Page 3 of Christmas at Sturcombe Bay (Sturcombe Bay Romances #3)

Jess slept badly and woke late. She lay for a long time, staring up at the sloping ceiling, her mind churning with the memory of how she had woken just twenty-four hours ago. If she hadn’t picked up the phone and seen those messages . . .

But then she wouldn’t have known about Glenn’s latest sleazy behaviour, and would have ended up married to him — which was a far worse proposition than not being married to him.

At last she dragged herself out of bed and slipped across to the bathroom, then pulled on some clothes and wandered downstairs.

She found her sister in the small office next to the sitting room in the main part of the house. This was where she managed all the administration for the family’s veterinary practices.

Julia looked up and smiled. “Good morning, honey. How did you sleep?”

“Pretty well.” Jess’s mouth quirked into a wry smile. “No, actually I didn’t. But I’ll be okay.”

Julia came round the desk to hug her. “You can’t expect it to be fine all at once. It’s been a big shock and upheaval. It’ll take time to get over it.”

“Yes.” No tears now — they’d probably all been used up. Anyway, she had things to do, there was no time for wallowing. “Can I link my laptop into your Wi-Fi? I’ve got a load of messages to send out, cancelling everything.”

“Of course. I’ll give you the password. Have you had breakfast?”

Jess shook her head. “I don’t really want anything. Maybe just a coffee.”

“I’ll make it. I could do with one myself. And some toast. You really ought to eat something. Don’t give Sleazy Glenn the Dick Pic Dick the satisfaction of seeing you waste away.”

Jess managed a laugh. “Okay, just one slice. And a couple of Aspirin if you have them.”

“Right. If you want to set up your laptop in here, just clear that stuff off the table there. It can go on the bookshelf.”

“Fine.” She drew in a long, calming breath. “Thanks.”

It wasn’t a very pleasant way to spend a morning. Messages came pinging back from the guests who had been invited to the wedding — sympathetic, discreetly curious. She had planned a script for responding which gave a brief explanation, but not the whole story.

Her mother, predictably, was the hardest. She couldn’t do that one by email — it had to be a phone call.

She put it off till last, but it had to be faced.

If her mother heard the news from another source, she’d never hear the end of it.

She dialled the number, and gritted her teeth through the lengthy diatribe that came down the line to her.

Julia glanced over with a sympathetic smile as she finally put the phone down and rubbed her ear. “What did she say? No, let me guess. I told you so. They’re all the same. Just like your father. You’re better off without him?”

“Something like that.”

“How about the rest?”

“Not good.” Jess smiled crookedly. “Cancelling so late means that we’re going to lose our deposits. That’s a few thousand quid down the drain.”

“Better that than being married to that scumbag, though.”

“Too right.”

“Has he been in touch?”

Jess rolled her eyes. “There’s a string of emails from him. I haven’t opened any of them.”

Julia laid a hand on her shoulder. “Do you want me to look at them?”

“No . . . Yes. Tell him not to contact me.” She huffed out an angry breath.

“Tell him I’ve notified everyone and cancelled everything.

I’ve pulled my half of the savings out of the joint account we had for wedding expenses, and taken my name off it — though I’ll pay my share of the bills, of course. ”

“Okay.”

Jess moved out of the chair so that her sister could sit down at the laptop.

“I’ve cancelled the business insurance on the car, too, and taken out my own. The only thing I want from him is to transfer my car into my name from the business.”

“Right. I’m on it.”

Jess stood behind Julia, watching as she scrolled through the dozen or more emails Glenn had sent.

“I’m sorry . . . blah blah blah . . . Please come home so we can talk about it .

. . blah blah blah . . . Everyone’s ringing me to find out what’s going on .

. . Oh, you poor thing.” Julia’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

“Are you getting hassle over it? All the rest are pretty much in the same vein. Ah, here’s an interesting one.

” She laughed as she read it. “He’s forgotten the password for the office computer! ”

“Tell him he can have it when he’s signed the car over.”

“Right.”

Julia tapped out a reply with swift fingers. This is Jessica’s sister Julia . . . When she had finished, she clicked on ‘send’. “There, that’s it. All done.”

“Thank you.” Jess managed a smile. The headache that had lingered since yesterday was slowly easing at last. “Do you want a coffee?”

“I’ll tell you what, let’s get out of here for a while. Why don’t we pop over to the hotel and have one? It’s lovely sitting out on the terrace over there.”

“Okay. Sounds like a plan.”

It was a bright sunny day, but the slight chill in the air warned that it was already well into October, and Jess was glad of her thick sweater.

She’d been to the hotel several times — Julia’s wedding reception had been held there, and sometimes they’d dined in the restaurant when she’d come down to visit.

The place had probably seen better days. The wooden floor in reception was a bit scuffed and the carpet in the lounge was showing signs of wear. But the view from the terrace made up for everything.

The bay spread out to the far horizon, a pure sapphire blue, sparkling beneath the clear blue sky. The red-gold beach curved in a long arc from the rocks beneath the hotel, past the village of Sturcombe nestled in its dip of green hills, to the russet cliffs on the far side.

Although the main season was over there were still quite a few holidaymakers strolling along the Esplanade, past the amusement arcade, the fish and chip shop, the beach shop and the CupCake Café — mostly older people or families with children not yet in school.

Jess sat down at one of the tables with her coffee, leaning back, closing her eyes and breathing in the cool, fresh sea air. “Ah, this is good.”

“Isn’t it? I love it here.”

“I’m not surprised. It must get packed with tourists in the summer, though.”

“Well, yes, quite a few. Then in the winter it’s almost dead. But that’s how it is with seaside towns.”

“I suppose so. What do people do for jobs in the winter?”

Julia laughed. “Not much, once the tourist season’s over.

There’s a bit of farming, but that doesn’t employ many people.

There’s Tom Cullen’s organic animal-feed business, and a couple of small factories still going on the industrial estate on the edge of the village.

Some people commute into town, or even Exeter or Plymouth. But a lot have to move away.”

“That’s a shame.”

“It’s the same with housing. A lot of places have been sold off as second homes that are only lived in for a few weeks of the year, or they’re Airbnbs or guest houses. So local people get priced out.” She shrugged. “Ah. Well. It is what it is.”

Jess nodded, sipping her coffee. She hadn’t given much thought to her own future plans yet, but she was going to need a job, and somewhere to live. She couldn’t freeload from her sister for ever. But any thought of staying here in this pretty village looked like it would be a non-starter.

“Hi, mind if I join you?”

Julia glanced up as a smiling dark-haired young woman strolled out onto the terrace. “Oh, hi, Lisa. Of course. Come and sit down. Do you remember my sister, Jess?”

“Of course.” The other woman laughed merrily. “It would be hard to forget you, seeing your living image around the place most days. I bet you had fun when you were kids, swapping places.”

“We did.” Jess’s eyes danced. “We used to drive the teachers crazy. They tried to insist that Mum put us in different colour jumpers, but we used to just swap them over.”

Lisa shook her head. “You must have been a nightmare, the pair of you.”

“We were.”

“Where’s the baby?” Julia asked.

“With my mum. I just popped down to help out for a while. With Vicky still on her honeymoon and the student temps back at university we’re a bit short.

Fortunately it’s quiet at the moment. A lot of our custom at this time of year comes from the golfers,” she explained to Jess.

“But there’s a big tournament this weekend up at Wentworth.

Even the ones who aren’t playing will have gone to watch. ”

“Do you get many guests apart from the golfers?” Jess asked.

“Not many.” Lisa smiled wryly. “Not enough. We’re struggling a bit, like a lot of seaside hotels. Those sort of holidays have pretty much had their day.”

“I suppose so.” Jess glanced around at the terrace and the white-painted building behind it, a rambling jumble of buildings and extensions, with a white-framed conservatory wrapped around two sides, and a lush garden full of semi-tropical palm trees and flowering shrubs.

“It’s a shame, though. It’s a nice hotel. ”

“It is, or it would be if the owners would put a bit of money and effort into it.”

“Who owns it?”

“Some investment trust — bean counters. They don’t seem to care about it at all.”

“It looks pretty old.”

“It is. This main part was built in 1860 something, a bit before my parents’ house was built.” She pointed to the row of tall Victorian townhouses which climbed the hill on the far side of the bay, from the Esplanade up to the caravan site on the cliffs.

“Wasn’t it taken over by the army during the war?” Julia remarked.

“That’s right; some kind of recuperation centre for injured pilots.

Then after the war they just abandoned it, and it was pretty much left to fall apart before it was bought up by a big hotel chain.

It’s changed hands a few times since then.

Unfortunately, most of the owners haven’t been too bothered about the place, so it’s been a bit neglected over the years. ”