Ally – Page 16 – A. L. Lester

The Amazing Year of Ofelia Grand and Holly Day

Hi! Thank you so much, Ally, for letting me drop by again 😊 (Any time!)

It’s been quite a year, hasn’t it? I know many say that and mean it in a bad way, but that’s not what I mean at all. It’s been a really good year for me.

During a weak moment back in 2020, I decided that writing under two names was a brilliant idea, and Ally did absolutely nothing to talk me out of it. Quite the opposite, actually.

So we started this year by releasing Holly Day’s first story – Hop Hop, Carrot Top which is a low heat contemporary gay romance I wrote to celebrate Kiss a Ginger Day.

Then February came, well… I wrote a Valentine story – Be Still, My Heart, a contemporary M/M romance.

After February comes March, and with March comes aliens. Extraterrestrial Abduction Day is in March, and it was one I couldn’t ignore, so There Will Be Aliens came to be. While HHCT and BSMH are quite serious tales, this is silly through and through LOL

With April comes bad weather, and I wrote Blown Away to celebrate Big Wind Day. It might be my favourite of Holly’s stories… maybe. It has a bear shifter who constantly thinks of cakes 😁

Next up was Plant a Vegetable Garden Day which is in May, so I wrote The Hunger Gap. It’s low heat, dystopian, and it turned out darker than I’d first planned, but I enjoyed writing it.

In June, we have Best Friend Day, so I wrote Just to Breathe, which is a friends to lovers, contemporary, mystery sort of story.

After having written contemporary, I figured we’d need us some vampires, because why not? So I wrote Bring Him Back, Jack which has a main character with heterochromia since we’re celebrating Different Coloured Eyes Day

In August we have Be An Angel Day, so I wrote The Bear Claw which has a pretty obnoxious alpha character who thinks he acts like an angel – he doesn’t 😆 It’s paranormal and one of the characters is a baker who can put emotions into baked goods.

With September came the dragons – no real dragons in this one! The Dragon Next Door is a contemporary story I wrote for National Neighbour Day. It’s about a sunny guy and his grumpy next-door neighbour. This might be my favourite, I know I said Blown Away might be, and maybe it is, but who doesn’t like a grumpy neighbour?

Call Me Charles. October is a cold month, here at least, but October has Motorcycle Ride Day, so I wrote another contemporary story about a knight in black leather… who owns a candy shop 😄

When November rolled in, I figured it was time for real dragons, so I wrote How to Soothe a Dragon. Only… as so often, I started writing thinking I was gonna write a cool sci-fi story with scary aliens. I wrote a paranormal dystopian romance about dragons who are allergic to lemons. Yes, I know… lemons 🙄

And then here we are! In December, and you all know what December is all about. The Scent of Pine is a contemporary mystery-ish story I wrote for Christmas Card Day. It was meant to be cute; it isn’t. We have creepy Christmas cards and a stalker. But, there is a Christmas tree that smells of pine 😊

So that’s Holly’s year. I’m quite proud. (Ally: And so you should be!)

You’ll find blurbs and excerpts for all these stories here.

While I’ve written stories for Holly, I’ve also written stories for me (the schizophrenia is rearing its pretty head). I won’t give a story-by-story list because I’ve had both new releases and re-releases, and to be honest, it’s all spinning in my head. If I could sleep for a month, I would 😊

But what I do know is that I have a release on Christmas Day. The Ruby tooth is a low heat, paranormal, holiday story that I wrote for an in-house call for JMS Books named Naughty or Nice. We were to pick one or the other and write a short story for it.

I wrote a Nice story.

There is a bar called The Ruby Tooth and it’s split in two – nice, pure, wholly good people go to one side, and bad people to the other. It’s a fated mates story, but Ilya is shown to the good side and Ulric to the bad. And it’s dress-up night.

I feel like I’ve talked forever now, so I’ll leave you with an excerpt. It’s up for pre-order over at JMS Books 😘

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The Ruby Tooth

Ilya Lewis is gonna kill his best friend Vera. She not only persuaded him off his couch and into the creepiest nightclub in the city, she also didn’t show. When Ilya learns the bar is split into two halves, and he’s been let into the wrong side, it doesn’t make things any better. Once the doorman determines which half to let you into, he won’t let you into the other.

Ulric Moon hates the Ruby Tooth. But as a bounty hunter, he must go where the trails lead him, and tonight it’s landed him in the worst nightclub in the universe. All he wants is to catch the vampire he’s hunting, but despite trying to convince the veritas doorman examining his soul that he needs to be let into the good side of the club, he’s shown to the bad. As if that wasn’t enough, his destined mate somehow manages to sneak into the bad side where he doesn’t belong. Ilya finds a way to the other side of the bar, but one look at the patrons there has him regretting ever leaving his apartment. When he tries to leave, a scary-looking man who does nothing but growl follows him.

Ulric knows he’s freaking Ilya out, but Ilya has inadvertently caught the interest of the vampire Ulric is hunting, and he has to protect him. How will Ulric keep Ilya safe when he doesn’t believe Ulric is a bounty hunter? And how do you tell someone they’re your mate when they don’t believe you’re a werewolf?

Preorder The Ruby Tooth from JMS Books – Preorder Elsewhere

Excerpt from The Ruby Tooth

Ilya stepped away from the table before Vera could talk him into staying. If he stayed, he might crawl up on the man’s lap—so unlike him.
He needed to leave, and he wanted pie. Maybe he could buy a slice of pie on his way home and eat it once he’d gotten out of this ridiculous outfit.
“Ilya!”
He ignored Vera’s call and took aim at the door he believed was the exit. Now that he was moving, he didn’t want to get pulled back in, and Vera had a knack for making him do things he didn’t want to do.
Right as he reached out to push at the door, it was yanked open from the other side. He came face to face with a fine-limbed man with sharp features and skin so pale it looked like he hadn’t left his house in a decade.
“Oh, sorry.” Ilya stepped out of the way only to bump into someone. “Shit, sorry.” He tried to turn to see who he’d collided with, but a strong arm crossed his chest pulling his back against a warm, strong body. For a second, he struggled, then he recognized the worn leather sleeve and the scarred hand. It was… the man.
The heat of him made Ilya’s heart speed up—not good.
“No problem.” The pale man gave him a predatory smile which had Ilya suppress a shudder. “Can I buy you a drink?”
Before Ilya could decline, the man—who he needed to ask the name of if he was gonna keep hugging Ilya—growled. It had the hairs on Ilya’s neck stand on end, not only because he growled straight into his ear, but because it sounded real. Had he heard it when out walking in a forest, he’d have assumed he was being chased by wolves.
“Why is it always you ending up in a man sandwich?” Vera rolled her eyes which made the pale man grin—or maybe it was her words making him grin.
“I’m sure we can all play, pet.”
“No!” Ilya pushed at the arm around him. “No. I’m leaving.” Three pairs of eyes were watching him. “You have fun. Man-sandwich her—” He gestured at Vera.
The doorman poked his head in. There was nothing strange about his eyes, and yet it was as if they could see into his soul. “You’re on the wrong side.”
The pale man’s gaze whipped around to Ilya, making him flinch.
“I’m leaving.” He spoke as much to the doorman as he did to the others before focusing on Vera. “I’m going to bed. Alone.”
“Ilya.”
“No.” He held his hands up. “This was a bad idea. I want to go home, I want to have pie, and I want to put on my pajamas and watch some TV.” He tumbled out the door, ignoring the doorman’s narrowed eyes, and hurried out into the December cold.
He walked with rapid steps, unable to shake the unease building in his chest. The Ruby Tooth was the creepiest bar he’d ever been to—not that he went out often.
“Ilya.”
Ilya jumped as the man with the weird contact lenses appeared by his side. “I meant it; I’m going home. You should go back to Vera.”
“You want pie?” The man smiled, and it looked genuine.
“I… eh… What’s your name?”
“Ulric Moon.”
Ilya frowned. “Ulric Moon? Are you joking?”
“Nope. It’s a family name.”
“Ulric or Moon?”
Ulric grinned. “Both.”
Ilya shook his head, not sure if he was being played or not. “I’m sorry, but I’m not good company. I lost someone dear to me recently, and I’m still mourning. Vera dragged me out tonight because she thinks trips to random bars will cheer me up, but they never do.”
“I’m sorry.”
A lump formed in Ilya’s throat. “Thank you. He meant the world to me, and now the apartment is so empty, you know?”
A frown settled on Ulric’s brows. “A boyfriend?”
“What? No! My cat.”
The way Ulric stopped mid-step for a few seconds had Ilya regretting telling him.
“You’re mourning your cat? Vera… is living with you?”
Ilya shuddered. “Living with Vera? No, I love her, but no.”
“Love her?”
“Of course. She kept me safe through school, not an easy feat, considering.” He gestured at himself and realized how true it was. He was walking the street in an elf suit. Wouldn’t his bullies love that? Groaning, he sped up his steps.
People never understood why he and Vera were friends, but they didn’t know her as he did. She might come across as harsh and reckless, but there was no one he trusted more to have his back.
“Ilya.” Ulric grabbed his arm. “Listen.”
Ilya stopped, but Ulric didn’t let go of his arm. “This is gonna sound insane.”
Ilya waited. He didn’t know if he had the energy for insane, but he waited anyway.

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Am Reading

This week, a touching YA by Suki Fleet with a young homeless man who finds his way to security, the return of Catherine Lundoff’s menopausal-werewolves and another lovely ray romance by R. Cooper in the Familiar Spirits collection.

Foxes by Suki Fleet

Suki Fleet is a relatively new author to me. This is a YA story set in London. It’s told from the POV of Danny, a young homeless man. He is looking for the person who murdered his best friend Dashiel.

Dashiel was a rent boy and was very wary of certain men he called ‘sharks‘. In the course of his travels he meets Mickey, a young American who’s selling himself on the streets. He falls hard for Mickey. I love the way Danny’s spectrum issues are framed in this book. ‘He needs to keep his world small in order to survive‘ is a perfect description of someone who becomes overwhelmed by input.

There’s a well drawn supporting cast, from Flower Lady, who gives Danny food and flowers and medical care; to Milo, the disabled army veteran who shares Danny’s derelict swimming pool home; to Diana, a cafe owner who helps young homeless people. They young people who are working the streets are well characterised and realistic. Oh and there are foxes…real life foxes. The contrast between them, surviving around the periphery of human society and Danny and his friends is not a co-incidence, obviously. This is an emotional story told in an almost stream-of-consciousness way from Danny’s POV. I really recommend it.

Blood Moon by Catherine Lundoff

This is the sequel to Silver Moon, also colloquially known as ‘that brilliant book with menopausal werewolves’. It’s just as good as the first, with a nice solid murder-mystery wrapped around a tentative lesbian romance, and a central premise of middle aged women saving their community. That the inner circle of their community happen to be werewolves called by the residual magic in the valley to protect the town when they hit menopause just makes it perfect.

I love the colourful background in these books. The way Becca worries about her day to day interactions with the rest of the pack, how she doesn’t like all of them but realises they have to work together regardless and how the older retired ladies live in what’s essentially a rest-home for elderly werewolves and also take art class. There’s a richly characterised supporting cast, excellent baddies and very good trans representation. I recommend!

Nothing More Certain by R Cooper

Emery has come home to live alone in his big empty house and take care of the cemetery. He’s been avoiding his school friend Ezra for a year since he returned. Ezra’s waiting for him. This is another R Cooper book I got tied up in and lost sleep over. Her prose is wonderful, sort of emotional and flowing…and this story is very closely tied in to the land and life and death and growing things, which suits it perfectly. Its a lovely read.

Jackson Marsh: Researching and Portraying a Deaf Character in Victorian Fiction

This week we welcome Jackson Marsh to talk about his lead character in the Larkspur Mysteries. Welcome, Jackson! Take it away…

Hi, I’m Jackson Marsh, author of the 11-part Clearwater Mystery series set between the years 1888 and 1890. I am now writing the follow-on series, the Larkspur Mysteries, and one of my main characters is deaf. I’m here to tell you why I chose to write a deaf lead character, what research I did to help create him, and how I write him into the romantic, MM mysteries.

Why Write a Lead Character who is Deaf?

My interest in the deaf world began several years ago when I worked as the composer for a deaf/hearing children’s theatre company. Recently, I was watching ‘The Amazing Race’ and found myself fascinated by the team of Luke Adams and his mother, Marj O’Donnell. Seeing Luke, who is deaf, compete in the race and work his way through triumphs and frustrations is what (and who) gave me the idea to create Joe Tanner, my 19-year-old, deaf-from-birth character in the Larkspur Series. I’ve since written to Luke and thanked him for his inspiration—it was the first time I had ever written fan mail.

Most stories I had read that featured a deaf character had him/her portrayed as a victim. Someone to be helped by others, someone to be pitied, and, particularly in historical fiction, someone who was stupid. My mission was to reverse those misconceptions, and create a young, gay, deaf man who would not only be heroic but would also become educated. Joe’s story starts with an abusive father, takes him to seven years in a workhouse, and on to become one of the Clearwater men at the Larkspur Academy. It is a story of survival through MM love.

What Research was Involved?

For Joe’s initial story, ‘Guardians of the Poor’, I had two main areas to research. Firstly, and easiest, was the history of the Hackney Workhouse in London, and life in workhouses in the late 19^th century. Books, online research, the National Newspaper Archives… I was able to use my usual resources, as well as my memory, as I had visited the actual buildings many years ago when I lived nearby.

Secondly, more challenging but infinitely more practical, was learning sign language. I researched the history of British Sign Language (BSL) as best as I could and used that to inform Joe’s wider world. Joe is a deaf character who speaks, but because he’s never heard words, he can only imitate lip movements, and that’s why people think he is, in Victorian wordage, an imbecile. However, he signs, and so that I could understand what that entails, I took a course in basic BSL. My husband joined me, and now we can communicate in sign if we choose to. It’s great fun talking about people without them knowing what you’re signing. Seriously, though, it gave me a massive insight into how to write Joe’s thought process.

How do I Write a Deaf Character?

It’s not only Joe’s thought process that I needed to consider when writing ‘Guardians of the Poor’ and the books that follow. Joe is the hero in book two of the series, ‘Keepers of the Past’, and as half of the narrative is from his point of view, I had to be in his head for much of the time. Sign language is constructed differently to spoken languages, and if I wrote purely as Joe would have thought and signed, it would be hard to read. For example, his dialogue would be, ‘You me go London when? Before me London rubbish, now, so-so.’ (When are we going to London? I used to hate the place, but now, it’s alright.)

Another consideration was understanding how Joe would have thought. When hearing people think or read, we hear the words in our head, but what if you’ve never heard words? What then? Joe, like many deaf-from-birth people, thinks visually. Again, I had to cheat to a certain extent, because otherwise the text would be impossible to read. It would be a jumble of memories and images that would only make sense to Joe.

More importantly, behaviour was a consideration, and for that, I remembered Luke’s frustrations on The Amazing Race, his, to us, over reactions, his use of body language for emphasis, other people’s reactions, and his heroism through daily adversity. All those trains have informed the character of Joe Tanner.

One day, I’d love to speak, sorry, sign with Luke, and give him a copy of the books, as a thank you for the inspiration. He’s become a bit of a hero of mine, and Joe can be yours if you follow the Larkspur Mystery Series.

The Larkspur Mysteries : The Clearwater Mysteries

Guardians of the Poor: The Larkspur Mysteries Book 1

“The greatest gift one man may give another is his trust.”
Barbary Fleet, 1890.

Standing stones, messages written in symbols, and the language of the deaf. It falls to Lord Clearwater to unlock the mystery of Dalston Blaze and his deaf friend, Joe Tanner, two young men arrested for committing ‘unnatural offences’ at the Hackney workhouse.

Dalston hopes for a prison sentence. It’s the only way to save his life. Instead, he is bailed to the Larkspur Academy on Lord Clearwater’s Cornish estate, where there is only one rule: honesty above all else. For Dalston, this means confronting his past, learning to trust, and admitting his secrets. Joe is the key, but Joe is missing, and his location is locked deep inside a memory seen in sign language, and clouded by eighteen years of workhouse life.

If Dalston remains silent, the immoral workhouse master and his sadistic schoolteacher will continue to inflict pain and suffering on all inmates of the Hackney workhouse. If he tells the truth, he and Joe will die.

The Guardians of the Poor is a combination of mystery, adventure and male romance, set in 1890. It draws on first-hand accounts of workhouse life at the time, and is the first of a new series of mysteries set in the Clearwater world.

The Larkspur Mysteries

Beginning in 1890, The Larkspur Mysteries follow on from The Clearwater Mysteries series of 11 novels. It’s not necessary to have read the Clearwater books before you embark on the Larkspur series. However, if you enjoy mystery, romance, adventure and a mix of historical fact and fiction, then begin the journey with ‘Deviant Desire.’ (Or the non-mystery prequel, ‘Banyak & Fecks.’)

Lord Clearwater has created a unique academy for disadvantaged young men. The Larkspur Academy is, ‘A non-academic institution with the aim to provide deserving men the opportunity to expand talent, horizons and knowledge for the betterment of the underprivileged and general society.’ It’s not a school. There are no lessons, no teachers, no schoolboys and no rules. The series exists in the established Clearwater world of the late 1800’s where homosexuality is a crime everywhere but on Clearwater’s country estate in Cornwall.

The series is ongoing. Each story involves male bonding, bromance, friendship and love. Mystery, adventure and a little comedy play their parts, and every story is inspired by true events from the past.

Buy The Guardians of the Poor

About Jackson

Jackson Marsh was born in 2017 as the pen name for James Collins so I could publish my new gay fiction independently from my other writing work.

I was born on the south coast of England during a blizzard in 1963, but now like to warm thing up with MM romance novels, gay mysteries and some occasional erotica. In 2007 I was awarded an EGPA award for my erotic short stories, and I have won three Best Screenplay awards for my film scripts. I am a diverse writer with thrillers, comedies and horror stories under my James belt, and now romance and mystery under my Jackson belt.

Although I spend most of my time researching and writing, I do have other interests. It’s a strange collection of playing the piano, building classic horror model kits and, when I can, travel. Past interests, which I still follow but no longer pursue so much, include rock climbing, musical theatre and genealogy. That’s probably why my books tend to involve characters who are musicians, writers, mystery-solvers and rock climbers; there’s a bit of me in each one of them.

I live on a Greek island with my husband, and we have been here since 2002.

You can keep up to date with my monthly newsletter and be the first to know about my publications. The isn’t one of those newsletters that simply advertise other people’s books for sale, it’s more personal than that, and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Jackson Marsh Amazon : Jackson Marsh website : Jackson Marsh Facebook

Surfacing Again: Otters

Surfacing Again came about because I essentially decided I wanted to write a story with otters, for no other reason than otters; so I went looking for myths I might be able to adapt. There are quite a few otter-myths in the UK—I liked the Otter Kings of Scotland very much and might see if I can write something longer about them at some point. But I was also very drawn to St Cuthbert and his helpful otters on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne.

As I wrote in my previous post, Lindisfarne is a small island off the North East coast of Northumbria in England, and the first, wooden, monastery was built there by monks from Iona (in Scotland) under St Aidan in 635AD. St Cuthbert was the Bishop of Lindisfarne from 685AD until he died in 687AD, but he seems to have been ubiquitous to the area for a couple of decades before that. Bede wrote a ‘Life of St Cuthbert’ in the early years of the eighth century and that’s where the otters come in.

“…[St Cuthbert] went down to the sea, which flows beneath, and going into it, until the water reached his neck and arms, spent the night in praising God. When the dawn of day approached, he came out of the water, and, falling on his knees, began to pray again. Whilst he was doing this, two quadrupeds, called otters, came up from the sea, and, lying down before him on the sand, breathed upon his feet, and wiped them with their hair after which, having received his blessing, they returned to their native element.”

It all sounds extremely unlikely, as Lin comments in Surfacing Again…however, it also sounds extremely charming and I couldn’t not use it.

The UK’s species of otter is Lutra Lutra, the Eurasian otter. We don’t have sea-otters, we just have some colonies of otters that like to hang out by the sea. They’re part of the mustelid family, which also includes stoats, weasels, polecats, ferrets and mink…they’re essentially enormous aquatic weasels.

They live in family groups and stay with their parents until they’re fourteen or fifteen months old. Population is gradually increasing again in the UK where they have been very sparse in the last few decades due to river pollution. You can read more about them and their habitats at the UK Wild Otter Trust and there’s a bit more about Coastal Otters in Scotland on the Forestry and Land Scotland website.

Here are some Asiatic Short-Clawed otters from New Zealand, making their characteristic chirping noise:

Surfacing Again: A short contemporary lesbian romance

Melinda is staying on Lindisfarne for a Christmas break with her old friend when an unexpected argument leaves her alone for the holiday.

It’s the first Christmas since her mother died and the island’s peace and wild tranquillity bring balm to her wounded heart. Two chance meetings, first with a pair of wary otters and then with cafe-owner Rowan, bring her genuine joy.

Will her tentative relationship with Rowan survive the end of her holiday and the turning of the year?

A short sapphic Christmas story. With otters.

BUY SURFACING AGAIN

And finally, you may have realised my title is taken from the Seamus Heaney poem The Otter.

Surfacing Again: Lindisfarne

Surfacing Again came out yesterday and I thought today I’d give you some back ground about it’s setting, the ‘Holy Island’ of Lindisfarne, just off the north-east coast of England.

Map of northern Britain in the post-Roman period.

It’s a tidal island, accessible twice a day during low tide. These days there’s a causeway to drive across, but in days gone by you had to walk across the sands to reach it, along the ‘pilgrim way’. The path is marked by large stakes driven in to the sands and you can still do it today reasonably easily, so long as you don’t mind a bit of paddling.

The first monastery there was founded in 635AD by St Aidan as a daughter-house of Iona. That monastery was probably where the parish church stands today, but was made of wood, so no visible trace remains. It’s this monastery that was responsible for the beautiful Lindisfarne Gospels and where St Cuthbert was Bishop in the 680s. After his death it became a place of pilgrimage. Most of what we know about St Cuthbert comes from his ‘Life’, written by Bede, a monk at the monastery of Jarrow in the early ninth century. You can read a translation of his Life of St Cuthbert here.

The monastery was devastated by a Viking attack in June 793. There was a huge sense of disbelief across the continent that one of the largest and holiest foundation in European Christendom could be destroyed rather than protected by its patron saint. Subsequent attacks finally drove the monks out to Northam on the mainland in the 830s and in 875 they formally abandoned the island and eventually settled in the old Roman fort of Chester-le-Street seven years later. St Cuthbert’s remains ended up at Durham, where they became a good money-spinner for the abbey there.

In the meantime, there’s evidence from gravestones on the island that a small Christian community remained on Lindisfarne; but the priory wasn’t rebuilt until after the Norman conquest of 1066 as a daughter-house of Durham. That’s the ruins that are visible today. The monks were turned out and the priory abandoned during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the mid-sixteenth century. You can read more about the history of the priory here. With annotations!

The castle, at the opposite end of the island to the priory, began life as a fort in the mid-1500s with stone robbed from the abandoned priory. At that time England was still very much threatened by Scotland. However when Elizabeth 1 died in 1603, the two countries became ruled by the same monarch and the threat disappeared.

By 1900, the fort was in ruins. It was bought by Edward Hudson, who employed Edward Lutyens to turn it into a little castle, where the nobility of the day came to socialise. He also employed Gertrude Jekyll to create a walled garden for him.

You can visit Lindisfarne for the day or you can book accommodation. If you can’t manage that, I recommend the magic of Google Street View. You can visit the priory ruins, walk along the beach where Lin meets her otters, see the ruins of St Cuthbert’s monastic cell on the additional tiny, tiny island and even walk across the sands on the Pilgrim Path.

And as a final note, I was at Ofelia’s blog yesterday with the ginger biscuit recipe that Rowan uses in her café. Find it here!

Read on for more about Surfacing Again and an excerpt.

Surfacing Again: A short contemporary lesbian romance

Melinda is staying on Lindisfarne for a Christmas break with her old friend when an unexpected argument leaves her alone for the holiday.

Will her tentative relationship with Rowan survive the end of her holiday and the turning of the year?

A short sapphic Christmas story. With otters.

Buy Surfacing again

Chapter 2: Christmas Eve

“You look like you could do with a hot drink. Your lips are blue,” the small woman wrapped in the huge green apron said. She was sweeping the windswept grey pavement outside the little cafe on the corner in the village as Melinda peered through the window at the menu, wondering whether they were open.
“Are you serving?” she asked.
The woman was about her own age, with a geometric blonde haircut and an impish expression as she looked at Lin over her broom.
“I’m not actually open for another couple of hours,” she said, smiling and leaning the broom against the wall. “But come inside while I set up. You must be frozen. It’s a bitter wind.”
Melinda smiled at her. “Why are you bothering to brush the pavement then?” she asked.
The other woman smiled again. “Habit,” she said. “It’s habit. I like my routines. Come on, come in. I’ve lit the log burner already, so it’s toasty inside.”
There were a couple of sofas set at angles in front of the log burner and a few small tables squeezed in around them. It really was a tiny cafe, probably converted from someone’s front room that had been knocked through into the room behind at some time in the past.
“Here,” her saviour said. “Sit down, take your coat off. “What would you like to drink? I’ve got…well, anything really. Tea? Coffee? Hot chocolate?”
“Tea would be wonderful, actually,” Lin said. “I haven’t had any yet this morning. I got up early to watch the sunrise.” She was determined to make the most of her stay on the island of Lindisfarne, despite the drama of the last couple of days.
She sighed.
The other woman flashed her another grin before she could get too lost in her thoughts. “It was beautiful this morning,” she said. “I’m Rowan,” she said in a friendly fashion, going behind the counter and putting a kettle on.
“I’m Lin,” Melinda said. “Is this your place?” She hunched forward and stretched out her frosty hands to the fire.
“Yes. Me and my girlfriend started it a couple of years ago, but it’s just me now.” She shot Lin a sidelong glance.
Melinda smiled back. “It’s lovely,” she said. “Very cosy.”
“It’s tiny, but it works. I live upstairs.” She nodded toward the back of the cafe where there was a closed door beside the one that led out to the kitchen, presumably leading to some stairs. “We only do drinks and cakes, and soup and sandwiches and breakfast rolls; a very limited menu. But it’s all people need if they’ve come over to the island for the day. No-one wants to waste time with a full sit-down lunch.”
She put a tray with a pot of tea, a jug of milk, and two mugs down on the low table between the sofas, sinking into the one opposite Lin.
Lin nodded. “Yes, that makes sense. It’s quieter at this time of year, though?”
“Yes, very much so. Although it can get busy now for a bit, around Christmas. And people stay in the self-catering properties and guest houses all year round, obviously. If I didn’t need the income to live, I’d say I prefer it when it’s quieter.” She said that with an open smile. “Present company excepted, of course!”
She leaned forward and poured them each a cup of tea. She seemed to have all the time in the world to chat to a random stranger she’d rescued from the freezing morning.

Buy Surfacing Again