Page 22 of The Cornish Cream Tea Bookshop
It had felt good walking into A New Chapter after her meeting with Max, with a solid selection of self-service coffee machines to show Thea. She felt as if she’d survived, somehow. She hadn’t jumped on him, she had remained professional, and they’d had fun, even looking through a fairly dry catalogue. But she’d also done what she needed to, and it showed Thea that she could be dependable, that her skills weren’t just about conjuring up event ideas.
The next morning, with Thea in the office and Becky dealing with new stock, Ollie spent time serving customers. She smiled at two women who came in with damp hair, which made her think of Meredith, and her love of sea swimming. She shivered just as one of them came up to the counter.
‘Excuse me, do you have the latest Ruth Ware book in stock?’
‘Do you meanThe It Girl?’Ollie asked.‘It’s so brilliant.’
‘That’s the one. My partner’s a big fan, but he hasn’t read that one yet.’
‘Let me see if we have it. If not, we can order it in and it should arrive in the next couple of days.’ Ollie clicked through the system on the computer, checking their stock levels.
‘Thank you,’ the woman said, then added, ‘You’re new here.’
‘That’s right. This is my second week.’
‘Not Cornish, though.’
Ollie looked up. ‘Yorkshire born and bred, but I lived in London for over a decade. Now I’m trying out Cornwall.’
The woman nodded. ‘There’s often resistance to incomers turning the place upside down, but new blood isn’t always a bad thing. We wouldn’t have this place if it weren’t for Thea.’
‘I hope I can make a difference too.’
‘In what way?’ The woman raised an eyebrow. ‘What do you bring to the table?’
‘Years of experience, endless enthusiasm and some great publishing contacts.’
The customer smiled. ‘I like a woman who knows what she’s worth and isn’t ashamed to announce it.’
Ollie laughed. ‘What’s the point of keeping it hidden? There are too many demands on everyone’s time for us to figure each other out without help.’
‘Stand out from the crowd.’ The woman nodded. ‘Who gets to the end of their life and says, “I wish I’d made less of an impact?”’
Ollie grinned. ‘Too true. Oh, here we are. We can have it in for you by Friday, if that’s any good?’
‘Ideal. Thank you.’
‘No problem.’ Ollie took the woman’s details, and ordered the book in. At least, she thought, as the customer went to join her friend, not everyone was against her being here.In fact, it was only Becky’s disapproval she’d come up against, and that had faded since the first day.
She wanted her presence to be a blessing rather than a curse. What she didn’t want was to end up as one of the legends in Liam’s compact tome: the woman hounded out of Port Karadow for imposing her city views, left to die an undignified death in the icy harbour, her ghost rising every night as darkness fell, terrifying people out getting fish and chips as she gave them book recommendations from beyond the grave.
The thought reminded her that she needed to talk to Thea about her ghost walk idea. There wasn’t any time to lose: Halloween was five days away.
‘We can absolutely get a well-known author here for the Christmas event,’ Ollie said, several hours later. ‘Anyone would be lucky to have an invite from us.’
Thea sat forward. ‘I appreciate your confidence, but it’s a long way to come from London, for just a few hours. What would we be offeringthem?’
They were upstairs, in the not-quite-finished events space, rain beating against the large windows. The spotlights in the ceiling and the fairy lights Ollie had bought made it seem bright and cosy, so that she could almost pretend there was no rainstorm, that she wasn’t going to get drenched on her walk home.
‘We’d be offering them a beautiful Cornwall location and a twinkly, atmospheric event, full of book lovers dying to lap up their latest novel. I know you think it’s a big ask, but if we pick an author who sets their books here, then of course they’ll be keen!’
‘We could pick someone who already lives nearby. Fern Britton, Liz Fenwick or Veronica Henry. One of them would be amazing!’ Thea’s eyes lit up.
‘They would be great, of course: the audience is ready made. But what if we were even more daring? What if we went with someone who doesn’t live nearby; who doesn’t come here very often. Someone unexpected!’
Thea’s expression didn’t match the excitement Ollie was hoping to inspire. ‘I’m not sure.’
‘Let me have a think, give a few people a call and see what’s possible.’ Ollie’s list of publicity contacts wasn’t massive, and it was likely to be out of date now. But Thea didn’t need to know that, and there were a couple of people she thought she could rely on. They just needed to fix on the perfect author: someone who was a big draw but was also approachable, and who would be happy to travel to Port Karadow close to Christmas Day.
