Page 11 of Christmas at the Little Cornish Bakery

Before she could say anything else, before he could reach her, Lola slipped off her stool, putting some distance between them.

Tristan watched her, puzzled and full of a frustration she recognised.

It was a distance she immediately regretted.

Lola liked him more than she wanted to admit, but watching him from across her kitchen, the thought of giving in to those feelings sent fear coursing through her veins.

He was so perfect, so kind and gentle, she ached to take his hand back, pull him close, see what would happen, but she was frozen to the spot with fear.

Her heart beat a frantic tattoo as if to warn her of the danger of getting involved romantically with him.

Friends , she repeated to herself, best to remain as friends .

‘So,’ she fished for something to say, ‘I take it a palm reading isn’t why you really came here tonight . . .’

Tristan was looking at his palm as if puzzled by what had made Lola back away.

Composing himself, he stood up and walked towards her.

‘No. It wasn’t, but it’s been entertaining.

Sorry, that sounds as if I’m dismissing your skills, I’m not .

. .’ He stopped himself from blabbering on any further.

‘I came here to tell you that I’ve been investigating the fishing disaster. ’

‘Oh! Go on.’ Lola tightened her apron strings as if to secure herself against making a move on Tristan.

Tristan paused as he took in the bags of dried fruit and bowls on the kitchen island. ‘What’s all this? I’m not interrupting anything, am I?’

‘Of course you’re not. I’m going to prep the fruit for the Christmas cakes. I need to soak it overnight in brandy so that I can start getting the cakes baked tomorrow. I’ve had thirty orders already, can you believe it? It’s only been one week.’ She felt safer back on home turf.

‘Wow, that’s a lot of cake.’ Tristan looked impressed.

‘I’m in for a long night,’ Lola sighed.

‘Well, would you like some help?’

Lola sized him up. ‘You mean it? You don’t have any pressing parish business to attend to?’

He gave her his gorgeous lopsided smile. ‘No, anyway, there can’t be anything more pressing than helping provide Polcarrow with cake, which I secretly think is the most important job.’

Lola clapped her hands together in delight. ‘Excellent, as long as you don’t mind a bit of Christmas music to get us, erm, in the mood.’

‘Not at all. It’s November, I think Christmas music is now acceptable,’ he said as he followed her instructions to wash his hands.

Lola laughed and rifled through the aprons on the back of the door.

Slightly relieved they’d returned to their easy chatter.

‘Let’s get you kitted up. Then you can tell me what you’ve found out.

’ She passed him a faded blue and white striped apron and watched as he put it over his head and attempted to fasten the ties.

After a few moments of struggling, Lola stepped forward and, giggling, offered, ‘Let me help.’

Before she could even think about what she was doing Lola reached around Tristan’s waist to grab the apron strings.

Her breath caught. There was something nice and solid about him, dependable, that made her want to keep her arms wrapped around him and never let go.

As he glanced down, she looked up and knew he’d always protect her.

Despite her earlier reservations, the urge to snuggle in against him was strong.

She quickly looped the strings and tied them in a bow.

Having secured his apron, Lola stepped back, flustered; at this rate she would need to open the windows to cool off for more than just the baking.

She risked a glance back at Tristan. He was watching her, the same look in his eyes from when they’d been perched on the stools.

Breaking the tension, she grabbed an industrial-size tub of glacé cherries and passed them to him.

‘I need you to weigh these out and then chop them up. Quarters will be fine. It’ll be sticky work, so roll your sleeves up.’ She peered at her recipe. ‘Actually, on second thoughts just do the whole lot.’

Tristan prised the lid off and looked at the glistening, sticky cherries and she wondered if he’d changed his mind. Instead, he announced, ‘I loved these as a child. I’d sneak them out of the cupboard along with those little jelly sugared diamond things you used to get.’

‘Oh yes, I remember them! I’ll have to investigate and see if I can get them, they’d look cute on fairy cakes.’ A wave of affection washed over her as they set about their tasks in companiable silence. She watched Tristan concentrating as he carefully cut up the cherries.

‘Actually, this is fun, I’ve not baked anything since school. We made pineapple upside down cake.’

‘I love pineapple upside down cake!’ Lola gasped. ‘I’ve not had one of those in years! I’ll have to add it to the New Year menu.’

Tristan smiled at her then a thought occurred to him. ‘Don’t. I’ll have a go at baking one, one day, when I get time.’

Lola laughed. ‘Seriously?’

‘Yes, seriously, it’ll be good to try something different, have a challenge. You’re always willing to help others, Lola, it’s time to let someone do something for you.’

The gentle kindness in his voice caught in Lola’s heart.

Kindness had been lacking in her life for so long she’d hardly noticed its absence until she arrived in Polcarrow, where it has been bestowed on her by Alf, Tristan and Sue as they welcomed her into their fold.

Taking a moment to compose herself, she reached into the cupboard and lifted down two bottles of brandy.

‘Thank you, I’ll look forward to it,’ was all she said, her feelings for Tristan blooming a little bit more.

‘So, what have you dug up?’ she asked before cringing at the phrase.

‘I was looking into those who were involved in the fishing accident. Actually, I was trying to see if there’s any photos, see if I could identify any of the young men in your photo with Ruby. It was only a few months after Ruby was here.’

A chill crept down Lola’s back. ‘Did you find anything?’

Tristan shook his head. ‘No, sadly not, which is a shame, it’d be nice to honour the men properly, give them a place in local history.

It’s almost as if someone has tried to wipe it clean.

We know Charles, Alf’s older brother, was on the boat.

With him were four other young men. They went out to fish and the weather turned in a freak storm and they were all lost. Their bodies were never recovered, which is why there’s the communal memorial in the churchyard.

I cannot imagine what that would have been like.

All of those young lads with their lives ahead of them.

One left a young widow, but the others don’t appear to have married yet,’ Tristan said sadly.

‘Oh gosh,’ Lola whispered, ‘that’s heart-breaking. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for the village.’

‘A tragedy for the entire community. It looks like the steady decline of the fishing trade happened afterwards. It must have been so hard for Alf to go out to sea after that.’

‘He is made of very hardy stuff, but now he seems a lot hardier than I ever thought. No wonder he’s always keen to look to the future and doesn’t dwell on things.

’ Lola paused before asking, ‘I keep toying with asking him how he knew Ruby. Because he clearly did. But at the same time I don’t want to upset him.

’ She paused. ‘I’m savouring her diary, I’ve only got as far as her coming to Cornwall, but the entry I’ve just read confirms she came here.

Even more bizarre is that I think she stayed at Bayview! ’

Tristan stopped his cherry chopping. ‘Lola, that’s amazing, surreal, but amazing.’ He paused, ‘I have to ask, how come you are reading it bit by bit? If it was me I’d have raced through it. Or skipped to the end,’ he admitted.

‘Tristan!’ Lola gasped. ‘you cannot skip to the end! Please don’t tell me you’re one of those heathens who reads the end of a book first?’

He looked slightly guilty. ‘Erm .?.?. maybe .?.?. but go on, why haven’t you skipped to the end?’

Lola opened her mouth, closed it before sighing. ‘It sounds silly.’

‘Nothing you say could ever sound silly to me,’ Tristian said gently.

Lola studied him and seeing that he meant it began, ‘It’s just, well, Nannie Ruby and I had such a close relationship.

She looked after me, maybe raised me more than my mum did.

I grew up with one version of her and now this diary feels like her, but also a different person.

It’s hard to read how dismissive she was of Grandad.

He was really good to her, gave her a nice life.

I know they had a long, happy relationship, but .

.?. it’s a different Ruby. One I never knew anything about.

I wonder if I should even be reading the diary. ’

Tristan considered this before asking, ‘What are you afraid of?’

‘Afraid of?’ Lola stepped back from the question, wondering how on earth he could read her so well, before giving in.

‘I’m afraid to find out my grandmother was the baddie in the story.

There’s the ring. What if she broke someone’s heart?

I’ve worshipped her for so long but now I realise there is so much I didn’t know about her, about her youth, and it seems so strange to think she was here, that Alf might have known her. ’