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Chapitre 5

Penulis: GN001

Tanggal publikasi: 2023-12-01 14:42:59

“Hey holidaymakers! It’s twenty-eight degrees here in Cawlin Cove, and I hope you’re having tremendous fun on the beach this morning. Now don’t forget the sandcastle competition this afternoon, yours truly and one or two extra special guests will be out and about judging them at around two this afternoon. We have some amazing prizes for the winners. Now I can see from the studio window that the surf is up, so all you surfer dudes take care out there. This is Jake Nankivil giving you fun in the sun from Radio Cawlin FM.” The local radio station blared out from the back of the postcard and gift shack on the front of Cawlin Cove’s South Beach, and after two weeks of mugginess, torrential rain and thunderstorms the weather now returned to blistering heat with cloudless skies.

Millie studied the postcards, edging under the awning to get out of the roasting sun on her shoulders. She had sprayed suntan lotion on as much of her body as she could reach, she’d missed a bit but she didn’t have anyone to help her.

Besides, she wasn’t planning on staying out long. Cawlin Castle looked amazing, and she wanted to look around it. By the time she had walked along the beach she was looking forward to the cool interior of the centuries-old stone castle, and she needed lunch before the tour started. She would walk on the beach to the rocks causing a natural breakwater, about half a mile away, and then walk back.Millie was enjoying this affluent seaside town with all the expensive yachts in the harbour, and the exclusive shops. There were some lovely cafes in town and some very expensive restaurants. Not that she could afford to eat in them, but she would Google them and check the food out. She was always looking for fresh ideas and recipes.

She loved cooking and enjoyed turning simple ingredients into mouth watering meals. Her cooking course at college had finished, and for once in her life she wasn’t nervous about her exam results. She dreamed of opening a tearoom, somewhere just like this, or even just cooking for people who would enjoy her food.The only people she cooked for at the moment were her sisters, and they ate hardly anything, and when they did, it was only an egg white omelette or sticks of celery. Her model sisters took their diet to the extreme.

She would not think about them today, and for once she felt happy. They had arrived last evening, after an entire day’s drive, to a pretty holiday apartment that overlooked the beach. Not having her twin sisters around for the day was such a relief. There had been the usual nit-picking and general moaning earlier; accusing her of not packing certain bikinis. Well, they just hadn’t looked hard enough. Ruby had burst into her bedroom at ridiculous o’clock this morning. She dragged the duvet off her and yelled so loudly that the entire street could have heard her. “Where is my turquoise bikini?”

“Second drawer down.” Millie muttered and pulled the duvet back over her head. “With my knickers? It shouldn’t be in there, how was I supposed to know it was there?”Millie closed her eyes, “Sorry, didn’t know there was a special drawer for bikinis only.” God, she couldn’t wait for them to go.

The twin were going on a day cruise, and maybe a couple of days if she was lucky, with some Russian oligarch Arkady Oska...Oska...gobbledegookavich. That was the nearest she would get at saying his name. In fact, his surname had so many letters in it she could have written half of War and Peace out of it. The chance that they wouldn’t be back this evening was high, and she would enjoy her break from the twins.The beach was already getting crowded as she kicked off her sandals and walked onto the prize winning beach of golden sand. Families were setting up deckchairs and windbreaks, children begging for ice creams. An overweight man yelled at a seagull who was dive bombing his picnic.

Millie turned away, and stood for a moment watching the waves come in, the sun sparkling with pain inducing brightness on the water. She took another glance at the man and a giggle escaped her as the man danced about waving his arms to frighten off the gull who took cawed as if he too was laughing at the man’s antics to stop him from stealing his food.

Ahead of her, several guys carrying surfboards down to the sea, followed by some younger teenage girls trailing behind them. They whispered and giggled, and one guy looked behind and gave them a cheeky grin which made one girl blush and the rest burst out laughing.

The teenagers looked fabulous in their bikinis, slim and tanned, and she was so envious of them, a bunch of teenage girls having a laugh and chasing boys. It was something she had never done, or had the friends to do it with.

Tormented by the twins, Millie kept everything secret. She learnt not to let them know if there was something she enjoyed or if she was doing something special. The one time she’d brought a friend home from school the twins were suspiciously friendly and cooked tea and Millie knew something was going on. Over tea of tinned spaghetti on toast complete with chopped up earthworms, the twins interrogated the girl. After the poor child suffered horrendous sickness, she never talked to Millie again. The aftermath of her friend’s parents banging on the front door to confront her mother, was a nightmare she still had now and again.

After that disastrous day Millie spent most of her childhood hidden away in the reference library in winter, and in summer, she spent time in the woods at the back of her home. The twins didn’t like the woods; they were boring according to them, more likely terrified of the insects flying round or crawling up the trees. So Millie spent hours there, sitting in her favourite tree with branches easy to climb. She would read her books and take a picnic in her backpack. It was the only time she found peace.

As for boyfriends, Forget it. No way could she have a boyfriend while she lived with the twins. Her mother had pushed her into staying with them at their flat in London when she decided that she was moving to Italy and their family home had been rented out.

Her mother who had zero maternal instinct didn’t really care where Millie lived. So she stayed in the twins box room, with just enough room for a single bed and chest of drawers. She cooked, cleaned and looked after the twins, went to college for her cooking course and worked part time in a cafe in Kensington. Her life was so busy, there just wasn’t time for a boyfriend.

Besides, who would want to go out with her? The twins kept telling her she was far too fat, and that she’d never get a boyfriend. Well, it was all right for them; they were fashion models who wore tiny sample sizes, and anyone of a size fourteen would seem enormous at the side of them. They ate nothing they liked, and they weren’t surrounded by food every day, for god’s sake they didn’t even know how to boil an egg.

Millie giggled at the thought of Ruby trying to cook a boiled egg in the microwave, it had been such a shock to her silly sister when it exploded, and even though she’d been the one to clean it up, Millie couldn’t help laughing at ridiculous Ruby as she did so.

By this time she was almost at the breakwater, and the beach was more or less deserted at this end. The golden sands gave way to rock pools and large clumps of seaweed and then a pile of rocks that gathered in height and went from the sea up to the cliff. Millie walked towards the sea, where the rocks were smaller and vanished into the surf.

Picking her way over the rocks Millie discovered a deserted golden crescent of sand. She glanced up at the top of the cliff to see a fence and a gate and wooden steps leading down to the beach. A sign informed her this private property and that trespassers will be prosecuted.

What a pity, this was a gorgeous beach, it would be a glorious place for her to sunbathe with no one seeing her, she could lie on the sands in her bikini without feeling self conscious. She wondered who was the owner of this beach. Was there a big house up on the cliff? She couldn’t see from here, they were probably wealthy, and according to her experience with wealthy people, they were miserable and selfish too.

Looking back towards the sea, the surfers were waiting for the waves, and they all jumped up on their boards, arms outstretched as they balanced on the rolling waves. About ten meters away from them a young teen was in the water. She could only see her head, her blonde hair floating, and her flailing arms trying to keep her on the surface as the waves pounded into her.

There was no surfboard, but floating away was a bright yellow Lilo. Millie searched for the girl. She was there just a minute ago. Millie took another frantic search and not seeing her pulled her dress over her head and dropped her sunglasses and sandals to the ground.

Millie ran into the sea and dived under the waves. Her powerful arm movements pulled her through the water like a sleek seal, and she lifted her head up and looked around for the girl. A million questions raced full tilt through her mind. The crucial one being would she find her in time. Would she find her before she... drowned, sank lifeless to the seabed.

Why was she out here on her own? Was she one of teenagers she followed earlier? Where were the rest of her friends? The desperation rising inside her pushed her much faster to where she thought the girl went under the water.

Holding her breath and diving under the waves the saltwater stung her eyes, and the roar of the waves in her ears was loud. The sand rose from the sea bed clouding the water, and then, her hand touched an arm grabbing it tightly she pushed up through the waves and hauled the girl up into her arms. She was still conscious and once her face was out of the water she coughed and began to cry.

“It’s okay, you’re safe now.” Millie trod water and patted her back as she coughed more sea water up.

She knew how the young girl felt, the twins had pushed her into the lake in the park when she was a child. Of course they said it was an accident or so they told the man who had rescued her. She knew it wasn’t and as a result Millie had asked her grandmother for swimming lessons. She would be prepared the next time the twins tried drowning her. As a result Millie was an excellent swimmer and had won medals in the local and national competitions.

“Let’s get you back to the beach,” she said, holding the girl on her back so she could swim to the shore. It didn’t take long for Millie to reach the golden sands, and as she helped the girl sit on the beach to recover, she heard a man shouting.

“Lucy!” The man ran down the wooden steps and along the beach towards them.

“Is that your dad?”

The girl coughed again and shook her head.

Millie glared as he ran up to them, perhaps he was the male nanny or au pair; she had read about them on the net. They were supposedly better than the female ones, not spending hours in the bathroom or checking social media all the time and not sneaking in their boyfriends.

Well, just wait until she’d finished with him, he would get the sharp edge of her tongue.

“Nick!” the girl cried, “I’m sorry I didn’t wait for you.” she said as she burst into tears again.

The man dropped to his knees and took her from Millie, wrapping her in his arms hugging her and comforting her.

“What were you doing allowing a young girl on a Lilo into the sea by herself?” Millie tried to keep her tone conversational so as not to upset the girl even more, but even to her own ears she sounded almost hysterical. His sunglasses hid his eyes and his baseball cap pulled down low, which didn’t leave much of his face to be seen. He had beautiful lips though and looking at his neatly bristled chin made her resident butterflies soar in flight.

“Too busy lifting weights and topping up your tan to keep an eye on her?” She said and ignoring the aerobatic show going on inside her. “Have you seen the sea today? Have you seen how big those waves are? You would have to be a strong and excellent swimmer to be out there this morning.”

Millie eyed up the broad shoulders. dark gold tan and the muscles in his arms. Her breath caught in her throat as she stared at the dark blue cotton vest that seemed to be sprayed against his strong looking back.

This man was... breathtaking! Her hand moved towards him. His skin would be warm and smooth, silky even, and she could almost feel it. To have those strong powerful arms holding her, his face buried into her neck, the scruff on his chin sharp, but sensual against her neck. A gull shrieked just above them and brought Millie out of her daydream. Bloody hell her hand was almost touching him! She huffed at her own stupidity and snatched her hand away from him.

“Well,” she huffed again, “Maybe you male nannies aren’t such a good thing after all. I’ve a good mind to call the police and get them to charge you with neglect of a minor! You’ll never work as a nanny or an au pair again if I have anything to do with it.”

The man got to his feet and picked the girl up in his arms, and Millie had to look right up to see his face. He shook his head and held the girl tighter.

“Thank you,” he said. His voice reminded her of warm melted chocolate with a little grated coconut mixed in. He was entirely edible. “Will you come up to the house?"

There was nothing in the world that Millie wanted more than to go up those wooden steps and spend some time with him. They stared at each other and then he turned and ran back up the steps to the top of the cliff.

Almost crying at her own stupidity for not taking him up on his offer she yelled out “Stupid irresponsible idiot!” She snatched her dress up and shook the sand from it. “Miserable man,” she snapped to a passing seagull.

Pulling her sundress back on, she picked up her sandals and sunglasses and she stormed back over the rock pools and onto the public beach. She had a good mind to find the police station and report him, but then, she would miss the start of the castle tour, and he would be bound take more care after this, he was terrified for the girl and at least she would never put herself in danger like that again.

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