Page 98 of A Secret Cornish Wish
The café looks beautiful when we arrive at Morvoren Cove that evening.
The sun has just started to set, so the soft white twinkling lights that are hung all around the outside of the restaurant look even prettier as they light up not only the party venue, but the surrounding beach as well.
I hesitate as Claire, Alice and Rosie move forward to enter the party.
‘Mum?’ Rosie looks up at me.
‘It’s going to be fine, Frankie,’ Claire says with a confidence I’m not feeling at all. ‘You look fabulous tonight. Hold your head high. Our achievements are those accompanying us, remember?’
I nod and take a deep breath.
‘Let’s go.’
We walk together into the party. Inside there are already a lot of guests milling around. Most of them are holding drinks in their hands, chatting in small groups, or sitting at tables with pristine white cloths and small posies of flowers on the top. The dining tables that usually fill the restaurant space have been pushed back and a temporary wooden dance floor has been erected in the centre of the large room.
‘Gosh, this is fancier than I expected,’ I say, looking around. ‘It looks more like a wedding than a fortieth birthday party.’
‘Frankie!’ Eddie comes bounding across the wooden floor. ‘I’m so pleased you made it.’
He gives me a huge hug, then he kisses me on each cheek.
‘You look fabulous, darling. As do you, my lovely Claire. And Alice . . . You got it goin’ on, girl!’ he says, waving his hand over her as Alice grins at him. ‘And this must be little Rosie? Golly, not so little now. How are you, beautiful girl?’ He shakes her hand formally. ‘It’s so lovely to see you again.’
‘This is for you,’ Rosie says solemnly, holding up my painting still wrapped in brown paper. ‘Mum did it.’
‘Let’s just put it on the table over there with the other gifts,’ I say hurriedly. ‘I’m sure Eddie doesn’t want to look at it now.’
‘On the contrary! I do want to look at it now. A painting by the one and only Frances Harris? Come, let’s put it over there on the table near the dance floor so I can see it in all its glory.’
Feeling like everyone is staring at us, I quickly follow Rosie and Eddie across the dance floor. Eddie places my painting on top of the white cloth and begins to carefully unwrap it, all the time talking about how he’s always wanted one of my paintings to hang on his wall, and joking that if it’s terrible he can just hang it in his downstairs toilet.
But when he finally gets all the protective paper off, Eddie is silent for once.
‘Don’t you like it?’ Rosie asks, slicing through the silence like a knife through butter.
I close my eyes. I knew this would happen. Why couldn’t Eddie have waited until he opened all his other gifts? Now everyone would know he hated it. I just want to drop through the floorboards and escape this embarrassment. I knew I should never have given Eddie this as a gift, I should have just brought a bottle of something like everyone else did by the look of all the bottle bags on the gift table.
But when I open them again. Eddie is holding up the painting so he can get a better look at it.
‘It . . . it’s wonderful,’ he says, his voice quivering. ‘It’s everything I love. All there in one painting.’
My heart lifts from where it’s been stuck in my black velvet shoes for the last few seconds. ‘Do you really like it?’ I ask quietly. ‘You’re not just saying that?’
‘No, of course I’m not. Honestly, Frankie, it’s amazing.’
The picture I’ve painted is of Morvoren Cove. The café features heavily in the foreground, against a backdrop of the beach and the sea.
‘You even put Dexter in there serving a customer,’ Eddie says, still examining the painting. ‘And is that me clearing one of the outside tables?’
‘It is.’
Eddie continues to examine the painting. ‘Wait until Dexter sees this – he’s going to be just as amazed and delighted as I am. Oh . . . ’ Eddie’s eyes stop scanning my painting for a moment. ‘Is that what I think it is in the sea?’
‘Yes.’
‘Oh, Frankie,’ Eddie says. ‘You have no idea how perfect this is.’
I thought long and hard about adding the addition of a mermaid’s tail in the sea. In fact, I painted over it twice and then added it again when I changed my mind. The tail is small, and you have to look quite closely to see it poking out over the top of one of the waves. But it’s there, and now I’m pleased I let it stay.
