through the soft sand up the dunes on the far side of the hotel the next evening with our arms overflowing with supplies, it feels like a good time for me to lay down some ground rules. Whenever there’s a man there’s always a risk an outing will turn into an expedition, but who knew we’d need so much gear? By the time we’ve got rugs to lie on, covers to put over us, flasks of hot chocolate, mugs and marshmallows, an ice bucket, glasses and a bottle of fizz, a dog bed, dog water and emergency bone biscuits for Shadow plus snacks for us, we could have done with some sherpas to carry it all.
‘So remind me again why we’re here?’
Kit throws down a rucksack and spreads out a travelling rug. ‘Suze and David have walked along the beach to Comet Cove for a gin-tasting event at the castle distillery. Our job is to lie low in the shadowspretendingto stargaze whileactuallyseeing whatever we can as they come back.’
‘After what David’s doing with the lido plans, I might be tempted to run out and shove him into the water.’ I’ve already ranted about this to Kit earlier, but I’m so wound up, it keeps spilling out.
Kit blows out his cheeks. ‘I admire how fiery you are, but I hoped if we gave this more thought we could come up with a more effective way to divert him than losing him at sea.’
It takes me a moment to fully take in what he’s saying. ‘Hold on. You’re onmyside?’
‘Of course.’ He shrugs. ‘I’d hate to see your hut go.’
I’m mentally punching the air that my instincts at making The Hideaway indispensable are paying off. ‘It definitely helps your business.’
He gives me a strange sideways glance. ‘There’s more to life than the bottom line, Floss.’
