Page 23 of A Summer Scandal

‘So we’re both pretty normal, despite our frankly salacious line of work,’ she said, trying not to let herself imagine Cal in fetish gear.

‘Don’t tell anyone though,’ he said. ‘Far more fun to be talked about.’

Violet wasn’t sure she agreed there, but then it appeared that he’d had far more practice at it than she had. If she’d known she was walking into a town with attitudes buttoned up tighter than Queen Victoria’s corsets, she might have thought twice about moving here at all.

‘Will you come to the meeting?’

The same look crossed his face as downstairs earlier with Keris, one that suggested there were things Violet didn’t know.

‘Barty’s coming,’ she said. ‘We could go for a drink afterwards, my shout?’

He sighed. ‘How can I say no to a mermaid?’

Violet smiled, complimented, reminded of her bedroom across the hallway. ‘You can’t?’

He picked up his overalls from the back of a chair. ‘I’m going to strip off now. You should probably go before you’re overcome with unstoppable lust.’

For a second, she didn’t move, and in that same second, they eyed each other more seriously than either of them expected. Then he reached for the hem of his T-shirt and started counting backwards from three, so Violet shot out of the apartment, shouting that he should meet her and Barty in the lobby to go to the meeting later as she left.

‘And thank you for lunch too!’ she called belatedly, slamming his door as she headed back to her side of the building. Full of jangling nerves, she sat down to work, her mind on the man across the hall doing the same, and more ominously on the meeting in the parish hall about her pier.

‘It’s mine and you can’t take it from me,’ she muttered into the quiet room. ‘Don’t worry, Gran. I’ve got this.’

CHAPTER SEVEN

Some people might have chosen to dress conservatively, to present as plain and respectable a presence as possible in the circumstances. Violet, however, wasn’t some people. Her clothes were her armour, and she chose to go into battle wearing a scarlet dungaree mini dress over a long-sleeved T-shirt and stripy tights. None of it matched with her hair.

‘You look fabulous!’ Keris said, already in the lower lobby when Violet made her way downstairs. Barty threw a jaunty wave over his shoulder at her as he locked his door. He was dressed as he’d been on the morning Violet first met him, long coat and fedora. His granddaughter shared his tall frame, and had an infectious energy about her that Violet found herself drawn to and encouraged by.

‘Cal’s running late.’ Keris glanced at her phone. ‘He texted just now to say he’ll meet us there.’

Vi nodded. She’d tapped on his door a couple of minutes ago and found him out, and although he hadn’t expressly agreed to come to the meeting with them, she’d felt her heart sink because she wanted him there on her side. She paused also to momentarily wonder at the relationship between Keris and Cal again; they seemed pretty close.

Looking from Barty to Keris, she put her chin in the air. ‘Come on then. Let’s do this.’

Violet offered to drive, but Barty said he’d rather stretch his legs and it was only ten minutes along the seafront, so why bother? Besides, he said, he wanted to walk in there with the two best girls in Swallow Beach on his arms, so Violet had slipped the car keys into her bag and hooked her arm through the one he offered.

It turned out that it wasn’t far, and by the time they arrived he’d had them both laughing with a story about a new woman who’d moved into the local residential home and tried to feel his bum at the tea dance that afternoon. Maureen, by all accounts, was a frisky one for a woman in her nineties.

‘Best feet forward, girls,’ Barty said, removing his fedora as he held the door open for them to go in ahead of him. Violet followed Keris into the wooden-clad hall built on the side of the church.

‘Keep your coat on, the heating never works in here,’ Keris said, leading them through a set of double doors into the main room, which looked like pretty much every other local church hall up and down the land. Scuffed wooden floor, magnolia walls, plastic chairs piled around the edges. Except some of those chairs had been hastily dragged down and arranged in lines, and a gathering of perhaps twenty or so people were assembled there. Vi scanned the faces for Cal, but he wasn’t there. She wasn’t surprised, but she really hoped he’d try to make it, even if he was late; she needed as many people on her side as possible.

‘Usual suspects,’ Keris whispered, saying a few hellos as she led them to an empty row of chairs in the safety of the middle of the gathering.

Curious eyes turned to look at Violet as she settled into her seat next to Keris. She tried her best to meet their eyes and smile; Della had taught her the value of first impressions and she badly wanted these people to warm to her.

‘Showtime,’ Barty said, sliding into the row on Keris’s other side, nodding towards a side door at the front of the hall. Following his nod, Violet found herself looking at the floral blouse of Swallow Beach’s Mayoress, her official mayoral chains rattling around her neck as she placed her huge briefcase on a side table and made a show of unsnapping the catches. Shuffling her folders, she took her place at the lectern. Given that most people were looking at her there really wasn’t any need to bang the gavel, but she gave it several good thumps just for effect anyway.

‘Order in the room please,’ she said. ‘Order in the room.’

The general hubbub hushed, and Mayoress No-name laid the gavel down slowly and looked around from face to face until she found Violet and narrowed her eyes.

‘Psyching you out,’ Keris muttered. ‘Don’t look away first.’

Violet wasn’t about to.

‘Thank you all for coming at short notice tonight, it’s good to see so many concerned faces here.’

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