‘I think we’ve broken down,’ she said, trying the ignition again. Nothing happened. ‘Ugh! This is a nightmare!’
‘I suppose this is what you get for buying a vintage motorhome.’ Ellie groaned.
‘Do you have the guy’s number? The guy you bought it from?’ Fee asked. ‘Maybe he can help. Did he tell you that it had anything wrong with it?’
‘Of course not.’ Ellie rolled her eyes. ‘And before you ask, no, I didn’t ask. I was a bit out of it at the time.’ She sighed. ‘I think it would be better to call a recovery truck and go from there. See if we can get towed to a local garage. Hopefully it’s nothing too tricky to fix and we can be on our way again.’
‘Okay. I think I’ve got a signal.’ Fee peered at her phone, and tapped at the screen for a few moments. ‘Right. Here’s a garage with a tow service that says it’s, like, five miles away. I’ll give them a call.’ She stepped out of the cab and walked up the narrow road, which was bordered on both sides with tall hedges. This seemed to be a characteristic of Cornwall. Only occasionally would the hedges thin or disappear altogether, and Ellie was able to see across lush green fields or into deep forests.
Earlier in the morning, they had driven down a road through a sparse village that ended with perhaps a mile of a stream bordering the road and filled with unusually mossy trees with long, serpentine branches that seemed to flow back into the black earth underneath them. Fee had commented that there was a very strange feeling there as they drove along that road: not a bad feeling, but more like it was enchanted somehow. That this was a different kind of place, an old place with old tree spirits.You can imagine witches and fairies here, she’d mused as they drove Marilyn along slowly.
It was certainly different to London, and Ellie didn’t mind that at all. She was happy to be far away from everything and everyone, and even happier not to have a reliable phone signal.
Fee returned to the cab and pulled herself up into the driver’s seat.
‘Okay. Spoke to a guy and he’s going to come and tow us to his garage. He’s somewhere called Magpie Cove. Sounds quaint, doesn’t it? We’ll either find somewhere to stay, or we can sleep in Marilyn. All right?’
‘All right.’ Ellie smiled at her friend. ‘We’re having an adventure,’ she added, firmly.
‘We are indeed.’ Fee shook her head, grinning.
