Page 36 of A Fresh Start on Crumcarey
‘What have you got there?’ said Stella, sinking down next to him on the stone.
‘Oh!’ said Luke, looking up in surprise. He hadn’t heard her approaching. Frank was making his way over from the van too, bearing his 99 complete with a flake and plenty of gooey fudge sauce. ‘You guys on a break?’ he said, rather than answering her question. Maggie had entrusted her drawings to him… but she hadn’t given him permission to show them around.
‘A much-needed break!’ said Frank, sinking down on the other side of him so that he was sandwiched between them.
‘Here,’ said Stella, removing the plastic box from his lap and then taking the wad of drawings from him so that he could hold his ice cream.
‘Cheers!’ said Luke.
Well… it would be rude to try and hide them now, wouldn’t it?!
Hopefully, Maggie wouldn’t mind. He didn’t know her that well yet, but he didn’t think she would.
‘Wow!’ said Stella, glancing down at the top drawing. ‘Luke, where did you get these?’
‘Maggie,’ he said through a thick mouthful of ice cream and sauce.
‘The lass at Brae Burn?’ said Stella.
‘The place they renamed Pear Tree Cottage?’ said Frank.
Stella snorted – clearly, she disliked the new name as much as Maggie did. ‘Aye, that’s her,’ said Luke, watching as Stella carefully looked through the drawings, one page at a time, before handing them over to Frank.
Luke winced slightly as the top page picked up a tiny drop of fudge sauce on its way past. Frank quickly whipped out a clean handkerchief and dabbed at it.
Oops, he’d have some explaining to do!
‘Sorry!’ said Stella. ‘Erm… maybe tell her that’s her coupon for two free ice creams?’
‘I will!’ Luke laughed.
‘These are really something,’ said Frank.
‘Right?’ agreed Stella. ‘I love them. Can you tell her we love them?’
‘Erm… sure?’ said Luke.
‘I mean… I don’t really know her, but she’s clearly a natural,’ said Stella. ‘I know she’s only just starting to brave the rest of us, and she’s had that disaster at her cottage, but do you think she might have time to come and look at our place?’
‘Great idea!’ said Frank, nodding enthusiastically without taking his eyes off the drawings in his hands. ‘Our place isn’t anywhere near as bad as Maggie’s, but we just don’t have any ideas about what to do with it.’
‘We like small, cosy spaces,’ said Stella, ‘like the van. So we don’t want to open it up like a few other people have done on the island.’
‘Open plan… yuck!’ said Frank with an exaggerated shudder.
Stella snorted. ‘Yeah, I agree. But there’s something about the layout at our place that doesn’t really make sense, and we’re useless – we can’t figure out what needs to change to make it right.’
‘And judging by these… Maggie might just have some ideas,’ said Frank.
‘Well, I can ask her – no harm in that, right?’ said Luke.
CHAPTER 17
MAGGIE
Maggie was having another fantastic day at The Tallyaff. She might only be on her third shift, but she’d already reached the point where she couldn’t imagine life without her new job. How had she survived so long with so little human contact?
After Luke and Mr Harris’s island-wide call for help the previous day, the floodgates had opened. People had been bouncing up to Maggie all morning, offering building supplies and all manner of things to help make Pear Tree Cottage a bit more cosy and weatherproof – plus tea and sympathy whenever needed it.
