High Tides and Summer Skies

Jennifer Bohnet

Description

New beginnings don’t always mean painful endings . . .

A fabulous, timeless story of friendship set in Devon from bestselling author Jennifer Bohnet

As time ebbs and flows over the summer both Katie Teague and her godmother Mattie Cranford discover their lives are at a crossroads

Mattie shackled to the family wool shop for over 50 years, feels life has passed her by. She dreams of seeing the world and shaking off a lifetime of regrets.

When Katie is made redundant, Mattie seizes the moment and asks Katie to move back to her home town of Dartmouth and breathe new life into the rundown wool shop and to her surprise Katie agrees.

As Katie settles back into the rhythm of Devon life and renovating the shop, Mattie sets off on a luxury cruise.

But the arrival of Katie’s ex-boyfriend with an unexpected dream job offer threatens to unsettle the calm waters.

Will she sacrifice the shop and Mattie’s happiness - or her own career?

Previously published as Shadows of Conflict

Praise for Jennifer Bohnet

'Unputdownable, a heart-warming story of love, family and friendship in the glorious south of France. What’s not to love!' - Lucy Coleman

'I couldn’t stop myself from turning the pages and read it in one sitting. I absolutely loved it. Highly recommended!' - Alison Sherlock

A beautifully written and heart-warming tale of family and friendship' - Jessica Redland

'There is much joy in this story, tempered with some bittersweet memories, but I can promise that you’ll be left feeling both joyous and uplifted. Highly recommended.' - Reader Review

'No surprises here. Just two sweet romances in a dream-come-true story. Not soppy sweet, just charmingly so. Perfect for a rainy day on the couch or a sunny day on a patio.' - Reader Review

Sujets

• Mashups
• Wholesome
• Women
• Friendship
• Contemporary history
• General officer
• Woman
• The Women
• General
• Clean
• Contemporary
• International
• Family Life
• Romance
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Boldwood Books
• Date de parution: 11 août 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785135941
• Langue: English

Extrait

HIGH TIDES AND SUMMER SKIES


JENNIFER BOHNET
For Richard, Emily and Nick with love.
CONTENTS



Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Epilogue


Acknowledgments

More from Jennifer Bohnet

About the Author

Also by Jennifer Bohnet

About Boldwood Books
PROLOGUE
2004

Mattie Cranford ended the unexpected phone call from her goddaughter, Katie, deep in thought, before walking across to stand in front of the window of her sitting room in Above Town, Dartmouth, and absently watching the activity on the River Dart. She’d been born in this house seventy years ago and had seen and known the river in all its guises – calm, choppy and, when the stormy south-westerly winds blew straight up the river, angry. This February afternoon, the wind was gusting down over the hills that surrounded the harbour and, with the outgoing tide, the river was running fast to the mouth. Mattie watched the tug of the lower car ferry battling its way across the waves from Kingswear on the opposite bank. There had been a few occasions in the past when the combination of tide and wind had carried the ferry almost out to the castle at the mouth of the estuary. Not today, though. Today the captain remained in control and safely brought the ferry with its cars and passengers alongside the Dartmouth landing slip.
There was a luxury three-tiered yacht moored to the huge black Harbour Commission buoy in the middle of the river, its French flag on the stern furling and unfurling itself around its pole as the gusts of wind flung it around. So many boats in the river these days, both British-registered and foreign. Mattie still remembered how empty the harbour had been after the war, as people struggled to come to terms with peace finally being achieved. So many lives lost, so many loved ones gone forever.
Mattie turned her head and glanced at the bottom cupboard of the sideboard where a certain box lived. The box that held so many memories of her sister Clara’s life, both happy and sad. The box that had made her cry when she’d found it after her mother’s death fifteen years ago. She’d never known of its existence. The contents, a motley collection of old letters, photos, a couple of paperbacks, a silver-backed hairbrush, a ration book, some old exercise books used as a diary, bits of jewellery and a 1944 guide to American towns. The A4-sized envelope that was on the bottom of the box contained some smaller, foreign envelopes holding a collection of handwritten letters. So little left behind of a life cut short by war. The diaries, when Mattie had steeled herself to read them, had made her cry as they brought back so many memories of her long-ago childhood and revealed the dreams and hopes of her big sister, which had been so cruelly shattered by the war.
Even now thinking about Clara after all these years, Mattie felt close to tears. From the day she’d learnt of Clara’s death, she’d always tried to mask her feelings in public from everyone about her sister. Her parents had told her it was better that way. ‘Stiff upper lip and all that.’ But it had been hard. At ten years old she’d adored her big sister and inwardly knew she’d miss her forever. And that had proved to be true.
Mattie smothered a sigh and turned back to the view. Six decades after the war, Dartmouth was thriving again, the ravages of an era when the whole country had suffered now largely forgotten by a younger generation who hadn’t lived through those years. Life had gone on regardless. Although if the truth were to be acknowledged, her own life had been a somewhat stagnated one. Something she’d started to realise only as she grew older, when the regrets over the things she’d never experienced, the places she’d never seen, the children she’d longed for but had never had, began to creep in. The world, it seemed, was everyone’s oyster these days and she had been left behind. An urgent need to get away and live a little before she was too old had recently rooted itself in her brain. Some would say that at seventy you are already too old to change things, but she pushed that thought away. She longed to see and join in a world outside of Dartmouth. It was too late for children, obviously, but there were still things out there waiting for her to explore. She was in good health; she could travel, meet people. Only one thing stood in her way like it always had done. The wool shop. A Good Yarn had held her captive all her life. Breaking free from its tentacles had proved impossible while her mother lived, and afterwards the familiarity of the place had become a safe cocoon and the years had gone past.
Earlier, as she’d commiserated with an upset Katie over her unexpected redundancy, Mattie had suggested she come for a holiday while she made plans and looked for a new job. An invitation Katie had seemed to jump at with the words, ‘Oh, coming home for a week is a wonderful idea. Now Mum and Dad live in Spain, I don’t get home often enough. Thank you. I’ll drive down tomorrow.’
A quiet whisper in Mattie’s head said, Maybe this could be your chance to escape and go on holiday too.
If Katie accepted the challenge Mattie intended to put to her in the next day or two, life for both of them would change.
With Katie’s help, would she finally be able to escape from A Good Yarn, and travel and see something of the world? Was this finally going to be her time? Or was it truly too late for her to live a little?
1

‘Take over your shop?’ Katie Teague said, looking at her godmother, Mattie. ‘Are you serious?’
‘Never more so. Shop needs dragging into the twenty-first century and I don’t have the energy to do that,’ Mattie said. Or the inclination , she could have added but didn’t, saying instead, ‘Besides, it’s more than time for me to retire.’
‘You’re not ill?’ Katie glanced at her sharply. Mattie didn’t look ill, but some people still looked in the best of health when they died, didn’t they?
‘Not ill – just tired. The shop needs a young person’s input. You need a job, don’t you? I promise not to interfere and I’ll give you a completely free hand to do what you want.’ Mattie replaced her teacup on its saucer. ‘In fact, I shall take my first ever summer holiday this year if you take over. More cream with that scone?’
The two of them were sitting on the terrace in Mattie’s secluded garden, overlooking the River Dart and enjoying the usual spread of food that Mattie considered essential for a proper Sunday afternoon tea: cucumber sandwiches, scones, Devonshire splits, clotted cream and her home-made strawberry jam. Bert, her Labradoodle, sat at their feet, ready to guzzle up any stray crumb that might come his way.
‘Oh, Mattie,’ Katie said. ‘I don’t know. I was planning on a couple of weeks’ holiday before sending off more job applications. I can’t say I’d even considered coming back here to live permanently.’
‘Well, think about it now. Give yourself a year to get A Good Yarn back into shape and then we’ll decide whether you take it on permanently – or whether we sell up and split the profits.’
‘Isn’t there anyone else willing to give you a hand?’ Katie asked.
‘There’s only Leo and somehow I don’t see him giving up his farm to run a shop.’
Katie smiled at the thought of Leo Cranford, Mattie’s brother William’s grandson – Mattie’s great-nephew and Katie’s own teenage sparring partner – working in the wool shop. It would simply never happen. Leo, she knew, would drop everything to help Mattie in an emergency but he’d never liked being cooped up indoors; he was at his happiest when outside, either on the farm or messing about on the river.
Mattie stood up. ‘I’ll fetch another pot of tea while you decide.’
‘No pressure, then,’ Katie said.
‘Of course not, but Easter and the beginning of the holiday season are only weeks away. Be good to have things organised by then.’
Waiting for the kettle to boil, Mattie stood by the kitchen window, deep in thought, praying that Katie would take on the shop. Watching her now in the garden, Mattie crossed her fingers and willed Katie to make the decision she wanted her to make. A life-changing one for both of them.
Left on her own, Katie wandered along the garden path, Bert at her heels. From the vantage point by the wall at the top of the garden, she had a good view of the early spring activity out on the river: both the ferries making their way across the river, an early tourist boat returning from Totnes, the marinas packed to capacity with boats. It was all achingly familiar – and yet so different from when she was growing up down here.
Then there had only been the one marina up by the shipyard and a couple of pontoons moored mid-river downstream by the Higher Ferry, from where her uncle Frank had run his boat charters. These days the harbourmaster had his hands full all year round controlling the comings and goings of leisure boats of all sizes from the several marinas now lining the banks of the river.
There was so much more going on in the town these days too. Dartmouth was no longer the sleepy riverside town she’d been determined to escape from as a teenager and find life. In the last few years, life itself had arrived down here while she’d been busy pursuing a career as a film production manager up in Bristol – a career that had been knocked off course by her redundancy a couple of days ago.
She still felt numb when she remembered her last afternoon