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‘Just so long as I don’t have to drink tea,’ Ben insisted. ‘I don’t know how you all get through so much of the stuff. I’m a coffee man myself, the stronger the better.’
‘Drinking tea isn’t obligatory in Devon,’ Isla assured him, leading the way to the bustling café, which was strung with bunting and fairy lights.
It was busier than usual inside but Isla managed to bag a table near the door. The plate-glass window was misted with condensation and Isla noticed, with a start, the shopping bags on the floor. Many of them sported Christmas logos, and two people were decorating a fir tree in a corner.
‘You OK?’ Ben asked, wrapping his hands around the steaming mug of coffee that had just arrived for him.
‘Yeah, fine.’ Isla pushed a spoon into the cream on top of her hot chocolate but didn’t eat it. She didn’t fancy it any more.
‘Are you sure you’re all right?’ Ben leaned across the table towards her. ‘You look a bit off.’
Isla carefully placed the laden spoon on her saucer. ‘It’s nothing, really. I just saw all the festive bags in here, and the tree over there, and it made me think about Christmas without my gran.’
Ben nodded. ‘Yeah, I expect it’ll be tough. I know my mom’s dreading the holidays without Dad around. Me, too, really, even though he’s been gone a while now. Dad was always the life and soul of the party and it’s too quiet without him.’ He gazed into the distance for a moment before asking, ‘Will your sister be around for Christmas?’
‘Caitlin?’ Isla gave a wry smile. ‘I doubt it. She and Maisie, her stepdaughter, will be leaving Heaven’s Cove soon and they won’t be back.’
‘Will they visit on New Year’s?’
‘No, they won’t be back at all,’ said Isla, who felt sure she wouldn’t see Caitlin for dust once she realised there was no chance of Rose Cottage being sold.
Ben winced. ‘I see. So, I guess you’ll be in the house on your own for the holidays.’
‘Yeah, but it won’t be so bad.’ She smiled. ‘Paul will be there, of course, though he doesn’t really approve of Christmas.’
‘He doesn’t really approve of Christmas?’ repeated Ben. He took a sip of his coffee and wrinkled his nose. ‘That’s…surprising.’
‘Well, it’s not Christmas per se that he doesn’t approve of. It’s the commercialism that goes with it, so we won’t be buying each other gifts.’
‘That’s a shame.’
‘Not really. I know what he means,’ said Isla loyally, even though the thought of a gift-free Christmas made her feel sad. She’d suggested they stick to a small budget or even make each other something – she wasn’t sure what – but her suggestions had been dismissed. Paul didn’t approve of St Valentine’s Day either, which he claimed was ‘a cynical ploy to make money through playing on the emotions’. Isla knew what he meant, but she’d still have liked a card on the 14th of February.
‘You don’t need flowers to know how much I adore you,’ Paul had told her. ‘You’re mine, Isla.’ And she’d nodded in agreement, even though a bunch of roses would have been nice, all the same.
Ben reached into the pocket of his jeans for his phone, which had just beeped with a notification.
‘It’s an email from Mom,’ he said. ‘She says she hopes I’m enjoying seeing Heaven’s Cove…oh, she’s found out that William served over here in World War One. She’s been digging through Dad’s old family photos and has found this.’
He passed his phone over for Isla to look at the picture his mother had sent. A handsome young man in a drab military jacket stared back at her. He wasn’t smiling but there was still a sparkle in his eyes. The message from Nell underneath said: writing on back says ‘William, France 1918’. I reckon it’s him!
‘What do you think?’ asked Ben, leaning across the table.
Isla handed the phone back. ‘That’s amazing to actually see the man who wrote the letter. And if he was serving in France, maybe that’s how he met Edith.’
‘Perhaps he came to England on leave.’
Isla sucked her bottom lip between her teeth, as she often did when she was thinking. Though she was trying to break the habit because it appeared to irritate Paul.
‘But why would he have come to Heaven’s Cove? It’s not exactly on the way to anywhere.’
‘Tell me about it.’ Ben raised an eyebrow. ‘I’ll do some googling to see if I can find out more about Americans serving in France during the war.’
Isla suppressed a smile because Ben was becoming interested in William and Edith’s romance in spite of himself. ‘Can you send me that photo so I can show it to Caitlin?’
‘Sure.’ He forwarded the email and pushed his phone back into his pocket.
‘So, what will you do at Christmas?’ Isla asked, feeling more relaxed in Ben’s company now and wanting to hear more about his life and travels.
